I quickly found that the Mondo Mint functioned on a 'garbage in, garbage out' mode of operation. The drivers and amplifier were not bad, but since many people will be playing compressed music on this system, it's important to know that they don't make poorly compressed MP3s sound like high-resolution audio tracks. It also doesn't make them sound any worse than they would on earbuds or any other audio output device. I really enjoyed listening to CDs on the system and even MP3 tracks that were well-compressed (meaning they were done using an efficient codec that didn't destroy the fidelity). Even the Mondo website recommends good quality sources for this system. Because of this observation I utilized a CD player as a source for my listening evaluation.

Seal – Seal 1994
I've used Seal quite a bit to test loudspeakers. I especially like track 3 "Dreaming in Metaphors" which has punchy bass line that has bottomed out many loudspeakers. The Mondo system handled the low frequencies with ease and rolled off the material that it couldn't play back. That's a good design and shows that the speakers are properly tuned. Vocals sat nicely in the middle and I enjoyed the smooth top end. I purposely bumped up the bass a tiny bit using the loudness setting in the Mint Audio Control application which I felt gave the system a more pleasing sound overall without resulting in too much artificial "boom".

Chrisette Michele - I Am
I actually don't like the music style of this artist/CD, however it has some startlingly high-pitched and strong female vocals. Chrisette's voice is pitch perfect, though fortunately she can't break wine glasses with her sustained Alto voice. Drums were snappy and the kick firm and tight on "Work It Out". In "Best of Me" wide panned guitars sported dueling finger noises that were clean and realistic. Chrisette had a more subdued vocal line which made this, for me, one of the more pleasant tracks on the album. In "Golden" a live piano dominated the track intro and revealed a subtle ability of the Mint to reproduce more detail-rich music. It was nice and I could really see how one of these would make for an excellent bedroom or office system.

Conclusions and Overall Perceptions

The Mondo Mint is a beautiful looking system that does what it does simplistically. It is well-built and the sound that comes out of it is worthy of the sources you are likely to connect to it. Whether I fed it a PC, MP3 player, iPod, or CD the system worked very well - and remember, this is a lot like buying a music system and getting a free USB audio device thrown in for good measure. It sounded much better with higher-resolution sources (lossless audio or a CD player for example). This is definitely a system that should only be considered by someone that has been diligent about their music compression and encoding, poor encoding will provide a substandard listening experience. There is no subwoofer output or line output, making this a strictly 2.0 system, which would be an upgrade area I'd love to see in future products. The remote does an adequate job of controlling input source and volume, but it doesn't interact with the PC to control iTunes or Windows Media Player. This is just something that would make the system so much better to utilize. If you're looking for a straightforward and uncomplicated digital speaker system that is very iPod-friendly, or perhaps you just want to get your iPod next to your bedside and away from a display or desk, the Mint is for you.

Mondo Mint Music System
MSRP $349

Mondo USA
1221 East Dyer Road - Suite 290
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(866) 903-4453
www.mondo-usa.com

About Mondo USA
Mondo Systems Inc., is an all-digital entertainment company dedicated to delivering high-performance home audio and video solutions for today’s digital music sources and modern lifestyles. Mondo prides itself on developing products that easily, comfortably and affordably integrate into consumers’ daily lives – a credo the company terms “Digital Democracy.” As such, the company has extended its product offering to include a revolutionary new family of Digital Music Station products. The system, known as the Mondo™ Mint™, continues in the tradition of the Mondo XL7000 all-digital home theater system, which was named a Consumer Electronics Association “Mark of Excellence” finalist shortly after its launch in late 2006.