Overview and features

The most amazing thing about Apple's latest iPod touch is its colour.

It's available in both black and white. No, we're not being glib - we mean it!

Apart from the colour change there's no difference here between the specs of the iPod touch 4th Generation from 2010, and this latest refresh. This is certainly not the iPod touch 5th Generation that you may be looking for...

When the iPhone got a bump in specs with the release of the iPhone 4S last October we expected the specs for the iPod touch to get a bump too, but so far they have remained... untouched.

So, it's still available in 8GB, 32GB and 64GB models, the camera still takes 960x720 sill photos and 720p video and has an Apple A4 processor inside. In fact, the only other change, apart from the colour, is that it now ships with the iOS 5 software pre-installed.

So what's it like in white? Well, we could wax lyrical about how its beautiful milky exterior makes it look like a stray ice crystal prized from Superman's Fortress of Solitude, or how it's so thin and light that it feels like you're holding a delicate slice of the Internet in your hand. But, well, unsurprisingly it's startlingly similar to what it was like to use in black.

Saying that it does look good in white, and we wouldn't be surprised if the new colour means there are more iPod touches languishing under Christmas trees this year than there would be otherwise.

The iPod touch range starts at £169 for the 8GB model, but we've found that's simply not enough storage to be practical, especially when you consider that some video-heavy apps from the App Store can weigh in at around 1GB each in size. The 32GB model that we're reviewing here costs £249 and there's also a 64GB iPod touch at £329.

If you haven't looked at an iPod touch in a while because you've got an iPhone then we recommend a trip to your local Apple Store try one out because at just 7.2mm in depth it feels noticeably thinner than an iPhone 4.

At 101 grams, compared to the iPhone 4S' 140 grams it's also noticeably lighter. The other big difference in appearance is its steel back. With its slight curve it fits better in your hand than the iPhone's flat, glass back, but has the downside that it's incredibly receptive to fingerprints, and scratches.

The only other difference in appearance compared with its more expensive sibling is that it lacks the iPhone's mute/lock switch and the screen. While it shares the Retna display of the iPhone 4 and 4S (960x640-pixel resolution at 326 pixels per inch) it doesn't use IPS (inter plane switching) which reduces the viewing angle slightly and makes it look slightly darker than the iPhone when you put them side by side.

On the front of the iPod touch you'll find the same VGA camera for FaceTime chats and there are two volume buttons on the side and a sleep/wake button at the top.

Performance

So, while Apple has chosen not to update the hardware of the iPod touch this time around, the release of iOS 5 means its not short of new features. Amongst the 200 that Apple claim, iOS 5 brings iMessage, Game Centre, Notification Centre and Wi-Fi syncing.

The most exciting of these new features for iPod touch owners is iMessage, which brings texting to the device for the first time. Provided you have a Wi-Fi connection you can send text messages, photos, videos to other people with iOS 5 devices, or you can use it to carry on a conversation you're having on, say, your iPhone with somebody else. The group chat feature is also impressive.

And then there's iCloud - sign in with your Apple ID and you get access to iTunes in the Cloud (the ability to get your music purchases downloaded to all your devices automatically), Photo Stream (every photo you take on your iPod touch will now be uploaded to the cloud and appear almost instantly on your your iCloud-connected devices) and Documents in the Cloud which keeps documents in iCloud-enabled apps up to date on all your devices.

Then there's also wireless backups and calendar, email and contacts syncing.

There's certainly no lack of features here. And let's not forget AirPlay either which, when combined with an Apple TV box, enables you to stream all your media from your iPod touch to watch on your HD TV or direct to AirPlay enabled speakers in your house. You can even use your iPod touch as a remote control for your Apple TV.

Of course, iOS 5 is a free upgrade for existing iPod touch owners too, rather than a feature of the very latest iPod touch, and it runs fantastically well on 4th generation iPod touch models. Apps feel snappy and we experienced no slow downs or software crashes.

Camera

The iPod touch's cameras are a bit like the proverbial buses – we waited years for one to appear, and now two have come along at once.

There's a VGA front-facing camera for FaceTime video chat, and a rear-facing one for taking snaps.

Both are welcome additions, even though the latter isn't anywhere near as good as the iPhone 4S's when it comes to taking still photos. At just 960x720 pixels (0.69 megapixels), there were compact cameras a decade ago that were capable of more.

Colour reproduction is slightly colder and less realistic than the iPhone 4, and the angle of view is narrower.

Furthermore, there's no HDR, and the lens is fixed-focus – tapping the screen merely alters the exposure. So while this could take a quick snap of your day out to share on Twitter or Facebook, its uses are limited as a stills camera.

Certainly when compared to the iPhone 4, it's chalk and cheese, and you can see a marked difference between the two photos below, taken from exactly the same position using an iPod touch and an iPhone 4.

iPhone 4 photo...See full-res image

iPod touch 4th Generation photo...See full-res image

Where the camera does hold its own, however, is video recording. It shoots 30 frames per second at a resolution of 1280x720 for 720p HD, and does a decent job.

While colours still aren't as rich as those in iPhone 4 footage, the angle of view was wider and panning was smoother. We'd go so far as to say that we preferred the iPod touch for the sort of straightforward, point-and-shoot video that it's most likely to get used for.

That said, it's still no match for a dedicated camcorder or even a Flip-style pocket device.

Once you've recorded your footage, you can edit and publish it by buying iMovie for £4.99 from the App Store.

FaceTime

Apple has run a major advertising campaign for FaceTime, its video chat service that works over Wi-Fi.

It uses the front-facing camera to film your face as you talk to a friend, while at the same time, beaming their face to your device. Until now, it had been exclusive to the iPhone 4, and you had to make a regular mobile call first.

Now, you can use FaceTime on your iPod touch, and it works a treat. You sign up with your Apple ID (the same one you use for the App Store and iTunes Store) and then anyone with an iPod touch or iPhone 4 can call you, simply using your FaceTime email address.

The only glitch we had with it was when we tried calling a friend whose device wasn't connected to a Wi-Fi network at the time. Instead of getting an error message at our end, we got the regular ringing sound, as though nothing was wrong. The recipient did, however, get a notification of a missed call when we hung up.

Video samples

We recorded three test videos with the new iPod touch. One outside the TechRadar office in the sunshine, one inside the office and one outside using the front-facing camera.

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Media performance

As with all iOS devices, you have to connect the iPod touch up to iTunes before you can use it.

You'll be guided through the setup process, and offered the chance to restore a previous backup to it –so if you've already got an iPod touch or iPhone, transferring all your apps and settings across is a breeze.

If you'd rather not load all your apps onto the iPod, you can simply uncheck the ones you'd rather leave on your computer and resync. Since the iPod touch we tested came with iOS 4.1 installed, we didn't have to wait around while iTunes downloaded any updates – we simply transferred our music across and were ready to go in minutes.

Any apps you buy on the iPod touch are synced to your computer when you next connect it up, although if you manage your music manually, things you buy on the iPod aren't copied across automatically.

While it's easy enough to do this yourself (by right-clicking the iPod's name in iTunes and selecting Transfer Purchases), it would be nice if this was automated.

We mentioned the A4 processor earlier, and boy does it make the iPod touch fly. It boots from cold to the Home screen in 31 seconds, five seconds faster than the iPhone 4. But in reality, there's rarely any need to switch the device off completely – just put it to sleep and you can wake it in an instant as soon as you want to use it.

General performance is identical to the iPhone 4. Swiping between screens is smooth, pop-up alerts appear without jittering and folders sweep open majestically. The whole user interface just oozes class and polish and is a joy to use, as is the on-screen keyboard.

Formats

The included headphones, as we mentioned earlier, don't have a clicker in the wire, and are much as you'd expect from Apple – solid but unspectacular.

Frequency response is between 20Hz and 20,000Hz, with an impedance of 32 ohms. It's worth playing around with the various EQ presets to get a bit more oomph out of them, but you'll never get huge depth or powerful bass.

Sound also starts to get a bit tinny if you turn the volume up very high. Certainly they're better than the ones that came with very early iPods, but if you like your music, it's worth investing a little extra in some specialist earphones.

The iPod supports a range of audio formats, including 8-320Kbps AAC (and the protected variant that you get from the iTunes Store). You can also play HE-AAC, regular and VBR MP3, AIFF, Apple Lossless, WAVE and Audible (2, 3, 4, Enhanced Audio, AAX and AAX+).

But it won't play FLAC, OGG or WMA files without converting them on your computer first. If you try to copy an incompatible file to your iPod touch, iTunes will warn you it won't work and will refuse to copy it.

Video-wise, the iPod touch plays a range of formats including up to 720p H.264-encoded formats such as .mp4, .mov and .m4v. It also likes MPEG-4-encoded .mp4, .mov and .m4v, as well as Motion JPEG .avi files. Again, there are free tools for Mac and PC to convert these, such as Videora.

Apple also sells Dock to VGA, Dock to component AV and Dock to Composite AV cables to output video from the iPod touch.

Sound quality

We've never been massive fans of the sound quality on Apple's iPods. It's certainly not awful, but compared to, say, Creative's Zen X-Fi, the sound of the iPod is noticeably lacking. This was true of last year's iPod touch, and not much has changed with the new model.

This weakness becomes more apparent if you use the touch with some more accomplished headphones. We test using some super-duper earphones from Shure, and even with a 320kbps MP3 file (you'll find no snobby audiophiles in the TechRadar office!) the music quality can sound a tad muddy compared to the Zen or even some of Sony's Walkman devices.

If we were Apple, we'd sling Creative some pocket money and stick some of that X-Fi technology into the touch and the iPad. Unfortunately, it's more likely that we'll see Steve Jobs landing on the moon next year than such a partnership ever being announced.

Verdict

In the usual TR format, so recapping what you've already discussed. Should be an intro, then a 'we liked' section, then 'we disliked' and then a final verdict.

There's no doubt that the iPhone is where Apple's attention is right now, and perhaps rightly so, but the iPod changed the way we listen to music forever, and it's a little bit sad to see its star wane, eclipsed by the iPhone.

The latest iPod touch is under-specced compared to the iPhone 4S - we wish Apple had put Siri, the A5 chip or an upgraded camera into the iPod touch to bring it up to speed, rather than just bring out a new colour, but it's still a great product as it is, and the new iOS 5 features add so many more strings to its bow.

Let's not forget its strengths - as a portable media player it's still second to none. The iPod app is great - making it easy to find and play music on the device, and create great playlists.

It's also great as a little portable movie player for taking on journeys or killing time on the commute to work. And then there's the games angle - as a casual gaming device its second to none, mainly because of the thousands of low-priced or free 3rd party games available on the App Store.

And while the video camera is now looking a little long in the tooth it's still perfectly fine for shooting clips of friends and family to upload to YouTube.

You don't even need to get your PC or Mac involved - you can edit clips right on the device using the built in editing features or by taking things further with the iMovie app, and upload them to YouTube with a few taps. And thanks to iBooks it also works well as an eBook reader that fits in your pocket.

We liked

The white colour gives it a fresh new look. iOS 5 adds some great new features and iCloud connects it to all your other devices effortlessly. Integration with Apple TV is outstanding. It's lightweight, incredibly thin and (if it wasn't such an objectional term to apply to technology) we'd say it was 'sexier' than an iPhone. For playing music, browsing the Internet and casual gaming it's hard to beat.

We disliked

We'd have liked a hardware refresh now that the iPhone 4S has raised the bar. Having to sync through the bloated iTunes software remains a bugbear for some, and restricts what file formats it can play. While the 8GB model is more affordable it's just not enough storage for all the apps you'll want to download and your music collection.

Verdict

There was no way we had room in this review to mention everything the iPod touch does. We haven't even touched on features like Internet browsing, email, maps and the gazillions of apps that totally transform what it's capable of, for example.

We're really excited about a future 5th gen iPod touch, hopefully released at the same time as the iPhone 5 sometime in 2012, but for now the 4th gen is still well worth the money. In fact, it's such a versatile little device that it really does justify its high price tag, and it's not often you can say that with such certainty.

We've all been there – you're away from a power supply but need to make or receive an important phone call and the battery dies. It seems like the more complex smartphones get, the shorter their battery life is. The iLuv iBA200 portable USB rechargeable battery kit attempts to help fix or avoid these situations.

By charging it up beforehand you can carry it around, and when your smartphone, digital camera, PDA, MP3 player or other device that charges via USB loses its battery, you can quickly attached it to the device for an extra boost. We got an extra four hours of talk time out of our dying iPhone.

It works well, being compatible with major smartphone brands and handsets including the Apple iPhone 4, BlackBerry Torch, HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2, MP3 players including the iPod touch, cameras and more. For getting out of sticky situations it really can be a life-saver. Annoyingly, it doesn't come with a mains adapter – so you have to charge it via a computer's USB port, which takes some time.

A simple LED indicator kept us informed of how much battery life was left – although when we first used it we didn't know how long three LEDs is, compared to four LEDs.

It's a simple countdown that will at least let you know that it holds some charge, and the more you use the iLuv iBA200 charger the better you'll get at knowing how much time you have left when there's only one LED lit up.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod then there is a good chance that you have a lot of pictures and movies stored on them. The MiLi Power Pico Projector enables you to show them off.

This connects to your iOS device and throws the images onto your wall, creating a 'screen' of up to 70 inches. The images look good, although movies in our test were less impressive than still photos.

The MiLi Power Pico Projector attaches to the Apple iPhone or iPod neatly and runs off the device's battery, but if you plug it into the mains you can charge your iPhone or iPod through the projector.

When opened up, the MiLi Power Pico Projector turns itself into a decent stand, which makes adjusting the projection easy.

If you don't have an iPod or iPhone then that doesn't matter, because there are inputs for all kinds of smartphones, MP3 players and other devices included. However, the functionality of the projector is a lot more limited on these, because it has been designed for Apple devices.

It also comes with some built-in speakers too, which sound pretty good considering their size – although it's no replacement for a home cinema system, and there are cheaper portable projectors out there.

If you have an iPhone and want to show off your photos and videos in a stylish manner, then you might find the MiLi Power Pico Projector to be right up your street. Others might want to steer clear though.

The Conran Audio iPod Dock is a stylish speaker set and is very versatile.

As well as a 30-pin dock that holds your iPhone or iPod in portrait or landscape orientation, there's a 3.5mm AUX-in and stereo RCA ports for other audio devices. A USB socket connects to your Mac to sync a docked iOS device, though a USB connection won't act as an audio-in.

Its Bluetooth feature is especially noteworthy, supporting the latest aptX codec for CD-quality streaming from compatible equipment, including Macs running OS X 10.6.5 or later, but not iOS devices.

In our tests, the dock performed admirably through Bluetooth, effortlessly pairing and suffering no distortion or signal break-up.

The Conran's style is minimalist in the extreme. There are no on-board controls other than a multifunction volume knob you also press to cycle through input sources. All other controls are slaved to the remote, which is neatly housed in a niche on the side of the unit when not in use.

Six pre-defined equaliser settings let you tailor the output to suit your music's genre. Unfortunately, the controls aren't very instinctive, with the track skip buttons atop rather than next to each other and the current equaliser setting indicated by unlabelled LEDs on the unit's front.

Audio is lively and detailed, with each instrument impressively clear. Treble and mid-range tones are reproduced effortlessly, giving your sounds a vitality that's sometimes absent in mid-priced systems.

Unfortunately the bass is a little flabby, and not very meaty at all. Its sound stage is a bit small too, with poorly realised stereo effects doing little to shape the audio.

To an extent this is unsurprising in a system of this size, but companies such as Altec Lansing have proved it's far from impossible to make stereo speakers sound much further apart.

This dock's not up there with true giants of iOS docks such as Arcam rCube or Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 8, but it's substantially cheaper and good value for money overall.

Including, but by no means limited to, the various iPod models, there are currently dozens of portable music players out there – hundreds if you include mobile phones, most of which have some kind of music-playing capability.

Many of them give very decent results, but they're not really Hi-Fi with capital letters: commodity consumer electronics, more like.

True audiophile

The Colorfly is something a bit different. It's a portable music player all right, but it's aimed fair and square at the true audiophile, the individual who owns a carefully selected system of high-quality components and a decent library of recordings.

It is an expensive item as portable music players go, but even at three times the price of an iPod Classic it's far from ruinous when one considers its abilities and possibilities.

The most significant feature is its high-resolution capability: not only CD-format WAV files, but native or losslessly compressed files up to 24-bit/192kHz can be played.

A couple of other details that are likely to appeal are the full-size quarter-inch headphone socket (there's a mini-jack one too) and the real analogue volume control: but what are those phono sockets? They look as if they might be line out, but no, they are digital in and out.

Digital out is obvious, digital in less so, but it turns out the Colorfly can be used as a DAC and also as a sample-rate convertor (upsampler).

Internal chips

The DAC function makes more sense when you realise that the large headphone socket has an output level of 2V with the volume at maximum, so with a suitable adaptor you can use this as a line-level source. That's a high-res source, don't forget and it's an audio device, not a computer, with all the convenience that implies, plus no moving parts, hence no noise.

Memory is 32GB of internal chips, plus a micro-SDHC socket to take cards up to 32GB. At the time of writing, 16GB cards cost about £1 per GB and 1GB is about one hour of 24/96 audio with lossless compression.

Solid walnut

You'll already have noticed from the photos that this is one smart-looking baby. In fact, in the flesh it's simply gorgeous with its solid walnut body. It's bigger than other portables, but still fits in a jacket pocket and feels fabulous in the hand.

Internally it's built with the sort of parts you expect to find in high-end CD players and DACs.

And the sound? There's no doubt that this is a whole different ball-game of portable sound. We took advantage of the higher-than-usual output levels and conducted quite a lot of listening with Grado's fabulous GS1000 headphones, which the Colorfly can drive louder than we'd ever want to listen.

More importantly, it drove with a combination of grip and sweetness that really does make for a high-fidelity experience. You get the kind of detail that would not disgrace a pretty upmarket CD player heard via a good headphone amp.

We did most of our listening with 16-bit/44kHz material because most of the world's recordings come like that, but high-resolution recordings, do show up their advantages through equipment of this calibre.

Astonishingly capable

As a component in a domestic hi-fi set-up, the Colorfly also makes a very good impression. Whether playing its own files or acting as a DAC, it achieves performance results that would not embarrass a full-size component of similar price, or indeed rather higher.

We ran a few basic lab checks too, and performance is technically excellent, with jitter unmeasurable and distortion very low – exceptionally low, in fact, even when driving a headphone load. This is an astonishingly capable little box.

Voice recorders fall into two camps: there's budget digital dictation machines and then there's the broadcast digital recorders used by the likes of the BBC.

The price gulf between the two types has always been quite wide but the Olympus LS-5 bridges that gap by offering genuine broadcast sound that will appeal to podcasters, journalists and musicians.

The all-aluminium body of the LS-5 oozes quality and is surprisingly slender, being little larger than a mobile phone, albeit slightly fatter. The unusual design features a v-shaped pair of stereo mics mounted at the top of the LS-5. These beauties are incredibly sensitive, yet thanks to some very clean pre-amps there's virtually no hiss when recording, even in the most demanding conditions.

Recordings can be stored on the LS-5's internal 2GB of memory or on an SD card. The card slot comes in very handy if you're using the LS-5's maximum quality setting of PCM recording at 96kHz at 24 bits, because it can gobble up the 2GB of memory in under two hours.

The highest quality setting is best used with a very good external mic or even a line-in audio source from a mixing desk or something similar, such as a digital feed.

Using the LS-5 is an absolute breeze. Press the red recording button once to slip into record mode and then press again to start the recording. All the stats you could require show up on the backlit LCD screen, which is a bit small if you need reading glasses.

A Peak meter shows what's going on with the recording level and there's an LED which comes on when the recording level is peaking.

As well as a manual recording level, there's also an automatic mode with a limiter if you can't be bothered to set manual levels. You can monitor recordings using a pair of headphones and when you've finished you can review your sounds using headphones or the small built-in mono speaker, just to make sure things have gone okay.

However, don't expect to use the LS-5 as an MP3 player. Yes, it can play and record in MP3 format, but it's not designed for that sort of thing, so don't expect it to double up as an iPod.

The really great news about the LS-5 is that it is, in nearly all respects, identical to the more expensive LS-11 model. The only cutbacks are the reduced internal memory and lack of a case and remote control. That makes it a compelling purchase.

We liked

The amazing build quality and superb sound that those amazing mics can pick up. Great little extras like a tripod thread and the fact that it uses AA batteries for up to 16 hours of use make it a winner.

We disliked

The small screen can cause problems for those of us without perfect sight, and the handling noise that the LS-5 can occasionally pick up means you need to handle it with care or mount it on a mini tripod for long recordings.

Verdict

If you need to record high-quality sound, whether than be music, interviews or podcasts, the the Olympus LS-5 is the best value digital recorder that money can buy. Sure, you can spend more, but for most people the Olympus LS-5 fits the bill perfectly.

This could be the strangest looking speaker unit we've ever reviewed at MacFormat. A 47cm-tall triangular design with a chrome carry handle at the rear, its entire body is covered in 'blood orange' cashmere (slate grey, black and beige are also available).

If you can find one to match your room's décor it looks neat enough, but comparisons to a cat's scratching post are inevitable.

Libratone Beat has two input methods: a 3.5mm auxiliary socket for connection to any audio device that takes standard headphones, and a wireless receiver to stream sounds from your Mac or iOS device. There's no built-in dock connector.

For wireless sounds, it comes supplied with USB and 30-pin transmitters, and a USB cable that fits the 30-pin dongle so you can power your iOS device through the mains while transmitting.

Other than the pairing button, the speaker unit itself is devoid of controls – you must use your Mac or iPod for changing volume.

Sound quality is a mixed bag. It has enough volume to fill a room and bass is strong and solid, though the midrange is a little subdued, and sometimes swamped by the treble.

As you might expect given its vertical form factor, stereo separation is poor. Although well detailed, the promised 360-degree sound proves patchy in practice; it's generally obvious the sound is coming from one source.

While the Libratone Beat scores heavily for style and convenience, its audio quality, while far from shabby, doesn't justify its £500+ price tag.

Speaker docks for the iPhone are ten-a-penny, so it's great to see a product that's been built for the iPad, though you can dock an iPhone or iPod in the Altec Lansing Octiv 450 as well.

Designed largely to complement the iPad's video playing abilities, it's best used in landscape orientation, has stereo speakers, an adjustable holder and a remote control. This well-thought-out combination means you can pop the device on your coffee table, adjust the angle of the iPad to suit and then slump down on the sofa and enjoy your favourite movies or stream live TV without having to move.

The iPad slides firmly into the arm, sits snugly against the supports and is held in on three sides. The dock connector charges your device, but there's no USB port, so no syncing to iTunes unfortunately.

The angling arm is stiff, so once you've set it, your iPad will remain how you left it. The slight downside is that you need two hands to adjust it, especially to bring it towards you, or you'll flip the unit up.

As well as angling your iPad, you can rotate it through 180 degrees while it's mounted, so you can use it either way up in landscape or portrait.

The speakers, while small, have been engineered from the ground up with high-quality audio in mind, and they go loud enough for you to enjoy your movies as they were intended. They provide deep, punchy sound, at times at the expense of clearer treble.

This didn't bother us while watching video, and indeed provided an immersive experience, but we found the bass a little overpowering when listening to some styles of music, like acoustic or vocal-oriented tracks.

The unit's neat and small enough to take around the house, but we were concerned about transporting it further afield.

The arm folds down but still sticks off the top of the unit, and the supports seem vulnerable when there's no iPad attached. We wouldn't feel comfortable putting it in our luggage to go on holiday without a box.

While it's not meant as a travel dock, we'd have liked to be able to take it on the road without worry.

The rCube is Arcam's most ambitious product yet. The result of around five years' research and development, it aims to bring hi-fi quality sound to a compact and transportable speaker dock.

The rCube's sealed construction enhances the bass, giving it a more natural sound than a rear-facing bass port would allow. The woofers are positioned back-to-back so they don't shake the unit, and the tweeters are angled at around five degrees to give the audio a breadth that belies the dock's relatively small size.

Available in black or white, the top and bottom sections have the same finish as an iPhone, with a cloth cover enwrapping all four sides. Metal grilles add rigidity.

As well as mains power, it has a built-in rechargeable battery that lasts around six or seven hours. A hatch covering the 30-pin dock doubles as a carry handle, and also as a back rest for your iOS device – no Universal Dock Adapters are needed.

You can also stream your music from your Mac or iPod to up to eight rCubes, using an optional 30-pin dongle or USB stick (sold separately). Wireless streaming is based on the Kleer system for 'lossless' quality.

For £500 you'd expect a stellar sound, and the rCube delivers. It's very detailed and well integrated, especially the bass, which is clear and well defined.

The sound as a whole is gorgeously complete, with no undue emphasis on one particular area, though if you find it a little bass-heavy (perhaps because the rCube's in a corner), a button at the back cuts out unwanted echoes without losing overall balance. Vocals in particular sound great on the rCube, sitting atop the audio very nicely.

There's very little to criticise here. It's expensive, but not overpriced for a device of this quality.

It's very harsh on highly compressed MP3s though, so if you've ripped your CD collection at a high compression rate to save space, you might want to rip them again.

But then, anyone prepared to spend £500 on a top-quality speaker dock is unlikely to use low-quality MP3s on any audio system.

We've reviewed a couple of similar models in the past, most recently the cracking R-09HR from Roland's brand Edirol and despite the different name on the front this seems to be in many ways an evolution of those.

It's relatively compact for a fully-featured portable recorder with built-in mics, but thanks to intelligent layout all the controls are accessible and easy to use. Our one mild dislike on the practical side is that the headphone jack is on the side of the unit rather than on the top, which seems to be asking for trouble with stress on the connector if the unit is in a pocket.

Against that, the display is very clear to read and operation is very quick, with no setup needed beyond setting recording level. Sampling rates up to 96kHz are available in linear PCM, as well as a range of MP3 rates.

Judged both as a player and as a recorder, this unit seems to fall short of the higher standards set by the earlier Edirol devices. The sound is basically all there, not markedly coloured and plausible enough with simple music, but it just doesn't seem to get much beyond that.

Playing tracks which we'd loaded from the computer, we felt that there was an unusually high degree of veiling in the upper midrange and treble, while the bass lacks real impact.

The built-in microphones lack precision and recordings made from the line input compound this, with at times what sounds like 'beating' behind sustained high notes.

Perplexed by this, we ran some basic lab tests and found that distortion is above average and jitter some of the worst we've seen from any digital device.