JBL Spyro

Clearly inspired by its experimental-looking Creature IIIs, JBL has also produced these Spyro speakers, which borrow more from flower power than they do traditional audio design.

Handling: a floral arrangement

The look is just as innovative as it was with the Creatures, but JBL seems to have taken inspiration from the world of nature for these speakers: the satellites look like flowers in full bloom while the woofer is more of a mushroom shape.  The whole thing is available in a range of bright colours, and it's certainly enough to brighten up your living room.

Unfortunately, though, we're used to JBL producing speakers that look good but scrimp on connectivity options and custom settings.  There's no auxiliary input, meaning you'll have to flip between your computers, phones and all the rest.  There's no headphone jack, either, and the main power switch is behind the woofer, which isn't very useful.

We're also disappointed to see that you can no longer control the treble yourself.  The main volume buttons still use a tactile system that just needs a gentle tap, rather than physical pressure, which is quite fun.

Audio Quality: the woofer comes to the rescue

Our first finding isn't that surprising: the Spyros aren't really cut out to handle incredibly loud sound.  Like a lot of JBL kits, the bass speaker is designed to go on your desk rather than on the floor.

The very small satellites hit treble hard, but inevitably begin to struggle in the mid-range.  Fortunately, though, the woofer comes to the rescue as it goes very high itself.  Unlike some others we've heard, it doesn't get lost in the mid-range and goes pretty low too, although the volume is far from impressive.

Sat on your desk, the Spyro speakers produce pretty reasonable sound, and liven the place up a bit.  Of course, their styling won't be to everybody's taste either, and you'd better not be a music fan, either.  You can't please all of the people all of the time though ...