Ministry of Sound MOSDV124 review

This stylish 2.1 system's main unit boasts an eye-catching mirrored front panel that gives it a jazzy hi-tech feel, and comes with a pair of compact bookshelf speakers and a tiny subwoofer.

Talents include the ability to play DVDs, CDs and CD-R/-RW discs containing MP3 and JPEG files, plus an AM/FM radio tuner. Around the back, there's no HDMI socket, but analogue socketry is up to scratch. There's an RGB-enabled Scart, S-video and composite outputs, alongside a set of component video outputs, which sadly don't offer progressive scan.

The picture quality you get from the Scart socket is disappointing. Dark sequences in 300 look too shadowy and fine details tend to disappear within the murkiness. Adjusting the brightness level in the comprehensive picture settings does help to improve picture depth, though. Via component, images lack solidity, and a sprinkling of video interference makes the pictures look a little messy.

On the plus side, the speakers deliver hugely enjoyable movie sonics. The intense, frenetic battle scenes in 300 are delivered with punch and vigour, and effects move around the stereo soundstage smoothly. The lack of virtual surround limits the sense of width, but overall these little speakers produce a big stereo performance.

If only the same could be said about the sub, which makes a weak contribution to the sonic mix. It struggles to cope with loud thumping sounds, failing to back up the sterling work done by the speakers.

Music playback is surprisingly tuneful provided you don't turn the volume up too loud, but again the bass performance is disappointing.

There's lots to like about the MOSDV124, such as its mirrored finish and budget price, but there's work to be done in the audio and video departments.