Cabasse Pearl Akoya

Easily one of the most striking wireless speaker designs going, this has a retro-futuristic sense of glamour to it. Cabasse would argue that form follows function; its rivals’ boxy fibreboard cabinets being far from ideal sonically.

However, the compact size of the Pearl Akoya means there’s not a lot of internal cabinet volume to play with, and that creates other limitations. Unusually, this speaker is sold as a single item, so you need to buy a pair for stereo and then sync them using the app.

This proves easier said than done, as first time round both speakers struggle to fi nd my wi-fi network. After powering everything down and starting again, we’re in business. The Cabasse Stream CONTROL app is nice enough to use, and works with your chosen streaming service. If you use Bubble UPnP, you’ll only get one speaker as the Pearls don’t natively link together.