Now here’s a cult object – a hi-fi system that demystifies the whole hi-fi business. The Geneva is quite simply a box – constructed using the same materials and lacquers as a piano casing. It contains high-quality speakers and you plug your iPod in the top. So what if it looks strangely like a microwave.

The London-only furniture store SCP says the Geneva, from £499 (www.scp.co.uk), has been flying off the shelves. Obviously it sells more from its Westbourne Grove store: I’m sure every Ollie and Tabitha has one for their bedroom for starters, not to mention the au pair. Over in Shoreditch, SCP’s orginal site, the locals are too distracted by the hangover they acquired in an illegal club in Dalston the night before.

The Geneva functions like a piece of furniture: you take it home, put it on a shelf, and wipe it with a damp cloth from time to time. It has clean lines and will probably look better when the latest model, in a walnut veneer, turns up sometime this summer. You could even order your microwave to match.

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