, vision indisputably plays a part: but there’s a question of style over substance with the latest offering from Japanese firm Hanwha. On sale now – so far, only in the Far East – is a tiny, elegant proposition called the X-Tube. It’s a strange name for a stranger product, which refers to a “Tube” (a fake one, obviously) capable of running on the VIA VT1610 chip. It can be hooked up to your computer via a USB port with a dongle. All this is supposed to guarantee the possibility of listening to music via DTS (Digital Theater System) which should guarantee the conversion of the audio surround 5.1 signal in a 7.1. At least, that’s what the producers reckon. It’s worth saying, in any case, that the possibilities of the tiny device are only “guaranteed” if paired with the right headphones, sold along with the X-Tube.

Needless to say, the manufacturer doesn’t even bother going into details to describe the results. In short, it’s a trendy object – it’s look recalls the thermionic valve (the one everyone called the "vacuum tube"), exactly like those used in set-ups for amplification of sound systems – and it doesn’t cost much: forty-four U.S. dollars. Only suitable, for now, on Windows systems.