Logitech products appear to fit into two separate categories, especially when it comes to speakers.

We've seen – and heard – £200 5.1 setups that have blown everything else clean out of the water, but on the other hand, you can also pick up a set of stereo speakers for £15 that sound like they should have cost no more than a fiver.

At £120 the Z623 certainly doesn't come cheap, but does it sound like it's worth all that extra money? The answer is a resounding yes.

The sound is deep and rich, and the most 'three-dimensional' we've ever heard from a 2.1 system. Even coming from a laptop's dubious-quality in-built sound card, the sounds of gunfire in our favourite FPS seemed to come from all around us. How soothing.

The bass and treble are perfectly tuned out of the box, but if you want to add more bass there's a dedicated rotary dial on the right-hand speaker. Despite the slightly 'Day of the Tentacle' design of the speakers, they're well built too.

The subwoofer is one of the smaller ones we've seen, but it did just as good a job of bass reproduction as ones the size of a small fridge. The satellites compliment it perfectly, being adequately weighted in terms of both construction and sound.

If there's a slight niggle, it's that Logitech has elected to use the same connection system it uses on its lower-end speakers. The right satellite houses the power, volume and bass controls, and it connects to the sub-woofer via a proprietary VGA-style cable. The left speaker simply connects to the sub with a phono plug.

The system evidently works, and having power control on the desktop saves you having to lean over to a hidden sub to turn them on – and it's exactly the same system you'll find on Logitech's £15 speakers.

They have to be heard to be believed though, and despite our reservations about the THX certification, it actually seems to mean something here. These come highly recommended.

There's no ignoring it – power up the Sony SRS-DB500 and a great ring of blue light pulsates around the multi-jog dial.

Any thoughts of subtle ambiance for enjoying films and games goes out of the window – as well as a blinding blue glow. We can only assume that either Sony got a job lot of blue LEDs, or it thinks this ultra-bright display looks good.

Elsewhere, the build quality is fundamentally lacking. The satellite speakers are large, but their all-plastic construction and feather-light build make them feel cheap and tacky. They also have thin built-in cables with proprietary connectors, so if the wires eventually short out you'll presumably be forced to send the unit back to Sony.

The subwoofer is weightier, but suffers from a similarly wobbly plastic construction. The illuminated jog wheel has a slightly rubbery feel, and the entire front bends slightly when you lift it. Sony's well known for its canny design philosophy, but the SRS-DB500 feels like something made by a cheap competitor. That is, until you hear it.

Despite their cheap plastic construction, the speakers do an absolutely blinding job of reproducing all the sounds of explosions you'll find in a modern action film or computer game. The bass is clear, the treble is just about right and they have a deep, cavernous sound that only Sony's 65 years of experience can bring. Music sounded great, too.

Despite the SRS-DB500's looks, Sony has packed a lot of useful technology into the speakers. There's a handy line in on the front for connecting your iPod or Walkman. The multi-jog wheel lets you customise the bass and treble to your heart's – and your ears' – content. There's also an infrared remote control for adjusting the settings from afar.

A possible explanation for Sony's design is found in the packaging – they seem to be targeted at gamers above all else. But once you get past the looks and build quality there's a lot to like here, whether you're into games or not.

Things we love on speakers: separate bass and treble controls. Things we don't love on speakers: volume buttons in place of a nice big dedicated control dial.

Microlab's X16 speakers include the customisable low and high tones, but those adjustments are made either through flimsy buttons on the subwoofer or via an infrared remote control.

As a result of this, even before we began putting their sound quality to the test, we were sitting firmly on the fence. It's all very well having those bass and treble controls to hand, but they're completely pointless if the speakers in question have nothing to work with in the first place.

Even with the bass turned all the way up, the X16s sound muddy and flat, and with treble up we were unable to get any crisp definition on the higher end notes. Add to this the overall tacky, plasticky build quality – which may have something to do with the low-quality sound – and the X16s feel like a missed opportunity.

There is one saving grace, but it's a minor one. The X16s feature balance control, and are the only speakers we've looked at that incorporate this feature. This means that the speakers can be set up in unusual desktop situations where the satellites are further away from one another and one needs to be louder than its counterpart. It's a feature that should be easy to implement on other speakers, and we're surprised that we don't see it more often – although some sound cards and audio software can be used to achieve the same effect.

Other than the balance control, a distinct lack of any special features lets the X16s down badly. There's no option to connect an auxiliary source like an iPod or phone, for example, and you'll have to fish around the back of your PC if you want to connect a set of headphones.

The sound quality isn't terrific either, and we wouldn't want to spend any more than half the asking price on this 2.1 set. There are much better options available for the money.

The gap between smartphones and MP3 players began to narrow with the advent of the iPhone, and it is now practically non-existent thanks to smartphone storage capacities of often 8 or 16GB holding a lot of our music.

There is nothing on this world or any other that's more annoying than listening to tinny music through the small speakers on a smartphone (especially if the music isn't yours).

The Logitech Mini Boombox utilises the smartphone's Bluetooth connection to become a rechargeable wireless speaker. The Logitech Mini Boombox charges via a USB cable and is small, with a simple - yet quite good looking - design.

When turned on six red icons appear on the top of the device, highlighting where to push to start, pause and skip between tracks, as well as changing the volume and connecting to a Bluetooth device.

Connecting the Logitech Mini Boombox via Bluetooth was incredibly easy - we just turned on Bluetooth detection on the phone, then pressed and held the Bluetooth button on the Mini Boombox, then clicked 'Mini Boombox' on our smartphone and they connected straight away.

A nice feature was that we could control playback on our smartphone from the Mini Boombox, making it a sort of remote control for our phone as well. It can also be used as a hands-free kit for your phone, with a small built-in microphone picking up your speech.

Even for such a small speaker sound quality is very good, and there's hardly any noticeable audio as you increase the volume. It manages volumes loud enough to fill rooms, and is pretty good for outdoor parties.

Truly a David among the Goliaths of this speaker test, iLuv's Rubik's Cube-size Boom Cube speakers are smaller than most of the 2.1 systems' satellite speakers.

Add to this the fact that iLuv is a stablemate of the low-cost UK electronics manufacturer Goodmans, and we were worried that the Boom Cubes would be crushed – both literally and metaphorically – in our tests.

Fortunately, the Boom Cubes are a pleasant surprise. The sound they produce is incredibly rich and detailed, and feels like it's coming from the space around the speakers rather than the front. They prove more than adequate for music and movies, and even for a little light gaming.

Admittedly, without a Tardis-size subwoofer, performance is never going to be all that great, but it's definitely there – even if it didn't lead to the room-shaking vibrations of dedicated bass speakers.

At first, iLuv's decision to provide USB power feels a little odd. We were desperately trying to get the pair of speakers recognised as a USB device until we realised that there's a separate 3.5mm jack to plug them into the headphone socket. It adds a little heft to the package, and it means that you won't be able to use the speakers with a phone or MP3 player without a separate USB power source. Which is a shame, because their compact size makes the Boom Cubes ideal travel speakers.

We're not sure about the grill-free design, either. The speakers look sleek and Apple-esque as a result of this design decision, but anyone with kids will tell you how eager they are to poke exposed speaker diaphragms to a fuzzy-sounding death. We did give them a little prod (an essential scientific part of any in-depth speaker test) and they felt solid enough, but we don't know how they'd stand up in the long term.

Overall we're impressed with the design of these lovable little cubes though. They sound a lot bigger than they look, and the price is very reasonable too.

Many laptops are plagued with speakers that can only produce tinny and unsatisfactory sounds. Many of us use our laptops to watch and listen to media - either stuff we've downloaded, ripped or streamed from services such as BBC iPlayer - so having under-powered speakers can leave a lot to be desired.

The Logitech Laptop Speaker Z305 is a simple solution that plugs into a USB port and can be hooked on to the back of your laptop. The resulting audio quality is very good, and a huge improvement on most laptop speakers. The sounds are rich and full, and increase the output volume over what you'd usually achieve from laptop speakers.

The speakers are powered by USB, so there's no need for extra batteries.

Verdict

While the design won't win any awards, the speaker doesn't look bad, and the ability to hook them onto the back of a laptop is a nice touch. The speaker is thin and easy to carry around as well. On the packaging it claims the design helps to achieve "360 sound", which means you can hear them wherever you stand in a room.

Traditional desktop speakers can take up a lot of much needed space. If this frustrates you then the XtremeMac Tango Bar could be just what you need.

It's been designed to easily fit between the lower edge of your iMac, Cinema Display or Thunderbolt Display and its foot, giving you extra oomph for your music, movies and games without taking up any more room.

The XtremeMac Tango Bar is easy to set up and use: simply plug the combined USB power/connector cable to a spare port at the back of your Mac then adjust the dial on its right side to raise or lower the volume. XtremeMac has added a smattering of extra connectors for added flexibility, including an analogue audio input, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a subwoofer output – although you'll have an off-board subwoofer yourself.

The Tango Bar's range of ports also enables you to use it with a TV or MP3 player, although you'll need to plug the USB cable into a mains adapter (not included) to power it up. Its 56cm length makes it an ideal match for the 21.5-inch iMac.

The obvious question to ask at this stage is whether you need a Tango Bar at all: the iMac, Cinema Display and Thunderbolt Display have fairly decent loudspeakers built in already. So what does XtremeMac bring to the party? Watch a movie in iTunes and you're rewarded with a richer, warmer sound than the iMac (for example) can muster, with dialogue sounding clear. You even get reasonable bass.

The Tango Bar is convincing with music too. It can't match a proper hi-fi setup, of course, but it will relay your tunes with reasonable clarity.

If we have to criticise anything it's this: because the Tango Bar isn't attached to your iMac, Cinema Display or Thunderbolt Display it doesn't move with it, which is annoying. This could be solved by placing the rubber pads the Tango sits on in the centre instead of towards either end.

Genius has a reputation for putting its own spin on certain technologies and bringing a cheap alternative to the market. Sometimes this works out well, and you can save a lot of money going with Genius' version without compromising too much on quality. Other times you're left with a sub-par product.

Thankfully the Genius SW-V2.1 1250 is in the former camp – this is a solid 2.1 speaker system that provides some pretty good sound quality. This can mostly be attributed to the large subwoofer with a 5.25-inch driver.

With a total output power of 36 Watts, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Genius SW-V2.1 1250 is underpowered, leading to a rather weedy output. Thanks to that subwoofer, however, the system had a decent weight and punch during our tests – especially when watching action movies and playing games.

The external control box makes it easy to control the treble, bass and volume of what's being played without having to scrabble around underneath your desk. It's a nice feature that's often neglected in speaker systems at this price, and we're pleased that Genius saw fit to include it.

Verdict

The Genius SW-V2.1 1250 is never going to compete with a 300 Watt monster such as the SonySRSDB5002.1, but at almost half the price it's not a bad buy at all if you're on a budget.

Teufel is a speaker specialist that's been making top quality PC speakers for a while, and the Concept C300 is its latest attempt at 2.1 wireless sound.

Teufel's years of expertise were evident as soon as we removed the two satellite speakers from the box. They're very well constructed and designed, and made with real care and attention.

When it comes to how free of wires these speakers are, like most 'wireless' speakers this just refers just to the connection to the PC. There are still wires linking the speakers and subwoofer.

Setting them up involves wiring the satellites to the subwoofer with speaker wires rather than simply plugging them in. It doesn't help that the speaker wire isn't included, necessitating a trip to a specialist hi-fi shop before you get started.

These certainly aren't the cheapest PC speakers or the simplest to set up, but once you've plugged them in the expense and work are justified – these speakers sound amazing. Low and high frequencies are reproduced flawlessly and small details in music tracks we've heard hundreds of times were revealed, breathing new life into well-worn songs.

The subwoofer performs incredibly well during movies and games, giving a strong bass presence without drowning out the other sounds. This is a big investment, but if you have the money you won't be disappointed.

The supplied remote control is rather simple, comprising just five buttons: power, input, bass and two volume controls. It looks great, but it's not the most convenient of controls – especially considering the lack of any visual indication of how loud the sound or bass volume is – you just have to go by ear.

The Teufel Concept C300 might be expensive, but its superb sound quality puts it ahead of competitors like the Creative Zii Sound T6.

Most PC speaker purchases are made based on aural rather than aesthetic grounds. At least, this was true back in the days when our PCs were kept out of sight in studies.

However, now that our PCs are almost part of the furniture, and can be found in nearly any room of the house, sometimes a little visual flair is appreciated. As long as it doesn't lead to style covering up for a lack of substance, that is.

The Edifier Aurora is a small and striking looking 2.1 speaker system. Despite its stature, it feels weighty and well built.

The two round satellite speakers look good, but it's the long, tubular subwoofer that draws the eye. It might not be to everyone's taste, but it's a distinctive design that's a far cry from the usual black box looks of the average subwoofer.

Thankfully, the sound quality holds up, with the small speakers handling loud sounds incredibly well without distortion. The 15 watt subwoofer might not be able to produce ground-trembling bass, but it does a good job of bringing depth to the sound, and helps this speaker set avoid sounding either thin or tinny.

The one area where it feels like convenience has taken a back seat to style is control. There are only two buttons located on the right-hand satellite for volume tweaking. There are no controls for bass or even to turn the speakers on and off.

Luckily, the levels are pretty good, but it's frustrating to not have complete control over the sound quality from the speakers.

While the slim design makes these speakers look good alongside a laptop, they need to be plugged in to a power source, so they aren't exactly portable.

The Edifier Aurora connects via a standard headphone jack, though, so it's very versatile, enabling you to use it with most PCs, MP3 players and smartphones. Best of all, it sounds as good as it looks.