Yes, it’s shiny and spherical and fashionable, but I really just wasn’t expecting Vestalife’s iPod speaker system to sound good at all. Perhaps it was the name: Ladybug. Know what doesn’t make me think of rich, full sound? The ladybug. Or insects in general. Crickets, maybe, or cicada, but even those produce too much highs. They’re all tweeter, the insects. But Vestalife’s Ladybug does alright.

I come from a time when a man was judged by the size of his stereo equipment. I used to see these racks of receivers, EQs and cassette decks, speakers as big as me, and think, “One day, I’ll have the money to fill a room with stereo equipment so big that people will think Presidents are buried under them.” Even now, I find myself taking over used component systems just because they’re large and have wood grained finish, but such systems always remain untouched in my attic.

This is because everything’s getting small. And everything’s getting small because the science of sound fellows are finding ways to get big sound of little systems. One of the littlest systems I’ve tried out recently is the eFizz Travel Mobile Station for iPod from Ewoo. And although it certainly delivers on the little, it misses the mark on the sound.

Here comes another portable speaker system that works well with the iPod, the iPhone and other digital music devices: the Grandmax Tweakers Mini-Boom speakers. Comprising two mini-speakers, Tweakers measures a few inches tall, has a rounded top and flat bottom, and retracts to as small as four inches long. When the Tweakers are retracted, it more »