Testicle-sized speaker is the mutt’s nuts

(£15.99 from Amazon.co.uk)

Tell yourself that this is the best-looking portable speaker out there.  It would be great to whip out at the pub and connect to your iPhone to impress your mates.  It would also be pretty useful to connect to your laptop to boost the sound of music/movies/pornos while you’re away on business.

Tell your wife that this futuristic Dadget will bring a smile to little Johnny’s face whenever you use it to play his nursery rhymes from your iPod when you’re out and about.

This incredible portable speaker is quite a feat of engineering.  Its rounded shell is merely the size of an adult human’s testicle, and yet it gives sound that you would expect from a Blue Whale’s nut sack.

Coming in black or red, the X-MI X-Mini Capsule Speaker is really unlike any other speaker you will have ever seen before.  It arrives as a 5 cm diameter sphere, but with a smooth twist around its midriff it expands a few centimetres in the middle to give a concertina chamber for all of that loud sound goodness to bounce around in.  A simple power switch allows you to change between two different volume levels and the off setting, while an LED glows green whenever the unit is powered up.

Included in the box is a neat little retractable cable with a mini-USB connector on one side (to plug into the speaker itself) and a USB and 3.5 mm audio connector at the other end to connect to your audio device.  Sound is only transferred through the audio cable, with the USB connector being used solely as a power source to charge up the speaker’s internal battery (one charge being reportedly good for over 5 hours of playback).

Another nicety in the box is a black velvety bag with ‘Audio Equipment Pouch’ printed on it together with a rather obvious inventory list of what you should put in the bag.  Imagine my embarrassment when I tried to stuff a bunch of bananas in there just before reading ‘Fits 1 Capsule Speaker’.

So that’s the kit, now how does it perform?  I’ve tested the X-Mini on my iPhone and my laptop and I have to say that the sound quality is very impressive indeed considering its size and price.  Sure, you’re not going to be getting rid of your home speaker system and the sound cannot rival that of an expensive iPod dock.  But this is a portable speaker designed to be compact and easy to move around, and taking all that into account it performs remarkably well.

Pushing the volume of my Macbook Pro up to its maximum does reveal distortion when using the X-Mini at its lowest volume setting, but notching it up to its higher setting and throttling back the laptop volume improves matters no end.  Music remains clear while the achievable volume without distortion is certainly high enough to fill any room with pleasing sound.

Are there any down sides?  Well yes, there are a few.  With a one-speaker setup you naturally only get mono-sound, although a stereo version is available for a few extra pounds.  The power switch also feels a little loose, although I am pleased to say that it is still performing well at the moment.  Finally, while the provided pouch is very handy to keep the speaker and cable together, the drawstring doesn’t stay tight which means that stuff keeps dropping out of it if you’re not careful. 

Dadgets.info says that, all in all, this is a great value buy and one of the sexiest, most unusual speakers that you are likely to find.  The sound is good enough to fill most rooms with bedtime stories or grunge-funk, while the neat retractable cable means that the whole setup is unfussy and clean.  If you’re looking for a tiny speaker then you can’t go wrong, but if you want something a bit more powerful then you might want to try the two-speaker stereo version to give yourself a fine set of bollocks.

Grin like a child at the tiny size, great looks and powerful sound.

Cry like a baby at the dodgy power switch and the cheap ‘audio equipment pouch’.

Dadgets.info rating: 8 out of 10

You were once a single man who loved to buy gadgets but then, through some mind-trickery that you still haven’t quite figured out, you decided to get married.  Suddenly, even the purchase of a novelty USB missile launcher involved many painful hours of negotiation and countless back/shoulder/foot massages.

Yet another benefit of sex

However, after a particularly potent bottle of rosé (taken orally) and a good hot helping of your fine semen (delivered vaginally), you became a dad.  Right from the start your wife was approving a whole heap of gadgets from wireless listening devices to industrial tit-suckers.   Now you need to carry that momentum forward.

You must find a way to turn every gadget into a gadget that will enhance your family life.  You need to create the perfect argument so that your wife will casually agree to you buying televisions, torches, beer fridges, and things that look pretty cool although you’re not quite sure what they’re supposed to do.

Dadget handholding, blog-style

Dadgets.info will be here to guide you along the way.  I’ll provide you with information on a whole heap of gadgets for dads, as well as helping you to craft just the right excuses to convince your wife that buying a lava lamp iPod dock is the only way to find true happiness during the credit crunch.

But why should you trust Craig Alan Williamson?  Well, I’ve been married to Dawn since 2005, I’ve been a dad to Henry since 2008, and I still managed to persuade my wife that we really needed a 40” LCD TV and a 42” Plasma.  I have much wisdom to share with you.