Review: Mark Craven

These days we could probably name no more than 11 or 12 manufacturers of TVs, but ask us about loudspeakers and you'd fall asleep before we'd got as far as companies beginning with the letter 'D'. The industry appears to be in rude health, with models to suit all tastes and budgets, and there are plenty of options that you might not have come across before. Kroma Atelier's Stella Xtreme perhaps being one of them.

Musical Fidelity is no stranger to big power amplifiers. Its top-of-the-range monoblock, the £3599 M8s-700m, claims a 700W/8ohm output and weighs in at 35.5kg, and the company sells a stereo model in the M8 series too, the £3999 2x500W/8ohm-rated M8s-500s. But perhaps what few expected from the brand, considering its range also consists of DACs, streaming amps, phono stages and CD players – everything a two-channel audiophile could want, in other words – is a seven-channel amplifier. Which is what we have here, in the shape of the M6x 250.7.

The general consensus is that film sequels are rarely as good as the original, the likes of The Godfather Part II being an honourable exception. In consumer electronics, on the other hand, any follow-up simply has to better its predecessor to justify its existence. This is the aim of Emotiva with its BasX TA1 integrated amplifier, a refresh of the earlier BasX TA-100 [HFN Apr '19]. Yet unlike many Hollywood studios, it's been careful not to erase fond memories of the original in favour of a full franchise reboot. There's an awful lot about the TA1 that is identical to its predecessor.

System Audio's product catalogue, although spanning only three loudspeaker 'families', aims to offer a solution for almost every eventuality. The Danish manufacturer, based in Roskilde, west of Copenhagen, makes on-wall models, including the legend 7.2 [HFN Mar '22], AV-specific centre channel enclosures and subs, plus various standmounts and floorstanders. Many can be bought in active 'Silverback' guise (or upgraded at a later date), their potential then expandable via DSP 'RAM tweaks' and a WiSA-based wireless streaming hub [HFN Aug '21]. There is, to put it mildly, a lot going on.