Slow starter

Blu-ray disc start-up isn’t the quickest, about a minute seemed average. But while BDs showed up sharp and clear on screen, the upscaling tended to leave a little to be desired, with a standard DVD of the latest Harry Potter not appearing quite as crisp as I’d expected.

Easy to read remote

To be honest, while the player/amp looks sleek and slim, the speakers on their skinny towers look a bit cheap. Fortunately, they don’t sound it.

Front, centre and surrounds offer crisp and clear film soundtracks, with clearly intelligible dialogue, even finding its way with little difficulty through Clint Eastwood’s grunted lines in Gran Torino.

The sub hit the mark more often than not too, with meaty low-end rumble always on tap and tightly controlled thumps when required.

Next page: Musical box?