I have always fancied a dodecahedron in the living room, but I confess I was thinking perhaps some objet d'art, or even a light fitting, rather than speakers. For it is an irregular 12-sided polygon (and no parrot jokes), upon which the satellite speakers of Pioneer's LX-01BD system is based.

The shape of the speakers comes from the precise angles needed to produce a phantom centre and reflected rear surround field from front-mounted speakers.

Pioneer is aiming this £2,000 system at the slick professional male archetype who would not want to compromise his Conran-inspired bachelor pad décor with speakers the size of VW Beetles or a rogue bolognese of speaker cable spaghetti.

In that respect the LX-01BD comprehensively outclasses its closet rival, Bose's identically-priced Lifestyle V30 system, in almost every respect.

The Pioneer is better looking, produces a much better picture, has Blu-ray rather than a DVD player, offers HD-audio decoding rather than just Dolby Digital, is packed with features and offers much deeper, faster bass.

The rival V30 has two things on its side, of course. Firstly Bose has trademarked the word 'Lifestyle' so it has the right to be officially called a Lifestyle system. Which probably means I can only say that Pioneer's is a system designed for a life full of style.

Secondly, own a V30 and all your friends will say 'Ooooohhhhh, Bose' and think you are cooler than a polar bear's ice lolly. Strange but true.

Mr Speaker

While the four satellites are actually best arranged in a surrounding square (the fronts producing a phantom centre), all four can also be placed up front. In this configuration they use reflected sound from their clever 12-sided joint shape to produce centre and rear effects.

The large but fairly slim subwoofer offers a lot more than it seems, too. Inside its immaculately-finished piano black exterior are six channels of amplification and all the Dolby and DTS format decoding any film fan could want, including the hi-res HD variations.

The Blu-ray player is a lightly disguised Profile 1.1 BDP-LX71, and connects to one of the sub's three HDMI inputs with a single HDMI cable for digital audio and video connections.

A slick-looking remote display handles all you IR interfaces, flashes lights at you at the relevant points and has a blue dot-matrix display to let you know what's going on.

Speakers connect to the sub cabinet with colour-coded push-fit plugs; if you have an iPod there is a docking cable supplied. Add to this Pioneer's excellent MCACC Room EQ and auto-set-up, complete with microphone, and the wicked touch-screen remote control, and you've got a system packed with style.

My first run of the setup, with speakers set on stands towards the room corners and the sub to one side, produced a wow-factor 'up-front' sound with the bass wound up so tight the sub threatened to leave the ground at the first explosion in The Dark Knight. Diving into the menus, I took 5dB from the sub level to regain a sensible neighbour-friendly balance before continuing the film.

Cream of the crop

The picture is typical of Pioneer's latest crop – that's to say, stunning. This is a company that has got Blu-ray player technology by the scruff of the transistors and is happy to show the world. Blacks are inky dark with masses of shadow detail and the colour range will stretch all but the best display devices.