Hey.
I'm Matthew Moskovciak from CNET.
And today, we're gonna take a look at the Cambridge Audio Minx Air 200.
This is a large wireless speaker that supports both Bluetooth and AirPlay, and is currently selling for $600.
The Minx Air 200 is one of the nicest-looking speakers to enter the CNET offices.
A lot of these speakers go for real eye-catching design, but the Minx has had understated look with the white plastic cabinet and a gray speaker grill
that looks good pretty much where I placed it.
It is surprisingly big, though, especially wide.
So, you're gonna need a lot of shelf space to accommodate it.
The top has two sets of mushy rubber buttons, and the number of buttons on the left offer the neat ability to stream internet radio directly to the Minx without needing to deal with a smartphone or a tablet.
There's also a remote included, but it's one of those remotes with cheap bubbly buttons that are kinda common on speakers like this.
Likely, you're mostly controlling things from your mobile
device, so you won't need to use the included remote that much.
The Minx offers both Bluetooth and AirPlay, which gives you some nice flexibility to wirelessly stream audio from a wide range of devices.
AirPlay does theoretically offer better sound quality with Apple devices, but it also requires a WiFi network.
So luckily, you can always fall back to Bluetooth if you're outside of your home network.
On the back, there are a few ports, including Ethernet, a mini jack input, and an analogue input.
There's also a convenient handle, but that doesn't mean the Minx is portable.
There's no built-in battery, so it always needs to be plugged in.
For listening test, I had the Minx 200 set up directly next to the Klipsch KMC 3 in the Peachtree Audio deepblue.
And it couldn't quite rock out with the other speakers.
It sounded a lot better than the smaller Minx 100, but for other rock tunes, it wasn't able to deliver a powerful sound, especially on the low end.
Jazz and pop sounded better on the Minx Air 100, but when I
switched between the speakers, I still found the other systems sounded a little richer.
So overall, the Minx Air 200 is a decent-sounding speaker with a great design and a solid feature set.
But that's not quite enough to justify the $600 price tag.
If you're okay with a more mellow-sounding speaker, it may be worth considering.
But otherwise, you'll get a better value from other wireless speakers.
I'm Matthew Moskovciak, and this is the Cambridge Audio Minx Air 200.
