Tower speakers are becoming increasingly popular as an all-in-one solution to fill a room, or other open living area, full of sound. Energy Sistem make quite a few such speakers and their latest £189 entry, the Tower 8 g2 speaker, has arrived at the studio to fill it with promoted Hi-Fi quality. Buy on Amazon

Design

This skyscraper wooden cabinet speaker, with drivers positioned on the front and side, produces a 120W output and it’s certainly quite the object. Available in a wood-look finish or a matte black like ours, this 1 metre tall companion really does become a part of your furniture when positioned in a living area or bedroom. Thankfully, as the only glossy finish resides on the front display, it's not a terror to keep clean. Furthermore, in black it looks rather sleek against our white painted granite walls.

On the very top of the speaker an iPod-esque circular control panel lives, allowing anyone in proximity to pause/play, skip, go back and increase or decrease the volume. If your desired connection is a wired one, then you’re in luck. A mass of connectivity options are integrated within the speaker, so you’ll be hard pressed to find a device that couldn’t hook up to the Tower 8 g2, with aux, RCA, optical input, Bluetooth 4.1, FM RDS Radio, USB and microSD. Bluetooth has been our general go to option for pure convenience, which works with no qualms. Notably we cannot hear a difference when using the latest Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity over wired methods.

Performance

Energy Sistem have undoubtedly created an all-in-one speaker that can flood rooms with sound. The volume levels it will obtain are off the spectrum of our comfortable listening levels from its 120W power. If you fancy a house party, the Tower 8 g2 can definitely stop you being able to hear yourself think. Delivering the ambience of a gig, the live recording of 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' by Jeff Goldblum & Haley Reinart, featuring a hefty base score throughout, will rattle your coffee table at mid volume levels (with the bass dial turned up) and yet details remain silky smooth. Instrumentals don’t feel crowded and the vocals are playfully elastic. A slim soundstage is to be found along with restrictive stereo tendencies, which is to be expected from any vertical speaker design and reiterates their gig-like styling credentials.

A good track to test the speakers pronunciation and layering qualities was 'Doin’ Time' by Lana Del Ray, which has a prominent vocal foreground. Vocal efforts produced by the combination of different drivers within the Tower 8 g2 stand strong, and Lana’s light yet powerful vocal presence is given huge justice. Remarkably, the hefty bass undertones throughout this piece penetrate into your body without any collision between the vocals and slender instrumentals. For the sake of comparison, one of our favourite home speaker picks is the Sonos Play:1, so we also played this Lana Del Ray number via these. Despite the huge size difference, Sonos has the edge in detail, but also has the higher price tag. For the money, Energy Sistem have presented a level of value that you can’t pick a fight with. Turning to a lighter track, 'Vanilla Sundae' by Emily Burns & Olivia Nelson demonstrates a mid-range that can seem a little squeezed between the higher end at times but the richness from the full force still manages to impress. Once again, bass levels which aren’t particularly obvious on other speakers, thunder when the volume is cranked up.

Verdict

Loud and proud, the Energy Sistem Tower 8 g2 brings the presence of a live gig into your home, filling large open areas with 120W sound and thundering bass. It’s an enjoyable listen and serves up phenomenal value for what's on offer. But we are left wondering what on earth a pair of these speakers would sound like? Buy on Amazon