Putting all our systems in place

It’s easy, after the frenzy that is our Awards judging process, to get carried away with the idea that that means it’s job done. After all, an Award-winning product is the best of the best; it stands to reason, surely, that putting a system together with a number of these top pieces of kit will create an award-winning set-up. But not so fast… If there’s one thing that we at What Hi-fi? have been saying over the years, it’s that you have to be careful with system matching – especially if you want to create a set-up with almost magical synergy in its sound.

The four stereo systems (p30) we have come up with here, though, do a remarkable job of pulling off that trick. Not every product in every system is an Award winner – but every system is simply superb at playing music in a way that will bring you delight and pleasure for years to come.

Also in this issue, to bring us bang up to date, we compare next-gen consoles (p43) with Sony’s PS5 taking on Xbox Series X – and there’s an impressive line up of First Tests (p6), too.