There's never been a better time to upgrade your home cinema amplification. Between Denon's formidable feature sets and Onkyo's aggressive pricing, the AV receiver market has rarely been more competitive.

So how have those plucky Brits at Cambridge Audio reacted? With a back-to-basics sub-£300 model that purports to put put audio quality first, drawing a red line through the ever-growing list of optional extras that are being fitted as standard by the Japanese brands.

The result is a startlingly simple receiver design that stays resolutely on message. But with just five channels and no high-definition audio decoding, can it hold its ground in the modern age of home cinema? The answer is... kinda.

High-def

First of all, the Azur does embrace HDMI video switching, including 1080p signals, so there's no need to worry about Full HD compatibility.

Secondly, while it doesn't have its own Dolby True HD or DTS-HD decoder, it does have a 5.1 multichannel input that can field HD audio formats (decoded by your Blu-ray or HD DVD player and sent over the analogue links as linear PCM) and amplify them. Basically, the Azur won't let you miss out on any hi-res audio action.

The Cambridge Audio engineers haven't forgotten any of the basic stuff either. The build quality inspires confidence - resassuring at this price point - with a solid aluminium front panel and a reinforced, acoustically dampened chassis. The styling is simple but appealing in its silver finish (a black version is also available) and the mirrored LCD display panel is a nice design flourish.

Around the back, however, the budget cuts become apparent. There are just two HDMI inputs. These are both version 1.2. Also present are two component video inputs and a further three standard AV inputs.

This looks pretty mean compared with some rival receivers that are blistered with inputs. But why pay for expensive socketry that you will never use? That seems to be the Cambridge Audio argument.

Featurewise, this is the Azur lite. There's no sixth or seventh channel, so you can't connect more than five speakers and therefore no DTS 6.1 or 'extended' surround processing either.