It takes a lot for a one-box home cinema system to make it into the review pages of Home Cinema Choice, but the L73 screamed out for inclusion. For starters, it has the heritage of the NAD brand, for years synonymous with affordable audiophile sound. But our interest in this product is about more than just respect for a manufacturer's heritage: on paper at least, the L73 is a cut above the vast majority of its rivals.

The L73 doesn't come bundled with speakers, suggesting it's designed to be used by the more performance-aware, spatially-limited home cinema buff. There's no superfluous bells and whistles here, and each and every feature has a use somewhere down the line. What you get is a DVD receiver: basically a disc player coupled with a 5.1 channel amplifier and decoding electronics. The unit is surprisingly versatile.

NAD has seen fit to not only support DVD-Video and CD, but to also offer playback of DVD-Audio - although not Super Audio CD. It's also capable of recognising a number of file formats, including CD-Rs loaded with MP3 tracks or JPEGs for viewing images from a digital camera.

NAD's claims for the power output are surprisingly modest (45W in multichannel, 60W in stereo). Our Tech Labs rate power output with two channels driven at 65W mode (8O, 0.7% THD), with barely any drop with five channels driven (8O, 0.8% THD). So while not a powerhouse, the L73 outspecifies many other system solutions. NAD has used discrete output stages for all channels, and has eschewed the common practice of using digital IC amplifier modules. It has also opted to use Crystal Sigma-Delta DACs; their 96kHZ/24bit resolution is not only necessary for DVD-Audio playback, but also has advantages for the rest of the amp's multichannel output.

In terms of audio, the L73 supports both Dolby Digital and DTS. There's also Pro- Logic II and Dolby Headphone, the latter of which is great for late-night private viewing sessions. It also offers Dolby Virtual Speaker, so you can get some semblance of surround if you are working your way up to a full-on system and only have the cash to start with a couple of speakers. The L73 also sports NAD's proprietary EARS (Enhanced Ambience Recovery System) - one of the systems around for generating multichannel music from a stereo source.