Hi-tech: Colorfly Pocket Hi-Fi C4 Pro

We're heading into the realms of the ridiculous with this week's hi-tech pick. The Colorfly Pocket Hifi (C4 Pro if you want to get specific) is possibly one of the most pointless things you could spend £550 on, but it somehow makes you want to get the credit card out anyway.

Perhaps it's the design more than the difference in sound quality that this portable Hi-Fi claims to have - you'd have to be the most serious of music buffs to really appreciate the slight variation in quality between this and another high end mp3 player. But its classy casing, made of walnut, complete with hand-carved design on the back makes for an extremely slick-looking miniature Hi-Fi. Combine this with the retro buttons and sliding volume control and you end up with one seriously old-school player.

Not to dumb down the technology behind this - well - creation, but for such a steep price, you half expect the sound to make your ears feel like royalty. Needless to say, it doesn't - in fact, it's a bit underwhelming. Yes it's got both a 6.3 and a 3.5mm audio jack (which work in tandem), and yes it's got a gold plated USB port, but in the end some of it just seems a little surplus to requirements.

That said, those with a real passion for musical quality will, I'm sure, appreciate the huge amount of work that has gone into this piece of equipment. Creator Michael Wan had the idea for it during a classical concert, believing that the portable music market needed a player that could handle the quality of classical music, similar to the sound produced by a good Hi-Fi system. The player can store a whole range of music files, including MP3, WAV, FLAC and APE, as well as 32GB of memory for all your high-quality music needs.

So for the audiophiles out there, this is most likely the best Christmas present you could hope for, but only really worth the money if you can't bear listening to anything but the best quality audio the world has to offer.

Price : £550.00