Polk Audio – MagniFi Mini AX Atmos Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer – Black

SETUP:
Setup is easy. You make sure both the Soundbar and Subwoofer have power. Then you plug in the Soundbar into your ARC or eARC port on your TV and you are up and running.
On the top of the device, you have several buttons, going left to right you have Power, Source, Bluetooth, Mute, Volume Down and then Volume Up (see picture). On the back of the device, again going left to right, you have HDMI eARC/ARC, Optical, Aux, LED for Subwoofer, the Connect button for the Subwoofer and Surround speakers, the Surround SR2 LED, USB port, Wi-fi LED, and power (14V 4A) (see picture).
There is only one HDMI port on this device meaning you’ll be sacrificing one on you TV which is a bit of a bummer. The subwoofer should automatically pair to the Soundbar. If it doesn’t by holding the Connect button on the back it will start to blink for both the Subwoofer and Surround speaker, then you’d go press the connect button on the Subwoofer and SR2 Surround Speakers so they are blinking and then once connected they will go solid green. This would be the same way you would connect the SR2 surround speakers if you purchase them separately as they are not included and will provide you with 5.1 sound. I have the SR1 speakers, and they wouldn’t connect which is a bummer.
To connect it to Wi-fi for updates and other functionality you hold the power button for three seconds. It will then change the LED on the front allowing you to connect to that Wi-Fi on your cell phone, which then connect your Soundbar to your Home Wi-Fi. This sounds complicated but was extremely simple and straightforward.
Keep in mind that if you use the Optical port that you will lose the ability for some formats due to the limitation of that tech. Such as Dolby Atmos.
For Bluetooth, you simply press the Bluetooth button on the remote or the Soundbar, it will say Bluetooth Mode, Bluetooth Ready To Be Paired. Then on your cell phone under Bluetooth you choose Polk MagniFi Mini AX and it will jingle and the LED will say connected. And you are all set.
I found that there were very noticeable differences difference between the Four Sound Modes (Music, Movie, Night, 3D) and that selecting the correct one for the situation provided the best sound. For example, Music worked best for well Music, 3D was best for any surround format, Night was best to limit overall sound (and worked really well by turning off the Subwoofer and overall bass and allowing you to focus on voices and not bother other household/apartment applicants), and Movie I honestly didn’t use. I did find that Music through Bluetooth on Music mode sounded better than when I was running it through my Apple 4K TV. Which was interesting to me.
The remote itself is very nice. Going top to bottom, left to right, you have Power, Info, TV Source, Aux Source, Bluetooth Source, Bass Increase/Decrease (+/- 4), Volume Increase/Decrease, Voice Increase/Decrease (+/-4), Mute, Sound Profile (Movie, 3D, Night, Music), Delay, and then goes into your surround Volume Increase/Decrease and Left/Right Balance. It is small, comfortable in the hand, has a rubber top, plastic bottom, and membrane keys. There are no LED’s on the remote so if you are in a dark room you won’t be able to see them. But they do have white font on a black background so contrast is high. Along with having raised bumps for increased tactility.
The most complicated part of the setup is making sure you have the Subwoofer and Speakers setup in the right place. As sound can be dramatically different depending on environment and where you place the Soundbar and Subwoofer. The Soundbar should be as centered to the TV/you as possible and about even with your ears when you are seated. The Subwoofer is more complicated and comes down to individual setup. So, if you aren’t getting good sound try moving that around to different places. Then you’ll need to make sure the settings your TV are set to the correct settings (to allow Dolby Atmos) as not all TV’s can pass that through, along with whatever you are using (Blu-ray player, streaming box, etc.).
SOUND:
For the size this thing packs some serious sound. The room I have it in is small, maybe 12×12 feet and the soundbar was centered in the front of the room, which was even with where I was seated and at ear level. Meaning the room size for this device is probably ideal. However, it is a bedroom and I’ve got a desk, bed, carpet, and a bunch of other stuff that is going to severely limit sound waves moving effectively making it so things won’t sound as good as they theoretically could.
Despite that I still think it sounded great for most things. It’s got very nice bass response (when given the correct material and subwoofer placement), great soundstage, and does a fantastic job at allowing you to hear very quiet parts and then going loud to deliver the correct atmosphere. Vocals were always easy to pick out and hear. I did occasionally have to increase the vocals by +2 but that was only because they were extremely quiet in the original recording. They never got drowned out during heavy action sequences. I did notice that imaging suffered quite a bit and was one of my biggest cons. As when a lot of things are happening at once everything will blend together, sound will soften, and be less impactful. Directional sound (Dolby Atmos/Surround) worked but won’t blow your socks off. I was able to hear things happening overhead (helicopters, rainfall, etc.) along with left and right channel. I almost never heard something behind me. And overall directional sound was rather limited and small most of the time. Volume was never an issue. I had it on 35 (out of 95) which was about 65 – 75 dB. Which was plenty. I noticed if I went louder in my environment that sound quality would suffer as sound waves would interfere with each other so keeping it lower was better for my environment. Night mode worked great by reducing overall sound dramatically, turned off the subwoofer, and allowed me to focus on vocals. I do notice a difference between Movie, Music, 3D, and Night mode. I chose 3D as I felt like it was the flattest EQ sounding (meaning vocals, bass, etc. was all around the same volume) while having the most expansive soundstage and best bass. Music was good on it. By good I mean 5/10. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t all that impressive either. As I noticed overall bass wasn’t super strong, the tops and bottoms of most notes were absent, and imaging suffered a lot as it was exceedingly difficult to find the nuances in songs. But sounds were accurate. As mentioned earlier I got better music response via Bluetooth and on the Music setting than through HDMI.
To give specific examples of sound. I watched The Batman, and it was stellar and reminded me how fantastic a movie experience can be when you pair it with fantastic sound, fantastic HDR, and a great story. I had to bump the vocals to +2 as there are a lot of scenes in the movie where they are practically whispering and then you have really epic loud action scenes, and it handled that volume disparity wonderfully. I was also able to get a bit of overhead from helicopters flying over and the rain sounded good. Bass response was punchy especially with the introduction of the Batmobile. The HDR in that movie is also spectacular. So, if you are looking for a great movie to test out a TV and sound system that would be a good one.
I also watched some Top Gun and No Time To Die. Both of those also sounded fantastic and were like The Batman. Collateral was hit and miss as the gunshots and dialogue sounded great, but it didn’t handle the score all that well. Again, hitting more of the good/satisfactory category over great. I also watched John Wick 3, Baby Driver, and Fast and Furious 8. Those movies didn’t sound as good as the others. With Baby Driver being the weakest of them as it is so musically focused, and these speakers don’t handle music well. As again, music is heavily layered, and it struggles with that (or at least in my environment). I was expecting more impact with Fast and Furious 8. John Wick has so much going on, that again it suffered. But I was able to tell apart the different gunshots, but directional quality disappeared and overall bass was reduced so it wasn’t as impactful. But this is me being nitpicky as I find this to be very expensive so I’m expecting fantastic sound. At no point in any of my testing did I think this soundbar sounded bad to the point I wanted to turn it off or use something else. It’s just that when you get times where it sounds amazing you always want that experience and that wasn’t always the case. I also noticed a big difference in the quality of sound when listening on a Blu-Ray player compared to Streaming (Apple TV 4K). Which is to be expected as the bitrate for Blu-ray is much higher than on Streaming. But again, no matter what I was listening to it sounded good occasionally getting into the great and fantastic category.
CONCLUSION:
I think if space is an issue (which it is in my case) this is an absolute BRILLIANT device. As it is tiny but packs some serious sound while delivering a bunch of other features (Bluetooth, Aux, Airplay, etc.), all of which worked well. Across the board it is at least GOOD/SOLID sound that is much improved over any TV speaker. Other times and with the right material can sound GREAT/FANTASTIC. Also, Dolby Atmos helps elevate the sound but isn’t going to blow your socks off performance wise. I had no issues with it working correctly. I never had any issues with the device not working, popping, or anything else wonky. The soundbar’s ability to tell you all the info you need and want to know is easy and then the LED turns off after a short period as to not distract you which is something I really liked. Overall, I am very impressed making this the first time I’ve recommended a soundbar. But is going to be best in smaller rooms over larger ones.

This sound system packs a punch in a small profile. This sound bar is only about 1/4 the size of my previous bar, while offering much better sound quality. Be sure to accommodate the subwoofer by the sound bar as indicated in the instructions.