NuForce (http://www.nuforce.com) has released the Cube mobile speaker. It’s an US$119, two-inch tall unit that combines a portable speaker, headphone amplifier, and USB Digital Audio Converter (DAC) all in one.  
 
“I’ve never been satisfied with the sound of other portable speakers on the market,” says NuForce CEO Jason Lim. “So we made it our mission to create one that not only sounded great, but looked great. Plus, we equipped it with an audiophile-grade DAC and headphone amp. After months of R&D and critical listening, we think Cube provides the clarity, power and detail in a portable speaker that our customers have been asking for.”
 
The Cube’s USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC) accepts digital music directly from the computer and bypasses the computer’s on-board DAC, which are often low-quality and result in compromised sound, to offer a major improvement over the sound quality, he adds.