Edifier Luna 5 iPod speaker

Kicking off our test with Rachid Taha's Made in Medina album – it's the one with the music from Black Hawk Down on it – we were thoroughly impressed by the Luna 5's ability to balance the driving bass and tight percussion of tracks like En Retard and Barra Barra.

Puccini arias, Bruckner's ninth symphony and a variety of rock tracks - all were delivered with aplomb, with not the slightest hint of distortion or break up, even at maximum volume. For a set of speakers mounted so close together, stereo separation - or at least the impression thereof - was not at all bad either.

Very impressive sound quality

The bottom line is, for something of its size and cost, the Luna 5 really does produce a most remarkably fine, detailed and coherent sound.

The only real failing the Luna 5 has has nothing to do with sound per se. It's the lack of a socket for an external aerial for the non-RDS radio. As it is, the Luna5 works just fine in areas with a strong FM signal, but away from them reception is frankly pretty poor.

Typical of Edifier's attention to detail: when you switch the Luna 5 off the volume quickly runs down the scale to zero rather than just cutting off abruptly - a nice, if peripheral design touch.

Verdict

When it comes to sound quality, the Luna5 is very close to the current big boy on the block, the B&W Zeppelin, but – to our eyes at least – it looks better and only costs half the price. ®

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