Mission launches wireless Aero speaker, £500 here in UK

Britain's got a long and glamorous history in music, so why not peruse the audio annals of humble Blighty on a UK-born speaker system?

British loudspeaker firm Mission has launched its own wireless music system - the Aero - which it reckons offers serious sound quality from a stylish, premium device.

The Aero achieves its wireless tag via Bluetooth and Airplay. This means it's good to stream from pretty much anything, including Apple's own wares.

Mission's new speaker touts six BMR driver units - four front-facing, and two side-facing. There's also a bonus 120mm bass driver in the centre that fires down into the bass for floor-rumbling audio.

BMR stands for Balanced Mode Radiator, which basically means the drivers will carry a much greater frequency response (read: sounds good) in room-filling style.

Each BMR drive unit runs at 20W, totalling at 120W, and runs 6.1 speaker/amp configuration, giving you seven independent channels to play with.

All this means that despite the Aero's small stature, it should sound pretty decent. And it won't look hideous on your shelf, either.

The Aero wasn't born with its good looks - they're the result of a partnership with Great Fridays, a design firm that's worked with Sonos, Bowers & Wilkins, and Microsoft.

This has resulted in an anodised aluminium chassis with a 'classy' (apparently) matte finish. There's also the usual black cloth to conceal the drivers and a round base to add some height and base-protection.

The device weighs 7kg, and measures up a 20.3 x 54 x 17.6cm. Mission also says its Aero will use 300W at peak power, dropping to 0.4W on standby.

Added features including docking and charging for Apple devices, multiple connection ports including 24-bit optical input and a 3.5mm audio jack, and DLNA-certification for home network linking. Neato.

The device went on sale earlier this month, and is available exlusively (for now, at least) from Selfridges' flagship London store at a £499.99 mark-up.