Home away from home

Bose SoundLink Mini.

In terms of technology, hotel rooms are still firmly locked in the 20th century. An in-room DVD player is a big deal at most hotels. Wi-fi? Only if you're happy to be ripped off, and then it's mostly marginal. Music? Forget that - if it's not on the television, it doesn't exist.

So if music helps you survive travel, it's all up to you, and unless you like listening to the horrible speaker in your phone, or wear headphones, you'll need a portable speaker. There may be plenty available across a wide range of prices, but not all of them travel well and lots of them sound little better than your phone.

First, you need something small and light enough to throw into your bag. It also needs to be robust enough to take the knocks. It needs sufficient volume to avoid washing out the detail by the time the sound has crossed from the room's only available power point to the room's only couch when the battery is charging.

Samsung DAF61.

Most of all, it needs to sound good, and this is where the laws of physics are against you. The smaller and more compact a speaker, the more it favours high-range sounds. If you want heaps of bass - well, it comes out best with large speakers, and these make serious inroads into your suitcase. So, you have to compromise, but advances in technology mean you don't have to compromise as much as you once did.

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The Samsung here has a passive radiator, essentially a cone with no driver behind it, operated by changes of air pressure within the speaker cabinet as the smaller drivers do their work. It enhances bass performance but, again, the bigger the better.

Bose has a tricky way of getting long (and therefore low) soundwaves out of very small enclosures.

Beats Pill.

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Home away from home