Sony Sountina: reassuringly expensive

Snazzy and colourful compact cameras with all the trimmings

LAST UPDATED AT 09:47 ON Fri 24 Oct 2008

Is the Sony Sountina (NSA-PF1) the future of surround sound? When we first saw spy shots of the $10,000 Sountina (apparently an amalgam of 'sound' and 'fountain'), we were blown away. So far released only in Japan, we managed to get a sneak preview of the futuristic 3D speaker, just one of which will fill a room with music. There's a leather-clad subwoofer in the base, a woofer above it, with a wire running up the 'organic glass' (read plastic) tube to a tweeter at the top. The tube itself resonates in sympathy, dispersing sound in all directions. ·