There was a time when the word ‘speakers’ used to evoke images of large, bulky devices that often occupied pride of place in the living room, connected to music systems though a complicated network of cables. Those who wanted to enjoy their music while on the move were largely restricted to headphones. Well, not any more. Over the past few years, a number of companies have recognised the fact that many people prefer to listen to their music out loud even while travelling, or simply do not want to be insulated from external noise by headphones. And this in turn has led to the evolution of the portable speaker — a device that connects to your music source (generally a phone or a media player) wirelessly and delivers decent quality sound. While they started out as relatively modest devices with not much in terms of output, portable speakers have of late improved to the extent that some even consider them worthy of audiophiles — many people prefer portable speakers to their more static counterparts as they are easy to use, can connect wirelessly to devices, are versatile (most can double up as speakerphones) and of course, can be carried around (they are portable, remember?). So if you are looking for a good portable speaker to quench your thirst for music, we suggest you consider these five, depending on your needs and budget:

The sound master: Bose Soundlink Mini