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.

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.

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.

In the same week when all six Star Wars films appear on Blu-ray with a brand, spanking new six-channel soundtrack, Acoustic Energy has launched the Compact Neo 6.1 system.

This £850 setup matches the existing Neo subwoofer with six Compact One speakers. Having six identical speakers does achieve the home cinema holy grail endorsed by his beardiness, George Lucas, of placing identical speakers in all positions for seamless handover from position to position.

Finished in Vermont Walnut, each cabinet feels solid and looks smart, too. The silver panel is possibly a little sudden in an otherwise all-black system, but there are grilles for this situation. Wall mounts are also supplied, but these negate using the banana plugs with the sturdy binding post terminals on the rear. It could also result in some 'chuffing' from the rear-mounted bass port.

The subwoofer is the Neo V2 model that is also part of the more expensive Neo lineup. This is a sealed box design packing a 8.5-inch driver and 200W amp, along with a busy rear panel that incorporates notch and cut filters. These, coupled with the sealed design, make for a reasonably simple placement.

The identical wrap and similar appearance gives the Compact Neo 6.1 a fairly homogenous look. It is also an altogether more serious device than many similarly priced sub/sat systems and promises to give the Neo Compact some reasonable low-end heft. Indeed, match this relatively burly subwoofer with a 'satellite' that is also sold as a stereo speaker and you get something subtly different from the competition.

The right balance

Given the splendidly silly Fast Five to play with, these speakers make a convincing case for themselves. The huge amounts of gunfire, engines and shouting are separated effectively and it is easy to keep track of events on screen.

The Compacts balance good detail levels with a smooth presentation that helps less well-mastered soundtracks sound cohesive. Dialogue sounds rich and realistic. Pushed hard, the speakers will start to harden up slightly, but in any normal-sized lounge, the Compacts are capable of creating a room-filling sound. This is partly due to the use of fabric tweeters rather than the more common metal types used by much of the competition.

There is always a worry that the lack of a dedicated centre speaker will constrain dialogue, but this is not a problem. With a crossover set at 65kHZ for all speakers, the handover between Compacts and subwoofer is very smooth and occurs at a point just about low enough to enjoy the benefits of omnidirectional bass.

Where this really comes into its own, is with music. With both multichannel and stereo material, the Acoustic Energys benefit hugely from the satellites' ability to handle all but the bottom octave of a music performance. The sub is not the fastest, but agile enough to make for an entertaining listen.

Overall, this array falls somewhere between a conventional sub/sat package and a larger speaker/sub combo, and combines many of the attributes of both. The Compacts are small enough to fit into most places, while offering a performance that dinkier models often can't match.

So, as a cost-effective system that does equal justice to films and music, the Compact 6.1 has a great deal to commend it – as long as you don't mind having an odd-looking centre speaker.

Home cinema soundbars are increasingly popular these days and it's easy to see why – they're a relatively cheap, simple and family-friendly way for people to enjoy better sound quality than they would get from the speakers in their TV.

And in the Orbitsound T12v3's case, you end up with a handy iPod/iPhone speaker dock as well.

Now in its third generation, the Orbitsound T12v3 aims to stand out from its rivals by offering 'spatial sound' as opposed to regular stereo or surround sound. The aim is to eliminate the 'sweet spot' that normally forces you to sit in a particular part of a room to get the best sound effect, effectively enabling you to sit anywhere.

It does this by using its main soundbar speaker complement to fire forwards, while spatial array speakers at either end fire the difference between the left and right audio channels sideways.

An improved passive subwoofer also joins the fray to add some much needed welly. The catch, of course, is that the Orbitsound doesn't really do stereo or surround sound, but presents you with a Phil Spector-ish wall of sound instead. That's okay for regular telly viewing or even for music to a certain extent, but it can limit enjoyment of the surround steering effects you expect from Hollywood blockbusters.

That's a shame, but not unexpected, so what about sound quality instead? Here the Orbitsound fairs much better, delivering surprisingly good mid-range and treble sound quality for the money.

The problem is the subwoofer lets the side down rather badly. It's both domineering and boomy and you have limited room to manoeuvre when it comes to calming it down: you can tweak the bass volume using the remote or you can physically move the sub further away from walls or corners, and that's it.

Our other complaint lies with the limited outputs. The iPhone 4 can deliver 720p video via component and HDMI connections, yet the Orbitsound only has composite video on board. That's disappointing, but not unexpected given the price.

The Lenco SB-100 soundbar claims to deliver a 5.1 surround sound experience through the magic of its so-called 3D sound feature, despite not being equipped with digital inputs or any kind of surround sound decoding.

The only sockets are one set of stereo phonos and dual 3.5mm line inputs. Analogue signals are processed by circuitry licensed from Sonic Emotion and delivered to your ears via the SB-100's room-filling multiple drive units.

There are six full-range tweeters and a 20W subwoofer that offer a combined 80W of power output, which is four times as powerful as most TV screens' built-in speakers.

The 3D effect really does create an enveloping sound. When listening to classical music it's as if half the orchestra has gone home when you disengage 3D.

With action-packed Blu-ray movies such as 300, dialogue is clear and strong, while individual effects have terrific impact compared with a TV's own speakers.

However, the Lenco SB-100's overall sound feels artificial, with a metallic edge to mid-frequency sounds.

Also worth mentioning is the 3D mode is not suitable for speech, which sounds lispy. Reserve the room-filling 3D mode for rich, multi-layered soundtracks.

The Lenco SB-100 has no hope of physically squeezing into the gap between the bottom of your screen and TV stand, and the company's website shows the bar itself being used as a stand. That's not an option for pedestals with a larger footprint than the soundbar's own (540mm wide x 165mm deep x 110mm high), so placing the bar could be awkward.

PSB Image 5.1: Overview and spec

PSB, named after founders Paul and Sue Barton, isn't a particularly well-known brand in the UK. Yet this Canadian outfit, distributed in Britain by home cinema specialists Armour Home, makes some pretty tasty surround sound speaker packages that are worth consideration.

PSB's Imagine 5.1 array scooped the Home Cinema Choice magazine annual award in the Best Speaker System, £2,000-£5,000 category. That £3,000 package blew us away with its build quality and full-range sonic performance, and left us wondering what the brand's high-end models sounded like.

Well, we're still wondering, as the next set of PSB speakers we've clapped eyes and ears on, the PSB Image 5.1, is in the more affordable step-down range.

Hinting at its shared heritage with the more potent Imagine line, these Image cabinets deliver "affordable high performance", according to PSB.

The "performance" element will come later, but PSB certainly has the "affordable" part sorted. Our review setup retails for a very appealing £1,500, putting it in the same price bracket as other cash savers such as Acoustic Energy's Neo V2 and KEF's T-Series.

Tastes in speakers vary, but we're happy to say that Images are things of beauty. The black wood finish (also available in dark cherry if that's your thing) aches to be stroked, and there are subtle curves aplenty. Remove the grilles (no magnets here, I'm afraid – but costs have to be cut somewhere) and they look even better, with their yellow driver cones, PSB-branded tweeters and dividing line down the front fascia. If you can trust your family and pets not to damage them, keep the grilles off at all times.

The floorstanders of this speaker array are the T5 models. These tower just under one metre high and use a two-and-a-half-way design with identical 5.25-inch bass drivers (but with different crossovers) and a 1-inch tweeter. The enclosure is front-ported and around the back are twin sets of speaker posts, giving you the option of bi-wiring/bi-amping.

The tweeter is a titanium affair, with Ferrofluid-cooling and a neodymium magnet – the same sort of high-quality driver found in the Imagine lineup, which bodes well for high-frequency delivery.

There are more potent Image floorstanders available, such as the T6, which drop one of the 5.25-inch midrange drivers and bring in a pair of 6.5-inch subwoofers in a three-way design.

The same tweeters and bass drivers of the T5 are used on the B5 bookshelf speakers and the sizable C5 centre.

Taking care of the low-end is PSB's 150W, 10-inch SubSonic 5i subwoofer. This isn't solely part of the Image lineup and it shows somewhat in its design, which, despite the matching finish, seems a tad more in-yer-face than the other cabinets. But that's how we like our woofers, anyway.

After a flick-through of the excellently written and idiot-proof manual, the array was plumbed into our Onkyo TX-NR5008 audio receiver. And good things started to happen.

PSB Image 5.1: Verdict

With both movie material and music, the PSB Image 5.1 speaker system delivers an appealing sound that's easy on the ear. It's warm and rich, without being brash or grating. Much of this comes from the mid-range strengths of the T5 and B5s, which ensures soundtracks come across as full-bodied, rather than simply a mix of highs and lows.

Avatar on Blu-ray offers demo-worthy audio, so that's what we started with, and the PSB Image 5.1 sound system is more than a match for the impressive visuals. James Horner's somewhat irritating score swells across the front soundstage, while the Screenwriting 101 dialogue comes across crisp and clean in the middle of the mix. The C5 centre may present a bit of an installation problem in some smaller systems, but its performance merits it.

As with the more costly PSB Imagine lineup, it's perhaps the tweeters that grab your attention most here. These techtastic titanium domes spit out high-frequency effects (so important in movie mixes) with speed and relish.

When Sully and Grace land on Pandora and explore the wildlife, the buzzing of the forest insects is insistent and tactile. The same applies to when the Na'vi attack their invaders' helicopters with bows and arrows.

With the same tweeters lurking in the bookshelf speakers, surround sound effects are delicious, too, and the B5s certainly have enough weight to ensure front-to-back pans don't fizzle out.

The enveloping nature of the PSB Image 5.1 system is aided by the subwoofer. It underpins the whole array with a tangible low-end presence and goes surprisingly deep. It could, however, be a little tighter in its delivery.

With just the front left and rights in use with stereo music, the lack of real low frequency punch in the T5s becomes more apparent. We'd never not use our subwoofer, though, and suspect even dedicated hi-fi heads will still think the T5s more than adequate, thanks to the richness of the overall sound.

The tweeters that excelled so well with the ambient sounds on Cameron's Pandora do the same for the intricate hi-hats on Megadeth's Rust In Peace.

Then, with the AVR switched to Full Channel Stereo mode (our preferred weapon of choice with two-channel tunes), all six cabinets come to life to create musical mayhem, and keep their poise even with the volume raised to neighbour-bothering levels.

System with a smile

For the money, it's hard to find much fault with PSB's new entry-level speaker array.

Yes, the subwoofer could be a touch more agile and the towers don't plumb the depths, but the design, build quality and overall performance easily put a smile on our faces.

Anyone ready to step up from a sub/sat system to floorstanders should track a set down and have a demo.

Acoustic Energy Neo Max: Overview and spec

Slapping the word 'Max' onto the end of your product name doesn't automatically make it great, as anyone who's tasted Pepsi Max can attest. But in the case of Acoustic Energy's Neo Max hi-fi speaker system, it seems entirely appropriate.

Acoustic Energy's original 5.1-channel Neo V2 system was a serious proposition in the first place, but this beefed-up version adds even more firepower to its already considerable arsenal. It increases the speaker count to 7.1 and swaps the Neo Threes in the original sound system for a pair of the new Neo Four floorstanding speakers.

This injection of sonic steroids was prescribed after AE's customers started demanding more potent floorstanders for the Neo lineup, capable of bringing more detail and bass depth than the smaller Neo Threes could muster.

That means a higher price, but at just under £2,000 you're still getting a lot of speaker for your money. It's more expensive than the Magnat Quantum 650 Series but cheaper than the XTZ 99 Series and Monitor Audio Bronze BX Series.

Alongside the Neo Four fronts (£699 a pair separately), you get a pair of shorter Neo Three floorstanders for the rears (£409 a pair), £229 Neo One bookshelf speakers on surround back duties, the £179 Neo Centre and the £409 Neo Subwoofer.

But first we'll inspect the new kids on the block. The Neo Fours are an imposing, majestic presence that'll cast sizeable shadows over your living space with their 1.2m tall, 70-litre cabinets. They weigh a fair amount too. But they have the sort of muscular build quality we love, and are much better than you have any right to expect for their price.

But for all their bulk, Acoustic Energy has done a terrific job of making them look elegant and contemporary, with curves all over the shop and a luxurious Vermont walnut or Black Ash finish. Cover the drivers with the magnetic grilles if you want, but we think they look far funkier without them.

For setup, you need to screw on the black plinths. Attaching the supplied spikes is entirely up to you.

The Neo Four's internal design is just as attractive – particularly the 32mm-thick MDF baffle, which helps to ensure tight, potent bass response. They use a three-way, triple-ported design, with a 5-inch aluminium alloy midrange driver, a pair of 6.25-inch bass drivers and a wide-bandwidth 1-inch dual-ring radiator tweeter.

Another key element in the Neo Four's technical make-up is the choice of material used for the magnets. Interestingly, the Neo Fours use Ferrite magnets instead of neodymium, which is used by all the other speakers in the system and is what the range-topping speakers are named after.

But there's method in the madness – Acoustic Energy's engineers preferred a ferrite system to deliver the extra punch required by these larger, more voluminous cabinets. And what a punch they pack; there's 200W quoted power handling and a frequency response of 28Hz all the way up to 40kHz.

The rest of the system, from the bookshelf boxes up to the 905mm-high Neo Threes, boasts an equally awesome construction. Again, there's a choice of Vermont and Black Ash finishes and they share the smoothly curved corners as the Neo Fours.

These rear floorstanders are a two-and-a-half way, reflex-loaded design featuring a 1-inch neodymium ring radiator tweeter, and a pair of 5-inch low/mid drivers. The two-way Neo One bookshelves lose the second low/mid driver.

The importance of dialogue to your movie enjoyment hasn't escaped Acoustic Energy's attention either, and as such the Neo Centre boasts the same two-and-a-half way driver array as the Neo Threes. It's a hefty box though, likely to require quite a reshuffle to house it.

Acoustic Energy hasn't felt the need to introduce a new subwoofer for the Neo Max system, so you get the same bass-box as the original Neo V2 array. Thankfully it's up to the task, endowed with a 200W Class A/B amplifier, and an 8.5-inch drive with a long-throw ferrite magnet.

All this brawn is bundled up in a beautiful box, styled in the same classy-looking finish. You should have no trouble getting it to integrate with the other speakers, thanks to the wide range of controls found on the rear panel.

Volume, crossover and phase can all be tweaked to your heart's content, as well as less common audio adjustments such as notch filters for frequency, Q and attenuation, which can help rectify any sound problems you have with room acoustics. You also get line-level stereo inputs and outputs, plus a separate line-level input.

Acoustic Energy Neo Max: Verdict

What all the slick new speakers in the Acoustic Energy Neo Max amount to is a system performance that's frighteningly potent and heart-meltingly silky all at once.

The extra grunt afforded by the addition of the Neo Fours is instantly clear – they fire out frenetic action scenes with greater ferocity, pumping the room full of sound. As a result, the scale of the soundstage is immense. But despite that, the entire sonic spectrum is delivered with a sophisticated tone and few rough edges to sully your listening pleasure.

With the remarkable tracking shot during the refugee camp siege at the end of Children of Men, the Neo Max hi-fi speaker system shows the full range of its talents. When the army blows up the tower block, the explosion is brutal, conveyed with tautness and depth by the superb subwoofer. And as the debris rains down, it shows its ability to handle delicate high-frequency detail, relaying the popping and rustling as little showers of rock hit the ground with pin-sharp clarity.

The soundstage the Acoustic Energy Neo Max conjures is wide and spacious, with distant voices and gunshots drifting in and out of earshot from all over the room.

It's a dynamic, engaging performance, demonstrating audio power, agility and subtlety from every speaker and throwing considerable force behind the effects that really need it.

And despite the disparity in speaker sizes, Neo Max ensures tonal consistency across the system, creating a wonderfully coherent, tightly-locked sound that immerses you in the action. You can also push them loud without distortion or high-frequency edginess, and they handle everything with a level of composure befitting a far more expensive set of speakers.

I switched over to Hellboy II's 7.1-channel DTS HD Master Audio movie soundtrack and was equally bewitched. There isn't a weak link in the chain. The Neo Threes at the back offer levels of detail insight and bass depth that almost rival the Fours at the front, making the thumping effects during the battle with the Golden Army feel weighty and solid.

The Neo Ones are smooth operators too, handling the eerie ambience of the movie's fantastical settings with sparkling clarity, while the centre channel delivers dialogue with openness and authority. The subwoofer doesn't let the side down either, resulting in an overall listening experience that borders on an epiphany at this price.

Used as a stereo pair for music, the strength and poise of the Neo Fours again pays dividends. As well as reproducing kick drums and basslines with terrific depth and agility, it digs out nuances higher up the scale and produces vocals that you can really believe in.

This wonderful performance makes the 7.1 Acoustic Energy Neo Max speaker system an absolute winner in our eyes (and ears), and the fact that you're getting it for under £2,000 is an even more compelling reason to check it out.

The Panasonic SC-HTB520's sheer presence will spoil the immaculate appearance of your TV on its stand, but with a Hobbit-esque height of less than 8cm it shouldn't affect viewing or block the IR receiver for your TV.

Should it need to, the SC-HTB520 can also pass on commands from your TV's remote control to the screen via an IR blaster. A much more elegant solution is to mount both screen and bar on a wall, and the SC-HTB520 is supplied with two brackets for this purpose.

Nest-sized

The 120W gloss black subwoofer is as attractive as these things get, plus it can be squirreled away out of sight behind the sofa, thanks to its wi-fi connection to the main unit.

The straightforward two-way, two-speaker, bass reflex layout of the main unit is faintly visible behind the non-removable grille that covers the entire front. With no LCD display to use, trying to balance the subwoofer and main unit's separate volume controls proves to be a bit of a lark.

The SC-HTB520 isn't interested in anything analogue, wearing its digital stripes with pride. With two v1.4 HDMIs and a digital optical audio input, the idea is that you route sound and picture from a Blu-ray or DVD deck to the HDMI input and optically connect from your screen's digital output.

The HDMI output then pipes the video signal to your screen, but this socket can also receive your TV's sound output if the latter has an audio return channel (ARC) HDMI. This also frees up the digital optical socket for use with Dolby Digital signals from a console, Sky HD or Virgin Media TiVo box.

Curiously, every time I switched the unit on it defaulted to the TV input within five seconds, even without an ARC feed or an optical cable connection and I manually had to reselect the HDMI input.

An onboard decoder is equipped to handle DTS and Dolby Digital signals, which are output as pseudo-surround Dolby Virtual Speaker and the unit can accept up to 7.1-ch linear PCM.

Operating the system couldn't be easier; you simply select the source and adjust the volume levels of both units. Dialogue in particular really stands out. With the Monsters Vs Aliens Blu-ray wedding scene, the dialogue between Derek and Susan is crystal clear.

On a more subtle level you can even make out the rustle of her veil at the altar, and as the church falls apart you feel the creaking wood and impact of the tower as it smashes on the ground. All in all, everything feels nicely controlled.

However, other sources reveal how bass-heavy the main unit is. With the sub turned right down, the double bass of The Wire's theme tune vibrates uncomfortably, while MTV Eminem's Lose Yourself has too much thud. Despite this, vocals always shine through and the overall effect is certainly positive.

While you can't crank things up high and the so-called pseudo surround is not even pretending, the general improvement over any TV's speakers is immeasurable