Boston Acoustics SoundWare XS Digital Cinema

Best style speaker package up to £500, Awards 2010. It's small, sturdy and well priced too

SoundWare XS 5.1

Good construction and killer performance make these teeny speakers and monster subwoofer a nice starter system for any budding audiophile.

Price: $500 At A Glance: Cabinet geometry allows front or upward firing • 2.5-inch woofer and 0.5-inch tweeter in plastic enclosure • Sub has 8-inch down-firing woofer and 100 watts Shape’s Mightier Than Size Gaze back into the mists of time, and you’ll find that the earliest loudspeakers were boxes with nothing but right angles. This shape lends itself to efficient manufacturing techniques and is still used for most speakers.

Boston Acoustics is attempting to out-cube the masters of cube with their SoundWare XS system. At $500, it complete with five cubes, a sub, and a very innovative design and mounting system.