Gear4 Duo

I don't feel I'm out of place assuming you probably don't want to be broken into two halves. That's not true for what we're looking at today though -- it loves being broken into two pieces. I'm Nate Lanxon and we're going to have an up-close and personal look at Gear4's Duo -- an iPod-docking speaker system with a bit of a twist. As a complete unit the Duo is a 2.1 speaker system for iPods. It's got this big ol' sub taking up most of its footprint, and two mid-range drivers and two tweeters sit on the front to provide everything that isn't bass. Pretty conventional on its own. What's much less conventional is that you can simply pick up the front panel and two built-in lithium ion batteries continue to power the main drivers and tweeters. The idea behind the Duo -- which is essentially two products in one package -- is fairly simple: You can have the 2.1 unit set up in your bedroom, then when the sun comes out from beneath England's clouds, you can quickly pick up the front unit and enjoy the three and a half minutes of summer we get each year outside, without having to so much as pause your iPod. When summer's finished, go back inside and plonk the Duo's front panel back onto the sub -- all done wirelessly and without pushing any buttons -- and you can get back to enjoying your sub woofer-powered music. Pretty cool in theory and we had fun using it. We found we used it a lot of the time to listen to podcasts. As they're a lot longer than the average song, we often ended up listening to half of an episode in the bedroom, then maybe the rest in the kitchen or bathroom. Sound quality's not too bad. We expected more bass from the sub woofer -- in practice it tends to just add a bit of warmth and depth underneath the mid-range, rather than shaking the floor with low-end rumbling. Overall there are certainly better-sounding units out there, but none that offer this kind of usefulness. The sound from the front speakers on their own are pretty much what you'd expect -- a little tinny but perfectly good for listening out on the grass. In fact, it's got a lot in common with this thin little thing: Gear4's own Street Party Size 0. You can check out our full opinions on sound quality in our full review on CNET.co.uk now. Really this is a nice piece of kit. If you're after something that just plays music from your iPod very well, there are others that'll do it better. But if you just want nice enough sound but a system you can use at home, then break in half and use in the garden too, you'd be demented not to at least give the Duo a poke in your nearest store. I'm Nate Lanxon and this is the Gear4 Duo.