GadgetBox Imaginesound Desksound Photo Frame Speakers

I bought these speakers about 2 years ago when they were on the boffer.co.uk website for £14. For most of the year I live in a single roomed student accommodation and so space is an issue. As such, products which combine different functionality such as this appeal to me. The main idea of the product is that the two main speakers double up as picture frames for displaying photographs. In my case I attach the speakers to my laptop, although the speakers can be used with an MP3 player, CD player, TV or indeed anything with a 3.5mm socket of the type you would plug headphones into. I often like to listen to music and watch films and tv programs in my room from my computer but find the inbuilt speakers to be rather weak in terms of volume and richness of sound at times. As such I keep the product on my desk and have my choice of pictures alongside my computer acting as my speakers.

The product consists of three main units, the two picture frames themselves and a main unit where all the wires connect to and which also has the speaker volume controls and is a subwoofer. This central unit is the largest component, measuring 9*19*20cm and is fairly plain to look at, being made from white acrylic. The front panel contains the sound hole for the subwoofer and three volume controls to vary the overall volume levels or alternatively tweak the relative levels of the bass and treble. When on (the power switch is at the back), the machine emits an attractive blue light around the edges of these dials. From the back of this comoponent you have wires leading to the power supply, audio device and two speakers. In this age of wireless devices, the various cables may be a little messy for some people, and depending on your requirements the cables provided may not be long enough for you, however, since I keep everything close together on a single desk they are more than long enough for me. If you want things to look tidier it is suggested you can hide the subwoofer away and just have the picture frame speakers on display, however, I just keep it on the desk with everything else.

The photo-frame speakers themselves are fairly basic looking and are made from the same white acrylic as the main box. They have rotatable stands at the back, which means they can stand in either portrait or landscape orientation as your photo choice dictates and also have holes to allow you to mount them on a wall if you prefer. Picture-wise the frames take 6"*4" prints. At the front of the speakers there is a frame consisting of a white border surrounded by a clear acrylic border. This is (securely) magnetically attached to the main edge of the speaker so can be pulled off in order to place and change the prints. These just sit on the speaker and are held in place by being sandwiched between the speaker and the frame due to the magnetic attraction. Initially I found it a little difficult to get a good alignment of the pictures, as they can slip a bit when you put the frame on, but it got easier with practice. You can also use self adhesive tabs (included in the box) to help mount your pictures, however I didn't bother with this.

---Sound quality---
These speakers do not have high-end specifications and are never going to compete with an expensive speaker set from an established brand in terms of sound quality. If you are really interested in getting top notch sound quality then this product is probably not for you. However, for me the sound quality is just fine - it doesn't sound at all tinny to my ears, as some computer speakers I have used in the past do and is nicely rounded. The speakers suit my purpose of listening to music and watching programs on my laptop just fine, yet with the added bonus of having the photo-frame element as well. Some further details for those in the know are as follows:

• Sound output: 12W (Subwoofer) & 3W x 2 (speaker frames)
• Frequency response: 200Hz - 12KHz
• S/N ratio: 65dB (average)
• Power supply: AC 220V/50Hz

The speakers are currently available on Amazon for £30 which is probably reasonable, although on searching the internet they seem to have been available on several websites in the past for quite a bit cheaper (although in many places they are currently out of stock), so it may well pay to shop around. Certainly if you can find them around the £20 mark or less I think that is excellent value. Overall these speakers have served me well and I would recommend them.

Thank you for reading, review may also be found on Ciao.