Orb Audio puts out a bangin’ audiophile-approved sound in a tiny package.

What’s best about the company’s products is that they’re infinitely expandable — from 2.0 left-right speakers to full-on 7.2 monsters. You can buy two speakers for your setup, and when you’re ready to expand, you can keep the little orbs coming until you have your dream unit.

In a way, this translates to their “Computer Unit,” which Blast had a while to test out lately. But it’s not a perfect marriage.

The Orb Computer Unit is build on two speakers and a Pyle Pro PTA 2 2X40 watt stereo amplifier. By rewiring the orbs, you can bang out an amazing stereo experience, with up to eight speakers wired in four-unit pairs, but since the product is built on a two-channel amplifier, you can’t go beyond the two channels without scrapping the amp and buying a brand new one that can do 3-4-5-6-7 channels of audio.

The Pyle amplifier also doesn’t have an output for a subwoofer, so you have to run speaker wire from the amp, to the subwoofer, to the speakers if you want some real bass. That gets clunky quickly.

There also isn’t any design ingenuity. The product is just two orb speakers and the stock amplifier. If this was really a computer/standalone unit, Orb should have scrapped the “expandability” concept and engineered a modular product with an amplifier’s guts, its orb speakers, and some flashy casing.

On the flip side, the 40-watt amp is plenty of power for the Orbs, though they can certainly handle at least 100-watts. And to be even more fair, the product sounds fantastic. Music, gaming, and movies all sound crisp, clear, and well-defined. The Orb unit sounds better than most standard computer speakers that you could buy in the store.

But it is more expensive than most, at $299. You have to be pretty dedicated to your computer audio to shell out $300 for speakers.

If you’re interested in Orb, and you should be, I’d invest in a surround unit. An Orb Audio Mod1 Plus 5.1 system at $999 is pretty moderate when you think about what people invest in five speakers and a subwoofer.

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The Bose L1 Compact is a very impressive portable PA system. We were a bit skeptical upon seeing the small box it arrived in, but this thing kicks ass. We have played with amps of similar size. Some have strong volume or tone, but have a learning curve more intense than that of the instrument being played. The L1′s incredible sound, coupled with the user-friendly two-channel mixer onboard makes it the complete package.

This is perfect for you, your guitar and whatever small crowd or venue you run into. It’s great for a coffee shop, open mic gymnasium or your living room. All you have to do is adjust the height of the tower for the coverage you need. It is a very easy to use system, but its versatility shines. There are a total of four pieces: the base, and three extensions. The base can be used with one extension only, making it an extremely portable amplifier, or it can be used with the full tower of all extensions. There are no cables to deal with between these extensions either. The square extensions piece into one another, and the connections are made internally, which is nice because instrument and microphone cables are enough to deal with. For your microphone channel, there are adjustments for volume, treble, and bass. Once you have an instrument plugged in, all you need to do is adjust volume. There is even a green light for each indicating that your signal is being received. So many portable amps require fumble over 30 knobs and switches before a sound you can tolerate emerges, but the L1 System keeps it simple, and small. While we only tested this with guitar and vocals, it could certainly be used with a bass or keyboard as well.

Each array of the system has a durable soft protective cover. The slipcover for the base even has an attached diagram of how to connect your instrument, microphone, and each component of the system that you wish to use. It couldn’t be easier.

For those with a variety of PA system needs, just place the base on a table and pick up the mic and your ready to give a presentation. There is even an mp3/Ipod input (1/8") for your intermission from the stage, or just hanging around at home.

Though this system is $1,000, a few hundred more than other similar two channel systems, the sound and tone quality are worth the extra investment. That, coupled with the ease of use and modest size of the L1 Compact make it an easy choice.

The Boss TU-88 is a versatile micro monitor and tuner. It offers a tuner, metronome and built in headphone preamp in one device.

The guitar tuner, which can be accessed wirelessly or by connecting your instrument to the input jack, is very easy to use. It also can play a reference tone for you through the “Accu-Pitch” speaker. This built-in speaker will also play another tone indicating that the instrument is in tune (within 5 cents sharp or flat in actuality).

The metronome is also a nice addition. I often avoid metronomes while playing because I don’t want to put the time into finding my exact tempo with it, but the TU-88 bypasses that with a unique feature I had never seen before. The “TAP” button allows a user to set the metronome’s tempo to his or her tempo. Pushing the button with the beat of whatever your playing will set the metronome to your beat. This ensures that you stick to the beat that you intend to. You feel the beat — you set it, and you keep it. If your’re reading music and do know exactly what tempo you need, the TU-88 can certainly accommodate you.

The tuner and metronome are very useful and innovative, but what really makes the TU-88 stand out in my mind is the headphone amplifier. There are tons of devices that tune guitars, quite a few of them offer built in metronomes, but this is the first device I’ve seen that includes a tuner, metronome, and headphone amplifier.

The headphone amplifier allows one to plug their instrument cable into the TU-88′s input jack, plug and pair of standard headphones into the “phones/line out” and play straight to their headphones. This is ideal for an electric guitar player who wants to work on something quickly without dealing with large amplifiers. Often times while traveling a headphone preamp is useful. Noise level is minimal while using a headphone amplifier, which makes it an ideal addition to your gear for private practice sessions. The “Mix in” jack even makes it possible to plug in a CD/MP3 player to play along with — all within your headphones.

Weighing in at only 7 ounces, the TU-88 has everything you need for your next gig whether its in the living room, a friend’s garage or Gillette Stadium.

Ever been ready to grab your guitar and work on a new lick or turn on some music to work on a new lead guitar part, but you couldn’t because it would make too much noise?

It’s hard to believe, but sometimes as musicians we find ourselves in situations where others don’t want to hear us play. There are other times when we would rather practice privately, and for these times we should never sacrifice playing but simply make use of the VOX Headphone Amp.

Plugging this device into the 1/4-inch instrument cable jack on your guitar allows you to listen privately to your guitar playing through any pair of headphones with a 1/8-inch jack. The VOX AC30 is made to sound like VOX’s famous AC30 high gain amplifier. It’s sound was great; it has been modified to be a powerful high gain guitar sound which is perfect for playing along with your music CD’s or mp3′s. The headphone amp has an auxiliary input for music from a CD player, mp3 player, computer or even the radio.

Once connected to the auxiliary input, you can play guitar along with your favorite songs, which is a great way to practice all within your headphones! If you aren’t interested in the AC30′s high gain guitar sound, VOX does offer other headphone amps, which aesthetically are the same as the AC30 shown. All priced at about $40, VOX offers AC30, Classic Rock and Metal options.

For a few dollars more they also make products specifically for bass guitar and for lead guitar parts only. They’re ideal for playing privately at home or even for traveling. Playing at the hotel or even in the car is no problem with VOX’s headphone preamps.

All in all, this is a useful gadget for any electric guitar player, and it is offered at a fair price. Measuring only 3.39″ x 3.15″ x 1.22″, and weighing 1.41oz., it won’t weigh your guitar down while plugged in. Other headphone preamps I have used, like the Pocket Rock-it, did not sound as true to a real amp sound despite being bigger than the Vox.

It can be a headache setting up amps and connecting them to your guitar, but the headphone amps make it a piece of cake if you’re looking to practice on your own, quietly. It runs on 2 AAA batteries (included), which will keep you rocking for up to 15 hours.