I saw a TV programme recently, on which Tom (The Voice) Jones recounted an incident that happened to him when he was performing in Las Vegas. Apparently, he was in the middle of one of his blockbuster numbers, when a group of female admirers surrounded the stage and, in customary fashion, hurled their underwear at him. As he gyrated tastefully towards the group, to acknowledge their presence, Tom noticed that one of the ladies (rather unusually) had her husband with her. Intrigued, Tom finished the song, then bent down and said to the guy in question "Doesn't it bother you that your wife has just thrown her knickers at me?" Cool as a cucumber, the bloke replied "Tom, you pump up the tyres, I'll ride the bike!"

I suppose the moral of the story (if there is one!) is that there are conventional and unconventional approaches to any situation - it doesn't really matter which you take, as long as you get a good result!

In our audio world, the conventional approach has always been that if you want good sound, then you have to wear the 'Hi-Fi hair shirt'. In other words, you've got to have a stack of ugly black boxes, more cable than the national grid and a pair of speakers that look like they've come straight from a Status Quo concert. Thankfully, this masochistic approach has been kicked into touch recently, as more and more companies utilise the full potential of modern circuit board miniaturisation, to produce Hi-Fi that packs real separates performance into compact, gorgeously styled units.

Arcam's excellent Solo is a good example of this exciting new breed of Hi-Fi: even though it is a comprehensively equipped CD, DAB / FM radio and amp, it doesn't look like a conventional Japanese system. The 'button count' has been kept to a minimum, thus avoiding the 'Stars Wars' look that seems to be so popular amongst its competitors. Build quality is impeccable, with heavy duty, multi-layered, solid aluminium, used throughout. In an age when most 'all in one' systems would fall over if you sneezed on them, it is refreshing to see a unit that is so well put together.

But this engineering goes more than skin deep, because the stylish Solo has exactly the same sort of internal circuitry as its world-famous 'big brother' Arcam separates. No expense has been spared to give this little system a sound that is way beyond anything we've experienced in its class.

Do I think there's a better system for the money? Well, let's put it this way; I think there's more chance of Tom Jones turning gay!!