Well - now the answer is neither. Gear4 have produced the 'Duo' - the idea is that this one product provides you with rich sound when home and still have light-weight slim portable unit for when you're our and about. The solution is a little Russian doll like - heres how it works! In it's home configuration you have a largish unit measuring around 14 x 23 x 15cm (HxWxD) weighing a little under 2Kg. The bulk of this size is a 20W sub-woofer.

What you get are a pair of sound sticks each with four speakers and a sub woofer. The first difference is that both the sound sticks and the sub woofer are see through. They look like glass but are plastic. Each sound stick is 25cm tall around 5cm across and at points 5cm deep. The sub woofer has the advantage that it is not as heavy as it looks and can be placed on the floor out of the way but of course being unusual you will want it on display. It is 20cm round and 25cm tall.

The Motorokr EQ5 definitely fits into the portable category measuring 115x65x15mm (WxHxD) - almost identical to the iPod Touch. Very easy to slip into a pocket or bag. Build and design quality are both very good with a black fascia and silver trim and this is matched by a pretty good, although bass-light sound. A small but surprisingly stable wire stand folds out from the rear.

Altec Lansing Orbit This is a single battery operated circular speaker for anything that has either a 3.5mm or 2.5mm output jack. It is described as a 360 degree speaker and that the battery life is stated to be 24 hours so is ideal for a small group to listen round. While it is likely the 'group' would be young people, I found that in a normal room environment this speaker gave plenty of volume from an MP3 player.

It is 53x13x10cm with leads inserted. The only thing I have not included is the height of your iPod above the top of the unit, simply because this will vary according to the model you use. The Orbitsound product produces 'airSOUND' from a single speaker giving not only an ordinary stereo effect but also a wide stereo. The nearest thing I have heard previously to this is a product devolped by Yamaha a few years ago but this was huge in comparison and was solely to give a decent output from a TV.

Parrot DS1120 Speakers They are a pair of cone shaped speakers that need power but not necessarily any connection as they can operate by Bluetooth. However they can be connected conventionally. They are 15cm long, 13cm across and stand 16cm high. Each has it's own power supply and lead so they do not even need to be in the same room.

The first unusual thing about this 'box' is that it had no controls on it at all. Everything is done via the remote control. It is 37x26x19cm with leads plugged into the rear. Mine was white with a white grill on the front, at the top right of this- behind the grill - is a six character red LED display that displays what, where and how. The top has the name Geneva on the front edge and in the centre a slot loading CD.

click to enlarge The influence of the iPod phenomena continues to spread.  The latest example of this trend to come my way is the Pure-Fi Anywhere product.  Developed by Logitech, this product is a one-piece, portable speaker set with a centrally positioned docking station for the ubiquitous iPod.

This WiFi Internet radio from Goodmans is 25x11x14cm and shiny black with a matt black front grill that has the 6x4cm four line LCD display sunk into it. The top has two rows of six push buttons with a large touch wheel at either end. All are clearly labelled and unless you are a total novice setting up will be simple. The other connections are on the back outputs for earbuds and a stereo along with the Ethernet input.

The Kensington FX500 "speaker to go" is a slightly bigger than an A5 sheet of paper at around 150x200mm, around 35mm thick and weighing 400g. The unit has a soft finish that should be fairly robust and is reminiscent of a small zip-up folio case. From the front the product has a central clear window through which you'll be able to access front-mounted controls on your favourite MP3 player. A power switch is situated to the lower right.

Hands up all those who remember the beeps and squeaks that were the audio output limitations of the games that were designed for the early computers.  Early music renditions from computers were of a similar elementary level.  Fortunately it didn't take too long for developers to come to the aid of our auditory senses as sound cards became a must have addition to those early systems.

This unit is neither small or light. It is matt black and the sound that comes from it is great. When this unit arrived I plugged the 3.5mm jack into my stereo and the stereo plugs into the back of the unit. The setting was that I normally use to my pair of rather good speakers. I switched on the Parrot Boombox and then started a CD, immediately I went to turn the volume down as it was far higher that I found comfortable.

Parrot Hands-free Speakerphone This is designed to fit over a sun visor enabling almost any Bluetooth phone to be used hands free. The unit is 10.5x6x2.5 and is two tone shiny black plastic and matt black rubberised for the edges and side of the end knob.

I never did get to review the larger unit designed for a TV despite asking again only a few months ago but at least that did bring this offering for a notebook. Unfortunately this unit had been elsewhere and the English instructions had been lost the box had instructions only in a foreign language but after saying my knowledge of this language is non existent I was sent a PDF file in English.

It is 23cm long 8cm tall and a maximum of 8cm deep. Each of the speakers are 5cm round and give a reasonable sound level although the description on the box of 'Portable Wireless Stereo Soundbox' gives the impression that the volume might be louder than it is. Fine when you are within a couple of metres in a quite room but the name of 'Parrot Party' gives the impression of more muscle.

Like many others, over time I have built up a large collection of MP3 song titles stored on my computer.  I hasten to add that all the various tracks have been legally purchased.  While this is a convenient method of storing a music collection, it does place certain restrictions on the ability to listen to the music.

Recently though BlueTooth - the short range wireless standard - has come to the rescue with a number of solutions. The simplest of course is to use a . These often not geared to car use - and of course you have the problem of looking like a berk. BlueTooth headset The alternative is a BlueTooth speaker phone. There are a few on the market and here I'm reviewing the 'SuperTooth Voice' product.

Whether your music is stored on a notebook or MP3 player, there will always come a time when the audio output quality could become an issue.  While a good set of headphones might suffice in some circumstances, this will not always be the case especially when there is a need to share with others.  In such a situation, an external speaker system might be more appropriate.  One possible candidate is the Yamaha NX-U10.