Ultra portable speakers compared: Logitech X300 vs. Creative MuVo Mini

Small in size, not in sound 

It almost goes without saying these days that most (or all) of your media library is stored on your smartphone, tablet or even in the cloud. As such, all you need is a good set of headphones for your listening (and viewing pleasure). A quick look around while you’re on the trains or in shopping centers will most likely confirm this, with at least three quarters of the crowd plugged in to their smart devices.

But what if you want to share your music with your group of friends at the beach or any other occasion? You certainly could split a pair of earphones, but (questions of hygiene aside) it’s easy to see how that’s not optimal. Certain headphone manufacturers like Beats build in a feature to let you daisy chain headphones, but that can get cumbersome at best. And how are you supposed to move? Enter the ultra portable speaker. Small and compact, these speakers certainly won’t deliver the audiophile experience given the sheer physical size constraints they have to deal with, but can certainly provide an upgrade to blasting music from your device at full volume.

The Creative Muvo Mini and the Logitech X300 are two of the latest ultra portable speakers to hit the market, and they offer the promise of quality audio for audio enthusiasts on the go. Both are fairly small and light - weighing 285g and 355g respectively, and measuring barely larger than a pencil case. The Muvo Mini is longer at 190 x 37 x 59mm while the X300 is more soft drink can sized at 152 x 71 x 69mm. Both support Bluetooth A2DP and have an audio jack for a wired connection, and come with rechargeable internal batteries which are charged via micro-USB. We'll take a closer look at how each speaker differs in the next few sections.

Logitech X300

The Logitech X300 is a modern speaker that we first covered in a hands-on piece. As we mentioned, the X300 comes in three (two-toned) color options: red, blue and black. Featuring a plastic body that wraps around the main metal speaker grille, the X300 has only three buttons on the top of the speaker - two for volume control, and one for Bluetooth pairing.

Playback controls are left to what’s on your media player and the only other button on the speaker is the power button, discretely placed at the rear. A unique feature in terms of design is that the X300 is constructed to point upwards at a 30^o angle, thus ensuring that the sound is directed to your ears instead of to your waist (when placed at tablet level). While there was an audible difference during our testing (when compared to conventional non-angled speakers), it was when we were standing up and moving around - as might be the case if you’re having a picnic outdoors or in a party setting - that we felt the difference most and appreciated the thoughtful angled audio output design.

Inside the X300, two passive radiators add bass while the mids and highs are produced by two drivers that are also angled outwards at 30^o, ensuring that the soundstage created is wider and the sound produced more expansive. So that's a total of four speakers crammed within this little speaker.

The side radiators (which are also angled outwards at 30^o ) really did make a big difference in terms of the soundstage created though, and we thought this configuration gave the X300 a rather robust sound overall. No mean feat given the physical size of this speaker set!

Pairing via Bluetooth was a straight forward affair, and the volume actually syncs to your smart device so you can literally control everything from your phone once paired. We do wish the battery life was better than the five hours it’s rated at though - if we’re going to be planning a day out, we’d appreciate having something that goes closer to eight hours. But there is some consolation in that you can easily recharge it via the same portable external battery packs you use for charging your tablets and smartphones.

Thanks to the fact that the X300 includes side radiators and a somewhat angular design, you can actually stand your X300 on its side and use it in a vertical position. The only problem then is that you obviously only have sound from one side radiator and the two main front facing drivers instead of all four. We felt that this diminished the overall sound output though, so using it flat would probably be the way to go.

Creative MuVo Mini

The latest in Creative’s MuVo line of NFC Bluetooth portable wireless speakers, the MuVo Mini is a slim minimalist speaker that’s basically shaped like a long bar fronted by a honeycomb design that acts as a speaker grille. Featuring an IP66 rating for protection against dust and water, the MuVo Mini seems purpose built for a day out by the beach or a poolside party.

Like the X300, the MuVo Mini has very minimal controls, with all four buttons on the top of the speaker. That’s also where you’ll find the NFC spot for pairing - on the top right - while the ports for your typical 3.5mm audio jack connection and USB charging are hidden away behind a rubber flap on the rear to keep it safe from water. While Creative is quick to remind us that the MuVo Mini is weatherproof and not waterproof (i.e. don’t dunk it in water and expect it to work), they do say that if it happens that water does soak through the grill entirely, simply shake out the water or dry it with a hairdryer at low heat and it should be back up and running in no time.

The MuVo Mini is slightly longer than the X300, but at just 285g, it's noticeably lighter. The internal battery is also rated to 10 hours (double that of the X300) so this is definitely a speaker that will take you through a full day of playback. Despite what Creative says though, the MuVo Mini isn’t something that will fit into your pocket - unless your pockets measure 19cm deep that is. It is however; definitely slim enough to put into a small bag and take it wherever you wish to go. This makes it an interesting proposition for overseas travel where weight is a definite concern.

Like the X300, the MuVo Mini will charge from external battery packs, so that's an easy way to keep your music going. However unlike the X300, volume on the MuVo Mini is independent of what is set on your media player, so we’d recommend setting the volume on your MuVo Mini to maximum, then use your phone for final control.

Because the speaker drivers are all facing forward, the sound doesn’t quite cover as wide an area as the X300, so you’ll want to place it right in front of you for best effect. That said, this is one speaker that can go uncomfortably loud so go ahead and blast your music - just take care of your ears by placing a bit of distance between you and the speakers before you start.

 Audio performance - Logitech X300

On the whole, we felt that the X300 impressed with the range of music it was able to handle. It resolved instrumental pieces well, and certainly is capable of playing loud. We think you’ll probably want to keep its volume at about the three-quarters level for comfortable listening. Note of caution here though: upon initial pairing the volume is automatically set to maximum, so you’ll probably want to turn that down several notches before you hit play.

Perhaps because it has a passive radiator on each side, the X300 does in fact manage to create a hint of stereo imaging; impressive because of the sheer lack of physical space the drivers have to work with. "Robust" is a word we’d use to describe the audio that comes out of these speakers, and there definitely is a sense that placing the passive radiators to the side aids in stereo imaging.

In our formal testing, we found the X300 performed particularly well with vocals. With Melt My Heart To Stone for example, Adele’s vocals were slightly warm and bright, with a forwardness that seemed to place Adele front and center of the listener. Bass was a little weak as is to be expected with speakers of this size, but we must say that there was just about enough weight to the bass line to make its presence felt.

On The Eagle’s Hotel California, we felt that the guitar notes seemed to linger a little, perhaps indicative of a touch too much decay on the speaker’s part? Again, we felt the speaker did well on vocals, offering enough separation to make out details from the live audience on this track.

Moving on to Tiesto’s Elements of Life, we felt that there was a bit of distortion on this track but overall the bass drivers managed to deliver enough oomph to drive the piece. The X300 offered a sense of being enveloped in sound - no mean feat given how small the speaker is.

Sail on Soothsayer on the other hand, had plenty of distortion - and not all of it was intended. It seems the speaker lacks the ability to resolve the complicated melodies properly, leading to the extra distortion. We do think it manages to produce just about enough bass to lead the track though, and that it handles the solo admirably, just lifting Buckethead’s guitar riff from the overall buzz of the bass line.

Audio performance - Creative MuVo Mini

With two full-range micro drivers and one oversized bass radiator under the hood, you might expect the speaker to be bass heavy, but rather, we felt the bass was a little thin on these speakers. What you do get instead, are nice trebles and mids, as you get a good sense of separation of the vocals from their backing tracks. Given the mids-centric sound signature of the MuVo Mini, Pop and Rock tracks are probably going to be the best fit for this one, and it certainly is good for a range of music; so long as your listening preferences aren’t too bass-centric.

For example, Eric Clapton’s Blue Eyes Blue is certainly quite enjoyable on the MuVo Mini, and jazz pieces or songs with more of an 'unplugged' delivery like John Legend’s Ordinary People, which is in essence the man, his voice and the piano. In such a set-up, the MuVo Mini excels because it doesn’t have to deal with too many overlaying tracks.

Moving on to our formal testing, we found that on Adele’s Melt My Heart To Stone, her vocals were clear and bright, but the track seemed to lack a touch of body as the backing instruments lacked impact overall, and the lack of bass left the song with nothing to ground it.

This lack of bass was very much evident when we moved on to Tiesto’s Elements of Life though, as it felt as though the leading beats were working very much in the background, leaving the track feeling thin and flat overall.

On The Eagles’ Hotel California though, we felt that the mids-centric nature of the speaker worked to give the piece more clarity as compared to the X300, which was more colored. Once again, we would have liked to have had a bit more bass to ground the track, but we do feel that the MuVo Mini does a good job with rendering the individual guitar parts.

Finally, we moved to Sail On Soothsayer by Buckethead. This track pretty much lives by the lead guitar’s solo, so we were quite pleased to find that the MuVo Mini picked up on this well, rendering it somewhat sharper than what the X300 managed. While there was a touch of added distortion on this as well, we thought it was handled a little better than the X300, and the track was just cleaner sounding overall.

Conclusion

There certainly are many options available in the ultra portable speaker segment, so any product that wants to standout in this category certainly has to bring that something extra, which is why we see Logitech experiment with a non-conventional speaker set-up, and Creative adding IP66 ingress protection. Both speakers gave us a reliable Bluetooth connection over 15m, and both are certainly portable and light, while being fairly affordable (the MuVo Mini is S$79 while the X300 is S$99).

So for us, it comes down to sound, and this really wasn’t that close, as the X300 simply offers better overall performance with a wider soundstage. You also get better resolved audio across the spectrum, and will be able to enjoy a wider range of music while you’re at it. We did factor in that it would only last half as long as the MuVo Mini, but ultimately we feel the difference in sound outweighs the battery life concerns as you can always carry an extra battery pack, but you can’t easily get bigger and better sound by just adding another speaker.

Thus, with the overall listening experience in mind, the winner of this comparison is the Logitech X300.

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