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PC Audio Aktimate Fans Club, Demo 2 is up!

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TSvivakarna
post Aug 22 2012, 05:09 PM, updated 11y ago

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Demo 1, record with Zoom H1, 1m away. Music by Ottmar Liebert - Horse Return

Demo 2, record with zoom h1, 1m away. Music name - Ciellito Lindo


Hi guys, it’s been many months now since I bought the aktimate mini and I believe the speaker has been fully burned in. At first, I want to go straight away to the bookshelves speaker but because of space constraint and irregular electricity in my house at that time, so I hold back the thoughts of buying one. Before I own the aktimate mini, I’m the user of Altec Lansing mx5021 and corsair sp2500. I would not do a comparison between this three speakers because it’s simply a different league altogether. Instead, I’ll focus more on the build quality and packaging, setup and the sound quality of the mini.

Packaging, accessories and build quality

There’s nothing special about the packaging, it’s a plain box and got the Aktimate mini written over it. The packaging not as fancy as the multimedia speakers on the market but when you open up the box, there is another white box inside the prior one. Boxception! The speakers are covered with some fabric to prevent the speaker from scratches. Beside from speakers, you will receive various sizes of ipod dock, cheap 4mm banana plugs, power cord, remote control and 3 feet speaker cable that usually sell for 10bucks at car audio shop.

The build quality of the speaker is very good even its made from plastic. It’s like tampered glass, which is heavy and solid rather than normal, light and fragile glass. In a word, the mini’s cabinet is very solid and the high gloss black finish is superb and looks exclusive.

Setup and the speaker positioning

Power up the speaker is very easy, it takes only 10 minutes of my time but the placement and how to setup properly is little bit tricky. Bear in mind that your rooms acoustic have a huge impact on the overall sound quality. Try a few different location to find your own sweet spot. Rule of thumbs, always place the speaker that is equidistant from sidewalls and the ideal height should be on the eye or ear level while listening. Rear bass port must be 6”to 12” from a rear wall to make it sound beautiful. Isolation is also very important factor here, if you don’t have an expertise to building a sound trap or it’s simply your space doesn’t allow to (like me) try to use other alternative, such as solid and heavy table or speaker stand. Blu-tack is your good friend, use it at the bottom of speaker to secured it from falling down and as a cheap alternative from unwanted vibration.

At first when I plug in the speaker to the wall socket, the sound a bit dampen, it’s like some ghost put a blanket all over the speaker and the culprit is the inconsistency of electrical power at my house, after that I go buy APC power regulator and tacima cs929 to support the speaker. Since then, it doesn’t stop singing. The moral is, eventhou the speaker not too hungry for power, but damn! It’s very picky on how you feed it (in terms of electricity and quality of the music) Crap in, crap out. I even bought a self powered USB hub to ensure the signal is well transported.

In layman term, it's like when you modified your car engine kaw-kaw until can fly to the moon, but the tyre that you use are the stock one, can’t right? Atleast you must change the tyre to semi slick or sport tyre one to support the power of the engine. If you dont, death will awaits you tongue.gif

Same with the speaker, if your room acoustic not good enough or the isolation not good enough and the sources are not good enough, the sound will be all over the place and that is not a good thing. Until now I still not satisfied with my isolation and whatnot, maybe this weekend I go buy carpet from ikea tongue.gif

Sound quality

So this is the best part of the review, they look good and exclusive but if the sound they produce is crap like “Hidup segan mati tidak mahu” what are the points of buying it right? tongue.gif For your information, I’m listening to wide genre of songs from classical, oldies, pop, rock, post modern rock, trance, dubstep until chillstep? Haha! Youtube chillstep, to know what it is.

Bass

Everyone love bass, who don’t? It gave a soul to music but if the bass too excessive, it can ruin the whole listening experience, you fast become fatigue and sometimes you feel like you want to throw up (atleast for me) There are many kind of bass, we have drum bass, guitar bass, keyboard bass and we have string bass. All of the bass that I mentioned, you can rely it on mini. The bass is well pronounced, tight and it sound exactly where, when and how it should be according to producer intended to. For a conclusion, if you are into drum and bass song, trance and dubstep the mini can pretty well satisfied your needs. It may not enough for the basshead but for the ex-basshead like me, it’s good enough. I mean it!

Mids

Currently, I often listen to Eva Cassidy, Lara Fabian and Babra Streissand, the vocal with the mini is not recessed and not too forward, just nice. It’s natural and clear, even at the very low volume just before the mini turned mute, you can hear the vocal pretty well. Thanks to 5.25” mid driver.

Highs

The highs on this speaker are realistic and crisp. I can listen to the music for hours without feel the fatigueness. Thanks to 25mm metal dome with neodymium magnet, which is licensed from Epos, same with the mid driver.

Imaging

With mini, you can identified and pin-pointed the instrument being play in the music. No problem whatsoever. Even with other speaker, I believe you can hear it, the question in this matter are always on how accurate the sounds of piano, guitar, violin, drum and many others instrument compare to the real thing. Once again, mini can reproduced the sound pretty damn good.

Movies

Nothing much I can comment on the performance when watching movies, what I can say is, the performance is not very good with the action movies. The sound tends to get messy in fast pace action scene, maybe the quality of the movies not too good. You know what I mean, jack sparrow one. However, when I paired it with my ps3 and watch original blu-ray film, the speaker will shine, but the film was Hugo not a black hawk down, so I can’t comment the overall performance in movie experience.

Conclusion

For a conclusion, it's clear but not too analytical, warm but not too excessive, quite accurate on the bass and instrument, a little bit airy and smooth. The Aktimate mini are all rounder speaker! Thank you for your time in reading this noob review thumbup.gif


vivakarna setup
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teetotem setup
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arjunazwan setup
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This post has been edited by vivakarna: Dec 22 2012, 05:28 PM
teetotem
post Aug 25 2012, 09:45 AM

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nice review nice review.rclxms.gif rclxms.gif rclxms.gif
I own a set of the mini myself. and also got a free aktimate micro due to mishandling.lol
works well for gaming and also for movies. (paired it with a 46" sony)
very nice SQ. audio and vocals very clear (i cried listening to morgan freeman voice over in shawshank redemption bluray with this speaker tongue.gif ). bass is very solid and not boomy.
best of its kind with its price range (250GBP). i think its RM1800 in malaysia. the size is quite big.
most recommended. definitely wont regret it.

heres my simple setup. looking to add dacmagic 100 to it and a new bluray player sometimes soon icon_idea.gif
and need new stands. not getting the proper bass out of this one.

user posted image

user posted image



SunshineCa
post Aug 26 2012, 11:08 PM

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Hi, vivakarna

It's great that you kick-started this thread!! I am definitely one of the fan here!!!! Just love this Aktimate!!!

I ordered it already, but the vendor has no stock, so I have to wait for 2 months!!! I am totally a newbie in Hifi music. After attending the KLIAV show, I was totally hooked to this speaker!!! Now, I am in the process of setting up my system.

Hi, teetotem, in Msia, it is priced at RM2200 (special price), bear in mind that we have very high tax in Msia, just like our car,ok!! An AUDI is much cheaper in the UK!!!

BTW, vivakarna, where did you buy your gear??

Besides HRT music streamer ii, I also noticed you have one black box and a tube thingy on your table? What are those?
are they part of your set-up?

Other than QED silver airloc speaker cable, do you buy additional cable? RCA cable? USB cable? additional banana plugs?

In fact I am thinking of getting a DacMagic DAC plus, is there any difference between this and the DacMagic 100??


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TSvivakarna
post Aug 27 2012, 12:23 AM

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QUOTE(SunshineCa @ Aug 26 2012, 11:08 PM)
Hi, vivakarna

It's great that you kick-started this thread!! I am definitely one of the fan here!!!! Just love this Aktimate!!!

I ordered it already, but the vendor has no stock, so I have to wait for 2 months!!! I am totally a newbie in Hifi music. After attending the KLIAV show, I was totally hooked to this speaker!!! Now, I am in the process of setting up my system.

Hi, teetotem, in Msia, it is priced at RM2200 (special price), bear in mind that we have very high tax in Msia, just like our car,ok!! An AUDI is much cheaper in the UK!!!

BTW, vivakarna, where did you buy your gear??

Besides HRT music streamer ii, I also noticed you have one black box and a tube thingy on your table? What are those?
are they part of your set-up?

Other than QED silver airloc speaker cable, do you buy additional cable? RCA cable? USB cable? additional banana plugs?

In fact I am thinking of getting a DacMagic DAC plus, is there any difference between this and the DacMagic 100??
biggrin.gif
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Hi SunshineCa,

First of all, i would like to welcomed you in this thread biggrin.gif

Last time, i bought this unit with the old distributor at the price of 1.8k. It was the old aktimate mini, now i believe, you will be getting a new batch of mini which is aktimate mini plus. Many people said that mini+ is better than the old mini..i'm not sure thou, never heard one yet.

the black box and the tube thingy is an amp to powered up/ amplified my headphones, it has nothing to do with the speaker.

beside a qed silver cable, i also bought the custom made RCA cable from one of the forummer here and for the usb cable its from the normal pc shop here in KL (usb ab cable). For the banana plugs, i believe you can buy any types of banana plugs, it depends on your preferences and the cable itself, try to visit hifi shop and ask them what kind of cable that will suit with your preferences.

the obvious difference between dacmagic 100 and dacmagic plus is the output and the input itself. Try asking urself, did you need all those input and output? if dont, better buy the simple dac and can be self powered by the usb port, such as hrt music streamer product and Dacport lx.
dlyz
post Aug 27 2012, 10:07 AM

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Viv, Auralex Speakerdudes next? happy.gif
TSvivakarna
post Aug 27 2012, 11:17 AM

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QUOTE(dlyz @ Aug 27 2012, 10:07 AM)
Viv, Auralex Speakerdudes next? happy.gif
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Wow! thanks bro, i'm totally forget about this product:)
dlyz
post Aug 27 2012, 04:57 PM

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from the pic.. i doubt it was ur ear level. so those could proly help u angle it and decouple from ur glass table.
chingwooi
post Aug 28 2012, 01:57 AM

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Nice review~ Any idea where can I get the Aktimate Mini + boss? =)
eremitic
post Aug 28 2012, 07:58 AM

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Digital Audio Studio, listed price 2.7K
TSvivakarna
post Aug 28 2012, 11:03 AM

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QUOTE(dlyz @ Aug 27 2012, 04:57 PM)
from the pic.. i doubt it was ur ear level. so those could proly help u angle it and decouple from ur glass table.
*
yup, you right, its slightly below my ear. do you know where to buy the auralex in KL?

QUOTE(chingwooi @ Aug 28 2012, 01:57 AM)
Nice review~ Any idea where can I get the Aktimate Mini + boss? =)
*
Digital Audio Studio nod.gif
72 Jalan Brunei Utara, Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
012-290 5989

QUOTE(eremitic @ Aug 28 2012, 07:58 AM)
Digital Audio Studio, listed price 2.7K
*
even its 2.7k, its worth it. haha!


eremitic
post Aug 28 2012, 03:38 PM

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QUOTE(vivakarna @ Aug 28 2012, 11:03 AM)
even its 2.7k, its worth it. haha!
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but it just out of my budget cry.gif

cougar richard
post Aug 28 2012, 04:12 PM

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I like the vocal of this speakers.
Even you just plug in an Ipod, it sill comes clear.
Pretty amazed by the quality.

But probably need a subwoofer to "Complete" it.
TSvivakarna
post Aug 28 2012, 04:25 PM

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QUOTE(eremitic @ Aug 28 2012, 03:38 PM)
but it just out of my budget  cry.gif
*
wait until they got a KLAV promotion. hehe


QUOTE(cougar richard @ Aug 28 2012, 04:12 PM)
I like the vocal of this speakers.
Even you just plug in an Ipod, it sill comes clear.
Pretty amazed by the quality.

But probably need a subwoofer to "Complete" it.
*
yup. correct! the mini had me when the old distro played "beat it-michael jackson" from his ipod. I was like Nooooooo Waaaayyy! haha. As for me, they dont need a sub in music, but for movies, i think they do (not compulsory thou) if you just want to play as a nearfield (<5ft.) it should be great on their own.
dlyz
post Aug 29 2012, 09:27 AM

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Not sure, maybe you can ask those forumers who sell auralex subdude in trade zone or guys in hifi4sale.

You have not been enlightened, when you get a good sub, its quite addictive.. lol whether you use it to boost certain bass or just for extension to the lower hz. I use mine for extension n it does bring more weight into the bass.
TSvivakarna
post Aug 29 2012, 09:38 AM

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QUOTE(dlyz @ Aug 29 2012, 09:27 AM)
Not sure, maybe you can ask those forumers who sell auralex subdude in trade zone or guys in hifi4sale.

You have not been enlightened, when you get a good sub, its quite addictive.. lol whether you use it to boost certain bass or just for extension to the lower hz. I use mine for extension n it does bring more weight into the bass.
*
i see, any good sub for recommendation? I do realized that good sub will be expensive than the speaker itself sweat.gif
teetotem
post Aug 29 2012, 11:44 AM

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yeah2 do recommend a good affordable sub to pair with the mini. heh rolleyes.gif
and is it possible to get surround sound if you connect another pair of mini?
cougar richard
post Aug 29 2012, 12:01 PM

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QUOTE(vivakarna @ Aug 28 2012, 04:25 PM)
wait until they got a KLAV promotion. hehe
yup. correct! the mini had me when the old distro played "beat it-michael jackson" from his ipod. I was like Nooooooo Waaaayyy! haha. As for me, they dont need a sub in music, but for movies, i think they do (not compulsory thou) if you just want to play as a nearfield (<5ft.) it should be great on their own.
*
But for Drumming track I think no "oomph".

TSvivakarna
post Aug 29 2012, 12:40 PM

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QUOTE(teetotem @ Aug 29 2012, 11:44 AM)
yeah2 do recommend a good affordable sub to pair with the mini. heh rolleyes.gif
and is it possible to get surround sound if you connect another pair of mini?
*
I already connected the mini with another mini, and the sound is not surround, just another mini helping his twin to sing tongue.gif

QUOTE(cougar richard @ Aug 29 2012, 12:01 PM)
But for Drumming track I think no "oomph".
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for reference in drum track, i listened to "Jim Keltner & Ron Tutt. Sheffield lab Drum and Track disc (XRCD 24)" what i can say is, the mini can reproduce the sound of drum pretty damn good and the recording must audiophile grade. As we know, sheffield lab is pretty well known in audiophile world. In conclusion, to know mini true potential in drum track, you must listening to this album smile.gif
teetotem
post Aug 29 2012, 01:08 PM

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QUOTE(vivakarna @ Aug 29 2012, 12:40 PM)
what i can say is, the mini can reproduce the sound of drum pretty damn good and the recording must audiophile grade.
*
yeap2 quality mesti juga lossless nye pon thumbup.gif

chingwooi
post Aug 29 2012, 03:25 PM

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QUOTE(eremitic @ Aug 28 2012, 03:38 PM)
but it just out of my budget  cry.gif
*
Any idea do they carry Yamaha HS80M as well? Would love to audition both before deciding which one to bring home since both were roughly same price; or does anyone here happen to audition both before?


Added on August 29, 2012, 3:27 pm
QUOTE(vivakarna @ Aug 27 2012, 11:17 AM)
Wow! thanks bro, i'm totally forget about this product:)
*
TS, just wondering can you hook the mini straight to lappy or you need additional amp or smth in order to use it with the laptop? Thxs.

This post has been edited by chingwooi: Aug 29 2012, 03:27 PM

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