In 2015, Italian “valve specialists” Unison Research renovated their Unico range of hybrid hifi electronics with the introduction of a new flagship. Unison Research told us: “The Unico 150 integrated amplifier was born out of an extensive R&D process and utilised optimal electrical characteristics to achieve a true high-end sound performance. Now, the lessons learned in the development of the Unico 150 have resulted in the introduction of an alternative high-end offering”.

The Unico 90 amplifier employs as few active amplification stages as possible. Where the more powerful flagship, Unico 150, has three active stages, the Unico 90 boasts lower power specifications but only uses a two-stage circuit.

The Unico 90 is an integrated amplifier designed to accommodate a variety of sources via its three RCA and two XLR pair inputs. It’s also designed to work in almost any application, with its fixed and variable RCA outputs as well as the bi-wirable speaker terminals. The large casework is built to the same exacting standards as previous Unico designs, but the Unico 90 borrows the same three-platefront fascia introduced with the Unico 150. Operation is via the large front-panel controls or the supplied RC2 system remote. The whole pre-amplifier section of the Unico 90 is entirely passive. The ALPS volume dial is armoured at four points. The input switching control decouples inactive source inputs, reducing cross-talk, and also employs miniature mechanical relays.

The sonic ability of the Unico 90 comes from its gain stage, which is controlled by the amplifier’s valve section. The valve complement is made up of ECC83 tubes in double-triode totem pole configuration and ECC81 in parallel totem pole. The result of the circuitry effectively delivers six triodes per-channel. Inside the output stage, three pairs of HEXFETs are used per-channel. The Unico 90 is a dual-mono amplifier, and three pairs of thermo-stable Class AB HEXFETs are used per-channel to provide 160W (4Ω) audio signal. Thanks to this design, the Unico 90 is able to work with a wide variety of modern loudspeakers.

The Unico 90 is available in the UK now.

It will be available in a Silver finish, or in Black for a £100.00 surcharge.

SRP £3,500.00

Technical Information

• Unison Research say that the Unico 90 design has been based on a balance of features, and altering it would involve sacrifices in certain directions. Increasing the number of MOSFETs would permit the use of loudspeakers with impedances of < 2Ω, but this would compromise the consistency and linearity across the high frequencies.