Such is the wealth of iPod-oriented portable speakers and 2.1 sets around at the moment, it's not really surprising to see the odd manufacturer attempting to carve a bit of a niche with a novelty product or a setup with a twist. The TwinMos Boom China 2.1 speakers have both, and are perhaps the most uniquely designed set we've seen yet. They were modelled with the help of a traditional Chinese painter and launched to coincide with the Chinese New Year and 2008 Olympic Games.

There's nothing particularly original about the design of the mid-range terminal but the subwoofer is fashioned to look like an authentic Chinese vase. It's so accurately designed that the untrained eye really wouldn't think it to be anything but, and to add extra authenticity you can even put a set of flowers into the sealed neck without affecting the sound.

If you have a look underneath you'll see the cap for the sub-woofer cunningly hidden away, offering access to 25W of power. The main speaker attaches to the sub through a supplied composite cable, and itself offers two 8W channels for mid-range and high tones.

You'll find a universal iPod dock here along with a USB port for the Shuffle, volume controls, an additional input for a 3.5mm jack so you can connect non-Apple players, and a composite video out that will allow you to view photos or video stored on compatible iPods through a TV. There's also a remote control with volume, track skip, repeat and randomise functions and separate level control for the sub-woofer.

Setup is straightforward and, after trying out a range of tunes, we were left with rather mixed feelings about the overall performance. Output from the main terminal is very good: the four-cone layout allows for clear audio and effective separation of mid and high tones, resulting in extremely clean sound at this range.

Unfortunately the sub doesn't round things off as well as we'd hoped, perhaps down to the fact that the main outlet for bass is aimed directly at the floor. It sounds as though the shape of the vase is effective enough at generating a healthy thump, but does leave bass sounding a little disjointed and unevenly separated from the environment generated by the terminal.

We attempted to correct this somewhat by adjusting the equalizer on the iPod and adjusting the bass levels via the remote, and while you can improve things slightly with a bit of patience, it's difficult to resolve the issue completely.

On the upside, the total 41 watts of power generated from the setup does mean it's extremely loud, and things don't distort too badly until you get to a level that's easily adequate to dominate the most rowdy of parties.

As is often typical with these sorts of 'novelty' twists on fairly basic ideas, performance does seem to suffer a bit at the expense of the aesthetics, so those who put audio quality above all else may prefer to opt for something a little more traditional. But if you're primarily intrigued by the design of the Boom China, and perhaps have a bit of an oriental theme running through your home already, the speakers should still be good enough to impress.