If you like your speakers to look as the good as the music coming out of them, then here are three of the best.
B&O BeoPlay A9 (above)
The high-concept Danish brand doesn’t really buy into the notion that a speaker should be heard and not seen. The BeoPlay A9 is both AirPlay and DLNA enabled, offering wireless connection with your mp3 player, smartphone, laptop or TV set-up. It boasts an 8in bass unit fed by a 160W amp, for a booming sound, and features “magic touch” controls you operate by waving your hands around. All this and, as you may have noticed, it looks like a satellite dish.
£1,700, bang-olufsen.com
Samsung DA-E750
When an iPod dock looks this good, you may think how it sounds would be secondary. You’d be wrong. That retro styling isn’t just a gimmick — the output is rich, with the old-school valves (the glowing contraptions on top) adding much-needed warmth to your digital music. Not that this device isn’t bang-up-to-date: you can dock Samsung <and> Apple mp3 players, and stream wirelessly from both. And did we mention how good it looks?
£600, samsung.com
B&O BeoPlay A9
The high-concept Danish brand doesn’t really buy into the notion that a speaker should be heard and not seen. The BeoPlay A9 is both AirPlay and DLNA enabled, offering wireless connection with your mp3 player, smartphone, laptop or TV set-up. It boasts an 8in bass unit fed by a 160W amp, for a booming sound, and features “magic touch” controls you operate by waving your hands around. All this and, as you may have noticed, it looks like a satellite dish.
£1,700, bang-olufsen.com