Polk Magnifi Mini
FOR Good agility; big bass; spacious sound AGAINST Could be more insightful; boxy midrange “The soundbar’s side-firing drivers provide a spacious sound, stretching the soundtrack to fill our testing room”
There are a few benefits to being small. You’re more adept at playing hide and seek, naturally better at potholing, and usually have a slight edge at limbo. However, none of this applies to soundbars – a product that usually has to hit the sweet spot between impressive audio and compact body.
But Polk is attempting to get round this with the Magnifi Mini, which the company says will provide “huge sound from a mini soundbar”. To start with the glaringly obvious, it’s small. At just 35cm long and 7cm tall, it’s little bigger than your average lunchtime baguette. Behind its grille are two 10mm tweeters, and four 6cm drivers for the midrange.
Accompanying the diminutive piece of kit is a notably larger subwoofer – about as high as a coffee table – to deal with frequencies from 40Hz to 110Hz using its 16cm driver.
New standards
We plug in the optical cable and put on Interstellar, skipping to the point where Dr Joseph Cooper (Matthew Mcconaughey) detaches himself from the spacecraft and falls into the black hole.
The soundbar’s side-firing drivers provide a spacious sound, stretching the soundtrack out to fill our testing room. It’s pretty competent around the treble too – Playing Isn’t She Lovely on Stevie Wonder’s Live At Last Blu-ray, the high-pitched harmonica comes across clearly without sounding too bright or brittle. And there’s no doubting the agility of the Magnifi Mini – changing to some White Denim over Bluetooth, the soundbar can keep up with the speed and bounce of the guitars in tracks like At Night In Dreams and Distant Relative Salute.
There’s also a decent amount of bass, courtesy of the subwoofer. The horns (known as Zimmer Horns by movie buffs because of how frequently they appear in Hans Zimmer’s scores) are prominent enough, but need to be tighter.
But there are also other improvements to be made: there’s not enough elbow room in the midrange, and it ends up sounding too congested. Vocals that should feel wide and open, such as Colin Farrell’s intimate rendition of East Wind on the Saving Mr Banks soundtrack, sound closed-in. The arrogant verbal shrug in the climax of Kanye West’s Power is lacking and a little lost, showing that the Magnifi Mini could do with more insight across the board.
Though the Magnifi Mini’s sound quality won’t set any new standards, Polk has managed to pack in an impressive number of connections. On the wireless side, it has both Bluetooth and wi-fi, and the surprising bonus of built-in Google Chromecast means you’ll be able to stream audio from your smartphone and tablet via Spotify, Tidal, or other compatible apps.
Round the back is an ethernet port, HDMI and USB inputs, an optical and a 3.5mm connection. A string of LEDS on the Mini’s face light up to let you know which source is playing. The LEDS are also used to signify volume, bass and centre channel levels – the last two being managed by the ‘Bass’ and ‘Voice’ buttons on the remote.
Rising to the occasion
The Magnifi Mini gives you scope to adjust your audio for the occasion, with a variety of DSP settings including Music, Movie, Sports and Night mode. Music is the default, while the Movie and Sports modes alter the amount of bass and midrange power coming from the soundbar. Night mode reduces the overall dynamic range, and increases the midrange to make things clearer at low volume.
Settings can be changed on either the soundbar or the remote, which is nice to use. The playback symbols are raised slightly so you get an idea of what you’re pressing in a dark room, and there are marked buttons for different sources rather than an all-in-one source button. The only addition we'd like is a dedicated button for Bluetooth connectivity and pairing, which can be done only on the soundbar.
The Polk Magnifi Mini sits in a difficult position, able to beat neither the alternative, larger soundbars nor smaller wireless speakers at this price point. It’s a competent product with much to admire in terms of features and design. But it doesn’t quite have the audio quality to get a wholehearted recommendation from us.