THE UBIQUITOUS smartphone has ushered in an era of strictly lo-fi music.

Until the arrival of MP3, each successive generation of music technology promised a step change in quality.

Vinyl fans claim LPs sound better than CDs but the science proves them wrong.

However, there's no doubt MP3 sounds worse than CD - especially when it's played through a smartphone's tinny speaker.

In 2017 it is possible to seek out high res music - if you are prepared to pay for a subscription to Tidal - or store your CD collection in decent bit rates in the cloud.

The sheer convenience of streaming has blown CD (and even digital downloads) out of the water.

Which brings us to the Edifier MP280 portable wireless speaker.

It looks a bit like the Amazon Echo (the full-fat one, not the squashed Echo) but it only has one job: to make your streaming music sound decent.

In the UK Edifer is probably best known for its PC sound system upgrades but it actually sells a very broad range of equipment including some very impressive speakers, including studio monitors and active bookshelf units which support high res audio files up to 192KHz.

The MP280 units benefit from technology trickle down - Edifier has used its pro-grade DSP chips inside the compact unit to extract every last note from streaming music files.

And the speakers are arranged in such a way that the MP280 produces a 360 degree sound. It doesn't matter which way round you put it, the music always seems to be coming towards you. This way the portable unit can fill a medium-sized room easily.

A built-in lithium ion battery provides around ten hours of playing time, depending on how loud you like your tunes, and there's a handy carabiner on the end so you can the MP280 off a back pack.

In fact, the Edifer is the perfect hiking companion - light enough not to notice when you're on the move with enough juice to keep the music playing for a long weekend.

The Northern Echo:

It even doubles up as a handy battery charger for a mobile phone (which is great because the Edifer will last much longer than the average smartphone).

Pairing via Bluetooth is a cinch and once done the Edifer picked up my iPhone within seconds when I wanted to stream my music from it. The unit gives a pleasant jingle to let you know that it's ready for action.

Best of all, the sound it produces is better than it has any right to be and, despite the modest 8W power output, it plays plenty loud enough. In comparison to the Amazon Echo, the Edifier sounded cleaner and the speakers didn't distort at high volumes.

The MP280 costs £89.99 - £60 less than an Amazon Echo - so you'd have to want the Echo's fancy voice search connectivity very badly to stump up the difference.

Of course, you can still buy the Edifer at amazon.co.uk

Alternatively, have a look at Edifier's website