When the LG HB954PB Blu-ray Home Cinema System turned up it was bigger than I’d expected. I offered the big, burly delivery guy my assistance getting it up to my flat and he chortled, only to make it half way up my narrow staircase and realise that he did need my help.

Out of the box the Blu-ray was even more impressive. Sleek, black and very stylish, I was quite excited about setting it up – only to hit a snag. In their haste to send it, the LG people had forgotten to include a manual. Well I’m a TTB reviewer, so I decided to set it up without. All went well and I was just congratulating myself on a job well done when I hit another snag. The big champagne speakers wouldn’t work. After a couple of SOS calls to the LG people we eventually concluded that the model we’d been sent was faulty, so unfortunately this won’t be a complete review.

Due to the lack of a manual I can very reliably tell you that the Blu-ray is incredibly easy to set up. With a sub woofer, two bookshelf speakers, one long speaker and two larger champagne speakers it would be perfect for a small London flat or a medium sized room. I was very taken with the appearance of the Blu-ray. Black and very understated, with an almost invisible blue design on four of the speakers.  This system would probably look good in any room.

As for function, this is pretty nifty. I used it mainly for my iPod, but you can also stream Youtube videos through this system, connect it to your DVD player or even attach a games console. In my very thorough musical trial I tried Opera, jazz, rock, rap, country, and pop. Even at high volumes I couldn’t detect any distortion and the individual instruments, particularly for the jazz, was very clear. If your music doesn’t sound quite right, the Blu-ray also has the capacity to individually change the bass, treble and volume for each pair of speakers.

Other features of the Blu-ray were the touch sensitive controls along the front panel, an almost invisible iPod dock, a USB port and a ‘night’ setting which will automatically dim the lights on the system as well as lowering the volume. The best thing about this system is the price! I was actually astonished when a quick Google search revealed it was cheaper than I’d expected.

I genuinely like the HB954PB Blu-ray system, and it got quite a few compliments from the visitors I had during its time in my house. 7/10, though it almost certainly would have got a higher score had it been in complete working order.

See www.lge.com for more details.
Avaliable from Amazon and other online & high street retailers

Note: With regards to the pricing, LG does not set the prices of its products, it is entirely retailer dependant.