Name: Audio L Plus
Brand: Ministry Of Sound

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Verdict

As a single component speaker, the Ministry of Sound Audio L Plus is a powerful, relatively affordable, good-sounding device. There's a lot of competition out there at the moment, but considering this thing is some £200 cheaper than the new Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin and over £300 less than Ruark's, admittedly more advanced, R4 Mk3, it's actually a worthy member of the high-end audio ranks.

It can't quite match those two for top-end audio quality or feature set, but it's really not that far off either.

We liked

The design aesthetic is understated and stylish. The sweeping curves and bronze highlights make it seem a completely different brand to those garish Ministry of Sound compilation disc adverts plastered all over the TV.

But it's the audio quality that really stands out. The clarity of the audio is impressive as is the depth of the bass. The mid-range might seem a little harsh at times, but – as you might expect – pushing any electronic music through it diminishes such concerns.

We disliked

As a multiroom audio system I'm really not sold on the MoS. Setting it up is far from simple and a little too hit and miss for my tastes. The non-techies are going to be better served with a simple Sonos kit.

And you'll need to keep it relatively near your router too – with mid-to-low signal strengths you'll start to hear distortion and dropped audio.

The app isn't the most intuitive or aesthetically-pleasing either. I also had a few issues setting it up on one specific router.

I'm also not entirely sold on the touch interface around the MoS logo on the top of the device. It doesn't feel particularly accurate or hugely responsive, but then I like buttons.

Verdict

The Audio L Plus is a great-sounding, chunky speaker for the bedroom or kitchen. It'll spit out music from pretty much any source and make it sound good too. It's not the loudest, the easiest to use or the absolute best single component speaker around, but it's a decent price for such good audio and will look the part in the home too.