Gear4 Duo

Design
The Duo is essentially a large subwoofer, with a pair of mid-range drivers and tweeters mounted into a removable face plate. Gear4's thinking is that you'll leave the sub plugged in, but when you want your music to come with you, simply pick up the face plate and let it play from two user-replaceable lithium-ion batteries.

Build quality's what we've come to expect from Gear4: solid, but without the bells and whistles that add significant cost. The front speakers are held in place by two grooves at their base, and magnets at the top, meaning it slips in and out of place without clips or wires.

Features
Batteries power the front speakers when not connected to the sub, and while they'll continue to work if the system has no mains power, the batteries won't power the sub too. In addition to the sub and main drivers, two tweeters push out high-frequency sound, giving the Duo some potential as an all-round star player in the league of iPod docks.

On the back of the detached front speakers and the sub are power input sockets for mains power and battery charging, and line-in sockets for hooking up other audio devices.

Notably missing is video output -- a big iPod feature these days. Neither can you connect the system to a PC via USB for syncing with iTunes.

Performance
In its full configuration, the Duo adequately fulfills its bedroom role. That is to say, it's no living room hi-fi alternative, but sound is clear, bass is present and it'll hit a reasonable volume. What you must bear in mind is that, while this is technically a 2.1 setup, it will not sound anything remotely like what you'd hear from even a middle-of-the-road 2.1 system in satellite/subwoofer configuration.

What the sub does is add decent warmth to the bright sound generated by the mid-range drivers and the two tweeters. When you take the front speakers away for use on their own, however, you lose that warmth. But the convenience of this kind of setup makes up for this, and you could easily take the front speakers away with you on holiday.

Playing Dashboard Confessional's emotional track Stolen, we heard decent overall performance. Yes, the audiophiles will scoff at the Duo's harsh high-end and its lack of stereo separation. But it does offer decent enough sound quality for anyone who just likes casually listening to their MP3s, with the convenience of being able to take their music in the bathroom.

And we loved this feature. We actually found this most useful when we were listening to a lengthy podcast. 15 minutes into the show and we needed to eat. We simply picked up the front speakers, popped out the kick stand and carried on listening in the kitchen. Brilliant. True, we had another audio setup in the kitchen already, but for those that haven't, it's darn handy.