This phono stage has a clever design to help improve audio quality

For sheer musicality and agility, the Luxman L550A-II has the potential to delight vinyl lovers everywhere

We get acquainted with legendary headphone manufacturer Beyerdynamic's high-performance A1 headphone amp

Creek's Evolution comes from a long line of respected value-for-money electronics

This exclusive review looks at Linn's new 'universal' phono stage and discovers a must-have tool for LP lovers

We discover an affordable route into Audio Research ownership, the legendary name that never lost its faith in valves

Some technical flaws can't dampen this amp's spirit

Impressive sound and connectivity lead the way on this amp

Pure Sound's entry level amp goes light on features but heavy on sound

Multi-faceted DAC headphone amp will appeal to the audiophile

High-value, Italian-made solid-state CD player and amplifier with valve-like qualities

The Isis CD player and Osiris integrated amplifier represent Rega's first move into the high end

The nearest that Gryphon gets to amplification for the masses

Budget-priced amp struggles to make an impact

Gorgeous-looking amplifier packs quite a performance

The Leema Elements Phono is a small box with big ambitions

A funky design and a thrilling performance level makes this power amp an all-round winner

Denon is fighting back. Having had its mainstream nose bloodied by Japanese rival Onkyo throughout 2007, and then been wrong-footed by Yamaha and Pioneer in the rush to claim the new high-ground for super-high-end integrated amps and receivers – not to mention coming under pressure from D&M stablemate Marantz – it’s unveiled its latest proposition: the AVC-A1HD: a networkable THX Ultra2 amplifier (with both 802.11b/g wireless wi-fi and Ethernet) which threatens to take no prisoners.

Italians love music – they are the only inhabitants of a hot Mediterranean country who make serious and successful audio components. Maybe having the cooler northern climbs of the country helps in this respect as Unison Research is based in the north east environs of Treviso, where it produces a broad selection of electronics – the majority of which are powered by parallel single-ended valves.

Thirty years ago Japan rocked the economy of the UK’s hi-fi industry and now it’s the turn of the Chinese. With products like this latest pre/power pairing from Advance Acoustic being offered for under a grand.

The 840E and 840W amplifiers see Cambridge Audio topping off its successful Azur range of products with a high-powered and highly flexible pre/power combination. Traditionally, Azur products have been at the budget end of things, but these amps represent something new and hit £2k.

Yamaha’s contribution to the world of high fidelity has been distinctive, sometimes even distinguished, but also more than a touch patchy, with long barren spells punctuating the infrequent highlights. The latter include true world beaters such as the CT1000 tuner and the beryllium tweeter equipped NS1000. But ambitious mainstream high fidelity components have been noticeable by their absence; the new 2000 series components you see here being their first important new introductions for many years.

Even our hardened delivery driver made comments about the weight of the SM-11S1 power amp and we rather cynically expected heavyweight casework to be the culprit. In fact, the main contributing factor is one of the biggest transformer enclosures we’ve seen - there’s a screening can (with inaccessible fixing screws) over something that’s probably big enough to weld with!

This is another interesting take on the old pre/power concept, since apart from the obvious fact that the power amps are physically discrete monoblocks, the preamp is also a DAC. Where Bryston’s pre/DAC is very much a preamp with a DAC board added, this one is historically a DAC (the DAC-X exists happily in its own right) with a preamp added, though the integration is such that the term ‘digital preamp’ would probably describe it better.

Chord has made quite a splash about its arrival on the hi-fi scene, offering futuristic, high-power amplifiers with – wait for it – switch-mode power supplies!