Virgin Electronics Boomtube and Boomtube EX set to shake your booty

While they were letting us in early on the details of their new
5GB MP3 player, the people at Virgin Electronics also showed us two new portable speakers setups.  Both are cast in aluminum and come with vinyl bags in which you can tote them about.  The Boomtube uses 4 AA batteries, while the Boomtube EX uses rechargeable batteries.  So what's the difference?  While they use the same main speakers, the EX hosts a subwoofer in the main unit for some extra oomph.  In a nod to British rock humor (or is it "humour"?), its volume dial also goes to 11.  Other features include the use of standard RCA cables, so no more digging about for special cables, random special orders, or annoying, space-defining proprietary cables.  They sound pretty good, too, although we weren't really about to blast them in the business-friendly conference room in which they were peeped.  Of course, Virgin would like you to buy one of these with their aforementioned player, but we think these things wouldn't make a bad portable setup for some other player or serve as above-average desktop speakers.  If you're up in the air, spend the extra cash for the EX version, as the bass makes a big difference in speakers of this size.