There's nothing better than hooking up your MP3 player or laptop to a proper set of speakers and letting others enjoy your tunes with you, but that needn't be limited to a hi-fi. There are plenty of speaker sets that are small, light and - most importantly - portable, and many have more interesting features than simply a volume control and line input.
Take the Genius iTempo 800, for example. While it has a normal
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3.5mm audio input on the back, it's primarily intended for iPods thanks to the dock on the front. It comes with a range of adapters to fit most iPods except the tiny shuffle; it can connect via USB to a PC to transfer tracks directly and, once connected, will play whatever is on the iPod's drive. Yes, that includes photo and video: you can hook up the iTempo to a TV via the S-Video port - although bear in mind this feature won't work with any of the new range of iPods.
Of course, this design means the iTempo looks a little odd if you don't sit an iPod on the front, but with any audio source you choose it can reach an impressive level of volume. The 20W speakers provide plenty of bass, but with an oddly unclean effect and the louder it gets the messier the sound is, although it remained impressively distortion-free in our tests. The remote also lets you control your iPod and the speaker from your sofa. But with its reliance on mains power, the one thing you can't do is use it away from a plug socket.
