Now this really is rather smart. Smarter than smart, in fact. The USB Desktop Mixing station is the stuff of schoolboy dreams - where Pete Tong comes to play on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

Where ordinary MP3 playing DJ consoles merely enable one to play and cross-fade tracks from digital sources, this sublime USB-based iCUE mixing station goes not just one step beyond, but a whole light year further. Those ever-so-clever chaps and chapesses at Ion have conceived a fully professional digital audio hub, allowing the aspiring DJ-type not only to mix from PC using a familiar cross-fader, but with full scratching, pitch-shifting and beatmatching thrown in for good measure.

But that's only the half of it. Taking complete control of the music, this box of musical delights also enables one to sample and loop selected portions of a track and allows you to prefade tracks in your headphones - or should one say 'cans' - before playing it on to one's adoring public. And if that wasn't enough, one can even record one's two-channel mixed masterworks for one's aural pleasure at a later date.

There's even an advanced software-based EQ control to enable you to tune-up your skills then fine-tune your choons. All of which has us giving maximum respect to the laser here at gadgetshop HQ. Now God really is a DJ.