Is louder necessarily better when it comes to speakers? Not if you ask the makers of the Maduro Sonos custom cedar cigar box powered speakers. They’ll tell you these aren’t very loud. But what they lack in volume, they make up for in pure, rich, and original bass tones that are more than capable of filling up a large-to-mid-sized room without disturbing the neighbors or your co-workers. These multi-purpose speakers are great as functional decor in your home or office, and they can give your cubicle/office/entertainment room an added touch of class that other speakers can’t provide.

Crafted from genuine cigar boxes, and still usable for that function, not all of these will look alike, (after all, there are different grains of wood involved), but each promises to be expertly crafted. Great accessory to go with your Nub Cigars.

If you just spent $499+ on a brand new Apple iPad 2, congratulations – you’re going to want to drop another $550 pretty soon.

The Pioneer VSX-1021-K 7.1 A/V Receiver (I’ll just be calling it the VSX for short) is an AirPlay compatible home entertainment receiver designed with the iPad in mind. Using the iPad and the iControlAV2 app as a 9.7-inch remote control, you’ll be able to stream YouTube videos, music, movies and other content over your home wireless network directly to your entertainment center through the VSX.

The receiver also works with the iPad 1, iPhone, iPod Touch and regular old PCs to stream all types of media to your enormous television and surround sound speakers.

The additional AirJam feature lets up to four devices share music wirelessly and create group playlists, so your parties can go on all night (or until your guests get sick of all the REO Speedwagon you’ve been playing. Seriously, what is your fascination with that band?).

So come on – what’s another $550 dollars for a state-of-the-art receiver that integrates with nearly every device in your house?

Portable speaker systems tend to be bulky, boxy and tinny wastes of money. The sound is always sub-par and on occasion, “portable” is a term used loosely.

The Edifier Aurora 2.1 portable speakers aim to change those perceptions with their radically different design and variety of available colors. Think “original iMacs meet the flashlight”.

The Aurora speakers consist of a 2″ magnetically sealed subwoofer and two golfball-sized satellite speakers that output 22-watts of sound into anything with a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you’re looking for a set of speakers to complement that pink iPod Nano you just bought, look no further than the Edifier Aurora 2.1 travel speakers.