It was my first time trying this little speaker, though not the first mini speaker I've had. My previous speakers had all been AA battery powered, and all of them had poor sound clarity and poor volume.

My little Rokono speaker came in its own case which means that it could travel safely with me.

I opened the box, took it out and looked at the tactile black ball, which is smaller than a tennis ball.

I discovered that you twist the two halves slightly in order to open them up, you then plug in and turn on the speakers and hit play on your machine.

The sound that emanates from that little speaker ball is amazing. It was incredibly loud and the clarity is incredible. Of course I was in a room in a Travel Inn at the time and not expecting anything like the volume had a moment of panic ... I didn't want to wake the entire place.

There is an added volume control on the side of the little Rokono, which also helps tweak the sound.

It says on the box "for use with: mobile and personal devices like mobile phones, personal audio players (eg, i-pod, mp3, etc), computers and game devices (eg, DS). So when I returned home I decided to try it out on several more devices.

My desk top computer did not come with speakers so good portable speakers are important to me, and these are good speakers. I had to build a little platform at the side of my computer tower because the 3.5 jack connector is on the Rokono is very short (about 2.5/3 inches in length).

I enquired and a gentleman called James at Gadget Hunter told me that 3.5 jack extension cables are available but not, as yet, from them. I did a search and there are a number available on Amazon and they are quite cheap. I'm not necessarily technology minded, so sometimes it's better to ask than to assume not.

The sound that emanated from my little Rokono speaker was stunning.

I tried it on my DS but the cable is too short to play comfortably, hence the need for an extension cable. However, I must say that the sound from the DS is remarkable the tinny little tune from my Plants vs Zombies theme sing is now clear and full of sound tones and pitch rather than the plinky sound that I had grown used to. I was truly astounded by this sudden increase in quality.

If you want even more sound you can link several little Rokonos together in a chain - something which I hope to be trying in the next month or so.

My old portables speakers were quite expensive and extremely tinny in sound, but this little sensation has none of the tin tone just crystal clear sounds. For the first time I could clearly hear the voices and the background in the DVDs rather than having them as a merged mass of sound. Using the little Rokono I didn't need to have the subtitles on in order to know what was being said.

Audio books' narrations were given a depth of voice that I had not previously experienced.

The old tinny speakers used to last an hour or so on 4 AA batteries, where as the Rokono has a 10 hour replay time from a single charge, saving me a significant amount. I simply plug them in to the USB port and let them charge while I am working on my computer, so that when I need to use them they are ready to go.

I can't express how impressed I am with the little Rokono, I never expected anything like that kind of sound from something so tiny. I can't recommend them highly enough.

*** UPDATE ***

Fortunately, the manufacturers have listened to us consumers (if only they all did!) and they now include an 80 cm extension cable so using my DS, etc is much easier.'

Don't get me wrong, this little beauty can't reproduce crystal clear sound with all the warmth and depth of a set of well-chosen Polk Audio speakers. But that's not the idea here is it? What we have instead is a quick and simple little plug-in that allows the user to suddenly fill the room with music using a speaker that's not much bigger than the average clementine. A party in your pocket if you like (ahem...).

For bass, as you'd expect from the name (BASS+), this miniature beast really works overtime. The deep deep bass is noticeably magnified...and then some, with plenty of extra oompth put behind the lower notes to really magnify its position in the music. Yeah, not exactly for everyone's day-to-day requirements, but when you've got a party vibe going on, or just want to crank it up a little, then this little devil is very possibly the answer.

It's easier to use than a bar of soap - simply twist to open up the speaker system, turn it on, plug it in, and away you go. There's a volume dial located on the base of the device, as well as a funky little blue light that lights-up when it's on and/or fully charged. Furthermore, whilst charging, the light goes red to let you know that it's drinking its electrical juices - so just leave it to it for a bit!

There's a small little lead actually secured to the underside of the device which can be used for linking multiple Rokono BASS+ Mini Speakers together to quite literally multiply the sound if so needed. On the included video you can see that I've linked up both a black one and a red one. The resulting magnified sound is pretty darn impressive - the video footage obviously not capturing the sound reproduction at all.

So what do I think? Well, quite frankly I love it! It's super small and lightweight, but still manages to blast out one hell of a sound, it looks funkier than Lenny Kravitz on a night out, and once fully charged it can deliver up to ten hours of music. It can also run off its USB lead if you don't want it to run down its (rechargeable) battery life.

Now in its third reincarnation, all the small niggles that came out in the wash with the speaker have now been ironed out. There's an additional 80cm 3.5mm audio extension cable included with the product to allow for extra distance between your device and the speaker, as well as a pull-tie splash-proof travel bag. Nice!

One final point (for all the metallers out there) - by way of an oh-so-scientific 'bass' test, I tried the 'Rokono BASS+ Mini Speaker' out on Heaven Shall Burn's track 'Combat' from their album Invictus (2010) to see how it handled the brain haemorrhaging bass explosions. Oh yes it delivered! In fact it managed a good two seconds down the sliding depths of each bass-mushroom-cloud before even it lost its way to the plummeting explosion of bass. But I have to say that the little speaker has been one of the best (portable) performers that I've tried out on 'The Test' so far.

PLEASE NOTE - This product was supplied to me for free for a 100% unbiased review.'

The item itself consists (obviously) of the speaker on which you'll find an on/off switch, an LED (which glows blue when the speaker is switched on and red when it's being charged), a volume dial, an audio output (used, rather cooly, for daisy chaining multiple speakers together for an even bigger sound!) and 3.5mm jack to connect the unit to your music player.

Arriving in a nice quality see-through perspex box, the speaker immediately creates a good impression and things only get better when you take it out of the packaging. The unit itself is sturdy and well made, but that's the least of it because there are two things about the Monster Bass mini speaker that really rock: the cool design and clear sound.

The first obvious evidence of the thought that has gone into the design of this thing is the input jack. No longer than 3 inches in length, when not in use, it coils cleverly and neatly around the base of the unit and clips away, out of site, between 3 little rubber feet on the bottom of the unit. And worry not, if 3 inches between your speaker and you ipod isn't enough, the USB lead doubles as an extension lead so you can connect your speaker to you player and place it further away.

They got everything about this speaker spot-on. The looks and feel are just right, with a deep red bass-cone hidden behind a black grill and body which has a lovely texture to it. The best thing of all though (beside the quality of sound this thing produces) is the way you access the deep bass.

So that's that - but what does the unit sound like then?: Well, the simple answer is, great. I mean really, really great. And not just for a speaker of this size. I listened to some Aphex Twin, some Bjørk, DJ DSL, Freddie Crügger, Tombee, a bit of Luke Vibert, Danny Breaks, Aim, RJD2, and some Declaime, Leftfield, Akbar and rounded things of with The Roots. All of them gave impressive results.

The low end was deep and defined and the mid-range tight and punchy. The high-frequencies did, perhaps lack a little sparkle, but I'm comparing these now to a pair of hi-fi speakers - they're that good. You could even clearly hear the reverb on the snares drums and other effects with ease. I was quite simply staggered by the quality and crispness of the sound they produced. Everything sounded nice and rounded, with no range of frequency bands causing any problems.

And they're not only detailed but loud too. And best of all, distortion free. I plugged these into my Apple Mac, and turned everything right up and experienced no distortion at all, yet the sound was easily enough to fill my office.They're won't do for a house party, but I'd say they sounds equivalent to having a ghetto-blaster on at a comfortabke listening level. There's definitely enough sound here for a hotel room or sitting round a camp fire with friends.

I'd have to point out that I was given my Monster Bass unit free of charge for review purposes. I'm not a professional reviewer nor was I contacted directly, but a few of these units were offered up for review in one of the internet forums here on Amazon. The manufacturers, Gadget Hunter, asked if anybody would like to review their product and I, being a producer, got in touch and said, yes.

I'm so glad I did, because I'm amazed by this great little unit. I really wasn't sure what to expect as, over the years, I've had several sets of portable speakers - ranging from huge square things for my Sony Walkman in the late 80s, to the more modern variety, manufactured for MP3 playing mobile phones when they first appeared on the scene.

However, I'd virtually given up on ever finding a descent pair of speakers for my personal music player that actually sounded any good (the results where always either quiet, tinny or distorted) but at long last someone has designed a portable speaker system for your portable music player that works. It's clear, detailed and as the name suggested packs some truly monster bass for its size.

There's not much more I can add, so I'm going to end on a quick speaker related pun and say that the sound of this portable little speaker will blow you away. It's a portable party in your pocket and I Highly recommend you buy one - especially at this price.'