Loudspeakers

There are reasons to buy active bookshelf speakers over an iPod/Bluetooth dock. What you lose in portability and convenience is immediately gained in true performance. The A2s from Paradigm Shift are a case in point – their cabinet size affords space for both a 5.5in woofer and 1in tweeter, and you can position them to get a real stereo spread.

Sometimes I have so much fun reviewing loudspeakers and cinema systems that I actually get guilt attacks. This review, of the third iteration of Focal’s Viva Utopia, was one of those occasions...

I don’t know if it makes me even more OCD than normal reviewers but I do tend to identify corporate personality amongst speaker makers, just like one does for car manufacturers. For instance, Lamborghini designs nutty and flamboyant exhibitionists’ rides and Bentley makes a different sort of posh to Mercedes. Likewise, the sweet-natured Canadian brand Paradigm tends – or tended – to manufacture speakers like Rolls Royce made engines.

Boston Acoustics’ latest effort is not your average 2.1 system. In fact, it’s hard to say exactly what product category it fits into. Because, as well as providing enhanced stereo playback of movie/TV fare, it also offers built-in Bluetooth, letting you stream music wirelessly from a PC or other gizmo, courtesy of full amplification for the satellite speakers as well as the sub.

In all big industries, there is a fair bit of corporate take-over manouvering, acquiring new brands under one overall owner as a trend. The benefits can be huge, with technicians excellent in one field suddenly finding that their colleagues from the newly-bought division can help them with the stuff that they’re good at. But when take-overs happen, there’s always fear amongst the fans that there will be a dilution of the essence of why they love a product in the first place.

The idea behind Canton’s your_Duo product is simple – the current range of one-box iPod docks just aren’t doing justice to our MP3 collections. By ‘splitting’ the dock into two separate cabinets, you can enjoy real stereo audio.

SpeakerCraft is not the first brand that comes to mind when short-listing designer hi-fi. The company, best known as a purveyor of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, has an image that’s more plasterboard than posh. But that’s about to change with Its new RooTs loudspeakers that strive to impress. The piano gloss cabinets (in black or white) have a quality finish that would be a crime to hide away. The sub is especially handsome.