Small speaker sets almost always suffer from poor quality sound - that's pretty much down to physics, because the speaker cones are simply not big or deep enough to move the large amount of air required for deep, loud bass sounds.

Technology is improving, though, which leads us to Sony's SRS-T10PC, which is designed for notebook users and plugs into such a computer's USB port.

Power is supplied by the computer through the same connection and there are no controls on the speakers - everything is set in Windows, which automatically recognises the device when it's plugged in (it appears in Windows as 'C-Media Headphone Set').

Sound quality was better than we expected from the speakers, which are only 15cm across and a couple of centimetres deep. Bass response is fair - you won't be able to get any parties started, but it beats the internal speakers of almost any notebook PC, and if you want to listen to a bit of music or watch videos while on the move, the SRS-T10PC offers an excellent compromise between portability and quality, all at a decent price.

Vista compatible: Yes