And Lo, the towering Pioneer SC-LX90 amplifier finally arrives in the UK!

In development for four years – the usual turnaround for an AVR is 18 months – it's not difficult to conclude that this isn't going to be your run-of-the-mill music centre.

Affectionately referred to as Susano, after the Japanese god of storms, it's the most significant audio product from Pioneer since the VSA-AX10, and in terms of complexity and ambition it leaves that model in the kindergarten.

In truth, the LX90 is not really an integrated amplifier at all. It's really a pre-power combo confined to a single metal cage. The power plant, comprising 10 digital modules co-developed with Bang & Olufsen, has its own power supply, with signal routing and audio processing meticulously organised above it.

Radical hub

I've been keeping an eye on the Susano project since its inception. The brainchild of Keiichi Onodera, then a senior audio engineer within Pioneer, it was envisaged as a radical multimedia hub built around state-of-the-art digital amplification.

The project almost derailed when Onodera left the corporation, but was subsequently adopted and refined by Product planner Yoshiyuki Yamada.

Tim Vine-Lott, Technical Director of AIR Studios, the world-famous recording facility which fine-tunes Pioneer's high-end audio products, confided to me that he had his doubts about the brand's decision to adopt digital amplification. But months of fine-tuning allayed his fears. The LX90 is the first product to win AIR's Reference Monitor status endorsement – and with good reason. It's a scorching performer.

Pioneer's caped Crusader

Once its settings have been massaged, the LX90 is capable of sensational imaging, delivering snake-tongue fast transients and articulate multichannel effects. During the review period, I've been shocked by the depth and reach of the low-end bass on offer, and have often found myself having to rein in the bludgeoning LFE, even while mid-range vocals remained nuanced and tangible.
Music or movies? This storm god seems just as happy with both.

When it comes to widescreen audio action, the LX90 can fight crime with the best of them. The Batmobile chase sequence from Batman Begins (Dolby TrueHD, Blu-ray) mixes helicopter blades with panning police sirens and hi-octane front/back/front image steering. The LX90 never sounds muddled, despite the chaos. It just seems to want to go... louder.

The Dark Knight Prologue (an extra on the Batman Begins BD) is equally thrilling. The sequence has a Dolby TrueHD mix that opens with portentous LFE, and employs a frantic pulsing riff that insidiously takes you hostage. Soundtracks become a visceral thing with the LX90.

Touchy beast

It isn't all about heavyweight harrumphing though. For evidence of the amp's often tantalizing delicacy, listen to Emi Fujita's surround sound rendition of All My Loving (from the Super Audio CD Camomile Best Audio, a Japanese import on Leafage).

Engineered by Sony's Chief Distinguished Engineer Takashi Kanai, the record's seductive, smoky vocals and perfectly placed jazz-club accompaniment is conveyed with almost holographic realism.

The Beatles Love DVD-Audio (which might be easier for you to get your hands on) is to my mind one of the most sublime multichannel discs ever made – here it sounds fittingly jaw-dropping. Tim Vine-Lott tells me that he considers Love 'spiritually at least' an AIR album.

No hot Air

Although none of the record was mixed at AIR Studios (EMI wouldn't allow the master tapes or digital clones to leave Abbey Road), record producers George and Giles Martin used a system specified by the AIR technical team to remix the original source tracks into stereo and 5.1.