Monday, 20 April 2009

After several weeks of waiting, the speakers finally arrived. I have ordered two pairs of Minipods and one Cinepod. Without a second thought, I opened the 3 boxes immediately. They are all neatly packed in the cartoon boxes with foam papers wrapped nicely. Each of them have gorgeous glossy surface similar to the look and feel of a piano.

Speaker connectors are located at the back for connecting to the amplifiers. As the Cinepod can act as either a center speaker or a surround speaker, it has a bi-pole connection at the back. It also comes with the “jumper” in case you don’t need that arrangement. Plugging in the speaker cables is straight forward, pushing the knob of each connector and simultaneously plugging in the wire and there you go! Then of course you have to plug in the other ends to your amplifiers in order to work!

All speakers are well connected, one of the more important tasks is to position them. The Cinepod is the center speaker and is placed under the screen on the floor. Since my Cinepod and my other sound systems are mostly dark color, I placed my black Minipods on each side of the Cinepod with equal distance. The other white Minipods are placed behind the sofa. Once you decided the location of the center speaker, then you have to measure the distance between the center speaker and your seating location. The front left and front right speakers should be having a 20 to 30 degree angle with the speakers facing the same direction as the center speaker. The surround left and right should be directed to the listening position at the ear level.

Right now I put all 3 front speakers on the floor, I also ordered spikes for them. The spikes only come in silver and each package has 6 of them. After putting in the spikes, the speaker will be raised up by xxxx inches. If you ordered the 40th anniversary edition Minipod, the spikes will be coming along with the speakers in gold color. If you do not want to use spike and want to raise you speaker a bit higher, you can get yourself speaker stand. You can either purchase from off the market or the official one.

Now I have all my speakers connected and well positioned, now it’s time to setup the speakers.

The Cinepod is pretty much the same. The cable connectors locate at the back with a soft plastic cover. Connecting the speaker cables require the same technique and patience. It’s the center speaker. It is mainly used for voice in the movie. The cable connector is also at the back. A plastic cover is there for you to cover up the cable. Finally, everything is well connected. It’s time to try it out. First I played “The Batman Begins” with the scene where Batman was practicing with all the ninja. The voice from the center speaker is clear and solid. And the surround from the four minipods are excellent.

Afterall, with the appearance and the quality the minipod delivers it worths every penny and it’s perfectly fit if you are going to build a home theatre system.