The Mighty Dwarf

The Mighty Dwarf

EDIT: It appears the “Dwarf” I reviewed is actually a counterfeit, so if you come across any that look like the one in the photo’s in the centre of the article, please be aware that they are not originals.

Here is a link to Mighty Dwarf’s own counterfeit warning page

http://www.mightydwarf.com/retail-locator/greymarket

Hopefully we can get them to add some pics from our units and their packaging to help prevent anybody else from accidentally supporting the counterfeit trade.

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Ok, so not strictly Android related, and the Dwarf isn’t a new product, it’s been around for a while, but two of us at Droid Horizon have a Mighty Dwarf and think it’s an awesome piece of kit.

There are a lot of portable audio options out there, both expensive and not so expensive. I’ve owned a few at the more affordable end of the scale, build quality was ok but if you wanted something really small and portable you lost a lot in sound quality and volume…enter the Mighty Dwarf.

It’s what’s known as a vibration speaker, basically it turns the surface you place it on into a speaker. I’m not going to try to explain the science of it, if you want to know how it works check out this link to howstuffworks http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/audio-music/vibration-speakers2.htm

I’d often seen video’s of these things in action on YouTube, but couldn’t find a European distributor, so was pretty surprised to walk into a local supermarket and see them on sale behind the cigarette counter.

And for only €20! Snapped a black one one up without even thinking about it.

Nice to see user friendly packaging for a change, a simple ,sturdy cardboard box with a magnetic strip seal containing only the Dwarf, a tiny manual and male USB to mini USB/3.5mm audio jack cable.

The Dwarf itself is a weighty little bugger, a good sign when it comes to speakers, 2.25” tall with a 2” diameter.

(It turns out that this “Dwarf” is actually a counterfeit so if you find one that is missing the mightydwarf.com written on the top of the unit, as in this photo, be warned, it is not an original).

Pretty compact. Actually, some sort of Bugdroid sleeve would be a nice accessory.

The manual recommended a full two hour charge before using, which was a bit frustrating, as I wanted to try it out immediately. Once charged, you just connect the 3.5mm audio jack to your source, and the mini USB to the Dwarf, turn it on and you’re good to go. The first thing I connected it to was Galaxy S with Voodoo Control Plus. The kitchen worktop was the closest large surface so I put the Dwarf roughly in the centre of it and hit play. Now, I had pretty reasonable expectations, after reading reviews and watching YouTubers singing it’s praises, but I can honestly say, hearing it that first time pretty much blew me away!

It’s hard to describe just how much sound came out of the Dwarf. The 360° soundstage was nice and clear with every genre of music I played.  One thing I will say, the bass pretty much humiliated all of the other portable speakers I’ve owned. And I don’t just mean there was lots of it. The quality was amazing. Clean, tight, punchy bass. It was almost comparable to a small set of budget bookshelf speakers. From a device smaller than a bugdroid!

And that’s when the fun started. See, different surfaces will give you different results, a bigger surface will give you better sound, the best results I got were on hardwood and glass. At one stage I brought it around to a friend’s house, (he’d bought one as soon as I told him about them) and we used an audio splitter to run two Dwarves at once. I very nearly bought another one after that lol.

Battery life is quite impressive too.

The model we all got was the standard 5w version, but there is also an identical version that has a MicroSD card reader built in, enabling you to play direct from the Dwarf. Availability can be tricky too, as the Mighty Dwarf site only ships to the US and Canada. You can find them online  but at the time of writing this I only found one listing for Amazon in Germany, at twice the price I paid.  Be wary of counterfeits, there seem to be quite a few out there.

If you can track one down, or even come across one by accident like I did, grab it, you won’t be disappointed!

Output Power (RMS)……….5w

Size…………………………..51x59mm

Impedance………………….2Ohm

Frequency Range………….80Hz-18Khz

http://www.mightydwarf.com/product/5w-mighty-dwarf