Product review: LG HT303

A little goes a long way with this home theatre system from LG – the glossy black speakers look tiny but deliver big, big sound.

In fact they belt out 45W each and, combined with 75W from the subwoofer, there's a useful total of 300W. But you don't just get power – there's plenty of finesse, too. The tone is rich and the sound is detailed and compelling.

The bass unit is a statement of intent – it's normal size, suggesting that the HT303 is a serious set-up, which is not the initial impression given by those five little speakers.

The DVD/CD receiver unit is neat and reasonably compact. Pictures from the DVD player are clear and bright and the performance of the FM/MW radio is good.

The unit has several quirky features, some of which are more useful than others. For example, there's a USB port and you can rip CDs to MP3 and store them on a memory stick or other device – but why would you want to? Anyone who has a set-up like this will obviously already have a computer that does the same thing, so why double up the facility on a home theatre system?

There's an audio setting that LG says changes 5.1 sound – that's five channels plus bass, of course – to virtual 10.1, but this is a difficult claim to check. Are there really 10 channels? I lost count after seven.

And one regrettable downside is that the unit can be used for… karaoke.

Another quibble is that the USB input does not work with an iPod. Many systems like this have the same shortcoming – guys, I know you don't manufacture it but it's the world's most popular portable music player, so get over it. Also the unit doesn't support the AAC audio format used by the iTunes Store, which is, of course, the world's most popular music download service. You can play an iPod through a mini-jack input but I didn't think it sounded as good as an MP3 track on a USB drive – the tone seemed flatter and less sharp.

But overall this is a good system. It's ideal for someone with a small apartment or who doesn't want to have the living room cluttered up with massive speakers but is unwilling to compromise on sound quality.

Oh and the price is little, too – it costs Dh569.