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Gadget Countdown: Day 7 - Home Sounds

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12th Dec 2014
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Nigel Harris provided a good overview of what is available across the audio range. Following a request to my column and reflecting constant change in the market, here is a more in-depth look at home sounds.

Not everybody will be tempted or able to shell out the cost of a Devialet system, however good it may sound. 

Even if your budget does not get up to £100 though, there is still a chance to buy something pretty special this Christmas.

1. Sub £100

f you shop around, for under £60 it is possible to buy a Logitech UE Mini Boom Box speaker. This provides good quality Bluetooth sound and is genuinely portable, fitting into a pocket let alone a suitcase and weighing virtually nothing. 

As an alternative in the sub-£100 price range, DAB radio is getting more affordable by the day. The Pure range may not be the cheapest but lives up to its name with the stereo One Elite Series 2 strongly recommended.

2. £100 - £250

Bose, Bowers and Wilkins and Sonos are competing in roughly the same market between £100 and close to £1,000. Their products may cost but are all likely to please.

Bose are particularly focusing on their portable SoundLink range at the moment with the new colour costing only £120 but better quality products such as the heavier SoundLink Mini sounding fantastic at £170. Their more expensive ranges for both computers and living rooms rarely fail to please either.

Another company that is worth considering is Ruark. They go for the traditional look and know how to charge but the sound that comes out of their systems is noticeably superior to much of the competition. 

The R2 at £400 is a DAB and FM radio that also offers streaming capabilities, while the R4i costing £200 more is probably worth every penny, incorporating a CD and the kind of smooth music delivery that immediately grabs the attention, even a busy department store.

3. £250 - £700

Bowers and Wilkins have the unique £500 Zeppelin, which probably sells as much on shape as audio quality (which is not to denigrate the music reproduction). They also now have the A7 which is a serious, £700 AirPlay speaker.

Sonos specialises in multi-room and marketing, having successfully persuaded the world that they can wire up a home for music in a way that nobody else can. While the sound quality may not quite be at the same level as some competitors, they are proving to be particularly popular at present.

If you visit John Lewis or Selfridge’s, you will find a massive selection to choose from at the moment. Everything becomes familiar but there are also new goodies to try out.

The very latest is Aether’s Cone, currently only available in Selfridge’s or online. This is genuinely different from anything else on the market. Coming in white or black and gold, the unit is light enough to carry around, though you might end up with an excess baggage charge. 

It uses Wi-Fi or AirPlay to stream music from a library of 30 million tunes provided by Rdio. 

The clever gimmick is that by revolving the wider end of the cone you can choose what to listen to next. 

A full turn will give you a random change from the music currently playing, a very small movement something by the same artist and somewhere in between a complementary tune to the one playing.

This is perfect for those who have become used to Internet radio and its ability to anticipate your mood and second-guess where you want to go next.

Alternatively, you can literally tell it what to play from that massive database or switch over to an assortment of Internet radio stations.

At £350 you are paying for the technology but the Cone sounds pretty good and, if this takes off, there is every chance that the company will begin marketing both smaller and larger units based on the same technology.

4. £800 and above

Serious hi-fi companies like Naim are also trying to get in at lower entry levels with the new single unit Mu-So selling for £800.

 

What's your favourite home sound system this year?

 

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