Bang & Olufsen's B&O; Beolit 12 looks like a lunchbox. An $800 lunchbox. I don't know how better to describe it, really — the 6.2-pound cube is a dead ringer for a cooler. It'd be a good-looking cooler, at least, thanks to its leather strap, prominent mesh-like grille and hard plastic sides and edges. There are a few capacitive buttons on top of the device, and it's simple to use, once you get it set up. To get it ready, you'll need to deal with an Ethernet cable, a computer, and IP addresses — the manual does a good job of guiding you through the process, but it's not as seamless or obvious as it could be.

The Beolit 12 has USB and line-in inputs, but it's definitely designed to primarily serve as an AirPlay device — there's no remote or dock, and everything's supposed to happen on your phone. There is a rechargeable battery inside the device, which makes it much more portable than some of the other Airplay speakers we tested. The battery is rated to last eight hours, which is plenty of time to accompany a picnic or party.

Batteries and beauty are one thing, but the Beolit 12's greatest quality is that it sounds absolutely fantastic. It's a bit heavy on the bass output, but sound is crisp, clean, and without a hint of distortion. Adele sounds incredible singing "Set Fire to the Rain," and there's remarkable clarity in the crazy bass line of The Knife's "Silent Shout." It's not the loudest speaker I tested, but it's certainly loud enough to fill a room and fuel a party — just maybe not a club-like rager. Whether it's superior enough to warrant its $799.95 price tag is a more difficult question, but suffice to say you'll definitely get what you pay for.

7.2/10

JBL's $249.95 OnBeat Air is one part AirPlay speaker, three parts dock. There's a swiveling dock on the device that accepts iPhones, iPods, or iPads, and there's a brace for the iPhone that keeps the device in place even in landscape mode. It's a killer device for watching movies in bed, and the OnBeat's relatively small footprint — it weighs 1.9 pounds and is only about 5.5 inches wide — makes it perfect for your bedside table or desk. There's a small, simple membrane remote, which is better than no remote at all, but not much.

To set up the OnBeat Air for AirPlay, you just put your iOS device in the dock. Up pops a message prompting you to download a JBL app, which you use to get the speaker on the right wireless network. The app is simple and helpful, but the process is a mess: you connect directly to the OnBeat Air's ad-hoc wireless network, then use a clunky interface on the tiny screen to connect to the network. Then you go back and connect to your original Wi-Fi network, at which point you can finally listen to music over AirPlay. Well, theoretically anyway: it took me about six tries to even get the networking page to load, and three or four more to get the connection to take. It did eventually work, though.

Listening to music is a very hit-or-miss experience with the OnBeat Air. High-end frequencies are bright and airy, despite being a bit tinny. There's almost no bass response, though, so hip-hop or pop music loses a lot of oomph. Vocals come through clearly, but the device doesn't get very loud, and distorts at anything above about 60 percent volume — once again, this is a device you'll want on your desk or bedside table, not filling your living room. It's a great and versatile dock, but not a great AirPlay device or a great speaker. You might even be better off saving $50 and buying the plain-Jane OnBeat, which is the exact same device without the AirPlay functionality.

5.8/10

Altec Lansing's $499.95 inAir 5000 is enormous. Its trapezoidal body is wider and taller than the UE AIr Speaker, with a mesh grille covering the front and back and silver accents on the side and top. The few buttons and ports are hidden on the side, so you don't see them from the front – it cuts a very attractive figure. There's a USB port on the back for connecting your iOS device directly to the inAir, and a line-in port on the side for connecting almost anything else. A glowing light underneath the device shows the speaker's status. There's also a nice metal remote, which you can use to control playback, volume, and the like. It's really basic, with only a few controls, but it's nice to have.

Getting it set up to use is a complex process similar to the Beolit 12. You connect your computer to the inAir's ad-hoc network, then enter its IP address, then use a kludgy in-browser menu to get the device connected to your desired AirPlay network. There are clear instructions in the manual, but this is definitely not a device you'll want to move around much, because it's such a bear to get it connected to a new network. That t's enormous and cumbersome to carry around doesn't help, either.

You'd expect large sound from such a large speaker, and that's definitely what you get from the inAir 5000 — it was easily the loudest speaker I tested. Sound potency doesn't necessarily equal sound quality, but I was generally a fan of the inAir 5000's output. Vocals are bright, airy, and clear, and there's just the right amount of punch in the low end. There's the tiniest bit of distortion on really bass-heavy tracks, but only at near-max volumes, and at that point your ears have probably stopped working anyway.

7.5/10

iHome typically aims its products at the happy medium: not too expensive, but still good enough to be workable. With one look at the iW2, you'd already have guessed it's the cheapest of the bunch, at $199.99. Its black mesh grille wraps around the entire body, and a silver edge covers the bottom. There are a handful of buttons at the top set into a fingerprint-prone glossy black surface, and there's a large, full-featured remote as well; this is definitely one of the least AirPlay-specific speakers we tested, since you can do so much with the remote or on the speaker. There's a USB port on the back, and the iW2 comes with a cable for connecting your iOS device directly; there's a button on top for switching between wired and wireless audio sources.

iHome went the app route for setting up the device, which is definitely the best move, but it's not executed very well here. When you first plug your iOS device in, you're prompted with four possible app downloads, and it's not obvious which is the right one. (You want iHome Connect.) Even once the right app was installed, the first few times I tried to connect the iW2 to a Wi-Fi network it simply didn't take. Fortunately you can go the direct-connect-and-IP-address route, too, and that worked pretty easily.

The closest analog for the iW2's sound quality is the white earphones that come with your iPhone: though discerning listeners will immediately toss them aside and get something else, lots of people use them because they're free and most people don't care that much about sound quality. That's the power of a $199 price tag: it's tempting to forgive the iW2 for distorting even at medium volumes, and its compression is such that there's virtually no low-end or dynamic range in a song. The speaker's reasonably loud, and once you get through the setup process it's a pretty seamless experience, but audio quality is awfully mediocre.

4.7/10