According to Urbanista's website, 3.5 billion people live in 'urban environments'. That's a pretty big potential market, and Urbanista is targeting city dwellers with fancily-designed gadgets to make inner-city living that bit more exciting and glamorous.

Each gadget is named after a city. Copenhagen gets some over-ear headphones, Las Vegas gets iPod cases and London gets some in-ear headphones. It could be worse – New York gets a…uh…trolley for shopping and luggage.

So what makes the London headphones suitable for urban life? The design of the headphones is certainly striking – whether you find it attractive or not will be down to taste. We're not too sure how having designer in-ear headphones helps living in a city, but we certainly give credit to Urbanista for doing something a little different with the design.

Of much more use in a busy, noisy city environment is the inline microphone which is very useful if you're listening to music on your phone and someone rings. The earphones come with a number of in-ear attachments which makes it easy to get the earphones as comfortable as possible.

The all-important sound quality is very good and the tiny 10mm speakers have a good frequency range. The £49 RRP asking price is pretty high though, so we wonder how much you're paying just for the good looks?

The Bayan Audio Bayan 7 is a curious-looking speaker dock which looks more like an oven that slots into a wall than a high-end iOS speaker dock (a black version is also available). But on closer inspection, it soon reveals its true purpose.

Set into its clear acrylic facia is a hefty bass subwoofer that also acts as its stand. The rest of the sound is supplied by twin 5cm full-range speakers and two 2.5cm tweeters.

The Bayan 7 has two amplifiers, one for the bass and one for the middle and high-end sounds. Altogether, the five speakers deliver 120W of power, so it won't leave you short of volume. Its comprehensive collection of drivers also gives it a very wide frequency response.

Around the front there's two 30-pin dock connectors, which fit every compatible device except the iPad. You can charge an Apple tablet using the USB port on the back of the Bayan 7, and play its sounds by connecting the supplied 3.5mm AUX cable (which can also connect to your Mac or any audio device with a headphone socket). But you can't use the rather fussy remote's iPod controls when listening to an iPad.

The hand controller also lets you set the volume, adjust bass and treble independently and switch between Music Mode and Vocal Mode, which is well tuned for spoken word media such as audio books.

Bayan 7 is suited for most genres of music, but if you like intense, room-shaking bass, it might not be for you. Although deep, rich and natural, its bottom end won't drown the mix even when turned up to maximum.

Its excellent stereo separation belies the proximity of its speakers, though the sound isn't as three-dimensional as it might be. But where Bayan's high-end speaker dock really scores is in its crystal-clear reproduction.

The Bayan 7 is not a speaker dock that looks good in any room, but you can't fault the sound. Whether its rather idiosyncratic appearance is a good thing or a bad thing is very much a matter of taste.

The Philips Fidelio SoundSphere is one of the best-looking Airplay speaker systems we've ever seen – and, we're extremely happy to report, its beauty is far from skin-deep.

Comprising two forward-leaning cylindrical speakers clad in a classy gloss black, it's accompanied by a simple iPod/iPhone/iPad charging dock, remote control and all the cables you need to get it up and running quickly and simply.

Inside one of the speakers you'll find a 2x 50W RMS amplifier, while each speaker also includes a 127mm woofer for mid-range/deep bass, and a 25mm tweeter, which arcs out of the top on a hefty chrome arm that can also be used to help you move them around.

Setting up the SoundSphere is pretty straightforward. On the back of the active speaker you'll find a power socket, along with a pair of binding posts that are connected to the accompanying passive speaker using the speaker cable provided. You'll also find a 3.5mm input jack, along with controls for the SoundSphere's Wi-Fi transceiver connection so you can connect to it using AirPlay.

If you want to use your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch make sure you also download the free Fidelio app, available from the iTunes App Store. This app handily enables you to tweak the speaker's EQ settings, adjust the SoundSphere's volume and stream thousands of internet radio stations, among other things.

Using the Philips Fidelio SoundSphere with your Mac couldn't be simpler. Once its Wi-Fi connection is on, it magically appears as an AirPlay speaker in iTunes 10.

Philips says the aim of the Fidelio SoundSphere is to recreate the experience of listening to live music – and it truly does a magnificent job. Whatever genre of music you throw at it from opera to r'n'b, folk, thrash metal and panpipes, the Fidelio SoundSphere will deliver it with wonderfully believable vocals, lashings of melodic bass and crystal-clear treble.

The criticisms we have about the SoundSphere are really quite minor. Having to lash up a cable between the two speakers ensures it's not quite as wireless as you might like.

Another tiny niggle concerns the high frequency tweeters. While the woofers are sensibly covered by magnetic grilles, the tweeters are open to the elements and to little inquisitive fingers. We suggest you position the speakers out of reach on a shelf or sideboard if you don't want them to be damaged, because we've discovered that kids are rightly fascinated by these speakers.

So should you buy the Fidelio SoundSphere? If you love music, the answer is definitely.

Designing an audio product presents manufacturers with a dilemma. Do they forego convenience and build a great sounding but bulky system, or sacrifice audio quality in favour of a smaller footprint?

Thankfully, Revo's new K2 iOS dock, radio and audio streamer makes no such compromises.

The K2's square-shaped base with sides of just 10.6cm and two alarm settings make it ideal for your bedside table. But its brushed aluminium bodywork, black rubber details and invisible-until-lit OLED means it looks good just about anywhere.

Its 30-pin connector can be retracted when not in use, and can hold any iPod or iOS device, including an iPad. DAB/DAB+ and FM with RDS radio formats are covered, as is internet radio, Last.FM (a month's free trial supplied) and streaming audio from your Mac or any DNLA-compliant source.

You can join it to a home network through Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and connect it to an existing stereo setup through RCA or digital optical out. There's also AUX-in, a headphone socket and a composite video-out port for watching iPod videos or slideshows on your TV. A handheld remote augments the neat on-board buttons.

Sound quality is excellent. Its stereo effects are surprisingly good given the narrow form factor, and thanks to the rear-mounted bass port, the low end of the sound spectrum is clear and crisp. The audio as a whole is complete and lively, with a detailed top end, bouncy midtones and a near 360-degree dispersion.

The user interface deserves a mention too. Revo products are famed for their accessibility, and the K2 is no exception – steady improvements make it the best yet. If you have a sound system you're not using to its fullest because you can't be bothered to keep dipping into the instructions, you should have bought a Revo.

Revo's K2 delivers a sound that belies its small form factor. It's possible to get more out of bigger, more expensive systems, but for a compact £300 device, it's among the best we've heard.

The peculiar Sony SRS-BTV25 Bluetooth wireless speaker is aimed at the smartphone, iPod, iPad and iPhone market.

It will work with any device capable of connecting to a Bluetooth speaker, though, which includes most tablets and a fairly large wealth of MP3 players.

Bluetooth speakers aren't exactly new, and even stylish ones are fairly commonplace. But even so, it takes Sony design to make us sit up and listen. The Sony SRS-BTV25 not only looks incredible, available in black or white, but the surprisingly punchy notes that it is capable of producing set it apart from its bulky, boxy peers.

The unit boasts two speakers inside its svelte casing. The 20mm tweeter housed in the top of the unit points down at the deflector, while the 56mm woofer points upwards. The resulting sound is excellent, and just as advertised, produces a 360-degree audio that sounds great anywhere in the room.

You're obviously going to miss out on some stereo cleverness, since this is a point source, but otherwise it's generally all good. We did hit some distortion at the maximum volume, but at 13W that is surprisingly loud, and you'll be much happier at lower volumes.

Despite its minimalist design, the top of the Sony SRS-BTV25 is home to no fewer than six buttons and four LEDs. The power button is to the left of the volume controls (although you can change the volume with your smartphone or media player as well).

The rear of this top panel has a button each for selecting the Audio In jack as your source, for connecting and pairing with Bluetooth devices and a third that turns on the Bass Boost. To the rear you'll find the power connector and the Audio In 3.5mm jack as well.

There is a rather neat addition of a USB socket, which you find hidden on the right-hand side of Sony's little speaker under a grey flap. This enables you to charge your mobile phone, tablet or MP3 player while streaming music to your speaker using the power of Bluetooth. Somewhat confusingly though, this USB port is a power outlet only, so it isn't as you might expect another way of getting sound onto it.

There is another, potentially more interesting version of the Sony SRS-BTV25, called the Sony RDP-V20iP, which boasts an iPod dock and, more importantly, integrated rechargeable batteries.

This means you can take it to a park or a campsite and annoy others with your particularly peculiar taste in music. The important point is that the iPod version isn't tethered to a specific spot, and even though the power cord is 3m, it still means you've got to make an effort to work out where you're going to place it, as opposed to just leaving it untethered on the coffee table.

Verdict

Our biggest problem with Sony's wireless speaker unit though, is the pricing. With a UK price of £150 we find it hard to recommend. It's brilliant on pretty much every other level, but costs twice as much as it should do. And while that might be due to the exchange rates right now, it won't help Sony sell many.

Streaming music wirelessly via Bluetooth is excellent. Pretty much all smartphones these days not only hold a hefty chunk of our music collection, they also have Bluetooth connectivity that enables music to be streamed to a compatible stereo.

It's so much easier than plugging in the phone via a cable - especially if someone were to ring you mid-song and you have to dash to unhook the phone before you miss the call. Bluetooth's high bandwidth serves to stream music almost without any noticeable loss of quality, over a greater range.

This all sounds great, but what if you have already spent hundreds of pounds on a stereo system that doesn't have Bluetooth? Sure you could buy a standalone Bluetooth-compatible speaker system, but most of them won't hold a candle to your favoured hi-fi.

This is where the Logitech Wireless Speaker Adaptor for Bluetooth Audio Devices comes in, and it works really well. Essentially all you need to do is plug this into your sound system via either phono or headphone jack and you've turned your hi-fi into a Bluetooth-enabled device.

Verdict

This is a great tool for turning your Bluetooth tablet into a handheld music jukebox, or playing music straight from your mobile phone. It's easy to set up, works well and adds some great new functionality to your existing music setup. What more could you ask for?

How much should you spend on a pair of headphones?

It's a tricky question to answer because generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the product.

There are exceptions of course – Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are stupidly expensive and do not deliver proportional levels of sound quality – but on the whole the trend holds firm.

So do these Sony MDR-ZX500 headphones offer a decent dollop of audio fidelity, or are they just another also-ran pair of cans for the undiscerning ear?

Sadly, they fall into the latter category.

The ZX500's are cheap, they look good, they're nice and light and they sound better than those bundled buds.

But they're no star performers. All audio is squeezed uncompromisingly into the murky midrange, with little on offer in the way of fidelity at high or low frequencies. Your music can sound a lot better, and for not much more money, either.

So if you're looking to replace some bundled white iPod earphones with an over-ear alternative and don't want to splash the cash, the ZX500's will find a good home with you. But if you need more, you're going to need to spend a little more money.

Philips Fidelio AS851 review

The Philips Fidelio AS851 is the flagship model in Philips' new range of Android docks.

Featuring two 15W 3-inch speakers, a microUSB 'flexidock', Bluetooth connectivity, a slick design and a £199 price tag, it's a premium product for sure. But is it really the Android dock that users are looking for?

Whether you love, hate or stand indifferent on Apple's iOS devices, you have to admit that Apple makes it very easy for third parties to build peripherals.

Stick your iPhone in any dock and it'll immediately start playing music and system sounds through the speakers without needing to set anything else up - that's the kind of user experience Philips is up against here. It's a system so abundantly easy to use that even a lobotomised crab could use one. Or Brian Belo.

But sadly, Android simply isn't a platform that offers that level of ease. In fact, in this sense, Android cannot really be described as a platform at all. It's a piece of software that runs on all manner of different devices, and here lies the first problem...

While Android is the best-selling mobile phone platform in the world - there are now over 200 million Android phones out there already - there are too many differences between devices to make a dock that suits them all.

There's different sizes, different connection types, different connection placements and orientations, different software layers, different internal components - the list goes on. So making a 'dock' that works "for Android" in general is simply not possible - hence why most manufacturers concentrate on general Bluetooth systems.

For instance, if you try to dock your Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to the Fidelio AS851 you'll find that the female proprietary connector is totally incompatible with the male microUSB phallus on offer.

So if you're thinking of buying this dock, you should first make sure that your device has a microUSB connector. If it doesn't, don't waste your money.

We tested the AS851 primarily with a brand new HTC Sensation, and we have to say we were not hugely impressed. The tiny nature of the microUSB connection makes the dock very fiddly to mate with your phone.

The male docking part itself is fairly clever in that it can be slid across the front of the dock and spun round, so depending on the orientation and position of the port on your phone, you'll be able to dock it and have it sit in the middle.

For phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S II which has its port on its base, right in the middle, the dock works fairly comfortably. But with our HTC and many other handset models, the phone needs to sit sideways which is a lot more fiddly to both dock and use.

We were using the Spotify app, for instance, which cannot rotate into landscape mode and so when docked we had to operate it sideways which was not fun.

Simply getting our HTC Sensation to mate with the dock was fiddly in itself, and making it stay on the dock while using the touchscreen was tricky too - it's extremely easy to knock off its perch because the microUSB port is so puny.

The handset itself is heavy, and so the flimsy connection does not offer enough support.

Assuming you can get your phone docked though, you'd assume that Android would then send its audio signal straight to the dock, right? Wrong. Android is not able to do this currently, which means your phone also has to pair with the Android dock via Bluetooth.

The Philips Fidelio app, which you must download from the Android Market, auto-launches when you dock and turns Bluetooth on and pairs for you so it's not a huge deal. But the app was continually flashing up "switching Bluetooth on" notifications while docked, which was irritating.

And the app actually launches whenever you plug the phone into any power source rather than just when you dock, which is another annoying feature – it's not clever enough to work out what it's plugged in to.

You can, at least, remove your phone from the dock without your music being interrupted, but if you want to do that why not just buy a standard Bluetooth system and use your charger?

Sound quality

And this leads us to sound quality. For a dock with a recommended price of £199 you'd expect some pretty amazing sound, but unfortunately we were left wanting more.

Anyone easily seduced by bass will be kept happy, with low and high end, too, coming through fairly well. But there's a huge, gaping, awful hole in the midrange which really knocked the stuffing out of all the music we put through it. This dock is a long way from being a match even for Philips' own high-end iPhone/iPad speaker dock, the DS9010.

It's a huge disappointment and so audiophiles or indeed anyone who thinks they'll notice sub-par sound quality should probably stay away – this is a very common issue with docking speakers, but this isn't a cheap product and that's why we're not letting it off the hook.

Verdict

If you need to pair via Bluetooth, why not just save some money and buy a standard Bluetooth speaker system? For £200 (ok, you can pick this up for £175 on Amazon, but still…) you can buy some really decent kit which sounds better. And that's what we'd recommend you do.

There are reasons why there aren't loads of Android docks out there to go with those 200 million phones, and anyone using this system will soon find out what those reasons are.

Danish brand Jamo has been exciting home cinema senses for years with killer audio kit that won't break the bank. A case in point is the £260 S426 HCS3, a system that features a pair of 910mm-high S426 floorstanding speakers at the front, which isn't something you'd expect for this price.

They're joined by a pair of bookshelf surround channels (S420 SUR) and a centre speaker (S420 CEN).

The system doesn't come with a subwoofer as standard, but you can add the SUB 260, which incredibly costs more (£300) than the rest of the package put together…

Jamo has compromised on the floorstanders' build quality. They're lighter than you'd expect and there's a hollow sound when you tap 'em, none of which screams 'audiophile'.

Jamo's designers cleverly divert attention from this with a dashing design – industrial grey panels below the removable grilles are set into a tasteful black ash finish (also in White Ash and Wenge).

Both the centre and surrounds are exclusive to this system and can be easily wall-mounted thanks to keyholes on the back. Build quality is solid, although springclips on the back of the S420 SURs are a slight disappointment considering the rest of the speakers sport binding posts.

It may be an optional extra, but the SUB260 subwoofer fits in aesthetically with the other cabinets. And while its design could cause a problem if you're pushed for space, it does allow plenty of internal volume.

On the inside are the titular 260W amplifier and an 8-inch woofer; the back panel offers dials governing level, crossover frequency and phase. Frequency-wise, the SUB260 patrols the 30-200Hz territory. Meanwhile the S426's two-way bass-reflex enclosure houses dual 5.5-inch woofers and a 1-inch low-resonance Waveguide tweeter. The surrounds and centre are also two-way, but use smaller drivers.

Meaty sound

Despite its budget nature, the S426 HCS3 is no shrinking violet. It's thunderously powerful, not only thanks to the Herculean subwoofer but also to the natural drive of the floorstanders. They're authoritative and dynamic, lending depth and weight to the meaty bits in any blockbuster flick.

But the SUB260 is the real muscle, needing little prompting to unleash its thick, thumping bass upon you and your neighbours. It may take a bit of dial-tweaking to lock it all down but the results can be superb – it's taut, controlled and joins seamlessly with the other speakers.

In fact, the entire system displays levels of teamwork and interaction the Harlem Globetrotters would be proud of, with a tight, coherent sound glued together by the SUB260's fluid bass notes. As you move up through the frequency range, it masterfully articulates speech, while high-frequency reproduction is terrific, making DTS HD Master Audio material sparkle without sounding too harsh.

This boisterous sound is instantly gratifying and designed for maximum impact, yet sometimes it comes at the expense of poise and insightful detail retrieval. But when it's this much fun to listen to, who cares? You're getting a powerful 5.1 system with floorstanding speakers for the same sort of money you'd expect to pay for a good set of compacts.

It's not the finest array Jamo has ever produced, but if you're looking for bang for your buck then this Great Dane is certainly worth a punt.

If you have a copy of Men in Black II or even Stuart Little II on DVD then you have the 2001-2002 Academy Award-winning animated short, The ChubbChubbs. Its stars are some impossibly cute, fuzzy things that look like ducklings with noses like piglets – yet they turn out to be scary monsters with huge teeth and a terrifyingly large appetite.

And so it is with Velodyne's SPL-800 Ultra subwoofer. Our sample looks gorgeous in its white finish (there's a black one, too), sweet and unassuming with a cute remote control.

But, once up and running in this case with Paradigm's MilleniaOne satellites, it delivers real might, weight, power and grip.

Demure aspect

It is a Mighty Atom by design, with a small cabinet gently tapered so it doesn't look totally '1990s Volvo'. The grille is a pale grey fabric and there's a polite blue LED display and up/down buttons for volume on the front where the driver plays from.

And thanks to the IR input you can have full remote control by means of a wired infra-red 'eye'. This means you can put the woofer in a hidden-from-view location, such as under a table, and still have full control of it from your sofa.

That remote has four presets – Movies/Rock/Jazz/Games – and, although the manual offers advice as to which setting to use for each kind of music, it isn't made too clear exactly what the EQ curves of these settings are. Also the 'Night' setting remains largely unexplained, but appears to be a volume/dynamics limiting setting that caps output.

And then there's that transducer. A 6.5-inch dished-inwards item, this is almost certainly supported to the rear by a conventional cone assembly. What isn't standard is a huge fat surround that means this driver is really an eight-incher (as sound does come off the surround), and to learn it has a huge motor and handles enough power to toast four slices of bread at a time.

You put the SPL-800 Ultra where you want it, plug in the tiny mic, place it where you sit and then press the EQ button on the handset. It then emits a dozen long bass sweep tones, listening to itself and setting a room equalisation curve according to the internal DSP. Simple.

Even better was my discovery that, as I spun up some 5.1 tunes and then multichannel Blu-ray soundtracks, the sub had racked the whole system up four notches.

Don't get me wrong, the MillenniaOne sub from Paradigm ought to win awards but is limited in power to hit the price point for the whole system. This SPL-800 Ultra subwoofer comes from the folks who make the DD18+, which broke things in my living room.

So it's made to be a full-bore Velodyne, but engineered to be housed in rooms where just the looks of a DD18+ would be grounds for divorce.

Handle with care

Owners of the SPL-800 Ultra may still need a divorce lawyer on standby, though, as the level of sound it generates is mind-boggling. On the Blu-ray of Blade Runner: The Umpteenth-But-Now-Ridley's- Favourite-Cut, the gunfire in the interview took the room apart. Rich and melodic with fabulous strength and power when used for music, the sub utilises that long cone excursion a treat.

It does need careful setting, though, just because it is so potent and you want to get everything out of it. The mic-assisted setup helps, as does having the ability to alter it and adjust crossover, as well as level, from the sofa.

The SPL-800 Ultra also reaches down a long old way right into the fear register, without 'purring', which is incredible in a subwoofer of this size. Delicious and pretty, and then suddenly able to turn into a growling monster. Just like the ChubbChubbs.