The key to this bit of audio kit is in the name: Duo. The unit comes in two parts, with a full speaker unit including woofer for home use, and a front panel that can be removed and used as a standalone portable speaker.

In practice, the front unit slots out extremely easily, so there’s no fiddling when you want to grab your music and run. A handy kickstand on the front portion also allows it to stand up and deliver the sound in your chosen direction.

The Gear4 marketing guys said they were aiming for the kind of high-end sound you’d get out of something like a Bose unit and on first impressions it seems to be approaching that. However, given the large venue we were in, a more thorough listen is needed to let you know exactly how good it is in a home environment.

OK, so when you unclip the front panel things take a bit of a nosedive. That’s because the depth of sound provided by the main unit is gone and the speakers now have to take over the bass-handling functions. Things seemed a bit tinny, but again we’ll let you know how it fares when we get some of our better tracks pumping through it in some different locations.

The addition of an extra battery slot is very welcome, doubling the unit’s battery life to a claimed 20 hours. We also liked the look of the protective carry case that will come in a travel pack sold with the extra battery. There’s a definite nod to Logitech’s case in its look and feel.

On first look, the £149.99 tag seems a good buy for something that could become your newest audio companion, home or away.

The Gear 4 Duo iPod speaker dock includes a 20W subwoofer in the base unit