Xiaomi Sound 2 Max: new MCM speaker (midwoofer coax midwoofer) introduced for 2000 RMB

[staticV3]

Surprisingly promising speaker design introduced by Xiaomi of all brands: https://www.mi.com/xiaomi-sound-2-max

Pictures:


Up to four can be combined for surround sound via a dedicated HDMI hub:


Ported, so no wall-mounting.
Active design with RCA, USB-C, and WiFi input:

 

[kemmler3D]

Very interesting... I think Xiaomi is generally pretty competent so I have pretty high expectations for this one, at least for a new entry. Probably narrow verticals but horizontals could be nice?

Do we think this is competing mostly with Sonos, KEF, someone else?

 

[staticV3]

Probably narrow verticals

No waveguide beside the coax mid cone + if the woofers are crossed low enough to keep cancellation in check, vertical directivity on par with horizontal could be expected as well.

 

[voodooless]

Cool stuff. Sadly, xiaomi seems incapable ofmaking a website that loads on a mobile phone (At least Brave in iPhone).

Also a deal-breaker is no subwoofer support. But they do offer analog input, so you could just hook it up to a normal AVR/P

The coaxial unit looks very basic:

We’ll have to see what the real performance will be.

No indications yet if it will be available outside of China either.

I do like the version with the wooden faceplate.

 

[staticV3]

Also a deal-breaker is no subwoofer support.

You can feed them via RCA, so an external Xover à la 2x4HD would enable a subwoofer or two.

 

[voodooless]

You can feed them via RCA, so an external Xover à la 2x4HD would enable a subwoofer or two.

Yes, you can hook ik up to an AVR, or similar (which I added to my initial reply already).

But it takes a bit away from some of the wireless magic, I think, especially for a multichannel setup. Sadly, the HDMI box also only does PCM multichannel, so you need another device to do the decoding (e.g., AppleTV).

 

[A Surfer]

While possible of course, there is no reason to expect such devices to better Sonos. As one example.

 

[voodooless]

While possible of course, there is no reason to expect such devices to better Sonos. As one example.

Why not?

 

[LearningToSmile]

I'm not surprised Xiaomi makes speakers - they make pretty much everything. I'm surprised they went with such a traditional design, however. Is there a link to that HDMI hub device? I can't see any details about it but maybe I missed something with the machine translation.

 

[dasherzx]

Very interesting... I think Xiaomi is generally pretty competent so I have pretty high expectations for this one, at least for a new entry. Probably narrow verticals but horizontals could be nice?

Do we think this is competing mostly with Sonos, KEF, someone else?

its a hit or miss frankly. the two phone i had from them broke in a matter of months to 2 years. i worked at one of their service centers for awhile, you can practically swim in their broken rma-ed iems.

 

[A Surfer]

Why not?

Because they have not cracked any materials or design limitations. It is an iteration of existing technology and design principles. Plus Sonos really knows what they are doing, their engineering skills are quite well established and they have been at this for quite some time.

My point wasn't that Xiamomi couldn't be better or as good, but there is nothing here that should suggest it to be the case. IMO.

 

[voodooless]

My point wasn't that Xiamomi couldn't be better or as good, but there is nothing here that should suggest it to be the case. IMO.

Maybe not. I think it's also not a totally similar product, in the sense that it doesn't pretend to be a one-speaker-does-all kind of product like the Sonor Era 100/300. This alone frees up so many compromises that you don't have to make. Even the larger Era 300 only has 3.5" woofers vs the 4" we see here. The enclosure is much larger, also. Most probably, this will make it play lower and louder.

I think they took a much simpler and cleaner approach. Stick to what is known to work, and execute it within a relatively small budget.

Obviously, there are other compromises here, some of which are already mentioned, like no subwoofer support. But there is also no AirPlay or Google Cast, a limitation to 4.0 sound, and no codec support. The enclosure is fairly large for the driver size, and the coaxial does not seem very much SOTA, but at least it is a coaxial, instead of a woofer and tweeter(s) insanely far apart, like Sonor does. And at least the woofer seems to be able to move some air, judging by its surrounds. I'm also not too sure about the amps. They seem a bit small to reach the claimed 100+ dB, but maybe it would be enough. Meanwhile, the real MaxSPL on the Era 300 is about 90 dB according to rtings. That is a major compromise

 

[voodooless]

So it seems AirPlay will come with a future update, and some sources also say that the HDMI box does Dolby decode after all. I wonder if these things will be made available outside of China?

 

[A Surfer]

Well why not get a pair drop shipped for testing? You make great arguments for why this might be a worthy addition. Let's wait and see.

 

[AudioJester]

Just saw a review of the XU7 Ultra EV.
Seems like a company on the move!