Review: Lacie USB Speakers

Computer products of all kinds are getting cheaper and more generic, which means that companies have to try hard to make their products stand out.

Lacie has done this by enlisting the help of the minimalist designer Neil Poulton. Unfortunately we're not sure he’s got it right this time.

Instead of looking sleek and stylish, the Lacie USB Speakers reminded us of a pair of ship's funnels – the white housing surrounds a black speaker unit, with a small grill covering each.

Looks aside the speakers were incredibly easy to set up – the epitome of plug and play. The only connections to make were attaching the left speaker to the right one and plugging the single USB cable into a spare port on the computer.

After that they were automatically recognised and the computer set itself to output audio to them. There was no software installation required, nor any other configuration needed. They can also be connected to a portable music player or similar device, but for this they still need to be plugged into a USB port for their power, or require an additional power adapter, which costs extra.

Given the speakers' specifications, we would have expected the volume to be enough to fill quite a large room. Playing them for the first time was a disappointment, however. Although they were loud, they were very tinny, which made even the deepest-voiced male artists sound like the Bee Gees.

The speakers come with an equaliser, which allows the user to change the bass and treble levels, and which improved the sound quality for us. Although we were able to turn the PC's volume right up, we still struggled to discern particular sounds in the mix.

This was especially bad with modern chart music, which had a muddled sound that made it difficult to make out the words. It wasn't as bad with other genres of music, such as jazz and classical, but the sound still wasn't great.

Unless you like your music to sound like the recording artist has been buried under wet cement, we'd recommend avoiding the Lacie USB Speakers.