My, what a big box you have there

In the box

Inside the box, we find all the cables that you would need to connect the two satellites, control module, and subwoofer together. The gold plated interconnects and 16 gauge speaker wire were a nice touch. Most mini-systems that you will find in dorm rooms around the country are often wired with only 22 gauge wire. The use of 16 gauge wire does cost MidiLand a little more, but as they say, "it's the details that matter." With the S2 4100, MidiLand presents a very refined product.

Hard satellite

The sat cracked open

The MidiLand satellites are rather hefty, about twice as heavy as the Klipsch ProMedia satellites. With speakers, sheer mass is a sign of a few things, mostly good. Heavier speaker enclosures are less likely to buzz or rattle when driven at high volumes, also the driver motion is isolated only to the speaker driver, so the only thing that is supposed to vibrate is actually the only thing that vibrates. This is a simple principle and why you will often find megabuck speakers with concrete baffles (the surface where the speakers attach).

Heavier speakers may also indicate heavier drivers with bigger and more powerful magnets. The use of neodymium magnets suggests that the heft of these satellites is more likely due to the die-cast aluminum enclosure. More importantly, the weight of the speakers mean that they won't jump around at room shaking levels. You can also mount these speakers using the threaded mounting holes.

Subwoofer

The subwoofer profile is very similar to a mid-tower computer case. The subwoofer has the same textured, computer gray paint, and a bunch of cables coming out of the back. A side-firing eight-inch woofer with two flared ports on the front create the bass energy for this system. Paper is used for the woofer cone material, not the most high-tech stuff out there, but it works. By having a dual voice-coil woofer, the signals for both the left and right channels can be combined at the woofer driver itself. This is a similar design that you will find in many subwoofers intended for mobile audio.

The powerhouse sub

The S2 4100's control module is a very interesting unit. It is sized to fit into your empty 5.25 inch drive bay. A standard 9 pin "serial-like" connector is the umbilical cord that attaches the module to the subwoofer. One cautionary note: don't pull the cable out while the music is playing. This will cause all kinds of ruckus that won't be very pleasant to you or the speakers. The control module has 3DSP, Input, Loudness, Mute, Bass, Treble, Balance, and Volume controls.