Boston Acoustics Soundware XS review

There's been a dearth of budget style speaker systems adorning our pages over the last year or so, which is a real shame.

Good-quality home cinema electronics are now more affordable than ever, meaning that alongside a set of speakers such as these you can have a home cinema system for relative peanuts.

So, to this Boston Acoustics SoundWare XS 5.1 package. The price box is ticked – we've seen it even cheaper online – and in terms of practicality these speakers are a definite score, too.

Not only are they tiny units that, despite their multi-sided design, sit happily on stands, they also come complete with articulating brackets for simple wall-mounting.

Looks smart, solidly constructed
Available in white or black along with a bog-standard subwoofer they certainly look pretty smart and feel fairly solidly constructed. The speakers use smaller spring-clip terminals, which work well and grip the cable solidly – which is handy if you're planning on sticking them halfway up the wall.

Listening to the soundtrack on the excellent Blu-ray transfer of The Lord Of The Rings we're first taken by the cohesive, enveloping quality of the package.

For such miniature speakers they do a staggering job of filling a good-sized room as sound swings fluidly around the satellites.

Highs and lows to raise a smile
Diminutive in stature but not sound, the satellites deliver big but balanced audio, with a treble that's assured, clear and never bright.

The subwoofer beds in well, too, delivering the necessary bottom-end power and weight without sticking its head too far above the parapet.

There's subtlety, too, with the tense atmospherics of Moon conveyed confidently alongside decent dynamics when required.

It's been a long time coming but finally we have a new budget style system worth shouting about. It may be XS in size but it's an XL for performance.

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