Can Cheap Speakers Satisfy?
If you had asked me that question last week,
I would have answered with a resounding, "no." Then I saw this ad
in a MicroCenter
sale flyer advertising the MidiLand
MLi-460 3-piece speakers for $12.95. For $12.95 I’ll try anything! Founded
in 1990, this company appears to sell to OEMs more than retail; however, I
suspect that their retail sales are rising rapidly if they can keep up in
this killer price vs. performance market.
Description & Specs
This is a three piece, two-way design that incorporates
a 4" subwoofer with two 3" full-range satellites. The sub is rated
at 15 watts, while the satellites are rated at 4 watts each. All enclosures
are plastic and all controls and connectors are on the rear of the sub. An
AC output wall wart is used rather than a built in power supply. The small
"dot" you see on the bottom front of the sub is a green led that
illuminates when the unit is turned on.
These Things Actually Work!
Using Milli Vanilli as my bass testing CD, I
achieved a whopping 100-decibel peak output at a distance of two feet. Volume
wise, this is only 10 dB less than the Altec
Lansing ACS-48s reviewed recently. The bass
quality and quantity, although substantial for a 4" woofer, was no competition
for the 48s though. But, one can’t compare a $100 speaker setup to a $13 one.
What struck me odd was that, after several hours
of high volume listening (not just Milli Vanilli), I didn’t develop a severe
case of listening fatigue. Listening fatigue can be identified as that overwhelming
sensation that you must leave the area that is producing the offending sound(s).
Most speakers in the sub-$20 category sound so incredibly bad, that I sometimes
ponder why they are even manufactured. The MLi-460s do not fall
into that category.
Two knobs protrude from the sub enclosure. The
volume control turns the set on in addition to controlling the volume of the
sub and the satellites. The sub knob becomes a relative control. Past speakers’
sub controls aren’t independent of the satellite volume and that is also a
very welcome feature, especially in this price class.
MidiLand’s specs also claim the rather ubiquitous
20Hz-20KHz frequency response. I wish that a tolerance would have been suggested,
such as "plus or minus 6dB," or something similar. Having listened
to professional high end speakers in the $100k category and having those "gold
plated" jobs struggle with anything below 30Hz, I can confidently say
that the 460s don’t come close to 20Hz for a low end. More like 70Hz.
Kudos for the strained 4" sub though, because
it can crank out 100dB of low frequencies, so you could almost feel realistic
bass. But, I’m entirely too critical of these marvelously cheap boxes. The
operative word here is cheap.
How To Obtain The Most BAM For Your
Buck
The sub, really just a stressed out woofer, needs
all the help it can get. Proper placement can significantly enhance the bass
output both from the driver and the port. If practical, place the sub unit
near the intersection of three walls. Corner positioning technically gives
an 18dB boost in the almighty bass area. Since the 3-wall solution isn’t an
option even for me, I put my box on the floor, where two surfaces meet. This
technically gives a 12dB boost in low frequencies. Lastly, if you can’t locate
your floor without the aid of a shovel, try squashing the little boomer against
the wall-any wall. This only gives a paltry 6dB of theoretical boost, but
it’s better than near-field monitoring (free air).
Conclusion & Suggested Uses
I nabbed these for an old, pieced together, Pentium
120MHz bomb. That and when my wife was relegated to using that POJ (piece
of junk), she complained of the lack of speakers. Needless to say, I was ecstatic
when I glanced at the MicroCenter $12.95 ad. Any old system that you simply
don’t want to spend more than $20 on speakers deserve these 460s. College
dorm rooms could be accommodating too, as these shouldn’t provoke touchy,
close quartered neighbors to wrath. Unless you crank ‘em purposefully all
the way up, then be prepared to suddenly become unpopular. Solution: invite
the whole floor over for a frag fest. MicroCenter’s price was a once in a
lifetime loss-leader type, don’t expect to grab these for anything less than
a twenty spot. Overall, I’d unhesitatingly recommend these boxes to anyone
looking to spend less than twenty-five bucks (US, of course).
