XtremeMac Tango Bar review

Traditional desktop speakers can take up a lot of much needed space. If this frustrates you then the XtremeMac Tango Bar could be just what you need.

It's been designed to easily fit between the lower edge of your iMac, Cinema Display or Thunderbolt Display and its foot, giving you extra oomph for your music, movies and games without taking up any more room.

The XtremeMac Tango Bar is easy to set up and use: simply plug the combined USB power/connector cable to a spare port at the back of your Mac then adjust the dial on its right side to raise or lower the volume. XtremeMac has added a smattering of extra connectors for added flexibility, including an analogue audio input, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a subwoofer output – although you'll have an off-board subwoofer yourself.

The Tango Bar's range of ports also enables you to use it with a TV or MP3 player, although you'll need to plug the USB cable into a mains adapter (not included) to power it up. Its 56cm length makes it an ideal match for the 21.5-inch iMac.

The obvious question to ask at this stage is whether you need a Tango Bar at all: the iMac, Cinema Display and Thunderbolt Display have fairly decent loudspeakers built in already. So what does XtremeMac bring to the party? Watch a movie in iTunes and you're rewarded with a richer, warmer sound than the iMac (for example) can muster, with dialogue sounding clear. You even get reasonable bass.

The Tango Bar is convincing with music too. It can't match a proper hi-fi setup, of course, but it will relay your tunes with reasonable clarity.

If we have to criticise anything it's this: because the Tango Bar isn't attached to your iMac, Cinema Display or Thunderbolt Display it doesn't move with it, which is annoying. This could be solved by placing the rubber pads the Tango sits on in the centre instead of towards either end.

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