• Read more bookshelf reviews from HomeTheaterReview.com
• Discuss bookshelf speakers at HomeTheaterSpot.com
• Explore reference speakers at AudiophileReview.com

But the Zingalis before me are not the huge models that visibly exploit the company's trademark 'Omniray' technology, designs so obviously horn-like that you don't need to be told. Rather, I'm playing with the very tiny, cute and affordable Colosseum Cinema models: two pairs of the two-driver Sat S at £445 per pair, one Central S at £265 and the smaller active subwoofer, the Active S, at £495. This constitutes the company's least expensive system (although you can save even more by buying a passive subwoofer and opting for a black or silver finish). So, all-in we have a 5.1 speaker system for £1650.

Now this isn't cheap by today's standards, when famous makes will flog you a six-pack for under £600. But look at this stuff: it's mouth-watering. And the speakers are so small that you simply won't believe the performance - let alone the vanishing trick they undertake.

Maybe the use of the term 'horn' is a marketing conceit in this context, but the drivers are recessed deeply into the cabinets, the horns sculpted into slabs of solid walnut or cherry. These are miniaturised versions of the Omniray horns, the name referring to a specific shape of round horn throat with specially calculated geometry. The Sat S measures a mere 170x100x150mm (HWD), and it contains a 19mm dome tweeter and a 70mm woofer; the Central S uses the same tweeter and two woofers, in an enclosure measuring 100x250x150mm (HWD). Note that all of the Colosseum models use combinations of these two drivers; the Cinema S, for example, is a Sat S with integral floor stand, while the Cinema M uses two woofers and the Cinema L uses four.

Zingali offers two subwoofers, both in active or passive form. The one I tried contains two 140mm woofers and an 80W amplifier in a handsome, grey-sided, wooden-topped MDF enclosure standing 385x200x440mm (HWD). The larger L model boasts 100W and two 170mm woofers. While the satellites and the centre speaker use nice multi-way terminals, the subwoofer only has cheapo press-fit connectors for bare wire. It also has level and crossover controls and line inputs, so it can be used with other speakers, and it can be set for manual power-on or auto power-on when sensing a signal. You can either drive it from a subwoofer output, as I did, or from main speaker outputs running satellites off of it. I connected the satellites to the main amplifier outputs.

The small Zingalis cross over at the upper limit of the subwoofer's control, but I preferred the sound with it backed off to approximately 150Hz. Rest assured, the speakers simply will not satisfy you without the accompanying subwoofer, and they're specified quite unashamedly as good down to 180Hz (150Hz for the centre speaker).

Rated at 8 ohms, the Sat S has 90dB/1W sensitivity while the Central S enjoys an extra 2dB. Thus, they worked so well with the Denon ADV-M71 Micro DVD System that I've made this a 'shared' review with that product. I was already totally familiar with the Denon's sound thanks to many months' use of the D-M31 on which it's based, so please think of this as a system review, considering remarks about the Zingali Sat S in context of the Denon. But I used of all six speakers in my main AV system of Lexicon MC-1 processor and Theta Intrepid amplifier.

Two things to point out from the get-go. The first is that these speakers sound too sweet, un-shouty, non-agressive and euphonic to be horns. The second is that they offer such huge, convincing, three-dimensial imaging that you really have to go into Unreconstructed Audiophile Mode to fault them. And the complaints will all be about refinement - not scale, not musicality, not detail, not listenability.

Using both systems, I played pure music DVDs in the form of The Concert For George - that sublime hommage to George Harrison - and Jimi Hendrix's Wild Blue Angel. The latter was accessed as both a DVD and as conventional CDs. Other CDs included the new edition of the Allman Brothers' Live At The Fillmore East and a bunch of samplers from Uncut. Feature films consisted of Akira, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers.

Remember: I went from full height MartinLogans and a subwoofer that alone costs twice the price of the entire Zingali package. Not only was I not disappointed: I was blissfully pleased. Here, at last, was a microscopic system I could actually recommend unreservedly to Bitch Wives From Hell who were about to force their husbands to buy plastic mail-order dreck because of size alone. Don't believe me? Take three of the Sat S speakers, turn them on their sides and stack them up. The three equal, almost to the millimetre, just one LS3/5a.

After no more than a half-hour or so fiddling with the crossover and level controls, I felt I had the sat/sub relationship tuned so as not to exhibit anything in the way of a sonic gap, as with the very cool XHiFI system. The continuity between subwoofer and satellites is so smooth that you'd swear the Sat S was crossing over at 80Hz, not 180Hz. But one inescapable criticism emerged - from the sub, not the sats. And this is despite me falling in love with it.