Ten of the Best... MP3 speakers

Portable loudspeakers are always a tricky proposition. Generally, small speakers produce an equally small sound. If you do try to pump up the volume then the sound tends to become distorted. So there’s a difficult balancing act between the size of the speakers and the quality and volume of the sound that they can produce. …

[jonathan keith]

Props to the sub

For the Zevon reference.

[It'sa Mea... Mario]

I just can't get it out of my head...

that Harman Kardon is a spoonerism..

[Charles Tsang]

PreIpod speakers...

I use a generic 2.1 system from the Saitek A200.

Looks cool and is the first product I''ve bought with a cleaning cloth due to it's black gloss surfaces!

[Richard Clark]

mp3 speakers?

what are mp3 speakers exactly?

mpeg-1 layer 3 encoded cones of paper?

[Chris]

Nimzy Vibro Max?

I'm sure her indoors has got one of those hidden in her knicker drawer.

[Nev]

Seem to have missed the two best portable speakers...

Saitek A200 for long trips where you are sure you have power and a bit more luggage space. (It really needs mains power.)

Sony SRS-T70 for short trips with only hand luggage. (Also allows un-amplified audio when you run out of power.)

[Sam]

MP3?

Shit quality anyway, why bother spending money on something that isn't there?

[V]

what!

I haven't heard any of the others, but a roommate has the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywheres, and they sound worse than my laptop speakers (which are crap as it is).

[Richard Porter]

There's no such thing ...

as an MP3 speaker! MP3 is a compression algorithm. These would appear to be active speakers (i.e. with built-in amplifiers) which have docks for separate MP3 players.

What I need for talking newspaper playback use is an active speaker with a USB socket and which can play MP3 files from USB flash memory.