For most people, buying a modern personal stereo boils down to a choice between a CD player, an MP3 player or one that does both.

Waitec's Havin is more than double the price of a typical personal CD player but also plays CD-Rs or CD-RWs with MP3 files on them. The alternative at similar prices, a personal MP3 player, would be much smaller but can only store about one hour of music.

When setting up Havin, a moment's thoughtlessness could prove costly: the power lead can plug into the headphone socket and doing so is not a good idea. The supplied headphones don't do justice to the player's sound quality, which is excellent for an MP3 player and as good as most personal CD players we've tested.

That said, its maximum volume is insufficient if there's lots of background noise. The in-line remote control feels lightweight and fragile but is useful nonetheless.

The Havin doesn't come with a 12v kit to use via a car cassette player but includes an adapter to run on mains electricity, which also recharges its NiMH battery. Our tests showed that this lasts up to 10 hours and, if you are caught short for a power socket, the Havin will also run on two standard AA batteries. Its anti-shock system stores 48 seconds of audio CD music or six minutes of MP3 music, so it copes well if you're driving along a bumpy road.

The 650Mb storage capacity of a CD-R allows you to store about 150 MP3 songs, depending on the chosen file quality, so it uses the ID3 name tag system to help you select them. The player stores the settings of the three most recently played CDs, so it can resume swiftly after being switched off. Waitec also supplies a CDRom with a PC program to rename MP3 files in a standard format.

Havin offers a useful compromise if you don't mind its size. If you do a lot of travelling, for example, it would allow you to carry more than 12 hours of music on one CD-R and play audio CDs too. It really is a case of Havin your cake and eating it.

Contact: Avalon IT Supplies 01582 404443 www.waitec.com

Also consider: Rio Revolt
A good choice of portable CD player. £170.