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Multi-room music systems are a popular choice for a growing number of music fans and Danish hi-fi loudspeaker brand Dynaudio is the latest to diversify and join the fray. Its new four-strong range of networked active speaker systems is called Music and can be used in any combination desired up to a total of six units. All four speakers share some common intelligent technology, designed to make them easier to integrate into your environment. Each is fitted with software called RoomAdapt, which claims to sense the proximity of the speaker in relation to rear or side walls and adjust its output for the optimum performance.

Electricity is a vital ingredient in any home hi-fi system of course. But while on the one hand it’s essential in powering our music systems, on the other it can affect hi-fi performance if not handled properly. Think of it as the fuel that’s required to get a car running – if you want to get the best performance, you need to ensure that its being fed the cleanest ‘fuel’ possible. Our mains supply can be affected by numerous factors, whether it be the journey it takes from the power station to your home, the other components that are in the vicinity of your system or air-borne signals from smartphones, wi-fi or Bluetooth devices.

Mark Levinson has unveiled two new designs, which can eitherbe brought separately to expand your system or as a pair to create an exceptional pre-power partnership. The £16,000 No 523 preamplifier is claimed to deliver an uncompromising performance regardless of analogue source and comes equipped with a Class-A phono stage, Class-A main drive headphone output and discreet balanced R-2R ladder volume control. It boasts five line-level analogue inputs, two balanced XLRs, three single RCA stereo outputs and a phono input with earthing post. Meanwhile, the No 534 (bottom in pic) dual-monaural power amp delivers 250W per channel (into 8ohm) in Class A (doubling to 500W into 4ohm).

Unison Research has launched its Unico 90 integrated amp. Intended to sit under its flagship 150 model, the 90 is a valve and solid-state hybrid with a preamp stage that is built around an Alps volume control and input switching that decouples inactive inputs. The valve-based gain stage uses ECC83 and ECC81 tubes in Unison’s totem pole configuration. These are directly coupled to the output stage, which consists of three pairs of HEXFET output devices to give it a claimed power output of 2x 100W into 8ohm and 2x 160W into 4ohm.

The market for stereo receivers is hotting up and Onkyo has launched two new models in the form of the £250 TX-8220 and £530 TX-8250 (pictured). The networkable TX-8250 claims a power output of 2x 135W into 6ohm, six RCA inputs and a moving-magnet phono stage. It has a hefty selection of additional features and sports optical and coaxial digital inputs, a USB audio connection and supports DTS Play-Fi, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and TuneIn. All decoding is handled by an internal AKM DAC, with support for 24/192 and DSD128 files.

Inside the December 2017 issue we take anexclusiveIn-depthlook at the new 700 loudspeaker series from Bowers & Wilkins with the 705 S2 standmount, while our regular reviews section features Simaudio’s MoonNēo 240i integrated amplifier, Technics’ SC-C70 one-box hi-fi system, Dual’s MTR-75 automatic turntable with USB, Acoustic Energy’s AE100 compact standmount as well as Wharfedale’s 11. 2 ‘big baby’ standmount and Sony’s NW-WM1A portable music player. Plus,Dealer Visitheads to the Nottingham HiFi Centre, whileMusic Legendscharts the songs that touched hearts and minds from singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and our six-wayGroup Testlooks at floorstanding loudspeakers costing around £1k from KEF, Mission, Monitor Audio, Quadral, SVS, and XTZ. Get your copy here.

Welcome toThe Hi-Fi ShowLive2017, a specialty high-end audio event organised by the passionate audiophiles that bring you our sister titleHi-Fi News & Record Reviewmagazine every month. The world's oldest and most respected hi-fi magazine knows a thing or two about sound quality, so expect to experience some of the very best demonstrations ever attempted in the UK! In a refreshing departure from the conventional hotel show format, visitors will be treated to a series of memorable high-end audio events. Each of our major suites will feature examples of the very best that the high-end can offer with scheduled presentations and demonstrations by a mix of famous designers, engineers and audio personalities. Our other suites offer interactive demonstrations of the best headphones and headphone amplifiers, vinyl and hi-res/networked audio systems.