Philips A3.610

Speaker systems with 5.1 sound are in abundance these days. While you can pick up a half-decent set for as little as £50, good quality comes at a price and Philips reckons this to be £180.

The Philips Acoustic Fusion 610 not only provides 5.1 sound for a PC or digital decoder, but can also support two audio sources such as MP3 players or CD players.

Novice users will need to consult the manual when setting up, due to the multitude of connections. Unfortunately, the plugs that connect to your sound card or external decoder aren't labelled, making it impossible to know which plug is meant for the front, rear and centre sockets. Because any guidance was absent from the manual,we were left to find the right connection by trial and error.

The flat-panel satellite speakers are very stylish and only 3cm thick. They attach to the supplied speaker stands, either horizontally or vertically and can be wall-mounted, providing you don't overreach the 5m cable length. The wooden-cased subwoofer is designed to handle all the bass, so the satellite speakers can concentrate on mid-range and high-end sounds, such as speech and high-pitched instruments. A new tweeter in the middle of each speaker also helps to improve audio quality. However, classical music, which contains a lot of the aforementioned range, particularly strings, sounded a little flat. Bass quality was excellent though.

A handy remote control allows you to operate the speakers from afar, control the amount of bass and treble and select which audio input to use. One of three pre-programmed audio settings can also be employed to optimise sound for games, movies or music.

Contact: Philips 020 8689 2166 www.philips.com