The sound is like a piece of crystal just after it's been taken from the dishwasher and polished - clear, warm and rich. As you turn it, it glints. Dimensions and experiences you haven't seen are caught in its highlights.

Josie gave me a set of irhythm ipod speakers for my birthday. They're small and the unit is a bit smaller than your standard issue radio/cassette boombox. The way its little speakers can fill a room with sound though, that's a treasure. It reminds me of a crisp Sansui box I used to own, which had a hopeless burned out amp and cheap wiring, but it came with the most amazing set of crisp cherry wood woofers. I made a mistake when I got rid of the speakers, even though they were black.

It's hard to describe warm, vibrant sound. There is a resonant, warm and complete feeling that makes the experience different to regular sound - but you don't get it until you listen to one along side the other. Otherwise it's like trying to explain continental cold to someone from Brisbane.

Anyway, the irhythm rocks. It even plays Josie's ipod shuffle so it's hard to believe that little ciggie lighter-sized case can belt out so much depth of quality.

Beautiful as the rich sound of the irhythm is, it left with me a dilemma because i still don't have decent computer speakers. The speakers on the imac just don't cut it for movies and music. One possibility was to move my gorgeous Harmon Kardon sound sticks from the living area to my computer.

But they produce definitively the best sound I've ever made on an amateur system. That sub woofer is a breakthrough. It produces a bass wave like a jello that floats up and slides down into your ears - into your blood! - as the complete note that left the fingertips of the composer.

So they stay and the irhythm becomes my portable. That called for new computer speakers. I had my eye on some beautiful Bose speakers but they turned out to be not released here yet and they are hideously expensive.

Then I found some wild Klipsch speakers.



Check out those puppies.

I never heard of Klipsch speakers but I read reviews saying the Klipsch has sound in the ball park of Bose and Onkyo so there was my birthday present for myself right there.

They are not hugely powerful - something like 10 watts out of each -- but the subwoofer is big enough to shake the stone walls. There are some small cars in Paris and I reckon some of the tinier models could use the subwoofer for a parking garage.

The little speakers are built with retro forties styling like the engine of a spitfire. It's a contrast - a groovy one - to the clean minimalist seventies glistening white of my imac.

They pump out a signal that is so clear unfortunately it collects every flaw in the source material. I downloaded Carmina Burana from the iTunes store - a pre-1972 production and sadly there is tape hiss all over it that isn't there on the modern recordings. So I tried Carla Bruni, whose fabric voice slid down my neck like a tongue as sharp as a knife. It's a sound that makes you want to wake someone up in the middle of the night with a phone call. The sound of a cottage by the sea on a summers day. Ah well.

The subwoofer has so much boom that it munges the music unless it's turned way down. It's possible the Klipsch is in the top end of speakers - it's won enough awards it turns out -- but my source gear and listening environment are nowhere near the standard where I could find out.

So this was a birthday for my ears. This stuff is filling every room.