"Miidio Vibro-Speakers are uber-cool, ultra-compact speakers which take the signal from almost any music device and transform the surface on which they stand into an effective and powerful speaker. You can simply plug in and play music from any device featuring a standard 3.5mm audio (headphone) socket such as an iPod, MP3 player, laptop, PC, most multimedia mobile phones and many other hand-held devices. Miidio speakers are highly portable and truly bring the idea of music anywhere alive - they work beautifully on glass, wood or plastic and even on the floorboards! Miidio Vibro-speakers are available in 3 designs..." and I got my paws on the UFO, pictured above!

Unpacking it, generated a 'ahhh!' of pleasure from Nina and myself. It certainly looked good although as to be expected for a Vibro speaker (weight transferring the sound through to the surface it rests on) it wasn't light!

Then I looked around for an uncluttered top... Such things are not known in my gadget laden life. I considered clearing the desk but that was just too much of a task. Six foot by 4 foot, there was less than a square foot spare, right in the middle. With little hope of any success, I set the Miidio UFO up - so simple I'm not even going to talk you through it - two wires, that's it.
I loaded up Beethoven - I'm trendy like that. Actually I chose the piece purposely for its variations of volume, range and intensity. I stood back expecting poor volume and ear-bleeding distortion. Instead - and you should have seen the smiles - Beethoven filled the air! The volume range for such a tiny device was superb (it's the size of my palm)

So it looks great and works very well for its size. However three things caused me concern.

The weight of the UFO, considering it is billed as suitable for travelling, is off-putting.

The battery pack, if not using the mains system, requires eight AA batteries! That's a lot to carry.

Then there's the price tag - a hefty RRP of £70- which surprised me.

The question is always would I buy it myself. I would but only from the perspective of not using it for travel - it's really just not feasible. So currently it's set up on my bedside table! :-)

Available at www.twistedcarbon.net