MidiLand S4 4060M Review

Setup

The 4060M system is designed to provide the user with a variety of installation options. The flexibility is achieved with a unique design in both the satellite speakers and the control module. Following opening the box and reading the instructions, it is left to the user to choose what installation suits their needs the best.

The choice that will most affect the listening experience comes in placing the satellite speakers. The system utilizes the same satellite speakers as the 3050M system previously reviewed. A description of setting up the satellites comes from the previous article.

Depending on the listening environment, the speaker enclosures have different angles on the top (15°) and bottom (25°) faces to allow for a lower or higher sweet spot, respectively. For taller listeners, this helps get the sweet spot up to their ears, instead of just smacking them in the chest and having things sound bad as they are off axis of the stereo image. A little care is required to make sure that both are on the same angled face.

The nature of a small computer speaks induces a certain amount of directionality to the sound reproduction, as the drivers are smaller and the lower powers need to be more focus. This is fitting to a near field listening situation in which there is a limited number of people (usually one in a computing situation) listening to the system and therefore the sweet spot can be narrowed. This also benefits such 3D positioning techniques as A3D, and environmental audio effects such as EAX, whose algorithms are based on psycho acoustical perception at the sweet spot.

The satellites connect to the amplifier integrated into the subwoofer via two 6' long RCA cables. The cabling for the system is not the highest quality equipment-the gauge of the wire is fairly high (i.e. thin wire), and the connectors are molded plastic. This seems to be a sacrifice focused on keeping prices down, though at the relatively low power levels of the satellites, the wire is sufficient, though not optimal.