@mediocrebot ,ni KAI Capsule (XAM11-B) Portable Mini Bluetooth Speaker System - Black New Starting bid: US $5.00 [ 0 bids ] Place bid Enter US $5.00 or more Add to watch list Add to collection Hassle-free returns New condition eBay bucks You'll earn $0.10 in eBay Bucks.See terms Shipping: $5.00 Standard Shipping | See details See details about international shipping here. help icon for Shipping - opens a layer Item location: -, Hong Kong Ships to: United States
I bought 2 of these last time they were for sale and LOVE them. Great speakers, and I'm buying another 2 sets today. These are the anti-meh. edit: just bought a 3rd set.
@ChadP The big joke is that I haven't even received the previous ones yet - per SmartPost [sic] policy, they're still aging in a USPS warehouse in Richmond, CA.
Bought this the last time and I can attest to these being, and you can quote me, "Hella rad." Used it once at my father's house and he attempted to trade for one of his more..umm..used..ones. Needless to say that he is getting a nice present once this comes in.
In for a set. Plan to hide these in my coworker's offices from time to time making full use of the bluetooth function and as many sound effects as I can load on my iPhone.
@bondhardy My friends are mostly "technology challanged" so a bluetooth speaker is a conversation piece. And I tell EVERYBODY about meh and all the meh stuff I buy!
I dunno how VMP works so I waited until the first of the month to finally buy something here cuz I'm cheap. Awesome first buy! I hope I don't go broke this month.
@Cagny VMP runs 30 days from when you sign up, so you don't have to wait until the first of the month to get a full month. Staff endorses cancelling immediately; you'll still get the full month you paid for, but once it runs out you don't have to pay again until something else meh strikes your fancy. Discussion here: https://mediocre.com/forum/topics/vmp
When you tend to watch movies on your laptop or kindle, the speakers can be lacking. These shall be an excellent addition. I didn't need these, but now I want them.
Thanks for relieving me of $25 Meh. I've never said dammit as I clicked the order button. Until now. Ugh. I'm an overt-official-donkey for sure.
Google translator failed me… it says. "One can only live electronics Korea fastball tribe . Authentication or two -slope propagation ( expensive) Sugar disposal . It's like a good deal too bad . meh ~"
@Kidsandliz they are talking about the frequency regulations in Korea regarding these electronics... i dont really know why they matter for these tiny ass speakers though
But damn do i need to order a pair? I feel horribly tempted
OK, I bought some to add to the 8 other items someplace between Meh and my house. I am amazed by all the positive comments, encouraging people to buy. You do realizes this not a **off were we try to convince each other to buy things we don’t need, just to get to the next item.
I bought two of these the last time they were offered. The only thing I didn't like about them is that my phone won't automatically pair with them (have to go into Bluetooth settings and manually pair each time). For the one I keep in the house, it's not that big a deal, but I mainly bought it to use in my car to connect to the car's stereo. It becomes less useful when you have to go through half a dozen steps before music finally starts flowing through your car speakers.
@PurplePawprints have you tried switching it off when done and back on when you get in again? I think @chadp tested that this resolved the auto-reconnect better (for him at least)
@snapster Yes, I always turn it off when I get out of the car (otherwise, the battery is drained when I go to use it again). I'm glad that seems to have worked for Chad, though.
@PurplePawprints Yeah, I ended up testing about 5 separate units and they always immediately connected when switching back on. odd to hear that you are having that problem still.
@PurplePawprints@ChadP I bought one the first time around and have the same issue. It's a minor nuisance for an otherwise pretty great speaker given it's size. Actually buying 2 more today.
@ChadP Since you've done testing, can you tell me, on average, how long it takes for your device to automatically pair? I guess it could be that I'm not giving it enough time since by that point I've already waited a few seconds for the speaker to turn on and I want to get on with it so I can start driving.
@PurplePawprints@ChadP I am having the same issue, it just won't reconnect to my iPhone 5. Phone has no problem with any other Bluetooth devices and it does reconnect to my MacBook. With my iPhone I need to pair it each time I even went as far as restoring my phone, still didn't work. Great sounding speaker, though. I bought it for the dongle feature, but oh well.
I bought a pair last time they were for sale. I have yet to turn them on. I don't even have one of them any more. I sent it off in the Mehrican Exchange before I even opened the package.
Got one last time, and I'm in for two more. Good sound & super easy to use. My kids are always stealing it from the kitchen and taking it to whatever room of the house they want to blast music in. Today's deal will relieve me of playing "where the hell did the little speaker go?" all the time. I was so eager to order I accidentally 'meh'd' the deal--sorry!
@bigglasses you can meh and buy if you want your meh streak to keep going… I think customers subverted what they were trying to use it for and since it pulls people back to the page they kept it anyway rather than ditch it when they'd add up how much perfectly good money got wasted on meh (geesh spell corrected to meth - I bet they wished this site was addictive like meth LOL)
Hey Meh, what's with you partnering with 1sale? Their stuff seems pretty shady, I stopped visiting them a long time ago, I have no idea what possessed me to visit them tonight. Why would you partner with someone that copied woot? They pull the same stuff, a million things on a "one sale a day" site. It's total crap!
I got two last time. Plugged one into the headphone jack to enable Beats Audio. The sound was so good, the little pod was jumping around from the bass and ended up pulling my phone off the patio table and onto the floor, cracking the screen. IT'S THAT GOOD.
First thing I felt compelled to purchase. I bought a crappier version of this before that sounds terrible over 50% volume. Hopefully this will replace that and I can give the other to someone at christmas.
I bought one of these last time and its pretty great. Good sound for something so portable and lightweight. I'll buy more if I can set them all around the downstairs and link them to play the same song everywhere. Anyone know if this is possible? Since they don't network I'm guessing not.
@RedHot probably not- most (or all) bluetooth devices will only stream to one receiver, no matter how many units it's capable of linking with. you can always daisy chain 'em, but you'd need a lot of connector cables...
I bought 3 when they were originally offered and I think they are great. I bought (at least) 2 more. The question I have, is using the Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable as a dongle the same as using the Stowaway 3.5mm cable? There is minimal user info available.
@Stumpy91 Nope. The combo cable, which is far too short IMO, is the INPUT for audio. The stowaway is the audio OUTPUT, to go to your next x-mini, or the dumb speaker that you want to turn ito bluetooth.
@G1 The "What’s in the box!?" section says "Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable for charging, audio out and dongle use." See why I'm confused. I jast have to try it I guess. Then I'll report my findings.
@Stumpy91 In my experience - and I realize this probably won't answer the original question - the separate 3.5mm cable (which has a 3.5mm cable and mini USB both feeding into a single normal USB) is only useful for charging. I have two of these, and I've only ever used the built-in 3.5mm cable for audio... both for hooking a single speaker up to an audio source, AND for daisy-chaining the speakers.
@Crixus What is the preferred method for dongle-mode? I've connected the built in cable to a 3.5mm input to a receiver and muted the Kai. It worked but the output was low and the volume of the receiver needed to be increased substantially.
@Stumpy91 A thought just occured to me. If you use the Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable for bluetooth dongle use, you can supply continuous power to the X-Mini Kai by providing USB power with a USB port or wall-wart.
Dammit. Just dammit. I already own an Oontz Curve (which really sounds amazing), and 3 other somewhat similar small speakers. I have absolutely no need for these.
I have one of the earlier versions of these speakers without the bluetooth (looks exactly the same though) and I'm honestly not very impressed. The sound quality was acceptable I guess, the Oontz speaker I have that's not too much larger beat it quite handily in that department. Biggest disappointment was that after 4 months or so the battery didn't hold a charge well at all, the thing would go dead after a single shower.
This is the best thing I've bought from Meh so far. Love my original so I'm in for another pair. I'm not sure if it's the sound quality that makes me love this little thing, or if it's the awesome cute factor.
Here's something that I don't see mentioned in this discussion yet:
1) They hold a charge for a REALLY long time. I have a pair from the last time, and one of them gets about an hour of use, daily. I just had to charge it (for the first time after initial purchase) yesterday.
2) They take a REALLY long time to charge. I would estimate at least six hours from completely empty to completely full.
@00 This bothers me more than it should, but it bugs me when someone asks a question on a forum like you just did, and people answer "I don't know". Well then, just shut up! Anyway, no I don't know. No one knows.
@Stumpy91 this generally drives me crazy too. But your context makes it good. I dug through Amazon comments and think I found the answer: "built in cable routes right and left channels into the same speaker" and "they sound great for each speaker outputting the left and right channels"
@Stumpy91 the RCA adapter splits a stereo signal into L and R (white & red) and the subsequent RCA to 1/8" adapters give you two mono 1/8" female outputs.
A thought just occurred to me. If you use the Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable for bluetooth dongle use, you can supply continuous power to the X-Mini Kai by providing USB power with a USB port or wall-wart.
No one has mentioned how well the microphone feature works? I am considering them for the hands free operation while driving a car? Oh well not me driving but you get the idea. Smile
@michaelahess Thanks for the feedback. Too bad it doesn't work well for that feature, it has a longer talk time than my Bluetooth head set. But at least the consensus is they sound pretty good for music.
Great price and reviews almost made this my first Meh purchase. But no way to get discrete L/R stereo from a pair of speakers earns a big, fat meh from me.
@Zebra No worries I am sure they can include a purple magic marker in your order (see the past thread that involved a black sharpie and instructions on how to turn a white speaker black)
@c00kiesandcream You don't know how many bought it, you only know how many were sold. With currently 908 sold, somewhere between 303 and 908 people have bought it.
@DaveInSoCal you need to, against all math principles, round up to 1/2 since @studerc must have bought 1 box not two. Actually he is working his way up to a complete order as the numbers now are 860.8197 people have bought. Perhaps by midnight he will have worked his way up to a complete set.
i bought a set the first time and both have been taken by others... which is fine because i bought them with the idea of gifting (and my spracht blutooth stereo speaker is so much better). That said, the first two were such a hit that i just now purchased another set to gift to those i originally had planned to give to at the office.
North Dakota is again holding strong and not buying. Good job ND. Perhaps meh needs a special tracking for ND to see how long it takes someone from there to break the meh no buy record...
@Kidsandliz well, there ARE only 23,000 people in the state that have computers, and only 17,000 of those use it for things other than porn... i'd guess the amount of people smart enuf to know about meh would be in the dozens there....
I just wrote a Python test program to spew the most boring sound files imaginable to a stereo audio amp hooked up to one of my stepper motors. Each channel drives one winding. On the left side I have a 100Hz sine wave sampled at an 8Khz rate with an 8 bit linear encoding. The right side gets a similar sine wave 90 degrees out of phase. Since the human ears are lousy at detecting phase, it just sounds like a 100Hz hum when sent to headphones. However, the stepper motor turns nicely.
This is just for a presentation at my Robotics club to show some simple Python programming techniques.
If I get fancy, I will mount one stepper motor at the top left corner of a tilted white board, and the other stepper motor at the top right corner. Then wrap some string around each motor shaft. Connect the string to a weighted white board marker. Then the computer can draw stuff on the white board, like an etch-a-sketch (as in, you can't lift the pen from the board).
I am hoping that the mini-kai has enough oomph to drive the stepper motors directly, because that would be cooler. Before I bought the mini-kai's I was planning on using some battery powered audio amps and wires going to USB audio dongles. That's how I'm testing my code.
These steppers strongly hold their position even without power. I won't need to figure out how to get DC drive through the audio path way.
@randywalker What Is wrong with mini USB? Educate me, I thought smaller was better these days. And if I understand correctly they get smaller called micro. Why is it a problem?
@silverqueen It's totally fine for me! like I said, I bought 8 of them and love these little guys. Besides, in sure I have a few old mini USB cables lying around from older cell phones. :)
I tried to reply hours ago. @daveinsocal I don't know why it Didn't stick. What can you find to do for these little guys? How are you using them? Eight of them, brings to mind a sit com from the late 70s? "Eight is enough"?
@silverqueen Gotta say, I was a bit disappointed in the sound quality from these little guys, especially after the hype in these forums. I have an etekcity t3 that's about the same size but produces a much richer bass. Couldn't quite match the Meh 2-for pricing though. Still pleased with the purchase, (and love Meh) but doubt these will see much action around the house.
A short-form review of these X-Mini Kai's that I bought on 2 fer. I love how cheap they were. I wouldn't have purchased them at any higher price that is for sure. Overall they are a decent option for bluetooth speakers. They aren't very open and it is very easy to overpower them and get some distortion, but for easy everyday listening they could be worse.
The bluetooth has had no problems in the few weeks I've tried them.
I do recommend connecting the speakers together for added effect.
All in all I'm not upset with the purchase but then again they are just meh.
Specs
Condition - New
Warranty - 90 Day Meh
Ships Via - FedEx SmartPost
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Price Check
$27 at Amazon (for 1)(65+ reviews)
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Warranty
90 days
@mediocrebot ,ni KAI Capsule (XAM11-B) Portable Mini Bluetooth Speaker System - Black New Starting bid: US $5.00 [ 0 bids ] Place bid Enter US $5.00 or more Add to watch list Add to collection Hassle-free returns New condition eBay bucks You'll earn $0.10 in eBay Bucks.See terms Shipping: $5.00 Standard Shipping | See details See details about international shipping here. help icon for Shipping - opens a layer Item location: -, Hong Kong Ships to: United States
@mlcollect thanks. I'm in awe of your valuable input.
@snapster lol
@mediocrebot I think these are the same, from thinkgeek for $19.99: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1635/
@DaveInSoCal For one. This price is for two.
@DennisG2014 Yes, sorry I didn't explain that in my post.
@mlcollect Spam, aisle 5a
Is the baby arm included?
@Ringold No. Trust me. You don't want that.
@Ringold It's said to come alive at night when all is quiet in the office.
@denboy Now that's added value right there.
I bought 2 of these last time they were for sale and LOVE them. Great speakers, and I'm buying another 2 sets today. These are the anti-meh.
edit: just bought a 3rd set.
I guess this is where I'm supposed to complain that I ordered three of these when Meh was selling them for $15 each. But meh, whatever.
@khunjeff order 3 more, daisy chain them around your sofa. blast some St. Paul and the Broken Bones. Enjoy.
@ChadP The big joke is that I haven't even received the previous ones yet - per SmartPost [sic] policy, they're still aging in a USPS warehouse in Richmond, CA.
@khunjeff weird. I literally get all my stuff 3 days later.
@jharo00 yeah, it's because the packages are turned over to military mail, and then sit around waiting for a ride across the pacific.
@ChadP i cannot disobey your commands, i bought 2 more (i would buy 3 if this were 3-for-thursday)
I bought mine the last go around. Really great bluetooth speakers. Use them everyday.
Bought this the last time and I can attest to these being, and you can quote me, "Hella rad." Used it once at my father's house and he attempted to trade for one of his more..umm..used..ones. Needless to say that he is getting a nice present once this comes in.
What did I just do? Unmehlievable...my wallet :(
In for a set. Plan to hide these in my coworker's offices from time to time making full use of the bluetooth function and as many sound effects as I can load on my iPhone.
@patti That is brilliant. I think I will steal the idea!
@patti this is what convinced me to buy a set. Screw the music when I can make people feel like they're crazy!
@patti there's a nice hidden camera video in there somewhere
@MEHcus This comment will not make Irk happy.
@patti erm... you ever hear of the eviltron @ thinkgeek?
Bought this last time. This is the best product that Meh has offered. Well, maybe not. Yes, it is?
@barnabee I do think it's the best item they've had. (I bought two.) Honestly, I can't even justify clicking the "meh" button on this.
@Crixus You should spend 5 bucks for the VMP. It covers shipping for all purchases for a month. You can cancel anytime. Big savings.
@Crixus Where is the "meh" to the "meh" button?
Bought one last time, love it. Good sound and very handy. Great conversation piece for my friends. Ordering a set now, I am glad to see they are back!
@tinkertime If you and your friends sit around and talk about speaker, then you might want to bring up that they are on meh, AGAIN. or get new friends
@bondhardy My friends are mostly "technology challanged" so a bluetooth speaker is a conversation piece. And I tell EVERYBODY about meh and all the meh stuff I buy!
Looking for a reason NOT to buy these, but am coming up short........
@Stallion Armageddon. That's the only reason.
I'd love to have one just for the Bluetooth dongle feature. Alas, I have no money for toys right now. Or food.
$100 list price for each? Is that in Monopoly money?
I just broke my Meh cherry. Since this is a two for Tuesday, does it mean I just got DP'd?
@doubleabeepbeep Yes. Yes it does.
I dunno how VMP works so I waited until the first of the month to finally buy something here cuz I'm cheap. Awesome first buy! I hope I don't go broke this month.
@Cagny VMP runs 30 days from when you sign up, so you don't have to wait until the first of the month to get a full month. Staff endorses cancelling immediately; you'll still get the full month you paid for, but once it runs out you don't have to pay again until something else meh strikes your fancy. Discussion here: https://mediocre.com/forum/topics/vmp
Does the Buddy Jack feature let me turn the two of them into a stereo pair?
@jqubed Asking the important questions here.
@jqubed I was wondering the same thing. After looking at the discussion from last time these were up for sale, the answer is no.
@doubleabeepbeep Then meh...
@jqubed Furthermore, does its 3.5mm out provide stereo? I'd like to assume so.
@Neechy Somewhere farther down this forum I think I saw the answer to that is yes.
@jqubed Straight from an email from X-Mini, the answer to your original question is no. :(!
I would love a waterproof bluetooth speaker for the shower. Can you hook me up, meh?
@zonedabone easy solution, put it inside of a zip lock bag.
When you tend to watch movies on your laptop or kindle, the speakers can be lacking. These shall be an excellent addition. I didn't need these, but now I want them.
Thanks for relieving me of $25 Meh. I've never said dammit as I clicked the order button. Until now. Ugh. I'm an overt-official-donkey for sure.
I go~
한국 직구족은 전자제품을 1개 밖에 못삽니다. 2개 사면 전파인증 하거나(비쌈) 폐기당함. 아주 좋은 딜인데 아쉽네요. meh~
meh
@Gaster 같은걸로 두개죠? 예를들어 종류가 두개라면 괜찮은건가요?
@jeehyangjin 모델명이 다르면 괜찮습니다. 빨간색과 검은색이 모델명이 다르면 괜찮아요. 그런데 모델명이 같은데 색상이 각각 빨강과 검정이라면 될 지 안 될지 저도 확인이 안되네요.
@Gaster 이미 전파인증이 되어있는 제품이라면 2개라도 문제 될 것이 없지 않나요? 이 제품을 검색해보니 품명이 XAM11 은 인증되어 있는데 XAM11-B는 없어 난감합니다...
Google translator failed me… it says. "One can only live electronics Korea fastball tribe . Authentication or two -slope propagation ( expensive) Sugar disposal . It's like a good deal too bad . meh ~"
@Kidsandliz they are talking about the frequency regulations in Korea regarding these electronics... i dont really know why they matter for these tiny ass speakers though
But damn do i need to order a pair? I feel horribly tempted
@sukyut I have one of the non-bluetooth version and it is a surprisingly decent speaker for its size and loud for its size.
@Gaster me love two long time, joe
OK, I bought some to add to the 8 other items someplace between Meh and my house. I am amazed by all the positive comments, encouraging people to buy. You do realizes this not a **off were we try to convince each other to buy things we don’t need, just to get to the next item.
@don when it's a crap item, it pours. Do you even go here?
I bought two of these the last time they were offered. The only thing I didn't like about them is that my phone won't automatically pair with them (have to go into Bluetooth settings and manually pair each time). For the one I keep in the house, it's not that big a deal, but I mainly bought it to use in my car to connect to the car's stereo. It becomes less useful when you have to go through half a dozen steps before music finally starts flowing through your car speakers.
@PurplePawprints have you tried switching it off when done and back on when you get in again? I think @chadp tested that this resolved the auto-reconnect better (for him at least)
@snapster Yes, I always turn it off when I get out of the car (otherwise, the battery is drained when I go to use it again). I'm glad that seems to have worked for Chad, though.
@PurplePawprints Yeah, I ended up testing about 5 separate units and they always immediately connected when switching back on. odd to hear that you are having that problem still.
@PurplePawprints @ChadP I bought one the first time around and have the same issue. It's a minor nuisance for an otherwise pretty great speaker given it's size. Actually buying 2 more today.
@ChadP Since you've done testing, can you tell me, on average, how long it takes for your device to automatically pair? I guess it could be that I'm not giving it enough time since by that point I've already waited a few seconds for the speaker to turn on and I want to get on with it so I can start driving.
@PurplePawprints @ChadP I am having the same issue, it just won't reconnect to my iPhone 5. Phone has no problem with any other Bluetooth devices and it does reconnect to my MacBook. With my iPhone I need to pair it each time I even went as far as restoring my phone, still didn't work. Great sounding speaker, though. I bought it for the dongle feature, but oh well.
@PurplePawprints I have a iPhone 5s and after connecting 2 or 3 times manually, mine now automatically connects, it takes about 10-15 seconds.
I bought a pair last time they were for sale. I have yet to turn them on. I don't even have one of them any more. I sent it off in the Mehrican Exchange before I even opened the package.
I took two of these on vacation and had music playing by the pool for everyone. Great sound and they get pretty loud. Also, they look cool.
사용 전압이 220v 도 가능한가요?
@jhj 아뇨 usb전원 5V만 먹습니다.
Got one last time, and I'm in for two more. Good sound & super easy to use. My kids are always stealing it from the kitchen and taking it to whatever room of the house they want to blast music in. Today's deal will relieve me of playing "where the hell did the little speaker go?" all the time. I was so eager to order I accidentally 'meh'd' the deal--sorry!
@bigglasses you can meh and buy if you want your meh streak to keep going… I think customers subverted what they were trying to use it for and since it pulls people back to the page they kept it anyway rather than ditch it when they'd add up how much perfectly good money got wasted on meh (geesh spell corrected to meth - I bet they wished this site was addictive like meth LOL)
Yah! For Christmas gifts :)
Hey Meh, what's with you partnering with 1sale? Their stuff seems pretty shady, I stopped visiting them a long time ago, I have no idea what possessed me to visit them tonight. Why would you partner with someone that copied woot? They pull the same stuff, a million things on a "one sale a day" site. It's total crap!
@Stormchaser long story told too many times. shortest summary yet: we were forced to.
I got two last time. Plugged one into the headphone jack to enable Beats Audio. The sound was so good, the little pod was jumping around from the bass and ended up pulling my phone off the patio table and onto the floor, cracking the screen. IT'S THAT GOOD.
First thing I felt compelled to purchase. I bought a crappier version of this before that sounds terrible over 50% volume. Hopefully this will replace that and I can give the other to someone at christmas.
@zacatac This one will sound terrible above 80% volume, but will sound pretty good below that. (Source: I have two.)
I bought one of these last time and its pretty great. Good sound for something so portable and lightweight. I'll buy more if I can set them all around the downstairs and link them to play the same song everywhere. Anyone know if this is possible? Since they don't network I'm guessing not.
@RedHot probably not- most (or all) bluetooth devices will only stream to one receiver, no matter how many units it's capable of linking with. you can always daisy chain 'em, but you'd need a lot of connector cables...
2-for-Tuesdays are too tempting ...
I bought 3 when they were originally offered and I think they are great. I bought (at least) 2 more. The question I have, is using the Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable as a dongle the same as using the Stowaway 3.5mm cable? There is minimal user info available.
@Stumpy91 Nope. The combo cable, which is far too short IMO, is the INPUT for audio. The stowaway is the audio OUTPUT, to go to your next x-mini, or the dumb speaker that you want to turn ito bluetooth.
@G1 The "What’s in the box!?" section says "Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable for charging, audio out and dongle use." See why I'm confused. I jast have to try it I guess. Then I'll report my findings.
@Stumpy91 In my experience - and I realize this probably won't answer the original question - the separate 3.5mm cable (which has a 3.5mm cable and mini USB both feeding into a single normal USB) is only useful for charging. I have two of these, and I've only ever used the built-in 3.5mm cable for audio... both for hooking a single speaker up to an audio source, AND for daisy-chaining the speakers.
@Crixus What is the preferred method for dongle-mode? I've connected the built in cable to a 3.5mm input to a receiver and muted the Kai. It worked but the output was low and the volume of the receiver needed to be increased substantially.
@Stumpy91 A thought just occured to me. If you use the Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable for bluetooth dongle use, you can supply continuous power to the X-Mini Kai by providing USB power with a USB port or wall-wart.
@jc283 shenanigans.
Dammit. Just dammit. I already own an Oontz Curve (which really sounds amazing), and 3 other somewhat similar small speakers. I have absolutely no need for these.
But I'm going to dwell on it a little longer...
@Cinoclav I'm in the same boat, already have plenty of speakers so I'm holding out strong. Hoping they sell out soon so I can't buy them:)
@Stallion i tried that, too- it didn't work
I have one of the earlier versions of these speakers without the bluetooth (looks exactly the same though) and I'm honestly not very impressed. The sound quality was acceptable I guess, the Oontz speaker I have that's not too much larger beat it quite handily in that department. Biggest disappointment was that after 4 months or so the battery didn't hold a charge well at all, the thing would go dead after a single shower.
Found a review which said that connecting two of these does not produce stereo sound. Still, I'm in for the bluetooth dongle and portability features. Also I'm on a shopping jag.
http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/04/24/x-mini-kai-wireless-bluetooth-mono-speaker-review/
@jakbrooklyn That's correct. Connecting two just doubles the mono sound... which is okay.
This is the best thing I've bought from Meh so far. Love my original so I'm in for another pair. I'm not sure if it's the sound quality that makes me love this little thing, or if it's the awesome cute factor.
@Teripie I think it's both!
2 for 1 pricing.... count me in for a set.
Here's something that I don't see mentioned in this discussion yet:
1) They hold a charge for a REALLY long time. I have a pair from the last time, and one of them gets about an hour of use, daily. I just had to charge it (for the first time after initial purchase) yesterday.
2) They take a REALLY long time to charge. I would estimate at least six hours from completely empty to completely full.
Does anyone know if these things combine both stereo channels to be mono or if it only plays either A or B channel?
@00 This bothers me more than it should, but it bugs me when someone asks a question on a forum like you just did, and people answer "I don't know". Well then, just shut up! Anyway, no I don't know. No one knows.
@Stumpy91 this generally drives me crazy too. But your context makes it good. I dug through Amazon comments and think I found the answer: "built in cable routes right and left channels into the same speaker" and "they sound great for each speaker outputting the left and right channels"
@00 @stumpy91 this chat made me realize if you had 3 you could use one for the bluetooth dongle + mono combined sound and then get adapters like this to create a stereo sound stage out of the other two: http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042902&p_id=7190&seq=1&format=2 http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042902&p_id=7181&seq=1&format=2 (combined $1.92 cost before freight)
@snapster But how do you split out the unique L/R stereo info out? Wouldn't you get the same info out of each speaker?
@Stumpy91 the RCA adapter splits a stereo signal into L and R (white & red) and the subsequent RCA to 1/8" adapters give you two mono 1/8" female outputs.
I cannot believe you just made me buy two more of these, @snapster. You may be mediocre at many things, but salesmanship is not among them.
@snapster Hell yes that makes great sense! ... though I'm not buying a third just to keep the bluetooth functionality.
Meh.
A thought just occurred to me. If you use the Combo USB/Mini-USB/3.5mm Audio cable for bluetooth dongle use, you can supply continuous power to the X-Mini Kai by providing USB power with a USB port or wall-wart.
@Stumpy91 They highly recommend against that, as it will murder your battery if you keep that up.
@gimpeyjoe Ooohh. I do remember reading that, now that you mention it.
No one has mentioned how well the microphone feature works? I am considering them for the hands free operation while driving a car? Oh well not me driving but you get the idea. Smile
Microphone sucks, tried it with a few phones, nobody on the other end could hear me. Don't buy for that feature.
@michaelahess Thanks for the feedback. Too bad it doesn't work well for that feature, it has a longer talk time than my Bluetooth head set. But at least the consensus is they sound pretty good for music.
Great price and reviews almost made this my first Meh purchase.
But no way to get discrete L/R stereo from a pair of speakers earns a big, fat meh from me.
@DennisG2014 if you buy 3 and waste a bunch of time ordering adapters from monoprice you can make a L/C/R soundstage with one as the sole receiver. :D
More info can be gleaned from the X-Mini website at X-Mini support
meh -- Unless you can get me a pair like this one..
@Zebra No worries I am sure they can include a purple magic marker in your order (see the past thread that involved a black sharpie and instructions on how to turn a white speaker black)
Baby Arm!!!!
@PurpleCave Baby Arm
Since 800+ of us bought it, we should all set a date and time to blast the same song at the same time.
@c00kiesandcream You don't know how many bought it, you only know how many were sold. With currently 908 sold, somewhere between 303 and 908 people have bought it.
@ardgedee you are partially correct. by my math ~760 have bought on the below snapshot. see it?
@snapster Math. Psh. Does @studerc count as 1/3 of a customer?
@DaveInSoCal you need to, against all math principles, round up to 1/2 since @studerc must have bought 1 box not two. Actually he is working his way up to a complete order as the numbers now are 860.8197 people have bought. Perhaps by midnight he will have worked his way up to a complete set.
i bought a set the first time and both have been taken by others... which is fine because i bought them with the idea of gifting (and my spracht blutooth stereo speaker is so much better). That said, the first two were such a hit that i just now purchased another set to gift to those i originally had planned to give to at the office.
Sell out, will you already! There are 2 hours left for me to buy and I don't want them. That darn Buy button is too easy to press!
North Dakota is again holding strong and not buying. Good job ND. Perhaps meh needs a special tracking for ND to see how long it takes someone from there to break the meh no buy record...
@Kidsandliz well, there ARE only 23,000 people in the state that have computers, and only 17,000 of those use it for things other than porn... i'd guess the amount of people smart enuf to know about meh would be in the dozens there....
I bought two. I plan on using mine as self contained remote controlled stepper motor drivers. I have some 4 wire stepper motors in my junk box. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor#Bipolar_motor
I just wrote a Python test program to spew the most boring sound files imaginable to a stereo audio amp hooked up to one of my stepper motors. Each channel drives one winding. On the left side I have a 100Hz sine wave sampled at an 8Khz rate with an 8 bit linear encoding. The right side gets a similar sine wave 90 degrees out of phase. Since the human ears are lousy at detecting phase, it just sounds like a 100Hz hum when sent to headphones. However, the stepper motor turns nicely.
This is just for a presentation at my Robotics club to show some simple Python programming techniques.
Unless I get fancy, I will make a classic "turtle robot", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(robot)
without the ability to lift the pen off the paper.
If I get fancy, I will mount one stepper motor at the top left corner of a tilted white board, and the other stepper motor at the top right corner. Then wrap some string around each motor shaft. Connect the string to a weighted white board marker. Then the computer can draw stuff on the white board, like an etch-a-sketch (as in, you can't lift the pen from the board).
I am hoping that the mini-kai has enough oomph to drive the stepper motors directly, because that would be cooler. Before I bought the mini-kai's I was planning on using some battery powered audio amps and wires going to USB audio dongles. That's how I'm testing my code.
These steppers strongly hold their position even without power. I won't need to figure out how to get DC drive through the audio path way.
@hamjudo
But seriously that sounds really cool. I hope they work out for your robots.
Well, crap. I didn't pay close attention to the details. Mini USB? Seriously? In this decade? C'mon…
@randywalker What Is wrong with mini USB? Educate me, I thought smaller was better these days. And if I understand correctly they get smaller called micro. Why is it a problem?
@silverqueen He's saying that micro is the current standard, so no one has mini cables anymore. Irregardfullnessly, I will now have 8 of them! HOORAY!
@silverqueen @DaveInSoCal is right and that's why I would prefer micro USB.
@daveinsocal @randywalker But they come with the right cord. And it's a combo! Why isn't that any good?
If the cord breaks aren't there adapters?
@silverqueen It's totally fine for me! like I said, I bought 8 of them and love these little guys. Besides, in sure I have a few old mini USB cables lying around from older cell phones. :)
I tried to reply hours ago. @daveinsocal I don't know why it Didn't stick. What can you find to do for these little guys? How are you using them? Eight of them, brings to mind a sit com from the late 70s? "Eight is enough"?
@silverqueen I bring then on trips because they're so compact. You can link them together for more sound. Some are for gifts.
@silverqueen Gotta say, I was a bit disappointed in the sound quality from these little guys, especially after the hype in these forums. I have an etekcity t3 that's about the same size but produces a much richer bass. Couldn't quite match the Meh 2-for pricing though. Still pleased with the purchase, (and love Meh) but doubt these will see much action around the house.
A short-form review of these X-Mini Kai's that I bought on 2 fer. I love how cheap they were. I wouldn't have purchased them at any higher price that is for sure. Overall they are a decent option for bluetooth speakers. They aren't very open and it is very easy to overpower them and get some distortion, but for easy everyday listening they could be worse.
The bluetooth has had no problems in the few weeks I've tried them.
I do recommend connecting the speakers together for added effect.
All in all I'm not upset with the purchase but then again they are just meh.
Thanks for taking my money.