Philips Fidelio E5 brings on-demand surround sound to the living room

Philips E5
If Michael Bay put a sound system in his bathroom, it would be this

If the prospect of fiddling with wires and boxes has prolonged plans to build that home cinema, Philips may have the solution - the Fidelio E5 - which (after quite a long wait) is now available to buy.

Throwing out some of the, the E5 system consists of two sound towers and a wireless subwoofer. But there's more to those pillars than meets the eye: the tower tops can be detached, creating an additional two independent wireless speakers to be placed anywhere around the room.

Well, so long as its no further than 20 meters.

Satellite of love

Detaching the satellite speakers will automatically convert the system's 2.1 stereo to full 5.1 surround sound. You've also got the option to use NFC for simple pairing of your wireless gadgets.

We had a play with it back at IFA last year and certainly liked the flexibility the E5 offers up. It also passed our 'Transformers test' as we tried the speakers while watching Michael Bay's third robot romp - with pleasing results.

It's available for £600 (around $1025, AU$1094). US and Australia prices are yet to be confirmed but Philips has promised to let us know when it has some figures.

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.