Hey folks, Valkor here. Whenever I take to the skies whether it
be domestic or international travel, I have to take along with
me my usual suspect of portable devices, namely my laptop, PSP,
Zen micro… you get the idea. But I cannot stress how much
I hate speakers on portable devices. I have yet to find a device
that has good speakers on them out the box. So what do you do
when you’re in your hotel room, getting ready for an event
or gathering and you want some tunes to get things going? Answer:
get a great set of portable speakers. Thanks to the people at
Logitech, they’ve stepped to the challenge and heeded my
call. And I will say that the MM28 portable speakers are best
damn speakers to ever grace these ears in a long time.
Before we get to why these speakers sound so great, I wanna comment first on the look. The MM28 is thin. Not super thin, but thin enough that you can easily fit it in your carry on bag. I like the unique rectangular/circular shape of it. It just makes it a serious conversational piece because no one knows what it is until you tell them. What’s especially unique (and I mean this in a good way) is the front plastic panel flips down and under the speaker making it an instant stand. No props in the back, no stands underneath, just flip it and Booyah! Plug it in. The power switch is directly on top, the AC plug and speaker plug are in the back, no assembly required. There’s also no volume or bass control on the device, you have to rely on the device you’re using to get the proper sound. But that isn’t bad, usually external controls get mixed with device controls and everything gets all distorted. For me, its better this way, that way I can configure the sound the way I want, without going back between the two.
But you guys don’t care how it looks right? You wanna know how it sounds correct? How about good? No? Damn good? Really damn good? Yea that’s it, it sounds REALLY DAMN GOOD! Who are these people behind NXT technologies? Where did they come from? And how in the heck did they make something so small sound so great? I’ve heard my share of travel speakers from Creative to I-sounds, even some from Logitech and they don’t come close to sounding like this. So either I’m really out of the travel speaker loop or I just struck gold. The MM28 uses NXT flat panel technologies to produce an awesome sound with just the right amount of bass without over doing it. What you get overall is sound so clear and crisp, it’ll make you weep. My first test was to plug it to my Laptop as that’s the device I use the most. Mp3’s, CD’s sound wonderful once I set the volume at just the right level. Even at the lowest setting, it still sounds loud and clear, not distorted. With MP3’s, it all depends on the bitrate it was encoded at. Low 128 sound great, but softer and a bit muted while the higher 192 – 320 sound spot on perfect. CD’s are even better as you can make out a separation in voice and music and see how well they blend together. A great example is “My Immortal” by Evanecense, listen to how you can easily discern the piano to the strings. How Amy Lee’s voice just flows out the speaker to your ears. Sadly you can also hear how aged older CD’s for example my Go West CD “Indian Summer” doesn’t sound as hot as my Blackeye Peas “Monkey Business”. My laptop’s DVD equipped and if you want a good reference DVD to show off just how good these speakers sound, I suggest “The Polar Express”. I had to double check the box just to see if this was Dolby or THX compliant, because DAAAAAAAMN that’s good. I didn’t expect surround sound on that level, but wow great job!
My last test was on my portable devices Playstation portable and Creative Zen Micro. Again the same what I said about MP3’s above, also apply here as it all boils down to how the MP3 was encoded, the higher the better. So it’s great that I now have an excellent speaker to rock out to with the Zen Micro as the travel speaker Creative game me isn’t cutting it anymore. Same goes for MP3’s on the PSP, but for the gaming, yow!! I popped in MLB 2K6 and X-men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse… Be prepared to be immersed. With 2K6 you’d swear you wear watching an actual game, from the sound of the crowd, the crack of the bat and the voice commentary truly brings the game alive. Rise of Apocalypse sounds so great, that before I knew it I was at the end of the game. I was really that caught up.
But with the good comes the bad. Two things overall knock down the pointage from making the MM28 less than perfect. The first: The cord that’s attached to the back of the speaker that leads to the headphone out port, isn’t long enough. Now if you’re just plugging in your Ipod or any Mp3 player just to listen to some tunes, great! But I like to play games on my PSP and watch movies on my laptop, with the cord so short, it makes it difficult to situate the speakers at either just the right angle for viewing or making it hard to game because I move a bit when I play or I don’t play positioned one way. With the MM28 your pretty much stuck sitting very close to the speaker, so if you don’t mind a little discomfort, then this is definitely the speaker for you. The second: The power button is a very, very naughty button. Press it once, twice, thrice, nothing. I thought maybe I had broken the thing, but one more press and we have POWER!!!! A bigger, easier button is needed in the next version. (Which I am very excited to see).
Overall, I have to say I am very pleased with Logitech’s MM28 speakers. It has a great look, packs a lot of power, and gives you great sound for whatever device you use. Whether its movies, music, or gaming, you can’t go wrong with the MM28. It’s been Valkor tested, TOV Approved.