The Spin is a lot more sophisticated than the mini. It doesn’t fold up, and at 30-odd centimetres long it’s a lot less pocketable, but it has much better audio quality and Bluetooth to let you stream from across the room.
The Spin is a stereo speaker (unlike the mono mini), but with 3cm speaker drivers about 4cm apart, you’re not going to get a soundstage the size of the Albert Hall. Why Shox bothered with stereo is anyone’s guess, rather just bridge it and go mono. It still gets pretty loud, and produces a tight bass response thanks to the oval passive driver on the back — that, plus a little bit of gain from the surface it’s on.
That was my first question — why put little rubber foots on the side of the long end, and not also on the short end to let you stand it vertically as a space-saver? That would be great for a cluttered desk. Turns out you lose a lot of bass if you put it upright. Table gain, as it were.
The Shox Spin works as a full Bluetooth headset — yes, its got a small microphone that’s reasonably sensitive. Pairing it is straightforward, or you can hook it up via the supplied mini-jack cable. You may even prefer to use the wired connection — sound quality and loudness were distinctly better than with Bluetooth.
It has a built-in battery, recharged via a mini-USB plug (minor fail, I would have preferred to see a micro-USB plug, now pretty much ubiquitous). If you have the Spin cranked to full volume you do get a bit of hiss coming through when power is plugged in.
The Shox Spin even works as a full Bluetooth headset — yes, its got a small microphone that’s reasonably sensitive. It can even make a tolerable room conference system for a small business if you can’t afford the long bucks for a Polycom setup. Pairing it is straightforward, or you can hook it up via the supplied mini-jack cable. You may even prefer to use the wired connection — sound quality and loudness were distinctly better than with Bluetooth.
