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Kung Fu was a particularly daft TV series back in the 1970s, starring David Carradine as Grasshopper, a monk who had a stock of unmemorable quotes (“The stick is straight. Yet in the water it seems to bend … Is what I see so unimportant?”) and a sort of, ‘Dont mess with me, I know stuff’ attitude, gained from his training by mentor, Master Po, in the Shaolin monastery. 

Around this same time emerged a bunch of flat-earth, pointy heads who professed to be the One and Onlys who had The Knowledge for matching components to get a really great music system. There are probably a few still lurking around redundant corners of the hi-fi verse, still proclaiming that component matching is a dark art, that only those with the wisdom, intelligence and spiritual awareness of Grasshopper can unravel.

You won’t find them anywhere near Sound Advice.

Instead, we are launching our new section of Recommended Music Systems, put together by our highly experienced, team of expert reviewers. These are systems that tie together a source of music, an amplifier and a pair of speakers and are guaranteed to produce truly exceptional results.

We are kicking off the section with a brilliant musical trio: NAD M33 Streaming amp, the new NAD M23 Power amp and wonderful Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4 Speakers. You can read the review here.

Over the next few months we will add a selection of other systems at a wide variety of price points. Our aim is to put together and review about a dozen for your contemplation.

We also think it important that if you want to get a demonstration of one of the systems that you should be able to go to just one retailer, not have to trapse around finding the various elements – so each system will satisfy that criteria as well.

If you have a particular system that you would like us to test out, just drop us a note to [email protected] or book a slot to talk through what you would like to know with one of the reviewers.

Nad's gutsy M33 Streaming and M23 Power amps, in bridge mode they pump out 700watts per channel
Impressive in every respect, Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4