Teac CR-H255 micro hi-fi

A micro hi-fi with maxi features.

As well as a CD deck and DAB digital radio tuner, this nifty micro music system has a USB connector so you can plug a USB key, hard drive or music player into it.

Try it with a USB memory key or most non-Apple MP3 players and it works a treat, letting you whizz between folders, picking out tracks at will. Plug in an iPod and it's much less satisfactory, as track and folder names appear as codes such as 'T010.mp3', making it impossible to pick out specific tracks by any process other than trial and error. After a couple of seconds of playback, the artist and track name do appear on the display, but it's a bit late by then.

Perhaps the system's coolest feature, though, is its ability to record from the radio or the CD deck directly to any USB device. You can even set up timers so that it will record programmes from the radio. Recordings can be made in either MP3 or WMA format and results from both are excellent.

When it's hooked up to a half-decent set of speakers (none are supplied), the system sounds remarkably warm and feisty. It can kick out a raucous racket on tracks such as The Prodigy's scorching ode to copper-kicking, Their Law, but feed it something sweeter - Laurie Anderson's pulsing, hypnotic O Superman, for instance - and it responds equally well.

In fact, our only real gripe is that usability could have been improved in places - setting up the recording timer, for example, takes a while to master. The remote control also feels a bit cluttered.

Nevertheless, this is still a classy micro system. It sounds great, looks stylish and the addition of the USB port is a stroke of genius, making it just that vital bit more desirable than most of its rivals.