Pathos Acoustics has established an enviable reputation as a purveyor of ultra-smart audio equipment that performs to high sonic standards, while successfully treading the fine line that exists between style-driven and audio-purist kit.

From its base in Italy, the firm produces amplifiers and CD players that make a strong visual statement (they presumably don't please all tastes, but we think they're gorgeous) and generally seem to perform as well as they look.

Two CD players grace the current range: for £4,500 you can have the futuristic-looking and fantastically named Endorphin, but a little under half that amount will buy you the Digit.

Okay, so the Digit doesn't get as punchy a name and is clearly less visually arresting than its more expensive sibling, but it does share quite a lot of the Endorphin's technology.

In terms of size and shape, the Digit would appear to be in danger of trespassing on Cyrus's territory, even though the look is significantly different. Apart from anything else, there are valves sticking up from the top.

This is a Pathos speciality - most of the company's products use valves in combination with solid-state components, so as to make the most of each type's strengths. In this case, the valves are E88CC types - a familiar twin triode (two active elements per 'bottle') that partners well with transistors, not least because, by valve standards, it works at quite low voltages.

Are valves in a CD player just for show, or do they offer 'to taste' tuning (degradation, even) of the sound? Not according to Pathos, whose justification for them is well founded.

Indeed, many designers would agree that the simple but high-performance circuits which are typical of valve applications have a lot to offer compared with the sometimes over-complex designs all too easily cobbled together with transistors and their miniaturised relatives, integrated circuits.

Yes, the latter are an unavoidable part of digital audio life, but why compound the potential offence? Within its stainless-steel case, the Digit spins discs on what is, in fact, a DVD transport.