Parrot Sound System

Until now Bluetooth speakers have either been portable or second-room systems, content with serving up an adequate sound for background listening rather than blowing your mind. However, the latest wireless sound system from Parrot is an altogether different beast and probably the first to cater for the audiophiles among us. Not only that, but it's also the first to blast a hole in your wallet and have the bank manager on your back.

At £240, this system isn't cheap and at this price you'll no doubt be looking at this as your main home sound system (unless you're well-heeled, of course).

These Parrots are the size of your average bookshelf speakers, so are quite sizeable; you will have to make space to accommodate them into your living space. But with only two power leads from each speaker, you're not getting tangled up with unsightly wires which, of course, is the whole point of owning these high-end speakers.

The boxes are finished in a white glossy veneer with moulded edges with magnetic speaker grilles to cover the speaker cones if you don't want that 'hi-fi' look.

With A2DP support you can wirelessly stream music from your compatible mobile phone or PC (via a USB dongle) and pairing these devices is a cinch. As soon as both speakers are powered up it goes into pairing mode (indicated by a flashing blue light) and it's just a case of following the procedure on your phone or PC. For all you iPod/MP3 player owners, a line-in connector is situated around the back with the relevant audio leads supplied.

We hooked up a Samsung D900 and streamed out MP3s encoded at 192Kbps. With 60 watts of power pumping from each speaker, the Parrot Sound System can hit high volume without distortion (something lacking in cheaper systems) and dishes out plenty of bass grunt. Vocals are also quite detailed. Unfortunately, to a keen ear, mid-range sounds are noticeably AWOL and this lends to a sometimes muddy sound.

Despite the murk, the Parrot Sound System are still the best sounding wireless speakers we've heard but we're not sure the fidelity performance is worthy of the £240 price tag. If you're in the market for a serious set of wireless airshifters then your search will be limited to, well, the Parrot speakers. So perhaps hear them out before parting with the dinero.