It's now less than two weeks until the Awards issue goes on sale – on October 18th – and as we write this the last pages are winging their way, or whatever pages do down a wire, to the printers.

Ms Editor Newsome will then retire to a darkened room to chill for a week or so, while the rest of us try to combine doing what mice do when the cat's away with getting on with the December issue and preparing for the London WHFSV show.

It's only four weeks away, and you can book tickets here.

With all that going on, we've also somehow managed to...

  • Bring you an exclusive first look at Mission's new 79 Series speakers
  • Tell you about Microsoft's Zune 2 portable player
  • See how Boston Acoustics is simplifying the SoundBar with its TVee Two
  • Impart Ultimate Guide Ed Andy Clough's hands-on first impressions of iPod Touch ownership (yes, Andy, you can put it away now -- the whole class has seen it)
  • And show you the phone Bang & Olufsen and Samsung reckon is so good it'll have you handing over a cool grand to get your hands on it

Oh, and we have two great competitions online right now. In one, you stand a chance of winning Jason Plato's 150mph+ Seat Leon Cupra, while our web-exclusive contest has The Chord Company's Chorus 2 interconnects up for grabs.

More after the break

Meanwhile over in the forums, there are now over 5000 registered users, so welcome to user fleemon, our 5000th signer-upper. This week members have continued to bang on about cables, tried various ways to get screen-burn on a plasma, and – just for some light relief – forum regular sex has this week managed to blow up a brand new power amplifier and discover his equipment rack isn't up to the job, which is what we'd been telling him all along.

Why not join in? Click here to start talking hi-fi and home cinema with fellow enthusiasts!

Meanwhile the November issue of the magazine is still on sale, with tests of the best 40-42in TVs around, affordable projectors, AV receivers around £400, internet radios and heavyweight integrated amplifiers. Click here to find out more, or here to subscribe.