For many of us, the music format we first listened to when we were young still has a nostalgic hold on us.

Whether it was the cassette tape and its easily tangled spool, the shiny and futuristic CD disc, the good ol' vinyl record, or even the wondrous little MiniDisc – physical music formats give us a tangible and emotional connection that streaming still can't quite match. (And of course, once you buy a piece of physical media, it's yours to own forever.)

We might be in a nostalgic mood with What Hi-Fi? turning 50 years old this year, but we have also been enjoying a resurgence and appreciation for physical music – from the vinyl revival of the past decade to the more recent uptick in CD sales.

It's made us wonder: what is your favourite physical music format of the past few decades?

Is it the very first format you listened to – say, tape or vinyl – or did the advent of CDs and perhaps even SACDs take over in your estimation? Is it to do with convenience and price, or does sound quality reign supreme in your choice of physical music format?

Do you still mourn the loss of the MiniDisc, or even have a collection of DVD-Audio discs from its brief moment in the sun? Does anyone still favour (and have) reel-to-reel tapes over all else?

Or do you simply buy a mix of formats, depending on your whims?

We aren't trying to start a format war here; we want this to be a celebration of the various physical formats on which we enjoy listening to music.

We simply want to know which physical music format is your preference and why – and we'd love to hear your thoughts and stories connected to it.

For instance, despite my recent infatuation with all things vinyl and turntable-related, the cassette tape was my first music format.

And even though I may still get a nostalgic thrill from using a pencil to wind up the tape, it's CDs and their little booklets with lyrics, anecdotes and sometimes hidden messages from the artist that remain near and dear to my heart. That's the format that I listened to and collected throughout my teens into adulthood.

So let us know your favourite physical music format choice(s) – you can wax lyrical all about it in the comments below, on our forum or on our social media channels.

We'll put them all together in a follow-up article at the end of the month, so you can see your fellow readers' picks!

MORE:

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Forget the vinyl revival – I'm getting excited about CD players again

10 of the best Leonard Cohen songs to test your hi-fi system

I’m a MiniDisc fanatic and this is my love letter to the format

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a love of music and hi-fi tend to go hand in hand.

After all, one of the reasons we get into hi-fi and usually never stop tinkering with our systems is a borderline neurotic desire to make the music we love sound as good as possible.

It’s also why, whether it’s the best prog rock album of all time or your favourite acoustic track, whenever we ask about music, we know we’re going to get some strong responses from you, our discerning readers.

But what we didn’t expect when we asked which album you use to break in a new turntable, at the start of October, was the sheer volume and variety of responses you then fired back.

In fact, within minutes of the article going live, your answers came in rapid fire.

“Without doubt: St Germain, Tourist. Very few albums ever had that kind of dynamic sound," wrote on-site commentator Dibo, kicking off the proceedings.

“Dire Straits and Telegraph Road. Always,” Facebook follower Paul Hadgett then quickly followed up on Facebook.

“Shine On You Crazy Diamond, off Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound Of Thunder live album,” commenter Kaz Urbanski added.

From there, it all went off the rails, with everything from expected hi-fi staples, including Mike Oldfield and Neil Young, to booming metal from Iron Maiden and Tool being suggested.

And everyone’s right

And as the suggestions continued, we started to notice a wonderful trend. Specifically, you were all being very nice about the whole thing and acknowledging a simple truth: there is no right answer.

Some pointed out the best record is the one you feel like listening to at the time. This was nicely summed up by Facebook follower Edwin van Rooijen, who argued, “If I don’t feel joy, then something is wrong.”

This was followed up by Facebook follower James Beaumont, who told us, “I just pick what I fancy at the time. Maybe some Pixies or Neil Young or anything that appeals.”

Others took an alternative route, arguing the one they use is the one they know best. They included DrJimC, who commented, “I just bought a Rega P6 RS and played Electric Ladyland, because it was the last album I played on my Nottingham Analogue. Good test.”

And then G Money, who took things back even further, revealed his go-to is That's The Way Of The World by Earth, Wind & Fire due to its connection to his first proper system, telling us:

“It was the first record I played after I got my first serious ‘stereo’, Yamaha CR-800, Dual 1257; it just jumped out of those speakers.”

Our hot take

Some albums are recorded better than others. Listen to Black Flag, and you’ll see what we mean – great band, terrible audio production, and I say that as a die-hard fan.

That’s why the What Hi-Fi? team has favourite recordings and albums we use when testing hi-fi. But, being brutally honest, we’re paid to do that, and we 100 per cent agree that, ultimately, the answer for people listening from home is “whatever makes you happy”.

Music is there to be enjoyed, and though strict audiophilia can be a rigid stance, focused on brutal transparency above all else, for most of us, it’s about enjoying the music we love – and there’s no reason to get snippy about people’s personal tastes. Different strokes and all that…

MORE:

We rank the best speakers

Our picks of the best hi-fi test tracks

The best stereo amplifiers for serious music fans

Once you have been in the home cinema game for a while, it can be easy to forget about what brought you there in the first place.

Although it is one of the most dedicated groups of fans that you can come across, you can find yourself forgetting the initial sense of wonder that came with hearing an incredible sound system or seeing a film with a projector outside of the cinema for the first time.

I remember watching Arcane on the Award-winning Sony Bravia Projector 8 (which launched at a staggering £15,999 / $15999 / AU$21999) back in 2024 when I joined the What Hi-Fi? team, and being absolutely awestruck by the level of detail and contrast that the premium projector offers.

While other systems can still give me that feeling of wonder, it is not as frequent as when I first started the job.

But this old husk was reminded of the brilliance of home cinema when I attended a grassroots cinema club last week. Run by movie fan Will Mead, Midweek Cinema hosts movie screenings in various pubs across London primarily at the start of the week.

The club has also just been given access to the newly reopened Plaza Camden, which was thought to have closed its doors as a cinema back in February. But the venue is being given a new lease of life, and Midweek Cinema now operates from a 72-seater cinema screen for some of the week.

I got the chance to attend one of the screenings, kicking off with A Panic at Needle Park. I’ll be the first to admit that it was not a film that I had heard of, but I quickly learnt that it stars Al Pacino in his first major role. The movie follows Bobby (Pacino) and Helen (Kitty Winn), who fall in love, but their addiction to heroin forces them go to any means necessary to get high.

Tucked away in the ground floor of a cosy pub in West London, the small but passionate audience was treated to a bowl of popcorn each before the film began. Everyone is encouraged to talk to each other if they would like before and after the film as well, and plenty of regulars turned up.

Will’s setup includes the Hisense C2 Ultra projector, a pop-up foldable screen and a portable PA system for the audio. Now, that's not the reference-style system we'd expect to see in our home cinema room; there's no AVR or surround sound system involved, and (understandably) 4K discs aren't always the priority.

But that didn't matter quite as much here, as the system serves as a way for people to connect and enjoy films together, and ultimately that's what I think home cinema should be all about.

In fact, the four-star Hisense C2 Ultra's middling black levels and somewhat flat colours didn't distract, or even really cross my mind. The versatility, easy set-up and punchy high brightness that this projector boasts were perfect for this situation, making it an ideal choice for Will.

As the lights went off and the crowd settled, the magic of seeing a film with others was all that mattered. Sure, it wasn’t on a premium projector, and the sound wasn't coming from a £10,000 system, but sharing a movie with a group was really touching.

No gatekeeping, no competitive specs comparison; just watching a film with fellow movie nerds. I’ll certainly be testing my next projector and sound system with a renewed passion.

MORE:

How a film lover made his own affordable movie club

These are the best projectors

And check out the best soundbars

Xgimi is one of several brands that have taken the entry-level and lifestyle projector scene by storm, only to slowly work their way up to increasingly more powerful and sophisticated models.

When we reviewed the Xgimi Horizon 20 Max earlier this year, we were very impressed indeed, stating that the talented projector was "only a refinement or two away from class-leading greatness".

But with rivals such as AWOL Vision taking big strides in the last few years – and nabbing this year's What Hi-Fi? Award at this price range – Xgimi has its work cut out for it for the next Horizon series. Have the refinements been enough?

Well, we'll find out very soon. The Xgimi Horizon 30 series is upon us, made up of three models: the Horizon 30 Pro, Horizon 30 Max and Horizon Ultra Max.

The star of the show, however, is the Xgimi Horizon Ultra Max. The range's top model comes with an incredible claimed brightness of 6,000 lumens and up to 10,000:1 native contrast. That's a five per cent claimed brightness increase over the Horizon 20 Max – and one of the highest lumen figures we've ever seen – and seven times the contrast.

All three models, however, will now support 4K/120Hz. This is still something of a rarity in the projector world, and twice the refresh rate of the Horizon 20 series.

The Horizon 30 Pro and Horizon 30 Max models will launch on 1st November, with prices starting at £2099 / $2499. The Horizon 30 Ultra Max releases a tad later on 11th November, priced at £2799 / $3,499.00.

Several accessories are available too, including stands, ceiling mounts and, yes, 3D glasses.

The specs certainly sound impressive, but how does this translate to real-life viewing? I got the chance to find out when I saw the new lineup at a launch event in Munich.

We'll save our final verdict until we get the Horizon 30 series into our test room for comparative testing, of course, but our initial impressions are below.

The Horizon 30 Ultra Max was the model being demonstrated, with clips from several different films shown to us.

There's no denying that the 30 Ultra Max is bright. During a sunny chase scene through Rome in Fast X, the film shines despite the presence of some ambient light. Several explosions and a flaming, rolling bomb light up the room, and there are some noticeable bright highlights courtesy of the many car headlights.

Moving on to F1: The Movie and the 30 Ultra Max is terrifically crisp and detailed. We can pick out every line and bit of stubble on Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes as he prepares to race in the film's opening.

We were then taken to a room where the Horizon 30 Ultra Max is set up next to its predecessor, the 20 Max. We switch between the two, mid-explosion during a war movie, and the difference in contrast is immediately noticeable, with sparks and flames burning brighter and whiter against an impressively inky sky on the 30 Ultra Max.

Truth be told, I wasn't able to get a proper listen to the 30 Ultra Max's sound system, which once again features 12W Harman Kardon speakers. Dialogue was at least clear and intelligible despite the hubbub, though what should have been several thrilling action scenes, such as the famous lobby scene from The Matrix, did sound rather tinny.

We will, of course, give the sound a chance to shine in our dedicated test room, where we'll also have a more in-depth review of the picture quality and compare the projector with market leaders.

The Horizon 30 series has made several steps in the right direction – it all depends on whether it's enough to keep up with the competition. We'll let you know in our official review.

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Check out the best projectors

Here is our review of the Xgimi Horizon 20 Max

These are the best soundbars you can buy

I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw Apple announce a huge iPad Mini upgrade with an OLED display and a totally redesigned speaker system; yet, a quick online look revealed I'm in the minority.

As someone who spends more time than they'd like to admit on long-haul flights to attend events around the world, or on (often delayed) five-hour train trips down to Cornwall to visit family, the concept of a pint-sized OLED iPad with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support was the news I've been waiting years for.

I've been using an 11-inch iPad Air M1 for about three years at this point, and while it's served me well – in fact, I've watched entire seasons of The Day Of The Jackal and The Pitt on this tablet – the fact is that I am starting to itch for an upgrade.

While the Award-winning iPad Air M4 would probably do me fine, just knowing that the OLED iPad Pro exists is enough to send me into a spiral.

However, I don't need an all-powerful M5 chip, nor can I justify the price, so I've been in iPad limbo while I await a worthy successor to my trusty Air.

So the new iPad Mini has become my top choice, as it gives me the picture and sound upgrades I want without the Pro-level features and price tag I don't need. Simple, right?

Wrong. This new petite iPad has caused serious discourse online due to Apple not including its ProMotion high refresh rate technology; essentially, this iPad is running at 60Hz rather than a variable 1Hz to 120Hz.

While this feature was once reserved for Apple's Pro-series iPhones, iPads and even Macs, it can now be found on the standard iPhone 17, so we'd hoped that Apple had turned a corner.

Alas, it appears that's not the case. Despite the iPad Mini now touting a more advanced display, we're not getting an advanced refresh rate to match.

This has sent tech enthusiasts and Redditors into a frenzy, with many touting the iPad Mini as a disappointment that's best avoided.

There are even rumours that Apple has outfitted the Mini with a 120Hz display but is intentionally limiting it to 60Hz using software, although I should stress that this hasn't been proven.

So, has this killed my excitement for the new iPad Mini? If I'm being brutally honest, I know how Apple works; I wasn't expecting a 120Hz display, and therefore I'm not really that disappointed.

While I would have been overjoyed to have a high refresh rate display for smoother scrolling and more responsive gaming, I also don't think that 60Hz figure is a total dealbreaker, especially given how I use my iPad.

Hopefully this won't come as a surprise, but I care most about picture and sound quality, and the upgrade that an OLED screen will bring to black depth, contrast, and brightness alone – Apple says that this new Mini's peak brightness is more than twice that of its predecessor – is plenty for watching movies and TV shows.

I understand the frustration, and it will feel like a step back when it comes to gaming and switching from my iPhone 17 Pro's 120Hz display. That said, once I find my streaming service of choice and hit play, that 60Hz limit won't phase me, and I'll just be enjoying the inherent benefits of OLED instead.

Interestingly, Apple seems to be on a bit of an OLED kick at the moment, as it has also just announced a MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen. If I had my way, then the iPad Air would be the next to get an OLED overhaul; but that's a conversation for another day.

MORE:

Read our iPad Air 13-inch M4 review

Here are our picks for the best tablets

And read our iPhone 18 Pro review

It’s always interesting in the world of tech when one brand acquires another. The first questions to enter my head are usually “why did they do it”, “what is there to gain” and, perhaps more importantly, “what is there to lose” from any new arrangement?

Well, last week those questions were firmly on my mind following the news that Bose had dipped into the market to buy headphone manufacturer Skullcandy.

It’s an interesting move, but in recent years Bose has proved it isn’t afraid of raising an eyebrow or two. It was only a couple of years ago that it made a statement in hi-fi circles by acquiring the McIntosh Group and its brands (McIntosh, Sonus Faber and Sumiko) in one fell swoop. Bose’s move into luxury audio was huge news, and one nobody really saw coming.

But now the company has been making moves in the opposite direction: more affordable audio. And when I think about it, I can completely understand why Bose would be interested in a brand like Skullcandy.

Head over to the Skullcandy website, and you’ll see some crossover with products and pricing, but its products are aimed at a younger demographic, with more splashes of colour and more variety when it comes to styles. Skullcandy’s range ends near where Bose’s QuietComfort offerings start, which gives a neat spread of products for prospective buyers to look at.

Not only that, but Skullcandy also has gaming headsets and budget wireless speakers in its product line-up, which are products you don’t tend to see from Bose.

What you might not know is that the two brands already had a relationship before this recent deal. It was a multi-year partnership which allowed Skullcandy to license some of its processing and ANC technology and stamp a ‘Sound By Bose’ label on some of its wireless headphones and earbuds.

I’m really intrigued to see where this goes next. The press release sent out at the time of the deal said Skullcandy “will remain a separate brand within Bose’s Premium Consumer Audio business”, and I do hope this is the case.

Bose’s most recent headphones haven’t fared quite as well with our test team as previous generations, and I’ve been wondering out loud if its crown might even be starting to slip.

What I wouldn’t want is for Bose to take its eye off the ball and be distracted by its latest acquisition. We shall see…

MORE:

Is the crown starting to slip on Bose, the king of noise-cancelling headphones?

Which Bose headphones should you buy?

Read our full Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024) review

The Apple TV 4K 4th Generation was announced just over two weeks ago. Now, I'm not totally smitten with it due to the substantial price tag and the fact that I can access most new features via an older Apple TV 4K, but there are some genuinely interesting upgrades worth noting.

The most intriguing is the ability to pair the streamer with four HomePods to create a wireless Dolby Atmos surround sound system, akin to the Sony Bravia Theatre Quad or Valerion Thunderbeat systems we've tested previously.

You can mix and match HomePods, provided the respective front and back pairs match; essentially, that means you can choose from four HomePod 2s, four HomePod Mini 2s, or two HomePod 2s as fronts with two HomePod Mini 2s as surrounds.

As a recent HomePod convert, this is music to my home cinema-loving ears. Apple's audio tuning has been consistently excellent across all of the HomePods we've tested, and we know that the HomePod 2 works well in a pair for movie watching. Adding two more for surrounds is a no-brainer to me.

There is, however, one thing I wish Apple would either make itself or allow us to add to this system from a third-party manufacturer. That is, of course, a subwoofer.

Imagine a HomePod subwoofer. I already know the HomePod can produce impressively deep, rich bass for its size, but I really want a dedicated channel to take on home cinema duties – something that can really go to town with explosions and bass-heavy sci-fi sound effects.

Will Apple make one? Given that it's taken six years for it to launch a HomePod Mini 2, I highly doubt it; but what if Apple let us add a subwoofer from another company to its HomePod setup?

Admittedly, that's a very un-Apple move, but the company has recently partnered with LG to produce a range of smart home devices. LG also makes a modular, wireless subwoofer as part of its Sound Suite family of home audio devices, and we praised its "deep, powerful bass" in our review.

Adding an LG W7 subwoofer, or dare I say a Sonos Sub 4 or Sub Mini, to a HomePod system could be the answer here, although I suspect that Apple won't agree with me.

It's likely banking on the convenience and ease of plonking four HomePods in your living room and hooking them up seamlessly to your Apple TV 4K being enough. I doubt it wants you faffing around with a third-party app from a rival or having to look into extra connectivity options.

I also presume that adding compatibility for a third-party wireless soundbar is much easier said than done, so I'm really hoping Apple makes its own HomePod subwoofer if it does ever choose to go down this route.

Either way, I'm not holding my breath for now, but if Apple's quad HomePod system proves to be a success, then you never know what we might see further down the line.

MORE:

Read our full Apple HomePod 2 review

As well as our Apple TV 4K 2022 review

Apple HomePod 2 vs HomePod Mini: what are the differences

If you have struggled to make out dialogue and felt underwhelmed by the impact of an explosion from your TV’s speakers, then getting a soundbar could well be the answer to your problems.

They take up much less space than a beefy multi-speaker system, and there are plenty of budget options to choose from if you don’t have the cash to splash. Many of these bars offer Dolby Atmos support if you want three-dimensional sound, and it's that side of the category that we are here to talk about.

We have been testing soundbars ever since the category emerged more than 20 years ago, and have reviewed hundreds of models. We have been curating a list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars too. And now, two new entries have leapt onto the scene as our top recommendations.

So which models are the most recent five-star stunners to make it onto our handy guide? Let’s take a look.

Samsung’s latest system is a stunner

First up, the Samsung HW-Q990H has taken the crown as the best overall soundbar package. It usurps the model’s predecessor, the Samsung HW-Q990F, thanks to its more refined and detailed sound performance.

The package launched at £1599 / $2000 / AU$1999, but it has regularly dropped to around £895 in the UK. That puts it at the pricier end of the soundbar package spectrum.

So what do you get for your money? The Q990H comprises two surround speakers, the main soundbar and a subwoofer. This is an 11.1.4 system, with an impressive total of 23 individual drivers on board. This includes 15 drivers in the main soundbar unit, three in each of the wireless surround speakers, and two eight-inch woofers (in a push/pull configuration) in the wireless subwoofer.

We rated the Q990H’s predecessor highly for its incredibly immersive, refined, and punchy performance, and the new model improves on this winning recipe. We say in our review that “Samsung’s considered approach to tuning the HW-Q990H has paid off nicely, and the subtle upgrades make all the difference”.

The new model kept what we liked about its older sibling, but delivers it with even more nuance, detail and scale.

That’s why the Q990H not only takes the crown in our Dolby Atmos soundbar guide as the best package, but also scores a What Hi-Fi? Award this year as the best soundbar system between £500 and £2000.

And Sony’s premium package scores big

If you can stretch your budget even further in pursuit of a Dolby Atmos soundbar system, then Sony Bravia Theatre System Trio + Rear 9 and Sub 9 is the best premium soundbar package out there.

Unlike the more conventional-looking Samsung model, Sony’s system does things a little differently. Instead of a single soundbar, it is divided into three separate speakers. The centre speaker is essentially a narrow soundbar, while the other two speakers are larger cylindrical units.

The two Rear 9s are a little shorter than these front right and left speakers, but still sport a similar shape. Finally, there’s the Sub 9, which is a huge, almost cube-shaped subwoofer. In total, that creates a mighty 5.1.4-channel system.

In terms of physical connections, there’s an HDMI eARC port for connection to your TV, plus a dedicated HDMI input that supports 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM. There's also Bluetooth, wi-fi, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect on the wireless side.

So how does it sound? When we listened to the Sony Theatre Trio system on its own, we were impressed by its immersive soundstage and Atmos handling. Adding in the subwoofer and rear speakers makes for even more of an enveloping and engaging performance, as you would hope.

It creates a cohesive bubble of sound around the listening position, and we said in our review: “Effects move seamlessly from front to rear, while the system maintains the same sense of cohesion that impressed us with the Trio on its own”.

The subwoofer is well-integrated with the rest of the system, too. With our go-to bass stress test (chapter two of Blade Runner 2049), we found in our review that it “refuses to distort or warble, and yet it reaches plenty deep, and there is a sense of tonal variation within the bass, which makes it sound tuneful and dynamic.

All of that means it takes the crown as the best premium soundbar package, making it our top pick if you are looking for a cinematic addition to your home cinema set-up.

MORE:

Check out our full review of the Samsung HW-Q990H

These are the best soundbars

And here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

As far as years go, 2016 was a tough one for music. In the space of just 12 months, music fans bade farewell to David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg, country music pioneer Merle Haggard, and many others. For almost every conceivable taste in music, there was someone to grieve that year.

While the losses mounted, the October arrival of Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker seemed like a much needed reprieve. Although the album wasn’t exactly easy listening – with subjects of mortality and spiritual enquiry sprinkled throughout – for devotees, no matter how dark the godfather of gloom would make it, a new Cohen album was cause for celebration.

Just 17 days after the album’s release, however, Cohen, too, would join the list of lost legends.

This November, it will have been a decade since Cohen passed away. So, to commemorate pop’s poet laureate, we have compiled a selection of our favourite tracks from across his discography that we use when testing hi-fi and audio products.

• Listen to the Leonard Cohen playlist on Tidal

The Hills (Thanks For The Dance, 2019)

The Hills is taken from Cohen’s posthumously released album, Thanks For The Dance, which was produced by the singer’s son, Adam Cohen, with engineering/mixing assistance from Michael Chaves (John Mayer, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithful). Family collaborations can turn in mixed results, but in this case, the father-son dynamic produced some of Cohen’s most pristinely produced tracks that deserve to be heard on a capable hi-fi system.

As is typical of his later recordings, Cohen’s unfathomably deep vocal holds centre stage with a surplus of texture and expression, while pillowy backing vocals and a minimal bass and drum groove hold the verses together. When the chorus eventually arrives, in a blossom of brass and forthright backing vocals, it is unusually triumphant by Cohen’s standards. Rarely one to overdo an arrangement, however, the song soon slides back down to its sparse groove.

Traveling Light (You Want It Darker, 2016)

You Want It Darker embodies the sombre, minimalist style that would come to define Cohen’s later releases. Traveling Light, however, gives a nod to Cohen’s early years on the Greek island of Hydra, by way of a Greek Bazouki in its instrumental backdrop and backing vocals from Greek singer-songwriter Athena Andreadis.

Lyrically, Traveling Light hints at the pared-back lifestyle that Cohen once lived, while simultaneously alluding to the physical losses associated with death: “I’m not alone, I’ve met a few, traveling light like we used to do… I’m traveling light.” On the instrumental side of things, a Rhodes piano, subtle electronic additions and a steady, floor tom-driven drum beat push the song forward with a simple, blues-infused arrangement.

The Future (The Future, 1992)

Both the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1992 Los Angeles riots took place during the writing and recording of The Future, and the album seems to reflect that political turbulence. The album’s title track epitomises the tone, in a dark and often prophetic meditation on societal overwhelm and collapse.

Lines such as “The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul” leave little ambiguity about the singer’s bleak vision of the world. Yet, beneath this desolate outlook lies a persistent faith in love, which Cohen ultimately presents as “the only engine of survival”.

Like many of the songs that Cohen released through the ’80s and early ’90s, this track has a more produced, artificial sound than his earlier folk recordings, but textural intricacies in the arrangement make for entertaining listening on a capable audio system.

Paper Thin Hotel (Death Of A Ladies’ Man, 1977)

Paper Thin Hotel appears on Leonard Cohen’s 1977 album Death of a Ladies’ Man, which he co-wrote with famed record producer Phil Spector. Aside from his later murder conviction, Spector is best known for his ‘wall of sound’ production technique, which uses dense, large scale arrangements, instrumental doubling and heaps of reverb to create a larger-than-life ensemble (see Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys or Be My Baby by The Ronettes).

Here, Spector keeps things a little simpler. Nonetheless, the surreal, shimmering quality of this song does much to convey the torment of its protagonist as he listens to his lover cheating on him through the walls of a hotel. What’s more, all that high-frequency detail is sure to give your tweeters the workout they’ve been putting off for too long.

Is This What You Wanted (New Skin For The Old Ceremony, 1974)

Until New Skin For The Old Ceremony, Cohen had typically been a lone wolf. A guitar, some sparse backing instrumentation, his bass-baritone vocal, and that was generally it. Though many of the album’s songs followed that winning formula, Is This What You Wanted boldly went where no Cohen song had gone before, into the realm of the fully-fledged band.

With sharp staccato snare hits and hard-panned percussion, this song will highlight your system’s rhythmic acuity and transient response. The snares should sound crisp and clear, while the overall rhythm should drive the choruses forward despite being relatively sparse, overall.

A Singer Must Die (New Skin For The Old Ceremony, 1974)

While some of New Skin For The Old Ceremony’s songs see Cohen spreading his musical wings, this album also contains some of his finest and most stylistically typical work. A Singer Must Die is one such song, with simple, fingerpicked chords, sombrely romantic lyrics and gently building banks of strings and woodwind, which provide an earthy sense of depth and texture.

A Singer Must Die explores the responsibility of the artist through a metaphorically dense court hearing in which the protagonist is scrutinised by the “keepers of truth” and the “guardians of beauty”. The song has a pitiful, self-effacing quality, with lines such as “your vision is right, my vision is wrong, I’m sorry for smudging the air with my song” setting the lyrical tone. What a joy it is to smudge the air with this one.

Avalanche (Songs Of Love And Hate, 1971)

Avalanche started life as a poem called I Stepped Into An Avalanche, which featured in Cohen’s 1966 collection, Parasites Of Heaven. It figures, then, that the song has gone on to become one of the singer’s most revered lyrical works, earning the affection of songwriters and musicians alike for its ambiguity and inscrutability. Among its admirers is Nick Cave, for whom we have also compiled a top-ten list of test tracks.

In classic Cohen fashion, the song centres around fingerstyle acoustic guitar and undulating, dramatic strings. Beyond the foreboding vocal, the strings do much of the heavy lifting in terms of setting the atmosphere. To get the most out of this track, we suggest listening on a system with a sensitive dynamic response, which will shine a light on the slow, creeping arrangement.

Sing Another Song, Boys (Songs Of Love And Hate, 1971)

Sing Another Song Boys was recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, and is the sole live recording on Songs Of Love And Hate. Compared with the rest of the album, the live recorded sound is rich and pleasingly shambolic, featuring a plucky acoustic guitar, a broad, warm piano and an organ.

There are all sorts of recording imperfections here: when the piano is played vigorously, it begins to distort, and Cohen’s vocal, which rises to a chanting wail by the end of the song, is less detailed than you will encounter elsewhere on the album.

The overall ensemble, however, remains vivacious and impassioned, full of the adrenaline and commitment that live performances entail. Like many live recordings, this song will come to life on systems that can take the rough with the smooth.

Famous Blue Raincoat (Songs Of Love And Hate, 1971)

Famous Blue Raincoat is arguably one of Cohen’s most widely loved compositions. Structured as a letter written at “four in the morning, the end of December”, the song tells the story of a love triangle between Cohen himself, a woman called Jane and another person who he refers to as “my brother, my killer”.

The principal reason this song succeeds is that it so vividly evokes a dark and lonely December morning. Lamenting backing vocals are distantly reverberant and the track’s dynamic shifts are subtle but crucial to the overall journey of the piece. To get the most out of Famous Blue Raincoat, you will need a quiet, preferably candlelit room, a rainy night and a hi-fi system with a healthy dose of dynamics.

The Partisan (Songs From A Room, 1969)

The Partisan tells the tale of a French resistance fighter as he tries to evade detection by the German army. This track was Cohen’s first commercial recording of a song written by somebody else and features on his second album, Songs From A Room.

The original, La Complainte De Partisan, was composed in 1943 by Russian-born French singer-songwriter and guitarist Anna Marly, with lyrics written by French Resistance leader, Emmanuel d’Atier de La Vigerie. Cohen’s version shares many of the original’s features, with a haunting, bare-bones arrangement and ghostly backing vocals. Unlike the original recording, which is entirely in French, Cohen’s rendition alternates between French and English.

Overall, this is a nicely balanced, simple arrangement, which should give your system’s midrange an opportunity to shine with Cohen’s voice.

MORE:

10 of the best Nick Cave songs to test your hi-fi system

Why this distinctive 1999 album I’ve loved for 15 years is a fantastic test for your stereo speakers

The ultimate music tracks to test your hi-fi system – all our curated playlists compiled

We’re in the run-up to the biggest event in home cinema and hi-fi fans’ calendars, the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 – where we will unveil this year’s Product of the Year winners at an exclusive black-tie ceremony.

But ahead of that, we’ve already had one huge shake-up in a key category: best OLED TVs.

After months of comparative testing in our dedicated viewing rooms, running all the latest sets we could get our hands on that are still on sale head-to-head, it was a bit of a bloodbath, with our advice completely changing last week.

And while the focus may be on the Samsung S99H dethroning the Sony Bravia 8 II as the best premium OLED TV – a development that surprised everyone on the team, including TV and AV Editor Tom Parsons – or the 65-inch C6 finally replacing the older C5 as our mid-range recommendation, it was another smaller set that caught my attention.

Specifically, the 48-inch LG C6.

Why this set? Because it's the biggest upgrade we’ve seen to small OLEDs in nearly half a decade.

In case you’re new to What Hi-Fi?, the home cinema team and I have long lamented the lack of innovation happening in small OLED TVs compared to their larger siblings.

Larger OLEDs, especially flagships, have been flooded with new hardware over the past few years. Within LG’s stack alone, we’ve seen not one, but two next-generation panels launch – first, Micro Lens Array, then the current Primary RGB Tandem OLED tech seen on the LG G6.

And that’s a huge shame for buyers who can’t accommodate big sets as, though there have been teething pains, the new panel tech has holistically been a positive.

Higher peak and operating brightness levels, better colour volume and accuracy, especially during dark scenes; the tech, when utilised correctly, can radically improve picture quality.

We’ve run the new TVs against basic WOLED and previous-generation MLA sets to confirm that.

So, it should make sense that we wanted to see it trickle down to smaller, more affordable sets.

And while LG has remained cagey, bluntly refusing our requests for confirmation of the specific panel used on the 48-inch C6, our testing suggests our wish may have finally been granted.

Comparing it to older models, its peak brightness, colour accuracy and general similarity to larger Primary RGB Tandem OLED sets add up to make a compelling case. Our primary reviewer, and senior staff writer, Lewis Empson said as much in our review, where he reported:

“If our theory is correct, it’s likely the cheapest way to acquire an RGB Tandem OLED TV, and if it’s not, then we’d really like to know how LG has pumped the brightness and vibrancy up to this extent. Regardless, it’s fully featured, talented in the picture and sound departments, and it proves that you don’t need to sacrifice a considerable chunk of your living room to achieve a cinematically satisfying experience.”

So even if it doesn't have it, the 48-inch C6 is the best small OLED we’ve ever tested – which is a huge positive and the reason we’ve had to completely change our OLED TV buying advice this month.

Here's hoping it's the start of a trend in the small OLED TV market...

MORE:
These are the best TVs we’ve reviewed

We rank the best small TVs

Our picks of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

We’re living in a golden age of headphones. More specifically, we’re very much in the halcyon days of wireless headphones and earbuds. Despite talk of how Gen Z are turning their backs on Bluetooth in favour of traditional wired in-ears, the wire-free train continues to roll on at breakneck speed.

Not only are wire-free headphones more popular than they’ve ever been, but they’re also improving in terms of their sheer quality.

That self-evident truth was thrown into sharp relief following our 2026 What Hi-Fi? Awards testing, during which the bar was once again nudged ever-upwards by a diverse spread of class-leading options from the likes of Sony, Focal and Sennheiser.

Rising standards

Standards continue to climb across the board. The Sony WH-CH720N felt like unbeatable value at their £100 / $100 price tag, yet the follow-up WH-CH730N proved that canny sonic tuning – plus a few new features – could elevate excellence to new heights.

The Sennheiser HDB 630, meanwhile, might be the best pair of wireless headphones we’ve yet heard at the £400 / $500 / AU$1000 mark, while the Focal Bathys MG are stretching the limits of wire-free performance for those lucky enough to be able to afford them. £999 / $1299 / AU$2300 isn't exactly pocket change.

Those are just the 2026 Award-winners. There’s a pair of headphones or wireless earbuds to suit every need and niche, from outstanding all-rounders (the Sony WH-1000XM6) to noise-cancelling heavyweights from Bose and funky, feature-laden offerings courtesy of JBL.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), for instance, aren’t quite the last word in sound quality, but their excellent fit and well-rounded feature set give them an appeal that could tempt some away from the Award-winning (but fussy fitting) Sony WF-1000XM6.

The list of competing brands really could go on for as long as there’s space on our site to write it. When you consider the fact that, just in the past year or so, we’ve tested samples from Focal, Sennheiser, Sony, Technics, Bose, Noble, Apple, Sonos, Soundcore, Earfun, JBL, Philips, Samsung, Shokz, Nothing, and Huawei, you begin to realise just how much stock companies are placing in the wireless market.

More competition, better performance

That competition is clearly driving innovation and development. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but what’s been remarkable over the past few years is just how much better some of the 'also-ran ’ brands have become as they bid to knock the likes of Sony from its perch.

At last year’s Awards, pretty much every set of wireless in-ears and over-ears was made by Sony. This year, things look rather different thanks to winners from Sennheiser, Bose and Focal.

If manufacturers aren’t quite winning Awards, they’re doggedly improving their respective star ratings year on year. The Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 4 earbuds, for instance, were a serious statement of intent from a brand that, in the past, didn’t have the talent to compete with its cost-comparable rivals.

Those latest flagships, however, are by far the best buds the Korean brand has ever made, and as we concluded in our review: “Samsung is taking sound seriously, and it shows.

"The flagship Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are Samsung's best-sounding wireless earbuds yet, offering a clear, agile performance that’s backed by a whole host of slick features.” Samsung used to scrape three-star reviews. For its next pair of flagships, we’re expecting the full five-star haul.

Then there’s Sennheiser, which has always been there or thereabouts in terms of sonic performance, finally retaking its seat at the top table with the peerless HDB 630. That was no fluke – the slightly less premium Momentum 5 True Wireless earbuds and Momentum 5 Wireless over-ears provided the German brand’s deeply competitive nature with two glowing five-star reviews.

Sennheiser is back, and its rivals should be taking note.

This is before we even start to consider the vast array of features to which we’re all becoming accustomed. A few years ago, not a single pair of headphones had Auracast sharing or Bluetooth Multipoint – now it’s par for the course.

Wired listening via USB-C is becoming de rigueur, as is fast charging for granting hours of extra playtime from mere minutes of juice. Fail to include such features in your spec sheet, and you’ll simply be left behind by the competition.

Where do we go from here?

The logical question, of course, is where do we go from here?

Competition is only going to grow stronger as rivals compete to carve out a slice of territory from Apple and the other major players in this space, with the appetite for wire-free headphones only growing stronger in the face of the rather niche wired revival. Trust us, they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

Sound quality, naturally, should define who takes the ultimate crown. It’s never quite that simple – Apple’s colossal market share is based as much on style, cultural cachet, marketing and convenience as it is on pure sonic talent – but with so much choice, customers should be in the strongest position yet to get the most outstanding sound their budget allows. Provided they do their research, of course.

Opinions are somewhat split on exactly how and where wireless headphones will improve, with speculation ranging from personalised AI-powered tuning algorithms to more efficient Bluetooth codecs and a greater focus on sustainability.

Wi-fi headphones have been mooted as the future – the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi are already on the market – but they’re yet to fully take hold as companies grapple with the practicalities of maintaining a steady connection outside a home network.

Either way, expect this current golden age to be the mere tip of the iceberg. If all goes well, we’ll look back at 2026 as little more than a stepping stone to true wireless audio Nirvana.

MORE:

The What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 winners have been revealed!

This classic album just turned 50 – here's why it's the ultimate test for your system

These are the best headphones you can buy

After all the excitement of our What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 announcement, you might be forgiven for thinking that things might start to calm down in the world of AV, but it was just the opposite last week.

In the build-up to Halloween, it was only right that we had a shock audio announcement from one of the biggest brands in headphone land.

Don’t worry, though, it wasn’t something to be terrified of; it’s just one that raised more than a couple of eyebrows in the What Hi-Fi? office.

We also had a handful of high-end hi-fi announcements from some major players in the field, which have whetted our appetite in terms of testing - we can’t wait to see them in the flesh.

Join us for a quick recap of all the key news that you need to know about…

Bose snapped up Skullcandy

Bose has been flashing the cash. In a move that we didn’t see coming, the audio company has bought the colourful headphone brand Skullcandy for an undisclosed amount.

They’ve collaborated on wireless headphones before, so it’s not exactly a new relationship. Still, Skullcandy will undoubtedly give it access to a different demographic of users and areas of the market where it doesn’t have such a big presence.

Skullcandy will remain a separate brand in a Bose portfolio which has expanded significantly in the past couple of years. It acquired hi-fi brands McIntosh, Sonus Faber and Sumiko back in 2024 and is turning into quite the audio powerhouse.

Read the full story:

Bose acquires fellow headphone maker Skullcandy in time for Halloween – but will it be a trick or treat?

Technics launched a new turntable

The launch of a new Technics turntable is always big news, and although the new SL-1210MKX is aimed more at DJs than discerning audiophiles, it’s still based on a classic deck with a cult following.

The new direct-drive model has been blessed with a revamped chassis and noise-isolation feet to help reduce the effects of external vibrations, plus a ±4% pitch modulation range, which allows for finer adjustments on the fly.

Other features include a quieter reset switch, which Technics says was inspired by earlier SL-1200 models, and a coreless direct-drive motor with adjustable start-up torque and brake speed.

Read the full story:

Technics’ new turntable was designed with help from DJs and sound engineers

Nagra has the power (amp)

Nagra knows a thing about audio electronics, and we were excited to see the Swiss brand take the wraps off a new stereo power amplifier this week. The Amp II-S has been designed to be a natural partner for the company’s Preamp II-S, with the two making an impressive-looking pairing.

The new amp produces 120 watts of Class A/B power per channel into 8 ohms, with the first 10 watts operating as purely Class A. Take a look at the front and you’ll see Nagra’s ‘Modulometer’, a precise analogue audio level meter inspired by the company’s IV-S reel-to-reel recorder from 1971.

Read the full story:

Nagra’s high-end amplifier packs reference-level tech to deliver “effortless musicality”

Esoteric served up a high-end two-box CD player

You know thighs are serious when your CD player has its own optional power supply. And that’s exactly what you’re getting with Esoteric’s new two-box offering. The Grandioso K1XE is the company’s flagship SACD player, but it has launched alongside the optional Grandioso PS1 XE external power supply.

The flagship spinner is fitted with Esoteric’s in-house DAC design and ‘VRDS-ATLAS’ transport mechanism, while the PS1XE uses four independently aligned power transformers and optimised filter circuits designed to improve the DAC’s performance.

Read the full story:

Esoteric’s high-end CD player is filled with flagship tech to give your discs the royal treatment

Triangle unveiled “retro-chic” stereo speakers

Looking for a speaker that combines “retro-chic styling with contemporary acoustic design”? Triangle would like you to take a look at its new Borea Series BR05 standmounters. They’re impressive-looking units that use a 21cm mid/bass driver and 25mm silk dome tweeter plus phase plug.

They’re bi-wirable and designed with two front-facing bass ports to allow for more flexible positioning. The Triangles even come with stands that tilt the speakers back by eight degrees to improve their soundstage.

Read the full story:

Triangle’s new standmount speakers have “retro-chic” styling and bulky drivers

MORE:

Sony could be burying 4K Blu-ray for good as rumours swirl about its last dedicated player

Audio-Technica bills its luxury wired cans as “the pinnacle of closed-back headphone craftsmanship”

Grado’s latest Signature Line headphones promise a “full-bodied, musical presentation” at an “accessible” price

2026 has been a particularly good year for surround sound speaker packages. We've tested new systems from Wharfedale, KEF, Paradigm, Dali and Q Acoustics, and while they've not all been perfect, it's been a whole lot of fun testing them out.

Proper surround sound is hard to beat, and while we love the convenience of the best soundbars, the immersion from placing speakers around our home cinema testing room and firing up one of our favourite movies is hard to beat.

Now, I've spent the last month assessing these speaker packages, and in doing so, watching the same clips from Sinners, Blade Runner 2049, F1: The Movie and Thunderbolts* more times than I'd like to admit, and it has led me to an inevitable conclusion: cohesion is the make-or-break of any speaker package.

What do I mean by that? Essentially, if the components don't deliver a cohesive experience, whether that be a tonal dissonance or a change in sonic character between the front, centre and surround channels, then the system has already lost me.

I've tested packages with surround speakers that stick out because they don't sound as full-bodied as the front speakers. Instead of blending in nicely and working together with others to deliver a consistent sound, the speakers make themselves known more than you'd hope, breaking the cinematic bubble in the process.

It's hard to explain, but once you become aware of a surround speaker or centre channel not matching the front speakers, the surround sound magic quickly fades, and there's no real way to combat it. That's why manufacturers need to get it right from the start, or carefully consider which speakers they bundle together.

The best way to achieve this is to keep the drivers, or better yet the speakers themselves, consistent across the package. Take the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i 5.1 HCP, a What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 winner, as a prime example.

The front and surround speakers are all the same Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i speakers, and the 12.1Ci centre channel sports the same 25mm woven polyester dome tweeter and 13cm mid/bass drivers as those standmounts.

As a result, the system sounds remarkably consistent, and my attention was never drawn to the surrounds in an unwanted fashion.

Now, cohesion isn't a golden ticket to a five-star speaker package review. Take the Paradigm Premier v2 5.1 speaker package as an example; it features remarkable cohesion between the channels as it too keeps the drivers consistent, which is something we praised in our full review. However, its fundamentally hard-edged sound and lack of natural warmth still make it a tricky system to recommend.

You'll notice that the front left and right speakers are the ones that set the standard, and that's usually because they do the heavy lifting in a speaker package. A majority of sound effects are placed at the front of the mix, and the front speakers bulk out almost all of the sound around the dialogue coming from the centre channel.

That includes soundtracks, atmospheric effects and the general soundscape at large, so the surround speakers really need to follow suit and blend nicely when it comes to delivering surround effects with similar tonal qualities.

That's no easy task, especially as most systems use smaller and cheaper speakers for their surrounds to bring prices down and make these systems more accommodating in terms of size.

However, to reiterate my original point, it can be the make-or-break of delivering quality, immersive surround sound, so getting it right really is important.

MORE:

Read our Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i HCP review

As well as our Dali Sonik 5 5.1 review

And check out the best surround sound systems

Home cinema and sci-fi go together like Han and Chewie, and if you love one, there's a good chance you love the other.

But how much of a sci-fi movie fan are you? Just how broad is your knowledge? Now is the time to find out.

We have put together a 30-question quiz that covers the A-Z of sci-fi movies, both classic and current.

This is about breadth of knowledge: you will be rewarded for the number of sci-fi movies you've seen, rather than the finest of details you can remember.

For a lot of you, that will make it rather easy, which is why we've added a timer.

30 questions, three minutes. No time to ponder, and certainly no time to Google – just pure instinct and ingrained sci-fi knowledge.

There's a leaderboard, too. Let's see if you're light-years ahead of the competition.

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Can you name all the types of hi-fi and AV cables from the photos?

Can you remember when these pioneering AV products first came out?

It might be hard to believe now, but back in the mid-1970s, Stevie Wonder was considering quitting the music business.

With 17 studio albums under his belt (including the critically acclaimed Fulfillingness' First Finale, Innervisions, Talking Book and Music Of My Mind), and a string of awards to his name, Little Stevie Wonder wasn't quite so little anymore.

Unhappy with life in the US, and probably contemplating what was left to achieve on a 12-inch record, he considered throwing it all in and emigrating to Ghana to work with children with disabilities. Plans were already underway for a farewell concert when he changed his mind and signed what was at the time the biggest recording deal in history.

The first album from the multi-year deal was Songs In The Key Of Life, a landmark double album that shows Wonder's immense versatility, spanning classical arrangements, pop, ballads, jazz, funk, and much more.

Like What Hi-Fi?, it's just turned 50. With Wonder currently on tour, playing the album in its entirety, let's dig into it and explore what makes it such a great workout for your system (not to mention one of my favourite albums of all time).

A musical education

I still remember the first time I heard the opening harmonies of Love's In Need Of Love Today come through the speakers of my JVC microsystem. It was the late nineties, and I was in my late teens. My knowledge of Wonder's work was rudimentary at best. But, having loved some of his early tracks from various Motown Chartbusters compilations I had bought or borrowed from friends, and aware of his immense influence on the pop and hip-hop scenes of the time, I was keen to know more.

I recorded a Wonder VH1 documentary on VHS (see, it really was the late nineties), and while I don't remember much about that, I do remember the brief snippet of Sir Duke it played, complete with profile shots of some of the musicians who played on the track. Those horns. The sheer unbridled joy of it. I watched that bit so many times I must have worn out that section of the VHS tape.

I promptly bought the album on CD, and excitedly stuck it on my JVC microsystem.

Now I still lived at home with my parents, and my system was no listening room setup – it was classic Argos catalogue fare. But even through its relatively weedy speakers, those opening harmonies sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. It was otherworldly.

I came for Sir Duke, but reader, I stayed for a musical education.

Love's In Need Of Love Today is certainly a bold opening choice. While most of the album's tracks are around four minutes in length – perfect for radio play – the opener stretches out over more than seven minutes. But then when you're critically acclaimed, with 17 albums already to your name by age 26, I guess you can afford to take your sweet time.

Flexing your system's muscles

Things stay fairly placid through Have A Talk With God and Village Ghetto Land – though both tracks have plenty of fine detail that a decent system will pick up on – before kicking into gear with the jazz funk flex of Contusion.

But it was track five I really hammered. Sir Duke is a tribute to Duke Ellington and also name-checks other jazz pioneers, among them Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald. And how better than with an absolute foot-stomper?

This is Wonder letting rip after the relative constraints of the heavier subject matter of the previous tracks. This is a celebration of the joy music can also bring, in one of the most grin-like-an-idiot tracks ever committed to vinyl.

By now the album is really finding its stride. I Wish follows and to really appreciate it, your system will need a great sense of musicality. We're back in ballad territory with Knocks Me Off My Feet, while Pastime Paradise (sampled by Coolio for Gangsta's Paradise) serves up a whomping bassline that really underpins the track.

Disc two also has plenty of highlights, including Isn't She Lovely (which is indeed lovely), As (which you might recognise from the cover by George Michael and Mary J Blige), Joy Inside My Tears and the angry but funky Black Man.

If you've never heard the album in its entirety (including the bonus tracks like All Day Sucker and Ebony Eyes), or even if it's just been a while, I urge you to give it a listen from start to finish to really flex all of your system's muscles.

As the title suggests, it's a musical journey taking in numerous styles and tones, with subjects ranging from childhood memories and first love to racial injustice and music's ability to spread happiness.

Thank goodness Little Stevie decided to stay in the music business after all.

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I remember when Apple announced the HomePod back in 2018, and cards on the table, my first reaction wasn't positive.

Upon seeing the pricey smart speaker, my first thought was, "Who the hell is buying this?"

Admittedly, this was long before I was deeply submerged in the world of AV and hi-fi, reviewing. But I like to think I've always been careful about selecting headphones, and I was urging my parents to invest in 4K TVs as early as I can remember.

But this month, after finally properly using one, I'm prepared to eat humble pie and admit I was wrong.

While I know a HomePod isn't the pinnacle of hi-fi audio engineering, I've been auditioning smart speakers for a very particular task: I want a speaker that I can have in my kitchen to play tunes while I cook, and occasionally yell commands at to set timers and skip tracks.

While an Amazon Echo Dot would suffice for most, I've become accustomed to a certain standard of sound, hence why that option was quickly dismissed.

I traded up to an Echo Show 11, which was definitely an audio upgrade, but the screen felt unnecessary, the interface was laggy, and the recommended recipes it was showing me were nothing short of nonsensical (something about a soup with a savoury marshmallow on top really sent me over the edge).

This led me to the HomePod, not the current HomePod 2, might I add, but the original model, which is now sitting proudly on my kitchen worktop.

Booting the HomePod up for the first time revealed that I could update it to the latest version of audioOS; not a bad start for an eight-year-old product.

Sure, it's unlikely the recently announced Siri AI and Sound Glow features for the HomePod Mini 2 (which are also slated to come to the full-sized HomePod 2) will be added, but I can live without them for what I'm using the speaker for.

What is most important is sound quality, and that's what has really sold me on the HomePod. We raved about its "weighty, authoritative sound" back in our original review, and its deep, tuneful and energetic bass performance sticks out as a particular highlight.

Based on my experience, I can certainly vouch for our original review, as I love how rich, punchy and exciting the HomePod sounds, especially compared to my two previous Amazon speakers.

Midrange and treble are equally well balanced, with a richness and warmth that is indicative of Apple's overall approach to sound tuning, which I can instantly recognise from listening to iPhones, iPads and even the Apple TV 4K. The HomePod also distributes sound very well throughout my kitchen, making it sound much larger than it looks.

Now, it hasn't been 100 per cent smooth sailing. The experience with Spotify hasn't been the smoothest thanks to some occasional dropouts over AirPlay, but I plan on switching back to Apple Music once my last month of Spotify Premium has concluded, which I presume will only improve the HomePod experience.

And outside of that, I can only think of one serious downside, and it's not an issue in the traditional sense. Essentially, I am now a fan of Apple's most neglected product line, which means I have a long line of disappointing Apple Events waiting for me.

That might sound contradictory given I've just referenced the newly announced HomePod Mini 2, but need I remind you that Apple took six years to release this sequel.

The HomePod 2, which I admit I have been eyeing up on Apple's website, is over three years old now, and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a successor for another few years.

I've been in this position before with the Apple TV 4K, and I suppose there is a hard truth I need to accept: Apple's AV products will never be in the same spotlight as its darling iPhones, Macs and AirPods.

Maybe with the HomePod Mini 2 being fresh on the market – and coming in a dashing green finish, no less – it's the perfect time to indulge my new HomePod obsession; though I might need to take the first-generation Mini for a spin first to be thorough.

MORE:

Read our full Apple HomePod 2 review

Check out our list of the best wireless speakers

Apple HomePod 2 vs Apple HomePod

I have a confession to make. I’m yet to be swept up in the emotion of the vinyl revival. In fact, *whispers quietly* I don’t think I’ll ever own a turntable.

Now, please don’t think I don’t appreciate the format, or any physical format for that matter. I love being able to gorge on all of the tunes that Amazon Music offers (why I insist on sticking with Amazon is a feature for another day), but I grew up in the era of tape, CD and MiniDisc.

And when I started working for What Hi-Fi?, the CD was, how should I put it, the format du jour. I enjoyed and still do enjoy the ritual of taking a CD out of its case and dropping it onto a loading drawer or sliding it into a slot loader.

Sure, it’s not the same as carefully slipping a record out of a sleeve and playing it on a turntable, and the clunk and whir of a CD mechanism isn’t quite as warmth-inducing as the crackle and pop of a record coming to life, but both have their merits.

Now, back in the early noughties, I would have no problem calling in seven or eight CD players, all around the same price point for a What Hi-Fi? Super Test. Our stockroom was awash with them (and CD changers too!).

But for the past decade or so, the well has been pretty dry. You could count the number of new affordable players on one hand. It’s been reflected in the fact that the Marantz CD6007 and Cyrus CDi have become multi-year Award-winners. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great players, but the lack of any real competition has undoubtedly helped their cause.

But times are changing. In the past couple of years, I’ve heard the Rotel Michi Q5 (£5499 / $7499 / AU$9499) and two high-end monsters: the Esoteric K-05XD (£11,650 / $12,000 / AU$15,000), and Gryphon Audio Ethos (£37,500 / $50,500 / AU$64,995). Sadly, being realistic, neither of these machines is going to be slotted into my system any time soon.

Happily, I’ve also tested the Marantz CD 70 and Arcam CD25, two machines that are both brilliant and much more attainable. And it’s the Arcam that has really made a mark on me.

Hearing the jump in performance over the excellent Marantz CD 70, the increase in refinement and sophistication, and the insight that the CD25 could extract from our copy of The Eminem Show had me grinning like the Cheshire cat. This is the kind of player that will provide an instant upgrade to any suitably matched system.

And there’s more good news on the CD player front. NAD has recently announced the C 569 (£749 / €949), which slots in neatly between the Marantz and Arcam. There’s also the Rotel Michi Prestige Q430 (£3599 / €3999 / $3999), which I was lucky enough to hear in China earlier this year. Don’t worry, a full review unit will be winging its way in for review in the not-too-distant future.

Of course, this could all just be a minor blip and brief renaissance rather than a long-term trend, but I’m all for it. I don’t know about you, but I certainly can’t bear to part with my CD collection just yet.

MORE:

Read our full Marantz CD 70 review

Want a step-up model? Read our full Arcam CD25 review

Or go high-end and read our full Esoteric K-05XD review

Thought CD was dead? Our audio experts pick out the best CD players and some of our favourite test discs that you can own for ever

Our pick of the best CD players you can buy across a range of prices

Shortly after the second World War, an unlikely trend took hold in Japan. Passing certain of Tokyo’s kissaten cafes, you could, quite reasonably, have come across a room full of people not saying a word to each other, sitting in perfect silence – that is, apart from the sound of a record playing through a well-specified hi-fi system.

Similar locations were opening in Japan as early as the 1920s, but due to the significant interruption of a World War, the widespread popularisation of these cafes would take a little while longer.

By now, it’s old news that listening bars have become a global phenomenon. It’s hard to visit a major city, these days, without stumbling upon at least one such venue. But for Paul Noble, founder of Spiritland – a London-based listening bar, which has just opened a new location at the Barbican Centre – inspiration struck right where things began.

Incredible sound systems

Formerly a sound engineer and radio producer, Noble first witnessed Japan’s listening-bar culture while travelling to the country for work in the 2010s.

“Spending time there, I just fell in love with it,” he says. “I felt that something like this would work in London, where we had this deep music culture, but nothing that combined the sort of really considered programming, incredible sound systems, and service that was aligned in terms of quality.”

Before long, Noble had started a pop-up in Merchants Tavern, a restaurant in Shoreditch, London. “I put in some Tannoy speakers, a huge pair of Westminsters, and had all sorts of DJs play there,” he says. Such was the project’s success, that by 2016, Spiritland had opened its first dedicated location in Kings Cross, London – a venue that would eventually make it onto our global list of listening bars we would love to visit.

“We've spent 10 years refining our offer,” Noble elaborates. “We work across all sorts of genres; you could hear jazz, funk, soul, reggae, dub, but also indie, Americana, ambient, classical – it’s unlikely to be anything too banging.” Crucially, he adds, “There’s always going to be a firm hand of curation.”

Over that decade, the company’s efforts have seen them grow to become one of London’s most well regarded listening bars. The latest collaboration, which recently opened on level two of the Barbican Centre, and is scheduled to run until July 2027, came about quickly.

The birth of a listening bar

“A conversation started,” says Noble, “then, suddenly, this space became available. We moved very quickly.” Looking for an equally snappy audio solution, Noble turned to his long-time collaborator, Kevin Scott, a designer at British high-end speaker manufacturer, Living Voice.

“Kevin had already been building this system for his own purposes, and it became clear that this was going to work well in the room,” says Noble. “So, we whipped [the bar] together with furniture and equipment we already had.”

The sound system you can now find at Spiritland at the Barbican was chosen and tested at a similarly sized space in Living Voice’s headquarters at Definitive Audio, Derbyshire.

“The only unknown was the acoustics of the room at the Barbican,” says Scott, “which we have addressed over a week of listening, using professional acoustic devices with a combination of absorption, diffusion and reflection.” The team have also run ‘soft launches’ with 50-70 guests to “qualify the system under real world conditions”.

There’s certainly no shortage of kit at the new location. Walking into the bar, we are greeted by a hulking pair of Living Voice R252 loudspeakers, a densely packed rack of audio separates and a DJ booth, not to mention the trendy, metropolitan types, who are sure to be found sipping on something from the bar’s carefully curated cocktail list.

Musical artistry as a guiding light

Taking a closer look at the audio set-up, eagle eyed visitors will notice Kuzma record players, network streamers and DACs from APL, amplification from Sugden and SJS Electroacoustics, phono transformers from Consolidated Audio and power conditioning from Audes – all connected by cables from DH Labs.

Explaining how he chose the products for Spiritland’s system, Scott says: “The performance balance of any system is dependent on a sympathetic relationship between each of the components as well as their dynamic interactions and the relationship with the acoustic environment. This system has balanced these considerations with musical artistry as its guiding light.”

Operating in a global city such as London – and within an international cultural hub such as the Barbican – means the venue caters to a diverse, worldwide clientele. According to Scott, the new system reflects this global audience.

“The system has a marked international flavour, with components from Bulgaria, Slovenia, England, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and the US,” he says. “All of the designers have a long-standing history in the audio industry, and each is a leader in their respective fields. More importantly, though, we have chosen these components because they work together as a hand-in-glove team.”

Due to the retro origins of listening bars, some locations opt for an all analogue, vinyl-driven approach. But staying true to their inner audiophile, Spiritland has chosen to keep their options open.

Nothing compressed

“We’re pretty format agnostic,” says Noble. “You could hear music on CD, you could hear hi-res files. We’re not dedicated solely to vinyl. While it’s a great mechanism for curation and finding and filing music, vinyl is not necessarily the most hardy material. There are incredible pressings, there are terrible pressings.”

Despite this broad-minded approach, Noble explains that Spiritland does have certain boundaries when it comes to sound quality. “Our hard and fast rule is nothing compressed,” he says. “Our systems are so revealing. If you play an MP3, you’ll hear it instantly.”

When we visited Spiritland at the Barbican, a vinyl DJ was playing a downtempo mix of jazz and electronica. In the cosy, dimly lit room, tables were packed with couples and friends conversing, drinking and eating small plates of food from the bar’s kitchen. Not quite the intensely focused, pin-drop experience of some of Japan’s original listening bars.

Noble says that the relaxed atmosphere was an intentional choice: “If you go to some of these places in Japan, they’re very, very quiet, and music is front and centre. Everyone’s sitting in rows, staring at the speakers, and the experience is akin to watching a film.

“That’s not what we’re doing and we’re not trying to emulate it,” he says. “You know, we also have elements of the Balearic, Ibiza scene, the sort of New York, David Mancuso world and the reggae sound system world. We’re not just trying to clone what happens in Japan. So, there are people talking, eating, drinking – having a good time. We’re not gonna go around policing people’s behaviour. That’s not what we’re about.”

Accommodating though that attitude may be, some visitors will surely find the hubbub an unwelcome distraction. It is a listening bar, after all.

Thankfully, for such guests, Noble explains that Spiritland runs a regular programme of more music-focused sessions. “We do dedicated listening experiences, too, where we'll listen to an album all the way through, or there will be a talk interspersed with tracks,” he says.

During such events, Scott adds, “Orders can be whispered.”

Entry to Spiritland at the Barbican is completely free, and walk-ins are welcome. The bar is open Tuesday through Friday from 4pm to 11pm. Over the weekend, you can visit from 12pm to 11pm on Saturdays, and 12pm to 7pm on Sundays.

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If you were to anthropomorphise wireless headphones, they would probably look a bit like Lady Gaga – possibly Harry Styles, if you’re Gen Z.

Why? Because they are constantly reinventing themselves to meet today’s tastes.

A new chipset here, reworked drivers there, the occasional complete reinvention (think the current rise of open earbud designs) – there’s always something new.

Earlier this year that continued with the launch of the Audio-Technica ATH-AL5NC, the firm’s first open-back wireless headphones.

Exciting? 100 per cent.

What Hi-Fi? has long championed the, at first glance, contradictory category, since New York-based Grado made it a thing in the early 2020s.

But as the team and I started to think about which rivals to compare with the new Audio-Technicas, it struck me: have there actually been any new open-back wireless headphones launched since the second-generation Grado GW100x we reviewed all the way back in 2022?

Dear readers, please correct me if I’m wrong, but among mainstream audio firms, I don't think there have been any. Even if there have, they haven’t been reviewed by What Hi-Fi?.

Which led me to another key question: why aren’t there more of them?

After revisiting the Grado GW100x and using them as my primary home headphones for a while, truthfully, I still don’t have an answer. For a specific type of listener, they still make complete sense.

Yes, there are some annoyances inherent to the form factor for people sharing your space, as we mentioned before. I listened to Gunship while my wife tried to read in the same room, and she did complain about the sound leakage.

But open-backs make up for this in multiple ways, chief of which is their audio.

Four years on from their launch, the GW100x still sound great – especially considering their sub-£250 price.

Clean, open and enthusiastic, the Grado’s rapidly became my go-to pair of home headphones after getting my feet tapping along to Peter Gabriel’s One by One (Darkside Mix) within seconds of connecting them to my phone.

Then they delighted me with their more natural soundstage when I switched gears to Eddie Vedder’s stellar track Hard Sun, giving it room to breathe, as good music deserves.

More than anything, though, it was the fact that a few weeks in, I realised I was wearing them for whole work days at a time without fatigue. No pinch, no distractions, just music throughout the day, uninterrupted and joyous to hear coming from the GW100x.

I couldn’t sum it up any better than our senior staff writer, Harry McKerrell, who said in our review, four years ago:

“The idea of a pair of Bluetooth-ready, and therefore supposedly portable, headphones that don’t fold away, leak sound and feature no noise-cancelling puts them in a strange, somewhat contradictory position compared with the market leaders from Bose, Sennheiser and Sony. But if it’s simply great untethered sound you’re after for quiet spaces, such as your garden, you’ll struggle to find better than these brilliant-sounding Grado on-ears.”

As I continued using them, however, I did come to wish for one thing to be added to the mix that would make them even better…

Better connectivity

Former What Hi-Fi? magazine editor Jez Ford, our current global technical editor, Ketan Bharadia, and I have all talked about the limitations of Bluetooth for some time.

It’s a format that is lossy, unreliable, heavily compressed, and often poor quality. There is a reason that serious music fans prefer wired headphones over wireless – even wireless cans that support hi-res aptX codecs.

In the past, we accepted Bluetooth as a limitation you had to put up with if you wanted to enjoy the freedom and convenience wireless headphones offer. If you’re out and about, it’s a fair trade.

But in 2026 and for the purposes of this article specifically, things are a little more complex.

Wireless open-backs make sense primarily for home use. And there’s no denying that, as good as the Grados sound compared with other wireless sets, you can get a much better experience if you remove Bluetooth from the equation.

Putting aside how they compare to my standard home desktop setup – which features a Chord Mojo 2, Hifiman HE400se and my laptop or phone streaming Tidal – just plugging the GW100x in using the included 3.5mm cable leads to palpable audio improvements, adding another level of sharpness and weight to the sound.

The groove of Funkadelic’s Good to Your Earhole became remarkably more infectious and fun the moment I added the cable, and it felt like a compromise removing it.

When the GW100x first came out, this was fine as Bluetooth or cabled were the only options available. The chips used by most headphone providers didn’t support wi-fi and even if they did, the connectivity is a power hog, so you definitely wouldn’t get a day’s full listening wirelessly that way.

So if you wanted wireless playback, that was the sacrifice you had to make. There was no middle ground.

A few weeks ago, though, Qualcomm unveiled some new technology that could fix, or at least alleviate the problem, in the shape of its Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform. This is a new platform of advanced chipsets that have the XPAN tech we have talked about many times before.

The technology is designed to let headphones scale the quality they are streaming responsively, depending on network conditions.

So, in theory, if I had my GW100x in my lounge, next to the router, it could deliver 24-bit/96 kHz lossless audio over wi-fi; but then it could intelligently scale down when I move away and the connection becomes less stable, forcing it to switch back to Bluetooth – kind of how the SCL6, or Airia as it’s now called, tech from MQA works.

The tech is new, and we’re yet to test any headphones with it, and yes, it probably won’t bring the wireless performance in line with wired, but it could help close the gap between the two, making the switch less jarring. And that makes it a compelling idea, especially for wireless open-backs.

For me, this feels like an ideal launchpad for headphone makers thinking about dipping their toe in the open-back wireless headphone market – one I really hope they take advantage of given how much I have loved my month revisiting the Grado GW100x.

The idea just makes sense, at least for me.

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Sitting in the red plush seats of a big cinema screening as the lights go dark with your snack of choice perched in the cup rest; that’s the ideal evening activity for so many film fans.

But going to the cinema has got more and more expensive, making it harder to afford on a regular basis. Plus, it can feel like a bit of an isolating experience if you go on your own and don’t have a mate to chat about the movie afterwards.

That’s why film clubs are popping up all over the UK in an attempt to solve both of these issues. Will Mead is the founder of one in London, and set up Midweek Cinema just over three months ago.

Although it’s a new addition to the scene, the club has already amassed thousands of followers on Instagram and a loyal WhatsApp community group.

Like many of us, Will loves going to the pictures, especially the Prince Charles Cinema in central London. But he said that after finishing a film, there was not necessarily a space where you could easily socialise before or after.

“I just thought there could be something more,” Will says. That prompted him to set up his own club where attendees can talk to others after the screening at an affordable price.

He continues: “I always try to put some music on before and afterwards, and then people chat about the film.”

As you might expect from the name, the showings are usually held on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and a single ticket currently costs £10.50.

Finding the right equipment

To set up a film club, however, you have to have the right kit. “My mission was to get as close to a cinema experience in a non-cinematic environment,” says Will.

Will uses the Hisense C2 Ultra, which is a portable 4K projector with a handy built-in stand. He says: “I think it’s the best projector for what I’m doing,” especially considering it weighs just over 6kg.

You might think that the projector would be the hardest part of the setup, but it was the screen that actually posed the biggest challenge. Will needed a screen that could be folded so he could take it from venue to venue, but it still needed to be big enough and height-adjustable so everyone in the audience can see.

Light is also a strong consideration – but ambient light-rejecting screens present their own problems. “As far as I know, there’s not a foldable ambient light-rejecting screen on the market because they are so delicate.” Some can be folded “in a very precise way”, but he says he “needs something that can roll up and fold fairly quickly”.

Will notes that he ended up going for a “non-name brand” that was both foldable and height adjustable, as the latter was the most important consideration. “If you’ve got 20 or 30 people in the room, some of them won’t be able to see the bottom of the image in the second or third row,” he explains.

For the audio setup, he opts for a portable PA system that could fit into his bag so it was easy to take on the road.

Working with a range of venues presented its own problems too. “The audio in each room is really different, right?” Will says. “The surfaces are made out of different things, there’s a different amount of people each time, and the room requires quite a lot of setting up.”

Choosing the films

Before you can even think about showing films, there’s the admin of licensing to get sorted.

“If you want to show anything in public to an audience, you need a license. You need the right permissions from the distributor; that could be Warner Brothers or a very small distribution group,” says Will.

“Whatever film you want to put on, you have to find the distributor and see if you can get that permission,” he adds.

Once that’s done, Will can get to work choosing what films to show. “I do it based on what I think would be cool to watch,” he smiles.

“If you start looking at the box office or how many headlines it’s been in, it’s not so much fun, and you’re not choosing it for the right reasons.” That approach has resulted in a varied and eclectic selection of films that will come as a delight to even the most niche of cinephiles.

Some of his back catalogue ranges from the classic Taxi Driver to Gummo (a 1996 experimental sketch-comedy drama). And there are still plenty of movies that Will wants to show, including the 1980 release Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.

Will explains that it is “super long”, but its history is what makes it especially interesting. “It came after The Deer Hunter [also directed by Cimino], which won loads of awards. He basically got given a blank cheque to make the film, and it is arguably what killed that era of film where they were giving loads of opportunities to young directors like Francis Ford Coppola,” he says.

Will tells us that he has recently been given access to the newly reopened Plaza Camden, which was thought to have closed its doors as a cinema back in February. But the venue is being given a new lease of life, and Midweek Cinema will be able to operate from a 72-seater cinema screen for some of the week.

“The aim is to show more things there, but keep the travelling cinema aspect,” Will says. “I’m called Midweek Cinema,” he continues, “but because of this, I’ll be able to do Fridays and Saturdays because pubs are very busy on those days.”

It's still early days for Will, but it seems that this new screen is the start of a bold new chapter for London’s latest film club.

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I’ve been very open about my love for the Sony Bravia 8 II – some might say nauseatingly so – having done the modern equivalent of shouting it from the rooftops by writing about it on the internet time and time again.

When it launched last year, the Bravia 8 II didn’t so much beat its very accomplished competition; it smashed it, leaving the likes of the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B and Samsung S95F sobbing and nursing their wounds.

Rightfully, it romped to victory in the 2025 What Hi-Fi? Awards, taking the Product Of The Year gong in the TV category.

It’s testament to Sony’s achievements with the Bravia 8 II that even this year, it is still very nearly the best TV available.

Wave after wave of new rivals have appeared, both OLEDs and fancy RGB Mini LED sets, and the Bravia 8 II has stood firm, batting each back while barely breaking a sweat.

With one exception: the Samsung S99H.

Yes, the only TV that we, as a team, and I personally rate higher than the Bravia 8 II is Samsung’s flagship QD-OLED. And, I’ll confess, it isn’t the TV I expected to topple the mighty Sony.

There’s no such thing as perfection

So, the S99H (known as the S95H in most regions outside the UK, where the S95H is an entirely different model) is now perched atop our list of the best TVs, but it isn’t without its controversies.

The most obvious is its wide metal bezel, onto which the main panel is mounted to look as if it’s floating.

It’s a striking design that looks stunning when the TV is wall-mounted, but weird and incongruous when it’s plonked on a TV stand with the (let’s face it, unforgivably cheap-looking) bundled feet attached.

Samsung has done away with the excellent One Connect box of its previous OLED flagships, too. Which means that, rather than having a separate device through which all connections (and power) are routed, leaving just one cable running to the display, the S99H has a typical collection of ins and outs on its rear.

Given that the design encourages wall mounting, that’s a bit of a shame. Yes, the S99H is compatible with Samsung’s new Wireless One Connect Box, but this is an expensive optional extra that is far from widely available (I currently can’t find a single UK retailer that’s selling it).

The final fly in the ointment is a lack of Dolby Vision support. I realise this is nothing new for Samsung TVs, but it remains a major annoyance. Samsung’s own HDR10+ is all well and good from a dynamic metadata point of view, but it doesn’t marry that to ‘as the director’ picture tuning with a single preset in the way that Dolby Vision does when it’s done right.

Even better than the best where it matters

Those flaws, though, pale into insignificance in the face of everything the Samsung S99H gets right.

Picture quality is, of course, the most important factor to any TV. And the S99H is the only TV that has got the better of the Bravia 8 II in this regard.

It very much feels as though Samsung has looked at what makes the Bravia 8 II so good and found a way to beat it at its own game. So, while the S99H has a newer, significantly brighter QD-OLED panel than the Bravia 8 II, Samsung has combined that with the most subtle and cinematically authentic tuning that we have yet seen from the brand.

In other words, this is a TV that is capable of dazzling to an almost unprecedented level, that pairs perfect blacks with the sort of brightness usually associated with a top-end Mini LED model; but put it into its Filmmaker Mode and it will also deliver your movies and TV shows in the manner the director intended.

One area in which the Bravia 8 II was always head and shoulders above its rivals was solidity and three-dimensional depth. The S99H is a match for it here as well. This is an image with a great sense of scale and immersion, without any sense of over-sharpening.

There really is no way in which the S99H’s picture is anything other than excellent, regardless of what it is you look for in a TV. And it has a feature set to match.

The HDMI sockets might be mounted to the rear of the TV, but they are all full-fat HDMI 2.1 affairs (the Bravia 8 II has just two of these) capable of handling 4K/165Hz signals (the Bravia 8 II tops out at 4K/120Hz), VRR and ALLM.

And yes, if you can find one, the Wireless One Connect box can add even more HDMI 2.1 sockets, should you need them.

Pair that specification with the actual gaming performance, which is exemplary, and this really is a gamer’s delight of a TV.

Tizen is rapidly returning to the top of the smart TV platform charts, too, regaining some of the usability it lost in a redesign a few years ago while offering one of the most comprehensive app selections you will find on any TV.

All of those apps are really well optimised, too, delivering all of the resolutions and dynamic range formats they should (Dolby Vision notwithstanding).

The S99H even sounds good by TV standards. Yes, it would still be close to criminal not to pair a TV this good with a dedicated sound system, but if you really must use the integrated speakers, they are at least decent – albeit not quite to the level of the Bravia 8 II’s Acoustic Surface Audio+ setup.

All hail the new flagship TV king

All of which is to say that the Samsung S99H is a magnificent TV. It’s the one model that has finally bested the Bravia 8 II in our testing, and the only TV I would seriously consider swapping my own Sony for.

Given how much I’ve raved about the Bravia 8 II over the past year, that’s about as strong an endorsement as I can give.

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What is perfect sound? It’s a question that has haunted many an audio brand.

Some brands like to argue they get a unique “good” sonic signature from their hardware. One that – like when I hear anything that King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor plays – any fan can identify after one note.

Others take a more clinical approach, arguing that, in the strictest audiophile terms, it’s about accuracy and being as true to the recording as possible.

And some play sonic Switzerland. They stay neutral, arguing that “it’s all about enjoying the music”. So each camp is technically right as long as they’re having fun.

Which is why, continuing the Swiss theme, when I got the chance to visit high-end powerhouse Goldmund’s Geneva factory, I couldn’t resist the urge to quiz Dr Véronique Adam, its long-standing head of acoustic research and development, on the topic.

And her answer is simple.

It's all about being honest

“We try, always, to be as transparent as possible,” she says.

This might not sound controversial, but Adam admits it can be problematic when listening to older or poorly recorded tracks:

“Modern tracks recorded at the highest level are better. But many of our customers listen to older recordings, and that can be a problem for us – because their reference and standard is completely different.

“New recordings are more clean; it’s just more clear. And sometimes customers tell us ‘okay, I can’t listen to the old recording any more’ – because there’s not enough detail. And that’s because the detail comes from the recording; it belongs to it.

“It’s the same problem with bad movie dubs. If you go to the cinema as a customer and say ‘the translation is not as good as the original’, we [the people making the hardware playing it] cannot do anything. It is what it is.”

She adds that Goldmund believes it would be a bigger wrong to try to hide weaknesses in the recording:

“We are not responsible for the recording, or fixing a bad source,” she says. “We are responsible for accurately reproducing it.”

This, according to Adam, has been the core focus of Goldmund since it was founded.

“I learned a lot with Michel Reverchon [Goldmund’s founder]. I don’t know how many hours we listened together, but it was over a lot of years, with a lot of different genres. He liked the blues and jazz; I like classical. It was a long process and a long way to come, but from it, we know what our reference is, and we make sure it’s based on fact,” she says.

“With the new recordings, things always change. You don’t hear the same types of songs for ever, so you’re always learning; the experience just continues – we’re never at the end. But the most important thing is to be sure that we don’t diverge from the reference we have set.”

She adds that this remains the case with the firm’s latest hardware and will continue in the future as Goldmund continues its quest for sonic perfection and evolution under its newly elected leadership team, which took over the company 18 months ago.

Do you agree with Dr Véronique Adam’s approach? Let us know in the comments below!

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Over the past couple of years, one question has been nagging at home cinema nerds, myself included: are giant TVs going to kill off projectors?

There are good reasons to think they might: the average TV is currently capable of producing brighter highlights, deeper blacks and more vibrant colours than a typical projector; they tend to have more robust smart platforms and better gaming specifications; they don’t require the purchase and installation of a separate screen; and prices are coming down at a ridiculous rate.

But there’s a romanticism and cinematic authenticity to projection that a television can’t match, at least in the minds of many. And, while TVs are getting much larger, once you go over 100 inches, projection tends to be much more affordable.

It’s a thorny subject – one that my colleague Lewis Empson and I recently discussed on video.

You can watch that video below, but how does the projector industry itself feel about it? Are manufacturers worried that they are about to be rendered obsolete by their TV-producing brethren? We decided to ask them to find out.

If Sony, Optoma, Anker and Xgimi are worried, they certainly don’t seem it (we also reached out to BenQ, JVC and Epson, but didn’t hear back).

In fact, they all pointed to the unique qualities that projectors offer and TVs can’t match – and those qualities are thankfully much more quantifiable than “projectors make it feel like being in the cinema”.

Projectors don’t take over your room

A recurring theme in the responses was that projectors offer greater flexibility when it comes to how a room looks and functions:

“Projection continues to offer something televisions cannot easily replicate: a truly cinematic experience at 100, 120, 150 inches and beyond, without requiring a permanently dominant screen in the room,” says Optoma’s UK sales manager, James Fitzgerald.

“As homes become more multi-purpose and design-conscious, many consumers still value the ability to enjoy a large-screen experience when they want it while keeping their living spaces flexible and uncluttered,” he continues.

That’s a sentiment shared by Anker’s managing director for the UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Faraz Mehdi: “Projectors are compact in size, take up no wall space, and become ‘invisible’ once turned off.”

And Apollo Zhong, Xgimi’s Founder and CEO, concurs: “A 100-inch TV is still a large piece of furniture that takes up space all day, every day,” he says. “A projector gives you the same scale when you want it, but doesn’t permanently occupy your room when you don't.”

Unlike the other manufacturers we spoke to for this piece, Sony produces TVs as well as projectors, so it has a foot in both camps. Still, Adrian Bond, Sony Europe’s product marketing manager for home projector and Bravia, agrees with his contemporaries:

“A projector in hidden housing with a retractable projector screen is vastly more discreet and flexible in aesthetics than a monolithic super-large screen TV.”

Projectors offer more flexibility over where you watch

Unsurprisingly, given the lifestyle and portable models they produce, a couple of the manufacturers were keen to point out the flexibility that a projector can offer over a very large TV.

“Many of today’s projectors also offer a level of flexibility that televisions simply cannot match,” says Optoma’s James Fitzgerald, “with compact designs that can be moved easily from room to room, taken to different locations, or set up indoors and outdoors depending on the occasion.”

Anker’s Faraz Mehdi agrees: “They allow portability, being easily moved and used in various settings such as bedrooms, living rooms, and campsites, which TVs cannot offer.”

But it’s not just about portability, argues Sony’s Adrian Bond; there can be benefits for those building dedicated home cinema spaces, too.

“Transporting, manoeuvring and installing a 115-inch TV is far more challenging than hanging a projector and screen, especially for any premium install in a high-rise apartment building,” he says.

Projectors are simply more cinematic than TVs

While a lot of the answers to our questions had a clear practicality argument at their core, Sony’s Adrian Bond wanted to make the point that, in some ways at least, projectors are simply better than TVs.

According to him, “our projectors still offer a different, elevated and more precise experience for the discerning cinephile.”

“A 100-inch+ TV is an epic viewing experience for sure”, he continues, “Our new FWD-115XR95M2 will deliver exactly this. But for the fully immersive experience that engulfs the peripheral vision and has a wider angle, then dedicated home cinema projectors are superior.”

Of course, a suitably large TV screen at the appropriate distance will also fill your vision in the same way, but Bond says there are also changing aspect ratios to consider:

“A TV at 100+ inches will still be fixed in 16:9 aspect ratio due to its form factor,” he says. “To watch in CinemaScope, you will still incur the black bars at the top and bottom of your screen, whereas with a home cinema projector and screen, you can enjoy CinemaScope as intended, on purpose-built screens.”

He makes an excellent point about sound, too: “With premium micro-perforated or woven projector screens, super high-end centre speakers can be placed directly behind the screen, perfectly matching audio with the action/dialogue on screen.”

This is, of course, the sort of sound-from-picture experience that we’re all used to from the local cinema, but it’s very hard for TVs to replicate, thanks to their typically frame- and/or rear-mounted speakers.

As Bond points out, this is the philosophy behind the Acoustic Surface Audio technology of Sony’s OLED TVs, which feature actuators that vibrate the actual screen to make sound. As clever and effective as this solution is in some regards, though, and as good as Sony’s OLEDs tend to sound by prevailing TV standards, it’s not in the same league as having a large, properly calibrated, hi-fi-quality speaker handling centre-channel duties by firing directly through a quality perforated screen.

The final word (for now)

So, are projector manufacturers concerned about the rise of giant TVs? It certainly doesn’t sound like it.

As Xgimi’s Apollo Zhong says, “We don't really see larger TVs as a threat. If anything, they confirm that people want bigger and more immersive screens. We also don’t think it’s a zero-sum competition. TVs and projectors solve different problems.”

I’m not entirely convinced the industry can afford to be quite so relaxed, though.

As TVs get bigger and more affordable, the advantages of projection will inevitably become harder to sell. Modularity, as pioneered by solutions such as Samsung’s The Wall, could also help to overcome some of the practical challenges of installing a truly enormous TV.

For now, though, I am inclined to agree with Optoma’s James Fitzgerald when he says that “projection remains uniquely positioned to deliver scale, flexibility, portability and cinematic impact in ways other display technologies cannot.”

A retractable screen, a portable projector or a dedicated home cinema setup can offer flexibility that a giant TV simply can’t, while a properly designed projection system can deliver the sort of scale and immersion that remain, for now, prohibitively expensive to achieve with a conventional TV.

And then there’s that elusive sense of cinema.

Perhaps it’s the sheer size of the image, the way it fills your field of view, the beam of light travelling through the room before the picture is reflected back from the screen, or simply the ritual of settling down in a darkened room to watch a film. Whatever it is, projection has a particular magic that even the best TVs struggle to replicate.

But I keep coming back to one question: what happens if cinemas themselves move away from projection?

Samsung Onyx LED screens already offer a TV-like alternative in some cinemas. If that approach becomes more widespread, will we still associate projection with that special sense of cinema? Or will we eventually come to regard a wall-sized TV as just as cinematic?

I don’t know the answer. But while TVs continue to close the gap, I suspect the future of projection will depend on more than just how big an image it can produce.

MORE:

Here are the best projectors and the best TVs you can buy right now

Check out this dream penthouse custom install home cinema

When streaming entered the music-playing limelight, at some point in my late teens, I was swept off my still growing feet. Any song I could possibly desire, available for a sum of money that I could, at that time, just about scrape together from my part-time job’s salary, seemed to me something akin to what fire must have felt to neanderthals.

But, as sometimes happens with such incendiary infatuations, our relationship eventually came under hard times – to the extent that I am now considering leaving music-streaming services altogether. I should clarify that this will be for personal uses only; streaming services such as Tidal play an integral part in how we test certain products here at What Hi-Fi?, be it an all-in-one hi-fi system or a humble Bluetooth speaker.

So what pushed me over the edge?

Having grown up with an inexhaustible supply of music at my fingertips, this is no small decision. But recently, as AI-generated music has flooded online streaming platforms, resulting in a flurry of hastily assembled AI-charters and fraud-prevention strategies, I think I’ve finally had it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m relieved the platforms are taking action. A few months ago, Tidal implemented an ‘allow AI content’ switch, and Deezer has also recently granted users an option to exclude any music detected as AI-generated from their libraries. But, as this new technology infiltrates every corner of life, bringing with it equivalently mind-bending benefits and risks, I simply don’t want to question whether the music I am listening to has been made by a real person or not. As such, I am taking physical music as a place of refuge.

Not long has the drawbridge risen, however, before I realise the challenge I am facing.

Abandoning the streaming services results in a tediously inconvenient and sometimes costly process of recovery. Quite understandably, that is often enough to put people off. There’s a term for this sort of thing: ‘path dependence’. In the social sciences, it means that past events or decisions constrain or define later events or decisions.

In relation to technological developments, we have all become dependent on all sorts of ‘paths’. How we would now struggle if the internet suddenly fizzled out of action, or even if the lights went out for any prolonged period of time. In my specific case, I find myself wondering how much money I will have to spend to recover some semblance of my former music library.

Choose your fighter

So, as I look, for want of a better phrase, to get physical, the first step is to decide on my chosen format. Of course, there’s an appeal to taking the retro route and going fully vinyl. Here, I envision joining the ‘vinyl revival’ and being taken into the arms of a cheering horde of fashionable, cigarette smoking, wax-spinning hipsters. Fond as I am of that idea, however, records are simply too expensive.

With a starting price of anywhere between £25 and £40 per album, anyone looking to make regular updates to a vinyl collection is sure to find themselves facing a staggering bill in no time. It’s all too easy to overlook the fact that many people simply cannot afford to transition back to physical media, no matter how much they adore and care about the formats or musical artists in question.

Furthermore, shopping for second-hand vinyl has become a gamble. Recent exposures of large-scale counterfeit operations – including one that generated a staggering £2.7 million between 2017 and 2024 – mean it can be hard for collectors to be sure what they are buying.

But it’s not all doom and gloom

These days, the CD is an eminently affordable form of physical media, with constantly renewing bargains popping up in charity shops, record stores and at online retailers. At the charity shop near my house, I often see great CDs on sale for prices starting from £1.99. For just slightly less than Spotify’s monthly subscription fee, I could buy six CDs each month – I think that’s enough to keep me entertained.

What’s more, many people have old, neglected CD players hiding in their attics, which keep things even cheaper by mitigating the expense of picking up new equipment.

If you’re looking for a more up-to-date set-up, however, some manufacturers, such as Marantz, NAD, FiiO and Roberts are developing new and affordable CD-focused products, from portable, Discman-style options to fully fledged separates components.

Among the more affordable CD players we recommend for less than £500, the five-star, Award-winning Marantz CD70 (£499 / $750 / AU$1000) is a solid choice for anyone looking to integrate a CD player into a wider hi-fi system, with a modern design and a precise, powerful sound. The CD player’s older sibling, the six-time What Hi-Fi? Award-winning CD6007 (currently priced at around £349 / $650 / AU$900) is also still available for cheaper at the time of writing, although only while stocks last, of course.

There are cheaper, if somewhat less hi-fi options, too. FiiO, for example, recently announced a highly versatile CD player, the DP11 (priced around £200 / $170), which can act as a DAC and preamplifier, too. Back in December 2025, the company also released a portable CD player that supports hi-res Bluetooth and doubles as a DAC, called the DM15 R2R (priced at £249 / $269).

Fantastic though some of these products are, I understand people’s reservations.

This is a hard dream to sell

Although CDs strike a fantastic middle ground in terms of audio quality, they aren’t as high-resolution as the offerings of some premium streaming services. Neither is it a small sacrifice to forgo the millions of songs from a streaming service that were once at your fingertips. There are sure to be withdrawals and growing pains. Nevertheless, while online services grapple with getting AI music under control, I want to give it a try.

By choosing physical media and accepting the relatively tame sacrifices that come with that option, I feel a bolstered confidence that the ‘path’ I am on is one I won’t regret in ten or twenty years’ time.

Unbeholden to the whims of tech giants – at least when it comes to listening – I will still own my CDs further down the line, whether they have by then become relics or taken on a newfound relevance. Perhaps most crucially of all, however, for each one I purchase, I will know that a human being has been paid for their ever more necessary work of expression. And that, I hope, is a cause we can all get behind.

MORE

Victrola wants to “take the fear away” for a new generation of vinyl listeners

“People with sinister motives will try to exploit demand and the love people have for the format” – an industry expert tells us how the vinyl revival is under threat from counterfeit records

Stay up to date with our pick of the best CD players tested by our expert reviewers

“Goldmund, isn’t that a Bond villain?” That’s the question a friend down the pub asked when I told him I had to skip drag bingo night, as I’m on a press trip in Switzerland. To be clear, it’s not.

Editor’s Note: He’s thinking of Goldfinger from the book and film of the same name. Or if we’re going lowbrow (which would make sense for him), Goldmember from the Austin Powers satire.

But there is a connection with the franchise’s fictional villains, as Goldmund – which, to be clear, is a Swiss high-end hi-fi brand responsible for some of the best premium amplifiers we’ve tested recently, including the five-star Goldmund Mimesis 37S NextGen/Telos 300 from 2023 and Telos 690 from 2024 – does have a penchant for secrecy and rarely lets people into its Geneva headquarters.

So, when I got the golden ticket and was offered a chance to get a behind-the-scenes look and listen with its latest Goldmund Mimesis Statement pre-amplifier (£220,000) and Telos 9800 power amplifier (£370,000 / €430,000 / $500,000), which both include numerous firsts for the firm, I couldn’t get on the plane fast enough.

Here’s what my audio sleuthing revealed.

Lots of changes are afoot

Both products are being pitched as “a new beginning” by Goldmund, which shifted its leadership 18 months ago, when CEO Marius Chapel, CCO Gaspar Baldunciel, and COO Paul Tétaz took over the company.

The firm says this means every circuit and aspect of its new pre- and power-amps are new, rather than tweaked versions of old designs. After a chat to the R&D team, and a sneak peek at both units’ internals, I can confirm there is proof in the pudding – though the firm remained fairly tight-lipped when pressed for specific details on its technology.

Capable of delivering a staggering 1560 watts of power into 8 ohms, the Telos 9800 is being pitched as the firm’s most powerful and advanced mono power amp to date. Featuring a towering design that physically separates the power supply and amplification circuitry into two interconnect boxes, the unit comes loaded with a wealth of custom hardware.

Though Goldmund didn’t go into detail, these include everything from a unique PCB (printed circuit board) design to creating custom capacitors and transformers – each “designed by and only manufactured for Goldmund”.

On top of this, the amp features a proprietary power management system, with what it describes as “the largest capacitor bank ever developed by the company”, and backed up by Goldmund's 'Leonardo' processing algorithm tech. Leonardo works to digitally realign frequencies, reducing phase distortions and “dreaded accidental oscillations”.

“Pure, precise, stable” – the three words are muttered throughout the demo.

Outside of this, the Telos 9800 features all the trappings of a high-end power amp, featuring balanced XLR and RCA inputs and a quartet of speaker binding posts. The power amp also features a coaxial digital input, letting you connect digital sources with a volume control directly to it, should you so choose.

The new Statement preamplifier continues the theme, being the first analogue design from Goldmund to feature a dual mono power supply housed in two boxes.

The twin power supplies feed into the preamp, which, while a single box, has a ‘twinned’ design Goldmund claims “you won’t find anywhere else”, where the left and right channels are isolated and physically divided by a “unique heat dissipation component” on the board.

The circuit has an atypical "symmetrical" design the firm claims reduces noise and interference while improving overall “signal purity", resulting in a more accurate, precise and articulate sound.

When it comes to connectivity, the Statement offers three balanced XLR and seven single-ended RCA line-level inputs. Three balanced XLR and three RCA outputs then follow.

But the important question is: after all these changes…

How do they sound?

I was able to listen to this pre/power combination as part of a system in Goldmund’s newly built listening room – which, sadly, hadn’t been fully finished while we were visiting, with things like a bare, reflective door next to the system and unfinished treatment making for less than optimal conditions.

The system featured a Mimesis Statement and two Telos 9800s connected to Theia Passive speakers (£190,000), with the Eidos Excellence SACD player (£55,000) and Eidos streamer (£25,000) acting as sources.

We can’t make any final judgments about sound quality until we have them in our listening rooms. But Dr Véronique Adam, Goldmund’s long-standing head of acoustic research and development, told us the firm’s mission to create the most transparent – to the point of being brutally honest – sound possible, and not try to “fix” a bad source, has not changed. That was apparent the moment the listening session began.

Starting with Prince’s Get On The Boat, the system delivers a punchy, dynamic sound, ably dealing with the interlinking grooves with a solid sense of rhythmic timing and precision. The soundstage feels expansive and wide, creating an accurate stereo image, where every part of the freeform big-band funk experience holds its spot, refusing to congest in the middle and devolve the piece into a muddy wall of sound.

This continues as we transition to Philip Glass’s Floe, where the complex arrangement retains a suitable sense of drive, while leaving enough room for each interlinking instrument to breathe – the dreaded bass synthesiser remaining firmly in its lane, rather than drowning out the more subtle sections, making it possible to count along with the composition’s direct 2:3 polyrhythm.

Moving to SMV’s Thunder, the booming basses hit you in the gut as the system delivers an impressive amount of low-end heft. But the higher-frequency scooped slap bass sections began to take on a hard edge and feel a bit raised compared to the other parts, making for occasionally unpleasant listening, despite its otherwise capable handling of the tricky piece’s dynamics. I suspect the less-than-perfect acoustics of the unfinished demo room are to blame here.

Pressing the issue with Steve Vai’s Touching Tongues, a famously bright song, this continues, as the system delivers the squealing lead guitar with so much force it veers towards forthrightness in its earnest delivery. Again, the system occasionally feels forced, with the track not quite sticking the landing with the upper frequencies, in particular – an issue that, again, could easily be explained by the room.

All in all, it left an impression, but we’d really like to listen to it again in a room we’re familiar with that has been fully treated – at this level, it’s not fair to play the hardware in anything less.

Final thoughts

While I didn’t get enough time with the new Goldmund amps to make any final judgments, our time with them and the company’s new leadership team shows the firm is looking to make big changes, both to how it runs and its product range.

That alone makes me eager to hear more and see what that means for the iconic Swiss hi-fi brand and its offerings – especially given the sweeping changes that have been made in developing the new Telos and Mimesis amps since the new leadership team took over 18 months ago.

Add to this the strong impression of its bold designs and ongoing unapologetic focus on a pure, unadulterated sound, and I can’t help but feel we should all be keeping an eye on Goldmund, as it continues its metamorphosis.

MORE:

These are the best stereo amplifiers we’ve tested

We rate the best CD players

Our picks of the best floorstanding speakers

Last week was a big one for hi-fi and home cinema announcements, not least because we revealed the What Hi-Fi? Award winners for 2026.

But we also saw some big announcements from key brands too, with Apple, Cambridge Audio, NAD, Naim and Rega all launching products that we can’t wait to get into our test rooms.

Join us for a quick recap of all the key stories that you need to know about…

We announced 111 Award winners

After weeks of blood, sweat and tears, our team of expert reviewers took the wraps off the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026. We released the names of no fewer than 111 winning products across 24 hand-picked categories.

From turntables to TVs, speaker packages to stereo amplifiers, every single one is a worthy winner. All that’s left now is to announce the very best of the best, i.e. our Product of the Year winners for each category, at our special Awards night on the 12th November…

Read the full story:

The What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 winners have been revealed!

Apple finally made the announcement we’d been waiting for

After what felt like years of waiting, Apple finally unveiled the latest iteration of its Apple TV 4K streaming box.

It’s promising big upgrades for picture and sound with the addition of a brand new video decoder and the ability to create a wireless four-speaker surround system using HomePod speakers.

Speaking of which, Apple also took the opportunity to announce the HomePod Mini 2. The latest version of its dinky smart speaker comes with a more powerful processor and is available in a range of new colours too.

Read the full story:

Apple finally unveils a new Apple TV 4K streamer – and it comes with major surround sound, picture and Siri AI upgrades

It's official! The HomePod Mini 2 has finally landed – and there's good news and bad news

Cambridge Audio dropped a new deck

Turntables haven’t been a huge part of Cambridge Audio’s hi-fi offering in recent years, but last week the company took the wraps off a new £329 / $499 player, Spira.

According to Cambridge Audio, “Spira has everything you need straight out of the box,” including a pre-fitted Audio-Technica cartridge, a built-in phono stage and a Bluetooth transmitter for streaming to wireless headphones or Bluetooth speakers.

It’s available in a range of colourful finishes to match the company’s L/R S active speakers, and we can’t wait to get our hands on one.

Read the full story:

Cambridge Audio’s new Spira turntable is “built to grow alongside” your record collection

Naim unveiled a huge all-in-one system

We’re huge fans of Naim’s Mu-so range of wireless music systems, so we were excited to see its brand new addition, the Mu-so Utopia, in the flesh for the first time last week.

As we said in our news story, “it combines Naim-powered amplification with trickle-down technology taken from Focal’s high-end series of Utopia loudspeakers”. It’s packed with streaming smarts, hi-res audio support and HDMI eARC, and you can read more in our hands-on review.

Read the full story:

Naim’s high-end all-in-one system boasts Dolby Atmos support alongside HDMI eARC and an expansive streaming suite

Hands on: Naim Mu-so Utopia review

Rega launched a new entry-level record player

Rega knows how to make a decent record player, so we were excited to see it launch a brand new entry-level deck boasting an all-new design. The Replay is a plug-and-play design and is attractively priced at just £259.

It features some of the core elements of its five-star Planar 1, including the platter and tonearm, but with a new minimalist plinth. Needless to say, this is another turntable our review team has its eye on, so stay tuned for our verdict.

Read the full story:

Rega’s new budget turntable wants to “remove all the paranoia and confusion” for vinyl newbies with a minimal plug-and-play design

NAD’s new matching hi-fi separates caught our eye

The sight of new electronics from a big hi-fi brand always gets us excited, so we were extremely pleased to see a press release for the C 359S streaming amp (£1099) and C 569 CD player (£749) appear in our inbox.

The C 359S brings streaming smarts to a traditional Class A/B amplifier design via Bluesound’s BluOS platform, while the C 569 uses NAD's Dynamic Digital Headroom (DDH) and QRONO d2a technologies in an attempt to bring out more detail and depth from your CD collection.

Read the full story:

Modern Classics: NAD unveils a new streaming amplifier and CD player in its Classic Series

MORE:

Our pick of the best CD players you can buy

And the best stereo amplifiers

I've covered more Apple launches than I'd care to admit in the past four years. From the annual iPhone unveilings in September to WWDC in June, and many miscellaneous events in between, there's been one running theme throughout all of them: no new Apple TV 4K.

That changed with Apple's latest low-key event, which took place earlier this week. It centred around smart home devices, including a Siri AI-enabled smart speaker with a display that can be used to view video doorbells, display recipes, and stream music. While the HomeView looks like a nice piece of kit, my attention was squarely on the new Apple TV 4K 4th Generation.

Last refreshed in 2022, the Apple TV 4K has been the neglected stepchild in Apple's lineup for the past four years; the company has been too busy cramming wildly powerful in-house developed processors into new Mac computers and iPads.

Thankfully, Apple saw sense and has decided to refresh the streamer with the same A19 chip from the iPhone 17 with a dedicated AV1 decoder for more efficient streaming, improved wireless connectivity, Siri AI and built-in far-field microphones for hands-free navigation, and an improved remote with built-in 'Find My' functionality.

Now, I've been mulling over the new streaming box since its announcement on the 13th October, and the shine really has worn off. This contemplation has led me to an unfortunate realisation: I have no intention of buying the new Apple TV 4K.

What I was convinced would be an instant no-brainer purchase has been derailed thanks to a couple of key factors, and yes, the biggest issue is the price.

Apple has previously offered two configurations of this streamer. There was a cheaper 64GB model which launched at £149 / $130 / AU$219, and saw a price increase to £199 / $199 / AU$299 in June this year, and a 128GB version with an Ethernet socket which released for £169 / $179 / $249, and received a similar price increase to £249 / $249 / AU$399.

Apple now only sells a single 128GB configuration, meaning the 4th Generation starts at a staggering £299 / $299 / AU$449. Plenty of geo-economic factors explain this price increase to some extent: RAM, storage and chip shortages, plus global conflicts, are mostly to blame.

But two price increases in six months? That's starting to feel egregious, especially considering that the 'starting' price for the Apple TV is now double what it used to be.

Furthermore, the existing Apple TV 4K is technically receiving some of the features from the new model.

Apple notes that, "Siri AI is available as a beta on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation or later), and is available at launch in the US, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK in English," which means if you have the 2021 or 2022 Apple TV 4K, you'll be able to use the new Siri AI voice commands and search functions.

And that new Siri Remote with Find My built in? Apple is selling that separately too, and it's compatible with multiple generations of Apple TV HD and 4K, with the Find My feature supported on the 2021 and 2022 models too. It's set to cost £59 / $59 / AU$89; that's a much more wallet-friendly upgrade.

Now, we're expecting important picture and sound upgrades with this new generation, and the upgraded processor is likely to harbour more features in the future and enhanced longevity in the long run. And of course it's entirely possible that my mind will be changed once we review the upcoming Apple TV 4K, which is set to release at the end of the month.

That said, if you've got Apple TV 4K FOMO like me, but are averse to dropping £300 on the new model, then these features might just tide you over as well.

MORE:

Read our full Apple TV 4K (2022) review

Check out our picks for the best streaming devices

As well as the best OLED TVs

If you are a regular What Hi-Fi? reader, then you likely will have seen that we announced the 2026 Award winners earlier this week. For those who have not seen them yet, don't panic; you can see the list of winners here.

Leading up to the final results, we have been testing a huge range of different home cinema and AV products in order to find the best of the bunch. And that has called for us to test a diverse set of movies and TV shows to see how these products perform.

There are some discs that we reach for time and time again (Blade Runner 2049, Dune Part Two, for example), but we also want to have a fresh supply of films and shows at our fingertips.

In our monthly Now Showing column, we take a look at what the reviews team have been watching to challenge a product's picture or sound performance.

East Of Eden (2026 –)

Words by Ioan Hazell

If you attended secondary school after 1990, there’s some likelihood that a novel by John Steinbeck ended up stuffed into your school bag alongside a Walkman, iPod or iPhone. Schools tend to opt for Steinbeck’s shorter stories, such as The Grapes Of Wrath or Of Mice And Men, but the author’s self-proclaimed magnum opus, East Of Eden, is less commonly on the curriculum.

And that’s a shame, because, while the book’s critical reception was varied upon release, there’s good reason for it since becoming one of Steinbeck’s most widely loved novels.

The Netflix adaptation of the story follows the Trask family through three generations, the latter two of which grapple with a brotherly Cain and Abel dynamic. This Biblically-charged tension is only compounded when the character of Cathy Ames (Florence Pugh) crawls bloodied to the door of a Connecticut farmhouse owned by Adam and Charles Trask (Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist), the second generation.

For fear of spoilers, I’ll keep schtum about what follows. But for lovers of the novel, I should say that, while this adaptation doesn’t quite deliver the gut-punching emotional blows of the book, it is still a gripping, if somewhat blatantly theatrical watch. Visually, it is a feast for the eyes, with painstaking care taken on set design and costumes. The New Zealand landscapes used as a simulacrum for California’s Salinas Valley don’t hurt, either.

Come to think of it, this series is probably best summed up by a quote from the novel itself: “Now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (2026)

Words by Alastair Stevenson

As a kid who grew up watching The X-Files, Gillian Anderson is as close to a global treasure as you’ll get in the world of acting, in my humble opinion.

So when, as a horror fan, I saw she was doing a genre-bending movie with Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, it was a pure “shut up and take my money” moment. And while it’s quite heavy-handed with its symbolism, boy am I happy I did, as from the moment I started watching, Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma proved to be an audio-visual treat.

Though it’s full of great performances (especially from Anderson, who plays a reclusive horror actress), it was the visuals that really stood out for me, with every decision and minor detail contributing to the story and intended tone.

First, there’s cinematographer Eric Yue’s decision to shoot almost all of the film in 35mm, to replicate the grainy, noisy tone of its ’70s and ’80s slasher film inspiration. Then there’s the use of the classic glass matte painting Hollywood technique for backdrops, over the easier and more common CGI used in most modern films, which adds to its unique, surreal feel.

The end result is an experience that blends retro nostalgia with modern storytelling to create something truly unique. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d strongly recommend any horror fan give it a go.

Stream Camp Miasma on MUBI

Pre-order Camp Miasma on 4k Blu-ray

Pearl (2022)

Words by Robyn Quick

Mia Goth is building up quite the horror discography, with one of her biggest breakouts coming from her role in the 2018 reboot of Suspiria. But another entry cemented her as one of this generation's go-to horror greats: enter Pearl.

Goth plays the titular lead (and also co-wrote the screenplay), with the film following the rural schoolgirl. Stuck looking after her family's farm and caring for her ailing father, Pearl also has a ravenous desire to be a star. And she will pursue her dream, no matter what it takes.

Not only is it hugely entertaining, bloodthirsty viewing, but Pearl is a great test of your home cinema system's picture. The beautiful farm landscapes call for a great amount of detail and clarity, from the fields of barley to the fluffy clouds in the sky.

It will challenge your system's sound performance as well. During the iconic dance scene as Pearl performs to a straight-faced panel of judges, the soundtrack evokes classic Hollywood tunes rather than modern slashers. Accompanying the sprightly score is the sound of footsteps on the stage, which also tests out your system's ability to place these precisely around the soundfield.

Buy Pearl on 4K Blu-ray from HMV

Stream Pearl on Apple TV

The Social Network

Words by Lewis Empson

David Fincher has directed numerous films that I'd consider to be a cut above the rest, and in my humble opinion, The Social Network is his very best work.

It has sat comfortably in my personal top 10 ever since I watched it over a decade ago, and it's a film I've since used to test a wide array of AV and home cinema products.

It's now been accompanied by a sequel that (while I haven't seen it personally) hasn't been receiving the best reviews, which is somewhat disappointing. That said, a surge in popularity for one of my favourite films is still a win in my books, and I hope the release of The Social Reckoning is drawing some well-deserved attention to the original.

If there's one word that I'd use to describe this film, it would be "slick". Performances are deeply engaging, the cinematography and camera work are fluid, and the soundtrack is an electronic masterpiece courtesy of Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

This movie is a must-watch for anyone who has just invested in a new sound system; seriously, the soundtrack is just that good, especially the ingenious interpretation of In the Hall of the Mountain King. A scene in a nightclub also springs to mind, as the sound mixing is impressively realistic and immersive.

Frustratingly for 4K Blu-ray fans such as myself, a physical copy can seemingly only be obtained if you purchase the £500 Columbia Classics: 4K Ultra HD Collection, Volume 2 box set, or if you can track down a limited edition steelbook that was released early last year.

However, the good news is that Apple has added The Social Network to Apple TV (formerly Apple TV+), with a 4K version with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos currently available to stream.

Stream The Social Network on Apple TV

MORE:

Check out our list of the best 4K Blu-ray players

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

And these are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, too

With their Rube Goldberg contraptions and quaint, cheese-heavy lifestyle, you wouldn't expect Wallace & Gromit to be at the forefront of AV tech. But a new exhibition casts them and the rest of the Aardman crew into an immersive, audio-visual extravaganza.

Prepare to see Shaun The Sheep, Morph and, of course, Feathers McGraw like never before.

Larger Than Life: The Aardman Story at the Lightroom in King's Cross is a fascinating look at the legendary animation studio and its considerable body of work over the last 50 years. And it's heavy on bespoke animation, including the iconic model train chase scene from the Oscar-winning The Wrong Trousers.

The right fit

If you haven't been to the Lightroom before, you can read more about it here, but it's basically an immersive experience with projectors beaming footage onto the four walls and floor with the audience plonked in the middle of it.

The model train chase scene from The Wrong Trousers shows the venue's capabilities at their best, with Gromit in hot pursuit of villainous penguin Feathers McGraw, the former laying down track pieces mere millimetres in front of his train. Except instead of following the director's shots, the chase happens on the walls around us, the audience, with the rest of the walls adorned with alternative angles, storyboard stills, initial sketches and more.

It's a loving recreation of an iconic scene, one which was described by Danny Boyle as one of the greatest ever action sequences. Though if I have one criticism, it's that Lightroom's projectors can't quite keep up with Gromit's speed-laying-down of track pieces, his arms at times becoming a literal blur.

A joy

But that's nitpicking. The show is a joy, pure and simple. Which is fitting, given the immense admiration that Aardman's work attracts.

From the cabaret-style intro, through a brief history of stop-motion animation, to the studio's early successes on Vision On to global recognition via A Grand Day Out (seven years in the making) and the music video for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, it captures the spirit and playfulness that the studio brings to every project.

Not that it's comprehensive. The music video for Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me is nowhere to be seen, which is a shame. Nor is it presented in chronological order. Rather, as with previous Lightroom shows, it's divided up into chapters ('Characters', 'Miniature Worlds' etc) with the whole show running on a continuous loop.

But it has more of a coherent beginning and end than the venue's previous shows, top and tailed respectively by the cabaret intro – featuring the studio's most famous characters pumped out of a machine that takes in balls of clay – and Morph closing the lid on the whole presentation (but not before pointing and laughing at the audience, as if we're tiny creatures placed there for his amusement in a neat reversal of the usual viewer-character dynamic).

While completists might be better served elsewhere, it is still full of great tidbits. I was interested to learn that the studio takes its name from an early character it created (an underwhelming superhero whose name is a pun on Aardman, "Hard Man"). And I couldn't help but snigger at Steven Spielberg's response when pitched Chicken Run (sold as The Great Escape with chickens): "The Great Escape is one of my all-time favourite movies, and I've got 300 chickens."

We also get a peek behind the scenes of the studio's plywood panels and kept-dark stages to witness the painstaking animation process first-hand. Younger visitors might find these sections a bit dull, but for those of us old enough to remember A Grand Day Out airing on TV in the late ’80s, it's fascinating.

According to the head of the Lightroom, the show was between two and four years in the making (no one quite knows exactly when they started talking to Aardman about creating it). And it shows: as with all Aardman productions, a lot of love has gone into it, and as the studio's considerable body of work proves, if you want to get it right, it's worth taking your time over these things.

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Focal has always felt like a brand that does things its own way. Take a look at a pair of the company’s Grande Utopia Em Evo floorstanders, complete with their articulated rear ‘spines’ and £220,000 asking price, and you’ll get an immediate feel for a company that is comfortable in its own skin.

Founded in 1979 in Saint-Étienne, France, Focal has anchored its core reputation to luxury high-end speakers, stereo systems and headphones, seeking “to enhance listening experiences and restore the authenticity of artists’ work” by “pushing back the boundaries of musical reproduction”.

A noble aim on paper, but what interests us most about Focal is its approach to that “boundary pushing” production. Described as a shared French philosophy, so much of the brand’s output seems to remain rooted in a human-led, almost artisanal approach.

Focal’s headquarters are still located in Saint-Étienne, a facility from which the company assembles, primarily by hand, its loudspeakers, speaker systems and headphones.

As France is only a short flight from Heathrow, we hopped across the Channel to delve deep into Focal’s audio production and, crucially, the people behind it.

Made in France: flax drivers and crafted cabinets

In this age of all-encompassing automation, what is perhaps most striking about Focal’s production philosophy is its apparent focus on human craft. From cabinets to drive units, humans remain central to Focal’s overarching manufacturing process.

Unlike most of its key rivals, practically all of the company’s drivers are made in-house, with much of the work done by hand. Focal favours a flax sandwich cone for many of its drive units, manually constructed using French-sourced flax fibres sandwiched between two layers of fibreglass, chosen for its combination of rigidity and lightness.

The cone is then cut using a precision laser cutter, while a magnet, voice coil, spider and surround are added later to support the driver.

Why flax? As Louis Gibout, Focal’s deputy brand, digital marketing and retail director explains, the chosen material affects the resultant sound: “Flax has a warmer sound colouration. That’s why we deliberately choose one membrane or another, depending on what we want to do.

“We have two floorstanding speakers, the Kanta and the Sopra. One uses a flax membrane and a beryllium tweeter, the other uses a beryllium membrane and a beryllium tweeter. One customer will want a warmer feeling [of the flax], and one will want a more analytical approach. Two different versions, two different philosophies.”

That brings us on to beryllium, one of Focal’s signature materials reserved for the company’s more rarefied ‘M’ dome drivers. According to Focal, the brand’s signature ‘M-shaped’ unit profile helps to reduce the stress on the membrane during movement, resulting in less distortion and unwanted colouration at high frequencies.

While Focal’s new ‘Prism’ tweeter has moved away from beryllium, the brand’s affection for the material runs deep. As our guide explains, this is an element that provides an exceptional stiffness-to-weight ratio, granting outstanding movement control and precision in the upper sonic reaches.

The one problem? It’s a pretty nasty material to work with: “When people are working with beryllium, they are in a cosmonaut suit, because [the dust] can be very dangerous. We’ve not had any issues in more than 20 years, but still, we are very, very cautious.”

Just as humans remain firmly embedded in the production process of Focal’s drivers, they are equally important when it comes to quality control.

Here, the process blends man and machine, with each driver on the production line undergoing both an electrical test via audio signal analysis and a more personal test with the good old-fashioned human ear. As Gibout explains, actual human beings are essential to ensuring that each product meets the required standard:

“[We need] to keep a human process in the quality process. When you hear Focal products, you know it has been tested individually throughout production.

“Our production staff are able to recognise from what they hear where the issue is coming from. You know that every speaker [driver] has been tested individually, and when it’s assembled, it is matched with another speaker to make sure you get the best matching possible.”

This human element applies to everyone at the company. We are told that each new staff member, no matter their role or job title, spends two days in production as part of their onboarding process, from helping produce a flax membrane to assembling the drivers.

“It’s part of the journey. We want people to feel that and to know that what we do here is subtle, requires technical training and cannot be done by everybody, to make sure we have this know-how from the production of the driver membrane until the high-gloss finish [is applied].”

Obviously, Focal isn’t going to be left behind the times for the sake of tradition. Once a speaker is assembled, it is tested in one of the most Batman-esque anechoic chambers we’ve ever seen. It features a hydraulic platform upon which samples can be mounted, raised and then measured using lasers to assess the speaker’s frequency response, distortion and directivity.

A lot of the facility has a refreshingly low-key, artisanal feel to it, but such a high-spec anechoic chamber, complemented by some very sophisticated listening rooms, hints at a blend of the traditional and the cutting-edge.

The cruel hand of quality control

While driver production and cabinet assembly are performed in Saint-Étienne, Focal’s sister workshop in Bourbon-Lancy manufactures the cabinets and finishes for the likes of its Utopia and Sopra high-end loudspeakers.

While the cabinets are put together in France, certain woods and materials may be sourced from further afield. If you want a signature White Ebony finish, that comes from a rare tree species from Southeast Asia; the deeper, rich tone of ‘Ziricote’ is taken from sapwood grown in Mexico and Central America.

Luckily for us, the Saint-Étienne team have panel samples a little closer to hand, demonstrating the seven or so steps involved in producing both painted and high-gloss wood effects for its MDF exteriors.

For the most part, the process is again done by hand, often starting from a panel of MDF which is rough cut and sanded before a layer of gloss or paint is added, a process which is then repeated until the smooth, unblemished effect is realised.

“We use MDF because it’s very stable and the density is always the same. If you use real wood, you can have unwanted grains and hard spots, and it’s not very good for the vibration of the product,” explains Paul Weill, Focal’s special projects manager.

To Focal, it seems that how a pair of speakers looks is almost as important as how they sound. Perhaps the most striking example of this apparent commitment to quality comes at the end of the production process, wherein the hopeful speakers are exposed to blue, yellow and white lights to reveal any scuffs, scratches or marks that might have blemished their paintwork.

If nothing is found, the speaker is pretty much good to go, but if a sufficiently major imperfection is uncovered, the speaker is disassembled and sent back to Bourgogne so that the whole process can start all over again. Ouch.

Given that a pair of Utopia can take up to a month to craft, it’s a brutal test, but as Louis Gibout tells us, one that must be passed every single time: “We know how much speakers like these are. For the customers, it’s an investment, it’s an emotion, it’s a commitment to the brand, and the brand needs to deliver this quality.”

Arts and crafts: leather jackets and peacocking speakers

Sometimes, a pair of Focal Diva Utopia isn’t exclusive enough. Sometimes you need a pair of speakers that is utterly distinctive from the rest – a pair that is unique.

That’s where Focal Crafts comes in. Take a short walk from the company’s main facility, and you’ll find yourself standing in a small but airy workshop that could just as well be mistaken for an artist’s studio or fashionista’s boudoir as opposed to a wing of an international hi-fi brand.

This is the Focal Crafts atelier, wherein some of the brand’s most exclusive and sometimes eccentric creations are crafted – and, if they are really special, displayed. Such kooky creations include Diva Utopia speakers clad in leather, another sporting a peacock feather finish, one covered in denim (yes, they have a pocket), as well as a Scala Utopia Evo floorstander wrapped in luxuriant faux marble.

The Focal Craft division is responsible for creating some of the brand’s most entrancing exclusives, including a set of Diva Utopias adorned with Capiz shells and another covered in sand and mineral flakes designed to catch the light at different angles.

For those looking for the ultimate exclusivity, you can collaborate with Focal’s design team to come up with a set of speakers to your own particular aesthetic tastes. Focal’s designers will work with you to create a specially commissioned exterior, generally reserved for its reference-grade loudspeaker lines.

There are, however, some rules. All panels must be the same colour and type, and certain aspects of the speaker, such as the glowing company logo, must remain untouched to preserve brand identity.

We cheekily ask whether some customers’ tastes are simply too, well, tasteless to merit a custom paint job, and are gratified by the honesty of Paul Weil’s reply: “Yes, [but] our work is to move them in the right direction. If something is very terrible, we have no problem saying no. This is why we have pictures and examples of what we can do.”

Sometimes, practicality plays a part in the materials chosen. We are told a story of a customer who wanted a wireless stereo speaker system clad in green marble; not only was it too expensive, but its thickness also prevented each speaker from connecting via their Ultra-Wideband connection. Happily, a thinner marble-effect solution was found.

Earlier this year, Belgian projector manufacturer Barco announced an agreement to acquire the Vervent Audio Group, the parent company of Focal and Naim, ending the main stake ownership of Alpha Private Equity.

We hope that change in ownership will not profoundly affect how the company is run, and that whatever happens, Focal continues its apparent commitment to human-led research, development, construction and quality control.

In a world that is moving faster than most of us can manage, it’s reassuring to see that real people remain the key components in the brand’s quest for great sound.

MORE:

Read our Focal Mu-so Utopia hands on review

Best hi-fi systems: CD, vinyl and streaming music players for the home

Best soundbars: options for every need, recommended by our experts

We blinked, and suddenly it’s been more than a year since we got KEF’s premium XIO soundbar into our test room.

And, despite a very busy 12 months in soundbar land, the KEF XIO has clinched a What Hi-Fi? Award for the second year in a row.

One of its biggest direct competitors was the awesome Focal Mu-so Hekla, which has a much higher price tag (£3000 / $3600 / around AU$5695) than the XIO (£1999 / $2500 / AU£3600), but a 7.1.2-channel configuration compared to the XIO's 5.1.2 system.

As you would expect from a much more expensive sound system, the Hekla is more detailed, refined and dynamic than the XIO, which is why it very much deserves its five-star rating.

So why isn't the Hekla our Award-winner?

Primarily, it's because while the Hekla is excellent, the 'soundbar' label doesn't fit it entirely comfortably.

That's a lot to do with its design, which is less 'bar' and more 'slab' – albeit an extremely classy, attractive slab. Ultimately, It's not really suited for placement in front of a TV, and it can't be wall-mounted. Instead, it looks more at home on a side table, much like an all-in-one hi-fi system akin to a super-sized Naim Mu-so.

So, while on a performance-per-pound basis it's a relatively close call between the XIO and Hekla, KEF's entry makes more instinctive sense than the Hekla if you are looking for the premium soundbar experience.

The Samsung HW-Q990H also served as competition of sorts for the KEF XIO. Again, it's a slightly different proposition, as the Samsung model is a soundbar system with a wireless sub and surrounds, compared with the KEF's solo soundbar design.

These products are really designed for different people and use-cases, with the Samsung prioritising cinematic scale and immersion and the KEF taking a more hi-fi-quality approach to TV sound.

And because their markets are so different, they ultimately ended up in different sub-categories, with the Samsung taking the Best Soundbar System Award in the £500 to £2000 price bracket, and the KEF being assessed as a solo bar.

As well as the XIO's top-notch audio performance, its impressive hardware under the hood helps it stand out from the crowd.

It's deeper than many soundbars when standing on its feet, but it can be reoriented for wall-mounting so that it sticks out just 7cm. The smart chassis houses 12 drive units, each with a dedicated Class D power amplifier.

KEF’s Velocity Control Technology (VECO) is also built into the drive unit. Here, a flexible PCB with a sensing coil replaces a traditional former (the component the main coil wraps around) and measures movement speed. This allows the soundbar’s ‘brain’ to compensate for any errors detected.

In our review, we concluded that the KEF XIO “is one of the best soundbars we have heard”, and, another year on, it remains the best soundbar in its class.

Our only disappointment is that KEF hasn't yet launched a step-down model with a more compact design and lower price, but perhaps it will do just that before the 2027 What Hi-Fi? Awards. It would be fascinating to see a smaller XIO take on the excellent Sonos Arc Ultra.

MORE:

Check out the full list of What Hi-Fi? 2026 Award winners

Here's our review of the Focal Mu-so Hekla

And this is our review of the KEF XIO

Even if you’re not a Marvel fan, you are probably aware that a little film called Avengers: Doomsday is coming out later this year.

The mega superhero team-up has made headlines for the return of Robert Downey Jr. and several classic X-Men characters, as well as its shared release date with sci-fi epic Dune: Part Three (on ‘Dunesday’, as the internet has dubbed it).

But for AV fans, this isn’t the only rivalry occurring that weekend. After Dune secured IMAX exclusivity for a whopping three weeks, Disney responded by making its very own premium cinema format: Infinity Vision.

Infinity Vision only made its debut with the Avengers Endgame: Encore release, and is being heavily marketed by Disney as the way to see Doomsday. But is it worth going out of your way to see this format? And will it really be enough to compete with the established big-screen benefits of IMAX? Let’s see…

What is Infinity Vision?

Infinity Vision is Disney’s new cinema certification, which calls for screens to meet certain specifications. Infinity Vision-approved cinemas must have a screen width of at least 45 feet (around 14 metres), a Dolby Atmos or 7.1 sound system, and brightness levels reaching either 14 footlamberts in 2D or 6 footlamberts in 3D.

Unlike IMAX, which uses proprietary custom-built cameras and projection systems, Infinity Vision does not feature new technology. It is, instead, a certification programme, meaning that many screens around the world qualify for Infinity Vision without having to make any changes to their set-up.

You would be forgiven for thinking otherwise, however, given Disney’s aggressive marketing and tying it to one of its biggest releases of the decade. Our concern is, given how much Disney is hyping Infinity Vision, that cinema-goers may end up expecting a more transformative experience than what is essentially a rather nice screen and sound system.

Infinity Vision screens should be clearly labelled when booking, though we found that wasn’t always the case. Both I and senior staff writer Lewis Empson went to see Avengers Endgame: Encore on a Vue EPIC screen. Despite being the chain’s premium screen, it was not clear when booking whether this was an Infinity Vision screening or not; Lewis’s cinema wasn’t even listed on the Infinity Vision website.

How was Avengers Endgame: Encore in Infinity Vision?

Not all Infinity Vision screens will be the same – but first impressions for me were promising.

I saw Avengers Endgame: Encore on a Vue EPIC screen, which is handily the biggest non-IMAX screen I have had the pleasure of viewing. It’s not quite the all-encompassing, wall-covering scale of IMAX, but it’s safe to say the size impressed.

And the picture? Also a step up from your average screen. The enhanced brightness and, in this instance, HDR, made the previously somewhat drab Avengers: Endgame pop. The climactic battle is great for this in particular, with shimmering portals, colourful costumes and the many glowing superpowers, Arc Reactors and Infinity Stones all standing out nicely off the screen.

Detail is impressive too: when a shrunken Ant-Man clings onto Tony Stark’s beard, we can clearly pick out individual hairs and shorter stubble, as well as the lining of his shirt.

A welcome surprise was also that Infinity Vision did not cost extra. The Vue EPIC showing did cost more than one of its regular screens, but it was the same price I paid for a non-Infinity Vision viewing of Pressure a few weeks earlier, and I spied several regular Infinity Vision showings at no extra cost. This will, of course, depend on your local cinema.

So could an Infinity Vision screening rival an experience like IMAX? Not in our books.

Infinity Vision did offer a top-tier cinema experience, but it was never going to top the specialist IMAX cinema screens that have been in development for decades. Nowhere was this more evident than the sound. The audio in Avengers Endgame: Encore was clear, bombastic and nicely immersive. But after experiencing The Odyssey and its thunderous, visceral audio in IMAX earlier this year, the Infinity Vision sound felt much more run-of-the-mill.

Should you watch Avengers: Doomsday in Infinity Vision?

It all comes down to expectations. Disney is perhaps overselling the benefits of Infinity Vision, in our opinion, and if you’re expecting a night-and-day difference similar to the likes of IMAX or other premium formats, you might come away disappointed.

But, given that Avengers: Doomsday is not releasing in IMAX, it might be your best option. What Infinity Vision does do is highlight the best screens in your local cinema. It removes the potluck element from cinema booking (I am still heartbroken from watching the visual feast Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on a tiny screen) and this way guarantees a big screen with top-notch picture and sound credentials.

Infinity Vision may also encourage cinema chains to upgrade their screens – Disney told IndieWire that at least two exhibitors were looking to upgrade to 7.1 sound to get the certification.

With 52 per cent of the gross of Avengers Endgame: Encore’s opening weekend coming from Infinity Vision screens, this may well be a format that is here to stay. It may have lost the AV battle to IMAX, but it certainly has its uses – we’ll see which the public backs come Dunesday…

MORE:

Avengers: Endgame Encore is coming to the big screen, but is it worth another trip to the cinema?

These are the best 4K Blu-ray players

And check out the best TVs

After years of waiting, ranting, and almost giving up entirely, I am delighted that Apple has finally replaced the 2022 Apple TV 4K 3rd Generation. If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love that streamer, and I have spent almost every Apple launch and event since 2022 anticipating the announcement of its replacement.

That time has finally come. Apple has announced a new 4K streamer alongside a new HomePod Mini 2, the HomeView smart display, and a range of smart home devices developed in partnership with LG.

The Apple TV 4K certainly seems to be the streamer I’ve been waiting for. It looks like being a genuine upgrade over the previous model in terms of AV features and general functionality. While I am mostly exceptionally pleased with Apple’s announcement, there are a couple of issues that I have noted from Apple’s press release.

With that in mind, here are three things I have already taken a shine to, and two things I’m not super pleased with…

Like: a powerful processor for more than just AI

Apple has squeezed the same super-powerful A19 processor that can be found in the iPhone 17 into the Apple TV 4K 4th Generation. This chip has already proven to offer silky-smooth performance on the iPhone, and it can run everything from everyday apps to graphically intensive games with ease, so I am excited to see it in action on the new streamer.

The biggest feature that it enables is Siri AI, which can be used to control the streamer hands-free and track down content to watch. Asking the box to show you movies from a specific genre, or requesting Award-winning TV shows isn’t revolutionary – we have seen other streamers and operating systems do this – but it’s a nice feature to have nonetheless, especially now that you can speak to the streamer without picking up the remote, thanks to the built-in far-field microphones.

However, as someone who spends far too much time on IMDB looking at trivia, cast information, and filming locations, the ability to ask Siri contextual questions while I’m watching is a huge plus. Apple’s example of asking “where is Pluribus filmed?” really tickled my fancy, especially as a huge Pluribus fan.

That all said, the A19 chip does way more than unlock faster and more powerful AI responses; there’s a huge new AV feature coming to the box thanks to the new chipset.

It includes a new, dedicated AV1 decoder, which should help when it comes to streaming compressed video coded in the format. Apple touts “more efficient, high-quality streaming while using less bandwidth”, which is music to my ears.

This essentially also confirms a picture upgrade, and I can’t wait to see the new streaming box in action.

Dislike: an overly familiar design

The Apple TV 4K is a discreet and sleek black box designed to blend into your media setup, and it does a good job of doing exactly that. However, it looks almost identical to the outgoing model, which was incredibly similar to nearly every previous generation of Apple TV streamers.

Furthermore, the remote also looks unchanged from the outside, which is both a good and bad thing. I’m a huge fan of the high-quality aluminium handset with its clicky buttons, easy-to-use layout, and USB-C charging port, which means that I never have to faff around with batteries.

That said, Apple is charging significantly more for this streamer now (we’ll get on to that later), so a remote upgrade would have been nice. Backlit buttons would be a great start (Sky Stream’s remote scores points here), and a customisable shortcut button akin to the one found on the Google TV Streamer would also be nice.

Like: Find My remote and voice commands

I know I’ve just moaned about the remote, but there is a huge upgrade that I really do think is a game changer. Now, my sofa is notorious for swallowing remotes, so the inclusion of Find My is an absolute lifesaver.

There are two ways to locate the remote by the looks of things: you can give the “Siri, find the remote” command to the streaming box directly and it will play a chime, or use the Find My app on your iPhone to pinpoint the exact location of the remote using on-screen directions.

However, I know how lazy I can be, so being able to control the streamer without lifting a finger and instead letting voice commands do the work is a rather nice feature to have. Moreover, this could be a huge accessibility upgrade for those with mobility limitations.

Dislike: out of control price

There’s no beating around the bush here; the new Apple TV 4K is expensive. Apple is selling only one configuration this time, with the cheaper 64GB model being scrapped in favour of a single 128GB model with an ethernet socket for £299 / $299 / AU$449.

That is a substantial asking price for a streaming box, especially considering the last model launched at £169 / $150 / $250 for the 128GB model. Apple did initiate a price increase earlier this year, upping the asking price to £249 / $249 / AU$399.

It’s worth noting that the previous model is no longer available, so this essentially means we have had two fairly substantial Apple TV 4K price increases in the space of a few months.

Now, there are global economic factors at play that are orchestrating these price increases, and we are seeing the likes of Google and Amazon also increase the price of their streamers, but a £130 / $149 / AU$199 price increase feels rather egregious to us.

Apple may want to look into a cheaper step-down model in the future if it wants to reel in buyers put off by the price, as many will begin looking at the much cheaper Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max 2nd Generation at this rate.

Like: wireless surround sound with HomePods

Apple has made a big swing for immersive sound with the new TV 4K, and it involves its underappreciated HomePod speakers alongside some wireless audio trickery.

You can connect up to four HomePod speakers to the Apple TV 4K 4th Generation, and there are multiple configurations that you can use. Whether that’s four HomePod 2 speakers, four HomePod Mini 2s, or a mix of the two (provided that the front and back pairs match respectively), the new streamer can essentially act as a hub for a wireless Dolby Atmos surround sound system.

This wireless surround sound trend has become hugely popular across the home cinema scene, with the likes of Sony, LG, Hisense and Valerion all leading the pack, and now it’s Apple’s turn to jump on board. Considering how great the HomePod speakers sound, and given Apple’s impressive approach to sound tuning, I am very eager to test this new wireless audio feature out.

MORE:

Read our full Apple TV 4K (2022) review

As well as our Apple HomePod 2 review

And check out our list of the best streaming devices

Way back in 2023, as I hunted for a living room-friendly sound solution for my new home, I replaced a Sonos Arc with a pair of HomePod 2s, and what I discovered was a surprisingly accomplished Dolby Atmos performance in a super-neat package.

One of my criticisms, though, and a key reason I ended up with the Sony HT-A9 system long-term instead, was that “there’s currently no way to extend the Apple system beyond two speakers, so you can't add dedicated surrounds.”

Now, more than three years later, Apple has finally removed that limitation.

This new Apple TV 4K model, with its powerful A19 chip, can be partnered with four HomePod 2s, four of the new HomePod Mini 2s, or a pair of each, to create a full surround sound experience.

As before, there is no dedicated, manual calibration involved. You simply plonk the speakers where they are most practical, and their combination of integrated microphones will work out where they are and adapt the sound to each other and the environment. Very neat – assuming it works as well as it does with a pair of HomePods.

For those not already familiar with how an Apple TV 4K + HomePods combination works, the HomePods don’t play audio just from the Apple TV 4K itself. Thanks to eARC support, they can also handle sound from other devices connected to your TV, such as a games console or Blu-ray player.

There are other things I’m excited about with the new Apple TV 4K, of course.

Far-field mics for totally hands-free operation via Siri AI are actually rather appealing, I think, as long as Siri can play content from all streaming apps; and AV1 codec support is potentially a big deal for picture quality in the long run.

As someone who misplaces the tiny Siri Remote on a near-weekly basis, the new version’s audible Find My feature should prove very useful, too.

But it’s this ability to turn a HomePod setup into a proper Dolby Atmos home cinema system that has really piqued my interest.

The downside? Cost, of course.

The new Apple TV 4K is launching at £299 / $299 / AU$449, which is a massive price rise on the previous model, and each HomePod 2, which, from a sound quality perspective, I think you will need as the front speakers at least, will set you back £349 / $349 / AU$549.

So a full package that includes a new Apple TV 4K and four HomePod 2s will cost a hefty £1695 / $1695 / AU$2645 – though you could of course save some money by using HomePod Mini 2s instead of HomePod 2s as surrounds.

And, actually, now I think of it, that is very similar to what Sony charged for the HT-A9 system I still use at home, and a lot less than it charges for the Bravia Theatre Quad (£2499 / $2500 / AU$3699).

A Sonos Arc Ultra with two Era 300 speakers as surrounds will set you back £1797 / $2002 / AU$3232, too, so perhaps this Apple TV 4K home cinema isn’t quite as startlingly expensive as it first looks.

Of course, the real test will be how this system sounds. I was impressed by what a pair of HomePods could do on their own, so I am particularly keen to find out whether adding dedicated surrounds can deliver the kind of fully immersive Dolby Atmos I’m after – and how it compares with the Sony HT-A9 system I still use at home.

The new Apple TV 4K is due to go on sale on 13th November, so you can expect our test results around then.

MORE:

I replaced a Sonos Arc with two HomePod 2s – and I might not go back

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and best surround sound systems you can buy right now

Wireless headphones have changed the way we listen, but not necessarily for the better. Because perhaps more than any other device category, they embody the shift to convenience over quality that's an unfortunate byproduct of some advances in personal listening.

True, the best wireless headphones sound very good indeed – almost as good as the best wired headphones, in fact. But to hear them at their best requires not only high quality sound files, but for both your headphones and digital music source to support a good quality wireless codec.

With so many competing codecs around – some of which are only supported by a tiny proportion of smartphones – this is easier said than done.

Surely there must be an easier way. And as of late 2025, there is, courtesy of the Sennheiser HDB 630.

These cans don’t just sound great, they include an ingenious solution to the codec clash problem plaguing so many wireless listening sessions. They come with a wireless dongle that's bursting with codecs. That way, even iPhone owners can enjoy the delights of the various flavours of aptX via their wireless headphones.

The HDB 630 quickly earned rave reviews, lodged themselves in our various lists of best headphones (including best over-ear headphones, best wireless headphones and best noise-cancelling headphones), and recently won a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award.

Here’s the story behind how they were made.

Research and you will find

The wireless headphone market is fiercely competitive, so making a pair that stands out and genuinely does something new is a very tall order. Rather than just offering the usual glut of minor upgrades and a tweaked design, the Sennheiser team went big on the research. And they discovered some interesting tidbits.

"Our research showed that, on average, audiophiles only listened to music for one, or maybe one-and-a-half hours a day. And we asked ourselves why that was – these people love music, so why aren't they listening to it for longer?" says Wee Hong Kuan, Sennheiser's Senior Product Manager.

They worked out it was due to what's involved in getting top quality sound.

"The best sound relies on being tied to a home system with an amplifier, so we asked ourselves: What can we do about this?" he says. "How can we cut loose this audiophile sound without losing the quality they demand? How can we get them listening not just for 90 minutes a day, but all day, wherever they are?"

Like other headphone makers, Sennheiser is obsessed with sound quality, so it was already hard at work on that front. But it realised this is only one side of the coin. Its research revealed another startling statistic: less than 16 per cent of phones are compatible with aptX Adaptive, and less than 1 per cent work with aptX Lossless. Having the best-sounding headphones in the world isn't much use if the sources feeding them audio aren't up to the task.

Which is where the dongle comes in.

An ingenious solution

The BTD 700 brings support for up to 24-bit/96kHz hi-res quality via the best wireless codecs (including aptX Lossless and Auracast). And it brings them to any Bluetooth headphones – just plug it into your music source and connect it to the headphones over Bluetooth. It went on sale a few months before the HDB 630 launched, but the decision to bundle the two together was a canny one.

To realise just how much of a gamechanger it is, it's worth considering the sheer number of Bluetooth codecs there are available: you’ve got SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, LDAC, LHDC, L2HC, LC3, LC3+... It's an alphabet soup dumped on top of a word salad, followed by acronym crumble and initialism custard. Talk about making a meal out of it.

How many people know which codecs their phone or laptop supports? And whether their headphones support the same ones? Chances are, not many.

To make things more complicated, even the same model of certain Android phones will support different codecs depending on where they're sold – some Samsung Galaxy S handsets sold in the UK have Samsung Exynos processors instead of those made by Qualcomm, and so don't support Qualcomm's aptX codecs, for example.

Plug in the dongle, and all of this complexity disappears. Sennheiser estimates that it ups the percentage of phones able to support aptX Adaptive to over 80 per cent (that remaining 20 per cent accounts for all the Lightning port-based iPhones that are still in use, which don't work with the dongle's USB-C connection).

"That's the purpose of the BTD 700 – to erase these worries," says Kuan. "You don't have to worry about which codec your phone supports. You just need to make sure it has a compatible USB-C port." And that your headphones support the best codecs, of course.

This wasn't actually the first time Sennheiser bundled a dongle with a pair of headphones, though its previous offering was aimed more at business folk than audiophiles. The Accentum Special Edition (which are still on sale) come with a USB-A dongle for lower latency video calls on a PC. Though perhaps it could've done with a sound boost – the dongle-less version only scored three stars in our review.

Nevertheless, Sennheiser applied learnings from the Accentum model to the BTD 700.

A dongle isn't the most exciting product to look at – it's a dongle – but a lot of thought went into its design. Sennheiser added a groove near the USB-C connector to allow it to fit a phone that's wearing a case, and it had to be slim enough not to block vents or other ports on any phone, tablet or PC with which it's used.

The downside, of course, is that it's yet another thing to carry, and due to its compact size, it could be easily lost. Some users have taken to carrying it in a coin pouch when not in use, which isn't ideal. (Kuan recommends keeping it plugged into the HDB 630’s USB-C port when not in use.)

And of course, it's still limited by Bluetooth's bitrate, which posed a quandary for Sennheiser. "We had a decision to make," Kuan says. "Did we want high resolution but in a compressed format? Or to maintain a lower resolution, but lossless? That's the trade-off that we had to make. To achieve true hi-res lossless playback, a higher Bluetooth bandwidth will be needed to support that resolution. Which requires industry effort."

Even without the dongle, the HDB 630 fared very well in our review, thanks to their excellent sound quality and customisable features – like the parametric equaliser, which lets you not only input an exact number of Hz for your tuning preference rather than adjusting a slider, but also share your tuning via a QR code for anyone to scan and try out your preferences.

It's a compelling package that just goes to show, when you do your research, the rewards speak for themselves.

MORE:

Read our Sennheiser HDB 630 review

Check out the best wireless headphones

"Sound comes first" – we speak to Sennheiser about German engineering, changing ownership, and 80 years of making music

We are one day away from announcing the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 Best Buy winners. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the majority of last week, our team of experts was locked in our review rooms, crossing the Ts and dotting the Is for this year’s testing.

But as the final round of this year’s hi-fi and home cinema battle royale played out, a couple of news stories broke that any discerning music or movie fan should be aware of.

Amazon ran a sales event – it wasn’t great

Last week Amazon ran a Prime Big Deal Days event on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our team of experts searched high and low for the top AV deals and, sadly, outside of a couple of exceptions, it was slim pickings, especially for hi-fi fans.

Thankfully, we have another big sale rapidly approaching, in the shape of Black Friday, which is set to happen at the end of November. As always, if there’s a specific product you’re looking to buy, let us know, and we’ll keep a particularly keen eye out for good deals on it.

Read the full story: I test hi-fi for a living and recommend audiophiles skip the Prime Day sales and upgrade during Black Friday instead

Magico launched entry-level, high-end speakers

Yes, the phrases entry-level and high-end sound a bit weird next to each other, but that’s exactly what Magico’s A3 2027 floorstanders are. Featuring a new chassis, upgraded drivers and a redesigned crossover, the A3 2027 is a refined version of the A3, which first launched all the way back in 2017. Despite being set to retail for £28,998 per pair (around $38,000 / AU$55,000), the A3 2027 still sit at the lower end of the high-end audio firm’s range of floorstanders.

Read the full story: Magico's A3 2027 refines every part of the original A3 speaker, with a new cabinet, drivers and crossover – but costs over twice as much

We found a diamond in the rough 5.1 surround sound package

2026 has been a tough year for home cinema fans on a tight budget, with not one but two of the more affordable packages we long recommended in our best surround sound systems guide going to the audio farm in the sky.

Thankfully, last week, we finally found a replacement for one of them in the shape of the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i HCP. Built around the firm’s entry-level Diamond 12.1i standmount speakers, the £999 package delivers a nicely cohesive and entertaining performance. As we said in our review:

“Wharfedale’s Diamond speaker series offers exceptional value for money, and the 12.1i HCP’s detailed, cohesive and dynamic sound is further proof.”

Read our full Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i HCP review

Rega strikes turntable gold (again)

Last week we finally finished reviewing the Rega Planar 6 RS Edition, a turntable we’ve been excited about for quite some time.

The idea’s simple: take the Award-winning Planar 6 turntable as a starting point and then add elements from the next-tier-up Planar 8 model.

What’s the result? A sublime LP spinner capable of delivering a wonderfully expressive, but precise and authoritative, sound. As we said in our review:

“Rega’s ‘RS’ spin on a more premium model is a thrilling success: it looks great, it sounds great, and it’s great value – what’s not to love?”

Read our full Rega Planar 6 RS Edition review

MORE:
These are the best turntables we’ve tested

We rank the best floorstanding speakers

Our picks of the best surround sound speaker packages

As the saying goes: "good things come to those who wait", and that sentiment is really being tested at the moment – especially for someone as impatient as me.

I've counted down the gruelling years of waiting for Grand Theft Auto VI, watched The Batman: Part II slip further and further away after continuous delays, and despite an update from Xbox, I just don't believe that we'll ever see another proper Elder Scrolls game after 2011's Skyrim.

However, one of the most egregious passages of time has to be the wait for a new Apple TV 4K. The current model was announced on the 18th of October 2022; for those counting, that'll be exactly four years ago in eight days.

Rumours of a new model have drifted around AV circles for well over a year, with mutterings that a new version was primed to launch around this time last year. Evidently, that did not happen.

In fact, the most recent update to the product was an egregious price hike that took the base price from £139 to £199, and the 128GB/Ethernet model from £169 to a staggering £249. Talk about kicking someone when they're down.

Still, if there's one thing that being a What Hi-Fi? reviewer has taught me, it's resilience (don't believe me? Try unboxing, setting up and swapping around five surround sound speaker packages in a day). Hence why I've not yet lost hope. And that blind faith might finally pay off next week, as Apple has just locked in its "Welcome Home" event for the 13th of October.

It's expected to focus on a handful of smart home devices, including a new home hub, smart home security gadgets, and potentially a very long overdue update to the HomePod Mini (sorry HomePod fans, I now realise that we're both suffering).

But it's the buzz of a new Apple TV 4K with an upgraded processor, remote, and Siri AI system that has me all giddy, as several reputable reports claim that a new streaming box is amongst Apple's slate of announcements.

Now, my excitement is marred by some caution, as this isn't the first time I've got myself whipped up into a frenzy for an Apple TV launch that never happened, so I am braced for disappointment.

In fact, I've written countless stories expressing my disappointment after Apple events pass without a mention of a new box, and I could be writing yet another one next week.

Now, it's evident that I really care about this potential new Apple TV 4K (perhaps a bit too much), but why should you? I understand where the naysayers are coming from. If your TV already has streaming apps built-in, then why do you need to spend money on a box that allows you to access the same apps?

Simply put, it's all about picture and sound quality. I have more ways to access streaming apps on my TV than I could ever need. There's Google TV built into my Sony A80L, my PlayStation 5 can access a wide array of services, and my Sky Stream box is actually where I do most (if not all of) my streaming currently, thanks to its impressive blend of performance and convenience.

But if it's pure picture and sound performance that I'm after, then I'm reaching for my Apple TV 4K. It delivers a colourful, contrast-rich, supremely detailed image with tangible depth and excellent motion, alongside a textured, dynamic and crisp approach to sound. There's a reason it's a constant fixture on our annual Awards list.

Apple's tvOS operating system is also a joy to use; it's responsive, has some genuinely handy tie-in features with my iPhone (typing passwords in on my phone to log into streaming services is a game changer), and its home screen isn't plastered with ads unlike Fire TV and Google TV.

As such, I'll recommend the Apple TV 4K to practically anyone who will listen; I've even talked my staunchly Samsung-supporting stepdad into buying one to hook up to his OLED TV, and I've heard nothing but praise for the plucky streaming box since.

And my advice extends to anyone reading this who doesn't think they're worth it or is on the fence; once you try it, you'll see exactly where I'm coming from.

Given how much I love the current Apple TV 4K, the notion that we're closer to a new one than ever before has me totally transfixed. I feel like an overexcited kid on Christmas Eve. Now all Apple has to do is unveil it next week; I'm sure it won't let me down... right?

MORE:

Read our full Apple TV 4K (2022) review

As well as our Sky Stream review

Here are our picks for the best streaming devices

I was trying to fall asleep, my feet playing the role of a third tent pole against the soggy nylon of my undersized tent, when I realised I had been wrong about radio.

I was born in the year 2000, which makes me a certifiable Zoomer. As such, beyond a brief but nonetheless rather deep infatuation with the Confessions section of Simon Mayo’s Drive Time show on BBC Radio 2 (which seemed to be playing perennially in my mum’s car), I’ve always been a sucker for entirely personalised listening.

Beginning with iTunes, before graduating to fully fledged music streaming services, I, much to my present shame, viewed radio as a thing of the past. Something that paired best with armchairs and cuckoo clocks.

But the statistics prove me starkly mistaken. In the UK, not only is radio the most trusted form of media, but Ofcom’s 2026 report on audio listening in the UK showed that, while streaming has dominated almost all other listening formats, radio has held position as the most widely consumed type of audio in terms of reach. 62 per cent of us listen to it each week, compared to 61 per cent for music through an online service.

Broadcasts remain available almost everywhere: in the home, in the car, in the local supermarket. You could probably spend an entire day, errands and all, with less than fifteen minutes unpopulated by the sound of some or other radio station.

So, why did this realisation hit me on a camping trip with the Roberts SolarDAB99 – a portable, outdoors-friendly FM/DAB radio?

Pitched up in the verifiable middle of nowhere, with the soothing tones of BBC Radio 3’s ‘Round Midnight jazz show lulling me to slumber, I was struck by the realisation that beyond purchasing a radio, access to the news, the radio plays, a fully fledged cornucopia of music shows, is completely free of charge. In an age of inexhaustible paid subscription services, that seems nothing short of a miracle to me.

Naturally, a good data connection and a smartphone will give you an even greater gamut of listening options, but I think there’s something to be said for limitations. In fact, I think they are key to the survival of the radio format.

Unlike streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal, which grant users total control of their experience, radio rolls ever onwards, saying what it will and, crucially, not always what you want it to. While you listen, you are in the hands of the DJ and their curated playlists, for better or for worse. In this sense, radio broadcasts more closely resemble human conversations, and in this way they have an innate ability to make people feel less alone.

That’s a powerful thing for a piece of technology to provide.

The irony is that radio’s greatest strength, its simplicity, can also put it out of step with modern life. Many of us already carry expansive music libraries in our pockets and expect our devices to have a vast range of functionality.

It's something that has been on my mind as I am currently testing the new Pure Bloom radio (above) – a small, budget desktop model that features FM/DAB+ and Bluetooth – and I also recently saw a new range of all-in-one systems from Roberts, which incorporate a CD player and wi-fi streaming alongside radio tuners.

The Revere range tries to cater to the various ways we listen to music now – network streaming, internet radio and Spotify Connect on their flagship Revere 500 model – while tapping into the surging popularity of CDs. That the brand continues to include FM/DAB+ tuners alongside streaming and a built-in CD player in a lifestyle-friendly design is sure to appeal to many.

Here at What Hi-Fi?, we’ve been reviewing radios for decades, and we continue to champion great-sounding products in the best DAB radios we've reviewed, from miniature, affordable offerings such as the Roberts Revival Petite 2, all the way up to more expensive, streaming-equipped options, including the Ruark Audio R2 Mk4 and Revo SuperConnect Stereo.

After all, there are many reasons why someone might not want to indulge in a fully-fledged hi-fi separates system. Whether it’s because of financial or spatial limitations, or simply not wanting so much faff in your life, these simpler one-box systems bridge a necessary gap, making great-sounding music and entertainment accessible to a wider audience.

Price, of course, plays no small part in that equation.

Whether incorporated into a premium all-in-one streaming/CD system or in a smaller portable model that also offers Bluetooth streaming for modern convenience, I think there is still a firm place for the radio in today's listening space.

Music was never meant to be reserved for a select few. The indelible strength of radio is that it adheres to that principle. By tuning in, we are given the opportunity to connect with something more communal, and ultimately more powerful than the isolated experience of endless choice.

Since my radio epiphany, most of my days working from home have been accompanied by the soothing – if not totally hi-fi – sounds of Jazz FM and BBC Radio 4. Good lord, do I miss Simon Mayo?

Mayo or no Mayo, I’ll eat my words about radio, and gladly.

MORE

I put Roberts’ new rugged digital radio “for explorers” to the test on an overnight camping trip – here’s how it went

Read our full review Ruark Audio R1S review

Check out our pick of the best DAB radios tested by our expert reviewers

From the foyer, Forest Cinema seems just like your standard out-of-town multiplex. Trailers promote the latest films showing across its nine screens, and the shelves behind the tills teem with warm cabinets of sweet and salty popcorn, packets of M&Ms and churning vats of luridly-coloured slushie drinks.

But we're not in a retail park on the outskirts of commutersville, we're in the centre of Walthamstow, east London, just a popcorn kernel's throw from the bustling market that's the beating heart of the local community.

With a history in motion pictures that stretches all the way back to the 19th century, the family running Forest Cinema are better placed than anyone with its stewardship.

The Jervis family took over the site following Empire Cinemas' collapse into administration in 2023. But while the trappings of a cinema chain might remain, the focus has shifted: Forest Cinema is part of the Jervis family's six-strong portfolio of cinemas around the country, all housed in historic buildings and all rescued from the cinematic scrapheap.

It's a diverse bunch, taking in art deco styling (The Royal Cinema in Sutton Coldfield), the Grade II-listed former headquarters of Chubb Locks (Wolverhampton's The Lockworks Cinema) and multi-storey car park chic (The Island Cinema in Lytham St Annes).

But for all their variety, they all share the same ethos: a cinema that's focussed on serving the community with a diverse range of films, presented in accessible ways and at affordable prices.

Cinema Paradiso

"Forest Cinema encapsulates what we do," says James Jervis, director of the family firm PDJ Management.

"The area definitely needs a cinema, and our kind ties very well into the type of community around here. There are lots of independent businesses here, and we try to offer experiences crafted for this specific community rather than just the generic cut and paste that you get with the chains."

These experiences include dedicated autism-friendly screenings (where the lights are dimmed instead of switched off entirely and not every ticket is sold so it's less busy), as well as those for seniors and people with babies. They ran a whole series of screenings for Waltham Forest Pride in July, and when we speak, are planning their programming for Black History Month in October.

"Obviously we have to work within the constraints of the building [which is leased from Waltham Forest council] and its layout, but we've put our own spin on it by tying into what's going on in the community so that everyone's represented," Jervis says.

"We still want to offer all the things you expect when you go to the cinema," he adds, which might explain those nuclear slushies behind the till, "but we want to offer it at a price that people can afford, especially at this time," he adds.

Considering that a family of four can have a night at the movies for just over £20, Forest Cinema is definitely affordable. You also get all mod-cons, including 4K projectors and 7.1 sound in each screen – PDJ had to buy all the equipment new, as when they took over the site, everything had been stripped out by squatters. So they went for the best available.

In the beginning...

This kind of set-up is a far cry from the Jervis family's roots in cinema, which go back five generations.

Back in the 1870s, Tom Jervis showed "flickering pictures" at the Jervis Fairgrounds in the Lickey Hills outside Birmingham. These flickering pictures were an early iteration of a projector – "Imagine one of those flick books where as you turn a page, a man moves slightly in a very rudimentary form of animation," Jervis tells me.

"It was basically that but with a big lightbulb behind it to create a shadow that moved across a white sheet."

Rudimentary it may have been, but for the time, it would have been quite a spectacle. This was 20-odd years before the Lumière brothers held the first screening of their Cinématographe in Paris and effectively invented cinema.

The Jervis family opened its first 'proper' cinema in the 1920s, and by the 1950s had "30 or 40" dotted around the Midlands, Jervis says. But those venues were unrecognisable from those it has today – each only had a single screen and showed everything from the news and cartoons through to movies.

Gradually the cinemas were sold off one by one, with the last changing hands in the 1990s. That business was wound down before Jervis' parents started in the industry again in the guise of the current company, PDJ Management.

Their first cinema as PDJ was The Majestic in Kings Lynn, which is a Grade II listed building. James joined the family firm a few years ago.

Some of us would rather run a mile than work with our parents, but Jervis says it's very harmonious, with everyone on the same page in terms of the business model and what type of venues they should be targeting.

"Though our board meetings are probably a bit less formal than most companies'," he adds.

Back to the future

What with the boom in streaming and smartphones, cinema has had a rough ride of late. But Jervis says this is nothing new.

"It's been far worse in the past," he points out. "After VHS came out, UK cinema admissions dropped dramatically. Before then, cinemas could rely on playing the same films over and over, because there wasn't really any competition – TV only had three channels, and you couldn't record anything off the box.

"But then summer blockbusters really revolutionised cinema at a time everyone was saying it was dead. Then the spread of the multiplex led to another surge, and 2018 and 2019 were record years."

Those two years saw the highest UK cinema admissions since 1970, in fact. But we all know what happened next.

Despite the lockdown years and the growth of streaming, Jervis remains optimistic that cinema still has a place in the multi-screen environment that has grown up around it.

"Post-Covid, we've seen a really positive progression of our type of cinema – one that might have fewer seats than some rivals, but that offers a much better experience," he says.

Indeed, cinema as a medium remains remarkably robust. This August has been the best for UK cinema since 2018, and the second-best month overall since the pandemic. "It just goes to show, if the product is there, people will come," Jervis says.

I have one last question, one I'm guessing that most people who work in cinema are asked quite a lot nowadays. What would he say to someone who has the attitude 'Why would I go to the cinema when I can watch the same films at home on my sofa?'

His response is annoyingly diplomatic.

"Deliveroo boomed during Covid, and it's a similar situation – some people want restaurant food at home, some want it out," he says. "There's space for both to co-exist."

But despite this even-handedness, he is passionate about what cinema can offer.

"To thrive, cinemas need to make the experience something you can't get in your living room," he says.

"When you walk into a cinema and the screen is 15 metres across, and you're with 100 other people all laughing at the same jokes and crying at the same scenes – that's something you can’t replicate at home. That communal experience is becoming rarer and rarer nowadays, and cinema is a really accessible way to get that."

After all, isn't that what communities are built on?

MORE:

Having said that, here are the best projectors for home use

I watched Inside Out 2 at an Onyx LED cinema and now my local cinema is ruined

Making an outdoor home cinema? I have one big tip for better movie nights under the stars

So What Hi-Fi? is 50 years old, and the current crew of the ship has been delving back into the archives to uncover key moments. Nice.

I was there, way back when, joining as assistant editor under Simon Davies in 1988. Things were different. There were no computers. There were no listening rooms. We charged extended lunchtime pub tabs to expenses, because they were “essential meetings”. (I’ve checked with my accountant, and should this be challenged, they can’t reclaim old expenses, and besides, I’ve left the country.)

I was only around for a decade, and abandoned it all to go backpacking for more than three of those years, rather unexpectedly becoming editor on my return, then swanning off to Australia four years later.

Yet along the way I witnessed scandals, got us sued over the new recordable CDs, and began to realise I was part of a team that revolutionised how What Hi-Fi? moved ahead into the following decades. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

No computers, no listening rooms

I arrived on my first day at What Hi-Fi? to find a manual typewriter on my desk. This turned out to be a group chuckle at my expense; I was soon assured I could have an electric one.

Instead, I started off using my own little standalone word processor, which could keep 32 characters in its 4kB memory before sending it to a dot-matrix printer. But before long I was given an impressive electronic typewriter, which could store a whole line of type before chattering it out.

Equally existentially, there were no listening rooms either. The What Hi-Fi? house staff were neither reviewers nor technical specialists, but rather talented journalists and editors, writing news (Saul David, now a huge history author, and Dan Houston, now messing about in boats), getting music interviews (Hazel Southam’s contact book was second to none), and compiling the all-essential Buying Guide.

This last task was unthinkably complicated prior to computers – a mystery of arcane compilation – yet it was always complete, accurate, and on deadline for every issue thanks to the magnificent Caroline Osborn, a true bringer of office joy.

Only our technical editor, Andrew Everard, could be relied upon to actually know stuff about hi-fi.

I was a partial exception, having snuck in from an electronics magazine with a strong musical background, and with parents who had worked in BBC Radio. But the rest of the staff were simply magazine makers who might suddenly be reallocated from Gardeners' Chronicle or Practical Caravan. My second editor, Mark Payton, came from the latter, which was a bit of a bugbear for him among certain people in the hi-fi industry until he proved himself extremely capable in his new sphere.

Under his leadership, we rejigged and expanded the annual What Hi-Fi? Awards, introducing price categories for the first time, thereby greatly expanding the number of possible winners, and making them far more useful to readers of all budgets.

Making the magazine

The actual reviews, meanwhile, were written mainly by external freelancers working in their own homes. Their reviews would arrive on the fax machine as long, continuous sheets of thermal fax paper; we would make edits by cutting them up and rearranging the pages while scribbling corrections on them with proper traditional proofing marks, before sending them away to the typing pool, whose inhabitants were equipped with cool IBM ‘golf-ball’ typewriters.

Their output would go off to distant typesetters, to return as long lengths of justified ‘bromide’ columns. Art editors (Marty and Frank) would cut these up and stick them onto a tracing-paper page layout with lovely-smelling Spray Mount adhesive, adding spaces for pictures. These were sized up by viewing photographic slides through a vast optical machine called a visualiser, which projected the slide upwards onto the layout, enlarged by physically lifting the lenses up and down.

Back then, What Hi-Fi? took its own pictures, original slides from in-house (actually in-garage) photographer Steve Waters, the best black-box photographer in the business. These would be sent to the printers for scanning and insertion into the final offset printing plates – all monochrome in those days, though sometimes with a section or two which lavishly overprinted a single ‘spot’ colour. These brave splashes of colour routinely drifted a good few millimetres off target.

The only way to check the accuracy of those plates was to go down to the printers for a ‘press pass’, either in Whitstable, where we drank in pubs which had buckets of oysters behind the bar, or in Cornwall, which demanded an overnighter. Any corrections at press stage were nightmarish, requiring you to scalpel off bits of text and carefully re-space them before an expensive replating.

On more than one occasion I would return home to find, with mild panic, that a word or a paragraph was stuck to my elbow with Spray Mount and had probably failed to make it into the magazine. Any final issue deemed completely free of any errors would be great cause for celebration, certainly justifying a full pub afternoon on expenses.

All this to and fro of proof bags required a constant stream of motorcycle couriers at fixed times of the day. The biggest disaster which could befall a magazine was a motorcycle crash in which layouts were damaged, or original photographic slides lost en route to the printers, requiring alternative frames to be rapidly sourced, resized and re-despatched.

Moving magazines

We had three hi-fi magazines back then. The others were New Hi-Fi Sound, which became High Fidelity under the wonderful Rahiel Nasir and then pivoted to home cinema as V.TV under the great Andy Clough, and Hi-Fi Answers under Keith Howard. Keith was a genuine legend of hi-fi authorship, and one of only three in-house editorial staff who also undertook reviews, along with Jonathan Kettle and Andrew Everard.

The other legendary writers were external: Malcolm Steward, Alvin Gold, Jimmy Hughes, Paul Miller. I don’t recall ever meeting them until 1990, by which time I had risen from assistant editor to deputy editor after the departure of Liz Pring [UPDATE: not, as I originally wrote here, Jane Porter, wife to later BBC director-general George Entwhistle, who had himself been an editor of New Hi-Fi Sound until just after I joined What Hi-Fi?... my thanks to another alumni, the ubercool Kulwinder Singh Rai for the correction!].

Then, as now, a rise in job title did not necessarily come with a rise in salary, but I was offered quite the boost to take over the editorship of Hi-Fi Answers, just as it was transforming into a new title with full-colour sections: Audiophile, initially called Audiophile with Hi-Fi Answers.

I initially refused it, I think; I knew absolutely nothing about the high-end audio on which the magazine would focus. With Keith’s departure the job should have gone to Jonathan Kettle, which it later did. But I was cajoled and bribed into it, and my first task was to go on a tour of the homes of all those legendary contributors. They were rightly wary of this relative youngster rejigging their magazine; one of them particularly shocked to find I didn’t know what a KT88 was. But they generously gave their time to assist in my hi-fi education.

In fact, I must thank them for changing my whole hi-fi life. I had grown up in BBC studios; we had Spendor BBC speakers at home (I’ve still got ’em); I knew what good sound was. But Malcolm Steward had me sit on the floor in front of his Linn/Naim system and, knowing me to be a fellow Zeppelin fan, dropped the needle of his LP12 on Zep II’s Moby Dick.

People often talk of their first hi-fi revelation; this was mine. Bonham, then only a decade lost to the world, was there in front of me. I never looked back.

Alvin Gold favoured MartinLogan electrostatics and demonstrated those to me – another revelation. With Jimmy Hughes the revelation was his vast music collection; a pleasing confirmation that these guys were really music fans first and foremost, with hi-fi being a means to the end.

While I made some cracking issues of Audiophile with Jonathan and sub-editor Gary Cockburn in support, the ways of the high-end were just too esoteric for me (30 years on, I’m still very much a midrange guy). After a year of Audiophile, I quit and went travelling for the next three-and-a-half years on a budget of US$50 a week. (I took with me one of the new Aiwa portable DAT recorders, with the odd idea of recording silences around the world.)

In my last paycheck I received the NUJ-negotiated ‘new technology bonus’, but I missed the typewriters being swept away to be replaced by the computers which had been in storage for 18 months while the NUJ dispute dragged on. I remember marching on the street with the NUJ back in the day, though that was primarily to hang out with an attractive activist I’d met on one of the many training courses that were compulsory back then.

As a new arrival at What Hi-Fi? I had been signed up immediately for at least 20 compulsory courses run by the company or externally: headline writing and subbing, interviewing, legal instruction on how to avoid malicious falsehood in a bad review.

I soaked it all up, though I still managed to get the magazine sued after my return from travelling. But at that point I was ego-free and non-materialist after a year in India, and far better suited to the editorship of What Hi-Fi?, which I was surprised to be offered on my return by a very brave Bruce Black, then Group Editor.

We were sued in 1998, I think, not for a careless bad review (heaven forbid) but by lawyers for the band The Verve. Their album Urban Hymns was at that point our favourite office CD, and we regularly praised it in print, contrasting its sound with the hideously crushed production of Be Here Now by those noisy Manchester upstarts Oasis.

So when the first affordable consumer CD recorders arrived, we ran a coverline saying ‘Make your own CDs’, with a picture of the Verve CD on one side, and a blank CD-R on the other, with Urban Hymns written on it with a Sharpie.

I had been anticipating trouble here, potentially being seen to encourage illegal copying, so it all went through the company lawyers before publication, and they signed it off as fine. Which it was. The Verve’s people instead sued us for unauthorised use of the image of the band, which was on the CD itself.

We prepared a defence – the CD was provided by the record company’s PR for use in the magazine – but sadly the amount they wanted was slightly less than the cost of defending the case, so the claim was paid. Still rankles.

Bringing it in-house

When I rejoined the magazine, computers were not the only change; the decision had been made to build a listening room, and to bring all reviewing in-house. This was a huge and expensive call which entirely reshaped many aspects of the magazine, and I doubt it could ever have happened were it not for the unusual board structure of Haymarket, the original publishers of What Hi-Fi?. This board had to include one director who had come up through the advertising ranks, one member from editorial, and one member from design.

It was a brilliant mechanism for informed and bold decision-making, and I’m sure it was our Australian editorial director Mel Nichols, ex-editor of Car magazine, and the unpredictable but brilliant design director Paul Harpin upstairs that got it pushed through, along with publisher Kevin Whitchurch. I thank them all.

The whole idea was surely spearheaded by the technical editor Andrew Everard, who must take much of the credit for both the concept and the listening room (which later became three listening rooms and a stock cupboard taking up an entire wing of the Hampton Road offices).

I came in at the end of the process. The external writers were being offered in-house positions but didn’t take them up; they could still write for the other two mags, but they clearly weren’t happy. I saw Paul Miller recently and he reminded me that the first move had been to remove names from reviews, in order to create a magazine ‘voice’, something to which I still adhere with my current magazine in Australia, Sound+Image.

“But then you brought the kiddies in,” Paul continued ruefully, referring to the new recruits who were hired and trained up, technically under Andrew and editorially under myself and the Haymarket training programme.

These kiddies grew up quickly: Tim Bowern, now in PR, was a long-haired energy ball whose good looks we roundly abused in daft pictures for magazine side-panels; Andy Kerr was master of the new AV room when it was built and is now audio guru for Bowers & Wilkins; Ketan Bharadia needs no introduction as he is now What Hi-Fi?’s technical editor – he claims I interviewed him for the job, but I really can’t remember. (I also can’t remember working on either article about the test rooms, as reproduced in a recent piece; perhaps this is all due to various new habits adopted during my travels.)

But key to the magazine ‘voice’ idea was that everything would be heard by more than one reviewer, a cross-check system to ensure we could all speak for the veracity of opinions and accuracy of reviews. Working in-house also saved a fortune on couriering kit back and forth for review and photography; it also hugely simplified the later selection of Awards, as everyone was more or less on the same page.

In 1998 I presented my final Awards night, accompanied by a lovely Canadian girl I had met in Hong Kong while visiting Cambridge factories with James Johnson-Flint (on a trip which could make a whole separate article). With her I then absconded to Australia, a continent across which she had just walked, and eventually we were married by Elvis in Las Vegas, as you do, with a honeymoon on Route 66 before attending CES 2007.

Finally, a defence of the magazine. People talk a lot of rubbish about What Hi-Fi?, primarily because it is so successful. I can 100% assure readers that there was never any bias or industry influence when I was there; the advertising sales team never even knew what products were going in each issue until it landed on their desks.

Knowing Ketan and some of the current team, I’m sure that hasn’t changed, just as the core methods put in place in the 1990s remain. It is now streamlined for joint publication online and in the print magazine, which I’m thrilled is in the ultra-safe hands of Jonathan Evans, my former production whizz when I was briefly recalled in 1999 to relaunch Stuff magazine, with a fantastic team and an editorial budget so astronomical it would make any magazine editor today simply weep.

We spent a lot of that in the pub, of course.

MORE:

Read all our 50th anniversary features

I edited What Hi-Fi? through the era of plasma TV, SACD and the iPod – and an infamous cover catastrophe

“I have never been happier” – 4K Blu-ray, OLED TVs, Dolby Atmos, and six unforgettable years as editor of What Hi-Fi?

Prime Day, or Big Deal Days, or whatever the fudge else Amazon’s calling it this very second (as noted by regular contributor Joe Svetlik earlier this week, it changes a lot), is entering its second and final day.

As we noted yesterday, though, it has been a bit of a damp squib so far, especially if you’re shopping for hi-fi.

Good deals have been isolated and usually limited to one product within a category, rather than the holistic drops we see on swathes of headphones, TVs and the like during Black Friday.

Which is why, with a particularly heavy heart, I am sad to inform any bargain-hunting TV buyer that the best deal we’ve seen on an OLED is gone.

Specifically, the stellar Amazon saving on the five-star, Award-winning 48-inch LG C5 from last year which let you pick it up for a modest £699 (saving £500), is now gone.

Stock has run out on Amazon, and the retailers still selling it are charging £999 or more.

If that hasn’t put you off and you’re still eager to buy a new OLED, but don’t have deep enough pockets to pay the full price, or make the jump up to flagship territory, I’m sad to say this is a double-whammy bad news post.

After trawling Amazon and rival retailers, both specialist and mainstream, I haven’t found any deals on good OLED TVs that we’ve fully reviewed and recommend that come close to matching yesterday’s C5 deal.

There are only two close – but not as good – deals currently running. The 48-inch LG C6, which we just finished reviewing and can confirm is a palpable improvement on the C5, currently retails for £1087 on Amazon (save £110). A good TV at an okay price, but far from what we'd describe as cheap.

Alternatively, if you really want to get the cheapest OLED possible that’s not completely terrible, the four-star, entry-level 48-inch Samsung S85H currently costs £824.10 at Richer Sounds – though you’ll need to claim £75 back from Samsung after purchase to unlock the full discount.

But that means you’re paying more for an OLED that doesn’t quite match the performance of the older C5 when it comes to pure picture quality – we know that, as we tested them both.

So what’s my advice to buyers looking for a new OLED? Sadly, unless you need a new TV this very second, I’d strongly suggest waiting a little longer.

Stock of the C5 may come back, and I’m expecting prices of all the OLEDs mentioned in this feature to drop even further in price, especially during Black Friday.

If past events are anything to go by, come November I can even see the C6 – which, having seen it in our review rooms, is the first OLED in nearly half a decade to tempt me to upgrade my ageing LG C2 – dropping below £899, which would make it an incredible option for serious movie fans on a budget.

If that hasn’t answered any of your OLED TV questions, feel free to drop a comment on this page, and I’ll endeavour to respond as soon as possible!

MORE:

These are the best OLED TVs we’ve reviewed

Our picks of the best 50-inch TVs

We rank the best soundbars

It's no secret that I love the Sony Bravia 8 II OLED, which romped to victory in the What Hi-Fi? Awards last year and now takes pride of place in my own living room.

Despite some extremely frustrating bugs that were introduced with a recent software update, I still love the TV. And, in fact, it's still better than almost every TV that's launched since.

There is one that has defeated it, though.

No, it's not the Bravia 9 II or LG G6 – it's the Samsung S99H, and it's just hit its lowest-ever price to coincide with Amazon Prime Big Deal Days.

This deal isn't an Amazon deal, though. Instead, you can get the 55-inch Samsung S99H for £1849 at Richer Sounds, and the 65-inch model for £2399 at Richer Sounds.

The retailer says you can also claim additional cashback from Samsung, to the tune of £150 for the 55-inch model and £200 for the 65-inch version. For a TV this new and this awesome, that's exceptional.

I'll level with you, I was surprised that the S99H beat the Bravia 8 II. Sure, the Bravia 8 II is a 2025 TV, but it was so far ahead of its rivals last year, I really didn't think any of them would close the gap.

Samsung has a reputation for slightly overplaying things where brightness and colours are concerned, too, whereas the Bravia 8 II is perhaps the best ever example of Sony's subtle and authentic approach to all elements of picture quality.

It seems pretty clear to me, though, that the South Korean brand set out with the specific aim of overthrowing Sony's flagship OLED.

The S99H pushes QD-OLED panel technology to new heights in terms of brightness and colour reproduction, but this combines with a newfound restraint and subtlety to deliver a much more mature and refined picture than we're used to from Samsung.

This is a TV that can (and will) absolutely dazzle, if that's what you and your content require, but it also satisfies purists by delivering movies, TV shows and games as the creator intended.

Like its Sony rival, the S99H is exceptionally sharp, too, and this combines with its awesome contrast and colours to create an image with oodles of pop and three-dimensional depth.

Gaming specs are also exceptional, with all four of the integrated HDMI sockets supporting 4K/165Hz (and 4K/120Hz) signals, VRR and ALLM.

And if that's not enough HDMI ports for you, or you want to go wireless with your connections, the Wireless One Connect can be added. This features four HDMI sockets that can be used in addition to those already built into the TV.

Before you click the big red 'Add To Basket' button, though, there are three little niggles to the S99H that you need to bear in mind.

The first is, for me, the biggest: it doesn't support Dolby Vision. Yes, HDR10+ is on board, as is HDR10+ Advanced, but these aren't quite the same thing. That said, the TV's Filmmaker Mode is so well tuned, I would personally be prepared to do without Dolby Vision.

The second is the design, which looks great when the TV is wall-mounted, but a little odd when it's plonked on a piece of furniture using the cheap, plastic feet, as it would be in my house. Honestly, there's no real solution to this – it's just something you will have to put up with in the name of excellent picture quality.

The final flaw is the sound, which is pretty good by TV standards, but not good enough to accompany this level of imagery. Frankly, that's an issue for all TVs, though, including the Bravia 8 II, and the solution is the same as ever: make sure to budget for some sort of dedicated sound system, even if it's 'just' an entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbar such as the Sonos Beam Gen 2.

Ultimately, none of these niggles should be a deal-breaker as far as I'm concerned, and if I were to buy any TV in the world right now, it would be the Samsung S99H.

MORE:

Read the full Samsung S99H review

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

And here are all of the best soundbars

Last month was such a weird one for music, it's been nice to return to a degree of normality for this edition of Now Playing.

The last time we convened to share everything we'd been listening to as roasting August turned swiftly to still-toasty September, Tom Hardy was making hip-hop albums and The Rock was threatening a country music release.

Normality is a relative term. As we're now firmly into October, the Jack-o'-Lanterns are on the front step and the tacky decorations have been recovered from the attic – it's time to embrace Spooky Season as Halloween approaches with a collection of tunes to give you and your system chills in all the right places.

• Check out the full playlist on Tidal

Season Of The Witch by Lana Del Rey

After the infernal heat wave this summer, I can’t tell you how glad I am that we’re now in the cooler, cosier days of autumn.

And there’s no better way to celebrate the start of October – the month of changing colours in nature and all things witchy – than with Season Of The Witch. While the original 1966 song by Donovan is still a corker, it’s the 2019 Lana Del Rey cover that’s been running through my head.

Her cover is sultry and more atmospheric, with her smoky vocals and layered harmonies imbuing the song with a hazy, dreamlike quality that’s full of soft textures. Along with the exquisite vocals, it all leans into the more mystical vibe of the track that’s lovely to get lost in, whether you’re listening on a big stereo separates system or more intimately on a pair of great headphones.

Whether it’s soundtracking a horror film (as it did for Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark) or playing in the background as you put up Halloween decorations, it’s a great track to get you into the spirit of spooky season.

Words by Kashfia Kabir

Placeholder by Gilla Band

Some bands sound like bands; other bands simply don’t. Gilla Band have never been a conventional sounding group, but in the case of this Irish noise-rock quartet, their sound is less a reinvention of the wheel than a recording of it slamming into a brick wall.

Placeholder comes from Gilla Band’s daring 2026 album, Pugnello. Right from the off, fuzzy, atonal synths weave with roomy percussion, strident distorted guitars and the associative, exclamatory vocals of Dara Kiely. Throughout the song, sonic perspectives are manipulated to furnish an unruly, raging core.

In one particularly chaotic 10-second stretch, listeners are thrown from labyrinthine delayed synthesizers into a brief, desperately dry reprieve of percussion, before being plunged back into what Gilla Band do best: violently maximal industrial noise. It is perhaps not a song to play on repeat, but who stays on a rollercoaster all day?

Words by Ioan Hazell

Let The Gods Decide (from A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms) by Dan Romer

Mock me for being a little late to the medieval fantasy feast, but I’ve just finished a very enjoyable time bingeing the first season of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms on HBO Max, and by the gods, what a treat it is. Why couldn’t the last two seasons of Game Of Thrones have been as well-written and lovingly crafted as this?

Fans will know that the series reaches its mighty peak in the fifth episode, 'In The Name Of The Mother', in which protagonist-cum-walking barn door Ser Duncan the Tall finds himself fighting for his life in a seven-on-seven tourney after clouting a Targaryen lord round the chops. Spoiler alert: the blond-haired little sod totally deserved it.

Dan Romer’s score runs in the background as a gentle, sweet-natured accompaniment to the series’ more lighthearted tone, but he turns the heat up to Ramin Djawadi levels of grandeur during the most pivotal moment of the episode that precedes In The Name Of The Mother, as (minor spoilers ahead) the honourable Prince Baelor Targaryen pledges at the last minute to fight at Dunc’s side.

You know this guy is just the absolute man when the show’s composer invokes the main Thrones theme song just for you – few characters in the Westeros-iverse have ever deserved it so richly.

What happens next? You’ll have to watch to find out, but if you know… well, you know. Like Ser Duncan, I’m still in recovery.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Dracula by Tame Impala

Look, I swear that I came by Tame Impala's irrepressibly funky earworm completely independently of any youth-oriented social media platform. I don't even have a TikTok account!

I've been enjoying Dracula since it emerged from its crypt last year, especially whenever I need something light and breezy to take the edge off endless playlists filled with ear-bleeding guitars, but it felt right to wait until October before including it on any Now Playing rundown.

Plus, I'm told it's enjoying a major resurgence on Instagram and TikTok as spooky season approaches, and who am I to fly in the face of the cultural zeitgeist?

Putting everything else aside, Dracula is a devilish delight. It's about as tongue-in-cheek as Tame Impala ever gets, with the titular character used as a metaphor for the feeling of wanting to stay out all night, hence the catchy refrain of "daylight makes me feel like Dracula". Clever.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Spooky by Dusty Springfield

It might have been originally recorded as an instrumental by saxophonist Mike Sharpe, but Springfield’s version soon became the definitive one. And justifiably so – that bass is so warm and welcoming I could listen to it on loop all day, and it’s so laid back it’s practically horizontal.

But it’s Springfield’s breathy vocal that really rescues the track from its lift music origins. Detached yet sultry, she’s the epitome of swinging sixties cool as she details her on-off relationship with “a spooky little boy like you".

Even the saxophone section is superior to the original’s – it’s pared back, with little flourishes here and there without trying too hard, compared to the original’s rather twee stylings.

Is it a Halloween song? Well there’s the title, of course. And Springfield’s hushed performance lends itself to crispy leaves on the ground, dimmed lighting and pumpkin spice. But I would shelve that along with the “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” argument (even though yes, of course it is – it’s set on Christmas Eve), in that it doesn’t really matter. It’s a great song – just put it on your system and enjoy.

Words by Joe Svetlik

We Fall In Love by Lamb

I was working my way through a Massive Attack-adjacent trip-hop playlist on Tidal when I stumbled across this testing doozy courtesy of established Manchester duo Lamb.

I'll admit now that I didn't know much about the pair before hearing We Fall In Love, but it didn't take long before I had the thought that all What Hi-Fi? writers experience with worrying regularity: "Wait a minute, I could use this as a test track."

We Fall In Love has tester written all over it. Trip-hop staples from the likes of Massive Attack and Portishead have always been popular in our listening rooms for their subtly crafted, finely poised sonic curations, and Lamb's addition to the canon is no different.

It's a wide, open soundscape scattered with all manner of shimmering bits of ear candy, from glistening percussion (is that a glockenspiel?) to quirky synths, making it a great candidate for seeing how a pair of stereo speakers handle stereo imaging and compositional competence.

Words by Harry McKerrell

MORE:

Read last month’s edition: 5 songs we've had on repeat in the test rooms as we head into autumn

Yes, there is an ultimate prog rock album for testing hi-fi – at least according to What Hi-Fi? readers

Check out our ultimate test tracks collection

The physical media revival has brought with it some strange side effects, from production bottlenecks and extended wait times on new vinyl, to unexpected, novel tech developments, such as Bluetooth-enabled cassette players.

Perhaps the strangest byproduct of all, however, is a new kind of vinyl buyer: one who doesn’t even own a record player.

We recently covered a report that stated 30 per cent of Gen Z vinyl buyers didn’t own a turntable, while a 2023 report from Luminate found that, in the US, only 50 per cent of people who had bought a record (within a 12-month window) actually owned a turntable.

While we think buying vinyl and never listening to it is a forgivable sin, through a sceptical lens, you could put this consumer behaviour down to posturing. Some might even call it a waste of a physical music format that’s becoming ever more challenging to produce and facing emergent challenges, such as the creation of counterfeit records.

Who is buying vinyl?

But Scott Hagen, CEO of Victrola – a turntable manufacturer with over 100 years of experience – is no sceptic. He understands that Gen Z’s interest in vinyl has made the generation one of his company’s key consumer bases.

We haven’t yet fully reviewed any of Victrola’s products, but we couldn’t miss the chance to talk to the CEO of a company whose history goes all the way back to the days of the gramophone. These days, the company’s aesthetic is far from gaudy, making stylish, lifestyle-friendly record players, which incorporate modern features such as Bluetooth, wi-fi and Auracast into their designs.

Hagen explains that one of the first consumers Victrola considers when designing new products “is somebody that purchased vinyl, or someone who is considering buying a record player for the first time, and they think, ‘You know, this looks like a lot of fun’.

“Gen Z, or that age range – call it 18 to around 30 – is the fastest growing segment of vinyl purchasers,” says Hagen.

And indeed, recent research by Key Production – a physical media broker and manufacturing agency – showed that the proportion of people listening to music in physical formats was greatest among those aged 18-24. As an encouraging side note, the survey also found that 18-24-year-olds were the most willing of all age groups to spend more on their wax in the name of eco-friendly production.

“Simple set-up to get a quality solution”

But for Gen Z, who are the first generation fully native to mobile devices, getting into analogue audio comes with a few hurdles.

“There’s a bias that it’s very difficult to get a great sounding, great looking product that’s not hard or scary to set up,” says Hagen. “At Victrola, we love music, we love hi-fi and all the great, beautiful products that are out there. What we don’t love is scaring people with this hi-fi, snobbish ‘analogue has to be perfect’ mindset, because, frankly, that isn’t who the core audience purchasing vinyl today are – so, we want to take the fear away.”

As a solution, Hagen stresses that “simple set-up to get a quality solution” remains a key tenet in Victrola’s new designs.

An apt example is Victrola’s Automatic turntable, which features Bluetooth connectivity, fully automatic operation, and a continuous repeat function that lets you loop one side of a record without the need for manual resets. Such products offer a middle ground for those newly interested in vinyl, allowing them to engage with physical music without the complexity of a fully manual turntable and hi-fi separates.

According to Hagen, consumer expectations around audio quality have been steadily rising. “Frankly, there’s more music being consumed today, in all different ways, than there was 20 or 30 years ago.”

With persistent upgrades to the quality of on-the-go listening formats, such as affordable wireless headphones, portable music players and in-car audio systems, Hagen says that “the expected base-level quality of sound is significantly higher” than it was in vinyl’s heyday in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

In an effort to meet that need, Hagen says that he and the company “take learnings from higher-end products, then figure out how we can implement them in a way that other people haven’t, to provide an even better product”.

As an example of this approach, he points to vibration-elimination technology developed for the company’s new Soundstage soundbase. This is a compact speaker unit that sits beneath a record player to deliver sound – it’s a convenient, space-saving solution for those wanting a compact vinyl set-up, but also a move that has the potential to cause feedback and distortion.

“Previously, we came up against a bunch of barriers. Take the Eastwood (a turntable with built-in speakers), for example. There, we were able to keep an isolated front array of speakers and get a lot more output than we, or our competitors, had… But we hit a barrier at some point, where we could only make it go so loud without vibrating the thing off the table.”

The company went back to the drawing board, and eventually returned with Victrola’s down-firing symmetric drive woofer, which uses a dual-diaphragm design with opposing woofers that share the same voice coil to produce bass while cancelling unwanted low-frequency vibrations.

“Now we’re taking those learnings and, over the course of the next couple of years, bringing them back into our lower-line products,” says Hagen.

“The industry is behind vinyl”

His confidence in the stable growth of vinyl, he says, is based not only on the consumer response to the company’s products, but also the vested interests of musicians and the wider music industry in physical media.

“I would say the industry is behind [vinyl],” he says. “Ultimately, content availability and content support from the studios and production and the artists themselves is what's always driven the demand and the consumption of the content itself. And the studios and the artists are so behind this format.”

According to 2026 statistics from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), UK vinyl sales jumped by 19.9 per cent, driving a third consecutive year of growth in physical music revenue.

Here at What Hi-Fi?, we are always pleased to see interest in physical media grow, and alongside the vinyl sales, we’ve seen turntables continue to grow from strength to strength across all price ranges, as you can see from our best turntables buying guide. Even as times change, we’ve encountered superb new turntables, from affordable Bluetooth-equipped models such as Sony’s PS-LX3BT and PS-LX5BT turntables, to more upmarket, purist offerings from Rega and Pro-Ject.

Of course, streaming remains the dominant financial source for the music industry as a whole, rising to a record level of £1.07 billion in the UK in 2025, but Hagen believes that vinyl occupies a unique and robust position.

“People aren't going to buy [vinyl] necessarily because they think it has better quality sound, or because they think it's more convenient,” he says. “People aren't going to buy it because they think it's the most affordable, either. People are buying it because it is the second version of them going to a concert, and it is an incredible way for them to celebrate what they love with their friends.”

Looking to the future of turntable manufacturing, Hagen does not believe that innovation will be driven by “the most recent Bluetooth chip, or adding the most up-to-date amplifiers or preamps that are out there.”

Instead, he thinks that keeping a close eye on the ways that home life changes and understanding which types of connectivity and features best “connect with the way people live” will be key to keeping future customers engaged.

“I think it’s really going to be about industrial design,” says Hagen. “[It will be about] having the best industrial designers that are most connected to the end consumer, and working with them to learn as much as possible.”

What do you think? How do you see turntables evolving in the near future? Are there any features you hope to see included in modern turntables? Let us know in the comments.

MORE

Gen Z is having more of an impact on physical sales than you might think

I’ve started collecting vinyl records of this unusual music genre – and it’s been a lot more rewarding

Check out our pick of the best turntables tested by our expert reviewers

Today is Amazon Prime Day! Or rather, it isn't.

To use the correct name, today is actually Prime Big Deal Days. Which is an awful name. And a horrible phrase to use in a headline (I should know, I've written the headlines).

Now Amazon is very keen that we all use the correct name. So much so that when I wrote a news story about it recently, one of Amazon's PR people asked me to change the headline to call it Prime Big Deal Days instead of Prime Day. I politely declined.

Because to everyone who doesn't work at Amazon, it's Prime Day. Maybe Autumn Prime Day, or October Prime Day. But Prime Day nonetheless. Not Prime Big Deal Days.

But not only is Prime Big Deal Days a terrible name, it's confusing too. Amazon has four big sales throughout the year: two for Prime members only, and two for everyone.

There's Amazon Spring Deal Days in the spring, Prime Day in the summer, Prime Big Deal Days in the autumn and then Black Friday at the end of November (which of course is a much bigger affair than just Amazon).

• Get 30 days of free Amazon Prime membership

To make things even more confusing, the name of one of its sales has changed over time.

Prime Big Deal Days was originally called the Prime Early Access Sale. And to add to the e-commerce-based imbroglio, Amazon even uses different names for the spring sale in the UK and US. Stateside, the Amazon Spring Deal Days sale is officially named Amazon Big Spring Sale. It's enough to drive you to Currys. Or Best Buy, if you're in the US.

Incidentally, I don't know why Amazon is so coy about using its own name in its Prime products and events. Prime Video is a, well, prime example. For a time, Amazon's press releases concerning Prime Video included a note to editors imploring us to exclude the word 'Amazon' when referring to the streaming service. Though it seems to have given up on that now.

Amazon, I'll make it simple for you. Call today's sale Autumn Prime Day, the spring sale Spring Prime Day, and the summer one Summer Prime Day. And level the playing field – don't have some sales for Prime members only, and some for everyone. Pick a side, and stick to it.

But mostly, sort out the name. Because if you have to ask people to use the correct name, maybe it's not them, but the name itself that's the problem.

Jeff, my invoice is in the post.

MORE:

Our pick of the best Amazon Prime deals live right now

The new Fire Stick is fast, slim – and strangely priced

It's finally October, and despite the unseasonably warm and sunny start to the month, everyone at What Hi-Fi? is gearing up for a cosy autumn. After a manic September where we listened to dozens of new products for our annual What Hi-Fi? Awards, we're now just a week away from announcing the 2026 Best Buy winners – tune in next Tuesday, 13th October, to find out!

We have plenty of reviews coming up in the meantime, from an affordable set of wired in-ears to £20,000 Italian floorstanders. We're also testing JBL's Sonos-rivalling wireless speakers, a successor to an Award-winning hi-res music player, and trying the best combination of rear surrounds and subwoofer to complete the five-star Sony Bravia Theatre Trio system.

As ever, if you have any questions about the products we're testing, drop us a comment below or email us at whathifi@futurenet.com, and we'll do our best to swiftly answer. For now, enjoy a little peek into the hi-fi and home cinema products we've got in our test rooms this month.

Sonus Faber Olympica III G3

Sonus Faber makes some beautiful speakers. Especially at the high-end level, the Italian hi-fi brand's speakers are hand-crafted with utmost care – and the new Olympica III G3 is no exception. These floorstanding speakers feature acoustic technology derived from the flagship Suprema system – such as the irregular-shaped, unpainted Camelia midrange driver that promises "exceptional clarity, transparency, and vocal realism".

These are the third-generation versions of the Olympica range, and the floorstanders we have in for testing cost a pretty penny at £20,000 / $24,000 per pair. Landing firmly in the 'Temptation' category, we can't wait to hear if they live up to expectations.

Sennheiser CX 80U

Wired earbuds are booming in popularity, and they have evolved from their 3.5mm versions to feature a USB-C connection, so they can be plugged into any modern smartphone, laptop, tablet or games console with a USB-C input.

We have Sennheiser's CX 80U wired in-ear headphones in for testing, whose USB-C connection offers low-latency, lossless music playback, with the internal DAC supporting native files up to 24-bit/96kHz.

Costing just £35 / $40, can this affordable Sennheiser model take on the long-running, Award-winning SoundMagic E11C or five-star E80D in-ears?

Astell & Kern PD5

Astell & Kern's A&norma SR35 has been another favourite of ours, nabbing a What Hi-Fi? Award for the best portable music player three years in a row since its release in 2023. We have its successor, the Astell & Kern PD5, in our hands right now, and have been putting it through the paces and comparing it with our old favourite.

Along with a price jump to £899, the premium PD5 sports a simplified redesign, boasts eight hours longer battery life and double the number of DACs compared with its predecessor, and promises to deliver even better sound than before.

It's decked out with exhaustive file compatibility – up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM, native DSD256, aptX and LDAC for wireless – and you can download Tidal and Qobuz onto the compact player, too. Will it continue to lead the field, despite the rise in price? We shall soon find out.

JBL Cove X1

JBL has been dominating the portable Bluetooth speaker category with its Go, Flip, Charge and Xtreme models, but now it has set its sights on the wireless multi-room home speaker category. That's right, JBL is taking on Sonos with its new Cove wireless speaker range, with the flagship of the range – the Cove X1 – in our test rooms right now.

The Cove X1 features six drivers and supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio, with support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Bluetooth and all the popular music streaming services. JBL boasts easy connectivity and quick set-up as the things that set the Cove apart from its rivals. Costing £430 / $450 / AU$650, the Cove X1 goes directly up against the five-star Sonos Era 300 (£499 / $449 / AU$749) – we can't wait to hear how it performs.

Dali Sonik 5 5.1 speaker package

Dali’s new Sonik range has been something of a revelation in hi-fi terms, with both the Sonik 1 and Sonik 5 having scored five-star ratings as stereo pairs. One would expect, therefore, that a 5.1 speaker package that features both speakers would be similarly impressive.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the two speakers will work together harmoniously, and there’s always a chance that the centre (the Sonik Cinema) or subwoofer (the E-9F) could upset the balance, which is why we’re testing the system as a whole (costing £2199 in total) this month.

Sony Bravia Theatre Trio + Rear 9 and Sub 9

When we tested Sony’s Bravia Theatre Trio, which is essentially a soundbar deconstructed into centre, left and right speakers, we also gave it a try with the optional Rear 9 speakers and Sub 8 subwoofer. We found this full system to be close to perfect for its purpose and price, but theorised that a swap from the Sub 8 to the Sub 9 would solve the last remaining imperfections.

Well, this month, we’re putting that theory to the test…

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Ask The Reader: what's the first record you play when you christen a new turntable?

It's been another busy week in the world of hi-fi and home cinema. We know it can be a struggle to stay on top of all of the news, reviews and big announcements, but don’t worry, we have rounded up all the key happenings below, in our weekly Rewind news digest!

Technics had a major new product announcement

We had one big Technics announcement last week, and it wasn’t a turntable! Following a successful attempt at premium wireless earbuds courtesy of the EAH-AZ100, the brand has turned its attention to wireless headphones and launched the EAH-A1000.

We’ve had them in our test room and in our Technics EAH-A1000 review said the “comfortable design and smooth, detailed sound result in a classy, appealing pair of premium headphones”. Our Hi-Fi and Audio Editor Kashfia Kabir also sat down for a chat with the acoustic team behind the headphones to discuss the driver technology used inside them.

Read our full Technics EAH-A1000 review

Read the full story: "This is the headphone we set out to create from the very beginning" – a closer look at the development of the new driver technology inside the premium Technics EAH-A1000 wireless headphones

Bose brings back wired headphones

Wired earbuds are back. Well, that’s the rumour and it appears to be gaining traction with one of the biggest brands in earbuds getting involved in the action.

As you’d expect from Bose, the aptly named Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds aren’t just a simple pair of in-ears, they also have the company’s ANC tech onboard, which will hopefully stop the drone of everyday life ruining your favourite playlists. They connect via USB-C with playback output fixed at 24-bit/48kHz.

And at £99 / $99 / AU$170, Bose seems to have picked a particularly neat pricepoint – we’re looking forward to getting a pair in our test rooms to see how they stack up in what has recently been a wireless world.

Read the full story: Bose’s new Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds aim to “set a new standard for what wired earbuds can be”

Amazon dropped a new Fire Stick

Amazon’s Fire Sticks have built a reputation for offering streaming convenience for not a lot of cash and the retail giant recently unveiled its most recent offering, the new Fire TV Stick 4K. Amazon is promising “crisp 4K resolution and a fast experience” and its arrival sees the old Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and Fire TV Stick 4K Select go to that big electronics recycle bin in the sky.

The streaming stick also supports 1080p and 720p resolution at up to 60 frames per second, comes with 8 GB internal storage, a quad-core 1.7 GHz processor, and supports both Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. Disappointingly, there’s no Dolby Vision or Atmos support on the list of specifications.

Read the full story: Amazon’s new Fire Stick promises to be faster and slimmer – but its pricing has us scratching our heads

Panasonic unveiled a couple of micro machines

There was a time when micro hi-fi systems ruled the world. Well, maybe not the world but possibly a few living rooms and bedrooms. And last week Panasonic delivered not one blast from the past but two. The SC-PMX112 and SC-PM302 cost £270 and £120 respectively and come with TFT colour displays and speakers for a simple, all-in-one solution.

The PM302 offers 60W of power, CD and USB playback plus Bluetooth, DAB+ and FM radio. The PMX112 adds dual-band wi-fi, Spotify Connect and internet radio to the mix. We’ve still got a soft spot for systems like this – the Denon D-M41DAB is a long-time favourite of ours and a multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winner – so we can’t wait to see how both Panasonics stack up.

Read the full story: Little or large? Panasonic launches two new micro hi-fi systems, including a mini-me for smaller spaces and budgets

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Ah, the joys of moving house. It might be one of the most stressful yet brain-numbingly mundane tasks you face in adult life, and somehow it never gets easier.

But once all the boxes are moved away and the dust has settled, you finally feel that you can call this new place your home.

I have just about finished my own moving ordeal (I never want to see a roll of packing tape again), but I face the fresh challenge of setting up my own AV system. My new flat doesn’t have the space for a multi-speaker surround sound system, nor do I have the budget. That makes a soundbar the best option for me right now, and there’s one brand I am keen to bring into my living room.

If you have ever hunted for a soundbar yourself, you will probably have seen Sonos soundbars at the top of any suggested list. And that is because they are really very good.

We have reviewed all of Sonos’s current soundbar range, and every model (bar one) has scored five stars in our test room. For those unfamiliar with the brand’s offerings, here’s a quick run-through.

The cheapest and smallest of the bunch is the four-star Sonos Ray (£199 / $199), which we like for its assertive and punchy sound performance. In a rather old-fashioned move by Sonos, though, the soundbar has only an optical input and no eARC connectivity.

Introducing surround-sound support to the range is the step-up Sonos Beam (Gen 2) (£449 / $449), which has won multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards and is the benchmark for entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbars. As with the rest of the more expensive entries, Sonos has included one HDMI eARC port.

Then there’s the newest Sonos soundbar to join the team – meet the mid-range Beam Ultra. The bar offers a 7.1.2-channel arrangement and will set you back £699 / $699. In our review, we say, “It delivers a substantial upgrade over the Beam (Gen 2) while retaining much of the compactness and simplicity that makes that model so appealing.”

Finally, the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra (£999 / $999) is the premium Atmos entry. We praise this for its clean, precise, spacious and three-dimensional sound.

With all those tempting options, I have been struggling to decide which one works best for me. The Ray is of course the cheapest and would offer the most compact solution for my cosy living room, but the lack of HDMI support is a big drawback.

And, though the Arc Ultra is the best-performing of the group, it’s simply not in my budget.

That leaves the Beam (Gen 2) and the Beam Ultra, each of which is a five-star performer.

Even though the Gen 2 model delivers an impressively room-filling sound, it lacks up-firing drivers where the Beam Ultra boasts one on each end. As you would hope, this makes for an even more immersive experience than from its cheaper sibling. But I would still get a detailed and expressive sound from the less expensive Beam Gen 2.

To be frank, I’m stuck in the middle. The convenience of the Sonos Ray speaks to me, and it is by far the cheapest option. But the AV enthusiast in me craves the Dolby Atmos support and the inclusion of an HDMI eARC port that comes with the Beam Ultra or Beam (Gen 2) despite their higher price tags.

So, Sonos, if you are working on an upgraded version of the Ray, I’ve got a message. I’m a realist, so I know not to expect true Dolby Atmos from such a low-priced soundbar. But it would be great to have better connectivity options from the Ray to make the most of its sound performance.

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If you are a Sky Glass or Sky Stream customer, then there’s some good news that could improve your viewing experience.

A big redesign is coming to Sky OS for both the TV and app (named Sky Go), delivering a range of new features that should make browsing easier, faster and more curated to your tastes.

The new software isn't widely available yet, but it is being tested in a customer trial. That means you will have to wait a little while until you see it on your own screen, but Sky told us that it will be rolled out by the end of the year.

I got a chance to see the new OS tweaks at an event at Sky’s headquarters, and these are the three biggest changes that are coming.

Redesigned navigation bar

The main difference you will notice is the addition of a navigation bar at the top of the screen, which feels reminiscent of Apple’s Liquid Glass iOS design. That makes it easier to get to your most-viewed content and discover new movies and TV shows.

On the bar, you will find the following options: Home, TV Guide, My Library, Sport, and My Account. There’s also a shortcut to your recent watches and recordings on the far left side dubbed Recents, although that it just its working title.

This section gives you speedy access to keep watching your current content, see what you have saved, and view which channels you have recently opened. That’s a welcome addition so you don’t have to scroll down the homepage and get easily distracted.

Home has also added a carousel to the top with curated new shows and movies to choose from, playing a short trailer of each when you click on them.

The TV guide is pretty self-explanatory, giving you access to live TV with the touch of a button. Sky has replaced the plain text of each channel with its logo, though, which makes them more immediately recognisable.

You can set up recordings for current and future programmes here. There’s no picture-in-picture step to get through either, as the first click takes you straight to the full-screen video. That all makes for a smoother and faster browsing experience, and limits the number of clicks you need to make.

My Library replaces the previously named Playlist section. From here, you can access your watchlist and recordings. That all makes for an easier-to-navigate experience as soon as you turn on your TV or open the app.

Recordings are more centred

Sky has always offered the ability to record, but the new update puts the feature more front and centre. When you go into the Recents section, you are greeted with the shows that you have set up for recording.

When you want to record something, you simply go to the TV guide and select the programme to be presented with the option to record the series, the show or add to watchlist.

That gives you the option to select certain sports events such as F1 Grand Prix, for example, without having to trawl through the recorded practice sessions. These are specific for each profile as well.

Sky says you can record up to 1,000 hours before needing to delete anything. That’s the equivalent of 500 days of non-stop Peppa Pig, which means you are very unlikely to run out of space. For those of us who like managing downloads, though, there is still the option to delete individual episodes or entire shows.

There are some shows that can’t be recorded. As we saw during the demo, it does not come up as an option with BBC One. We doubt that will be a problem for many, as you can just watch it on the BBC iPlayer partner app.

Smarter voice assistant

Not one to be left behind, Sky is joining a growing number of brands updating its AI voice assistant to “let you search naturally, ask questions about content and discover personalised recommendations”.

The assistant remembers your viewing habits, for instance. We saw this in action when we asked it “show me action movies that I haven’t watched yet”, and it brought up a selection of results.

You can follow up with questions about films, such as “Has Castaway won any awards?” and the assistant will pull information from third-party sources such as Wikipedia to answer. You can only ask it questions about movies and TV shows, as the guardrails in place prevent it from discussing other topics such as politics or what you should eat for dinner.

There’s also been a change to the graphics, including a colourful little wheel that pops up when you hold down the voice button on the remote to show you it is listening. It seems to be just the start for Sky’s assistant, and there is plenty of scope for even more personalised recommendations.

There’s a lot to like with Sky’s fresh OS upgrades, and I’m certainly excited to give it a try myself once the new software is available to the public.

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You may have seen in the news recently that a vinyl pirate was jailed for three-and-a-half years after police seized the largest haul of counterfeit records ever found in the UK. The man made a whopping £2.7 million between 2017 and 2024 by selling knock-off versions of albums by Ed Sheeran, The Beatles and Taylor Swift, among others.

The counterfeiter used four 70-year-old vinyl presses to copy legit records at the industrial unit in Acton, west London. Police also found 3000 metal stampers and thousands of sleeves and centre labels.

In total, they seized 18 tonnes of evidence during the bust in 2024. The pirate was sentenced a couple of weeks ago.

According to City of London Police, the evidence pointed to "a long‑running, highly organised and entirely unlicensed manufacturing operation capable of producing counterfeit recordings at a scale rarely seen in the modern music industry."

Which suggests that counterfeit vinyl is a substantial problem.

Indeed, the issue is pretty widespread, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), who referred the case to the City of London Police's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). Speaking exclusively to What Hi-Fi?, Peter Ratcliffe, the BPI's Director of Content Protection, said that unfortunately the vinyl format was becoming a victim of its own success.

"After 18 consecutive years of growth in vinyl LP purchases in the UK (and likely to be 19 after this year), it's sadly inevitable that some people with more sinister motives will try to exploit this demand and the love people have for the format," he said.

Since 2025, Ratcliffe’s unit has seized 600,000 units with an estimated value of around £8 million – and that's not including the nearly £3 million worth seized during the Acton raid in 2024.

A pretty bleak picture, then. But there are some glimmers of hope.

The BPI has been scoring "some notable successes", Ratcliffe said, "thanks in part to improved field intelligence and operational processes as well as greater industry collaboration".

He added that "we hope the problem is now in decline or at least is becoming contained". Fingers crossed.

Stay well away

We would always advise against buying counterfeit vinyl, even if it is cheaper than the real thing. Not only is the sound quality usually worse, playing a knock-off record can actually damage your turntable.

And that's before you get to the fact that it denies any earnings to everyone involved in creating and distributing the music, from the artists themselves, to everyone who works at the record label and in the independent record shops that we treasure so fondly.

Or, as Ratcliffe puts it, "fake vinyl (and CDs) denies artists and the record labels that support them significant revenues that rightly should go to them, while, of course, it also undermines the retail community and wider music ecosystem and cheats fans out of an authentic experience".

But perhaps most seriously of all, the "ill-gotten proceeds tend to fund other forms of criminality that can impact us all. It is far from being a harmless activity that we should turn a blind eye to".

So even if you're not a fan of the fat cats at major labels, you should still avoid buying counterfeit records.

Thankfully, they're pretty easily avoided, as long as you shop at the right places and exercise a bit of caution. You shouldn’t find any knock-off vinyl at your local independent record shop, for example.

"In general, reputable record shops do not get approached by the counterfeiters," Mark Burgess, the owner of Flashback Records, told us.

"The records are poor quality and illegal, so there is no incentive for us to buy them. You'll find these counterfeits at markets and boot fairs."

And if in doubt? You can always consult our guide on how to spot fake vinyl.

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