The amount of space available in many Hong Kong apartments means the micro and mini stereo is a popular market. Producing a sound belying their size, in both quality and volume, micro systems, at between $3,000 and $5,000, offer a wide range of features.

JVC's UXA4 offers a CD player with auto selection, AM/FM tuner, cassette deck, full remote control and hyper bass, producing a grown up sound for $2,996 at Fortress.

The UXT1, at $2,596, is smaller still, fitting discreetly into a bookshelf along with the paperbacks.

Sanyo uses a large LED section on the front of its MS1, at $2,598, to allow adjustment of the graphic equaliser using the built-in Spectrum Analyser.

Aiwa's Ultra Mini LCX-F7, which still falls within the micro range, breaks away from the traditional grey and black look with an attractive brushed gold finish, and for $2,628 offers all the regular facilities as well as a graphic equaliser and Variable Super-T bass, to increase the low-end response from the tiny speakers.

Yamaha moves away from the bookshelf system with its Natural Sound Table-Top stereo, ideal for bedside table sounds. The integrated clock and CD provide high quality sound in a stylish package at $3,500. It also has provision for external inputs.

Christmas parties would not be complete without a karaoke session, and Philips have provided a portable system to ensure that no one need feel left out. The AW7530 ghetto-blaster, for $698, offers double cassette decks and full karaoke echo facility tomake the most timid singer sound like a concert-hall star.

Karaoke mixing features appear on many of the mini and midi systems as well. Sharp's CDC 900, for $3,988, incorporates them along with a six-disc CD magazine for non-stop music, graphic equaliser and double cassette deck. At this level, quality and price are closely related, and generally more is obtained for more. Much dedicated research will be undertaken by the serious hi-fi collector, and even Santa Claus might have trouble filling those particular stockings.