Sony's LSPX-S2 Glass Sound Speaker looks like a candle, vibrates to play music

Having already surprised us with the cup holder-toting GTK-PG10, Sony has also used CES to take the wraps of another unique wireless speaker - though this one is decidedly more classy.

The LSPX-S2 Glass Sound Speaker looks more like a little lamp than a speaker, and in actual fact it's both. At the centre of a glass tube is a little LED light with 32 steps of brightness that can also be set to candlelight mode, which introduces candle-like flickering.

But just below the LED light, hidden from view, are three actuators, spaced equally around the inside of the glass. These actuators vibrate the glass to create sound, in much the same way that the actuators on the back of the company's OLED TVs produce sound by vibrating the panel.

At the bottom of the unit, also hidden, is a woofer to add bass and lower mid-range, filling out the higher frequencies produced by the actuators.

The idea with the Glass Sound Speaker is that the audio travels up the glass tube and out of the bottom of the speaker and spreads evenly into the room in 360 degrees. In other words, there's no sweet spot - the speaker should sound the same no matter where you're standing in relation to it.

This is a portable device with a battery life of eight hours, and you can send audio to it using Bluetooth or wi-fi. Spotify Connect is supported, as is hi-res audio.

You'll be able to buy it in May, but it will set you back a rather steep-sounding £550.

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Tom Parsons

Tom Parsons has been writing about TV, AV and hi-fi products (not to mention plenty of other 'gadgets' and even cars) for over 15 years. He began his career as What Hi-Fi?'s Staff Writer and is now the TV and AV Editor. In between, he worked as Reviews Editor and then Deputy Editor at Stuff, and over the years has had his work featured in publications such as T3, The Telegraph and Louder. He's also appeared on BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Swipe. In his spare time Tom is a runner and gamer.