12. Logitech X-620: Small Format 6.1

The X-620 is a member of the still limited 6.1 family and is surprisingly small. This will please many potential buyers who don't want to be crowded. It's not so pleasing if results are what you want, as small size inevitably means compromise on that score.

The subwoofer, housing the electronics, is a little cube easy to find a home for. It still manages to contain the entire power supply which is fed in by a mains cable via a standard socket, a good thing, that. For the acoustics, there is a 20cm loudspeaker, which seems to operate on a closed load. In fact, the visible loudspeaker is passive, the active one is internal with a rear load like a bass-reflex. This sophisticated type of load - what we might call a band pass system - does mean you can lower the volume and still drop into the extreme bass range, but the impulse response is far from optimal. More of this in the results.