Chiefly because there are plenty of products out there that meet the 'unvarnished' criterion already. We would rather judge it on its own terms as a musical performer, in which case it has plenty to recommend it. Above all, the Ping is lively. It's pretty hard to imagine that any music played through the unit could be described as 'boring' (unless the performance itself is simply dull and beyond redemption).

There is a cheerful, devil-may-care, energetic verve to the sound, which makes the most of rhythmic snap and rapidly changing soundscapes and, especially at high volume, this makes the sound most inviting. At the same time, there is a certain lack of subtlety and insight that may bother some listeners.

The extent of this depends on the recording, but with something complex and multi-layered like well-produced rock or symphony orchestra, we did find the sound a little congested compared with alternative renditions. Not surprisingly, the extent varies somewhat depending on how the Ping is used.

Energetic amp

The only part which can be auditioned in isolation is the amplifier, fed via its line input. In this state, the sound has plenty of 'bite' and attack, but is a little short on fine detail. The treble can be a touch coarse, at times, but the midrange is good and the bass is really energetic. It may not be incredibly well-extended, but it's so engaging that one doesn't really notice.

With CDs played on the internal transport, though, the Ping's character really blossoms. This is where the sound develops a real sense of swing and excitement, contributing in a very positive way to the right sort of music – think of anything with a bit of grit in it as a matter of course and you'll have the general idea. From thrash to live nightclub jazz, there's plenty to like.

Even some classical recordings can benefit, but on the whole we found classical sounds less well favoured by the Ping interpretation, the life and energy outweighed by the lack of detail. It's not gross, but one does have to use a little imagination to hear the inner workings of an orchestra, for instance. Do try both digital filter settings, by the way, as the differences are quite noticeable.

Balanced voice

Not withstanding those comments regarding different musical genres, if there's one sound the Ping really does get on with then it's solo human voice. In all kinds of songs, from Schubert Lieder to Ian Dury and Damien Rice, it reproduces both male and female voices very clearly and with admirable balance between vowels and consonants – always the key to good intelligibility.

The balance between voice and accompaniment is also generally good, although where the accompaniment consists of several instruments their individual tonality is slightly sacrificed to the vocal line.

Multiple voices are also slightly less well-favoured and a favourite test track of ours, involving quite a large chorus was a shade homogenised compared with the best renditions we've heard. That same track is also a great test of stereo imaging and it showed the Ping to be good on-extension in both dimensions, though slightly lacking precision within the space. The USB input shares much of the CD player's sound, not too surprisingly.

The FM tuner is good and has a quiet background and good resolution with tricky real-world radio signals. Its slightly slow tuning is about our only criticism. As usual, we ran a few technical checks which suggested that the amplifier has rather more distortion than the majority of others we've tested.

The CD player has considerably more and it's certainly enough to account for the subjective findings. At the end of the day, this is not a product that will suit all tastes, but it's sufficiently attractive for us to issue it with a recommendation, albeit a qualified one.