Picking a pair of floorstanding speakers is quite the challenge. We have rated the latest efforts from PMC, Fyne Audio, and ProAc all rather highly as of late, and there are some impressive options from Q Acoustics and Acoustic Energy to be mindful of, too.

With an overwhelming influence of British audio brands present on our list of the best floorstanding speakers, I have been searching further afield to scope out some alternative options. And one of my most recent voyages took me all the way to Mississauga, Canada.

This city, 28km southwest of Toronto, is home to speaker manufacturer Paradigm, as well as its sister brands Martin Logan and Anthem. Paradigm's latest speaker release is its Premier v2 range, and as the name may suggest, it’s a successor to the brand's original Premier speaker range.

Along with a fascinating factory tour and some interesting discussions with key members of the Paradigm team, I had a chance to listen to the top-of-the-range floorstanding speakers from this newly updated series.

The Premier 820F v2, as you’re about to find out, made a strong first impression, but with this much competition in the market, can it displace some of the British stalwarts on our list?

Price

Paradigm has shared pricing for its Premier V2 range in the US, but UK pricing is currently unconfirmed. What I can say, though, is that the Premier 820F floorstanders I heard cost $1300 per speaker, so that's around £980 based on current currency conversion, or $2600 (around £1960) for a pair.

That puts these speakers in the mid-range of the hi-fi speaker market and in direct competition with the Award-winning Fyne Audio F502S (£2300 / $2800 / AU$3000) floorstanding speakers.

The PMC Prodigy 5 also loom large as 2024 Award-winners, priced at £1995 / $2510 / AU$3399.

Paradigm also sells another, slightly smaller, set of floorstanders in this range – the Premier 720F v2 – as well as two pairs of standmount speakers (the 120B v2 and 220B v2), alongside two centre channel options: the 520LCR (which can be used as either a centre, left or right channel) and the dedicated 620C v2 centre channel speaker.

With Premier in the name, it should come as no surprise that this series is destined for use in home theatre rooms in a 5.1 surround sound (or larger) arrangement.

Build quality

The Premier 820F v2 are a sensibly styled pair of speakers and, in many ways, they look and feel a touch more premium than their price tag may suggest.

At the core of the design is the vortex-like spiral waveguide, which has become a staple on the company’s other, more premium speaker ranges. It looks good, and it serves a purpose, which we’ll divulge shortly.

These speakers sport clean, sharp lines with prominent, protruding metal-spiked feet on the bottom edge of each speaker, which look pleasingly industrial and help to reduce unwanted vibrations.

I saw these speakers in both walnut and black-walnut finishes, and found them eye-catching yet not too distracting for those who want speakers to blend into their listening space. Paradigm will also offer these speakers in a piano-black option for fans of high-gloss finishes (and dusting).

Features

Paradigm has loaded the Premier 820F v2 speakers with a helping of trickle-down speaker technology from its more premium ranges.

These include combined aluminium, magnesium and ceramic (‘AL-MAC’) tweeters, alongside an aluminium and magnesium (‘AL-MAC’) midrange driver, which are designed to produce lifelike and natural-sounding vocals and instruments.

The phase-aligning waveguide (the vortex-style one that I mentioned above) plays a key role in focusing sound towards the listener without having to worry about awkward room layouts.

Paradigm has also outfitted these three-way floorstanders with its 7-inch Carbon X bass drivers, which, alongside the high-volume enclosure, move a considerable amount of air to produce “visceral, controlled bass and expansive soundstaging”.

The inclusion of a rear-facing port also aids bass. These speakers weren't placed too far into the room, and as you can see from the photographs I took in Paradigm's home theatre room, they're not all that far from the corner of the room.

Despite this, the bass doesn't feel boomy or overblown, as we'll continue to find out in the sound section below.

Finally, the industrial-styled feet I touched on earlier also have a special role. They are officially called "Outrigger Shock-Mount Isolation Feet", and they work by physically decoupling the speaker from the floor to control vibrations and resonance.

Inside each foot is a system of springs and an isolation layer, which Paradigm says will achieve “cleaner, more detailed soundstage and tighter bass across any surface”.

Sound

Paradigm’s goal here was to produce speakers that prioritise the original artist’s intent, and that became quickly evident during my demo session.

I must reiterate that this hands-on review doesn’t reflect our final judgement. We’ll need to test these speakers in our dedicated listening room with our reference amplifier and the appropriate comparisons as we do with all What Hi-Fi? reviews, to attach a final star rating.

Paradigm paired these speakers with an amplifier from its sister company, Anthem, for this testing, with music being streamed on Tidal via the Control4 wireless home automation system.

With that in mind, these speakers ticked a plethora of boxes during my listening session, which took place in Paradigm’s sound-treated home theatre space. Aside from a few specially selected tracks, I was also given free rein to stream tracks to the speakers for quite some time.

Paradigm suggested a live rendition of Trouble's What You're In by Fink, which exposed the 820F v2’s strengths immediately. The sense of space revealed here was superb; this recording takes place in the Union Chapel, London, before a live audience, and the Paradigm speakers did a stellar job of recreating the ambience of the venue with this track.

I also felt that the speakers balanced warmth and crispness nicely, with a full-bodied and textured approach to vocalist Fin Greenall's lyrics.

Despite sounding crisp and detailed, the speakers didn’t verge into sounding too revealing or analytical, which also meant that they really drew me in – especially during this track.

I then switched to Taylor Swift’s The 1 (I know; I couldn’t help myself). This is still a fairly slow and stripped-back track, all things considered, but it certainly has more elements compared with the previous track.

The track is underpinned by a melodic piano and simplistic looping percussion, both of which had plenty of texture and depth when being played through the Premier 820F v2.

Swift’s vocals were equally textured, especially during the harmonised sections of the track, and without sounding reductive, these speakers just sounded very listenable and enjoyable. The comforting, warm sound and oodles of detail certainly helped, as I'm sure did the comfy leather recliner I was sitting in.

Finally, I tried Alaska by Maggie Rogers on these speakers, which once again adds more elements compared with the previous track. Here, I got a sense of how the speakers handle the low end – and Paradigm’s mission statement seems to ring true.

The size of these cabinets and the larger bass drivers did their job in delivering a controlled and punchy dose of low end, which juxtaposed Rogers’ sweet and crisp vocals that lean towards the higher frequencies on this track.

Early verdict

We’ll need to properly test these speakers on our side of the pond to draw up any sort of final verdict, but my initial run-in with the Premier 820F v2 left me feeling quite positive.

While I am most interested in trying them in a surround-sound arrangement alongside some cinematic content, this musical demonstration of the stereo pair proved to me that these floorstanders are worth keeping an eye on.

MORE:

Read our full Fyne Audio F502S review

As well as our PMC Prodigy 5 review

And check out our picks for the best floorstanding speakers

KEF is to active speaker systems what Spain is to international football at the moment.

From the Award-winning LSX II active wireless stereo system to the Bluetooth-ready Coda W active standmounts, the brand’s blending of features and performance is where KEF has really shone over the past few years.

Acting as a step-up from the fiercely talented (and multiple Award-winning) LS50 Wireless II, the new KEF LS Luxe once again integrates amplification and streaming into a compact stereo system, incorporating all of KEF’s know-how into what is a decidedly more premium standmount package than the company has made before.

At £3500 / $4000 / AU$6375, we’re moving into more high-end territory compared with the £2199 / $2999 / AU$4295 LS50 Wireless II, with KEF claiming that the LS Luxe is the result of six years of research and development. Given how well the product performs, that time has been extremely well spent.

Build & design

“A presence designed to hold the room before a single note is played.”

That’s how KEF has described the LS Luxe’s looks, and while subjective tastes are likely to dictate exactly how you feel about the cabinets’ distinctive styling, there’s no question that the speakers themselves are capable of drawing the eye before they even have a chance to grab you by the ears.

The cabinet exteriors have been designed in collaboration with Ross Lovegrove, the Welsh designer with whom KEF previously joined forces when crafting the mighty Muon floorstanders, the portable Muo Bluetooth speaker, and the distinctive Mu headphones/earbuds range.

The LS Luxe very much continues the distinctive design language of Lovegrove’s previous collaborations, typified by their rounded, edgeless cabinets which, when sporting their ‘Dusk Titanium’ finish, positively gleam thanks to their luxuriously polished exteriors. That pebble-like speaker design will not be for everyone, and it may depend on which of the three finishes – Eclipse Black, Dusk Titanium or Mineral White – you choose.

What’s less up for debate is the tangible high quality of the speakers’ construction.

Pick up each speaker and you’ll feel how weighty and substantial they are, with everything about the LS Luxe – from the finish of their curved shells to the seamless integration of the driver array and front baffle – speaking of a product constructed with genuine care.

That design isn’t just for show, either. That curved form aims to improve performance by reducing the build up of internal standing waves within the cabinet, whereas the use of durable ‘Bulk Moulded Compound’ (BMC) composite material reduces the need for excessive internal bracing, allowing for greater internal volume within the speakers to aid their low-frequency performance.

Turn the speakers around and you’ll see an equally distinctively designed aluminium heatsink, which is crafted to provide a greater surface area to more efficiently dissipate heat generated by the active electronics within. A flared reflex port also sits at the rear of each unit, designed using KEF’s ‘Flexible Port Technology’ where the port’s walls use a flexible material to reduce internal resonances.

At the heart of each speaker is KEF’s 12th-generation Uni-Q driver array, where the tweeter sits in the middle of the mid/bass unit in pursuit of more even sonic dispersion, better integration and improved time alignment. KEF’s now-familiar Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT), which absorbs rearward sound from the back of the tweeter dome, is also incorporated in pursuit of a cleaner, purer sound.

In terms of power, 280 watts of Class D amplification are directed to powering the mid/bass unit, while 100 watts of Class A/B amplification drives the tweeter.

That Uni-Q driver assembly is mechanically decoupled from the cabinet to reduce panel vibrations. Incorporated within the driver assembly is a decoupling chassis that damps the vibrations of the motor system, preventing them from feeding into the cabinet panels. The aim is to improve clarity and reduce distortion.

KEF has included a suitably premium-feeling remote control with the LS Luxe, as well as a speaker interconnect cable to optimise performance and an HDMI cable for use with your TV or home cinema set-up. Two power cables are also included, with both speakers requiring mains power – something to bear in mind when setting up your system.

What you don’t get included in the LS Luxe’s standard sale price are dedicated stands. If you want to get hold of a pair, KEF sells a set of S-Luxe stands for £800 / $800 / AU$1230 which you’ll have to put together yourself and screw into the base of each speaker.

That’s a considerable outlay on top of an already premium purchase, but our testing found that these stands help to optimise performance, secure the speakers in place and, thanks to their complementary aesthetic, and help them look their best. In other words, we feel that these stands would be money well spent.

Features

The KEF LS Luxe offers a suitably well-stocked connectivity suite to go with the system’s premium outlay.

KEF has been generous with the array of physical connectivity options on offer. Around the back of the primary speaker unit, you’ll find HDMI eARC, 3.5mm analogue, optical and coaxial inputs, while each of the two speakers has a dedicated output for adding a single subwoofer or a pair if necessary.

On the streaming side, the system uses KEF’s W2 Wireless Platform, which we’ve already experienced in the brand’s established LS wireless range. This grants access to popular streaming services such as Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect and Deezer, along with internet radio.

There’s also the further convenience of AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast and Bluetooth 5.3, while UPnP compatibility means you can stream hi-res music from a connected external NAS drive. Roon Ready support is slated to arrive in 2027.

Hi-res file support depends on how you choose to set up and listen, with KEF’s new system capable of handling PCM files up to 24-bit/384kHz alongside DSD128. If you’re using a wireless connection between your speakers, those higher resolution files are internally downsampled to 24-bit/96kHz, whereas connecting the master and slave speakers using the included interconnect cable pushes playback up to 24-bit/192kHz.

Further technologies seek to enhance the LS Luxe’s performance beyond mere hardware. This is the first speaker product to feature KEF’s ‘Velocity Control Technology’, as seen in the brand’s five-star XIO soundbar, where the speed of cone movement is measured, and any differences between that and the expected value are compensated for in real time. The result is lower distortion levels.

Additionally, a proprietary ‘Music Integrity Engine’ tech uses digital signal processing algorithms to maintain accuracy and tonality no matter the volume at which the LS Luxe is played.

For getting the most out of your shiny new set-up, you’ll want to download the comprehensive and easy-to-use KEF Connect app, from which you’ll be able to control and set up your speakers. You can tweak the sound yourself using a customisable equaliser, while KEF’s ‘Room EQ’ digital signal processing helps you fine-tune your sound to your listening space.

It’s worth spending a bit of time with the app’s calibration settings, as, while the LS Luxe isn’t a prima donna in terms of positioning, you’ll certainly notice a difference when you tinker with the app’s various parameters, such as room size, the distance you’ve placed your speakers from your wall, and how damped your listening space is.

Sound

We decide to give our review sample the best chance possible to showcase its talents by screwing each speaker tightly to their dedicated S-Luxe stands, using the provided inter-speaker cable for the highest transmission rate possible (24-bit/192kHz), and kicking off with some hi-res wireless streaming via Tidal.

Naturally, we experiment with positioning, and find that they perform best with the speakers firing straight ahead and sitting roughly 30cm from the back wall of our 3m x 4m x 7m listening room.

Thanks in part to that updated Uni-Q driver array, the LS Luxe is gratifyingly unfussy about placement, producing a supremely well-integrated sound that remains consistent no matter our listening position.

What we discover is a wireless system with poise, control and, dare we say it, genuine grace. Like a fine wine or one of those acclaimed French arthouse movies, the KEF LS Luxe needs a little time for its true spectrum of talents to be appreciated.

The LS Luxe does not reach out and grab us by our lapels; instead, it reproduces our music with an even-handed, mature yet authoritative nature that slowly but inevitably places us under its bewitching spell.

This is a sonic signature we’ve heard before, from the more affordable LSX II and LSX II LT stereo systems and the established LS50 Wireless II. But the Luxe piles on extra helpings of detail and precision to that confident, articulate presentation we’ve experienced from KEF in recent years.

Listen to Massive Attack’s Atlas Air, and you’ll get a clear indication that for clarity, textural detail and overall scale, the LS Luxe is considerably ahead of the LS50 Wireless II, anchored by a taut, authoritative bass reproduction that sinks low without sagging like a bulldog’s floppy jowls.

While what we’re dealing with is a standmount speaker system, the scale and authority showcased belie the Luxe’s compact form. We load up Hans Zimmer’s Why Do We Fall? from the Dark Knight Rises soundtrack, and our reward is a rendition that soars with so much power, scope and grandeur that it’s hard to resist the urge to don our cape and cowl and go out looking for bad guys to bring to justice.

Punch and panache live side by side, with the LS Luxe knitting music together so expertly that even truly demanding tracks can’t catch it napping. Whether it's the gale-force hurricane of Slipknot’s Before I Forget, the magisterial grandeur of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture or the carefully curated strangeness of Yosi Horiko’s Bubbles, the Luxe barely breaks a sweat.

Interlocking rhythms are expressive and nimble, while dynamic ebbs and flows are communicated confidently without sounding artificial or overdone.

We use our Cyrus CDi player connected to the optical input to test the internal DAC, and again, that core character is firmly intact as we spin Jeff Buckley’s Grace, and the LS Luxe excels at revealing the intimacy, delicacy and emotion of the seminal record. We also connect the Luxe to the Cyrus using a 3.5mm to RCA adapter cable, and we continue to receive a high standard of performance.

While most of our listening is done using the S-Luxe stands, we also place the speakers on our tried-and-tested FS104 Signature plinths, and while the performance remains impressive, it isn’t as crisp and dynamic. The speakers themselves are just about compact enough to be placed on a desk, but at this premium price, they’re best suited to being listened to on stands.

Switching to Bluetooth will also result in an inevitable drop-off in clarity and precision, but the LS Luxe still retains its even, mature nature when playing through this less-than-ideal streaming medium. They do their best to shine, but it’s clear that we’re placing a limit on the system’s considerable abilities.

Verdict

The LS Luxe feels like another milestone in KEF’s recent history of providing outstanding wireless stereo speaker systems.

Yes, it’s a good deal more expensive than the LS50 Wireless II, and no, that distinctive curved design won’t be for everyone – but in terms of performance, this is a mightily impressive addition to KEF’s catalogue.

If you’re willing to pay that premium price – and fork out a bit extra for some dedicated stands to get the best out of them – then slick performance and outstanding sound will be your reward.

Review published: 30th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the KEF LS50 Wireless II

Also consider the KEF LSX II

Best active speakers: our experts pick the top pairs with integrated amplifiers

A good, cheap OLED TV has been top of many cinephiles' wish list for over a decade. This makes the S85H a big-ticket item despite it sitting at the bottom of Samsung’s new OLED TV range.

It’s looking set to be one of the cheapest options for serious movie fans who want a new OLED that sits in the same family as the S99H, a set we recently declared to be the finest Samsung OLED we’d ever tested. Big shoes to fill, then.

Price

The Samsung S85H is available in sizes from 48 to 83 inches. The cheapest 48-inch size launched carrying a £1199 ($1199) price tag, while the giant 83-inch model retails for £3699 ($4499).

We have the middle-child 55-inch model in our review rooms, which launched at £1499 ($1499 / AU$2499).

Initially, that meant it cost slightly less than its closest rival, the LG B6, which cost £1599 (AU$2500) when it first came out.

However, rapid price drops mean it’s now more expensive than its LG rival. The 55-inch B6 is now available for as little as £899 in some places.

However, the S85H puts is still cheaper than most of this year’s mid-tier OLEDs, including its big brother, the 55-inch S90H, which now floats around the £1699 mark.

Design

You won’t find any flourishes like the fancy metal bezel sported by the flagship S99H; instead the S85H has a rather utilitarian look, with a basic, plastic design that is nevertheless mostly solid.

The TV has feet, rather than a pedestal stand design and includes two placement options, central and wide, which puts them on the furthest right and left edges. This is a nice touch that lets you adjust the position to fit on your cabinet and place a soundbar underneath it as required.

Our only minor quibble with the design is that, as well as feeling distinctly plasticy, the feet wobble. Not so much that we’re worried it will break, but enough that you’ll want to place it with care.

The SolarCell remote seen on Samsung’s previous step-down and entry-level OLEDs also makes a return. It is pleasingly compact and intuitive, and features solar and USB-C charging, something that isn’t guaranteed at this price. The only real negative is the ongoing lack of a backlight, which makes using it in the dark a bit tricky.

Features

The set's specifications sheet is nearly identical to the outgoing S85F, with only three big upgrades to mention.

It has been upgraded to Wi-Fi 6E, which will improve connectivity if you have a compatible router using the standard. It also has a new AI football mode, which Samsung claims will “make you feel like you’re in the stadium” using the set’s processing smarts.

Finally, there is a smattering of what Samsung claims to be "performance improvements" – the biggest, apparently, is to its peak and operating brightness. Samsung hasn’t given a definite nit count, however, so we can't be sure how big the alleged brightness upgrades are.

Samsung also hasn’t specified what panel is being used, but the fact that the S85H is powered by the same NQ4 AI Gen2 processor as its predecessor suggests it may be using one of the new OLED SE panels LG Display unveiled at CES in January, which aim to boost brightness while simultaneously bringing prices down.

We had hoped the Q85H would get the newer Gen3 silicon, which brings more accurate tone mapping and better upscaling, among other things, but that remains reserved for the more expensive S99H and S90H models.

The same is true for Samsung’s vibrancy-boosting Quantum Dot tech, which once again is reserved for its flagship offering. A shame, yes, but unsurprising given the S85H’s price. You also, once again, won’t find the firm’s Glare Free screen coating included, which will be an annoyance if you use the TV in a room with lots of ambient light.

Despite the lack of big changes, the S85’s specifications remain very competitive at this price.

The set offers four full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs, capable of carrying a 4K/120Hz signal for next-generation gamers. ALLM and VRR are also on board, so gamers are fully covered.

The only big omission is the set’s lack of support for Dolby Vision Gaming, or any version of Dolby’s HDR standard, for that matter. The S85H continues Samsung’s HDR grudge match, with it only supporting the HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG standards.

The set also doesn’t support FlexConnect, a bit of audio tech that the LG B6 does. This is a clever technology designed to let you create surround sound systems using compatible speakers on the fly. It includes the power to use the TV’s speakers as the central channel. Samsung, instead, pushes its own Q-Symphony solution, which aims to make the TV’s sound system work with compatible soundbars to improve audio quality and create a wider soundstage.

The latest-gen version of Tizen featured on the S85H is easy to navigate and includes a content bar at the top that splits your apps into categories, curated and arranged to automatically match your usage habits. All the major apps and services are present and running correctly, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV and more.

Picture

In its out-of-the-box Eco mode, the S85H comes off a little strong. Playing our F1: The Movie 4K Blu-ray, the picture is a little sharp, oversmoothed and colours, particularly reds, are overcooked.

Switching to Filmmaker mode, things rapidly improve. Now, the cars’ movements become precise and rapid, losing the artificial floaty feel of its default setting.

Colours are also much more reined in, but reds still look a little overcooked, which leads to a series of quick tweaks before we finally settle on Filmmaker Mode, with the Warm 1 colour profile and Active Dynamic Tone Mapping on for the best results.

The TV’s colours are still a little bombastic compared to the more subdued B6, but the picture’s solidity and three-dimensionality ensure our eyes still favour the Samsung during the heated F1 race.

Switching to Pan, our standard peak brightness stress test due to its atypical 4000 nits mastering, it’s immediately clear that the S85H burns brighter than previous entry-level OLEDs we’ve tested and its main rival, the LG B6. The setting sun offers a wider range of reds and oranges that show up as pure white on its rival.

The only slight issue is that, once again, colours are pushed a touch too hard, with blues looking a smidge too vibrant and the picture a little too warm in general.

(Editor’s note – for our sanity, if a filmmaker is reading this, please master your next film in 4000 nits and shoot an incredibly bright scene we can use for testing. If our reviewers are forced to hear Pan’s butchered version of Smells Like Teen Spirit for much longer, there may be a mutiny.)

Switching to our 4K Blu-ray Sinners test disc, minor black crush creeps in. Although the scene oozes menace and has a wonderful sense of dread, thanks to the perfect blacks, parts of the gangsters’ faces lose definition and fade into the black background.

The S85H also has a tendency to try too hard. In a bid to show how bright it can go, the set artificially raises the brightest sections of the picture, but doesn’t always have the finesse to do it naturally.

Highlights on characters’ skin come up as pure white, losing some detail and adding a distracting artificiality, making it look like they’re in the spotlight on a Broadway stage, rather than drinking and dancing in a dingy Prohibition-era speakeasy.

The aggressive push then flattens faces completely by overbrightening them, losing shadow detail and some of the picture’s otherwise impressive three-dimensionality. The flaw isn’t uniform either, rearing its head at specific moments, which is distracting and breaks our immersion in its otherwise solid performance.

Switching gears to our 4K Blu-ray of Civil War and tagging in step-up OLEDs, including its big brother/sister the S90H, the S85H puts up an admirable fight, but there are obvious benefits if you can afford to go up a price tier.

The S90F delivers a series of modest improvements that add up to make a big difference. On the S85H, greens in a military camp’s grass fields look a little too vibrant, taking on an almost cartoony look. Skin tones lose their warmth and colour volume, coming across as slightly jaundiced during low-light scenes compared to the more lifelike, immersive S90F.

The flames in a burning forest flicker a little brighter on the step-up model, offering more detail, with a wider range of reds and oranges dancing in the brightest parts of the flames. Overall, we get a little more nuance, a sprinkle more finesse, and a generally more natural picture with the S90F.

The S85H does a decent, but not front-of-the-pack, job of upscaling our SDR True Grit Blu-ray. The picture retains the grainy, spaghetti western feel, but the picture is dimmer and a bit flatter than those we've seen on rival sets. Though it retains the intentional grain, some sharpness and detail are lost. The stitches in the characters’ woollen clothes look a bit softer than we’d like, too.

Sound

“Where’s the bass?” is the immediate question we ask, testing the S85H’s 2.0 channel, 20W, Dolby Atmos system with our F1: The Movie test disc.

Engine noise, the sound of the crowd, the boom of cars crashing and skidding across the track; all of it lacks the bite and impact needed to do justice to the scene. The entire sound feels weak, even by TV speaker standards, sounding more like a Scalextric race than a deafening, international F1 event.

And this issue is the sound system’s undoing. Moving to a night-time battle scene in Civil War, explosions are occasionally entirely lost as vocals and the higher-frequency sound of gunfire, bizarrely, overpowers them.

This is a particular shame as, while the speakers never come close to matching a moderately capable soundbar, such as the entry-level Sonos Beam (Gen 2), they do get some things right.

During the musical medley in Sinners, Sammie’s blues vocals don’t have the power or vibrato required to do them justice, but they’re suitably separated from the guitar part.

As the scene develops, adding more and more layers and modern music genres to the song, that decent separation continues, with each part remaining distinct, albeit underpowered. And the set does a reasonable job of offering a sense of direction as the camera swoops through the barn.

The S85H’s speakers are ultimately fine for watching the news or a casual series, but not quite good enough for even basic movie watching. You will need to invest in a soundbar or speaker system for that.

Verdict

If you want an OLED TV but can’t afford to step up into the mid-tier, it’s one of the top options currently available, the Samsung S85H is a very competent option at the price.

Its punchy, immersive and nicely three-dimensional picture is a cut above most of its entry-level rivals. There are undoubtedly palpable gains to be had in paying more for a mid-range OLED, however – ones we think are worth paying for.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Bravia 7 II

Also consider the LG C6

Read our Samsung S90F review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

While there still seems to be a modicum of choice when it comes to buying a new pair of entry-level stereo speakers, when it comes to budget hi-fi electronics, your options have shrunk considerably over the years.

This is especially the case when it comes to CD players. More and more people have moved to streaming as their source of music, with others opting to spin vinyl records instead of CDs. Not that we are complaining about any of these forms, of course.

Thankfully, Marantz is one brand that continues to fly the flag for that shiny silver disc. Over the years, it has produced some hugely respected budget CD players, so its latest machine, the CD 70, comes with plenty of attention and a huge dollop of expectation.

It replaces Marantz’s own CD6007, a six-time What Hi-Fi? Award winner, so it has some huge shoes to fill, to put it lightly. Can it keep Marantz’s enviable track record going at this level?

Price

The CD 70 is Marantz’s entry-level CD player now and costs £499 / $750 / AU$1000 (excl. VAT). Given the state of the market, there aren’t many rivals, but the model it’s succeeding is the CD6007, which is still available at the time of writing for £399 / $650 / AU$999, and you can find it regularly discounted too. It won’t be around forever, though.

The only other five-star CD player we’ve tested remotely anywhere near the Marantz is the Award-winning Arcam CD5, but at £699 / $699 / AUS$1495 it’s a significant step above (both in terms of price and performance), and we haven’t seen much in the way of discounts, and don’t really expect to.

Design & build

The CD 70 is the first entry-level Marantz CD player to feature the company’s newer design language.

Gone is the purposeful, industrial look of the CD6007; in its place is a more modern aesthetic with added elements of texture on the fascia, either side of the unit’s chunky mid-section of the front panel.

When the light catches the pattern (the closest thing we can equate it to is the dimples on a golf ball, but much shallower), it’s an attractive look, especially in the silver and gold finish of our review sample, although we still think there’s a certain charm to the way the older model looks.

Build quality feels solid enough for the money. And, although its dimensions are a fraction larger than the CD6007 you’d be hard-pressed to tell from a distance – you certainly don’t need to measure for a new hi-fi rack.

Beneath the CD 70’s lid are a number of new components which Marantz has introduced to improve sound quality. These include an updated power supply, which claims help to reduce noise, and an upgraded digital clock to reduce jitter (digital timing errors).

The big news, though, is that the CD 70 uses a new ES9020Q DAC chip to do all the number-crunching, which is an upgrade over the older ES9010K2M chip used in the CD6007.

You also get a remote control which looks pretty similar to the one that came with the CD6007, but its colour is slightly different, as is the labelling and positioning of some of the buttons. You’re not going to get lost navigating your way around, though.

Features

The back of the CD 70 shows an identical feature set to the outgoing model, with the same sockets in roughly the same positions. There’s an analogue output plus optical and coaxial digital outputs. There aren’t any digital inputs, but that’s hardly unexpected at this level.

Around the front of the unit, you’ve got a horizontal row of controls either side of the dot-matrix display, which, once again, appears virtually identical to the display used in its predecessor.

It can show CD text and track information, and you can also use it to navigate the player’s settings when you bring them up using the remote control. The player supports normal CDs, and can handle CD-R and CD-RW discs too, but not SACDs.

You’ll find skip controls, and one button combining play/pause on the right of the display, with input selection (CD/USB), stop and eject buttons on the left.

To the bottom left of the display is the USB-Type A input, which supports WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF and DSD files should you have them stored on an external hard drive. Resolution compatibility is up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM and DSD 5.6 (DSD128).

To the bottom right is a volume control for the built-in headphone amplifier section – scan a bit further right, and you’ll see the relevant 6.3mm headphone socket. The volume control is noticeably chunkier than that on the older model, which does make it easier to get to grips with.

The Marantz also gives you the option to adjust gain to increase compatibility with different pairs of headphones, which is handy.

Sound

Before we give you the complete picture of how the CD 70 sounds, you should be aware of a couple of things.

As was the case with CD6007, the display can be turned off on the CD 70. Marantz recommends you do this in the manual and claims it improves sound quality… and we have to concur.

The most noticeable effect we find during testing is that it reduces background noise ever so slightly, allowing for a clearer presentation.

You also get a choice of two digital filters to play with (Filter 1 and Filter 2). We found that using Filter 1 delivered the best sound quality – we felt the general rhythm and timing of the music sounded a little off when using the second filter.

We find that the improvement gained from turning off the display is the most immediate and obvious, though; the filter effect is a bit more subtle.

Even without those tweaks, the Marantz CD 70 is an impressive performer for the money. It sounds clear, and punchy, and produces a focused, precise sound.

It’s a slight change in character compared with the CD6007. We find the older model sounds a touch more relaxed, while the newcomer favours a slightly more upfront and forward approach. It’s not shouty or distracting by any means, but it is a noticeable shift in balance.

Play Lupe Fiasco’s Superstar and there’s plenty of sparkle up at the top end; there’s an impressive amount of detail extracted from the screams of the crowd before they fade out of shot, and it has no problem highlighting subtle details either, such as the camera flashes going off in the background. The different layers are picked out and placed on a quiet background where they are given room to shine.

Piano and percussion work harmoniously together as the CD player uncovers an impressive amount of texture.

Lupe’s vocals are solid and expressive and sit over the top of simple, yet taut and hefty bass notes. It’s a nicely controlled bottom end that displays the Marantz’s ability to deliver both quantity and quality.

Switch over to the London Regency Orchestra’s take on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and the wonderfully quiet background once again comes to the fore. The track's slow build-up, first with strings, then with woodwind, as the percussion rings in the background, is organised accurately with tightly defined borders throughout.

The track takes its time to stretch out dynamically, but the Marantz builds up nicely to deliver a fine crescendo of strings before fading away. The older CD6007 might paint the dynamic shifts with a bit more delicacy, but you can’t argue with the CD 70’s newfound sense of precision and power.

Verdict

The lack of any real competition at this level really leaves the Marantz CD 70 in a class of one.

Well, we can call it a class of two until the stock of the CD6007 runs out. But that time will come, and the CD 70 delivers a clear step up in terms of clarity, punch and solidity.

It might not be the most relaxed-sounding player Marantz has ever built, but it’s still a serious performer for the money, and if you’ve got a stack of CDs that need playing, you can be confident the CD 70 will be more than up to the task.

Review published: 28th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Also consider the Marantz CD6007

Read our Arcam CD5 review

Best CD players: budget to premium options tested by expert reviewers

Marantz has long been a dominant force in the affordable stereo amplifier market, so when it replaces the long-running, five-star PM6007, we can’t wait to have a listen.

After generations of budget 6000-series amplifiers differentiated only by small tweaks, the Marantz Model 70 marks a notable shift in styling and price, if not content.

Where PM6007 originally launched at £499 / $599 and has been available for around £349-£399 in the past couple of years, the new Model 70 has launched at £749 / AU$1600 (exc VAT) – moving it out of the 'budget' bracket. It's also worth noting that this new amplifier won't be available to buy in the US initially, with Marantz stating it is focusing on the "markets where consumer demand can be more effectively met."

Build & design

While the new Model 70 integrated is clearly based on the former Award-winning PM6007, just compare their back panel layout; it is obvious that the company’s engineers haven’t just been twiddling their collective thumbs for the last half a decade.

The big change is the appearance, of course. This now mirrors the aesthetics of the company’s more premium stereo products (such as the Model 40n), and we like it. To our eyes, it looks classier and more elegant than the more function-first approach of the previous budget model.

The symmetry of the front panel is appealing, as is the trademark Marantz ‘porthole’ display. We are pleased to report that the front panel dials for the volume, balance, tone controls and inputs all feel solid and precise in use, while that small display is crisp, though admittedly not particularly easy to read from a distance.

This stereo amplifier, and partnering CD 70 CD player (£499/ $750), are both available in black and silver finishes. The Model 70’s build feels broadly on a par with the outgoing PM6007, which cost £499 / $599 when launched in 2020, but is now available for notably less.

It is nicely finished, though, and reasonably solid, bar the flex we notice in the back panel when plugging in the speaker cables. Arcam’s similarly-priced A5+ (£749 / $1199) feels more substantial in terms of casework panel thickness and overall solidity.

The Model 70 is supplied with a system remote that also controls the partnering CD player. It looks like a tweaked version of the older amp’s handset, and works well on the whole, being nicely laid-out and easy to use.

There is a bit of give and take when it comes to features compared to the PM6007. The Model 70 gains an HDMI ARC input, Bluetooth (aptX HD) capability and a preamp output over its predecessor. However, it loses one of the two optical inputs, the second set of speaker outputs and the fixed line output.

In general, we have no complaints about the new amplifier’s connectivity. It has three line-level inputs, a moving magnet phono stage, as well as coaxial and optical digital ins.

The addition of HDMI and Bluetooth is a definite step in the right direction, making the amplifier more versatile than before. As with the older amp, there is a 6.3mm headphone output on the front panel.

Inside, you will find that the changes over the PM6007 continue with a different DAC chip (ESS Sabre’s ES9020Q rather than the ES9010K2M), electric rather than potentiometer-based volume control and higher-capacity power supply capacitors (15,000uF vs 12,000uF). Those smoothing capacitors have been moved closer to the power amplifier to reduce resistance. Together, all these changes aim to improve transparency, bass performance and sonic stability.

The use of Marantz’s discrete HDAM amplifier modules, in this case the SA3 version, continues, and power has risen slightly to 50 watts per channel, up from the PM6007’s 45 watts.

A stereo amplifier at this price has to be flexible enough to work in a wide range of systems. It should be forgiving and balanced enough to make the most of budget sources and speakers, while having the sonic stretch to shine with more capable components. The Model 70 certainly meets that challenge well.

We use a range of sources from the Marantz CD 70 and Cyrus CDi CD players right through to our Naim ND555/555 PS DR music streamer. Record playing duties are carried out with a Technics SL-1000R turntable fitted with a Nagaoka MP-200 moving magnet cartridge. As for speakers, we use our reference ATC SCM50 along with the KEF LS50 Meta and Acoustic Energy AE300 Mk2.

Sound

Our first port of call is a comparison of the Model 70 with its predecessor. The PM6007 remains a fine performer for the money, delivering a smooth and fluid presentation that still holds our attention well. However, the new model is clearly better despite sharing a similarly refined tonal balance.

As we listen to Hans Zimmer's The Battle from the Gladiator OST unfurl, it is the Model 70 that sounds clearer and more composed. As the piece builds, the amplifier remains impressively stable, tracking low-level instrumental strands with ease while allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the whole, if they desire.

In comparison, the PM6007 sounds a little soft and muddled. It manages to reveal the energy and feel but isn’t as tidy in the way the music is presented. Low notes lack impact and definition, while dynamic shifts are more muted.

The Model 70 rams home its advantage when we play the Back On The Block album by Quincy Jones. Here it comes across as the more insightful and revealing performer, beautifully highlighting the wonderful vocal talents of Chaka Khan and Siedah Garrett on The Places You Find Love. We hear more in the way of vocal and instrumental textures, and greater finesse across the board.

The Model 70 retains its predecessor’s forgiving nature thanks to its innate refinement and smoothness, but adds more authority when delivering hard-hitting basslines and challenging dynamic contrasts.

You can add the moving magnet phono stage and digital inputs as additional plus points. With records, the Model 70 retains a good degree of clarity. It delivers Mary J Blige’s No More Drama set with verve and detail, while tonality is nicely judged. It helps that the phono stage’s noise levels are relatively low, too.

The digital inputs are equally capable. The Model 70 is compatible with PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz and shifts between file resolutions seamlessly. There are two filter options – Slow Roll-off and Fast Roll-off – and while the sonic difference between the two is subtle, we consistently prefer the Slow option as we work our way through a variety of tracks. It just sounds more fluid and natural to our ears. As always, try it for yourself, as much depends on taste and system matching.

The positives continue with the new amplifier’s Bluetooth performance. While this input doesn’t rival any of the physical connections for outright quality, it still produces musically enjoyable results when we feed in music from Tidal and Qobuz using our iPhone 14 Pro Max.

So, it should be clear by now that the Model 70 is a talented performer. Its superiority over the PM6007 is obvious; however, it also costs a lot more than its predecessor. That move up in price puts it into a different performance ballpark and up against some remarkably capable opposition, most notably the Award-winning Arcam A5+.

Comparison to the Arcam proves a stiffer test, one that shows that the Marantz doesn’t hold all the cards. Up against the A5+, we find that the Model 70 falls just a step behind in most areas, regardless of input. With the Quincy Jones album, it isn’t quite as rhythmic with the title track, diluting the music’s sense of momentum a little.

Dynamic nuances aren’t communicated so convincingly, leaving the emotional impact of great vocalists like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles slightly diluted. Outright clarity and insight, particularly the interplay between instruments, isn’t as easily followed either.

However, the Marantz is the more neutral of the two, sounding less rich through the midrange and bass, while its lows are just a touch firmer. Absolute detail levels are broadly on a par, and we can still enjoy the Marantz’s lovely top-to-bottom consistency.

Verdict

The Marantz Model 70 amplifier has plenty of appeal. It is well-specified, decently made and works with a wide range of music. Had it been priced closer to the PM6007, we would undoubtedly be proclaiming it a class leader.

However, the move up in price level puts it up against tougher competition and, in that context, it earns a more cautious recommendation.

Review published: 27th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Arcam A5+

Also consider the Rega Brio Mk7

Best stereo amplifiers: 8 class leaders chosen by our review experts

Anyone can put together an expensive surround sound system. Buy five great speakers, add a capable subwoofer and a suitably muscular AV amplifier, and you're well on your way.

Building a genuinely cohesive home cinema system, though, is much harder.

The best packages don't constantly remind you which speaker is producing which effect or draw attention to individual sonic fireworks. Instead, they disappear entirely, transporting you into the world of the movie with such convincing scale and cohesion that you stop thinking about the equipment and simply enjoy what you're watching.

On paper, KEF's R Meta 5.1 speaker system certainly has all the ingredients required to achieve that lofty goal. The question is whether, together, they amount to something even greater than the sum of their already rather impressive parts.

Price

Those ‘ingredients’ are a pair of R7 Meta floorstanders on front left and right duties, two (five-star) R3 Meta standmounters as surrounds, an R6 centre speaker, and the unusually compact KC92 subwoofer.

At the time of writing, these speakers aren’t available as a pre-packaged system, though that may soon change. In the meantime, the cost of building the system with the separate speakers is £10,499 / $13,200 / AU$19,400.

That’s a hefty chunk of change, no doubt, and you can take things further by adding R8 Meta Dolby Atmos ‘toppers’, should you so wish, at £1500 / $1800 / AU$2800 per pair.

Design

This is an unapologetically substantial package. Even before you've wrestled the hefty R7 Meta floorstanders into position, it's clear that this isn't a surround system designed to disappear into your living room.

The R3 Meta are generously proportioned by standmounter standards, too, while the R6 Meta is a particularly large centre speaker – one clearly designed to prioritise acoustic performance over blending discreetly beneath your TV.

Despite the varying sizes, there's an aesthetically pleasing sense of consistency across the range. The speakers all share the same understated, clean-lined design language, with KEF's distinctive Uni-Q driver array taking pride of place on each model.

Rather than feeling like a collection of separate products assembled into a surround package, the R Meta speakers immediately look like members of the same family, giving the impression of a system that has been designed as a whole rather than assembled from individual parts.

The KC92 subwoofer, though, initially looks like the odd one out. It's a surprisingly compact cube sitting alongside such substantial floorstanders, and its neatly integrated side-firing drivers make it appear smaller than a high-end subwoofer has any right to.

That compactness is entirely deliberate, however. The force-cancelling driver arrangement allows KEF to keep the cabinet remarkably small while apparently reducing unwanted vibrations, and those wanting even greater low-frequency output can simply add more KC92s. KEF will even sell you a bracket that lets you stack them into a rather awesome-looking tower of bass.

Our review package arrived in a high-gloss black finish that looks suitably Darth Vader-like but quickly attracts fingerprints. The speakers are also available in white and walnut, but the KC92 doesn’t get the walnut finish. Slightly disappointingly, the gorgeous indigo gloss in which you can buy the R3 Meta standmounters isn’t available for the rest of the system.

Whichever finish you choose, though, build quality throughout is excellent. From the reassuring solidity of the cabinets to the immaculate fit and finish, every component feels worthy of a package costing comfortably north of £10,000.

Features

Much of the technology underpinning the R Meta series has trickled down from KEF's flagship Reference range, but perhaps the cleverest aspect of KEF's R Meta package is that, despite the differing sizes and roles of the individual speakers, the R7 Meta floorstanders, R3 Meta surrounds and R6 Meta centre all share exactly the same drive units.

Each speaker features KEF's 12th-generation Uni-Q array, combining a 25mm aluminium dome tweeter and 125mm midrange driver into a single point-source unit, alongside identical 165mm hybrid aluminium bass drivers. The only real difference is how many bass drivers each speaker employs – two in the centre and each of the floorstanders, and one in each of the standmounters.

The Uni-Q array has long been one of KEF's defining technologies. By placing the tweeter at the acoustic centre of the midrange driver, the company aims to create more even sound dispersion and improve the integration between frequencies.

It's also impossible to ignore the distinctive Tangerine waveguide sitting proudly in front of the tweeter. While it gives KEF’s speakers their instantly recognisable appearance, it's there for more than cosmetic reasons, helping to control the tweeter's dispersion for a more consistent high-frequency response across a wider listening area.

Backing up the Uni-Q array is KEF's Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT). Mounted behind the tweeter, this maze-like absorber is designed to eliminate almost all of the unwanted sound radiating from the rear of the driver before it has a chance to colour the performance, helping to produce cleaner, more natural treble.

The KC92 subwoofer, meanwhile, takes a similarly clever approach to solving a different problem.

Rather than relying on a large cabinet to produce serious low-frequency output, it packs two opposing 9-inch drivers into a remarkably compact enclosure, with each driven by its own 500W Class D amplifier. The force-cancelling arrangement is designed to reduce unwanted cabinet vibrations while allowing the subwoofer to remain unusually discreet.

Practicality has clearly been a consideration, too. All three main speakers feature twin sets of binding posts for those wanting to bi-wire or bi-amp, but KEF has dispensed with the fiddly metal bridging plates traditionally used to connect terminals for single-wire use. Instead, a pair of rotary links simply twists to join the terminals inside the speakers. Neat.

The R7 Meta and R3 Meta also feature rear-firing bass reflex ports, with KEF supplying foam bungs should you need to position them close to a rear wall. It’s still worth avoiding the bungs and giving the speakers a bit of breathing space away from walls if you can, but they’re otherwise very forgiving over placement, not least thanks to the Uni-Q driver array’s dispersion characteristics.

Sound

We already know what accomplished musical performers the R3 Meta standmounters are, but how do the fronts of this system, the R7 Meta floorstanders, handle hi-fi duties? With effortless sophistication, that’s how.

Fed track after track, they sound clean, composed and wonderfully controlled, with an expansive soundstage and an ability to unpick complex recordings without ever becoming analytical. Tori Amos' Cornflake Girl for example, is reproduced with impressive subtlety, her voice locked firmly between the speakers while the piano, percussion and bass each occupy their own clearly defined space.

It is possible for that polished presentation to become almost too civilised, though. During our initial listening with our Marantz Cinema 30, Tool's The Pot lacks a little of the visceral snap and attack we'd hoped for, while John Williams' Jurassic Park theme feels fractionally more restrained than it should.

However, swapping to the Denon AVC-A1H transforms matters, bringing greater drive and energy without sacrificing the refinement that makes these speakers so easy to listen to. Prospective buyers would do well to partner them with an amplifier that shares their considerable talents without doubling down on their composure.

Once we turn our attention to movies, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't merely an excellent collection of speakers; it's a genuinely cohesive surround package. As effects move around the room, you're rarely conscious of which individual speaker is producing them. Instead, sounds travel with remarkable continuity, each cabinet handing seamlessly to the next until the speakers themselves almost disappear from the experience.

That cohesion is accompanied by an immense sense of scale. The opening race sequence in F1: The Movie fills our listening room with the deafening roar of engines and screeching tyres, yet never descends into chaos. The R6 Meta centre anchors dialogue securely amid the mayhem, while the front soundstage stretches confidently beyond the physical positions of the speakers.

Ambient effects spread throughout the room with such conviction that, despite this being a conventional 5.1 package, we rarely find ourselves wishing for dedicated height channels. It can't produce truly discrete overhead effects in the manner of a Dolby Atmos system, of course, but it creates such an enveloping, three-dimensional soundfield that the absence of ceiling or up-firing speakers rarely feels like a compromise.

That ability to immerse without drawing attention to itself proves equally captivating in Blade Runner 2049. The haunting ambience of the abandoned Las Vegas sequences extends effortlessly into every corner of the room, while the thunderous score is delivered with breathtaking scale and authority.

Despite the sheer size of the presentation, however, subtle details are never drowned out. The package remains wonderfully composed, allowing tiny atmospheric cues to coexist naturally alongside seismic low-frequency effects.

The KC92 deserves special praise. If your priority is sheer low frequency extension, there are physically larger subwoofers that will dig deeper, but what the compact KEF lacks in outright depth, it more than compensates for with speed, precision and tonal sophistication.

Bass notes start and stop with remarkable precision, textures remain easy to discern and, perhaps most importantly, the KC92 never sounds like a separate component. Whether underpinning the rumble of an F1 car, the immense organ notes of Interstellar or the ominous low-frequency pulses of Blade Runner 2049, it simply feels like an extension of the main speakers.

Compared with our reference PMC Twenty5.23 speaker package, the KEFs make for a fascinating contrast.

The PMCs remain the more energetic and revealing performers, extracting the finest details from recordings and delivering dynamic shifts with greater urgency and attack, but the KEFs counter with a presentation that's more effortless, more spacious and ultimately more cohesive. They don't simply place effects accurately around the room; they create an enormous, unified soundstage that encourages you to forget about the individual speakers altogether and become absorbed in the performance.

And that's ultimately this package's greatest achievement. Plenty of surround systems impress by throwing effects around the room or bombarding you with bass, but the KEFs never feel as though they're trying to show off.

Instead, they rather dissolve into the background, leaving only the sonic world of the movie you’re watching. That’s why we find ourselves still watching films long after our official testing is complete.

Verdict

The R Meta 5.1 package is beautifully engineered, immaculately built and packed with clever technology, but it's the effortless cohesion with which those individual elements come together that makes it so special.

Whether it's the seamless handover of effects between speakers, the KC92's astonishingly well-integrated bass or the vast, enveloping soundstage, every aspect of the system works towards a single goal: drawing you deeper into whatever you’re watching.

It's not entirely perfect. The R7 Meta floorstanders reward careful amplifier matching if you don't want them to sound a little too easy-going, and there are larger subwoofers capable of plumbing even greater depths. Neither ‘flaw’ significantly detracts from the overall experience, though.

Instead, the KEFs deliver one of the most immersive, refined and convincing surround performances we've heard at this level. This is a package that consistently prioritises the film over the fireworks, and that's precisely why it succeeds so brilliantly.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 5
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Fyne Audio F8SP AV

Also consider the PMC Twenty5.23 5.1

Read our KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 Speaker System review

Best surround sound systems: home cinema speakers and soundbars put to the test

There was once a time when legendary Japanese AV manufacturer Denon would update its home cinema amplifier range every year. Those days are now long behind us, which is why we’ve waited almost four years for the AVR-X2900H.

In that time, the shoes that this highly anticipated mid-range AV amp has to fill have only grown larger and larger. Most notably, Sony swanned onto the scene with the serial Award-winning TA-AN1000, which knocked Denon off the top spot.

There has also been a fair amount of stagnation in the AVR market lately, which makes every new release all the more important.

So, saying that the AVR-X2900H has landed in our testing room in a particularly high-pressure environment is quite the understatement. With it replacing the AVR-X2800H – a staple of our AV testing room and best AV receivers list alike – the X2900H has to impress. So does it?

Price

The X2900H is officially priced at £899 / $1349 / AU$1799, making it more expensive than its predecessor in the UK and US, but more affordable in Australia. The X2800H launched at £869 / $1200 / AU$2399, for reference.

It’s worth noting here that the version of this AVR sold in the USA is slightly different to the one we’re testing. It adds some key custom installation features including front left and right speaker pre-outs, a 12V trigger and an RS-232C port.

Furthermore, the UK version of the X2900H is the only model to feature a DAB tuner, with all other regions dropping this radio standard.

That said, this AV receiver still sits within the mid-range sector of the market, and specifically in Denon’s lineup it sits between the X1800H and the X3900H, the latter of which is expected to launch soon.

At this level, Denon is facing a rematch with the AV amplifier that ejected its previous amplifiers from our Awards list. Yes, the TA-AN1000 trudges on for yet another year as the sole AV amplifier in Sony’s lineup, but with a couple of years now under its belt, it can be found for £899 here in the UK. Discounts are also frequent, and we’ve seen it drop to as low as £699.

Design

Denon hasn’t been particularly daring with its AVR design in recent years. Much like the Targaryans in Game Of Thrones, or the Weasleys in Harry Potter, some strong genetic characteristics immediately identify this black box as a Denon amplifier.

The X2900H is another angular, brushed metal box sporting a rectangular display flanked by volume and source selection knobs, and a neatly organised row of buttons below it. Denon has made some appreciated updates here by angling the buttons upwards, making them easier to press if your AVR sits on a low shelf in your TV cabinet.

Subtle upgrades aside, this AVR remains functional-looking rather than particularly eye-catching, which is no great shame to us. That said, Denon’s sister company, Marantz, wins the AVR beauty contest – just look at the (admittedly much more expensive) Cinema 30 and tell us you disagree.

Speaking of which, the Denon has taken some inspiration from the Marantz when it comes to the remote. This simple-to-use handset now sports a side-mounted button that activates a backlight, making it much easier to use in a dark home cinema room.

Features

Much like its predecessor, the AVR-X2900H offers seven channels of amplification, supporting up to a 5.1.2 or 7.1 surround sound system.

Denon claims that this amp can output 95W per channel into 8 ohms, or 125W into 6 ohms, although that’s with only two of the seven available channels driven. It hasn’t given an exact figure regarding what the power output is with all channels driven, but Denon reportedly guarantees at least 70 per cent of that power with five channels driven.

It’s worth noting that Denon has its fellow Japanese competitor beaten when it comes to power output (albeit not by much), as the Sony TA-AN1000 offers 120W into 6 ohms with two channels driven.

Internally, Denon has implemented an upgraded 32-bit eight-channel DAC architecture for “improved imaging, clearer high-frequency detail and more confident low-frequency energy across every channel”.

The X2900H has also inherited a set of redesigned power capacitors from the company’s higher-end models, while Denon claims that the addition of silicon steel plates aids more powerful low-end frequencies. It also reports that unwanted vibrations have been reduced thanks to a new transformer plate.

Audyssey MultEQ XT makes a return for straightforward room correction, including automated speaker level and distance settings. Denon has also added support for the basic version of Dirac Live Room Correction this year, although it’s an optional extra that requires additional equipment to set up.

Accessing the MultEQ XT calibration system is a breeze thanks to the intuitive high-definition on-screen interface. Being able to confidently adjust settings without having to peer at the modest onboard display makes things much easier, and this will be a godsend to home cinema novices who might be setting up an AVR for the first time.

In terms of connectivity, the AVR-X2900H sports six HDMI inputs, three of which support signals up to 8K resolution, and Denon has added 1440p video pass-through and AMD FreeSync this year for better PC gaming support. There are also dual HDMI outputs, one of which is HDMI eARC, while the other supports Zone 2 functionality.

Gaming is capped at 4K/120Hz, however, which will be frustrating for PC gamers with more capable rigs, and possibly those with modern OLED TVs that can reach 165Hz. Denon makes up for this by including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), which the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S both support, and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Quick Frame Transport (QFT) are both on board to reduce latency.

There’s also support for both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, alongside HDR10 and HLG, meaning the X2900H should pass video through to your TV or projector nicely regardless of the make or model.

Wired connectivity extends beyond your TV or projector too, as there is a moving magnet phono input included for hooking up a turntable; ideal for those who are looking for an all-in-one AV and hi-fi amplifier.

Wireless connectivity is also solid, with streaming supported over wi-fi, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth. Denon’s HEOS platform is also on board, which grants access to countless music streaming apps, including Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music HD, TuneIn and Deezer.

HEOS also supports multi-room playback, meaning you can tie this AVR into a wider Denon speaker set-up if you have the brand’s wireless speakers dotted around your house. Interestingly, Denon also plans to release a software update that will allow users to use said wireless speakers as wireless surround channels for extra functionality.

Sound

Actually, Denon has two sets of oversized shoes to fill. The Denon AVR-X2800H has just ended an impressive run as both a previous What Hi-Fi? Award-winner, and as a longstanding entry on our best AV receivers list, while the Sony TA-AN1000’s reputation speaks for itself.

We’ve hooked the Denon AVR-X2900H up to our reference PMC speaker package, trying it in both a 5.1.2 and a 7.1 configuration, and we’ve raided our 4K reference library

The Denon DNA is immediately apparent when we fire up Civil War. The military base sequence in Charlottesville is a perfect exhibition of the X2900H’s strengths; this amplifier can provide a broad, bold and weighty cinematic audio experience with ease.

The general bustle of the military camp is presented with a broad, spacious sound, while the grumbling engines of trucks and the meaty rhythmic chopping of helicopter blades are realised with an appreciated sense of heft.

Sonic subtleties aren’t sacrificed entirely for brawn here, though. There is still plenty of detail to be gleaned from the X2900H, such as rippling water and the faint chirping of birds during the conversation between Lee and Jessie.

Its warmth and richness leave the Sony feeling slightly thin in comparison, and that’s paired with a sense of space and openness that ensures the Denon presents a cinematic sound that truly envelopes us.

This becomes more apparent when we switch to Marvel’s Thunderbolts, as the surround sound effect feels more cohesive compared with the Award-winning Sony.

Sound travels more fluidly between the front and surround channels; a particularly striking example of this is when a smoke grenade deploys, and the sound of smoke filling the room flows to reach all channels in our surround sound system.

The Denon also proves to be a dab hand at music. That rich, warm and smooth nature that we’ve already pointed out is well-suited to stereo content in Pure Direct.

Kacey Musgraves’ Butterflies features a superbly textured guitar melody and sweet-sounding vocals, while Bad Bunny’s NUEVAYoL takes advantage of the amplifier’s excellent sense of space to balance the rhythmic drumming, brass elements, electronic instrumentation, and range of vocal effects. In many ways, the Denon does more to draw us into the music than its Sony competitor.

However, it’s not all perfect. The Denon can lean into what we’d call over-indulgence at times. The immediacy and agility of the Sony result in a much more exciting presentation during tense moments such as the Thunderbolts sequence mentioned above. Its snappier, crisper and more direct sound also makes everything – especially dialogue – sound more natural.

Those warm, smooth and rich characteristics of the Denon that we’ve praised are sometimes taken a touch too far, resulting in somewhat dull-sounding vocals, and sudden dynamic shifts (think gunshots or explosions) don’t hit quite as hard as we’d like them to.

This takes us neatly onto the bass performance. Denon has clearly tried to one-up its competitor by raising the bass performance on the X2900H, and we certainly can’t deny that there is more low-end this time around.

Playing the famously challenging Blade Runner 2049 chapter two sequence, the X2900H digs deep and throws out swathes of bold bass. In many ways, Denon should be commended for how it's squeezed this much low-end power out of such a modest amplifier, but it also seems to have missed the point in doing so.

While there is more bass than we know what to do with, and it’s also polite enough to avoid distortion, it unfortunately also lacks definition, tonal variation, and dynamic expression. The rumbling drums in the soundtrack's Flight To The LAPD don’t build here in the way we expect, and it all feels one-note and ill-defined.

This ultimately impacts the steady building of tension in this sequence, and while the Sony doesn’t offer quite the same level of deep bass, its more deliberate handling of lower frequencies makes it the clear winner in this instance.

Verdict

The Denon AVR-X2900H is a feature-packed and, broadly speaking, very good-sounding home cinema amplifier.

It fills in a few sonic shortcomings of its Sony competitor, though in doing so it also makes some of its own flaws more apparent. While we approve of its warm, encompassing sound, it is also lacking some agility, and Denon’s approach to bass has missed the mark.

Nevertheless, this is a genuinely likeable and user-friendly amplifier, so is well worth serious consideration.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 5
• Design 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony TA-AN1000

Also consider the Denon AVR-X2800H

Read our Denon AVC-X3800H review

Best AV receivers: the top home cinema amplifiers we've tested

AWOL Vision might have only been around for six years (the blink of an eye by AV standards), but it’s already managed to cram an awful lot of progress into its short life.

As early as 2024, the brand was impressing us – without quite blowing our minds – with its LTV-3500 Pro ultra short throw model. And now, just two years later, the brand has massively upped the ante with the Aetherion Max.

This is another UST model, but the similarities with the LTV-3500 Pro pretty much end there. From its design through to its features and, most importantly, its picture and sound quality, it truly elevates AWOL Vision into the big leagues – all for a fraction of the price of its predecessor.

Price

Its steep price was arguably the Achilles heel of the LTV-3500 Pro, so it’s great to find the Aetherion Max selling for thousands of pounds (or dollars) less than that model – despite boasting a better design and an improved set of specifications and features.

There are, of course, UST models out there that cost much less than the Aetherion Max’s £3499 / $4499 / AU$6299 asking price – including the excellent Hisense PX3-Pro, which is now being discounted to as little as £1599 at some UK retailers.

If you’re able to afford £3499 for a projector, though, the Aetherion Max not only comfortably earns its extra cost but actually ends up feeling like a bargain.

Design

The Aetherion Max looks like a cross between an alien spaceship and a Robot Wars winner – in a good way.

At heart, it’s the usual UST projector low-slung rectangular shape with a recessed slit in the top where the light gets out, but that core design is embellished with a lovely metallic silver finish, a Battlestar Galactica Cylon-like blue illuminated strip running across the front edge that also sports a fetchingly designed speaker grille, and a host of false corners and angled panels that all catch the light differently, creating a strikingly futuristic, exaggerated 3D effect.

Eye-catching though the Aetherion Max is, its UST design means it’s still far less impactful on your room than a king-sized TV would be. We strongly suggest that such a premium projector be partnered with a good quality screen, but you can make this ‘disappear’ when you’re not watching it if you go for a retractable model that can roll back into its housing when you’re not using it.

As if by commercial magic, AWOL Vision actually sells its own impressive 100- and 120-inch ambient light rejecting motorised floor rising screens, with some dealers offering aggressively priced projector-plus-rising-screen package deals.

Having been sent a 120-inch screen with our Aetherion Max test sample, we can confirm that these are remarkably well built and effective screens for their money. They help images look substantially punchier and richer in bright rooms, while the screen’s black level performance holds up startlingly well in dark room set-ups too.

AV purists should note, though, that AWOL Vision’s screens use a 1.3 gain level, which is slightly higher than the neutral or 1.0 figures usually recommended for accurate dark room viewing.

The Aetherion Max is joined by a neatly designed remote control, complete with attractive and tactile metallic highlight elements, a clean and ergonomic button layout, and effective backlighting.

Features

AWOL Vision has equipped the Aetherion Max with a seriously impressive collection of facts and figures for its price.

Its DLP optics are illuminated by a triple laser lighting system, for starters, and this optical system is claimed to pump out both 3300 lumens of brightness and a colour range capable of covering the full BT.2020 spectrum.

That colour range is seldom really relevant to today’s content, though, which typically works within the smaller DCI-P3 range. Needless to say, 100 per cent coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut is promised, too.

A 7-level iris and an advanced black level enhancer algorithm are provided to try and maintain good contrast despite how bright the projector is, while owners of 3D Blu-ray discs will be pleased to hear that AWOL Vision’s latest projector supports 3D playback.

The Aetherion Max’s lens arrangement features so-called Sapphire glass elements that are made using an ultra-low dispersion design for enhanced sharpness, and coated with a Rare Earth material using a premium ‘planetary’ ultra-even coating process that’s claimed to boost light transmission, contrast and colour accuracy.

Backing up these hardware features is a PixelLock software solution that works to prevent pixel drift, where projected images can gradually lose focus over time due to changes in the projector’s optics or lens.

Unlike many of today’s ultra short throw and ‘lifestyle’ projectors, the Aetherion Max doesn’t carry a sophisticated automatic image installation system. The set-up features provided, though, are extensive and calibrated finely enough to make it possible to achieve perfect focus, geometry and corner-to-corner sharpness without having to work too hard.

The Aetherion Max joins the recently reviewed Valerion VisionMaster Pro 2 in sporting a new anti-rainbow effect technology. This manipulates the image’s refresh rate to reduce DLP projectors’ potential for red, green and blue stripes to flit over stand-out bright objects. The Aetherion Max’s Anti-RBE system works for 3D as well as 2D.

Gamers are extremely well supported by the Aetherion Max. Its HDMI ports support VRR and can stretch to 240Hz with Full HD (but not 4K) sources. We measure input lag at an excellent 9.7ms with 1080p/60Hz sources when the projector is set to its Game/PC preset, which drops to only just over 3ms at 240Hz.

These are fantastic results for a projector – though we should add that the refresh rate increases slightly to 12.0ms if you activate the projector’s AMD FreeSync VRR feature, and also increases to 15ms with 60Hz content if you forget to turn off the high frame rate feature you strangely have to manually activate to unlock higher frame rates.

The Aetherion Max carries three HDMIs – one more than many of its competitors – along with a USB-C DisplayPort you can use for connecting tablets or laptops, an S/PDIF digital audio output, an RS-232C control port, and a 3.5mm AV input.

ALLM support means the projector can automatically switch to its Game mode when a game source is detected, and its low-latency mode remains in play when you’re playing in Dolby Vision.

The only significant gaming limitation seems to be that using the AMD FreeSync version of VRR causes the Xbox Series X to default down to Full HD and SDR rather than 4K HDR.

We mentioned Dolby Vision HDR back there, but impressively the Aetherion Max also supports the rival HDR10+ format which, like Dolby Vision, passes extra signal information compatible displays can use to deliver more accurate picture results.

It’s still unusual for a projector to support even one of these advanced HDR formats, never mind both, so the Aetherion Max deserves major props for being able to play the best version of any content you feed it.

In fact, it even carries IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning it’s been deemed capable of getting the best from IMAX’s special mastering system.

As we’d expect to find with a UST projector, the Aetherion Max carries a built-in smart system. And as usual with projectors, that smart system comes courtesy of Google TV, accompanied by AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Miracast content sharing capabilities. As usual, though, the use of Google TV means there’s no BBC iPlayer support.

The Aetherion Max’s built-in sound system, finally, is impressively able to handle both the premium Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats – and it does so with much more power at its disposal than your average projector. The two 25W full-range drivers and a pair of tweeters are driven by 25 and 20 watts of amplification, respectively.

Picture quality

The Aetherion Max’s picture quality isn’t just a big improvement over the already more than decent LTV-3500 that marks our only previous interaction with an AWOL Vision projector; it’s actually arguably the best picture quality we’ve ever seen from any UST projector. Or, at least, a UST projector selling for anything like as little as the Aetherion Max does.

Looking at it first in the relatively dynamic and bold presets (HDR Standard and Dolby Vision Bright) that showcase its more extreme capabilities, the projector delivers a fantastically vibrant, bright but also contrast-rich image that punches confidently through daytime living room levels of ambient light.

This is especially true if you’re using the optional AWOL Vision ALR screen mentioned earlier, but it still out-punches most UST rivals even using an essentially neutral screen.

While this bright room capability is likely to be very welcome to anyone in the market for a specifically UST projector, what really tips the Aetherion Max into outstanding territory is how well its picture charms hold up in a dark room setting. Colours look even more vibrant, and brightness for both full-screen and peak highlight image elements looks fantastically intense.

Crucially, though, the enhanced intensity the AWOL Vision delivers in dark rooms isn’t just eye-catching; it’s also endlessly watchable and immersive thanks to the way colours still look natural, balanced and full of subtle nuances and blends despite their vibrancy; the way the brightness doesn’t lead colours to start looking washed out; and the way the projector’s black colours and dark scenes still look compelling and convincing despite the brightness and colour punch they’re appearing alongside.

We need to dwell on this black level point more. After all, unlike premium TVs, the Aetherion Max doesn’t have any true hardware-based local light controls to draw on. Yet its image management is so impressive in its HDR Standard mode that it somehow manages to deliver some of the deepest, most convincing blacks we’ve seen from any 3000-nit or brighter projector, despite its price being far from outrageous by premium projector standards.

These impressive black levels are achieved naturally enough, too, to ensure the Aetherion Max can render stand-out bright objects without either dimming them down to maintain consistent black levels, or black levels slipping into heavy greyness to accommodate the bright object’s intensity.

As well as helping dark images look convincing, this sort of contrast consistency really helps you get lost in what you’re watching – something that should always be the ultimate goal of any display, regardless of how eye-poppingly extreme its on-paper specifications might be.

AWOL Vision’s HDR tone mapping is remarkably good for such an affordable high-spec projector. It consistently shows an excellent knack for delivering an unusually bold HDR image experience by projector standards without leaving the image looking strained or full of distracting over-exaggerations or imbalances.

While the Aetherion Max’s Standard mode imagery is so alluring that it may well become the only setting most households need, we’re very happy to discover that AWOL Vision’s projector seals its status as our UST projector of choice by also managing to turn its hand to accurate dark-room playback.

Whether you’re using the HDR Filmmaker Mode or Dolby Vision Dark settings, the projector does an excellent job of reining in its more extreme tendencies to deliver images that track creators’ intent without looking remotely lifeless and flat like they can on all too many rival projectors running in similar picture modes.

Images still look quite bright by projector Filmmaker Mode standards, for starters, and black levels look, if anything, slightly deeper without crushing out subtle shadow detailing or exposing noise in near-dark areas.

Colours still look balanced and nuanced too, even if saturations are slightly toned down for the most part, and detail levels are high without starting to look forensic or overly gritty.

Skin tones look even more nuanced and believable than they do in the HDR Standard and Dolby Vision Bright modes too, while motion avoids looking excessively juddery even with 24p sources without any potentially distracting side effects from the available multi-strength motion processing.

The Aetherion Max carries all the tools needed for a full ISF calibration if you’re willing to spend money to optimise the projector’s performance for your specific surroundings. AWOL Vision has shown such a fine understanding of both HDR and SDR images with its Filmmaker Mode and Dolby Vision Dark settings, though, that we really don’t think many owners will feel the need to go the extra ISF mile.

That’s not to say, though, that the Aetherion Max is perfect or doesn’t benefit from any intervention. For instance, bright highlights of HDR images can clip (lose shading and colour subtleties) quite strongly in Filmmaker Mode unless you turn off the Enhance Black Level feature. Yet doing that can cause black levels to look a little greyer.

The anti-rainbow-effect technology can cause the projector to output an extra whining sound, and at the time of writing is applied automatically to many of the projector’s presets. If the noise bothers you, you may find you need to turn to a setting that doesn’t have the feature active – so it’s handy that these settings tend to be the most movie night-friendly options.

Strangely, the Anti-RBE processing doesn’t seem as effective here as it did on the Valerion VisionMaster Pro Max. It does reduce the rainbow effect, but not as much – something that people who are particularly prone to seeing rainbowing might want to take note of.

The Dolby Vision Bright mode can generate a hint of shimmering effect over bright picture expanses, as well as introducing a mild green undertone to the image. This green undertone all but disappears in Dolby Vision Dark mode, though, helping it become one of our favourite out-of-the-box Dolby Vision projection options.

Even with its FreeSync VRR resolution and HDR limitation, the Aetherion Max is a fabulous big-screen gaming display.

It really is remarkably responsive for a projector, rivalling the best TVs for how quickly it seems to react to your controller or keyboard inputs. Its gaming images look crisp, punchy and vibrant, too, especially at the higher frame rates the projector can seamlessly handle.

Pro gamers may struggle with the time it takes to move their eyes around images as big as those the Aetherion Max is designed to deliver, but the projector’s silicon, at least, won’t cost such gamers many precious milliseconds of response time.

AWOL Vision provided a couple of pairs of its own DLP Link 3D glasses with the Aetherion Max – and we are mostly glad it did.

Early impressions of this projector had suggested that its 3D pictures might suffer from major crosstalk (ghosting) problems, but such issues seem to have been almost completely resolved with our sample. Its 3D images look impressively detailed and clean, in fact, with practically no crosstalk interference at all.

Judder can be a little distracting during 3D action scenes, but there isn’t any major flickering to worry about, and 3D images look brighter, more naturally coloured and richer in contrast – including excellent black levels – than they do on many 3D-capable rivals.

Sound quality

The Aetherion Max’s front-mounted speakers (where our description of front refers to the side of the projector that faces out into the room) are predictably far better than those you get built into most projectors.

They can get loud enough to create a cinematic presence in even quite large rooms, for starters, and they’re able to maintain impressive amounts of detail in a good movie mix even at near max volume levels.

More bass than many projectors can achieve is on hand to provide action movies with a good sense of weight and scale, and there’s enough headroom in the projector’s mid-range to allow the sound to shift up through a convincing number of gears as action and horror movie set pieces build to a climax.

Dialogue is usually clean without standing out too much from the rest of the mix, and expansive soundtracks are thrown clear of the projector very effectively, creating a soundstage so big it makes you forget that it’s being produced from the diminutive form of a UST projector.

There are a few limitations to its audio efforts, though.

Bass can become slightly strained and huffy under severe pressure, as well as sometimes struggling for timing with deep rhythmical/percussive effects.

Deep male voices can occasionally sound a little hummy/electronic too, and dialogue generally can sound as if it’s coming from below your screen, rather than being raised to the level of the onscreen action.

Finally, very high-pitched sounds can hit your ears a bit harshly at high volumes.

While these niggles explain why we’ve only given the Aetherion Max a score of four for sound, though, as we said at the start of this section, it still sounds much more immersive and cinematic than your average projector.

Verdict

While the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max isn’t cheap by today’s UST projector standards, it delivers a combination of specification and performance that ultimately makes it look like a bargain.

In fact, with the projector’s design, features, specs and picture and sound quality all given appropriate weight alongside its price, it’s sneaked right to the top of our current UST projector chart.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Leica Cine 1

Also consider the BenQ W4100i

Read our Hisense PX3-Pro review

These are the best projectors tested by our home cinema experts

Samsung has applied an unexpected twist to its eighth generation of folding phones.

Traditionally, the Korean smartphone titan has split its foldable lineup into two subsets: the Flip, which is a throwback to the flip phones of the early 2000s, and the Fold, which is a book-style foldable that goes from traditional smartphone to small tablet form factor in a matter of seconds.

However, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 changes that, as the Fold now comes in two flavours: the Z Fold 8 and the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

If you're still reeling from that revelation, we need to hit you with another shocking announcement: the Z Fold 8 Ultra isn't the surprising new device of the duo. In fact, it's the standard Z Fold 8 that has caught us off guard – in a good way, of course.

We were lucky enough to attend an early hands-on session to check these new bendable smartphones out before their official announcement at Samsung Unpacked, and we've got plenty of early thoughts on this new duo of handsets.

Price

Samsung has shared UK pricing for both models in all storage configurations. Pricing is as follows:

These are premium handsets, and the pricing reflects that. The Z Fold 8 is actually £100 cheaper than the outgoing Galaxy Z Fold 7; however, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is £100 more.

The Z Fold 8 comes in four finishes – Graphite, Cream, Pistachio and Lavender – while the Z Fold 8 Ultra also comes in Graphite and Cream, as well as Violet Shadow and Green Shadow.

Design and build

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is very similar to last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7 in stature. It retains the same 6.5-inch 21:9 outer display and 8-inch interior display, although it's somehow even thinner this year. That's a pretty impressive claim considering that the Z Fold 7 was just a hair thicker than the USB-C charging port when unfolded.

Samsung has also created an easier opening and closing mechanism through the inclusion of magnets, which makes the Z Fold 8 Ultra noticeably easier to unfold into its tablet form.

Both the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra also come with the brand's new Flex Titanium Technology display architecture. Underneath the flexible AMOLED display now sits a super-thin titanium alloy mesh and a flexible titanium plate, which work together to create a flatter and more uniform display when the phones are unfolded.

The crease in the middle of the phone is, as a result, less prominent, resulting in a more seamless interactive experience on those larger interior displays.

Moving on to the Z Fold 8, this is where things get interesting. It features an entirely new form factor, with a 7.6-inch 4:3 landscape interior display with a 10:16 aspect ratio outer screen. While the Z Fold 8 Ultra is more akin to a chocolate bar when folded, the Z Fold 8 feels more like a passport.

Its shorter and wider stature makes it strangely satisfying to hold, as its size is almost like one of the BlackBerry handsets from around 15 years ago. And in a world of smartphones that are becoming less wieldy, especially for one-handed operation, it's incredibly refreshing to use this outer display, as every edge and corner is within thumb's reach.

Best of all, Samsung has reportedly made this change with content consumption in mind. While the Z Fold 8 Ultra remains a flagship for power users, the standard Z Fold 8 is positioned as a device designed for watching, reading, and scrolling.

Features

Both handsets sport a multitude of features to make them ideal for consuming movies and music. The Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra both feature displays with 3000 nits peak brightness, with HDR10+ support and Samsung's Vision Booster feature on board. This can boost contrast to ensure greater visibility when using the handsets in direct sunlight.

Samsung has also implemented its effective anti reflectivity display coating, which is appreciated considering these phones sport large interior screens that can easily catch the light.

What wasn't disclosed during our early hands-on session is whether these phones support Samsung's excellent ProScaler feature. If this is on board, we presume it will be the improved version found on the five-star Galaxy S26 Ultra.

As for sound, it seems as though Samsung is sticking with Dolby Atmos, which can be accessed via the built-in speakers and either wired or wireless headphones.

Samsung has outfitted both foldables with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor and, depending on your storage configuration, that will be paired with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM. The Galaxy S26 Ultra uses the same processor and RAM combination, and it has no trouble handling the Android operating system with Samsung's One UI system running on top.

This includes Samsung's exhaustive list of Galaxy AI features. We'll spare you the full list, but the usual suite of picture editing, search functions and writing tools are all present.

Samsung's nifty Now Brief feature is also here, which can show you contextual information throughout your day, while Now Nudge will recognise important information on your screen (such as times, dates, and locations) and offer contextual replies based on information from other apps, such as your calendar.

Features-wise, the biggest way in which these phones differ is with their cameras. The Z Fold 8 sports two outer cameras – a 50MP main and a 50MP ultra wide – while the Z Fold 8 Ultra features an upgraded 50MP ultra wide camera (up from 12MP), a 200MP main camera, and 10MP telephoto lens.

There's also a difference in battery capacity. The Z Fold 8 gets a 4800mAh battery rated for up to 26 hours of video playback, whereas the Z Fold 8 Ultra moves up to a 5000mAh cell with an additional hour of video playback. Both support wired fast charging up to 45W.

Picture

Screen size differences aside, both handsets offered a similar picture experience during our brief hands-on testing. As per usual, our testing environment was less than ideal, as we weren't allowed to download or log in to any streaming apps, so we had to rely on movie trailers played on YouTube. Therefore, our early findings here won't be representative of our final review.

We watched the trailers for Dune: Part Three, The Odyssey, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day during the hands-on session; clearly we're huge Zendaya fans.

Both devices presented sharp and crisp images, with punchy and bold colours and fairly smooth-looking motion. The biggest difference between the two, however, was the presence of the letterboxing bars.

As both phones use OLED displays, the bars remained perfectly black and easy to ignore, but the aspect ratio of the standard Z Fold 8 meant that the bars themselves were much smaller and, therefore, less noticeable.

We would have ideally swapped the colours to the natural preset, and also preferably streamed something in HDR10+ to see these phones at their maximum potential, but Samsung made us pinky promise not to swap settings or install any apps.

Sound

We'll keep this brief, we weren't able to do any meaningful sound testing during our hands on time.

We did, however, manage to quickly blast the speakers on the Z Fold 8 Ultra in the busy hands-on area, and found that they cut through the hustle and bustle surprisingly effectively.

We'll need to plug a pair of our reference headphones in to fully assess how these phones handle music, but looking generally at Samsung's portfolio, we know that its handsets tend to fall behind Apple and Sony's best offerings when it comes to music.

That could all change with the Z Fold 8 and 8 Ultra, but only time (and some thorough testing) will tell.

Early verdict

Samsung's surprising duo of new foldables have made a positive first impression. We've been a fan of having a bigger screen to watch movies on that conveniently fits into your pocket for quite a while now, so having an even more compact option that's made with content consumption in mind is music to our ears.

We'll need to test both phones before we apply a full verdict, so stay tuned for our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra reviews coming soon.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

As well as our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

And check out our picks for the best smartphones

We’ve tested Denon’s entry-level, mid-range, and premium AVRs in recent years, but it’s been quite some time since we reviewed the brand’s most top-of-the-range home cinema amplifier.

Now, we finally have our hands on the AVC-A1H.

This flagship amplifier promises superior cinematic sound accompanied by a long list of home cinema features, but that all comes at a considerable price.

The thinking here is that if Denon can impress us with its mid-range amplifiers, then its flagship is sure to blow us away. And indeed it does just that…

Price

Officially priced at £6300 / AU$12,499, the AVC-A1H sits at the very top of Denon’s consumer AV amplifier range. It’s sold as the AVR-A1H in the US for $7200, with the ‘R’ in the name denoting the presence of an AM/FM, tuner, which is absent from the UK and Australian version. Otherwise, these amplifiers are functionally the same.

The AVC-A1H has been on sale for a little while now, which means that we are seeing some hefty price drops. It can be found for closer to £5000 in the UK, for example.

Generally speaking, the A1H sits between two notable five-star amplifiers. The Award-winning Marantz Cinema 30 launched at a lower price of £4000 / $4500 / AU$7900, though it can be found for £3500 in the UK (pricing in the US seems to have risen to $4800).

The JBL Synthesis SDR-38, meanwhile, launched at a more premium price of £7300 / $8550 / AU$16,999 – though that, too, is subject to considerable discounts at the time of writing.

Build

The AVC-A1H is one of the bulkiest home cinema amplifiers to cross our home cinema testing room’s threshold in recent memory.

Weighing in at a staggering 32kg, we recommend asking a friend to help you lift this behemoth out of the box and into position. It also has a large footprint to match, measuring 43 x 50 x 20cm (hwd), so you’ll need to make sure you have ample space in your TV unit or, more realistically, AV rack.

If you’ve seen a Denon AV amplifier before, chances are you won’t be taken aback by the AVC-A1H’s looks. This is essentially a scaled-up version of the other amplifiers found in Denon’s range; that’s to say it's a large metal cuboid that comes in either black or silver, with a rectangular screen stretching across the front edge flanked by asymmetrical source selection and volume wheels.

Much like the AVC-X6800H that sits below it, the A1H sports a door that opens downwards to reveal a selection of on-unit controls. However, we find that the backlit, metal-clad remote is the vastly preferable way to interact with the home cinema amplifier. Most Denon remotes we’ve seen on other models are all-plastic, so this is an appreciated change to reflect the A1H’s premium position.

The Denon AVC-A1H leans towards practicality rather than aesthetics, but as we’ll come to find out, the superb functionality is worth the sacrifice of form in this instance.

Features

Denon’s AV amplifiers are renowned for their extensive feature sets, so it should come as no surprise that this is one of the most thoroughly equipped amplifiers that we’ve seen.

With an impressive 15 channels of amplification, the A1H can support speaker configurations up to 9.4.6. Users with smaller speaker packages can also split those amplification channels across two additional zones, meaning you can comfortably power additional speakers in your home from just one amplifier.

Denon claims that the A1H delivers 150W of amplification per channel into 8 ohms, though that is with only two channels driven.

The sheer number of amplification channels is a considerable upgrade over the JBL Synthesis SDR-38, which sports just seven channels, although that amplifier touts a higher 180W output with two channels driven.

Denon has also outfitted the A1H with its most premium internal components. This includes the brand’s most powerful transformers, as well as 10 two-channel ESS Sabre ES9018K2M DAC chips, a high-spec DSP processing engine, and gold-plated speaker terminals.

All of these components have been specially selected and tuned by Denon’s highly experienced engineers at its Shirakawa audio works, where it is also tuned by the company’s Sound Master for the ultimate seal of approval.

This amplifier sports three HDMI outputs (eARC, Zone 2 and Zone 3), and seven HDMI 2.1 inputs. All of these can handle video signals up to either 4K/120Hz or 8K/60Hz, and a plethora of gaming features such as VRR, ALLM and QFT which aid smoother and more responsive gameplay.

This AV amplifier also supports all major HDR formats, including HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The same is true for immersive sound formats, as the A1H can handle Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auro 3D and Sony 360 Reality Audio, and it’s IMAX Enhanced certified.

Wireless connectivity is also very comprehensive, with Denon’s HEOS wireless streaming platform handling the likes of Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music and more. Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2 and TuneIn are also supported, as is Bluetooth 5.0. HEOS also allows for multi-room playback, meaning you can tie this amplifier into a system with other Denon and Marantz wireless speakers and network amplifiers.

Finally, the A1H, much like the rest of Denon’s AV amplifiers, supports Audyssey MultiEQ XT32 room correction. Simply plug the included microphone in and follow the simple on-screen instructions, and the amplifier can measure your space to determine speaker levels and distances. Dirac Live Room Correction and Dirac Live Bass Control are also supported, though the licenses to use these need to be purchased separately.

Sound

Denon has piled on the features, but how does the AVC-A1H sound? That is the most important factor at the end of the day, so we’re pleased to report that this AV amplifier sounds simply incredible.

We’ve hooked it up to the five-star KEF R Meta 5.1 Speaker System for our testing, plugged in our reference Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, and selected a handful of reference discs from our 4K Blu-ray library.

Starting with F1: The Movie, the Denon’s strengths are made immediately obvious during the opening 24 Hours of Daytona race. This amplifier makes light work of creating a hugely spacious and totally immersive sound, with every aspect of the scene bursting with three-dimensional energy.

Everything from the clattering of gravel hitting the tarmac and the screech of tyres as cars spin out, to the crackling of fireworks and a swooping helicopter sounds superbly crisp.

That detail is essential, as it ensures that while this amplifier sounds hugely spacious, it also remains superbly focused and positionally accurate. Most importantly, the A1H knows exactly how to handle each of these competing effects, ensuring that they’re all presented in a way that sounds natural, while ensuring nothing gets lost in the wider mix.

That is also felt with the presentation of dialogue. The way voices are handled, with a reverence to low-level dynamics and tonal variation, is truly impressive. The Marantz Cinema 30 also sounds superb in this regard, but the Denon takes things to another level with natural, balanced and realistic voices that sound as though the actors on screen are instead standing before us to deliver their lines.

What bowls us over most during our testing, however, is how this amplifier handles bass. Two of our favourite bass stress test sequences – Blade Runner 2049’s flight to the LAPD sequence, and Dune: Part One’s worm attack scene – both shine through this amplifier.

The rhythmic drumming of the Dune soundtrack feels wonderfully textured and expertly timed, whereas the tricky effects in Blade Runner’s chapter two balance deep bass and tonal variation with finesse, resulting in a steady build of tension throughout.

This is also a testament to how the AVC-A1H handles dynamics. This amplifier is extremely talented when it comes to dynamic expression, meaning that rather than presenting instant jumps in volume, we feel the swell of larger volume shifts, which once again makes everything sound more natural and immersive.

The Denon doesn’t feel sluggish or lethargic, and when needed it can punch through with big, bombastic dynamic shifts, and it moves sounds around with an excellent sense of agility and pace. Switching back to F1, we find that the rumbling engines of the GT3 cars build and dynamically move around our listening position as they approach and execute an overtake on the racetrack.

This bold, rich, warm and powerful sound also extends to music. Carly Rae Jepsen’s On Wires features a balance of soft vocals with a powerful chorus that suddenly bursts to life, alongside a mix of acoustic and electronic elements; all of which are handled with extreme finesse from the Denon.

The sizzling electronic score of Tron: Legacy (composed by legendary DJ duo, Daft Punk) is presented with equal vigour. The thumping bass and sparkling snares of Derezzed sound electric through the Denon, ensuring the pulse-pounding nightclub action sequence is presented with an appropriate sense of drama and style.

The real question is: how does this amplifier compare to our reference Marantz AVR? Simply put, the Denon takes everything we love about the Cinema 30 and dials things up multiple notches. Considering the price difference, this is sort of what we’d expect, and it certainly doesn’t detract from the Marantz's talents.

In other words, if you have the space in your budget, the Denon is well worth the extra outlay, but no one who can’t stretch that far will be disappointed by the sumptuous performance of the Marantz.

Verdict

Denon’s flagship amplifier justifies its large price tag, and even larger chassis. With a rich, powerful and natural sound, it takes every film and song we throw at it and makes them shine without breaking a sweat.

Equipped with an exhaustive feature set and an intuitive set-up, this enthusiast-level amplifier is actually a stellar choice for all levels of home cinema fans – providing they have a generous budget.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the JBL Synthesis SDR-38

Also consider the Marantz Cinema 30

Read our Arcam AVR31 review

Best AV receivers: the top home cinema amplifiers we've tested

Q Acoustics makes a long-awaited return to our home cinema testing room with its new 3050c 5.1 speaker package.

Built around components from the recently introduced entry-level 3000c series, this surround sound system inherits crucial driver technology and design cues from Q Acoustics’ higher-end ranges.

The brand has built an impressive reputation over the years for delivering massive, room-filling sound in both the hi-fi and home cinema senses, so expectations are high for this new surround sound package.

We’re also eager to see how trickle-down speaker technology performs in practice; top-tier engineering doesn’t always mesh seamlessly with mid-range components, after all. So, how does the 3050c 5.1 package perform?

Price

Q Acoustics doesn’t officially sell the system it's provided us with as a complete set, though it has given us a combined price of £1,896 / $3,506 for this package. It does sell an identically named pack on its website and through other retailers, though this comes with a different subwoofer, so we expect the performance to be different.

The package we’ve been supplied comprises the 3050c floorstanders (£749 / $1349 per pair), the 3010c bookshelf surrounds (£249 / $479 per pair), the 3090c centre channel speaker (£229 / $399), and the Q SUB100 active subwoofer (£699 / $1199). The widely available pre-bundled package swaps the Q SUB100 for the 3060S subwoofer, and costs £1626 here in the UK.

Competition at this price sits squarely with the Award-winning Bowers & Wilkins 606/607 S3 speaker system, which is currently available at various retailers for around £1950, down from its original price of £2496.

The B&W package has proven to be an issue for Q Acoustics before, as it edged out the 5040 5.1 package at our 2023 Awards – who doesn’t love a rematch?

Build & design

The 3050c 5.1 package is a good-looking and well-built collection of speakers. They sport smooth corners and metallic embellishments, resulting in a modern, high-quality look that should blend nicely into many living rooms or home cinema environments.

Our system is in the Satin White finish, though you can also buy the speakers in Satin Black, Claro Walnut, or Pin Oak finishes. All colourways come with a unique champagne-gold baffle surround surrounding the drivers, which gives them an elevated look. The speakers also include magnetic grilles in the box.

The 3050c are a pair of mid-sized floorstanders, measuring 102 x 32 x 32cm (hwd, including spikes and stabilisers), and the 3010c are a very compact set of surrounds at 25 x 16 x 25cm (hwd).

Though it's the 3090c that surprises us most; at just 16 x 43 x 22cm (hwd), it’s one of the smallest centre channel speakers to cross the threshold of our home cinema room in recent memory. The Q SUB100 also keeps things relatively compact at 35 x 35 x 38cm (hwd).

The 3000c family sports a multitude of design features aimed at improving sound. All components feature rear ports, and Q Acoustics has implemented its P2P (Point to Point) bracing system throughout the range for enhanced rigidity, aimed at “improving the focus of the stereo image and giving the soundstage more accuracy than ever before”, according to Q Acoustics.

Specific to the 3050c floorstanders is the inclusion of HPE (Helmholtz Pressure Equaliser) tubes, which are fitted inside the speakers to nullify internal cabinet pressure and improve frequency response, all in the pursuit of eliminating unwanted standing waves and colouration.

Features

Core to the 3000c series is Q Acoustics’ C3 Continuous Curved Cone driver design, which first debuted in the 5000 series speakers; namely the Award-winning 5040 floorstanders.

Found here in the mid/bass drivers, the proprietary speaker design reportedly touts the “bass performance advantages of a traditional straight conic cone with the midrange and high-end control of a flared cone”.

Similarly, the tweeter design for this range also takes inspiration from the more expensive 5000 series speakers. The high-frequency drivers within the 3000c series are hermetically sealed and mechanically isolated from the baffle, which Q Acoustics says will prevent “internal pressure modulations from within the cabinet and from the adjacent mid/bass driver”.

The floorstanding 3050c sandwiches a 22mm tweeter between dual 14cm mid/bass drivers in a vertical arrangement. The 3010c surrounds and 3090c centre channel share the same tweeter, paired with a single 10cm driver in each surround speaker and a symmetrical, dual-driver layout flanking the tweeter in the centre speaker.

Moving onto the subwoofer, the Q SUB100 (and for that matter, the whole of the Q Sub range) is touted to be more powerful than the Q12 subwoofer included with the 5040 5.1 package. It sports a 25cm driver, a claimed peak amplification power of 500W, and a clever source detection system that can distinguish the input type (whether that’s a stereo amplifier or a multi-channel home cinema receiver) and level to adapt bass performance.

Sound

Good looks and an extensive feature-set only tell a small portion of the story; it’s the sound performance that we care most about.

We have the 3050c 5.1 package hooked up to the Award-winning Marantz Cinema 30 for our testing. While this amplifier is undeniably overkill for a speaker package of this price, its revealing sound and plentiful power should help us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of this system.

We also have the Bowers & Wilkins 606/607 S3 speaker package on hand as a reference, and we’ve raided our library of reference 4K discs to assess performance.

Starting with F1: The Movie, the 3050c 5.1 is off to a flying start. The energy and pace of this speaker system are immediately evident, resulting in an exciting, almost nerve-wracking sound during the tense 24 hours of Daytona race at the beginning of the film. As cars overtake daringly and spin out in a spectacular display of carnage, the Q Acoustics’ agility is a clear asset.

The 3050c 5.1 also does an excellent job of putting us in the middle of the action. The cohesion between the front and surround channels is excellent, ensuring there are no noticeable gaps. As such, the surround speakers are also integrated well, meaning we’re not made aware of them in a distracting way.

The sense of space and height is also a highlight of this system. The voices of David Croft and Martin Brundle as they commentate over races have a genuine sense of height, and the wide, enveloping soundfield puts us squarely in the centre of the action.

Moving onto Dune: Part One, we watch the sequence in which the Atreides family survey the spice desert from the air. The voices are clear and crisp, making dialogue easy to understand, and the thunderous drums that command the soundtrack flex the Q SUB100's muscles with a strong leading edge to each strike, and a touch of tonal variety that sprinkles in some texture and life to the rhythmic beats.

Switching our testing disc to Marvel’s Thunderbolts, we use the sequence in which the anti-heroes escape a facility in the desert with the mysterious Bob. The speaker system’s positive attributes are perfectly suited to this sequence; its agile and exciting nature makes the fight sequences feel wonderfully intense, and the talented subwoofer brings a hefty dose of bass to a big explosion and a flurry of gunshots.

However, this scene also affirms a shortcoming of the package, specifically the centre channel. While the majority of the system works in harmony to create a cohesive and cinematic sound, the centre channel feels like it's the only component at odds with that.

Voices sound too narrow and boxed in, making us acutely aware of where they’re coming from. While this does aid vocal clarity, it also means that voices don’t feel particularly well integrated into the greater mix. They also sound tonally quite flat, which makes the snide jabs thrown from one team member to another feel as though they’re lacking in character.

This package has a clear tendency to sound lean. The agility and crispness that are, in a vacuum, two positive attributes can also result in the 3050c system sounding a bit too forward and, at times, slightly insistent. It’s lacking a touch of warmth and naturalness that the Bowers & Wilkins 606/607 S3 5.1 system brings to the table.

This is felt most when it comes to music. Switching to Pure Direct for some stereo content, we find that Maggie Rogers’ Dog Years, Bon Iver’s There’s A Rhythm and Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Boys all come across as slightly shouty, despite all being fairly soft-sounding tracks.

That said, we can’t dispute the 3050c’s detail and timing, as both are excellent when we listen to music through them.

Verdict

Q Acoustics has launched another eye-catching and exciting-sounding home cinema package that is sure to appeal to those who want a 5.1 system that is bursting with energy. While we feel that it can sound a bit too lean at times, and we wish that the centre channel paired better with the rest of the system, we still think that there is plenty to like here.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Bowers & Wilkins 606 & 607 S3 speaker package

Also consider the Fyne Audio F500E AV Pack 2

Read our Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Home Cinema Pack review

Best surround sound systems: home cinema speakers and soundbars put to the test

Hisense has clearly decided that it’s time to capitalise on its huge success in the lifestyle projector world by launching a shiny, new no-holds-barred flagship model.

Boasting 6000 lumens of brightness, a triple laser lighting system, liquid cooling, a built-in Devialet sound system, an all-glass lens and support for every HDR format in town, the XR10 certainly makes all the right flagship noises.

But can Hisense marshal all these expensive pieces into a class-leading performance?

Price

With Hisense usually found successfully plying its trade in the mid-range lifestyle projector arena, the £5999 / $6000 / AU$9995 price of the XR10 really is a major step up for the brand.

In fact, it will doubtless be a step too far for many home cinema-loving households, and even raises the question of whether a projector that seems from the outside at least to have been designed more as a ‘lifestyle’ model than a serious home theatre machine really makes sense at such a price.

As we’re about to explain, though, we think the XR10 makes all kinds of sense, even at its very high price.

Design

The XR10’s design is nuts in all the best ways. For starters, it ships in a beautifully designed, built-to-measure real leather carry case complete with wheels and an extendable handle that looks like Hisense thinks you’re going to love the projector so much you’ll want to take it on holiday with you.

The projector’s spectacular bodywork, meanwhile, is actually transparent in some places, so that you can marvel at some of the cool things going on under the projector’s hood.

A huge lens aperture sits within a bold bronze-coloured metallic square on one side of the projector’s front, while the left side houses two vertical stripes, one recessed, one not, housing sensors that the projector can use to help it deliver a more effective automatic set-up system.

The projector’s left, right and top edges are finished in the same bronzy colour as the area around the lens housing, while the projector’s shape resembles a larger (and much heavier) version of the sort of roughly cubic designs we’ve started to see dominating the living room projector market in recent times.

The top plate sports a beautifully designed round dial-style volume adjustment, as well as a large ambient light sensor the projector can use to optimise its picture performance to different room conditions.

That volume control, along with the grilles built into the XR10’s left and right edges, reflects the fact that the XR10 carries a built-in sound system deemed powerful enough to enable the projector to be used as a standalone wireless speaker if you so desire.

The various finishes to different sides and even within the front edge of the XR10 ought, by all rights, to make its design look a bit of a mess. Actually, though, it all comes together remarkably well in a vaguely cyberpunk kind of way.

Features

The XR10 is mostly specced to kill.

Its 6000 claimed lumens of laser-delivered peak brightness is huge by serious projector standards, for starters. That’s easily enough to punch through quite a bit of ambient light if that’s what you want it to do; drive a particularly big screen (Hisense claims 300 inches); and/or potentially handle HDR sources better than most projectors can.

Brightness alone can actually be anything but a friend to projector picture quality, though, so it’s impressive to see Hisense backing this brightness up with a healthy claimed native contrast performance of 6000:1. This jumps, too, to a very impressive claimed 60,000:1 courtesy of the projector’s premium lens iris system. As ever, though, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Hisense has gone the extra mile, too, to avoid the sort of rowdy cooling-fan noise you might normally expect to hear from a 6000-lumen projector by integrating liquid (water) cooling into the XR10’s chassis. This is the first time, we believe, that such cooling has been used in an albeit premium living room projector.

Another big justification for the XR10’s price is its use of an all-glass, 16-element lens system that Hisense claims will deliver better light transmission and temperature stability than a plastic system could, resulting in more brightness/contrast and more consistent 4K sharpness.

The colour coverage claimed for the XR10’s laser lighting/DLP optical system is huge too: up to 110 per cent of the massive BT2020 colour space. That’s well beyond the DCI-P3 colour system used for most HDR mastering.

Talking of HDR, the XR10 is one of a very rare breed in the projector world that’s capable of playing all four of the AV world’s main HDR formats: HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. It’s even received IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning it has been deemed capable of doing justice to the special IMAX mastering system (which focuses on creating a noiseless look to the image). Basically, the XR10 will take in the best version of any content you feed it.

For all their advantages, setting up premium projectors can often be a pain. Hisense couldn’t have worked harder to simplify the physical aspect of set-up, though. The XR10 carries an industry-first four-8MP-camera and dual Time-of-flight (TOF) intelligent sensing set-up that it can use to correct image size, keystone and focus without you having to lift a finger. Plus, that ambient sensor we mentioned earlier can tie its readings into the calculations of a ‘Smart AI’ auto-adjustment system so that images can auto-adjust to compensate for changing room conditions.

As well as all its sensors and AI brainpower, the XR10 carries an exceptionally wide-ranging 0.84-2.0x optical zoom and bags of vertical and horizontal image shifting. It’s therefore able to (auto) adapt itself to a seriously wide range of different room sizes and layouts – and is also capable of delivering a 100-inch image from a throw distance of just 1.86m.

As we’ve come to expect from today’s lifestyle projectors, the XR10 carries a built-in smart system so that you can stream video without the need for any external sources. Rather than the Google TV system found in most projectors, though, the XR10 turns to Hisense’s own VIDAA system. This is good news, as it’s straightforward and stable to use, and it carries all of the streaming services the vast majority of households will need, including the BBC iPlayer app that’s almost always absent from Google TV systems.

The XR10 is, of course, a 4K projector. It doesn’t have a full 3840x2160 count of digital mirror devices (DMDs) that would be needed for a ‘true’ 4K experience, though. Instead, it features Texas Instruments’ XPR technology to create a 4K image from a lower DMD count using pixel-shifting. The Consumer Technology Association in the US deems the resulting images to be true 4K, though, and as we’ll see, it’s hard to disagree with that stance based on the XR10’s real-life 4K performance.

The XR10’s connections impressively comprise three HDMI ports (one 2.0, two 2.1), three USBs, an optical digital audio output, a headphone jack, an Ethernet port, and the now-expected wi-fi and Bluetooth wireless options. Apple AirPlay 2 is included in the projector’s wireless content sharing options, too.

There is one connection disappointment, though, as we couldn’t manage to get even the two HDMI 2.1 ports to handle 4K content at 120Hz from our Xbox Series X. 120Hz is possible at 1440p resolutions with the HDMI ports set to Enhance Mode Pro, but there’s no VRR support in this set-up, and nor can the projector sustain HDR gaming at any refresh rate above 60Hz.

One last premium aspect of the XR10 is its audio. Not only does it carry a 2.1 speaker system that includes a dedicated bass driver and supports DTS: Virtual X playback, but this speaker system has been tuned by acclaimed audio brand Devialet, picking up on a relationship Hisense previously forged for the speaker systems of its high-end TVs.

Picture

We’ve consistently referred to the XR10 so far as a ‘lifestyle’ or 'living room' projector, based chiefly on its appearance and convenient set-up features. It’s worth reflecting before we get into its performance, though, on the fact that Hisense describes the XR10 as being “built for cinephiles who want the big-screen theatre experience without sacrificing design, flexibility or fidelity”.

In other words, Hisense is backing the XR10 to be good enough to satisfy proper home cinema enthusiasts as well as the more casual projection market. And we’re happy to report that it’s absolutely right.

Particularly spectacular and key to its success is its ability to deliver both extreme levels of brightness and some of the deepest, most convincing blacks the HDR projection world has to offer.

Using any of the XR10’s relatively aggressive picture presets, bright HDR images are absolutely radiant, punching through even high levels of ambient light if you’re watching the projector in a regular daytime living room environment. In a dark room, meanwhile, this brightness can be used to deliver HDR with levels of intensity that we’ve only witnessed a handful of times before – mostly on ultra-high-end laser theatre projectors costing way more than the XR10.

Dark room viewing makes it obvious just how good the XR10 is with dark scenes and, even more impressively, scenes that contain a mix of light and dark elements. Provided you’re careful with the settings you use (more on this later), the XR10 can not only deliver dark imagery with much less greyness around than most, if not all, very bright, HDR-friendly projectors, but it also manages to retain all the faint shadow details you want to see if dark scenes are to feel consistent in depth with bright scenes. There’s little if any ‘black crush’ to worry about here.

Even better, the XR10 doesn’t just retain detail in the darkest image areas; it also retains excellent colour tones and saturations in such light-limited areas, avoiding the widespread tendency in both the projector and TV worlds for dark images to become desaturated.

The XR10’s colour performance is more obviously spectacular, of course, with very bright HDR images. Rather than the brightest highlights of HDR pictures starting to look thin or washed out, the XR10’s colour volume just keeps expanding as it’s fed more light.

Colour volumes push into places, in fact, that we haven’t seen before, beyond, perhaps, a couple of Xgimi models. Crucially, though, the XR10 does a substantially better job than those admittedly more affordable Xgimi rivals of making even the most vibrant colours across almost all of its picture presets look balanced and surprisingly natural. Or, at least, extremely believable.

To put it another way, while the XR10 is proud to show off what it can do, it only does so on a foundation of immersive consistency and a constant connection to the source material.

Despite the extreme vibrancy, brightness and contrast of which the XR10 is capable, as you’d hope of such an expensive and ambitious projector, it also cares about the little things in AV life. Its 4K pictures look fanatically detailed and densely textured, for instance – and this is down as much to the almost infinite subtlety of its colour rendition as it is to raw sharpness. The sharpness feels natural rather than forced or processed even in the projector’s most aggressive settings, and motion is handled without smearing or resolution loss.

If you find judder a touch obvious with 24p content, especially during bright scenes, the projector’s Film motion processing option does a pretty smart job of reducing judder without the results devolving into the dreaded soap opera effect.

While many will find it hard to resist the fantastic dynamism and richness of the XR10’s relatively aggressive image presets, film fans who want to see images that look as their creators wanted them to look can rest assured that their needs are catered for brilliantly, too, by the projector’s Filmmaker Mode preset.

This removes a big chunk of the brightness that is one of the XR10’s strengths. But the resulting images look natural, beautifully balanced, full of subtlety and still just excellently watchable despite Filmmaker Mode turning off many of its picture enhancement technologies.

If there’s an issue with the default Filmmaker Mode, it’s that black levels look a bit grey without any of the projector’s contrast enhancement tools in play. Simply setting the projector’s manual iris setting to its ‘One’ level, though, immediately improves black levels, at the expense of a just slightly cooler look to the image.

Aside from some DLP rainbow striping with very extreme contrast content, this set-up suggestion leads us to arguably the XR10’s one major image flaw. Namely, you need to be prepared to tinker with a few of the projector’s settings to get the best from it. It’s not quite the simple 'unbox, switch on and instantly relax deal' you might have been hoping for.

For instance, while the Dolby Vision Bright preset the XR10 defaults to with Dolby Vision content delivers great contrast for such a bright projector, it pushes some colours too strongly. Greens are over-dominant and skin tones look too ripe. The core colour temperature can also fluctuate within a shot if there are significant light level variations to cope with, and you can sometimes see the projector’s dynamic iris system doing its work too obviously.

Setting the manual iris setting to level 1 helps balance colours and eliminates the fluctuating colour tone, but suddenly sees green tones taking on a strangely brownish hue. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to this one that simply involves switching to the Dolby Vision Dark preset. This instantly fixes colour balance/consistency issues, delivers natural blacks and skin tones and, if you set the iris feature to ‘0’, leaves the image looking totally stable.

The XR10’s complex iris options include a few presets alongside the multi-step Manual mode. Cinema 1 delivers a nicely judged combination of brightness and contrast, but leaves you having to hit the colour calibration tools to try and stop skin tones and red colours looking too pink, and can also cause some noticeable fluctuations in brightness from the dynamic iris. Cinema 2 delivers some of the best black levels we’ve seen from any projector, but at the expense of huge amounts of the brightness that’s so enjoyable a part of the XR10’s usual picture make-up. Only in a fully blacked-out room is this setting even worth considering, and even then, maybe only the most die-hard accuracy enthusiasts will find the dimness tolerable.

In the end, even where the XR10 offers pre-programmed attempts to provide helpful out-of-the-box feature presets, we ultimately end up reverting to manual intervention via the all-important manual iris setting. A setting which, for better or worse, is kept outside of the picture settings encompassed by the projector’s defined picture presets, so that whatever lens setting you choose applies across every preset for every source until you go back in and change it again.

There are other bits of tinkering we’d recommend too, including turning the sharpness setting to zero but leaving a separate Super Resolution feature active, and braving the projector’s more in-depth colour and white-balance controls, too, if you dare.

The bottom line, though, is that for the most part, making the effort to spend just a few minutes fine-tuning images when you first get the XR10 rewards you with what can be absolutely spectacular but also thoughtful and subtle results. Results capable of adapting, moreover, to pretty much any room shape or ambient light condition.

It’s important to add, too, that the projector responds excellently without manual intervention to the extra picture information provided by the HDR10+ format, making us wish more projectors would adopt this alternative/rival to the Dolby Vision system.

Maybe even more importantly, the XR10’s out-of-the-box dynamic tone mapping system with basic HDR10 content is outstanding. The way it maps the available image data of core HDR10 sources to the projector’s capabilities so that they look dynamic and punchy without succumbing to clipping, unevenness, black crush or colour imbalances is superb, and actually requires less manual intervention than you’d usually expect with most HDR projectors.

The XR10’s automated hardware image correction features work brilliantly, too. So while some of its presets could be better, it’s also actually more helpful than most rivals in other areas of usability and set-up.

One last strength of the XR10 to mention is how incredibly quietly it runs for such a monumentally bright projector. The liquid cooling system Hisense has taken considerable trouble to integrate into the projector proves well worth the effort.

Sound

The XR10’s speakers are capable of pumping out levels of volume and dynamic range that shame many premium TVs. Even at just 50 per cent of its maximum volume, it’s loud enough to satisfy even a quite large room.

Trebles reach high peaks without sounding brittle or warbly, even at high volumes, while at the other end, bass reaches remarkably deep without falling prey to dropouts or crackles, or causing the projector’s metal bodywork to start buzzing. This helps low frequencies avoid sounding overly dominant or distracting, despite how present and deep they are. Similarly, the XR10’s ability to produce high levels of detail in a film or TV mix doesn’t leave busy soundtracks sounding too forensic or ambient effects too bright.

Voices are clean and well-rounded too. The only issue is that they sound a bit trapped inside the projector’s bodywork compared with the rest of the sound mix, which means they also sound rather dislocated from the onscreen action on the other side of the room, and sometimes rather decontextualised from the rest of the soundstage.

Verdict

While it might be the XR10’s startling, beautifully built design that first catches your eye, Hisense’s new showcase projector ultimately justifies its premium price tag with its combination of a startlingly powerful sound system and the best picture quality we’ve seen from any lifestyle or, more accurately, lifestyle/home theatre crossover projector before.

As statements of intent go, it’s hard to see how the XR10 could have served Hisense much better.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Leica Cine 1

Also consider the Sony Bravia Projector 7

Read our BenQ W4100i

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Last year, we gave Monitor Audio’s Bronze 50 7G standmounter speakers a five-star review, singing their praises for clear sound and punchy presentation. Consequently, when the floorstanding speakers from the same range, the Bronze 300 7G, arrived at our testing facility, we found ourselves waiting with bated breath to see if they could carry the Bronze 50’s flame.

Priced at £1000 / $1400 / AUS$2199, these floorstanders situate themselves at the top end of an increasingly competitive price bracket. Rivals include the Award-winning Fyne Audio F501E, which deliver punchy bass and cohesive presentation, and the recently five-star-rated Dali Sonik 5 that impressed us with expressive dynamics from a compact size.

Through experience, we know that a competitive market can sometimes lead to exciting progress in audio. “Iron sharpens iron,” as the famous proverb goes. But the real question is, will these Monitor Audio Bronze 300 7G speakers manage to rise to the challenge?

Build & design

The Bronze 300 7G are large speakers, standing at 100.5 x 26.9 x 39.2cm. But thanks to their tasteful design, they look sleek and sit comfortably in our listening room, avoiding the dominant appearance of similarly sized rivals, such as the Fyne F501E.

The MDF cabinets are wrapped in a satin vinyl finish that is available in three colours: black, white and walnut. Our black test pair have a pleasingly well-constructed feel, and their real wood front ply panels contribute to an overall sense of solidity and understated style.

Care is taken with the internal bracing, which is strategically placed between the drivers and the back of the enclosures to improve structural rigidity.

The speakers also feature Monitor Audio’s proprietary rear-firing HiVe II ports, positioned at the top and bottom of each cabinet, which are lined with grooves to reduce port turbulence, preventing chuffing sounds.

Spikes can be screwed into the speakers’ robust metal feet, and height can be adjusted by spinning the circular rubber pads that the spikes screw into. Assembling these parts is simple, and we find that they hold firm throughout testing.

The Bronze 300 7G floorstanders are a two-and-a-half-way design, and see the lower driver solely dedicated to handling bass in order to augment the low frequency output of the midrange driver above it.

The bass and midrange drivers are both 15cm in diameter, while the higher frequencies are looked after by one of the company’s trademark 25mm gold dome tweeters. All of the driver diaphragms are made from the company’s C-CAM (ceramic-coated aluminium magnesium) material, which it claims is lightweight and rigid.

The drivers are linked through a bi-wired crossover, and the resultant sensitivity is 88dB/w/m, with a nominal impedance of 8 ohms – fairly typical figures for a pair of floorstanders of this type.

The minimum impedance of 4.4 ohms suggests these speakers will work best with a beefier amplifier, which is typical for floorstanders of this type.

Compatibility

When it comes to positioning, these floorstanding speakers are more or less par for the course.

Monitor Audio recommends placing the Bronze 300 7G in an isosceles triangle arrangement, with a gap of 20-36cm from the back of the speaker to the rear wall.

In our 3 x 4 x 7m (hwd) test room, we settle at the top end of that range, as that achieves our preferred tonal balance, gives an expansive stereo image and avoids a dominant, ponderous low end.

When it comes to partnering electronics, we find the Bronze 300 7G work better with the smoother, more relaxed Arcam A15+ stereo amplifier than they do with the somewhat more front-footed Naim Nait XS 3 integrated. In the case of the latter, the speakers edge towards a slightly relentless presentation.

Sound

Monitor Audio suggests giving the Bronze 300 7G a minimum of 50 hours to settle, and, indeed, we find that their sound improves drastically after a few days of playing, shifting from a somewhat clinical and lean sound to a more pleasantly balanced, texturally detailed presentation.

Listening to The Bill Evans Trio’s rendition of My Foolish Heart, cymbals sit atop the mix for a sparkling, well-proportioned shine, while the brushed snare swells from beat to beat with satisfying texture.

Separation is the Bronze 300 7G's forte, and across our music library, the speakers reveal individual instrumental parts with striking clarity. Listening to the Minnesota Orchestra’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s I. Non allegro, instrumental tones arrive defined and crystal clear. Even in dense orchestral arrangements, we have little trouble picking out individual parts.

These are a responsive pair of speakers, too, and they don’t miss a beat when it comes to transients. Throughout Leonard Cohen’s Steer Your Way, the plucked acoustic guitar is presented with a crispness that leaves us feeling as though we are sitting right in front of the guitarist’s fingers.

Although their low frequency performance is leaner than certain rivals, we enjoy the speakers’ agile bass handling, which allows their natural midrange to shine. Vocal lines take centre stage, and Cohen’s lyrics arrive with all the depth and melancholic passion we expect from the godfather of gloom, without blurring or exaggeration.

In the treble frequencies, these speakers bring recordings to life with a vivaciousness that keeps us on our toes, without becoming shrill or domineering. If poorly partnered, they can veer towards a fatiguing sound, but careful system matching will avoid this, highlighting their many strengths.

One of those strengths is the Bronze 300 7G’s stereo imaging, which we find to be layered and stable. While listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s Song For Kathy, we are confronted by a striking sense of focus, as if Paul Simon were sitting between the two speakers in our test room.

As we move around the room, we are pleased to find that the image remains distinct, within the expected constraints of a conventional driver array, which suggests that these speakers have well-controlled dispersion characteristics and good integration between the drivers.

Tonally, these Bronze 300 7G are balanced, with nothing unpleasantly standing out, but we feel they are somewhat lacking in natural warmth. During Song For Kathy, we would have preferred some more richness in the lower notes of the delicate acoustic guitar.

Across the genres we play during testing – from Rachmaninoff to D’Angelo’s Spanish Joint – we are in no doubt as to the Bronze 300 7G's many strengths. They routinely turn in a capable performance that brims with insight.

However, we don’t think these speakers are necessarily the most entertaining listen available at this price, with rivals such as the Dali Sonik 5 delivering music with greater enthusiasm and rhythmic drive.

Verdict

The Monitor Audio Bronze 300 7G pair an aesthetically classy, well-constructed design with a sound that is balanced and impressively detailed, to provide an enjoyable listening experience that shines during dense arrangements. But the standards of the class are so high that even an accomplished pair of floorstanders such as this doesn’t quite make the top grade.

Review published: 16th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Fyne Audio F501E

Also consider the Dali Sonik 5

Best floorstanding speakers: budget to premium models tested by our experts

If you don’t want to bother with the fuss and decision-making of choosing a projector and sound system to pair together for your premium home cinema system, then there has not been a whole lot available on the market.

But the Nebula X1 Pro is trying to plug that gap.

It combines a 4K projector with four detachable Dolby Atmos speakers to deliver the “world's first mobile theatre system”. That’s all put together into a package on wheels, which makes carting it around easier.

On paper, this is a tempting proposition but, in this case, the combination of execution and price doesn’t quite add up.

Price

If you want to get your hands on this unique projector system, then you will have to pay the rather premium sum of £4499 / $4999 / AU$8999.

That’s a pretty big step-up in price from its more modest sibling – the Nebula X1, which we tested at £2200 / $2999. This is a more compact 4K projector to which we awarded four stars for its punchy picture and rich sound. It features a built-in sound system, although you can add Nebula’s two optional wireless speakers, which create a wider soundfield. That differs from the more elaborate sound system of the X1 Pro.

Design

The X1 Pro is quite a special-looking beast, resembling a suitcase-robot hybrid that could easily feature in a Philip K. Dick novel.

It is 76cm tall and weighs a hefty 33kg, but Anker makes its transportation easier with some clever additions. These include an extendable handle and two sturdy wheels to carry the projector around as if you are off to the airport. There are also two handles on the chassis if you need to carry the X1 Pro up the stairs.

There is no built-in battery, so keep in mind that you will need to keep the projector connected to the mains wherever you want to use it. The two-metre power cable is retractable from a cove at the bottom of the projector, so there’s a fair bit of flexibility.

At the top, there’s a handy lid that stores the back-lit remote control and a pair of karaoke microphones, should you wish to show off your pipes. On the remote, you will find buttons for volume, power, settings, the home menu and auto image adjustment. There is a handy back-lit panel on the top of the lid of the projector, which gives you access to many of these features as well.

Arguably, the most exciting aspect of the Nebula projector is its speaker design. There are four detachable speakers hidden inside the X1 Pro’s body, each with a durable black plastic grille.

All of the speakers feature retractable little stands with rubber feet to keep them stable, and they are all simple to set up. There is also a subwoofer built into the projector itself.

Features

But what are the speakers packing under their sleek-looking exteriors? The front speakers have two forward-facing, one side-firing and one up-firing driver each. That differs slightly from the rears, which include one forward-facing and one up-firing driver per speaker.

The subwoofer features two drive units, each measuring 13cm in diameter.

This sound system has Dolby Atmos support. FlexWave, Soundcore's proprietary spatial audio calibration technology, is also included. The brand claims this “uses sensors, spatial algorithms, and auto EQ calibration” to “intelligently adjust to your room's acoustics”.

When setting up the projector, you will be prompted to calibrate your speakers. This takes less than five minutes, as the speakers play a range of test frequencies and a music sample to get the best spatial soundfield.

There’s a neat nook for physical connectivity, consisting of one HDMI with eARC support and three USB ports. Inside is a small light to help with navigation in the dark, which is a handy addition.

As well as the remote and panel, you can control the projector with the Nebula Connect app. This lets you adjust the picture and sound settings, image correction, switch app input, and you can cast from another device. We do not find ourselves reaching for the app much during testing, though, as the remote control and top panel offer much of its functionality.

In terms of screen set-up, there is a selection of shortcuts that make the whole process pretty simple. That includes auto-focus, keystone correction and wall-colour adaptation (useful if you are projecting on a non-white surface). We find that selecting Spatial Adaptation analyses our dedicated screen most effectively, and adjusts focus and sizing all in one.

The projector offers a claimed maximum brightness of 3500 ANSI lumens, and you can push the screen size as big as 300 inches. It is built around a DLP optical system illuminated by a triple laser lighting system.

The X1 Pro can play 4K sources and high dynamic range in the HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision formats, but it only supports up to 4K@60Hz video playback, which will be a bit of a shame for gamers.

There are ten picture modes to choose from, but we go with NebulaMaster when using a 4K Blu-ray as, once tweaked (details below), it delivers the best balance between detail and brightness.

The choice of picture modes changes when we go to streaming – we find that Movie is the best choice in this case thanks to its natural-looking motion and colourful image.

Picture quality

When we boot up the projector in NebulaMaster picture mode for the first time, we are met with overexuberant colours and smoothed textures that make for a distracting viewing experience.

But after knocking the saturation and sharpness down, and turning up the brightness a little, we are left with a more pleasing overall image that is engaging and punchy. The colours are still on the exaggerated side, but they are eye-catching and give the picture a burst of energy.

When watching Thunderbolts, as the rag-tag team face up against Sentry, the villain’s brightly coloured costume stands out against the background, which makes for an engaging experience. The rest of the picture follows this colourful portrayal, with the blue skyline and amber-lit bar area giving the background a lively look.

The edges of characters and items are crisp and clean, and there is little noise in textures, contributing to an overall picture that feels sharp without tipping into being over-etched.

Nebula’s 4K model does not unearth as much detail as we would hope for at this level, but it is still good enough to see the creases in Sentry’s clothes and strands of his hair.

The projector shows off its impressive motion-handling skills with F1 The Movie. This is after adjusting the MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) setting from medium to low, as the default setting results in an unnatural smoothness. With the adjustment, cars zoom around the track with minimal judder and a good sense of authenticity.

However, the projector struggles to portray darker skin tones with the same level of detail as lighter ones. As plucky F1 driver Joshua talks to his cousin, the shadows across the latter's face block out a fair amount of detail, so it is nearly impossible to make out the distinction between his chin and beard.

This issue extends to the projector’s black depth, and is further illustrated by Sinners. As Michael B Jordan’s Stack has a tense conversation in a low-lit barn, the X1 Pro delivers the dark background with a fair bit of banding that verges on grey at points.

We do the majority of our testing with the lights off in our dark test room, which lets the projector deliver a bright and clean overall image. To see how it performs in other scenarios, we turn the lights up slightly from our usual dark testing conditions.

As with most home cinema projectors, contrast suffers, and detail is lost. Continuing with Sinners, for instance, it is hard to differentiate faces as the characters venture outside the barn, which makes for a less immersive overall experience.

Even when we turn the lights up higher, though, it's not unwatchable, and the colours are still reasonably punchy, though diminished a little. You do lose the finest details and the sense of three-dimensionality, but it would still be serviceable for a bright movie.

Overall, the X1 Pro’s picture is likeable and engaging, but it could do with a touch more detail and subtlety. By general standards, it’s a solid performer, but for the price, we know that better is available.

Sound quality

The Nebula X1 Pro’s sound set-up is packing some impressive features by projector standards, so we feel hopeful when we get it in our test room.

There are three sound modes to choose from: Movie, Outdoors, and Music. After a good deal of testing, we opt for the first option as it delivers the best balance between precision and scale.

The sound is certainly more room-filling than most projectors that have built-in speakers, but it is ultimately let down by a lack of precision and dynamics.

Vocals are clear and easy to make out from the rest of the sound, but there is not much expression or subtle inflexion in individual voices.

While watching Sinners, as Sammie calls the spirits with the power of his singing, his voice is at the forefront of the sound, but it lacks the emotion that we have heard with rival systems. His voice should come in tentatively but grow stronger as the scene goes on, but the X1 Pro does not convey this level of subtlety.

There’s also not a great sense of precision as the different voices and instruments chime in. The sound should fill the room and the space between the speakers, but it's obvious where it's emanating from instead of coming from all angles.

When watching Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise’s titular character challenges his cohort of cadets to some aerial contests. As the jet flies up into the sky, we get some sense of height, but it does not extend much further than the middle of the projector screen.

It feels more like there are tall columns of sound coming from the speakers rather than the dome of sound we are looking for with a Dolby Atmos product. You can turn off Nebula’s FlexWave surround sound technology, but this makes the sound feel smaller and less precise, so we opt to keep it on, despite its limitations.

The system doesn’t create a cohesive soundfield with any great skill, and we note gaps even when we’ve taken care over speaker positioning. There is a configuration where the front speakers can be left in the main projector body, almost like a soundbar, but, as expected, this reduces the level of scale and width.

Dynamics are not the strongest, either. As the jet prepares to take off, there is not much of a build-up between the initial rumble of the engine and the crescendo of the plane in flight.

The X1 Pro’s bass also fails to pack a meaty weight, instead landing with a rather flat softness. When watching Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, our hero faces off against a monstrous soul-sucking dragon. Punches should sound deep and impactful, but they lack the powerful drive necessary to convey the right level of force.

It doesn't help that the subwoofer is built into the projector’s body, which means we cannot tune or position it differently without moving the projector itself.

Verdict

The Nebula X1 Pro’s clever design is certainly an intriguing novelty, and its crisp picture performance delivers a reasonable balance between punchiness and clarity. It would be even better if there were greater subtlety in the rendition of colours, though.

But its audio makes for an underwhelming experience, lacking the necessary insight, dynamic expression and surround capability to convince. It’s fussy to set up, too.

However, the biggest issue here is the price. At this level, it would seem more sensible to invest in a separate projector and sound system to get the best performance from both.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 2
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Nebula X1

Read our Epson EH-LS9000 review

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Active speakers – speakers with built-in amplification directly powering the drive units – have become more and more popular these days. Their space-saving form negates the need for separate boxes for amplifiers and trailing cables, reducing clutter and making for neater systems.

Most active speakers these days also come with built-in DAC and digital inputs, sometimes a phono stage, and more often than not hi-res network streaming or at least Bluetooth included for ultimate all-in-one convenience. Acoustic Energy bucks this trend by keeping its new AE Active speakers purely analogue.

This new model builds on the five-star, Award-winning AE1 Active speakers we tested back in 2018 and have highly recommended since, and features updated acoustic technology and refined design for a new generation.

Build & design

The Acoustic Energy AE Active are a fully active two-way design, with 50W of Class A/B amplification powering each drive unit. That’s a total power output of 200W, with the amplifiers being refined in this new generation to improve dynamic capability. Each speaker has its own mains plug for power, with the revised amps fed by high-quality linear power supplies to ensure a consistent, low-noise performance throughout the frequency range.

The 40-year-old Acoustic Energy brand continues its tradition of using metal drivers in its new active speakers. The 27mm aluminium dome tweeter has a new rear chamber for reducing distortion at certain frequencies in the crossover region, and is combined with a dedicated waveguide to deliver a wide soundstage.

These speakers use the same 12.5cm mid/bass driver that was developed for the recent AE1 40th Anniversary passive speakers. This is a “pure-piston” ceramic/aluminium cone that is low in mass but very stiff, and has been engineered to minimise cone flex and distortion.

The analogue filters have been improved to minimise any phase disturbances. There is a rear-facing bass slot port that has also been updated, while internally the cabinet has had extensive bracing and internal damping panels to further improve performance.

The cabinets themselves have been subtly refined, with a neater trim around the drivers that overall looks rather smart and subtly elegant. The speakers are available in three finishes: high gloss black or white, and a new natural walnut wood veneer. Our sample’s wood veneer finish feels lovely to the touch, with a smooth texture and high quality finish throughout.

The standmounts have a fairly compact footprint and look most at home on dedicated speaker stands, although they could be placed on a large, sturdy desk if you are using them as nearfield monitors. You’ll just need to make sure both speakers are within reach of a mains power socket.

Features

The AE Active speakers eschew any digital or streaming elements entirely. Acoustic Energy says it experimented with modern features such as wireless streaming, switch mode power supplies, Class D amplification and DSP, but ultimately didn’t want to compromise the pure audio performance. The AE Active have a fully analogue signal path that avoids any digital processing entirely in the quest to preserve the original audio file’s integrity.

As such, you get two analogue inputs: a pair of balanced XLR inputs and a pair of stereo RCA inputs.

On one hand, this purist approach is commendable, but it’s a little old-fashioned and won’t appeal to everyone, particularly those looking for an easy solution. There’s a reason most active speakers these days – such as the KEF Coda W, Fyne Cubitt 5 and Cambridge Audio L/R S – come with Bluetooth and a variety of digital inputs to work with modern sources including TVs and laptops.

On the other hand, this pared-down approach does keep the Acoustic Energy rather flexible and future-proof. The speakers have integrated volume control, which means you can directly plug in a source such as a CD player or hi-res music streamer. You can also plug in a preamp or an external DAC to widen the connectivity, and it allows for a potential upgrade path down the line.

On the back panel on both units, you’ll find bass and treble controls to fine-tune the sound to the room they’re in, especially if dealing with less-than-ideal placements. One new feature is the auto on/off switch that lets you choose between leaving the speakers on permanently or activating standby mode after 15 minutes of inactivity.

That the active speakers come with built-in volume control is great news – this means they don’t require a separate preamp with volume control to function, such as the more premium ATC SCM20ASL active speakers do.

The only real complaint we have is with the placement and design of the volume controls. The dials are placed on the speakers’ back panel – this might be fine if the speakers are within reach on a desk, but it’s not practical if they’re on stands and you’re on your sofa. No, there is no remote control included here.

The bigger issue is that there are independent volume controls for each unit, with no clear markings on the dials. This means there is more chance of the volume not being perfectly level and balanced between the units, as you have to set them individually. We would much prefer it if there was one volume control that controlled both speakers’ levels.

A preamp or source with volume control comes in handy here, such as the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition music streamer we used throughout testing, so you can take the guesswork out of it.

Sound

Placed on stands and with the Naim Uniti Atom HE streamer playing a variety of radio, WAV and hi-res FLAC songs, the AE Active don’t take long to show their talents.

The control they have over every note is astounding at this level. The piano notes in Alicia Keys’ Fallin’ sound tremendously composed and land with solidity and confidence. Each note starts and stops with unerring punctuality, with the rhythm of every song we play being marshalled with a kind of military precision that is hugely impressive.

The amount and quality of bass coming from these not-particularly-large cabinets is also impressive, and we had a blast playing tracks with intense basslines just to hear what these AE Actives can do. There is real muscle and impact to the basslines of Major Lazer’s Pon de Floor, but there’s agility and texture here too. It’s all pulled taut and has the immediacy that is inherent in active speaker designs.

The busy arrangement and high-octane energy of the track are handled with ease by the speakers, too, with every note sounding crisp and positioned accurately in the soundstage – but without ever losing the party vibe.

Dynamically, the AE Actives are fantastic. The snappy transient response of these active speakers means sudden shifts in quiet-to-loud moments are brilliantly and speedily communicated, while slow-burning moments – such as Clint Mansell’s instrumental Moon soundtrack – sound fluid and retain their sense of tension.

Play Kate Bush’s Watching You Without Me and the AE Active reveal high notes with the right mix of clarity, headroom and bite, but without any undue brightness or sharpness. The overall sound from these active speakers is rather clean and with low-distortion throughout the frequencies, which also means we can enjoy listening at high volumes without hardness or woolliness creeping in.

The stereo imaging is similarly focused and composed, with voices showing off just how well integrated the AE Actives' drivers are. The speakers have no problem revealing the different voices, intonations and personalities in Eminem’s Stan. From The Unthanks’ delicate, nuanced vocals on Mount The Air to Eminem’s rapid-fire, ferocious rapping on Godzilla, the AE Actives reveal the character and intensity of every song with a good amount of detail and nuance.

The Acoustic Energy speakers are just about transparent enough that you are aware of the distinct recording qualities of albums from different eras, but they don’t make too much of a fuss over the quality of each track. The overall sound could perhaps be a little more fluid and airy-sounding, and they may struggle to fill very large rooms. When listening in our larger 3m x 7m x 5m (hwd) test room, the AE Actives sound a touch dynamically restrained, but they come to life in our smaller 3m x 4m x 7m room, with a bit of breathing room from the back wall to balance the bass performance.

We swap to a price-equivalent separates amplifier and speaker pairing of the Arcam A5+ and Acoustic Energy AE300 Mk2 (both current Award-winners in their respective categories), and find this offers a more relaxed and wider soundstage. They sound rather soft in the bass, though, and don’t go as deep either. Overall, they can’t match the speed, precision and agility of the AE Active speaker.

Verdict

The Acoustic Energy AE Active are a niche product in today’s audio landscape, but they are a tremendously talented and capable pair of active speakers. They are a viable alternative to a traditional separates pairing at this price, and could well be the last chain in your hi-fi system you’ll have to update. Highly recommended.

Review published: 14th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 3

MORE:

Read our review of the KEF Coda W

Also consider the ATC SCM20ASL

Best active speakers: our experts pick the top pairs with integrated amplifiers

Bose has been conspicuously absent from the premium wireless multi-room speaker space of late.

Denon has recently unveiled its revamped Home 2 series of versatile smart speakers, Apple has plenty of iOS fans enjoying the talents of its HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini, and Sonos continues to cling to its multi-room supremacy courtesy of the established Era 100 and Era 300. Bose, conversely, has tended to focus on the portable end of the market in the past couple of years – until now.

Most of the above contenders are locked into their brand’s own dedicated ecosystem, and most have been designed to co-operate with their extended family of connected siblings. Brands these days aren’t just offering you products – they’re pledging a way of life.

That’s certainly the impression we get from Bose and its new Lifestyle range. The US brand launched the Ultra Speaker wireless speaker alongside a Dolby Atmos soundbar and a new subwoofer, teasing a “reimagined approach to home audio" from a new range of products clearly designed to work alongside one another and tie you into a particular ecosystem.

That begs a very important question: what is Bose’s Lifestyle Ultra Speaker offering that the likes of Sonos and Apple don’t already have covered?

Price

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker’s price differs depending on the finish. The speaker currently sits at £300 / $299 / AU$550 if you go for the standard Black or White Smoke colourways, but if you want to push the boat out and go for Driftwood Sand, that’ll be a hefty increase to £349 / $349.

You can pick up the Award-winning Sonos Era 300 for £359 / $359 / AU$649, offering stern competition for Bose straight out of the gate. You can also get yourself a still-excellent HomePod 2 for £299 / $299 / AU$479 if you’re into the Apple way of life.

Build & design

Bose’s new wireless speaker might be closer to the Sonos Era 300 price-wise, but in terms of its size and shape, it’s more akin to the form of the cheaper and smaller Era 100.

If that shorthand comparison doesn’t help you out much, then imagine a speaker that stands about as tall as an average notebook, with a curved, fabric-covered front panel. It’s a compact and neat design, and while the hourglass configuration of the larger Era 300 may catch more admiring (or quizzical) glances, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker fulfils its brief as a subtle sentinel capable of blending into your audio or cinema set-up.

Bose tends to make its products to a high standard, and the Ultra Speaker is no exception – this is a product that feels built to last.

At the top of the unit are a series of touch-capacitive controls, including volume, a play/pause toggle and a Bluetooth pairing button. We understand that some users feel that touch controls grant a sleeker, more premium appeal, but we find the buttons’ lack of feedback here – be it physical or auditory – undermines the experience somewhat.

Knowing that the speaker has actually registered an action with an accompanying small sound or click would be much more useful than simply having to guess, especially with tricky tasks such as trying to perform a connection reset. You get a chime when toggling the microphone on and off, but that’s about it.

Taking care of sonic duties are a trio of drivers – a 25mm tweeter and a 7.6cm mid/bass driver alongside a 3.8cm up-firing driver – designed to disperse sound evenly around your listening space. Bose doesn't disclose the specific power rating, but we do know that the drivers are powered by Class D amplification.

Like its soundbar and subwoofer siblings, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker uses Bose’s ‘CleanBass’ technology, which combines a rear-firing bass port with digital signal processing to deliver “deep, tight bass”. We’ll get to that later on.

Features

The Ultra Speaker is built, at least in part, to play ball with the rest of the members of its new Lifestyle product family. The speaker can be used on its own or in a pair for stereo playback, or you can add them as surround channels when used with the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar. Do be aware that the speakers aren’t backwards compatible with any of Bose’s older soundbars.

Stereo pairing is a nice asset to have, if you can get it to work. While getting our two test samples to play ball with each other works reasonably well most of the time, the resultant sound is often so out of sync that it becomes unlistenable. We’re not the only ones to have experienced this issue, so let’s hope that Bose will come to the rescue via a firmware update soon.

Stereo pairing bugs aside, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has ample streaming connectivity. Connecting to your wi-fi network gives you access to streaming features such as Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, as well as the Alexa Plus voice assistant which you can connect via the app. Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect aren’t available at launch, but we're told both will be arriving via a firmware update down the line. It’s worth noting that there’s no ethernet port for a wired connection to your home network.

If you want a multi-room set-up, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is accommodating in this regard. You can use the Bose app to create a stereo system or integrate other Lifestyle products, such as the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, into a neat home cinema system, or use the likes of AirPlay or Google Cast to integrate other compatible devices into your set-up.

You can stream using Bluetooth 5.3, too, with the standard AAC and SBC codecs supported. There’s no sign of higher-quality aptX or LDAC codecs here, which might be disappointing for some. An auxiliary 3.5mm input is available around the back of the unit if you want a physical connection to your audio source.

If you’re wondering how you control your new Bose speaker, then yes, there’s an app for that. You could go all Medieval and use the on-unit controls, but if you want to really get the most out of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, you’ll need the official Bose app.

We might have had issues when it comes to the stereo pairing process, but the Bose app is a good one. It’s a logical, uncluttered and orderly platform that we find very easy to navigate thanks to its big, bold menus and helpful set-up guides.

Sound

We’ll get a quick caveat of our assessment of the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speakers’ sonic capabilities out of the way by confessing that we have to do a bit of tinkering before we get it sounding how we want. The balance you pick will often depend on the characteristics of your listening space and your personal preferences, but we feel the need to increase the bass levels in the EQ settings in order to compensate for what would otherwise be a rather thin reproduction.

Bolstering the lower end does grant, to our ears, a more balanced feel to the speaker’s sound, allowing our test sample to more capably reveal its particular talents.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker’s reproduction is clear and composed, with a sound that rarely grates the ear. Notes are well-defined upon arrival, even if the Bose can sound like it overemphasises those all-important leading edges just a tad.

Instruments are crisp and sharp as they land, but the Ultra Speaker could conceivably add more body to that initial bite. The rival Sonos Era 300 is far better in this regard, reproducing instrumental textures – swooning strings, twinkling pianos – with a more natural weightiness that simply outshines the comparative thinness of its Bose rival.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is capable of granting tracks a sense of dimensionality thanks to its upward-firing driver. The Bose speaker doesn’t officially support Dolby Atmos, with its ‘TrueSpatial’ technology taking care of spatial processing. This analyses the dimensions of the room in which the speaker is positioned and then optimises your audio to suit your listening space for a more immersive soundstage.

You can adjust the height channel in the app, and you’ll certainly notice the change as you move the in-app slider from 0-10, depending on how much height effect you want from the speaker.

When working to full effect, the resultant soundstage is admirably wide-reaching for a speaker of this size and type, but again, it’s simply outshone by the stunningly cinematic reproduction of the Dolby Atmos-powered Era 300, which renders spatial audio in a more convincing, wide-reaching and immersive manner.

The Era 300 is more convincing in other areas, too. Via Bluetooth or AirPlay, Sonos’ speaker excels across small and large scale dynamic shifts, putting the Bose rival’s somewhat flattened presentation in the shade.

Listen to the first minute of Lana Del Rey’s First Light and you’ll hear what we mean. The introduction of punchy drums and powerful brass land with more authority and power via the Era 300, contrasting starkly with the track’s quiet, enigmatic opening. The track propels itself forward with more vigour via the Sonos, with a purposeful momentum that we don’t find when switching back to the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker.

All isn’t entirely lost for Bose. The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker keeps its taut lower-end reproduction nicely in check, even if we have to boost it a bit to hear it properly, with ‘CleanBass’ tech working nicely with that rear port to deliver upon Bose’s promise of decent low-frequency control.

Bass is reasonably well-integrated with the rest of the frequencies, and rarely do we feel as though those lower registers sound disjointed or overly separated from the rest of our music.

Verdict

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker does not come cheap. Bose has positioned it as a committedly premium wireless smart speaker, and that’s put it up against some serious competition.

Sadly, Bose’s otherwise game contender doesn’t do enough to justify its considerable outlay, especially when there are more convincing alternatives available at this level. If you’re after a speaker that gives you great spatial audio, an impressive spread of features and better sound overall, we recommend that you pick the five-star Sonos Era 300 instead.

Review published: 13th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Era 300

Also consider the Apple HomePod 2

Best wireless speakers: tried and tested by our expert team

Sony’s enthusiasm for OLED seems to have cooled off in 2026, and the Bravia 7 II is clear proof of that.

While this isn’t the first time Sony has flirted with sidelining OLED for its own take on the latest backlit panel technology, its new True RGB range is certainly the biggest push it's made to date.

Serving as the step-down model in a duo of new RGB Mini LED TVs, the Bravia 7 II hopes to tempt prospective OLED buyers away with the promise of higher brightness and purer colours, all while directly addressing the traditional shortcomings of backlit TVs

It’s a bold strategy, and after the move didn’t quite pay off when we compared the Bravia 9 Mini LED to the Bravia 8 OLED back in 2024, we’re somewhat surprised to see Sony attempt it again.

So, with the power of hindsight guiding it, has Sony developed a backlit TV that can tempt home cinema fans away from the enticing mid-range OLEDs on offer, or has it stumbled at the same hurdle again?

Price

We have the 55-inch Sony Bravia 7 II in our test tooms, which typically retails for £1999 / $2100 / AU$2999, though some discounts are already appearing.

Sony also sells the Bravia 7 II in a wide array of sizes, ranging from 50- to 98-inches; you can find pricing for the full range below:

It’s worth noting that the 55-inch Bravia 7 II’s launch price isn’t far off the 55-inch Bravia 7’s £1899 / $1900 / AU$2935 launch price; that feels like a pretty fair price increase considering the panel technology upgrade.

However, the Bravia 7 II is, unfortunately, priced higher than the LG C6 at 55 inches. Originally £1700 / $2000 / AU$2995, the C6 can now be found widely for £1499 / $1700 (it seems to be sticking to its launch pricing in Australia). As our current frontrunner for the best TV that we’ve tested this year, this OLED could prove to be a rather pesky thorn in Sony’s side.

Moreover, Sony’s Award-winning Bravia 8 II QD-OLED TV is now widely available for £1799 / $2600 at 55 inches, down from its launch price of £2499 / $3500. Australian availability, however, seems spotty, and pricing looks to have remained at AU$3299.

It may not seem entirely fair to compare this TV to a 2025 model, but Sony’s release strategy means that the Bravia 8 II will remain in the lineup for the foreseeable future. The price of the 7 II will drop throughout its lifespan, but this launch pricing does reveal Sony’s approach to positioning this TV.

With a launch price higher than that of the LG C6, Sony clearly thinks that RGB Mini LED is a comparable or better technology than OLED. In fairness, LG priced the C6 quite competitively, and aggressive discounts since launch means that it’s unlikely that the Bravia 7 II will ever undercut it.

Design

The Bravia 7 II sports an interesting and, if we’re being honest, slightly odd blend of aesthetic choices.

We’ll start with the positives, and the “clear” star here is the new transparent centre stand. Sony has traditionally opted for feet at either end of its TVs, so it already scores points for the convenient central pedestal design as it can be placed on narrower TV units with ease.

However, it’s the transparent part that we’re really excited about. Sony has employed some clever cable management and a one-way plastic panel that refracts light to make it look like no cables are hanging below the TV, and almost as if there’s no stand at all.

It’s hard to describe without seeing it (we’ve tried our best to do it justice with our photography), but the word “magic” was being thrown around the TV testing room upon placing the Bravia 7 II on one of our test benches. It really does give the impression that the TV is floating in place, and the slender bezels around the display help to sell the sleek illusion.

Slightly less awe-inspiring is the rest of the TV’s chassis. It’s when we look at this TV side-on that we’re reminded it’s not an OLED. At 5.4cm in depth, the Bravia 7 II is a fairly chunky set, although Sony has been clever enough to make that thickness mostly uniform throughout with a pleasing taper at each end of the set, ensuring that the TV wears this extra heft fairly well.

Sony has used this opportunity to refresh the included remote, and the new handset ticks practically all of our boxes. It features sharper corners and brings back the backlit buttons and USB-C charging port that were both curiously rescinded on the Bravia 8 II’s remote despite being available on previous generation Sony TVs.

Sony also scores bonus points by using its eco-conscious SORPLAS material here, which is also featured in the main chassis of the television.

Features

We’ve already established that this TV is using the latest panel technology on the market, and it’s only the second RGB Mini LED TV to enter our AV testing room, after the Hisense UR9.

For those not in the know, RGB Mini LED drops the white backlight and Quantum Dot colour filter layer in favour of individual red, green and blue Mini LEDs in pursuit of better brightness, colour accuracy and blooming control.

This isn’t the first time that Sony has made a huge bet on Mini LED. 2024’s Bravia 9 featured a hugely customised Mini LED system, which was powered by Sony’s XR Master Backlight Drive in conjunction with the XR Processor.

Sony’s new RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro is the next evolution of this technology, and it reportedly supports “unprecedented colour volume, precise colour gradation, and a significantly wider viewing angle” on Sony’s new True RGB TVs.

The company’s Triluminous colour system also evolves into RGB Triluminous Max, which the company says can deliver a colour range in line with the Bravia 8 II, while offering the brightness increase of RGB Mini LED thanks to its Luminance Booster feature.

In true Sony fashion, the Japanese AV giant hasn’t given away any official figures regarding brightness levels or dimming zones, but we count 340 dimming zones in our 55-inch Bravia 7 II review sample.

Interestingly, that’s considerably fewer zones than other backlit TVs we’ve tested recently — including the Award-winning 65-inch TCL C7K, which sports 1008 dimming zones.

As with previous Sony TVs, the Bravia 7 II supports HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision, but not HDR10+.

Moving on to the sound system, Sony has outfitted the 55-inch Bravia 7 II with a 40W sound system, comprising two full-range drivers and two tweeters. The TV prompts you to perform an automated room calibration during set-up, which allows the TV to adjust the sound output to best suit your viewing environment.

This TV supports a range of Dolby and DTS audio formats, including up to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. For those looking to bypass the built-in speaker system (we’ll explain why you may wish to do that shortly), the HDMI eARC socket allows for external audio devices to be connected.

On the subject of HDMI, the Bravia 7 II only sports two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets, alongside two HDMI 2.0 ports. They all support ALLM, but only HDMI 3 and 4 support 4K/120Hz gameplay and VRR.

This has been the case for many previous Sony TVs, but in a year in which more TV manufacturers than ever are offering three or more full-bandwidth ports (Hisense and Philips join Samsung and LG this year), the Bravia 7 II is lagging behind its contemporary competition even more than its predecessors did.

Moving on to streaming, the Sony Bravia 7 II doesn’t throw any curveballs here either. Google TV remains the operating system of choice, and we don’t find any obvious missing apps or software stumbles of note.

Generally speaking, Sony’s software feels a bit more robust this year, with less lag and a pleasing new My Cinema interface. This takes the pressure out of changing your TV’s picture and sound settings by presenting three easy-to-interpret modes within a charming visual interface. These modes are: Director’s Cut, Daytime and Dialogue.

The second and third options boost brightness and visibility for watching in ambient light and enhance vocal clarity, respectively, but the aptly titled Director’s Cut is our favourite of the trio. It essentially works in a very similar way to Filmmaker Mode on other TVs – Sony famously refuses to put Filmmaker Mode on its models, instead offering its own Professional picture mode – by applying picture settings that best provide an “as the director” intended picture performance.

Picture

Sony has to justify this backlit TV's expense for it to stand above its self-emissive OLED competitors, and, for the most part, the Bravia 7 II does a pretty good job. This is easily one of the best backlit TVs we’ve ever tested, but it’s not completely picture perfect.

We put the TV through its paces using our thorough product testing procedures; we’ve hooked up our reference 4K Blu-ray player to the TV and raided our library of 4K discs, and we have two comparison TVs on hand to judge the Bravia 7 II against. The first is a lower-priced mid-range OLED, and the second is Sony’s very own Bravia 9 II – the step-up model in Sony’s new True RGB range.

We’ll start with the positives as there are many of note. As a whole, the Bravia 7 II delivers much of what we like from Sony’s other recent televisions, in part thanks to Sony’s excellent picture tuning.

There is a suitable sense of balance and subtlety to the image, ensuring colours are presented with punch and saturation without verging into overblown territory. Foliage in Civil War appears pleasantly verdant without inching into highlighter-green, and a golden sunset appears appropriately rich and warm.

Sticking with Civil War, we find motion handling to be particularly impressive. Sony has long excelled in this area, and the Bravia 7 II continues that tradition. Camera pans are smooth and composed without drifting into the soap-opera effect, while fast-moving objects such as the jets flying over the Charlottesville military camp remain clean and well defined. The Bravia 7 II can't quite match the near-instantaneous response of OLED, but we rarely find ourselves distracted by blur or judder during films.

Most impressive, though, is the solidity and depth on display here. Sony is renowned for capturing three-dimensional depth via the Bravia XR Processor’s ability to analyse the focal point of the image, and generate depth information around it. This system is utilised excellently on the Bravia 7 II, as evidenced when we watch the Matera sequence in No Time To Die.

As Bond crosses a bridge towards a cemetery, there is a tangible sense of solidity that we rarely see in non-OLED TVs, and the backdrop of the Italian vista seems to stretch far into the horizon. These combine to greatly aid immersion, resulting in an image that draws us in with ease.

The general sense of nuance and sophistication extends to how the Bravia 7 II manages its backlight. When this TV is in its element, it becomes possible to forget that this is a backlit TV, as the RGB Mini LED system doesn’t distract or detract from the experience.

This extends to general blooming control, which is extremely impressive by prevailing standards. In a shot from Oppenheimer in which the nuclear bomb testing site is lit up at night by a series of spotlights, we find that the halos of light that we’ve seen time and time again on other backlit TVs have been strictly confined. There is still a very faint amount of blooming, but this is leagues ahead of other LCD TVs that we’ve recently tested.

However, it’s unfortunate that the Bravia 7 II does fall behind the OLED competition when it comes to contrast. Those spotlights don’t punch through with much vigour, resulting in highlights looking rather flat and dull.

This is also evident in the introduction of Alien: Romulus, as the TV is evidently dulling the pinpoint stars to maintain the integrity of the black backdrop of space.

Comparing this with a cheaper OLED, we find a night-and-day difference, as the inky black depths of space contrast wonderfully with focused pockets of brightness.

Furthermore, the introduction of Blade Runner 2049 reveals a strange colour volume issue with darker content. The black background — which, we should note, is still a very dark shade of grey on this TV — and text seem to battle, with the normally vibrant red “replicants” word showing as more of a greyish-pink.

As the text continues line-by-line, the TV seems to really struggle with colour consistency, as the white text fades into shades of peach and grey, worsening with each line of text that appears.

We suspect that this challenging scene is tripping up the RGB Mini LED backlight and, more importantly, the algorithm that deduces where to place highlights and colours, resulting in a form of colour bleeding that influences the surrounding text.

It's worth noting that the Bravia 9 II exhibits very similar behaviour, too, suggesting that this is currently a characteristic of Sony's implementation of RGB Mini LED rather than an isolated issue with the Bravia 7 II. We also find that the Bravia 9 II delivers punchier highlights, which tracks with its higher overall brightness capabilities — but you can find out more about that TV in our separate review.

Viewing angles could also be better. While our OLED reference retains colour purity and detail when we look at it from wider angles, the Sony washes out when we move past a point that’s not all that far from the “sweet spot”.

This is, ultimately, where we have to acknowledge that while the Bravia 7 II is a very good backlit TV, it’s still subject to some of the inherent drawbacks of LCD technology.

You can pick up a very capable OLED for similar or, in many cases, less money than the Bravia 7 II, which affords you better sharpness, perfect contrast and zero blooming.

Sound

Sony’s entire Bravia TV lineup, from the flagship Bravia 8 II to the three-star Bravia 3, have all fared well when it comes to sound. Despite this, Sony seems to have taken a different approach with the Bravia 7 II, and it's a step backwards rather than a step forwards.

Dipping back into Civil War, we find that while there is a good sense of clarity and detail, the sound system seems to struggle dynamically. It all sounds quite forward and a touch shouty, with voices also missing a touch of tonal variety and subtlety.

Blade Runner 2049’s famously difficult chapter two sequence, meanwhile, is often handled in a very specific way by Sony TVs; they tend not to dig too deep into the bass (while still dealing a decent-enough dose of low-end punch) as to avoid any sort of obvious distortion.

It’s a tradeoff that we think has worked particularly well, but it seems as though Sony has tried something new with the Bravia 7 II. Bass feels more present here, but it also comes across as quite hollow and lacking in rhythmic timing or tonal variety. The tense build-up of chapter two instead feels a bit flat as a result.

Swapping in Sony’s Award-winning Bravia 8 II, which employs an actuator-based sound system, we find that everything sounds more natural and directional, with bass sounding more controlled.

We’ll apply our usual advice here and recommend pairing the Sony Bravia 7 II with a soundbar or surround sound system if you are planning on picking one up.

Verdict

Sony’s step-down RGB Mini LED TV is a compelling backlit TV in many ways. The company’s excellent picture processing is clearly on display, and the new panel technology really does help to rectify some of the shortcomings that come with “traditional” Mini LED.

However, you’ll notice that we’re singling out the fact that this is, at the end of the day, a backlit TV. While Sony has worked hard to try to make us forget that by minimising blooming and making black depths more convincing, there are certain OLED-specific qualities that the Bravia 7 II can’t quite match.

While we wouldn’t consider this to be an issue if Sony had positioned this TV as a cheaper alternative to OLED, the fact of the matter is that you can get a better-equipped OLED TV for less money.

If you’re totally against OLED, then the Bravia 7 II is probably one of the best backlit TVs we’ve tested, but for most people, the performance doesn’t quite feel representative of the price tag.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 3
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the LG C6

Also consider the Sony Bravia 8 II

Read our TCL C8K review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

It’s finally here. After roughly 18 months of teases, demos and hands-on sessions, Sony’s flagship RGB Mini LED is in shops and in our test rooms.

The Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II are what Sony refers to as ‘True RGB’ TVs – an attempt by the brand to elevate its RGB Mini LED models above the flood of rivals they're facing, while suggesting that those competing implementations aren't quite as sophisticated.

Sony’s ambitions here are huge. The Bravia 9 II sits above the exceptional, Award-winning Bravia 8 II in the brand’s range, with an even higher price than the non-RGB Mini LED Bravia 9 it replaces. It’s also more expensive – at least in 65-inch guise – than the new flagship OLEDs recently launched by Sony’s rivals.

In other words, while Sony might skirt around the term “OLED-killer” when describing the Bravia 9 II, the pricing makes that claim loud and clear.

Can a backlit TV – even a ‘True RGB’ one – really match or surpass the best OLED TVs ever made?

Price

The 65-inch version of the Bravia 9 II that we’re testing is priced at £3499 / $3600 / AU$5999.

That’s a full £500 / $300 more expensive than the 65-inch version of the Bravia 9 (which didn’t make it to Australia) was at launch.

It’s also £500 more expensive than the Bravia 8 II QD-OLED was when that launched last year, and more expensive than brand-new flagship OLEDs such as the LG G6 and Samsung S99H.

While much has been made of the potential of RGB Mini LED technology to offer larger TVs at lower prices than prohibitively expensive, hard-to-manufacture super-sized OLEDs, even the 85-inch Bravia 9 II is either quite similarly priced, or the same price, as the 83-inch versions of those Samsung and LG OLEDs.

The new technology has, though, enabled Sony to also offer the Bravia 9 II in an astonishingly huge 115 inches. Unsurprisingly, this gigantic TV has an equally gigantic price tag – £22,999 / $31,000 / AU$44,999.

Of course, launch prices are just a snapshot in time. The Bravia 9 II’s aforementioned rivals have already received their first discounts, and it probably won’t be full price itself for long. Still, the launch pricing tells us a lot about where Sony is pitching its True RGB flagship.

Design

Sony hasn't played it safe with the Bravia 9 II's design, which is unlike that of any other TV currently available.

Its defining feature is a new Mirage Stand, which at first sounds rather gimmicky but proves remarkably effective in practice. A subtly tinted transparent panel connects two slim metal uprights to a broad rectangular base, but from your normal viewing position, that panel is so inconspicuous that the TV almost appears to float just above your furniture.

Better still, while you can still see the surface beneath the TV and the wall behind it through the panel, the cables routed through the stand somehow disappear from view entirely. Clever stuff.

On the other hand, though, the Mirage Stand can be installed in just one position, which leaves space for a soundbar. There’s no option to lower the TV if you’re not using a soundbar.

The stand largely defines the Bravia 9 II's appearance, too. Unlike the understated elegance of the Bravia 8 II, Sony's flagship RGB Mini LED set makes much more of a statement. Combined with the chunky cabinet that's necessary to house its advanced backlight and speaker system, it has a substantial visual presence that won't appeal to everyone, but there's no doubting the quality of the execution.

Thick though the Bravia 9 II is, the rear panel is completely flat, making wall-mounting pleasingly neat, while the overall build quality is excellent. This is every bit the premium product you'd expect from a flagship Sony TV.

Another interesting design choice is the anti-reflective screen coating. It's among the most effective we've encountered, dramatically reducing reflections and making the Bravia 9 II particularly well suited to bright living rooms.

The trade-off is that the panel has a noticeably more matte finish than the Bravia 8 II, which itself has a matte coating. When switched off – or when displaying very dark scenes in a typically lit room – it doesn't look quite as deep black as its OLED sibling, instead taking on a slightly greyer appearance.

Whether that's a worthwhile compromise will depend largely on your viewing environment and which side you’ve picked in the matte vs glossy war, but our reviewers broadly feel that the LG G6’s anti-reflection coating – which reduces reflections a little less effectively than the Bravia 9 II but has a black-preserving, glossy finish – is the current leader in this area.

Sony has also introduced a new premium remote control. It's slightly larger and more ergonomically shaped than the one supplied with other Bravias of the last few years, and it features automatic backlighting. The layout remains intuitive, too, with the Sony Pictures Core shortcut moved above the navigation pad and the old Menu button replaced by a shortcut to Sony's new My Cinema interface.

Ultimately, the Bravia 9 II is a TV whose practicality is every bit as impressive as its styling is distinctive. The Mirage Stand won't be to everyone's taste, but it's one of the cleverest and most effective pieces of industrial design we've seen in quite some time.

Features

The Bravia 9 II's headline feature is, of course, its RGB Mini LED backlight.

Unlike conventional Mini LED TVs, which use a white backlight shining through a colour filter layer, the Bravia 9 II instead uses independently controlled red, green and blue Mini LEDs to generate colour directly.

Sony argues that this is only half of the story, though. Equally important is the sophisticated Backlight Master Drive system that controls those LEDs. After all, a Mini LED TV is only as good as its backlight processing – and history tells us that Sony knows a thing or two about that.

The 65-inch model we're testing here features 1530 local dimming zones, and Sony claims significant gains in both peak brightness and colour volume over the Bravia 9 that it replaces – and even more so over the Bravia 8 II QD-OLED.

In fact, Sony goes as far as claiming that True RGB is a “best of both worlds technology”, and that the Bravia 9 II is designed to match the “intent and peak brightness of the BVM-HX3110” mastering monitor.

This comparison with the mastering monitor is crucial to the Bravia 9 II’s very existence. According to Sony, its aim is to deliver a home viewing experience that matches what the content creators signed off in the studio. The brand feels that the brightness offered by Mini LED over OLED is vital to this, and that the RGB element is essential to deliver the colour range and accuracy that neither standard Mini LED nor OLED can match.

The Bravia 9 II also introduces Sony's new My Cinema interface, which is designed to simplify picture and sound settings without taking meaningful control away from enthusiasts.

Accessed via the dedicated three-dot button on the remote, My Cinema offers three viewing profiles: Director's Cut, Daytime and Dialogue. As their names suggest, these prioritise faithful reproduction, improved daytime visibility and clearer speech, respectively.

Perhaps the cleverest thing about My Cinema is that it deliberately limits some of the available picture adjustments. In Director's Cut mode, for example, non-Dolby Vision content (which is delivered in Dolby Vision Dark) is automatically presented in the Professional picture preset, preventing users from accidentally drifting away from Sony's intended reference settings.

We do, however, have one small criticism. While the Daytime profile defaults to the Standard Bright picture preset, it also allows you to switch to Standard, Professional or IMAX Enhanced. The Cinema preset isn't available within the Daytime profile at all, though, despite being the obvious choice for anyone wanting a slightly brighter but still authentic presentation. Hopefully, Sony will rectify this in a future software update.

Elsewhere, the Bravia 9 II offers the premium smart TV experience we've come to expect from Sony.

Google TV still isn’t quite as slick as LG’s webOS or Samsung’s Tizen, but it remains a very capable smart platform. Set-up via the Google Home app is refreshingly quick and straightforward, and the TV has Google Gemini built in, complete with far-field microphones for hands-free voice control.

App support is excellent, too. Of the 34 streaming and media apps on our usual checklist, only Apple Music and the Xbox and Amazon Luna game-streaming services are absent. Sony includes YouView, too, to overcome Google TV’s usual blind spot where UK catch-up apps are concerned, and there’s a PS Remote Play app so you can play PlayStation games via the TV even if your console is in another room.

Just as importantly, every app that should support HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and/or Dolby Atmos does so correctly, and Sony's Studio Calibrated modes continue to provide optimised picture settings for services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Sony Pictures Core. The TV is IMAX Enhanced-certified, too.

The Bravia 9 II’s audio hardware is unusually ambitious. Rather than hiding its speakers along the bottom edge as most TVs do, Sony arranges almost the entire speaker array in a horizontal line around the middle of the rear of the chassis, with only the Beam Tweeters positioned higher up. The idea is to anchor dialogue and effects closer to the centre of the screen, making the sound appear to come more naturally from the picture itself.

The Acoustic Multi-Audio+ system comprises eight speaker units in total, including two full-range drivers, twin subwoofers, two tweeters and a pair of Beam Tweeters, driven by a claimed 80W of power. Those Beam Tweeters are designed to create a greater sense of height and improve the placement of effects.

Pair the TV with one of Sony's latest Bravia sound systems and the integration becomes even slicker, with audio settings incorporated directly into the TV's interface and full control available through the Bravia Connect app.

Acoustic Centre Sync is also supported, allowing the TV's speakers to work alongside those of compatible Sony sound systems, though our experience with the feature has been mixed enough over the years that we'd recommend experimenting rather than simply assuming it's the best option for your particular set-up.

Picture

One of the highest compliments we can pay Sony's flagship RGB Mini LED is that, for the vast majority of the time, you simply stop thinking about how it's producing its picture and instead become immersed in what you're watching. For a backlit TV, that in itself is a deeply impressive trait.

But there’s also one particular way in which the Bravia 9 II surpasses every other TV we’ve tested: colour.

Quite simply, the Bravia 9 II produces the finest colours we've ever seen from any TV. Richly saturated scenes burst with vibrancy, but never at the expense of authenticity. Sony has combined extraordinary colour volume with its traditional restraint, so even the boldest hues remain beautifully balanced and believable. It's a wonderfully cinematic presentation that constantly impresses without ever shouting for attention.

That balance is particularly evident in Pan, where the dazzling fantasy palette of Neverland looks gloriously rich while still feeling entirely natural. Likewise, the vivid oranges and blues of Captain Marvel have exceptional intensity without ever becoming gaudy or oversaturated.

Bright colours retain their richness where many TVs begin to wash them out, too, and there’s impressive vibrancy right down into the deepest shadows. This top-to-bottom consistency is one of the Bravia 9 II’s greatest strengths.

Brightness, too, is undeniably exceptional.

During our early preview of the Bravia 9 II in Tokyo, Sony demonstrated the TV reaching around 4000 nits in its Professional picture preset, and in action, this is clearly one of the brightest TVs we've ever tested.

Crucially, unlike an OLED, Sony’s RGB Mini LED flagship’s immense brightness isn’t limited to small highlights. Where OLED technology inevitably has to reduce brightness during large, bright scenes, the Bravia 9 II can maintain its extraordinary light output across the entire screen if required.

The white room scenes in The Matrix provide a perfect demonstration. While the Bravia 8 II inevitably has to reduce its overall brightness as the dazzling white fills the screen, the Bravia 9 II simply keeps pouring out light. It's one of the clearest examples of RGB Mini LED's tangible advantage over OLED.

That brightness also gives the TV impressive versatility. Those seeking faithful movie reproduction will be best served by Professional mode, but Standard takes greater advantage of the Bravia 9 II's immense light output without straying too far into artificiality. Vivid, meanwhile, is best avoided altogether, pushing colours and brightness so far that the resulting picture bears little resemblance to the director's intent.

The additional brightness also makes the Bravia 9 II particularly appealing for bright-room viewing. Modern flagship OLEDs such as the Bravia 8 II are already bright enough for the vast majority of living rooms, but those with especially sunlit spaces will appreciate the RGB Mini LED's enormous brightness headroom and superb anti-reflective screen.

Colours and brightness aren’t the Bravia 9 II’s only qualities, though.

The Batman demonstrates just how accomplished Sony's local dimming system has become. Black levels are superbly deep for a backlit TV, blooming around white and coloured highlights is virtually non-existent and, perhaps most impressively of all, the backlight goes quietly about its work while almost never drawing attention to itself through obvious brightness shifts or flickering.

Civil War showcases Sony's typically exceptional processing, combining natural skin tones, outstanding detail and wonderfully controlled motion into a picture that's both cinematic and effortlessly watchable.

All of this adds up to what is, quite simply, the best picture we've ever seen from a backlit TV.

And yet...

Comparisons with Sony's own Bravia 8 II reveal that even this exceptional implementation of RGB Mini LED still can't quite match the fundamental strengths of OLED.

The Bravia 9 II's local dimming system is extraordinarily accomplished, yet it still can't quite replicate the pixel-level precision of OLED. The result is a picture that looks just a touch flatter than the Bravia 8 II's. Objects don't separate from their backgrounds with quite the same solidity, and scenes lack just a little of the three-dimensional depth and effortless dynamism that OLED consistently delivers.

Perhaps counterintuitively, OLED also retains an advantage with bright highlights against very dark or black backgrounds. Sony's Mini LED TV is understandably cautious in these situations, preserving its exemplary blooming control by stopping short of the intensity that the Bravia 8 II produces with bright white logos or isolated highlights.

Viewing angles remain another clear OLED advantage, too. The Bravia 9 II performs better off-axis than most backlit rivals, but colours and contrast still fade as you move away from the centre of the screen, and the otherwise well-hidden blooming is revealed.

There are, however, occasional moments that remind you the Bravia 9 II is still, ultimately, a backlit TV.

The opening text of Blade Runner 2049 remains its most obvious stumbling block. When the first word, “Replicants”, initially appears, it’s closer to grey than it is to the intended red, and as each new paragraph of white text fades in, the whole block briefly flashes a pale pink before settling down. Even then, the text never looks quite right: the white words near “Replicants” retain a faint pink cast, while the final red “Blade Runner” fades to grey as the rest of the words disappear, whereas it should remain a vivid red against the pitch-black background.

This is a highly unusual clip that challenges a TV in a way that 99 per cent of footage never will, but it proves that while the Bravia 9 II’s backlighting system is very impressive, it’s not infallible.

We also encountered one issue with the Bravia 9 II that warranted rather more investigation. During our testing, we consistently observed faint horizontal lines in a handful of Dolby Vision scenes, including parts of Sinners, across both UHD Blu-ray and streaming sources. The artefacts weren't visible when viewing the HDR10 versions of the same material, strongly suggesting an issue specific to the Bravia 9 II's Dolby Vision processing.

The lines are subtle enough that many viewers may never notice them, but once spotted, they can be difficult to ignore. Given their very specific behaviour, we'd hope this is the sort of issue Sony can resolve via a software update. It's important to stress, though, that this isn't the reason the Bravia 9 II misses out on five stars.

Gaming largely reinforces the conclusions we've already reached with movies. HDR titles such as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy look spectacular, with the Bravia 9 II delivering richer colours and greater brightness than the Bravia 8 II. Once again, though, the OLED's superior contrast gives the image greater solidity and depth, making buildings in the opening city sequence look more three-dimensional while revealing finer details, such as the freckles of the young shopkeeper, more readily.

The differences become more pronounced with SDR games. Call Of The Sea looks strikingly vibrant from the Bravia 9 II, but it's also a touch overbearing, with colours skewing richer and redder than we'd like and small white interaction prompts proving less distinct than they are on the Bravia 8 II. The OLED's more balanced presentation ultimately proves easier on the eye over longer sessions, despite looking a touch less immediately spectacular.

Motion, too, reveals one final weakness. There’s a slight smearing to fast-moving action and camera pans that's only occasionally visible with films but becomes much more noticeable in games, where higher frame rates and player-controlled movement make the effect more obvious, especially in comparison with the crisp responsiveness of OLED.

Ultimately, Sony has produced the finest backlit TV we've ever tested, and one that comes close to delivering OLED-like consistency while comfortably surpassing even the best OLEDs for brightness and colour volume. That said, a handful of flaws and relative deficiencies, while individually minor, collectively cost the Bravia 9 II its fifth star.

Sound

Sony has long been one of the few TV manufacturers to treat sound quality as more than an afterthought, and the Bravia 9 II continues that tradition with a presentation that's impressively large, spacious and immersive by TV standards.

The first thing that strikes you is the scale of the soundstage. Audio extends well beyond the physical boundaries of the TV, while Dolby Atmos soundtracks benefit from a genuine sense of height that's still rare from integrated speakers.

Watching Civil War, effects are placed with impressive precision around the TV, while the chaotic soundscape retains plenty of subtle detail rather than collapsing into a wall of noise.

It's an involving listen, too. The Bravia 9 II produces more weight than the Bravia 8 II, helping action scenes feel satisfyingly substantial.

That extra bass comes at a small cost, though. The deep synth notes at the start of chapter two of Blade Runner 2049 have plenty of depth, but they lack the tautness we'd ideally like. Rather than each note starting and stopping with real authority, the bass flaps somewhat, robbing those bassy effects of some of their intended impact.

The Bravia 9 II also falls just short of the Bravia 8 II when it comes to refinement. Dialogue remains consistently clear, but voices aren't projected with quite the same focus or solidity as they are by Sony's flagship OLED. There's also a slight hardness to the presentation that occasionally makes speech sound a touch brash, softening some of the subtle emotional nuances in performances.

That slight lack of finesse extends to high-frequency effects, too. The rain falling onto the balcony in Blade Runner 2049 has a faint metallic edge that makes it sound a little more like static than falling water. It's a subtle trait that you'll rarely notice unless comparing TVs directly, but it does slightly reduce the sense of realism.

Ultimately, the Bravia 9 II delivers some of the most spacious and immersive sound we've heard from a TV, and many buyers will be perfectly happy relying on its integrated speaker system. It doesn't quite match the refinement of the Bravia 8 II, though, and a TV of this calibre still deserves to be partnered with a dedicated sound system if your budget allows.

Verdict

With the Bravia 9 II, Sony has pushed backlit TV technology further than ever before.

Sony's first flagship RGB Mini LED TV delivers the finest colours we've ever seen from a television, breathtaking brightness, and local dimming that's so accomplished you'll frequently forget you're watching a backlit display at all. Add excellent processing, immersive sound and a polished user experience, and this is probably the best backlit TV we've ever tested.

It's not perfect, though.

A handful of relatively minor issues – from the rare backlight hiccups and a peculiar Dolby Vision bug to slightly soft bass and some motion smearing with games – are disappointing in a flagship TV. More fundamentally, despite coming closer than any previous LCD set we've tested, the Bravia 9 II still can't quite replicate the solidity, consistency and pixel-level precision that make the very best OLED TVs so special.

That doesn't make the Bravia 9 II the wrong TV. In fact, if you regularly watch in an exceptionally bright room or simply prefer not to buy an OLED, Sony's flagship True RGB model should sit right at the top of your shortlist. For most buyers, though, the Bravia 8 II remains the more complete television. It's not quite as bright, but it's more consistently convincing, costs less, and ultimately delivers the better picture overall.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Bravia 8 II

Also consider the Samsung S99H

Read our Hisense UR9 review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

The size of the average UK living room is now just a third of what it was in the 1970s, according to a survey by LABC (a UK representative body for local council building inspectors). Of course, as living space constricts, so does the amount of room being allocated to hi-fi set-ups.

That’s where speakers like the Dali Sonik 5 come into play. With a compact design and a price of £899 / $1800 / AUS$1749 – just shy of the current Award-winning Fyne Audio F501E at £999 / $1299 / AU$1999 – these Dali floorstanders strike a pleasing balance between convenience, cost and quality.

The new series of Sonik speakers replace the discontinued and much-loved Oberon range, making the Sonik 5 the successor to the five-star Oberon 5. A tough act to follow, given the multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards under its predecessor’s belt.

On inspection, the apple doesn’t seem to have fallen far from the tree between these models, with similar dimensions and driver configuration. But the question is, will these new floorstanders throw down the gauntlet or leave us reminiscing about the good ol’ days?

Build

The Dali Sonik 5 are compact two-way towers, with fairly diminutive dimensions of 82.6 × 16.2 × 27cm (hwd). Their petite size means these speakers never dominate visually and will fit seamlessly into most spaces.

The internally braced MDF cabinets are clad in high-grade laminate and come in four finishes: natural oak, white, walnut and black ash. On our test pair, the walnut finish looks convincingly wood-like and complements the clean front panel cosmetics well, making it look notably more modern than the Oberon 5.

In terms of drive units, there are two 13cm mid/bass drivers loaded with a rear port, and a 29mm soft dome tweeter. The mid/bass diaphragms use Dali’s trademark mix of fine-grain paper pulp reinforced with wood fibres, which the company claims provides rigidity, good damping and light weight.

The drive units employ Dali’s patented SMC (Soft Magnetic Composite) technology in the motor system to reduce distortion, which should help with optimising detail, transparency and dynamics.

All three drivers are linked through a single-wired two-way crossover, resulting in a sensitivity of 88dB/w/m and nominal impedance of 6 ohms – identical to the Oberon 5. These are typical figures, and shouldn’t cause any problems when paired with decent, price-compatible amplifiers. That said, Dali recommends pairing it with an amplifier with a power rating of 30-150 watts.

Compatibility

In terms of positioning, we find the Sonik 5 sound best facing straight ahead, with a gap of at least 0.8m from our testing room’s rear wall. When angled in, the sound is a little narrower and brighter than we would like. Positioned too close to the wall, the bass starts to dominate.

If you are listening at close range – say, closer than two metres – then it’s likely that the tweeter will be well below your ear height. In which case, we recommend tilting the speakers slightly upwards, so that the tweeter axis lines up with your ears. If your listening position is further away from the speakers, this becomes less of an issue.

In terms of partnering electronics, we found the Dali speakers coped well with similarly priced separates. We got good results from both five-star Arcam A15+ and Naim Nait XS 3 stereo amplifiers.

For the bulk of this test, we were streaming hi-res tracks using the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition music streamer, or playing compact discs from the Cyrus CDi CD player.

Sound

After giving the Sonik 5 a few days to settle in, we find ourselves thoroughly impressed by their performance. With an intricate and highly musical sound, these speakers are versatile, proving themselves a serious contender across genres.

Listening to Nude by Radiohead, we enjoy powerful but pleasingly tight bass for the speakers’ small size, vivid textural details across the frequency range, and a musical presentation that conveys each of the instruments with good separation, allowing their individual tonal qualities to shine through. At a similar price, the larger Fyne F501E produce deeper bass, but sacrifice a degree of precision in the process.

While listening to Johnny Cash’s I Won’t Back Down, backing harmonies have a pleasant, airy quality, while Cash’s voice holds its own in its chesty, elderly bass. Most impressively, his vocal remains crystalline, occupying centre stage with an eerily lifelike presence.

Dynamically, the Sonik 5 are responsive. We find that the decay of certain notes, dynamic swells and subtle ebbs in volume are all conveyed with a faithfulness that outperforms both the Oberon 5 and the Fyne F501E. No mean feat.

Dali’s speakers are not traditionally shy when it comes to treble, but with such refined textures and an ability to sparkle without veering into shrill territory, the manufacturer’s boldness has, once again, earned our respect.

Their midrange is another highlight, evoking palpable humanity and emotion from voices as varied as Tom Jones and Martha Wainwright. We enjoy the texture and natural warmth that the Sonik 5 reveal in vocal performances across our music collection.

Rhythmically, these speakers are highly adaptive, with the capacity to maintain a musical sense of momentum, even when faced with the raucous rhythms of Elvis Costello’s 20% Amnesia. But they cope just as well with the subtle undercurrents of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Pt. III – Pursuance.

These Dalis work well with classical recordings, too. Listening to Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, the cello’s delicate texture is preserved even when it plays incredibly quietly, as it does for extended periods in the piece. When the symphony swells to its dramatic climax, the scale and depth of field conveyed by the Sonik 5 leave us feeling the music to our very core.

The Sonik 5 maintain a stable stereo image, which by price standards is precise and well focused. Symphony No. 3 allows the speakers’ stereo image to shine, highlighting their layered soundstage, which retains focus and precision, even in dense arrangements.

Verdict

With a pleasingly compact size and excellent sound, we think the Dali Sonik 5 will make a superb addition to any home set-up, especially if you’re working with small spaces.

Provided you are willing to take some time to set them up carefully, these floorstanding speakers have plenty to offer, with a sound that transcends their dimensions.

Review published: 8th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Compatibility 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Fyne Audio F501E

Also consider the Dali Oberon 5

Best floorstanding speakers 2026: budget to premium models tested by our experts

What do you think of when you hear the word “liberty”? Perhaps the triumphant motto of the French Revolution which pledged liberty, equality and fraternity for all, or perhaps the Statue of Liberty with her torch aloft welcoming newcomers to New York via Ellis Island? The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, perhaps, or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance if you’re into your black and white Westerns?

You may not think of a pair of mid-price wireless earbuds, but could that be about to change? The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are already imbued with a certain grandeur by virtue of their very name, but a name alone does not make a pair of earbuds.

Anker’s sub-brand Soundcore must face off against the likes of JBL and Sony to make a dent in this mid-range field, and while this isn’t the most densely populated segment of the wireless earbuds landscape, there are still a handful of hurdles for the Liberty 5 Pro to overcome.

Price

At £150 / $170 / AU$280, the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are committedly mid-range wireless earbuds. For this kind of money, the JBL Live Beam 3 can be yours for around £120 / $150 / AU$150, while the more affordable and Award-winning Sony WF-C710N can be picked up for £75 / $80 / AU$128 at the time of writing.

The likeable Apple AirPods 4 with ANC, conversely, sit around the £179 / $179 / AU$299 mark.

Build & comfort

Hooray, a pair of wireless earbuds that fit snugly and securely in our ears! This isn’t faux surprise or mock celebration: it’s remarkable the number of in-ear headphones – wired or wireless – that fall at what should be the most basic of hurdles.

We rarely have such an issue with the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro. The mid-range contenders use a similar configuration to the more premium Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), with an outer stem attached to a main body accompanied by top-mounted fins designed to sit under the ear’s inner ridge and facilitate a more stable fit. Those fins are fixed to the buds directly, however, so it’s something of a one-size-fits all arrangement.

They may be small, but the difference they make is profound. Those fins are firmer than the ones found on the second-gen Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2, but in acting as an anchor to keep your buds in place, they really do the trick. We took the Liberty 5 Pro to the gym and even on a short 5 kilometre run, and not once did they come loose or make a bid for freedom.

During everyday use, the Liberty 5 Pro are easy to get along with. Their silicone ear tips fit snugly and securely, yet it isn’t often that we feel fatigued by the buds as we clock up the minutes of wear. Better still, Soundcore has been kind enough to offer five tip sizes ranging from XXS to large, so you’re likely to find a set to suit your needs, and there is an ear-tip test on the app to further help you on your journey to achieving a decent seal.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the Liberty 5 Pros’ charging case, which uses a narrow front-mounted screen to display your buds’ vital statistics. The idea of a smart screen that essentially does the job of a companion app on your phone can be a bit of a divisive one, but we do appreciate being able to see our buds’ battery life at a mere glance.

Features

If you want something that will last and last, the Liberty 5 Pro’s battery life is decent, but they aren’t quite the Duracell Bunny of the mid-range earbud world. You’ll get around 6.5 hours from the buds and up to 28 hours total from the case with noise cancelling switched on, falling short of the 9-10 hours (buds) and 48-hour total of the rival JBL Live Beam 3.

Even the cheaper Sony WF-C710N squeeze around 8.5 hours from the buds and 30 hours with the case in play, leaving the Soundcore earbuds lagging rather behind their main rivals.

The Soundcore buds support Dolby Audio with head tracking, something they implement with reasonable competence. Do be aware that switching on Dolby Audio will switch off Soundcore’s ‘AI Sound Enhancement’ algorithm, resulting in a modest but perceptible drop-off in audio quality as a result.

The Sony-developed LDAC Bluetooth codec is also on the menu, something we wouldn’t necessarily expect to find with a pair of earbuds at this price – the cheaper Sony WF-C710N, for example, don’t support it at all. Considering LDAC allows you to stream high-resolution audio streams up to 32-bit/96kHz at up to 990kbps data rates from a compatible source, that’s quite a feather in the Liberty 5 Pros’ cap.

Touch controls work well, with Soundcore’s system operating primarily via either a series of taps or swipes depending on what you want your buds to do. Our test pair are responsive to our various commands, and we’re particularly impressed by the levels of customisation on offer from the accompanying Soundcore app.

On the subject of the app, Soundcore’s is generally a good one. There are plenty of useful features, such as an eight-band equaliser, ANC mode toggling, touch control customisation, and a handy fit test, but some users might feel that some additions just get in the way, such as a ‘Discovery’ comments forum and a ‘Soundspace’ section filled with free meditations and various flavours of white noise. For us, such additions aren’t particularly necessary, although they may have their fans among users keen for an app with all of the bells and whistles.

Noise cancelling & voice calls

Soundcore has put a lot of effort into the Liberty 5 Pros’ voice calls, packing the buds with 10 sensors and powering it all with a new ‘Anker Thus’ AI chip, which draws on large audio datasets and uses a configuration whereby the chip’s CPU and memory are fused together for a more efficient and powerful performance when handling audio and calls.

Human speech is nicely spotlighted and impressively clear, although voices do sound a little artificial and robotic. The Soundcore earbuds do isolate speech admirably from environmental noise, so much so that traffic, wind and birdsong are barely audible as we natter away without distraction. The Sony WF-C710N sound more natural, but the Liberty 5 Pro have a cleaner presentation.

Noise cancelling is similarly capable. The Liberty 5 Pro keep up with their rivals as they suppress the general ambience of a busy cafe, making a decent fist of softening exterior noises if not completely eliminating them.

Higher frequencies, including some human speech or the clank of weights in a busy gym, will still penetrate through, as will the deepest of deep rumbles, but this isn’t a poor performance at this mid-price level. If you want a proper step up in terms of pure noise isolation, you’re going to have to spend more cash and seek out the premium Bose QC Ultra (2nd Gen) or the Sony WF-1000XM6 instead.

Sound

It’s been a reasonable showing thus far, but sound is ultimately where the race is won or lost, and it is here where the Liberty 5 Pro trip and stumble. From the outset, we’re impressed with the muscle and weight they bring to their respective renditions of Slipknot’s Left Behind and Nine Inch Nails’ As Alive As You Need Me To Be, but a lack of clarity and overall sonic precision limit the extent to which we’re truly involved in our music.

To their credit, we do get a sense of a pair of earbuds that are trying to entertain us. These aren’t bland or lifeless performers, with the Soundcore bringing enough robustness and power, especially at the lower end, to grant our tunes some proper wallop. Corey Taylor’s relentless performance on Left Behind is suitably ferocious, yet subtler quirks and vocal textures are lost amidst the earbuds’ somewhat clouded presentation.

Ultimately, there’s a lack of real refinement to go with all of that undeniable eagerness. The bass may be powerful, but it is both ill-defined and overdone, while a peakiness and lack of treble refinement haunts the upper frequencies. While doing a bit of tinkering with the provided in-app equaliser can help to rectify some of that excessive eagerness, it can’t do much to infuse any real quality into the resulting reproduction.

It’s an issue that really stands out whenever a track has plunging bass tones, which ultimately end up sounding amorphous, rumbly and lacking in sufficient definition. Boot up the opening of Noisettes’ Never Forget You or the first few bars of Agnes Obel’s The Curse, and you’ll hear what we mean.

A loose low-frequency reproduction is not the only issue. While the Soundcore buds do have decent weight and impact, they’re not as crisp or as well-disciplined as their rivals. The cheaper Sony WF-C710N are equally full-blooded, yet they have the punch, precision and propulsion to go with that muscularity. The C710N are a pro boxer’s powerful, clean leading jab; the Liberty 5 are a sloppy haymaker thrown on a booze-fuelled Saturday night.

The mid-range buds’ lack of rhythmic momentum is highlighted on tracks such as Ghost’s Satanized, during which a poor sense of timing and squashed dynamics conspire to make the whole thing sound both flat and sluggish. The JBL Live Beam 3 are better in both regards, while the supremely entertaining C710N are, frankly, streets ahead.

Verdict

Despite their secure fit and ample feature set, the Soundcore Liberty Pro don’t have the sonic talents to trouble the best mid-range buds. If sound quality is a priority, seek out the well-rounded JBL Live Beam 3 or the sonically superior (and cheaper) Sony WF-C710N instead.

Review published: 7th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Comfort 4

MORE:

Read our JBL Live Beam 3 review

Also consider the Sony WF-C710N

Best wireless earbuds: 7 sensational pairs reviewed and rated by our experts

Is the humble compact disc about to experience a revival in the way vinyl records have enjoyed over the past few years? While there are some positive signs, we wouldn’t go that far just yet – but it is possible.

Perhaps more importantly, given that more than 200 billion CDs have been made since the format was launched in Japan in 1982, there remain plenty in circulation. There are many people, including us, who still have large CD collections and aren’t about to give them up any time soon.

In such circumstances, and if funds allow, you owe it to yourself to have a listen to the Gryphon Audio Ethos CD player. It is hugely expensive, of course, but shooting for the stars is never going to be a low-cost option.

Build & design

In the metal, this is a mighty impressive beast. We love that Gryphon Audio has been brave with the styling of the Ethos. The company could have easily made this into yet another rectangular box, but instead, it has chosen a striking triangular design that looks like little else on the market.

We like the sci-fi appearance and have something of a soft spot for top-loading CD player designs. There are practical issues with this kind of layout, though. The player can only be placed on the top shelf of your equipment rack, for example, but it also adds ritual to loading a CD that puts us in mind of using a turntable. That’s a good thing in our book.

The loading process is as follows. First, you raise the lid using the small gold lift bar on the attached arm, place the CD over the motor spindle, and then put a small magnetic puck over the centre to hold the disc in place. The lid is then lowered manually. Take care here, because its motion isn’t damped, so it can slam shut rather inelegantly. Gryphon provides a small coaster to place the puck on during the process, which is a thoughtful touch.

Once the lid closes, the Ethos’s transport whirs up to speed. While not overly noisy, it is still possible to hear the mechanism working even when we are a few metres away, something a conventional drawer-loading design would suppress better.

Overall build quality is excellent, just as we have come to expect from Gryphon. At this price, anything less would be unacceptable. The Ethos feels immensely solid and engineered to last decades. Fit and finish are straight out of the top drawer, too.

We even like the partnering metal remote. It is a small unit, but it sits well in the hand and is intuitively laid out.

Features & connections

As is fashionable, Gryphon’s engineers have allowed plenty of leeway for their customers to tweak this player’s sound. There are seven filter options for PCM and three for DSD music files. As is usual, these filters make subtle differences, and the best choice is down to taste and system matching as much as anything else. In our system, the Slow Roll-Off, Minimum Phase option works best for PCM. We left the Ethos on the default Filter 1 setting for DSD.

Then there are upsampling options, and the choice of whether the CD player processes the digital data stream in PCM or DSD. Once again, the differences are small, but we prefer the DSD option at the highest sampling rate. It sounds a touch more natural and fluid to us.

Lastly, there is a Phase-Invert switch. On the surface, this might sound like a fringe concern, but having come across recordings that have mistakenly been recorded out of phase, the ability to correct this allows the listener to enjoy a more focused presentation. It is a subtle effect, but in a transparent enough system, the benefits are clear.

This Gryphon doesn’t play SACD discs, so DSD recordings and high-resolution PCM can only be fed through the Ethos’s DAC via one of its digital inputs. It is equipped with BNC coaxial, AES/EBU and USB Type B connections, and is compatible with PCM files up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD512.

A pair of ESS Sabre ES9038Pro 8-channel DAC chips (one per side) work in full dual-differential, dual-mono mode, and sit at the heart of the Ethos’s digital module.

On the analogue output side, there are balanced XLR and single-ended RCA options. You will find the left and right channel outputs on opposite sides of the chassis, which is a result of Gryphon’s preferred dual-mono circuitry layout. This kind of arrangement tends to help stereo imaging and prevent unwanted interactions between the left and right signal paths, so improving overall performance.

Add fully balanced operation in both the digital and analogue circuits, something Gryphon has always done, and noise levels are even lower, leading to gains in dynamics and transparency.

Compatibility

The Ethos positively demands a top-class partnering system. We use our reference Burmester 088/911 MkIII pre/power combination driving a pair of ATC SCM50 speakers. We also try a pair of Fyne Audio F1-8 standmounters for a bit of variety. All cables are premium offerings from Chord Company and Vertere Acoustics.

The Ethos needs care in placement. A CD transport is a mechanical mechanism that is easily affected by external vibrations, so a level, rigid, well-damped support is essential.

Make sure it is absolutely level, too. This aspect is important, and Gryphon even provides a rather neat spirit level with the Ethos to help. The player has adjustable spikes that lock into place once everything is set. Such details matter.

Sound

We have long lived in a world where the standard 16-bit/44.1kHz CD specification has been seen as the minimum level of quality digital hi-fi, with hi-res PCM and DSD recordings being cast at the pinnacle of sound. The Ethos proves that there remains plenty of value in the original digital standard.

This player sounds natural in a way that still eludes most high-end music streamers we’ve come across, even if they are playing high-res music files. By natural, we don’t mean the kind of smooth and rich presentation some manufacturers engineer into their products to make them sound less ‘digital’.

Rather, Gryphon has gone for a subtle, unforced approach that rewards over the long term. It is a sound all about texture, physicality and body, rather than focusing on leading edges or the mechanics of the recording.

Play a large-scale classical piece such as Tchaikovsky’s Marché Slave Op.31, and the Ethos sounds wonderfully fluid, uncovering a massive amount of information, without sounding the least bit etched or clinical.

It conveys the scale of the orchestra superbly, delivering the music’s brutal crescendos with enthusiasm, while never losing its composure. We love this player’s sense of authority and its ability to organise the mass of information it uncovers into a cohesive and musical whole.

We can track low-level instrumental strands with ease, yet the Ethos’s sound also allows us to take a step back and just enjoy the spectacle. It is rare to hear a digital source component that combines insight with such a music-first attitude.

The player’s tonal balance is spot on. It is neutral without lacking in warmth and substance. No part of the frequency range stands out unnecessarily, and it all blends seamlessly to the extent that we have to work hard to split the presentation into distinct frequency ranges during analysis.

Stereo imaging is as crisp and precise as you like. We love the solidity of the presentation and the convincing way the Gryphon renders the depth of recordings (provided the recording has depth, of course). The soundstaging remains stable and locked in, no matter how complex the music gets. We find the control and grip of this player hugely appealing.

While the Ethos’s presentation is undeniably refined, there is no lack of bite when the music demands. Listen to Kendrick Lamar’s Humble, and we’re pleased to find that the Gryphon responds with plenty of attack and energy. The song’s bassline kicks with real power, and the player delivers rhythmic drive with conviction.

The story remains equally positive when we try out the player’s digital inputs. We use the digital outputs from our reference Naim ND555/555 PS DR music streamer, a Cyrus CDi and our MacBook Pro (loaded with Audirvana music software and plenty of high-res music), and regardless of source, the Ethos performs excellently.

While the sonic character of the digital inputs remains consistent with the player’s CD playback, the extra information of high-res files is easily heard. Yet, we don’t find going back to the humble compact disc any issue, so good does it sound. The Ethos sounds musically engaging and entertaining, regardless of the source.

Verdict

The Gryphon Ethos is an exceptional CD player. It is beautifully made and is a pleasure to use. While its price puts it out of reach for most people, we’re still glad it exists.

This player shows just what is possible with the original silver disc, and we suspect that it is way more than most people would imagine.

Review published: 6th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Also consider the Esoteric K-05XD

Best CD players: budget to premium options tested by expert reviewers

Our last experience of Burmester in a Porsche was the excellent audio system offered on the all-electric Taycan. We found it to be a big jump up in quality – indeed, a “night and day difference” was how we described it in our review.

Does the optional Burmester system have a similar impact on our ears in Porsche’s best-selling model, the Macan? We plugged in the newest all-electric variant and pressed play to find out.

Price

Your first rung on the optional sound-system ladder for the Macan is the Bose Surround Sound System, which costs £963.

If you want to step up to the more expensive Burmester 3D High-End Surround Sound System tested here, you are looking at a higher price tag of £2916.

System

For the money you get 21 speakers, 21 channels of amplification and 1470 Watts of power. In the front of the cabin you’ll find a trio of Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeters, which use ribbon diaphragms.

These are positioned on the top of the dashboard, with one tucked in each corner, and the third partnered with a midrange driver in the middle.

There’s a midrange driver and woofer in each front door and a full-range 3D speaker in the front A-pillars.

Each rear door gets a normal dome-tweeter, midrange driver and woofer, with a pair of surround tweeters and midrange drivers also positioned in the back, towards the rear parcel shelf.

In the boot, under the pull-up floor, is a 400W subwoofer which uses 400 watts of Class D amplification.

The processing modes you get with the system include Sound Enhancer which is designed to improve the sound of compressed music, while Auro 3D processing is there to help with immersiveness.

We would recommend having the sound enhancer turned on – we noticed a small, subtle lift in quality. When it comes to the 3D processing, we wouldn’t stray too far from the first couple of rungs on the ladder when you’re playing with the intensity.

We found it ok having some information coming out of those A-pillar speakers, but any more and it can result in a very messy and confused sound – the speakers start making their presence felt and not in a good way.

There is also an ‘Eco’ mode which crosses over from the Bose system and which we found delivered results that weren’t ideal for sound quality. To summarise, we found using the mode resulted in "a shrinking of scale, diminished dynamics and a more laid-back and less expressive sound".

Sound Modes

While some car systems offer a one-size fits all approach to the sound, with this Burmester option, you choose how to focus the sound in the car. Here you have the option of either ‘symmetrical’ or ‘driver’.

There’s nothing groundbreaking to see here; the former gives you more of an even spread of sound (which is going to be better when you have a car full of passengers) or you can create more of a focused stereo image for the driver, more akin to sitting in front of a pair of speakers.

If you’re the only person in the car, then it’s going to come down to a matter of taste as to which you prefer. Symmetrical gives you a fuller soundstage, pushes the soundfield back towards the windscreen and encourages a greater spread of sound. It sounds a bit more relaxed in its delivery.

Switch to the driver-focused setting and things tighten up. You are aware there is a shift of information from the far left of the cabin to a position much closer to your left ear.

This setting promotes a more up-front, focused sound, and places you more in your own private soundstage. It feels more as though you’re sitting in the sweet spot between a pair of speakers.

Your sound profile choices are Pure, Smooth and Live. Having experienced all three, we think there’s only really one choice. Pure delivers the best sound possible, and doesn't manipulate the signal in any way.

Smooth softens everything, to the point where music becomes less entertaining and more dull and subdued. There’s a real lack of clarity with frequencies at either end of the spectrum sounding rolled off.

Live boosts the top end, and makes music pop more than in Pure mode, but it uspets the balance and highs now sound splashy.

You also have bass and treble adjustment but no mid-range. We left both of these at '0' and left the fade/balance adjustment alone too.

Sound quality

Stick with the Pure setting and you’ll be treated to a hugely entertaining and lively sound. We start with a blast of Orpheus by Ash and the Burmester system gets off to a rock-infused, rhythm-driven start.

The track kicks off with a flurry of drum play and immediately gets you in the mood. The kick drum has impressive impact, and overall, there’s a real sense of energy that springs from the percussion.

Each thwack sounds precise and deliberate, and really helps to convey a sense of pace and speed.

There’s a real sense of drive to the track as it rolls along. Lyrics are delivered with vigour and verve, and there’s plenty of detail extracted.

We switch genres to some old-school soul in the shape of Sam and Dave’s Hold On, I’m Comin’ and the Burmester system does a great job of capturing the song’s funky delivery.

The vibe, detail and texture of the sax as it punches through the sound stage is impressive and showcases the system’s great dynamics. It’s backed up by the solid drum beat, and enthusiastic, expressive vocals which dip and soar in all the right places.

For a quick bass test, we move on to another classic test track of ours: Black Eyed Peas Let’s Get It Started, and the system throws an impressive amount of weight behind the track’s bassline. It’s punchy, powerful and agile. There’s no thick, treacle-like texture here – each note sounds clean and clear but not insubstantial.

During testing, we were fortunate to test it against the standard Bose Surround Sound System, and the Burmester was clearly better all-round. Yes it costs more, but we don’t think you should be in any doubt that opting for the Burmester will get you significantly better sound quality.

There’s much more of a spark to the sound. Music is more invigorating and the step-up system gets your foot tapping from the off. The Bose set-up lacks detail, definition and dynamics when compared with the Burmester, which is more capable and also more configurable.

Verdict

In our experience it can be very hard for a car sound system to sound fun to listen to. It sounds like a relatively simple requirement, but you might be surprised at how many we’ve tested that just fall flat; but not the Burmester 3D High-End Surround Sound System for the Porsche Macan.

Whatever you throw its way, this set-up takes it in its stride. It’s a hugely enjoyable listen worth all five of our stars.

MORE:

I used an Eco setting on a car audio system for the first time — and my worst fears were confirmed

I switched from Bose’s surround sound system to Burmester’s 3D hi-fi in the Porsche Taycan, and was blown away

I heard a Burmester hi-fi system bring Elvis back to life, and it blew me away

Samsung proved it could make an incredibly capable portable AV machine with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

That handset introduced a truly groundbreaking picture upscaling feature, which directly addressed the shortcomings of streaming video on your smartphone; ultimately earning it a spot on our coveted annual What Hi-Fi? Awards list.

A year on, and Samsung is back with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which makes a few subtle tweaks to the Award-winning formula. While AI is still very much at the forefront of the S26 Ultra’s appeal in general, Samsung is also promising upgrades that should appease AV enthusiasts such as us.

However, with Apple and Sony nipping at its heels, can Samsung keep up the momentum and deliver another smartphone that you can dependably enjoy movies, TV shows and music on while you’re on the go?

Price

The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at £1279 / $1300 / AU$1799 for the base 256GB configuration, although Samsung also offers 512GB (£1449 / $1500 / AU$2099) and 1TB (£1699 / $1800 / AU$2549) versions.

The first two options come with 12GB of RAM, whereas the 1TB is outfitted with 16GB.

Compared with the S25 Ultra, the base model is £50 more expensive here in the UK, the 512GB model is £100 more than the S25 Ultra, and the 1TB version is £150 more than last year’s model.

And looking at the wider smartphone market, the S26 Ultra has a few notable competitors. The Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (which we haven’t reviewed yet, but stay tuned) starts at £1199 / $1199 / AU$2149, making it significantly cheaper. We have reviewed the standard iPhone 17 (£799 / $799 / AU$1399), and we thoroughly approve of its AV credentials.

If you don’t want to compare Apples to Androids, then the Sony Xperia 1 VIII (review also coming soon) has just launched at £1399 here in the UK, but it’s not on sale in the States or Australia.

Design

Samsung’s flagship has gone through a gradual transformation over the past few generations. The S23 Ultra featured a curved screen and sharp corners, the S24 Ultra flattened that screen, and the S25 Ultra smoothed out the corners for a nicer feel in the hand.

The S26 Ultra feels like yet another evolution while also retaining the design DNA of its predecessors, except for the aforementioned smoother corners and the slightly awkward smattering of camera lenses on the rear being now mostly housed on a raised “island”.

This looks neater, but it also means that the phone now rocks dramatically if you interact with the display while it’s lying flat on a table.

Another design quirk that’s more of an irk is Samsung’s decision to drop the durable titanium frame of the S25 Ultra and move back to an aluminium shell, which makes it feel slightly less premium than its predecessor.

Apple made the same move for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, citing improved thermal efficiency as the primary driver behind the change.

Samsung has, at least, ensured that the S26 Ultra is sporting the latest and toughest version of its Armour Aluminium material, which can also be found on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. This is paired with Corning’s Gorilla Armour 2 display coating for better scratch and crack resistance, and Samsung’s excellent anti-reflectivity screen coating.

Samsung has also achieved its “thinnest Galaxy Ultra smartphone yet” with the S26 Ultra, as it has shaved the handset down to just 7.9mm from the S25 Ultra’s 8.3mm thickness.

Despite the thinner build and change in materials, the S26 Ultra is broadly the same weight as its predecessor, at 214g. That’s still pretty impressive for a device with a 6.9-inch display, and it doesn’t feel particularly unwieldy in the hand despite its size. That said, it's still a sizeable smartphone, and it likely won’t suit those with small hands.

Samsung is offering the S26 Ultra in a range of finishes, including Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black or White, as well as Silver Shadow and Pink Gold, which are both exclusive to its online store. Our review unit is the Cobalt Violet version, and we think it looks rather smart in this hue, which shifts from purple to a dark blue depending on how the light hits it.

Features

Strap in, this is going to be a long one.

Samsung is once again billing this smartphone as the ultimate feature-packed handset for power users, and that’s evident from the feature set. That being said, not a whole lot has changed since last year.

We’ll start with the glorious 6.9-inch Super AMOLED 2x Display, which is practically identical to that of the S25 Ultra. It features the same 3000 nits peak brightness, 3120 x 1440 resolution, 500ppi pixel density, HDR10+ support and a variable refresh rate of 1Hz-120Hz.

It does come with a few new tricks, including a privacy mode, which can block the display from off-axis viewing. This has been impressively achieved at a pixel level, and can be easily switched on or off for the whole screen, or even certain parts of the display, meaning you can look at sensitive information or input passwords without worrying about prying eyes.

More exciting for us is the upgraded ProScaler feature, which Samsung says uses a new algorithm for even sharper and richer upscaling of lower-resolution content. Once again, Samsung claims that its mobile division has worked closely with its TV arm to achieve this, and the results last year were excellent. Here’s hoping the new version is even better.

Furthermore, Samsung is touting an enhanced mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) system with 10-bit data processing for colours. Samsung claims that this will allow for four times the precision and subtlety when it comes to displaying colours. This is music to our ears, as Samsung’s smartphone displays have traditionally leaned towards the more enthusiastic end of the scale when it comes to colour reproduction.

The audio capabilities of the S26 Ultra seem to be mostly identical to those of its predecessor – at least on paper. Unsurprisingly, there is no headphone jack (wired audio peripherals can be connected to the USB-C socket), and Bluetooth audio is supported via the Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC) and LE codec.

Dolby Atmos is once again supported via headphones, and the stereo speaker arrangement consists of the bottom-firing speaker and earpiece speaker.

On to the less AV-crucial features of the S26 Ultra. This handset uses the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 for Samsung processor. The ‘for Samsung’ suffix differentiates this from the standard Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 chipset found on other smartphones, as Samsung has customised it for supposedly improved performance.

As mentioned earlier, this is backed up by either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, depending on the storage configuration you choose; our unit is the base 256GB/12GB configuration.

In practice, the Galaxy S26 Ultra flies through the Android 16 software system, which is running Samsung’s customised One UI 8 skin on top.

Disappointingly, Samsung hasn’t upped the battery capacity of the Ultra, choosing to stick with the 5000mAh cell of the S25 Ultra. It does, however, benefit from some charging upgrades, including faster wired and wireless charging.

Samsung claims that the S26 Ultra can go from zero to 75 per cent in 30 mins via 60W wired charging, whereas wireless charging is now boosted to 25W. You will, of course, need to supply a supported fast charger to access these charging speeds.

While Samsung is selling a range of magnet-equipped accessories, including cases and power banks, oddly, the company has opted not to include the magnet ring in the handset itself for native Qi2 charging support.

Apple’s MagSafe and Google’s Pixel Snap features have been hugely popular for seamless accessory compatibility, so it feels as though Samsung is missing out here.

Samsung is still managing to impress when it comes to the camera specifications. The S26 Ultra features a very similar camera set-up to its predecessor, which is no shame to us.

The S26 Ultra sports four lenses in total. The 200MP main sensor is reportedly 47 per cent brighter for better night photography, while Samsung claims the 50MP telephoto zoom lens features a 37 per cent improvement over last year.

The 10MP 3x optical zoom lens now apparently features less noise and better HDR support, while the 50MP ultra-wide lens (which was updated on last year’s handset) seems to be the same.

Last, but by no means least, is Samsung’s extensive AI feature set. Samsung is billing this phone as “the easiest, effortless AI phone”, so you can bet that artificial intelligence is baked into most of the software.

The usual suite of Galaxy AI features is here, including Circle to Search, writing suggestions, auto-translate, and the Now Brief feature, which provides contextual information such as calendar entries, weather forecasts and news depending on your interests and time of day.

These are being joined by a generative AI photo-assistant tool, which can transform photos into different styles simply by typing in a prompt, and Now Nudge, which will provide intelligent auto replies based on information from other apps (such as your calendar or messages).

Finally, Samsung’s Audio Eraser feature, which is supported for video recording to isolate and remove background noise, is now available on video streaming apps, including Netflix. This essentially works like a dialogue enhancement mode on a TV or soundbar, as users can choose to soften or remove background noises in order to make voices sound clearer and more present.

Picture

Samsung has proven that it can apply its OLED TV expertise to its smartphone displays, as we likened last year’s S25 Ultra to the S95D QD-OLED TV. Having just reviewed the S99H, we can once again see a resemblance between Samsung’s flagship smartphone and TV.

We load Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max onto the handset to put its picture performance credentials to the test, and we have the Galaxy S25 Ultra on hand for a head-to-head comparison.

We’ve also made a couple of crucial changes to the picture settings, namely changing the resolution to 3120x1440/QHD+ (from the default 2340x1080/FHD+ resolution) and switching the colours from the vivid preset to natural.

With these settings dialled in, the S26 Ultra delivers a superbly crisp, contrast-rich, and three-dimensional image that isn’t far removed from its predecessor, but some subtle upgrades help make it even more cinematic.

Starting with The Batman on HBO Max, the phone serves up a visual treat during an establishing shot of the grimy Gotham streets. Bright digital signage contrasts wonderfully with the dimly lit city streets, and the tangible sense of depth and solidity to the image really sells the film's gritty, oppressive atmosphere.

The level of detail is also very impressive, most likely thanks to Samsung’s excellent ProScaler upscaling feature. The subsequent shot of an illuminated corner shop looks spectacularly rendered, with a level of sharpness and three-dimensionality that makes the 6.9-inch display feel hugely cinematic.

Moving on to the hectic race sequence from Ready Player One, we find that the motion niggles that caught our eye on the S25 Ultra are no longer noticeable. This frantic sequence is presented with excellent fluidity, and while we could describe it as slightly over-smooth, it doesn’t distract us from the bombastic action on screen.

This sequence also demonstrates how capable this phone is when it comes to handling contrast. The vehicle headlights, the beaming sun, and the floodlights that illuminate the track are shown with intense pockets of dazzling brightness.

Rounding out our testing with Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix, we find that the Samsung can sensibly deliver more natural-looking content, too. Colours here, including skin tones, foliage and clothing, all look well-balanced, and there is a slight increase in warmth and richness to these colours that, for the most part, don’t verge into oversaturation.

This sequence also demonstrates how capable this phone is when it comes to handling contrast. The vehicle headlights, the beaming sun, and the floodlights that illuminate the track are shown with intense pockets of dazzling brightness.

Rounding out our testing with Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix, we find that the Samsung can sensibly deliver more natural-looking content, too. Colours here, including skin tones, foliage and clothing, all look well-balanced, and there is a slight increase in warmth and richness to these colours that, for the most part, don’t verge into oversaturation.

What strikes us most is how a handful of fairly subtle picture upgrades take this smartphone to the next level. The extra degree of sharpness, more adept handling of highlights, improved motion, and superior contrast handling all culminate in a phone that feels like having a pocket-sized OLED TV.

Sound

Samsung smartphones have, in previous years, lagged behind the likes of Apple and Sony when it comes to nailing sound, but the S26 Ultra feels like another step in the right direction for the Korean tech titan.

Plugging in a pair of wired headphones via our trusty USB-C to 3.5mm adapter, we stream a handful of tracks over Apple Music in Lossless quality to assess how the S26 Ultra handles music.

Overall, the new phone sounds slightly crisper, cleaner and more detailed than its predecessor, and Samsung seems to have learned from its competitors in a few key areas.

Voices are, once again, at the forefront of the listening experience, with the Samsung digging up a greater sense of tonality and vocal characteristics compared to its previous flagship handset. The harmonies of Bon Iver’s For Emma sound layered and wonderfully detailed, while there is a greater sense of texture to the guitar strums throughout Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You.

Controversially, we also think that Dolby Atmos is well implemented for music here. The sense of space and openness introduced into Harry Styles’ Carla’s Song is impressive, and we feel as though it ties all of the aspects of the track together nicely. Usually, we’d recommend leaving this off, but Samsung’s implementation is surprisingly effective and doesn’t feel overly processed or vague-sounding.

However, despite a decent helping of audio upgrades, we still prefer Apple’s approach to audio. Plugging the same adapter and headphones into an iPhone 16 Pro reveals a warmer, better-organised sound with even more texture. We also find that the iPhone’s sound feels more full-bodied and better integrated, which highlights Samsung’s occasional tendency to sound a touch too direct and overexcited.

While the Samsung doesn’t get anything outwardly wrong, it needs to nail those final sonic subtleties to match its incredibly talented competitors.

We do approve of the S26 Ultra’s speakers, though.

The physical distance between the downward-firing loudspeaker and the earpiece at the top of the display (which combine to make a stereo speaker arrangement) results in a good sense of stereo separation. With Dolby Atmos switched on, this handset can create an impressively large and spacious cinematic sound, which is well-suited to big blockbuster action sequences, such as the aforementioned Ready Player One race.

Verdict

Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone might not be a game-changing upgrade compared with its Award-winning predecessor, but it's hard to argue that it hasn’t made some meaningful improvements to make it an even better smartphone for portable AV usage.

Contrast, detail levels and motion have all been improved, making this once again feel like a feature-packed, pocket-sized OLED TV. While Samsung could learn a thing or two from its competitors when it comes to musicality, this is another top-notch Android smartphone for those who prefer to watch their films and TV shows on the go.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Also consider the Sony Xperia 1 VII

Read our Apple iPhone 17 review

The best smartphones for music and movies

They say that you should never judge a book by its cover, and we think much the same applies to hi-fi components. Over the years, we have come across no end of impressively specified products that fail to thrill musically while seemingly prosaic alternatives shine.

What of the new generation Vertere Phono-1 LX? On the surface, little appears to be different on this premium phono stage, bar some cosmetic tidying of the casework. Perhaps, more surprisingly, there are no great claims for the inside either, with the basic circuit design remaining unchanged. So, it is natural to wonder whether the change to LX status offers anything meaningful.

Build & design

Delve into the details, however, and the development work put into this new generation phono stage becomes more obvious. The circuit may be the same, but the main PCB is of higher quality than before, ensuring better contacts at soldered joints and superior long-term reliability.

The performance of any hi-fi component is reliant on the quality of its power supply. Here, Vertere has upgraded components to deliver a more stable, lower noise feed to the audio circuitry. Even the mains power input has been improved by using inductors to reduce the amount of RF energy entering the unit.

Elsewhere, there is a new two-way earthing switch that is claimed to offer a longer service life than the three-way option fitted to the previous generation of Phono-1 MkII L, as well as simplifying the choice for listeners.

Given the hum issues that record players can suffer with, we’re glad Vertere continues to take grounding seriously and understands that a one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t really work in every situation.

As before, the Phono-1 LX is nicely made and pretty compact at 5.5 x 21 x 24cm. It should slot into any equipment rack with ease. This new generation model looks a little smarter than before, thanks to the new textured paint finish on the lid and the removal of the previous generation’s top panel securing bolts.

Put old and new side by side, and it is surprising just how much difference such small details make.

There are now four finish options for the front panel: black, silver, orange, and another black acrylic option styled to match the company’s DG-X record player.

Compatibility

The Phono-1 LX is compatible with both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges, having a gain range of 40-63dB selectable in 12 steps via a series of dipswitches on the base.

While this is enough for most cartridges on the market, if you do have a very low-output moving coil, Vertere has you covered. It is possible to order a high-gain version of this phono stage with an extra 6.4dB of gain at no extra cost.

As far as cartridge loading goes, this Vertere phono stage offers a generous range of resistance (78 ohms - 47kOhms) and capacitance (100pF - 1.02uF) options, so that it is possible to optimise the results from just about any price-comparable cartridge on the market.

Aside from the slight awkwardness of the small dipswitches – the company provides a tool in the box to make using them easier – the Phono-1 LX is about as straightforward as phono stages get in terms of usability.

On the back, there is a single set of connections, both input and output are single-ended, and a couple of earthing posts. The Vertere’s front has just a simple on/off toggle and a small power LED.

Given the price point, this Vertere deserves a top-class record player. For testing, ours is the Technics SL-1000R turntable with a choice of moving coil (Kiseki Purpleheart, Ortofon MC X30) and moving magnet (Vertere Dark Sabre, Nagaoka MP-200) cartridges.

The rest of our system is Burmester’s 088/911 MkIII amplifier and ATC SCM50 speakers. We also try a second, more price-appropriate set-up of PMC Cor integrated amplifier driving a pair of Epos ES-14N speakers.

Sound

We start by comparing the Phono-1 LX with its predecessor, the Award-winning Phono-1 MkII L, and it doesn't take long to realise that, despite sharing so much DNA, the new model is a clear step forward. Considering just how highly we rated the old one, this comes as quite a shock.

Regardless of the cartridge we use, the newcomer sounds more transparent and detailed. As we listen to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, it is hard to miss the improvement in clarity.

Instrumental textures are rendered more convincingly, and it is easier to grasp the scale of the orchestra and recording venue. There is little to criticise when it comes to control and composure, even when the music becomes demanding.

Stereo imaging is precise and nicely layered. We are pleased with the stability of the presentation and the Vertere’s ability to convey image depth in an authentic manner. Of course, the partnering record player has to resolve all this information in the first place.

The Phono-1 LX’s dynamics are stronger too, with the orchestra coming through with greater verve and impact, making for a more entertaining listening experience. We are surprised by how much more authority is on offer, with the new generation sounding considerably more solid and powerful through the midrange and lows.

These gains pay dividends when switching to Catch A Fire by Bob Marley & the Wailers. We enjoy the Vertere’s rhythmic drive and cohesion with this album, and the way it delivers Marley’s voice with such finesse and passion. The album’s basslines hit hard but display a pleasing amount of articulation and grip. In comparison, the last-gen version sounds thinner and more tentative.

The Phono-1 LX’s tonality remains convincing and refuses to skew too far off kilter at either frequency extreme when provoked. There is enough top-end refinement here to avoid things sounding aggressive, even with less-than-perfectly produced records, but feed the Vertere something well-recorded, such as Quincy Jones’ Back On The Block set, and it shines.

Verdict

The Phono-1 LX may look much the same as its Award-winning predecessor, but it has taken a notable step forward in performance. It is more expressive and pulls us into the music with even greater ease.

Provided you have a talented record player and a system capable of great transparency, this Vertere phono stage is an easy recommendation.

Review published: 1st July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Also consider the Cyrus 40 PPA

Best phono preamps: budget to high-end, tried and tested

Most hi-fi enthusiasts have heard of the BBC-designed LS3/5A speakers. This tiny monitor was introduced in 1975 and has built a cult following thanks to its natural way with vocals and terrific stereo imaging. Given its small size and age, it will come as no surprise that it has limitations too, with restricted large-scale dynamics, an inability to play loud and limited bass reach, the most obvious.

The BBC also designed a bigger, more ambitious option, the LS5/9. It was released eight years after the LS3/5A and was intended to serve as a critical-listening monitor in modestly sized studios where the company’s bigger models just wouldn’t work. Its job was to allow the sound engineers to optimise all aspects of the broadcast/recording from microphone placement to overall sonic balance.

The BBC is a broadcaster rather than a speaker manufacturer, so as with its other designs, the LS5/9 is made under license by third-party companies such as Graham Audio. The Devon-based speaker manufacturer proudly proclaims its official licence on the packaging of these speakers.

Given that there are unofficial versions of this LS5/9 on the market, that seal of approval, at the very least, is a statement that the company has stayed faithful to the original design.

Design & build

The LS5/9 is a medium-sized, two-way monitor. It stands 46cm tall and has an internal volume of 28 litres, compared to the mere 5 litres of its smaller sibling. The front-ported cabinet follows the BBC’s favoured thin-wall construction method.

In this monitor, the enclosure’s panels are made of 9mm birch plywood and then heavily damped to move any resonances away from the all-important midrange region. Most current designs take the opposite approach, using thick panels that are more rigid but have resonances higher up the frequency range into areas where our hearing is more sensitive.

The LS5/9 is available in two standard hand-matched real wood veneers – cherry and oak – and three more premium options: ebony, rosewood and walnut. In a nod to modernity, Graham Audio has included magnetically mounted grilles for neatness.

Overall build quality is excellent. The oak veneer on our review sample looks lovely, while fit and finish are as good as the price point demands.

It isn’t possible to buy the original LS5/9 mid/bass unit, so Graham Audio, in partnership with Volt Loudspeakers, developed a new driver that complies with the BBC’s specifications. This 20cm polypropylene unit uses a rigid die-cast aluminium frame and has what is claimed to be a ‘massive’ motor assembly. Each driver is hand-assembled and tested by Volt.

OEM driver supplier, Audax, still manufactures the LS5/9’s official tweeter, and that’s what Graham Audio uses. This is an unusually large 34mm soft dome that is protected by a fearsome-looking metal grille.

Its output level is factory-set, but it can be tweaked to match your listening environment using exposed connections on the front panel. This involves moving a soldered wire between the three options (-1dB, 0dB (level) and +1dB), so it isn’t a particularly convenient thing to do. In most cases, we suspect that people will leave well alone.

The LS5/9’s crossover is relatively complex in design. It uses high-grade polypropylene capacitors and, unusually, a tapped autotransformer to equalise the tweeter level. The result is a sensitivity of 87dB/W/m and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms – pretty standard numbers for a speaker of this type.

Compatibility

Indeed, these speakers don’t prove particularly hard to drive. We try a range of amplifiers from Arcam’s A15+ and the Cyrus 40 AMP to our reference Burmester 088/911 MkIII pre/power without issue.

Our main sources are Naim’s ND555/555 PS DR music streamer and the Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart MC feeding a Cyrus Phono Signature/ PSX-R2 phono stage.

It pays to take care over speaker positioning. In our 3 x 7 x 5m listening room, the LS5/9 sound best around 70cm out into the room, angled in towards the listening position, though their controlled lows make a closer-to-wall position acceptable.

Once optimised, they provide a relatively broad listening sweetspot and their presentation remains impressively consistent as we move around the room. This trait points to great integration between the drive units and a well-calibrated crossover design.

These monitors are voiced to perform best with the grilles on, and they will sound a little bright and forward if you don’t use them this way. Aim to have the tweeter around ear height for the most balanced results.

Sound

Note, despite the age of the basic design, the LS5/9 speakers are highly revealing. If there are any shortcomings in your amplifier, source or the recording you play, they won’t be shy about telling you.

If you are at all familiar with the much more forgiving LS3/5A, that might come as a bit of a shock. Remember, the LS5/9 were designed as proper critical-monitoring speakers, and the LS3/5A were not; the ability to dissect recordings and highlight flaws further up the chain is the bigger speaker’s raison d'être.

Given their intended purpose in life, it comes as no surprise that the LS5/9 are even-handed and essentially neutral. They’re not massive boxes, so we wouldn’t expect seismic bass from them, and we don’t get it. But the lows they do produce are taut, articulate and dovetail seamlessly with the midrange.

As we play Kendrick Lamar’s Humble, it is hard not to admire the LS5/9’s insight into low-end subtleties and their ability to play loud without stress. Bear in mind the design’s age, it is even more impressive. The BBC’s original specifications stipulate 100dB monitoring levels, so the ability to play at high levels was baked in from the beginning.

Their midrange is another highlight. It is beautifully natural, conveying the likes of Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight with the passion and body they deserve. We love the unforced character of these speakers and the way they deliver so much detail without sounding artificially etched or aggressive.

Sure, that tweeter isn’t shy about revealing hard edges or brightness in recordings, but given a good enough signal, it remains decently refined and insightful.

Stereo imaging is another strength. As we listen to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, it is hard not to be impressed by the sense of dimensionality and scale. Instruments are placed with precision and refuse to blur as things get busier. We don’t find the soundstage especially spacious, though we do like the convincing way image depth is layered.

Good as these monitors are, there are areas where the age of the design shows. While they excel at conveying low-level dynamics, the kind that communicate the feelings in lyrics or the subtle change of intensity of instruments, they don’t deal with larger dynamic contrasts with as much conviction. The very best alternatives at this price have a broader dynamic reach and convey sonic authority better.

We would also like the LS5/9 to deliver rhythmic drive with a bit more verve and precision. Their analytical approach to music replay has plenty of appeal, but it would be nice if a song like Michael Jackson’s Black Or White was rendered with a greater sense of propulsion.

Verdict

The LS5/9 are a piece of hi-fi history, and should be judged as such. We wouldn’t expect a classic car from the ’80s to be better than current designs in every aspect, and nor would we expect that from any piece of hi-fi.

The shock is just how excellent these speakers sound by current standards. Feed them a good enough signal and their superb midrange, insight and finesse shine through. They sound authentic in a way that still eludes most price rivals, and while there are aspects of their performance that fall slightly behind the very best at this price, these aren’t enough to dull our enthusiasm.

The LS5/9 design is a testament to the quality of the BBC’s engineers of the time, as well as an indication that speaker design hasn’t progressed over the decades as much as we would like to think. Graham Audio has done a great job bringing it to life.

Review published: 29th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Epos ES-14N

Also consider the Fyne Audio 701

Best bookshelf speakers: top standmounts for every budget tested

Fyne Audio has impressed us before. Across the nine years that the company has been producing speakers, we have awarded five stars to varied products such as the high-end F701SP standmounts, the compact Vintage Five, and the F501E floorstanders, which are current What Hi-Fi? Award winners.

With the release of the entry-level F5E standmount speakers (tested at £399 / $699 / AU$895), Fyne’s proprietary IsoFlare technology only recently became available at a more affordable price. At that point, however, the company still hadn’t made an entrance into the growing market for active, Bluetooth-enabled stereo speakers.

Enter the Cubitt 5. With a good spread of connectivity options, Fyne’s first active speakers do an awful lot for their desk-friendly proportions. How will they measure up against more established rivals?

Price

Currently available at £549 / $749 / AU$1495, the Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 sit in between two strong five-star rivals.

Those are the smaller, Award-winning Ruark MR1 Mk3 (£399 / $579 / AU$899), which we praised for their punchy sound and good quality phono stage, and the larger KEF Coda W (£799 / $1000 / AU$1450), with their elegant build quality and excellent dynamic handling.

Build & design

The first thing we notice about the 26cm-tall Cubitt 5 is their rather stylish design, featuring curved edges and a sleek chrome surround to the main driver. With a minimal, modern look and shoebox-sized dimensions, they make an unobtrusive addition to our test room.

We are also struck by how these speakers look just as comfortable on speaker stands as they do sitting on our desk.

Our test pair arrived in Olive Green, but the Cubitt 5 are also available in Midnight Black, Pearl Titanium, Pebble Grey and Arctic White finishes. Our pair look well finished and feel solidly constructed, with a reassuring but easily transportable weight of approximately 4kg per speaker.

Despite their robust and satisfyingly minimal design, we are somewhat disappointed to find that the speakers feature no onboard controls. Although the included remote is a handy addition while listening from a distance, in a desktop setting, where the speakers are close to hand, it becomes frustrating to have to find the remote every time we want to change source or volume.

In contrast to the sturdy speakers, the black plastic remote feels somewhat insubstantial, but nonetheless does its job well, allowing for easy switching between sources, volume adjustment and activating standby mode. In a thoughtful touch from Fyne, the remote can also be stored in a small metal holder attached to the back of the right speaker so you don’t lose it.

But let’s get into the nitty gritty. Taking a closer look at their fully active design, we find that each of the enclosures houses two 60W Class D amplifiers, one dedicated to each drive unit.

The speaker’s IsoFlare driver array sees a 19mm titanium dome tweeter mounted at the centre of a 12.5cm multi-fibre mid/bass unit to improve sound dispersion and integration between drivers. IsoFlare positions the drivers’ acoustic centres (the point at which the drive unit appears to generate sound) on the same axis, rather than above one another as they would be in a conventional design.

As with Fyne’s other IsoFlare products, the mid/bass driver’s rubber surround exhibits the company’s patented fluting, which it claims damps down energy from the driver more effectively, reducing distortion and improving clarity. The speakers also employ a front-firing bass port to reinforce the low end.

Similar to active speakers such as the KEF Coda W, the Cubitt 5 feature one master speaker housing power connection, amplification, DAC and connections, with a wired connection to the other speaker. A 3m cable comes included in the box, but Fyne also offers a longer 8m version, which is available to purchase for £39.99 / €44.99 / $49.99.

Pleasingly, all inputs are clearly labelled, making the Cubitt 5 an accessible option for music fans of all technical abilities. On the front panel, however, we begin to feel that the minimalist design, which includes just a single LED that turns red during standby, doesn’t provide us with enough information.

Without any visual indication of volume, we found it all too easy to return from a break after listening at high levels, and get unexpectedly blasted away when we turn them back on. Similarly, when switching between sources, we would have liked some way of knowing which source was currently selected.

Features

The Cubitt 5 are equipped for wireless playback via Bluetooth 5.0, which supports the standard AAC and higher-quality aptX HD codecs.

In terms of wired connections, the speakers house stereo RCA analogue inputs, an optical input that handles hi-res files up to 24-bit/96kHz PCM, and an HDMI eARC input for hooking up to a television, and an integrated moving magnet phono stage for use with a record player.

Our first pair of test speakers had issues with clipping when using the analogue RCA inputs. Fyne sent us another sample though, which performed without a hitch – so we’ll give these speakers the benefit of the doubt.

We find that the Cubitt 5’s Bluetooth connection works well with both our Macbook and smartphone, entering pairing mode easily with one click of the remote and maintaining a stable connection throughout testing. The speakers remember their last connection, so you can pick up where you left off when switching between devices.

Further reflecting their versatile design, the built-in moving magnet phono stage means these speakers can be connected to a turntable without the need for any extra boxes – ideal for vinyl enthusiasts with limited space. A phono ground output is also included on the primary speaker’s rear panel.

For those wanting to extend the speakers’ already impressively controlled and punchy bass, a subwoofer output is also available.

Unlike some of their rivals, the Cubitt 5 do not offer any kind of tonal equalisation or the option of a control app. Fortunately, though, the speakers are sufficiently well balanced and simple to use that these omissions don’t feel like a major issue.

Sound

The Fyne Cubitt 5 sound best placed against our listening room’s rear wall, mounted on speaker stands. It is worth noting, however, that they also cope remarkably well on a desktop, resisting both low-frequency blurring and excessive desk vibration better than most rivals.

Across every input, the speakers deliver an impressively taut sound, with a vibrant, airy top end. Bass performance is at once impactful and satisfyingly neat, considering the constraints of their size.

We are immediately impressed by their textural fidelity, with the acoustic guitars of Adrienne Lenker’s Sadness As A Gift showcasing their animated and vivid presentation.

Equally propulsive and contextually sensitive, the Cubitt 5’s rhythmic drive is nothing short of impressive for their price. When listening to Fcukers’ I Like It Like That, we are immediately struck by the manner in which powerful hits of synthesised sub bass drive the song relentlessly forward without ever compromising the gossamer quality of the lead vocals.

Notably, the Cubitt 5 hold their own at high volume, staying composed even when pushed hard.

The Cubitt 5’s soundstage is impressively stable. Listening to David Bowie’s Blackstar, we note the speakers’ precise stereo presentation, with instruments sitting firmly in their places across the left/right axis.

Moving the speakers further apart, we find they are capable of significant width before any central holes begin to appear in the stereo image. With an unexaggerated sense of depth, the Cubitt 5 allow Lazarus’s smooth, layered drums to sit comfortably behind Bowie’s pained vocal.

Moving further away from the speakers, we find they retain a satisfying sense of spatial reality, even as we walk around the room.

Dynamically, the Cubitt 5 are highly responsive. Listening to Talk Talk’s The Rainbow, transitions between delicate piano chords and the brash roar of a distorted harmonica are reproduced with equivalent ease. Similarly, large jumps in volume during Radiohead’s Palo Alto are delivered with an impact that seems to sit comfortably within the speakers’ ability.

The Cubitt 5’s MM phono stage sounds pleasantly detailed and energetic when we tried it with the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition, and will be fine for most users. However, if vinyl is your main source, we think it would be worth upgrading to a standalone phono stage for an extra touch of dynamic sensitivity.

An additional word of caution: we do note that the Cubitt 5 produce a slightly higher level of hiss than their rivals, which is apparent when no music is playing, but which isn’t, ultimately, loud enough to bother us during playback.

Compared to the smaller Ruark MR1 Mk3, we feel that the Cubitt 5 offer superior bass handling in terms of agility and grip, and a more faithful, if slightly less energetic, sound signature.

With a responsibly vivacious presentation, these speakers provide an honourable, if not entirely threatening, challenge to more expensive active designs such as the KEF Coda W. However, given the price difference between the two, we are happy to accept any compromises.

Verdict

With the Cubitt 5, Fyne Audio is an accomplished addition to the growing market for active speakers with Bluetooth. Their compact proportions, ease of use and feature set make them an ideal addition to a home audio set-up, especially if you have limited space.

While we would have liked to see on-board controls and a visual volume display included, these speakers nonetheless deliver an enjoyable and immersive listening experience for the price.

Review published: 26th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our Ruark MR1 Mk3 review

Also consider the step-up KEF Coda W active speakers

Best active speakers 2026: our experts pick the top pairs with integrated amplifiers

If you know much about wired open-back headphones, you’ll probably be familiar with the talents of the Grado SR325x. The rugged over-ears have been scooping What Hi-Fi? Awards since their 2021 release, delighting us with their exceptional musicality and hugely entertaining presentation. In fact, the SR325x are already a pair of bona fide classics.

Even the all-time greats must move with the times, though, with Grado reimagining the SR325x as the SR325 Classic as part of the brand’s overhaul of some of its most established wired headphones. The new Classic range brings together many of its most recognisable headphones under the same banner, all united by the addition of a new 'X2' driver, with the newer models set to replace all of the ‘x’ versions currently available.

That’s a big deal. With the SR325x soon heading off for a well-earned retirement, they’ve left their successors with awfully big shoes to fill – are the new SR325 Classic up to the challenge?

Price

The Grado SR325 Classic cost £349 / $350, making them a little more expensive at launch than the original SR325x, which came into the world at £330 / $295. The latter pair have dropped considerably in the UK since then, however, tending to hover around the £200-250 mark.

Wired competition at this price is hardly scarce. For less money, you can grab the exceptionally talented Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X open-backs for £219 / $299, or spend a little more for the five-star Austrian Audio Hi-X65 for $400 in the US and £300 in the UK at the time of writing.

If you want to spend a bit more, the smooth-sounding Sennheiser HD 660S2 can be yours for £399 / $599.

Build & comfort

Classic name, classic Grado look. The new SR325X Classic sport the industrial, hard-edge aesthetic so familiar to fans of Grado’s established roster of wired headphones, typified by small rounded earcups, aluminium speaker grilles and lean, minimalist construction.

Those aluminium housings are now all black as opposed to the previous silver finish of the SR325x, but this is still the classic Grado design language with which we’re familiar. Nothing here screams luxury, but we’d be confident that, as we’ve found with the established SR325x, these are headphones that will last and last.

While general levels of construction are high, we do have to raise our usual concerns about the cans’ rather unforgiving foam earpads. Grado has never been particularly generous with the padding it provides across its extensive roster of on-ear and over-ear cans, but when you could buy a pair of ultra-luxurious DT 900 Pro X for a similar price, it’s hard not to feel a little short-changed when dealing with the somewhat coarse, slightly scratchy cushions provided with the new SR325.

Yes, the Grados’ light weight helps to offset any potential discomfort, but when the relative leanness of the ear cushions means there’s not a huge barrier between the driver housing and your precious ears, we can imagine that some users will find the SR325 Classic to be more unforgiving than the headphones they’re used to.

Plus, it might just be a bad batch, but the Classics’ removable ear pads do seem to come off incredibly easily on our review sample, so much so that we can remove them from the main body of our test pair with a single finger. That can become a real issue, especially when you’re spending half of your time fiddling to try to reattach the cushions to their housings rather than actually listening to your headphones.

Thankfully, we don’t find too many other gripes concerning usability. Adjusting the headband is done via a simple vertical slider mechanism that responds to a firm push or pull, and we find that the SR325 Classic will clamp firmly – but not too firmly – to your head without too much trouble.

Grado has given other structural elements of the Classic headphones a refresh, such as re-engineering the height rod, junction block and gimbal system for better stability around the headband and earcups. The headband also has more padding than before, while the braided cable has been updated to be lighter and more flexible.

Sound

Improving upon the SR325x was never going to be easy. We’re talking about headphones that have scooped award after shiny award while laying down a sonic benchmark for musicality and verve – improving upon that particular recipe is a bit like trying to add a bonus track to Sergeant Pepper’s.

Yet improvements have been made, that much is for certain. Grado describes the implementation of its new X2 driver as delivering "improved consistency, control, and refinement" alongside "greater clarity, extension, and balance". We couldn’t have put it much better ourselves.

Those 44mm X2 dynamic drivers, built using a Mylar diaphragm and a copper voice call, bring levels of clarity and composure to these Classic cans that the established SR325x can’t match. The Classic are rich, powerful yet precise in their presentation, handling a hi-res recording of Agnes Obel’s Fuel To Fire without a hint of freneticism or fuss.

Such a sparse, delicate and carefully curated composition plays perfectly into the Classics’ hands, exhibiting the over-ears’ talents for overall control and organisation. Instrumental textures blend delicacy and weight beautifully, granting insight and real personality to the dark, mysterious strings on Obel’s The Curse.

Much as we’d like to, we can't listen exclusively to super-talented Danish singer-songwriters all day, so it’s time to kick things up a notch with The Smiths’ How Soon Is Now?. The Grados’ smooth yet open presentation gives the tune a fittingly cinematic presence, while the thudding drums are presented with a satisfying balance of control and brute force.

We spend a great deal of time listening to the SR325 Classic, be it via our trusted Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 hi-res player or plugged directly into a laptop, and there’s no question they benefit from notable improvements over their predecessors, particularly in terms of greater precision, detail and clarity.

So why, then, do we feel increasingly frustrated the more and more we listen? In the back of our minds, we can’t shake the feeling that this ‘Classic’ spin on the SR325 isn’t hitting the spot in the same way as the SR325x.

Much of that owes to a poorer sense of rhythmic drive. The SR325x are far better in this regard, propelling tracks forward with their sparkier, more propulsive temperament. The established Award-winners are more agile and energetic, too, with a brio and enthusiasm which has been somewhat muted on the newer iteration.

Much as we’re impressed with how clean and well-ordered the SR325 Classic are, too often we find ourselves willing them on, like a jockey trying to kick more life into a tiring racehorse. The Classic cans don’t have such a forward feeling of momentum, while the SR325x have a carefree skip in their step that we continue to find utterly irresistible on tracks such as Hans Zimmer’s pulsating Supermarine or Stevie Wonder’s relentlessly funky Higher Ground.

Ultimately, the SR325 Classic seem to have sacrificed verve and excitement for composure and clarity, and to our ears, that’s a shame. Grados are all about fun and panache, but there’s a seriousness – dare we say a standoffish quality – to the SR325 Classic that we can’t help but find slightly disappointing.

Verdict

In some ways, the SR325 Classic are an improvement over their predecessors. They’re undeniably clearer, more rounded sounding headphones, bringing new levels of poise and maturity to an Award-winning Grado recipe.

Yet during our side-by-side testing, we find ourselves yearning more for the SR325x than their newer counterparts. They may be less forgiving and less refined, but the SR325x are simply more entertaining than their slightly po-faced successors.

The Classics will have their fans, but if we had to pick a pair to live with, we’d snap up a deal on the older Grado SR325x before they run out.

Review published: 22nd June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Comfort 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Grado SR325x

Also consider the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X

Best over-ear headphones: wired and wireless pairs tested by our in-house experts

You know how fancy restaurants have this tendency to deconstruct classic recipes? Well, Sony’s done the same thing to the soundbar, but unlike that deconstructed lasagne, which you rather wish was just a perfectly delicious, fully constructed lasagne, the Bravia Theatre Trio is an almost flawlessly tasty treat.

Sony’s thinking behind the Theatre Trio is that as TVs get ever bigger, soundbars will struggle to create audio on a scale to match the visuals. The obvious solution is to switch to having speakers on either side of the screen, which is what the company’s done previously with the HT-A9 and Bravia Theatre Quad, but that creates its own issue: a lack of central focus, which is particularly important for dialogue.

The solution to the solution, then, is to break the soundbar down into three parts: a centre, a front left and a front right.

In a way, this is the antithesis of the soundbar, which was created, of course, to reduce all of the speakers needed for satisfying home cinema into one, slender unit. What’s next: the return of full home cinema in a box systems?

Let’s not get bogged down in the circular nature of home theatre fashion right now, though. Let’s just enjoy the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio for what it is: one of the finest lifestyle Dolby Atmos systems you can currently buy.

Price

The Sony Bravia Theatre Trio has launched at £1999 / $2000 / AU$2999, making it a very premium proposition indeed.

It’s a highly unusual proposition in today’s market, too, which makes direct comparison rather tricky. Someone considering the Bravia Theatre Trio might also have on their shortlist solo soundbars such as the KEF XIO, Sonos Arc Ultra and Bravia Theatre Bar 9; full soundbar systems such as the Samsung HW-Q990H; and bar-less set-ups such as the Bravia Theatre Quad.

It’s a good job, then, that we have all of these on hand for comparison with the Trio.

Almost inevitably, the Trio system can be expanded through the addition of wireless surround speakers and up to two wireless subwoofers. The new Rear 8, Rear 9, Sub 7, Sub 8 and Sub 9 are all compatible with the Bravia Theatre Trio, and if you buy everything together, the prices of the surrounds and sub(s) are halved.

Several legacy accessories – the SA-SW5 and SA-SW3 subwoofers, and the SA-RS5 and SA-RS3S surrounds – are also compatible with the Trio, should you already own any of those.

We’ve tested the Trio with the Rear 9 surrounds and Sub 8, as well as solo, and you can read our thoughts on the value of expanding the system in the sound quality section.

Design

The Bravia Theatre Trio is a slightly odd thing to behold, especially if you're coming from a soundbar.

The left and right speakers will look familiar to anyone who remembers Sony's HT-A9 system. They share a similar cylindrical shape and fairly substantial dimensions, though the Trio's versions are considerably more stylish, with a black fabric (rather than grey plastic) finish that helps them look modern and discreet despite their size.

They're attractive speakers, too. A metallic ring around the top of each cabinet adds a touch of class, while perforations in the top reveal the up-firing drivers responsible for the system's height effects. Build quality feels reassuringly solid throughout, too.

The centre speaker is a little more divisive.

Essentially a very narrow soundbar that sits beneath the TV, the centre isn’t unattractive exactly, but there is something slightly awkward about its proportions, particularly when it’s positioned beneath the sort of super-sized TV that the Trio is primarily designed to partner.

Thankfully, its low-profile design means it won't obstruct the screen, and Sony includes spacer feet in the box should you need it to straddle your TV’s pedestal stand.

Sony has also done an excellent job of making the Trio as installation-friendly as possible.

The rear of each speaker is flat, allowing for neat wall-mounting, and the left and right speakers require little more than suitably positioned screws. A dedicated wall bracket for the centre speaker is included in the box, too, alongside an HDMI cable and usefully long power leads.

Sony has gone out of its way to ensure that the system isn't overly fussy about speaker placement. It's still worth positioning the speakers as symmetrically as possible, but if real-world constraints mean one speaker ends up slightly higher or further away than another, the calibration system is designed to compensate.

There are compromises to the minimalist approach, though.

Like many modern soundbars, the Trio has no traditional display. Each speaker instead features a small status light that indicates power and connection information. Anyone wanting more detailed feedback will generally need to open the Bravia Connect app, which isn’t always ideal, despite the quality of the app itself.

This is a non-issue for owners of compatible Bravia TVs, at least, as the Trio’s settings and status information appear directly within the television's interface.

Sony also supplies a small but useful remote control that provides quick access to the essentials, including volume, bass level, sound modes, voice enhancement and input selection.

Features

While the Bravia Theatre Trio's three-piece design is its most obvious distinguishing feature, the real cleverness lies in how Sony attempts to make those three speakers sound cohesive, like a soundbar, yet also much bigger, like a more traditional home cinema set-up.

Officially, the Trio is a 3.0.2-channel system comprising dedicated left, centre and right speakers. The centre houses two front-firing woofers and a tweeter, while the left and right speakers each feature a front-firing woofer and tweeter, plus an up-firing driver. Together, Sony claims the three speakers deliver a total power output of 405W.

The system supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. It’s IMAX Enhanced certified, too, but only once compatible rear speakers and a subwoofer have been added.

Key to the way the Trio handles these 3D audio formats is Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology. Using the physical speakers as a foundation, 360SSM then creates up to 24 'phantom' speakers around the room. These virtual speakers are designed to bolster the real ones and create a larger, more immersive soundstage than would otherwise be possible.

One area in which Sony has clearly put particular effort is set-up and calibration.

Installation is handled via the excellent Bravia Connect app, which guides you through the entire process with clear, well-illustrated instructions. Despite the sophistication of the system, getting everything connected, positioned and configured is refreshingly straightforward.

As part of the set-up process, you're asked to specify the locations of the speakers relative to one another, either approximately or by entering precise measurements. You can also specify their height, allowing the system to compensate for the sort of less-than-perfect real-world placement that often comes with living-room-friendly home cinema set-ups.

The calibration itself is unusually thorough, too. As well as using microphones built into the speakers, the Trio comes supplied with a dedicated USB-C calibration microphone that you plug into your phone before measurements are taken from the listening position. The result should be a level of consistency and accuracy that's difficult to achieve with systems that rely solely on onboard microphones or a smartphone.

Despite that thoroughness, the process is remarkably quick and painless, and, once complete, Sony's Sound Field Optimisation technology adapts the system’s performance to both your room and speaker placement.

There are plenty of further adjustments available within the app should you wish to experiment. You can choose between Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping processing, Dolby Speaker Virtualiser and DTS Neural:X, adjust the height of the soundfield, create a temporary listening position and access the usual assortment of voice enhancement, bass and night mode settings.

Happily, Sony's default settings are generally spot on, and most users will never feel the need to delve into the Trio’s advanced sound settings.

Connectivity is solid, too. The centre speaker houses an HDMI eARC connection for your TV, plus a dedicated HDMI input with support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM passthrough.

Wireless support includes Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect, while Sony's DSEE Ultimate processing can be used to upscale compressed music files.

Owners of compatible Bravia TVs get a few extra perks, including Voice Zoom 3 dialogue enhancement and, as mentioned, the ability to control many of the Trio's functions directly through the television's interface.

Sound quality

The whole point of splitting a soundbar into three separate speakers is to create a larger and more spacious soundstage, and that's exactly what Sony has achieved.

Compared with even the best conventional soundbars, the Trio sounds huge. Effects stretch much further to the left and right, dialogue remains firmly anchored to the screen, and there's a greater sense of sound being projected out into the room rather than simply originating from beneath the TV.

Blade Runner 2049 demonstrates these strengths particularly well. The sounds of the city as K walks towards his apartment spread far beyond the physical locations of the speakers, filling our large listening room with impressive width and scale. More importantly, the system doesn't just sound wider than a soundbar; it sounds taller, too.

In fact, the Trio's Dolby Atmos performance is one of its most impressive achievements. The sounds of passing vehicles, overhead announcements and environmental effects frequently extend above the listening position, creating a genuinely convincing sense of height. Given the size of our test room and the almost three-metre distance between the seating position and speakers, that's no small feat.

The system proves equally adept with the chaotic battle sequences of Civil War and the aerial action of Top Gun: Maverick, maintaining an impressively large and immersive soundfield without losing track of the finer details.

Perhaps even more impressive than the scale, though, is the cohesion. Despite the fact that you're listening to three physically separate speakers, the Trio rarely sounds like three separate speakers. Instead, it creates a single, unified wall of sound that stretches right across the front of the room.

That sense of integration is particularly important because it allows the system to retain one of the key advantages of a traditional soundbar: you never find yourself consciously thinking about which speaker is producing which effect.

Much of the credit for this appears to belong to Sony's Movie Theatre Acoustics processing. Switch it off, and the soundstage immediately shrinks, while the illusion of a single coherent soundfield begins to weaken. Leave it enabled, however, and the Trio sounds significantly larger, more immersive and more convincing.

There is a small trade-off. The processing can occasionally exaggerate echo that's already present within a soundtrack. The interviewer's voice during K's baseline test in Blade Runner 2049 is one example, while Nandez's dialogue during the early autopsy sequence gains a touch more resonance than is strictly correct.

These moments are relatively rare, though, and the benefits broadly outweigh the drawbacks. Some people might prefer the cleaner delivery when Movie Theatre Acoustics is disabled, but most will want to leave it enabled (as it is by default) for the additional scale, weight and cohesion it brings.

In some respects, the Trio highlights the limitations of conventional soundbars.

Using the excellent Sonos Arc Ultra as a reference point, Sony's system delivers substantially greater scale, bass weight and Atmos immersion. This isn't really a criticism of the Sonos, which remains one of the most capable soundbars at its price, but it does neatly demonstrate what can be achieved when you physically separate the front channels: the Trio simply fills the room more effectively.

One small issue to note regarding movie sound is that the centre speaker can buzz slightly when pushed by super-deep bass, such as that at the start of the second chapter of Blade Runner 2049. It's not something that crops up often enough to become a significant issue, but it is one of the few occasions on which the centre speaker draws attention to itself.

For music, meanwhile, the Trio offers something that most soundbars simply cannot: genuine stereo reproduction.

Switch Sound Field processing off and the centre speaker drops out, leaving dedicated left and right channels handled by dedicated left and right speakers. Give those speakers a small amount of toe-in, and the resulting stereo image is impressively focused, while still benefiting from proper separation.

My Curse by Killswitch Engage is delivered with excellent punch, dynamics and drive, while Rosalía's Divinize demonstrates the system's ability to produce serious low-frequency heft. The dense instrumentation of Karnivool's Salva remains composed and controlled, and Alone On A Hill by Silversun Pickups is rendered with convincing scale and strong stereo focus.

Sony's hi-fi heritage shines through here. The Trio sounds weighty, energetic and engaging in a way that most soundbars simply don't.

That doesn't mean it's a replacement for a properly sorted pair of powered hi-fi speakers, of course, but it comes closer than most lifestyle home cinema products.

One similarly priced alternative to the Trio that we’ve not yet mentioned is the excellent KEF XIO.

With both movies and music, the KEF sounds cleaner, crisper and more detailed than the Sony, with excellent organisation and precision. The Trio counters with greater weight, larger scale and the sort of genuine stereo separation that only physically separated speakers can provide.

Neither approach is inherently better than the other, and preferences will inevitably vary, but the comparison reinforces the fact that Sony has created something genuinely distinct rather than simply another premium soundbar.

And, while the Bravia Theatre Trio is a complete and highly capable package on its own, adding Sony's optional speakers and subwoofer takes things to another level.

Testing with the Rear 9 surrounds and Sub 8 dramatically increases immersion, creating a seamless bubble of sound that extends around the entire listening position. Atmos effects become even more precisely placed, and the busy cityscape of Blade Runner 2049 becomes extraordinarily convincing.

Just as importantly, the minor shortcomings of the standalone system largely disappear. The slight buzz from the centre speaker vanishes once deep bass duties are handed over to the subwoofer, while the occasional over-emphasis of echo through Movie Theatre Acoustics is also cured.

There remains a very slight amount of distortion from the Sub 8 itself during the deepest bass moments, and we'd be fascinated to hear whether the larger Sub 9 can eliminate this final remaining niggle. That's a discussion for another review, though.

Judged as an initial package, the Bravia Theatre Trio is a hugely impressive performer that successfully combines the scale and spaciousness of a separate-speaker home cinema system with much of the convenience and cohesion that make soundbars so appealing.

Verdict

Sony's Bravia Theatre Trio could easily have ended up feeling like an awkward compromise: neither as neat as a soundbar nor as capable as a traditional speaker system. Instead, it succeeds in taking many of the strengths of both approaches while avoiding most of their weaknesses.

It's not quite perfect – the centre speaker isn’t quite as capable as the larger speakers flanking it, there's no display, and some rivals can sound a touch cleaner and more detailed – but those shortcomings are minor in the context of what the Trio achieves overall.

Ultimately, Sony's deconstructed soundbar concept proves brilliantly effective. If you're looking for a premium lifestyle Dolby Atmos system and have the budget to stretch this far, the Bravia Theatre Trio is one of the most compelling options in years.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the KEF XIO

Also consider the Samsung HW-Q990H

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Best Dolby Atmos soundbars: our reviewers' five recommendations

When French audiophile, engineer and speaker designer Jean-Marie Lière approached me about a review of the Microphase Audio Design Tower 3 Signature, I was intrigued, having seen the brand at Sydney hi-fi shows but not yet having had a chance to listen at more leisure to the company’s speakers. But the overall aesthetic certainly piqued my interest. I was also excited about the chance to sit down with Jean-Marie, who explained his history and the early days of M.A.D. to me. That, and having had the opportunity to review the latest floorstanding model, means M.A.D. is now a company I’ll be keeping a close eye on in the future.

As the brand name implies, Microphase Audio Design places a strong focus on phase coherence. Indeed, Jean-Marie revealed to me that in his early days of speaker design — which he joked predated my own accumulated life years by quite a margin, back in the 1970s — he was inspired by the design principles of Elipson. He said that Elipson (founded by fellow Frenchman Joseph Léon) had “mastered phase”, and he hoped to replicate their achievement but without adopting the iconic spherical shape of Léon’s speaker designs. He ultimately wanted to produce a speaker that was even smaller than Elipson designs, and one that could be more affordable and accessible to a wider audience.

His first design was the small SAT (satellite) monitor, launched in the mid-80s, which turned out to be a critical and commercial success in France, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia. And, true to his word, Jean-Marie managed to design the SAT to be incredibly small, just 200 x 200 x 150mm. Newer versions of the original SAT now exist today in both passive and active forms, with the MK3.3 being the most recent. This is relevant also to the floorstanders here, because the latest SAT is itself integrated into the design of the Tower 3 Signature.

While it can certainly be argued he achieved his goal, Jean-Marie admits his thinking could have been conceived as “mad”. Whether by chance or a deliberate choice, that mad way of thinking now inspires not only the name of Jean-Marie’s company (abbreviated to M.A.D.), but also his willingness to try new things when designing speakers.

EQUIPMENT

The Tower 3 Signature certainly adopts this way of thinking, as it maintains the company’s design ethos of employing a strikingly narrow baffle at just 192mm wide. While it’s not uncommon these days for speakers to be supermodel thin, the 192mm width of the Tower 3 Signature is exceptional, and requires an extended plinth of 250mm width to ensure stability while also providing “M.A.D. looks!”. Such a narrow design ensures it’s easy to accommodate in living rooms of all shapes and sizes, but it’s not just for an easy fit. The minimal width can also help to minimise baffle-step diffraction effects that can colour the midrange and smear imaging on wider fronts.

The Tower 3s aren’t especially tall, either, at 1200mm height — which includes the plinth — while their depth comes in at a manageable 440mm, again including the plinth.

As previously mentioned, the Tower 3 incorporates the SAT MK3.3, albeit in an inverted alignment, and with its 17cm bass driver being replaced with a larger 31cm alternative sourced from SB Acoustics. This sits at the base of the cabinet and fires out to the side. Clearly, Jean-Marie opted for a side-firing design owing to the slim cabinet size, but also for the sonic benefits. Side-firing woofers like this can integrate bass more smoothly into the room, as they rely on boundary reflections rather than direct radiation, reducing placement sensitivity compared to front-firing (which demands precise positioning) or rear-firing (which can boom or null in corners).

The concept of side-firing drivers isn’t new, and while he’s not necessarily credited with inventing it, they were popularised in the 1970s by Roy Allison, a former vice president of engineering and manufacturing at Acoustic Research. Allison oversaw production of many of the company’s now-legendary loudspeakers, including the AR-9. That model, known for its impressive bass output, featured opposed 12-inch side-firing woofers (one on each side) to aid vibration cancellation and room coupling. While the Tower 3 Signature uses just a single side-firing woofer, it clearly traces a history back to Allison’s boundary-friendly philosophy.

The 130mm paper-cone midrange driver continues Jean-Marie’s longstanding partnership with French speaker driver manufacturer Audax, which has been producing his custom designs since the first SAT speaker. Here it’s placed in a stepped baffle configuration to physically time-align the drivers’ acoustic centres, ensuring wavefronts from tweeter and midrange arrive simultaneously for that goal of better phase coherence and thereby a more coherent soundstage. So the Audax midrange should align perfectly with the Signature’s AMT ribbon tweeter from German company Mundorf. This AMT tweeter is a variant of Oscar Heil’s Air Motion Transformer design that has been in use since the 1970s, with a pleated diaphragm of folded ridges that increase efficiency and greatly reduce the front–back diaphragm movement compared with a typical 25mm dome tweeter.

Around the back a small reflex port is tuned to optimise the side woofer’s output, while dual speaker binding posts enable bi-amped or bi-wired modes if you wish. The crossover is a 3-way design splitting at 150Hz (12dB/octave) and 4kHz (6dB/octave), prioritising gentle slopes for natural driver integration. Microphase Audio Design lists the frequency response of the Tower 3 Signature floorstanders as 40Hz–25kHz ±2.5dB; the 40Hz lower limit should satisfy most listeners, although those looking for extra low-end oomph may want to consider adding a subwoofer. Efficiency is rated at 90dB/1W/1m, nominal impedance 4 ohms. I used the Marantz Model 50 to hand for this review — rated at 100W into 4 ohms — and as you’ll find out in the listening sessions section, it proved to be more than up to the task of driving the Tower 3 speakers.

The cabinetry deserves special mention too. The Finnish marine-grade birch plywood feels very solid and, with each speaker weighing around 25kg, they stay planted in place. This holds true whether you stand them on hard flooring or carpet, as they don’t require spikes — the plinth alone ensures they don’t move an inch. The cabinets are treated with a polyurethane coating, which not only gives them a distinctively clear and ever so slightly shiny finish, but also resists fingerprints far better than gloss. Though various components have been sourced internationally, final assembly takes place right here in Australia.

LISTENING SESSIONS

Connected to the Marantz Model 50 integrated amplifier and partnering CD 50n CD player/streamer, I first played one of my current favourite songs from American singer-songwriter Slayyyter called ‘Dance…’ — a synth-pop dancefloor number with a thumping bass-line intro.

This immediately showcased the Tower 3 Signature’s ability to deliver deep, tight, and controlled bass, with each thump of the drum pad landing with real confidence. Almost equally striking was the pinpoint stereo imaging — Slayyyter’s vocals sat dead centre, natural and clear, while the subtle echo effect on her words conveyed genuine airiness without a hint of muddiness.

For this initial test, I positioned the side-firing woofers facing outwards, each about 60cm from the nearest sidewall. Curious about the alternative, I then swapped them so the woofers faced inwards — and as soon as the same track restarted, the bass completely took over the sound. In my smaller listening room, the speakers were clearly too close together, creating too much bass buildup; however, in larger rooms, inward-facing woofers can work together for stronger central bass reinforcement. What this test also proved is that side-firing woofer designs open up more placement experimentation compared to front-firing designs.

While the speakers have a small rear port and internal padding to tame resonances, I kept experimenting with rear-wall distance. Keeping the 60cm sidewall spacing (woofers outward), I moved them from 20cm to 30cm from the rear wall and noticed a noticeably larger, more open presentation.

I also experimented with toe-in. While the Tower 3 Signature’s narrow baffle and phase-aligned drivers should theoretically disperse sound evenly for a wide sweet spot, I found angling them inwards towards my listening position by about 20° sounded better to my ears — vocals locked more precisely dead-centre, and the soundstage gained better depth and focus without narrowing excessively.

Switching to Tool’s ‘Chocolate Chip Trip’ from the Fear Inoculum album confirmed the Tower 3 Signature’s effortless handling of complex arrangements. Danny Carey’s polyrhythmic drums retained tight punch and separation, while the layered synths and atmospheric effects floated naturally in a remarkably open soundstage. The single side-firing woofer once again proved key to the overall delivery, pumping out articulate bass that supported the mix rather than dominating it.

Jessie Ware’s latest single ‘Ride’ — which offers a cheeky nod to Ennio Morricone — elevated the vocal performance even further. Ware’s sultry, emotive vocals were an undeniable highlight — rich, textured, and so viscerally real they gave me chills. Her voice was suspended perfectly in the soundstage, with the midrange and tweeter delivering on their promise of phase coherence. The overall presentation felt expansive and refined, with basslines driving the groove tautly rather than overwhelmingly. That single side-firing woofer keeps the low-end in check with sophisticated control.

Hayley Williams’ ‘Simmer’ then let them stretch their rhythmic legs — the side-firing woofers locked in with the song’s catchy groove, delivering taut kick-drum punches that had my foot tapping relentlessly. I completely forgot I was reviewing and just enjoyed the music.

CONCLUSION

As introductions to new brands go, things couldn’t have gone better with the Microphase Audio Design Tower 3 Signature. The amount of love and passion that has gone into their design and build is evident from the get go. They combine superb driver integration with fantastic build quality, forgiving placement, and genuine musical engagement. You simply must give them a listen.

LAB TEST

The overall in-room frequency response, as measured by Newport Test Labs and shown in Graph 1 for the Microphase Audio Design Tower 3 Signature loudspeakers, is extremely linear and extended such that between 60Hz and 8kHz, which is far and away the most important region of the audio band for music reproduction, the response is constrained within 2.5dB, which is to say the measured frequency response is 60Hz–8kHz ±1.25dB. Looking at the more typically reported ±3dB envelope, the frequency response is 54Hz to 20kHz ±3.0dB, which is an exceptionally fine response by anyone’s standards.

Newport Test Labs measured the high-frequency response of the Microphase Audio Design loudspeakers using a gating technique that replicates what would be measured in an anechoic chamber, and fortuitously allows far more precise frequency and level measurements to be plotted than the in-room measurement of Graph 1. It transpired that the response measured 15 degrees off-axis horizontally was slightly flatter (more linear) than the on-axis response, with a slightly lifted extreme-treble response and, since this off-axis angle will be the listening position for most listeners, we’ve elected to show this response in Graph 2. You can see there’s a very slight roll-off that commences at 4.5kHz, but it levels off at around 10kHz and extends at the same level out to around 33kHz, after which it rolls off very rapidly.

The peaks and dips in the response that are visible on this trace are so high in frequency, so little in level variation and of such high Q that they would not be audible to the human ear. If Newport Test Labs had smoothed this trace via post-processing (as most manufacturers do), these minor irregularities would have disappeared; the trace shown is raw and completely unsmoothed.

The impedance of the Microphase Audio Design Tower appears to show that the cabinet is acting as if it’s a sealed enclosure, so there’s obviously something interesting going on here that’s no doubt the explanation for the impressively extended bass response, given the cabinet volume and the bass driver’s Sd and Vmax. The impedance remains below 8 ohms between 72Hz and 550Hz, and from 4kHz to beyond 40kHz, but never drops below 4 ohms, so we’d allocate this design a nominal impedance of 4 ohms.

Newport Test Labs measured the sensitivity of the Microphase Audio Design Towers using its standard stringent measurement technique, and reported efficiency as being 87dBSPL at a distance of one metre with an input voltage of 2.83Veq., which puts it numerically at the average for most home hi-fi loudspeakers, but it will sound slightly louder in A–B comparisons due to Newport Test Labs’ methodology resulting in lower SPL levels. Overall, this is a very well-designed, electrically efficient loudspeaker system that delivers extended bass, superbly flat midrange and smoothly tailored high frequencies.

What makes a good radio? Clear sound and strong reception are fundamental, but high on the priority list should undoubtedly be ease of use. With multiple stations to access if you’ve got FM or DAB tuners, not to mention vast internet radio options and the added bonus of Bluetooth streaming in today’s digital radios, navigating your way through the multitude of options and hitting upon exactly the station you want within seconds is no mean feat.

Luckily, Roberts has some expertise in this area. The British brand has been making radios since 1932, with recent models including the network streaming-enabled Stream 94L (which is a former Award-winner) and our current favourite, the tiny but mighty Revival Petite 2.

The Roberts Stream 219 internet radio is the latest addition to the stable, and it packs in plenty of features for the £150 asking price.

Features

If you’re a radio fan, you are well catered for. FM and DAB/DAB+ tuners are included for your local stations, while you can fire up any internet radio station from around the globe thanks to the onboard wi-fi powers.

The Stream 219 has multiple buttons and dials to find your way across the numerous stations and sub-menus, and the controls feel swift and intuitive. This means scrolling through a long list of local DAB+ stations and switching between sources doesn’t take long at all, with every option labelled clearly.

You can also save up to 60 presets – 20 each for FM, DAB and internet radio – with five dedicated preset buttons available on the unit to quickly access your favourite stations. Handy.

The Stream 219 isn’t just a radio, it caters to wider listening habits as well: Spotify Connect and Bluetooth streaming are on board, and there is even a portal for podcasts.

Physical connections include a 3.5mm auxiliary input and a USB-A port, for plugging in sources like an MP3 player, or USB sticks and hard drives filled with music files (MP3 or WMA, no hi-res playback here). You can also charge your smartphone using the USB-A input. Handy.

All sources can be easily selected from the main menu, which is the small colour display on top of the Stream 219. Simply spin one of the dials to select your source, and the sub-menus will give you options to choose stations in a variety of ways – by region, popularity, genres or simply by searching for it.

All of these actions can be done by twiddling the dials and pressing the sturdy buttons, or a combination of both. It can be complex at first, but we find the actions become second nature once you’ve done them a couple of times.

If accessing the thousands of internet stations through the unit feels unwieldy, you can download the free Oktiv app for a more streamlined control from your smartphone.

In the Stream 219’s settings menu, you can set dual alarms; choose the sound quality level (we left it on high); check your network settings and software updates; set the display’s brightness levels and more. Inputting your wi-fi password will be the most laborious part of the radio’s set-up, but you’ll only need to do it once. We transported the Stream 219 between our home office and our work office, and it connected to the respective wi-fi networks with no prodding on our part.

One final bonus feature is that if you love listening to radio plays, sports coverage or the Shipping Forecast late into the night, there is a 3.5mm wired headphone port for private listening.

Build & design

The top of the radio’s unit that houses the controls, dials and 2.4-inch LCD screen is positioned at a slant, which makes it easy to access from most angles. We also found that this glassy surface is a dust magnet, so we would keep a microfibre cloth at hand for a regular clean.

The screen shows off album artwork and station logos in full colour, although the contrast weakens when viewed from an angle.

That aside, the buttons and dials feel reassuringly tactile when used. We like the physical dials for adjusting the bass and treble levels, which lets you tweak the sound on the fly, as you see fit.

The unit itself is a fairly chunky size to accommodate two 7.6cm (3-inch) full-range drivers within. We have become accustomed to Roberts’ heritage-styled radios that feature lovely leatherette coverings and wood panels, so this more minimalist, ‘modern’ look is a little bit of a departure, prioritising practicality over more luxurious details. The cabinet’s plastic build feels a little cheap to the touch, but it is a robust build overall.

The mainly mains-powered Roberts Stream 219 can also be turned into a portable radio, hence the sturdy carry handle integrated into the unit that makes it easy to carry the radio from your kitchen to the garden. You’ll just need to buy and slot six AA batteries into the back of the radio to make it portable.

Sound

The sound quality of FM/DAB radio will in part depend on your proximity to a local transmitter, and luckily we enjoy a strong reception as we test the Stream 219.

We play a variety of broadcast radio and music streams – World Cup news, Seattle's KEXP internet radio station, the No Such Things As A Fish podcast, a few hours of calming Classic FM, and our Tidal and Apple Music playlists over Bluetooth – and find ourselves getting along with the Roberts radio’s sound with ease.

The sound is clear and projected well into the room, with no sharpness or coarseness to the treble, although it starts to shine bright at higher volumes. There is no flab or undue boominess in the bass, either. Songs such as Alt-J’s Breezeblocks and The Beatles’ Come Together flow with a steady, agile rhythm, and there’s a good amount of detail when we tune into the news or start tapping along to Guy Garvey’s finest curated tracks on BBC 6 Radio.

While the radio doesn’t quite convey the wide-ranging dynamic scope of a full orchestra, or of the plunging basslines in Billie Eilish’s bad guy, there is a good amount of breathing space between instruments in the mix. Edges of notes sound tidy, and the sound projected into the room is pleasingly clean and open.

We find throughout our testing time that the midrange sounds a touch hollow, which robs voices of some natural warmth and solidity. As a result, the subtler inflections from presenters and musicians don’t come through with as much expression and subtlety as we’d like.

When so much of broadcast radio is dependent on the spoken word, this is a noticeable chink in the Stream 219’s armour. Tweaking the treble and bass levels balance the midrange somewhat, but doing so compromises other elements of the Roberts’ sound; this is where we wish there was a dial dedicated to adjusting the mids.

In comparison, the smaller, Award-winning Revival Petite 2 radio lacks the scale of its bigger brother, but it does offer a more cohesive and detailed sound that is more engaging to listen to. There’s more texture to instruments and voices, with personalities and nuances coming through with greater warmth and dexterity. Admittedly, the Petite 2 does lack the network features of the Stream 219, but there’s only £50 between the two radios.

Verdict

The Roberts Stream 219 gets full marks for its feature set and ease of use. It’s bursting at the seams with multiple music-playing options that would put some premium wireless speakers to shame and, despite the complexity, the physical controls are reliable and nice to use.

We think there’s room for improvement when it comes to sound quality, but it’s a decent performance overall. If you’re after this capable radio’s particular mix of talents at this modest price, you would be well served.

Review published: 17th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Roberts Revival Petite 2

Also consider the Ruark Audio R1S

These are the best digital radios we've tested and highly recommend

In a sea of monochrome black and greige dominating the market, JBL’s Gen Z-friendly wireless headphones stand out by a mile.

Available in a variety of stylish colours – including the bright orange of our review sample – the JBL Live 780NC over-ears offer a playful and youthful contender that still ticks all the right boxes in this heaving market: good design, good sound, good price.

Price

Sandwiched between JBL’s premium Tour series and its more budget Tune range, the Live series of wireless headphones occupy a mid-range price bracket where there is a scarcity of five-star offerings.

At £170 / $250 / AU$300, the Live 780NC are a little over half the price of popular premium wireless over-ear headphones from Sony, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins and Sennheiser, but sit above the stupendously talented and budget Sony WH-CH720N, which can now be found for as little as £75 / $100 / AU$148.

The five-star Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT are available for £129 (around $199 / AU$269), but lack any active noise cancelling, while other headphones at this price – from Philips and Soundcore – haven’t quite made their mark. Plenty of opportunity for JBL to stand out, then.

Build & design

Whereas many affordable headphones around this price can feel rather plasticky and cheap in hand – understandably so to keep costs down – the JBL Live 780NC feel anything but. The materials are light enough to ensure the headphones are comfortable to wear, but also feel pleasantly smooth and high quality to the touch.

There is a mixture of materials and finishes here that could easily have looked and felt garish in less capable hands, but the sheen of the outer earcups and hinges blend with the matte finish of the headband and earcup housings in a subtle, stylish way.

The mix of plastic, metal and silicone here is certainly more premium feeling than the cheaper Sonys and the JBLs look more svelte than the functional Austrian Audios. We particularly like the knurled finish encircling the outer earcups – it’s a nice detail you normally wouldn’t see at this price.

If the orange finish of our review sample is too extrovert for you, there are more subdued green and blue hues, along with sandy, lilac and the standard black and white colours.

The headband feels sturdy, the leatherette earcups are comfortable with ample padding, and the clamping pressure is nicely judged. We perhaps would have liked a little more padding in the headband, but they don’t cause any discernible fatigue over long listening periods.

The metal sliders are nice to use, and there’s enough flex in the earcups to get a comfortable and secure fit for most of our review team.

You can fold the 780NC up into a ball or lay them flat around your neck, and they come with a soft, if somewhat thin, carry pouch.

You get a mix of physical buttons on the earcups – for power, ANC modes and volume – that are within easy reach, while tapping on the shiny outer cups lets you control music playback, calls and voice assistant. We found them all responsive in use, and you can further customise the touch and button controls in the JBL Headphones App.

One small quirk to remember is that the headphones will go into standby mode after a certain period of inactivity (you can choose the time in the app) if you forget to slide the power button to the ‘off’ position. To reconnect the pairing to your phone or device, simply turn it off and back on.

Features

Don’t worry too much if you forget to power-off the cans, though, as their battery life is massive. With active noise cancelling turned on, you get 50 hours, which extends to a whopping 80 hours with ANC turned off. We didn’t even have to glance at the battery level in the app throughout our testing period, and only charged the headphones out of habit after a week or so. A five-minute charge gives you four hours of juice, which meant we were always topped up.

Even more premium headphones such as the Sony and Bose models can only manage 30 hours with ANC activated, with Sennheiser’s Momentum 5 Wireless the only model to beat the JBL at 57 hours, while the HDB 630 goes further at 60 hours. The cheaper Sony 720N can only muster 35 hours with ANC on.

For wireless connections, the JBL headphones run on Bluetooth 6.0 and feature Auracast sharing and LE Audio, as well as the higher-quality LDAC codec when used with a compatible source device. If you prefer a wired connection, JBL provides a USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable in the box, so you can connect them to a 3.5mm-toting laptop or music player and enjoy a lossless performance. Just remember to power the JBLs on when listening in wired mode.

The headphones feature Multipoint Bluetooth, which allows you to easily switch between two connected devices, and they have proximity sensors to automatically stop playing audio when you take the headphones off your ears.

Head into the JBL Headphone app, and you’ll find a bunch of features and customisation options that you can tweak to your heart’s desire. Along with adjusting the various ANC modes, you can prioritise audio quality or video (the latter to reduce lip-sync issues), enable spatial audio modes, and there’s even a nifty ‘relax mode’ with nature sounds you can mix to create an ambient background for when you need to focus on writing, for example.

There are preset EQ modes as well as a 10-band equaliser to save your own tuning, and there’s a separate Personi-Fi portal that personalises the sound to your tastes further.

A neat party trick is that if you have one of JBL’s latest Bluetooth speakers, such as the Flip 7 or Go 5, you can use the Auracast button to beam music from the speaker to the Live 780NC headphones, with both playing in tandem.

There are plenty of more useful features to explore in the app, and you can also turn most settings off if you don’t want them.

ANC & call quality

The main settings you should explore are for noise cancelling. There are sliders available for the noise cancelling and ‘ambient aware’ modes, allowing you to choose the intensity of the noise cancelling or how much of the outside world you want to let in. You can also let JBL’s six microphones and real-time adjustment take over with the Adaptive ANC mode, which automatically adjusts the noise-cancelling levels to your surrounding environment.

The Live 780NC’s ANC quality is decent, cutting out much of the low-level deep rumbles of passing cars, train engines and exhaust fans. The noise-cancelling effect tends to focus more on those low-frequency noises, as we can still hear a fair bit of higher engine whines, train announcements and the chatter of people around us. These noises that sit in the mid and high frequency ranges are gently softened, but we’re still aware of them in full ANC mode.

It’s not the end of the world, and there is enough damping of the rumbly surrounding noises that the JBLs’ effect feels adequate at this level.

Call quality is decent for this level, too, with voices coming through with enough clarity, detail and solidity to be heard, although there is a slight hard, mechanical edge to the caller’s voice. Dual beamforming mics and an intelligent noise-cancelling algorithm mean voices should be distinctly heard even in windy, busy surroundings, and we found that surrounding noises didn’t intrude much upon our calls.

One neat thing about the JBL headphones is that, in the app, you can tweak the tone of your and the callers’ voices, as well as choose how much of your own voice you can hear in a call. We prefer keeping the voice settings on ‘natural’, but it’s worth exploring these settings if you’re in particularly noisy environments.

Sound

If we could use one word to describe the Live 780NC’s sound, it would be ‘comfortable’. The headphones’ character is easy to listen to, with a smoothness across the frequency range that is appealing from the moment you slip them on. There are no bright or hard edges at the top; the midrange is focused and detailed; the bass is plump.

Any spikiness at the top being smoothed off means you can listen to many hours of shredding guitars and heavy metal screaming without your ears getting fatigued, as we found by spending a long weekend getting reacquainted with Avenged Sevenfold’s back catalogue on Tidal.

This trade-off does mean that some of the crystal-clear high notes of the delicate piano in Birdy’s Shelter or the ferociously brash and dynamic upheavals of Fontaines DC’s Starburster are a little subdued.

There is enough detail on the bones and satisfying solidity underpinning each note to ensure the music doesn’t get neutered, though. Music flows well through them, with the personality and intent of each track – from A7X to Doechii to Hozier – coming through with plenty of expression in the mix.

Voices come through with ample personality when listening to podcasts and are easy to follow in the soundstage without ever sounding muddled.

There is a richness to the 780NC’s sound that feels as though it’s covered in a layer of thick syrup – but in a good way. It leaves us in a pleasant environment where you’re engulfed in the rich, layered textures, and that smoothness doesn’t work our sonic muscles too hard. The JBL cans have a more refined way with detail than the cheaper Sony 720N, but are less analytical than the Austrian Audios.

The headphones’ bass levels are overly enthusiastic, but you can tone them down a touch using the EQ settings. Basslines are not unsubtle or unwieldy though; they plunge deep and there’s enough bounce in their step as we play through our usual test tracks from Massive Attack's Paradise Circus to Dr Dre and Hans Zimmer soundtracks.

Overall, the 780NC have a good amount of rhythmic talent and dynamic expression to keep us listening throughout. The lower mids and bass frequencies simply could do with a leaner diet to give us cleaner, subtler layers with more satisfying punch.

Go wired and, while they retain the same rich, smooth character, everything sounds a little tidier around the edges, with subtler dynamics, greater solidity and more detail unearthed. The instruments in Khruangbin's Maria Tambien are etched more clearly and with crisper, sweeter highs, even if the bass notes are just as dominating.

Verdict

The JBL Live 780NC aren’t too expensive, aren’t too budget – they’re in that ‘Goldilocks zone’ that, while not perfect, comes very close to delivering everything in a good-sounding, well-designed, feature-packed package.

While not gaining the full five stars when it comes to sound, they’re an attractive pair we have no trouble recommending at this mid-price arena that is starved of exciting contenders. If you’re after a comfortable pair of headphones that you could spend hours with, these playful but capable JBL Live 780NC are worth your attention.

Review published: 16th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT

Also consider the Sony WH-CH720N

Best wireless headphones reviewed and rated by our in-house experts

The Focal Mu-so Hekla is not your average soundbar. It claims to be an “immersive all-in-one system” that “combines Dolby Atmos technology, outstanding sound performance, and ease of use to transform your everyday listening”.

Its name alone shows off its strong pedigree. While it is branded as Focal, it is a collaboration between the French manufacturer and its sister company Naim Audio. This isn’t the first time the two brands have worked together on a product: that was the high-end Diva Utopia active wireless stereo speaker system (£29,999 / $39,999 / AU$59,999) which came out back in 2024.

The Naim link is also apparent with the inclusion of the Mu-so branding, which audio fans may recognise as the company’s well-regarded line of wireless speakers that launched in 2014. The range boasts such products as the five-star and What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Naim Mu-so 2 (2019) and Mu-so Qb 2nd Gen models, which wowed us with their punchy, detailed and dynamic sound.

And where does Hekla come from? It’s the name of one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes. If that evokes an explosive and powerful performance, then you would be correct.

Price

The Focal Mu-so Hekla has its sights set on the high-end market, and is only sold in authorised Focal Powered By Naim retailers. This exclusive nature is also reflected in its price tag, which is a whopping £3000 / $3600 (around AU$5625).

That’s higher than the all-in-one music systems we have encountered from Ruark Audio and Cambridge Audio, as well as premium Dolby Atmos soundbars such as the KEF XIO (£1999 / $2500 / AU$3600) which snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award last year. We praised this KEF soundbar for its agile bass and detailed overall sound.

Design

The Mu-so Hekla is quite a bulky beast. It is one metre long and almost 30cm deep. On top of that, it weighs 15.5kg. This makes it less easy to accommodate than other premium soundbar rivals, as it needs a relatively large piece of furniture to support it.

On the top of the bar, you will find a stylish white illuminated dial that is the same as that featured on Naim’s Mu-so products. You can control volume with a twist to the side, and the dial acts as a touch screen to adjust input and power. It makes for a sleek design that rotates smoothly and adds to the premium feel.

As much as we like it, this design creates some issues when the Hekla is used as a soundbar. In our test room, it only just fits under our TV screen and the light from the dial is reflected off the screen from certain angles. This is not a problem when using the Hekla as a hi-fi system away from your TV.

Given the system’s bulkiness it’s fair to ask, why not make it more soundbar-y in shape? The Hekla’s shape is dictated by the engineering team’s insistence on prioritising acoustics. It simply had to be this large to fit the required drivers, electronics and acoustic technology into the box in order to deliver the high-quality sound and immersion they wanted.

“When we created this product, yes, we wanted a home cinema experience; but above all, we wanted to keep our hi-fi signature, specifically for music,” a Focal representative told our Hi-Fi and Audio Editor Kashfia Kabir at the product’s launch showcase last year.

The Hekla is available only in an all-black finish – the idea is for the unit to disappear in a dark room (you can also turn off the LED illumination surrounding the control dial) for ultimate immersion in what you are watching or listening to.

Although it is large, the Hekla has a premium-feeling design that matches its price tag.

Features

There are 15 drivers in total, with each powered by its own Class D amplifier. That includes seven drivers on the front (three woofers, two midrange and two tweeters), two full-range drivers each on either side of the unit, and four upward-firing drivers at the top of the unit.

All together, it outputs a claimed 660 watts of power (60W each to the front three drivers, 40W each to the remaining 12 drivers). The electronics (streaming and amplification) are all designed by Naim. Steve Sells, the engineer behind the original Mu-so and the flagship Naim Statement amplifier, was also involved in the development of this Mu-so Hekla.

In terms of physical connectivity, you will find an HDMI port with eARC support. There is also an optical input, a wired Ethernet port (alongside wi-fi capability), and a pair of RCA outputs to add a subwoofer.

You can connect your TV, CD player, Blu-ray or games console; but unlike other do-it-all modern systems, there is no built-in phono stage.

As you would expect, you get the full complement of streaming-service support and high-resolution file compatibility. Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify – and their Connect versions – are present, as are AirPlay 2, Google Cast and Bluetooth (standard AAC and SBC codecs only) for easy streaming from your devices. UPnP streaming is also on board, meaning you can play stored files from connected hard drives.

Hekla supports hi-res audio up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD128 files, and it can also connect with other compatible Focal/Naim streaming products that use the same Focal & Naim app and streaming platform to create a multi-room system.

In terms of sound modes, there are a range of options to choose from: Dolby Music, Dolby Movie, Sphere Music and Sphere Movie. There is also a Night Mode, which reduces dynamics and bass so you do not disturb others in the house.

You can switch between these modes via the app, which lets you easily fine-tune the bar’s settings and change the output. You can also go into the EQ settings, and calibrate the soundbar to your space with Focal’s ADAPT (Adaptative Acoustic Personal Tuning) technology. Get your tape measure handy for that one, as you will be asked to calculate a range of different measurements.

With ADAPT on, the scale of the sound is wider, which adds an extra bit of immersion to our listening experience.

Sound

As soon as we boot up the Focal Mu-so Hekla with movies, we are greeted with a spacious yet precise sound that elevates every scene.

We kick off with Sinners in Dolby Atmos as our protagonist Sammie summons spirits from the past, present, and future to a small barn in Mississippi. When Sammie sings his heartfelt tune, accompanied by just his guitar, his slightly tentative vocals sound emotive and grow stronger as he gains confidence with a sense of authenticity.

As the spirits join in and more instruments are added to the mix, the Hekla does a brilliant job of expanding the soundfield to create a sense of spaciousness without losing its composure. Each instrument and voice is still placed exactly around the space, which adds a sense of precision that is rare for an all-in-one system. There is not a trace of harshness either, as we are instead treated to a solid and full-bodied approach that adds an extra weightiness.

The Hekla maintains this composed yet impactful performance with its bass. With Dune: Part Two in Atmos, we watch as Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides rides his first sandworm. When he slips the thumper into the sand to call the worm, the initial click is tight and clean with a precision that can be felt in the soles of our feet. The levels of detail are breathtaking, as we can hear the grains of sand falling with an impressive exactness.

Later as the worm bursts out from the depths, the roar of sand is forceful but not overwhelming, as you can hear Atreides slinging his metal hooks and shouting in his efforts. The bass also packs an authoritative low-end punch that reaches the lowest we have heard for an all-in-one system, adding to the scene’s impact.

The gradual build from Atreides quietly skulking across the sand to the exhilarating flurry of sound as the worm emerges is expertly handled by the Hekla, and shows off its superb dynamics.

When switching between the sound modes, each offers a slightly different experience. Dolby Movie offers the most precise sound, but this results in a slightly less three-dimensional feel. Sphere Mode, on the other hand, offers a more spacious sound with a more muscular bass but sacrifices a degree of precision. Both sound great, but it is down to personal preference.

The same can be said for the modes when we switch between Dolby Music and Sphere Music when playing some tunes.

The Hekla continues its show-stopping performance with music, and deals excellently with whatever we throw at it. Listening to 500 Miles by Peter, Paul and Mary via Qobuz Connect, the system shows off its softer side. As the vocals get louder near the end of the piece then grow quieter to almost a whisper, it handles this change in dynamics with subtlety to compound the emotive finale.

It can go punchy and loud, too. With Liar’s Tale by Kneecap, the initial visceral electric zing is portrayed with enthusiasm and clarity. When the bass comes in full throttle, it is delivered with authority and immediately gets our toes tapping.

With Yosi Horikawa’s Bubbles, the sound of bouncing ping pong balls cascades all around our listening position with incredible levels of detail and spaciousness.

We put the Hekla up against the less pricey KEF XIO. While the cheaper XIO is still great for the money, the Hekla justifies its higher price tag with better dynamics, detail resolution and refinement.

Verdict

As far as all-in-one systems go, the Focal Mu-so Hekla offers the best of both worlds. It delivers all the drama you could want from a soundbar when watching movies, with controlled bass and authoritative overall sound that elevates each scene.

But you can also feed it a delicate piece of music and be treated to a finessed performance that makes you feel the emotion of each note.

It might come at a high price but, if you have the funds, its performance more than justifies the cost.

Review published: 15th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Design 5

MORE:

Read our review of the KEF XIO

Also consider the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max

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

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

Can you believe that there was a time when Samsung didn’t feature a single OLED TV in its range? That all changed in 2022, when it put its spin on OLED by adding a layer of Quantum Dots and launched the excellent S95B QD-OLED TV.

Five years later, the brand is now reaping the benefits of the self-emissive panel technology. It now makes some of the finest OLED TVs around – take the five-star S95F and S90F duo from last year – and its 2026 lineup features more OLED TVs than ever before.

Of course, Samsung was never going to celebrate half a decade of OLED success without taking things up a notch, which is why it has introduced a new, rather unusual flagship model that takes inspiration from one of the brand's other most successful models.

That new flagship OLED is the S99H, a premium QD-OLED TV that oozes style and sophistication, thanks at least in part to its aesthetic similarities to the wildly successful, design-led The Frame LCD range.

Here, though, those smart good looks have been blended with the core abilities of the excellent S95F – with a generous helping of performance upgrades for good measure.

The result? A showstopping OLED TV that blends style and substance, and one that we think could dethrone the current reigning champion of our best OLED TV list: the Sony Bravia 8 II.

Price

We have the 55-inch Samsung S99H before us today, and it’s officially priced at £2499, though in true Samsung fashion, that launch pricing hasn’t stuck around for long. We’re already seeing a £100 decrease across all sizes, which puts the 65-inch version at £3199, the 77-inch model at £4199, and the 83-inch size at £5999.

Now, we need to clear something up regarding model numbers for different regions.

In the US and Australia, Samsung is calling this model the S95H. Despite the different name, it is an identical TV. In these regions, you’ll find the 55-inch S95H for $2500 / AU$3999, the 65-inch S95H for $3400 / AU$5299, the 77-inch S95H for $4500 / AU$7999, and the 83-inch S95H for $6500 / AU$9995.

That's not the end of the story, though. To confuse things even more, Samsung is selling a model under the S95H name here in the UK, too, but it’s a different TV. From what we gather, it is the same TV as the S99H, but without the metal frame-style design. In fact, it looks identical to last year’s S95F.

So, to reiterate, the S99H we're testing here is known as the S95H in the US and Australia, but that is not the same as the UK's S95H TV. Yes, we have given some constructive feedback to Samsung on all of this.

Got all that? Then let's consider the S99H's competition, which primarily comes in the form of Sony’s awesome, Award-winning Bravia 8 II, the 55-inch version of which, after around a year on sale, now costs around £1799 / $2600 / AU$3995. That makes it significantly cheaper than the S99H in the UK, but there's rough pricing parity between the two TVs in the US and Australia.

There’s also the 55-inch LG G6 to consider, which appears to be widely discounted to £1840 here in the UK, but is so far sticking to its $2500 / AU$3995 launch price in the US and Australia, respectively.

Design

We’re confident in saying that this is one of the most unusual-looking TVs to enter our AV testing room.

Samsung clearly took inspiration from its hugely popular The Frame TV when it came to designing the S99H, and while this television’s looks won’t be to everyone’s taste, we’re just pleased to see a TV company that’s willing to push the boat out when it comes to design.

The S99H features a two-layer design, with an OLED screen section mounted onto a slightly larger metal backplate, with a roughly 2cm gap between. Samsung calls this its “FloatLayer” design.

It’s hard to describe, but the effect it gives is essentially a floating OLED panel surrounded by a premium metal frame. Much like LG’s G-series, this TV is designed to be wall-mounted, and while we can’t do that in our testing room, we have seen it wall-mounted at various hands-on events leading up to launch.

In short, the S99H looks like a work of art when it's fixed to a wall, as the floating design becomes really quite striking and effective. Despite the two-layer design, the overall depth is just 2.8cm, which also helps to sell the futuristic look that Samsung is going for.

Unfortunately, the TV doesn’t look quite as suave when it’s set up in its tabletop configuration. Samsung includes two quite cheap-feeling plastic feet with the TV that feel somewhat at odds with the rest of the premium design, and the metal bezel and floating design look less convincing when it's not attached to a wall.

Samsung also includes two remotes in the box: a “traditional” button-heavy number, and a sleeker “smart” remote. The latter includes both a USB-C socket and a small solar panel on the back for easy recharging, though it’s frustratingly not backlit. Then again, neither are the remotes included with the aforementioned Sony or LG TVs, so we can’t knock Samsung too much here.

Features

Samsung’s penchant for cramming (almost) every imaginable feature into its TVs is, once again, evident with the S99H.

We’ll start with the QD-OLED display, which Samsung has managed to squeeze even more brightness out of since we last saw it on the S95F. It can now reportedly reach a whopping 2700 nits in the Movie picture mode, and as you’ll come to find out in the picture section of this review, there are plenty of instances in which we find ourselves being taken aback by how bright this TV can get.

Samsung has also improved its Glare Free coating this year, making it more effective at combating reflections and glare from ambient light. The matte display also makes artwork from Samsung’s Art Mode feature look more realistic for those who want a TV that blends into its surroundings.

In usual Samsung fashion, HDR support comes in the form of HDR10+ (including the Adaptive and Gaming versions), HDR10 and HLG, but not Dolby Vision.

Samsung's answer to Dolby Vision 2, HDR10+ Advanced, is also supported by the S99H. Unfortunately, no content is available in the new format yet, and we don't have a date for its arrival. Amazon is said to be working on adding it to Prime Video in the not too distant future, though.

Hardcore PC gamers will be pleased to learn that the S99H can handle signals right up to 4K/165Hz, as well as the console-friendly 4K/120Hz format, across all four of its HDMI 2.1 sockets. VRR, ALLM and HDR10+ Gaming are also all supported.

All of the connections are built into a side-facing nook in the rear of the TV, which is a departure from the One Connect box that has come with Samsung’s previous flagship OLED TVs.

One Connect does live on, though, and in a quite remarkable way: Samsung is offering an optional Wireless One Connect accessory, which is set to launch in July for £299 / $350 (AU price TBC).

This features four HDMI sockets, and because it connects to the S99H wirelessly, it takes the total HDMI 2.1 socket count to a staggering eight. That’s enough to support all three of the current-generation consoles, a gaming PC, a 4K Blu-ray player, a soundbar or AVR, and a streaming device, and you’d still have one spare.

The S99H also supports Dolby Atmos, both via HDMI eARC and through its built-in 4.2.2-channel 70W sound system.

Samsung offers two simplistic sound modes, Standard and Amplify, but there is also a range of Samsung-specific sound processing features based on its Vision AI platform, including Object Tracking Sound Plus, Active Voice Amplifier Pro, Adaptive Sound Pro, and AI Sound Controller Pro; all of which are fairly self-explanatory.

Q Symphony also returns. This allows you to use the TV’s speakers in unison with those of a connected Samsung soundbar, but it should be approached with caution – we generally find that a good soundbar performs best when the less capable speakers of a TV don't get involved.

AI also steps in to help with picture processing, as Samsung has implemented its 4K AI Upscaling Pro, AI Motion Enhancer Pro and Auto HDR Remastering Pro features, alongside a Real Depth Enhancer contrast enhancement system and Colour Booster Pro.

On the subject of AI, Samsung has applied its “AI for All” mantra in swathes here, as the S99H is positively dripping in artificial intelligence, right down to the AI button on the remote.

A click of this button brings up Samsung’s Vision AI interface, which can recognise on-screen content and provide extra contextual information. This includes related content, cast information and prompts to find out more detailed information about the show or movie.

Scrolling from this page brings us to a more generalised AI interface, from which Samsung allows you to pick your preferred system. Here you can ask for recipes, generate AI wallpapers, or ask general questions. The sky is, hypothetically, the limit.

This is all made possible by the same NQ4 AI Gen3 Processor found in last year’s S95F, as well as Samsung’s Tizen OS platform. The operating system has had a fairly comprehensive refresh for 2026, with a new content bar at the top that splits your apps into categories including entertainment, gaming and art, and the operation feels generally slicker.

App coverage is mostly excellent, with a wide range of international and domestic streaming applications. Currently, the only missing app is BBC iPlayer; we’ve reached out to Samsung, which says that it expects to add iPlayer support soon.

Samsung TV Plus, which features hundreds of free over-the-internet streaming channels, is also included, and gamers are well looked after thanks to the presence of apps for services such as Xbox, Amazon Luna, and Nvidia GeForce Now.

Picture quality

It’s clear that Samsung has been working to tweak and adjust its picture processing over the years in the pursuit of achieving that final pinch of picture quality excellence, and the S99H is evidence that its work has paid off. This is Samsung’s most mature TV yet, and it’s all the better for that.

We opt for Filmmaker Mode as our preferred picture preset, albeit with a couple of tweaks to get the best performance possible: we switch Colour Temperature from its Warm 2 default to Warm 1, and turn the judder and blur reduction settings up to 1.

The resulting picture is extraordinary, and it makes any content we throw at it – from Blade Runner 2049, Civil War, Pan and Drive, to No Time To Die and The Batman – shine. We have the S99F set up next to the Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II, and despite the tough competition, the Samsung delivers an unflinching visual feast.

Starting with the opening scene of Blade Runner 2049, we find that the S99H serves up oodles of contrast, which results in a deeply three-dimensional picture with superb highlights.

The overhead shot of the solar farm instantly draws us in, thanks to the superb detail levels mixed with the excellent sense of depth. We also approve of how the S99H handles the gloomy, bluish-grey sky, as well as the skin tones of Officer K and Sapper Morton.

In fact, the S99H makes the Sony Bravia 8 II look a bit green in our head-to-head comparison, and skin tones start to look a bit pasty, too. Sony TVs have traditionally leaned towards the cooler side when it comes to colour reproduction, even in Filmmaker Mode, but it’s interesting to see these TVs take a different approach, particularly as they use the same panel technology.

This is most evident in the scene from Pan in which the floating pirate ship enters a cavern; the Samsung runs rings around the Sony when it comes to maintaining low-light colour volume. Skin tones are noticeably warmer and more vibrant on the Samsung in this instance. That being said, the Sony is evidently better at maintaining shadow detail.

In fact, some shadow detail is lost entirely on the S99H, especially during dark sequences in moodier flicks such as Drive and The Batman. In both films, we find facial features and clothing textures occasionally succumb to darkness, while the Sony has no trouble keeping them visible.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Samsung takes the crown when it comes to delivering dazzlingly bright highlights; in fact, we’re adding the S99H to the list of TVs that we’ve had to shield our eyes from physically.

Reverting to the exceptionally bright (and critically dismal) Pan, we find the mix of punchy, concentrated highlights and rich colours stealing our attention away from the Sony entirely.

However, the more conventional-looking Civil War is the perfect test disc to highlight exactly what this TV does well. Everything from the night-time forest fire sequence to a helicopter gliding over a lake and the Charlottesville military camp looks fantastic.

There’s a real sense of nuance here that previous Samsung TVs haven’t always been able to capture. Foliage, for example, is wonderfully textured and detailed without looking over-etched, and while the colours do seem a smidge over-saturated compared with those from the Bravia 8 II, it's not to an extent that looks instinctively wrong.

The sequence that shows the journalists driving through a forest fire seals the deal here. The mix of detail, depth and contrast served up by the S99H is remarkable – the striking, bright flames contrast wonderfully with the dark background, and there is a real sense of intensity and warmth derived from how Samsung's OLED handles highlights.

We fire up the standard Blu-ray of Logan to assess the S99H’s upscaling capabilities, and it's a similar story here, too. Detail levels are superb, and if we weren’t so eagle-eyed, the S99H could almost have fooled us into thinking we were watching a 4K disc.

Colours are also nicely balanced, and motion remains solid, too. This TV excels regardless of what you throw at it.

Sound

It’s not just the picture performance that Samsung has improved. Sound has also been upgraded, which is a good sign after the S95F’s middling delivery.

We stick with Civil War, which highlights everything from dialogue to explosions, and even Dolby Atmos height effects. The rhythmic swooping of helicopter blades is delivered with a strong leading edge, underpinned by a pleasingly controlled dose of bass.

Moving on to the scene in which Lee and Jessie have a heart-to-heart conversation in a wooded area, we approve of how the S99H captures the subtle characteristics of their voices well, and overall, the dialogue is crisp and well-defined. The atmospheric effects, including birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind, sound pleasingly spacious, too.

There is plenty of height and width to the sound, which is also evident in Blade Runner 2049. The sequence in which Officer K returns to his home from the police precinct is another example of how the S99H captures atmospheric sounds to great effect.

The booming audio adverts are placed with impressive precision and plenty of height, while the S99H somehow manages to beam the sound of the bustling street in a way that creates a fairly convincing sense of immersion.

While we’re on the subject of Blade Runner, we put the S99H through our usual chapter two stress test and find that Samsung has changed its approach. Where many of the brand's previous models have been quite bassy but a little prone to distortion, the S99H digs less deep but proves to be almost entirely distortion-free.

Sony takes a similar approach with the Bravia 8 II (and many other of its TVs), and we ultimately find it to be a sensible compromise. We would of course like more bass weight, but if that has to be sacrificed somewhat to reduce distracting distortion, then so be it.

It’s not all good news on the sonic front, though: like the S95F, the S99H simply doesn't go very loud. Even close to its maximum volume levels, this is an easy TV to talk over. The Amplify setting helps to negate this somewhat, but it does result in some dynamic compression.

The Sony Bravia 8 II also does a better job of organising the sound during scenes with lots of competing effects. The ending battle of Civil War is a perfect example, as the Sony balances dialogue, explosions, and vehicle sounds with care to create a more impactful and immersive soundscape.

With all that said, the S99H is still a big improvement over the S95F where sound is concerned, and it's ultimately a very usable (and even enjoyable) built-in sound system.

Verdict

There’s no other way of putting it; Samsung has knocked it out of the park with the S99H.

With a refined approach to picture tuning, a feature set that (with one key caveat) many TVs can only dream of, and a greatly improved sound system compared with last year’s model, the company’s latest flagship OLED TV takes the title from the S95F as the best TV the company has made to date.

The bold new design might not suit all tastes, and die-hard Dolby Vision fans may be disappointed, but we’re struggling to find reasons not to recommend the Samsung S99H to anyone considering splashing some serious cash on a flagship OLED TV.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Bravia 8 II

Also consider the LG G6

Read our Philips OLED910 review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

If you want to watch movies on the big screen without forking out thousands for a TV bigger than 85 inches, a coffee table projector can be a tempting proposition. That’s because they can offer a large screen size paired with an easy-to-carry design that gives added flexibility.

The Soundcore Nebula P1 is the latest model to enter the villa, offering a portable build and boasting promising tech specifications. And there’s an intriguing sound addition that is a unique proposition when it comes to the coffee table projector market.

This audio offering makes this projector stand out from the crowd, but as we’ll see, it is ultimately let down in another key category.

Price

The Soundcore Nebula P1 launched at £700 / $800 / AU$1300, placing it in the mid-range lifestyle projector category. We have already seen some limited deals, which have dropped the price to around £595 in the UK, for example.

At a similar level is the Xgimi MoGo 4, a portable projector that is currently available for about £499 in the UK, although it launched at the slightly higher price of £509 / $499 / AU$1399. We gave this model a solid four stars for its punchy picture and compact design, and it features in our best portable projectors guide.

It’s worth noting that the MoGo 4 is not aiming at the same market as the Nebula model. The Xgimi projector has a built-in battery, unlike the Nebula P1, but it lacks separate speakers.

Design

Those separate speakers really make the P1 stand out from the crowd. The two wireless speakers sit on top of the projector and are secured by a magnetic connection and a cute lock switch on the projector’s body. You can charge the pair from here, or separately via their USB-C ports.

The speakers are lightweight and easy to carry, sporting a sleek grey finish with two rounded corners.

You can place them around your space “wherever you see fit”, as the brand claims when you are prompted to set them up. In our test room, we place the speakers on either side of the projector to achieve a degree of spaciousness and stereo separation, facing towards our seating.

There is no Dolby Atmos support, but they offer Dolby Audio to create 2.0-channel sound.

The projector itself feels practical and sturdy. There is a flexible cloth handle that makes it easy to carry around, especially as the complete package weighs only 2.4kg. You can tilt the body up to 130 degrees towards your screen or wall, and the body acts as a stand, which makes set-up simple.

The included remote control has a sleek, premium feel. You can use this to control power and volume, access auto-focus and streaming platform shortcuts.

Features

On the back of the projector, you will find an HDMI eARC port that supports up to 4K at 60Hz. You will also find a USB-A port and a 3.5mm aux jack if you want to connect your headphones.

As we mentioned, the P1 doesn’t have a built-in battery, but you can run it from a portable power supply via the USB-C port: Anker, Soundcore's parent company, sells specific chargers in a bundle on its website, or you can use a non-official one as long as it has a minimum power output of 100W.

Anker claims that its official 737 Power Bank delivers “one hour of continuous use” with the speakers attached to the body and the brightness set to full. That is, of course, not long enough for a full movie or even a football match, so we feel it’s best to think of the P1 as a compact mains-based projector, rather than a true portable one.

The P1 can output an image up to 180 inches in size, and it has a 1080p resolution and HDR10 support.

Nebula claims the projector can produce up to 650 ANSI lumens of brightness, which is brighter than its Xgimi MoGo 4 rival, which comes in at 450 ANSI lumens.

It also uses the Google TV operating system, giving you access to streaming apps such as Apple TV, Prime Video, Channel 4 and Netflix. There is no BBC iPlayer, although you can cast it from your phone as a workaround.

There is a range of smart features to help you get your picture looking straight. That includes auto-focus and auto-keystone, but you can also do this manually if you need to fine-tune. Once you have set up your projector, you can save settings into presets if you repeatedly use it in the same location.

You can also employ Nebula’s own “Vision Fit” tech to set up your screen. This is used via the Nebula Connect app, from which you take a photo of the surface where you’d like to project the image, and the projector will use it to optimise the results. It’s a neat idea in theory, but it is rather time-consuming, and we find ourselves sticking with the more traditional settings.

The app gives you much of the same functionality as the remote control, but you can also access more detailed picture and sound settings.

Picture

When we first switch on the P1 in the default 'Nebulamaster' picture setting in our dark test room, we are greeted with an overly vivid and unpleasant image. We kick off with Sinners on Blu-ray as Sammie drives up to his father’s church, where his movements look exaggerated and too smooth, so he bobs around in the car like a giddy child on a seesaw.

Once we change to Movie mode and turn the MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) setting to low, motion looks much more natural and lacks distracting judder. Sammie enters the frame with a little bit of a bounce, but feels more grounded than in the default setting.

We also knock the sharpness and saturation settings down a few notches. With these adjustments, the picture is much more balanced. In Sinners, as the sun peers out from the clouds at the start of an ominous morning, the projector delivers a relatively natural-looking image, but the colours lack the degree of pop required to deliver a genuinely punchy picture. Instead, you get a slightly flat overall look. The shining sun, for instance, lacks the vibrancy to break through the rest of the picture.

Switching to No Time To Die on Blu-ray, as Daniel Craig’s Bond has a near miss with an explosive device, his skin tone also lacks much natural warmth, instead looking a little pale and unnatural. His features look overetched as well (even with the projector’s Sharpness setting dropped down to zero), exaggerating wrinkles and bumps to a clearly unrealistic degree.

This is a wider issue with the P1 – especially when it comes to wide scenery shots. In the sweeping footage of the Italian town, the projector exaggerates the outlines of the trees and bricks in the buildings. This makes the image look too busy, and in fact means the whole picture verges on grainy instead of clean and clear.

Shadow detail is not the strongest, either. In Civil War, as the journalist protagonists recover from a traumatic event, young photographer Jessie sits with her legs hanging out of a parked van. It is hard to distinguish the interior from her dark hair in the shadows. There is a differentiation between the inside and the outside of the van, but it does not go as dark as rivals.

Despite its claimed 650 lumens, the P1's brightness is underwhelming and lacks the punch we expect. When we test the projector in a lit room, the P1 is still usable, but it isn't impressive, and it loses some shadow detail and colour.

We compare the Nebula model with the Xgimi MoGo 4. Both projectors accept movies in HDR, and the P1 is certainly the better performer in this format. It looks less overcooked compared with the MoGo 4, and keeps the image more balanced overall.

When we switch back to SDR content, the MoGo 4 delivers an image with both deeper blacks and punchier highlights, resulting in a more three-dimensional overall picture that immediately grabs the eye.

While the Nebula P1 offers a reasonably balanced picture and performs acceptably in brighter environments, its lack of punch and brightness holds it back, and in picture terms it can't match the cheaper MoGo 4.

Sound

The P1’s speakers, each powered by 10W of amplification, really are the stars of the show. They deliver clean, engaging sound that adds much-needed energy to movies and TV shows.

In Civil War, as an army chopper takes off, each swing of the rotor blade is portrayed with an impactful punch that elevates the tension of the scene. The wide soundfield is impressive, too; the chopper moves from one side of the screen to another, giving a real sense of breadth.

Dialogue is also clear and emotive. Vocals take centre stage, as they should, but not at the expense of the rest of the mix.

The performance of the speakers will depend at least somewhat on where you can put them in your space, especially if you are outside, and they’re certainly not on a par with the best dedicated Bluetooth speakers, but compared with the speaker systems of most portable and lifestyle projectors, they’re a massive improvement.

Verdict

With the best sound we have heard from a coffee table projector at this price, the Soundcore Nebula P1 certainly offers something new. And its clever, compact design makes for a practical and flexible proposition.

It's a shame the picture performance isn't at the same level, but if you don't mind sacrificing some quality there in the name of much better sound, this is a compelling choice.

SCORES

• Picture 3
• Sound 5
• Design 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Xgimi MoGo 4

Also consider the Hisense M2 Pro

Read our Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air review

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

It’s been a tricky few years for Onkyo.

Historically better known for its AV receivers, the Japanese company filed for bankruptcy back in 2022, but not before offloading its core home AV and hi-fi division to a joint venture between Premium Audio Company (the parent company of Klipsch, Integra, Magnat and others) and Sharp.

It teased a return at the end of 2024 before finally launching new hi-fi electronics and an affordable line of powered speakers at CES 2025.

That range of electronics was called ‘Icon’, and it’s the Onkyo Icon A-50 streaming amplifier that you see before you here.

It’s a strong choice of name – but can the level of performance on offer match it?

Price

Priced at £1199 / £1599 / AU$3299, the Onkyo lives in a space where there isn’t too much in the way of major rivals.

The one potential stumbling block to its success is a big one, though. It comes in the shape of the Ruark Audio R610 (£1199 / $1599 / AU$2299), a What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025 winner, no less.

This neat box of tricks offers similar functionality to the Onkyo and has a price tag which is comparable in both the UK and the US.

There is a bit of a gap in pricing when you look at the Australian market, but we think it’s the product most people are likely to compare it to.

Design & build

Once unboxed, first impressions are mixed. Onkyo has gone down the traditional full-width separates route for the Icon A-50 as opposed to the slightly more stylish and more modern design of the Ruark.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with 'traditional', and from a distance everything appears perfectly well-appointed – all the various controls, buttons and switches seem to be proportionate and in the right place.

Once it’s powered up, that sliver of orange LED on the volume control sharpens up the amp’s appearance nicely. It contrasts neatly with its black surround and matches the ladder of LEDs that arcs around the input selector. Each rung glows orange as you cycle through the various options until you arrive at your desired input.

However, your contact points feel a little, dare we say, cheap. The top of the chassis, despite having an attractive pattern of vents, doesn’t feel the most robust.

The power button, depending on how it’s pressed, can make a quite off-putting springy noise, while the volume control makes quite a substantial clicking noise around halfway up its travel.

We weren’t quite sure why the amp was doing this, so we reached out to Onkyo, who told us “to prevent the product temperature from becoming high, the power supply for the amplifier is designed to switch between two levels, low and high, depending on factors such as the volume value, internal temperature sensor, and speaker output level".

It’s a strange quirk and something that we haven’t come across on a product like this before. It’s also something that we did find distracting during testing.

The textured finish to the input selector feels nice to the touch, but the control’s actual movement is a little soft and not quite as precise as we’d like.

Add all the design and build elements together, and we’re left with a feeling that we’re not quite getting our money’s worth.

The supplied remote is a relatively ordinary plastic wand which contains all the basic buttons for changing input, volume and accessing the tone controls.

It does the job without too many complaints, although a couple of times, when controlling the volume, the dial seemed to briefly resist and even go in the opposite direction before rotating the desired way.

Features

Speaking of controls, you are encouraged to download Onkyo’s Controller app before you begin set-up.

Companion apps for anything streaming-related can be hit and miss in our experience, and the Onkyo’s isn’t without issue. There’s plenty of functionality built in, for sure, but it struggles to gloss over what is all too often a frustrating and buggy experience.

What should be a simple set-up process is hampered by an over-complicated and overly fussy menu system and an app that is generally slow and sluggish to respond.

Tidal Connect worked smoothly as you’d expect, but the Amazon Music implementation is sluggish and buggy. On one occasion, we are streaming music using the service through the Controller app and the icons for skipping tracks disappear from the screen on our iPhone 15 Plus.

Through the app, you can access the Onkyo’s basic Dirac Live room correction or the built-in Fidelity IQ calibration. Both of these can use the microphone, which comes with the amplifier and plugs into the corresponding socket on the front panel.

Depending on your room layout and characteristics, you might want to stick with how they calibrate the sound, but we preferred them both turned off. In our acoustically treated rooms, Dirac Live sounded a little lightweight, while the Fidelity IQ option seemed to change the balance and boost certain frequencies at the expense of others, resulting in an unbalanced sound.

Instead, we would suggest actually flicking the switch on the front of the A-50 to turn on Direct mode. With this mode engaged, your music won’t pass through the amp’s tone control circuit and instead travel on a slightly shorter signal path.

In our opinion, it makes a subtle, yet audible difference to the sound quality. Music sounds slightly cleaner and more transparent.

During testing, there were a couple of bugs that cropped up when experimenting with Dirac Live, Fidelity IQ, and Direct mode. On a couple of occasions, the amplifier went rogue and turned the bass up in the tone controls when switching between them. The Onkyo would also occasionally mute the sound when switching between Dirac Live and Fidelity IQ.

We actually found the best part of the control app to be the volume control. Tapping the button on your screen launches a pop-up volume dial, which you slide your thumb around. The dial’s action is nice and smooth, and the amp is quick to respond.

On the front of the amp is a 6.3mm headphone socket, and four LED indicators next to a ‘my input’ button, which you can use to assign a particular source and sound settings to a single preset.

Around the back are three analogue inputs, two optical digital inputs, one coaxial digital input, a USB-A input for an external storage device, an HDMI ARC socket and a phono input for the moving magnet/moving coil phono stage.

Bluetooth connectivity is also included, which allows you to not only beam music to the Onkyo from a smartphone or tablet, but also transmit Bluetooth audio to a pair of Bluetooth headphones for, say, some late-night, wireless listening. The amp is compatible with SBC, aptX and aptX HD codecs.

The networked A-50 can cater for virtually all your streaming needs with support for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, Amazon Music and TuneIn internet radio. It also supports AirPlay, Chromecast and is Roon Ready.

Sound

The Icon A-50 is claimed to deliver 110W per channel (into 8 ohms) using Class A/B amplification. During testing, we have it hooked up to our reference bookshelf speakers, the Epos ES-7N, and the amplifier seems perfectly at home driving them.

We start with a track or two from our Naim Uniti Core server accessed through the controller app, and we like what we hear.

Playing Lady Gaga’s Starstruck, the A-50 puts its best foot forward. The track sounds punchy, weighty and piques our interest with a lively and spacious sound.

There’s plenty of scale and size to the soundstage, too – the Onkyo sounds bold and forthcoming, but doesn’t sound overpowering. It’s nicely measured in its approach.

Bass notes hit with weight and authority, but it’s not just about the amount of bass. There’s decent detail and texture there too, and the difference in intensity between each low-frequency blow is easy enough to distinguish.

We wheel out the five-star Ruark R610 for comparison, and although it sounds smaller scale and less open, you do get a much greater sense of focus and precision compared to the Onkyo.

The current What Hi-Fi? Award-winner sounds more sure of itself, displaying greater composure and also has the edge when communicating the rhythmic flow and dynamic shifts of the track.

We slow things down with George Michael’s Careless Whisper and the Onkyo’s large, expansive delivery comes to the fore once again. It’s nice to listen to and does a fine job of separating the various elements of the track.

However, the vocal isn’t delivered with quite as much conviction or precision, nor does the saxophone sound as solid or dynamically dexterous as it is when heard through the Ruark.

Having said that, the A-50 still sounds balanced. There’s no sign of any brightness or hardness at the top end, and you certainly couldn’t accuse the Onkyo of delivering unruly and overly keen bass frequencies, either.

We play the same two tunes over Tidal Connect and Bluetooth, and the amplifier remains in character. Yes, the compressed Bluetooth versions sound just that, but the Onkyo maintains its broad, expansive personality.

Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for the phono stage. Connecting a Rega Planar 3 RS Edition and playing Lukas Graham’s Happy Home, and we are left feeling disappointed by the slightly flat and compressed sound that greets us.

Tonally, there’s nothing too off-putting, and it’s balanced and easy-going enough, but there’s a distinct lack of drive to the synthy bassline, and his normally expressive vocal sounds stunted.

The headphone output, by contrast, sounds tonally grey compared to what we hear from the amp’s speaker outputs. There’s a lack of natural warmth, and detail levels take a hit too.

Verdict

As you’ll have probably guessed by now, we aren’t as enamoured with the Onkyo Icon A-50 as we had hoped to be.

The large-scale, powerful sound it produces shows potential, and there are likeable elements to its sound quality, but it never really comes close to troubling the composure and dynamic finesse of the class-leader at this level.

Combine the questions over build with the buggy app, and the Onkyo feels like one of those products where it’s a good concept on paper, but, ultimately, the execution is lacking.

Review published: 9th June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 3
• Build 3

MORE:

Also consider the Ruark Audio R610

Best music streamers: top network audio players tested by our experts

We have seen several feature-packed all-in-one hi-fi systems enter the market from traditional manufacturers in recent times. Cambridge Audio, KEF, Sonus Faber, Naim and Ruark Audio, to name but a few, all offer one-box solutions which include source(s), input and speakers built-in. And now we can add Danish speaker manufacturer Dali to that list.

At High End Vienna 2026, it launched Vega, a hi-fi system with a twist, and one that the company has actually been working on for four years. Obviously, we couldn’t resist dropping by the Dali stand for a closer look to see the system in action.

Price

The Dali Vega costs £2599 / $4500 / AU$4499 and launches in October. This makes it more expensive than the Ruark Audio R410 (£1299 / $1699 / AU$2599) or Cambridge Audio Evo One (£1299 / $1499 / AU$2499.

However, it does sit below the £2999 / $3600 / €3300 asking price of the Focal Mu-so Hekla, which will be one of its key rivals.

Design and build

Dali claims Vega has been designed to be “the most versatile and user-friendly audio source in the home”. And it definitely delivers the kind of flexibility and thoughtfulness we haven’t seen in this arena before.

Besides placing Vega horizontally on a tabletop, you can also wall-mount it. Not only that, but you can flip it through ninety degrees so it hangs upright.

It’s a clever idea and offers users an extra solution when room space might be tight, and attaching it to a wall is an option.

Although it does offer HDMI connectivity, Dali is at pains to say this is a wireless sound system and not a soundbar – there’s no Dolby Atmos or upfiring drivers.

What it does have is a 400W digital amp running 8 channels of audio. Under the woven fabric speaker grilles are two 25mm soft dome tweeters and two 4.5in wood-fibre/paper mid/bass cones on the front, and you'll find the same driver configuration on the rear.

At either end of the unit is an anodised aluminium passive radiator, which matches the finish of the speaker. They’re black on the dark oak finish and silver on the light oak silver finish.

You can’t miss the large circular control on the top of Vega. Dail has spent a lot of time trying to make it tactile and nice to use, and when we try it out, it seems smooth to operate.

It uses a military-grade ball-bearing, while the housing of the wheel is metal with a glass top. Tap the glass, and it brings up Vega’s menus, which are located on a small OLED screen positioned next to it.

The writing on the screen switches to match the unit's portrait or landscape orientation, which is a neat touch. Dali explained that this functionality would have been difficult to achieve with a more traditional dot-matrix LCD display.

It does seem a little small, especially when trying to read the speaker’s settings from a distance, but once the speaker is set up, you’ll mainly be interacting with the BluOS app on your smartphone or tablet.

To the left of the control dial is a row of buttons which includes power, mute and input switching. You also get five customisable preset buttons, which you could assign to a radio station or streaming service – you can even map one to a particular input.

Features

As we’ve mentioned, Vega is powered by BluOS, which we've found to be a stable and well-featured streaming platform. Everything else for Vega has been designed in-house by Dali.

This includes a patent-pending Adaptive Stereo Enhancement (ASE) DSP processing that monitors the incoming stereo signal in real-time and adapts it to fill your room in a spacious and immersive manner.

Out of the box, Vega is set up for use on a shelf or tabletop and has three settings to choose from depending on its placement: free space, medium, and close.

Each one of these affects the sound output from the rear of the speaker, which is at its maximum when in free space mode.

You also have not one but two wall mounting options (it comes with a bracket in the box). It can be positioned horizontally or vertically and uses an internal accelerometer to work out its orientation, and it will automatically switch the output of the speakers to match.

So, when it’s mounted vertically, instead of still having left and right channels firing out of the front and rear, the whole left side of Vega becomes the left channel, and the right side becomes the right channel. Very clever.

To accommodate wall mounting, all connections are underneath the system as opposed to on the rear – Vega offers HDMI ARC, an RCA analogue input, an optical digital connection and a USB input for an external drive. There’s also a subwoofer output, should you want to up the bass at a later date.

In addition to the BluOS streaming smarts, Vega’s wireless connectivity also includes Bluetooth aptX HD, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect and AirPlay 2.

Sound

During our demo with Vega, we were shown the effect of having the ASE processing on and off, and although it was tricky to hear too much, thanks to the noise coming from other areas of the exhibition space, you could still hear the sound shrink and become smaller scale when it was turned off.

Turned back on, you could hear the sound open up again and become larger and fuller.

We’ll obviously need to get it into our test rooms for a full sound quality evaluation, but we heard a few seconds of Ray Charles and Natalie Cole’s version of Fever and the double bass and finger clicks seemed to be nicely defined and have decent snap to them.

Vega seems to serve up an open and dynamic sound, although it was difficult to really evaluate the detail and definition that managed to cut through the noise on the stand.

We switched up the pace with the Stereo MC’s Step It Up, and the Dali seemed to have a skip in its step with seemingly decent punch and power. We couldn’t really hear anything stick out of the frequency range, but it was competing with a lot of environmental noise.

Initial verdict

Obviously, we won’t know how the Dali Vega truly fares until we’ve had a chance to put it through its paces in our test rooms, but it’s an eye-catching offering from the brand in the category of all-in-one hi-fi systems.

Not only does it boast interesting tech developed in-house, Dali’s managed to package its wireless sound system with an attractive amount of versatility.

Some might see the wall-mounting as a bit of a gimmick, but we think the extra flexibility has legs and is a novel approach where space in many living rooms is at a premium. If Vega manages to execute it successfully, Dali could be onto something, and we can’t wait to find out.

MORE:

Dali's premium all-in-one system promises hi-fi-level performance in any place, and in any position

High End Vienna 2026: all the news and highlights from Europe's biggest hi-fi show

I heard Cambridge Audio's new Evo streaming amplifier at High End Vienna – was it evolution or revolution?

Our pick of the best hi-fi systems you can buy for every budget

Streaming amplifiers make a lot of sense – they are solutions for people who want convenience but don’t want to sacrifice audio quality.

Historically, Cambridge Audio’s Evo line has provided just that – and it now has a new addition in the shape of the range-topping Evo 300.

We headed into Cambridge Audio’s demonstration room at High End Vienna 2026 to see and hear it in action.

Price

The Evo 300 costs £3499/€3999/$3999 which places it slightly above our current favourite around that price, the Award-winning Arcam SA35. The Arcam costs £2999 / $3300 / AU$6495 and launched back in May 2024.

To give you some extra context, the Cambridge Audio Evo 75 and Evo 150 launched in 2021 for £1799 / $2250 / AU$3299 and £2249 / $3000 / AU$4299, respectively, while the Evo 150 SE arrived in 2025 with a price tag of £1999 / $3299 / AU$5795.

Design and build

If you’re familiar with any of the previous Evo models, you’ll know what to expect from the Evo 300. And the fact that it takes after its siblings is a good thing.

Like the rest of the Evo family that has come before, the new model is a good-looking piece of kit with styling that should look at home in a wide range of listening environments.

It has a premium-looking and feeling black aluminium cabinet which boasts Evo’s party piece – interchangeable side panels. You get two options: a real wood veneer or a black slatted option, should you want a traditional or more modern aesthetic.

On the front of the amp is a 7.8-inch display – the largest Cambridge Audio has used to date. And it seems just as crisp and punchy as the screens we have seen on older Evo products.

Album artwork looks good, and it’s also easy to read, whether you’re looking at track information, changing volume or switching inputs. This is good to see – it isn’t always a given on products of this type.

As with previous Evos, a small strip of buttons runs down the right side of the screen, and at the far right side of the fascia is the volume dial/control wheel combination.

You do get a slender remote control with the Evo 300, although you’re more likely to use Cambridge Audio’s intuitive StreamMagic app for the majority of your interactions.

Features

As the model name implies, the power output of the Evo is 300W per channel. This is provided by Hypex NCOREx power modules.

Under the aluminium chassis, you’ll find a dual-mono layout, a balanced pre-amplifier stage and an ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC, which supports up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512.

Streaming comes courtesy of Cambridge Audio’s excellent StreamMagic platform, which provides support for Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Amazon Music, Deezer, Qobuz Connect, Roon Ready, UPnP and Internet Radio. The amp also supports Bluetooth 5.4 (including aptX HD), AirPlay 2 and is Roon Ready.

Around the back of the unit, there are two sets of speaker terminals, RCA and balanced XLR inputs, HDMI eARC connectivity, and a built-in moving-magnet phono stage for a compatible turntable.

You also get an adjustable subwoofer output and an optional high-pass filter for the main speakers.

Sound

All the hi-fi show listening caveats apply here in terms of room design, layout and impact of external noise. In a room full of keen journalists jostling for position, it’s tricky to get the complete picture of a product.

Still, we were treated to a few tracks on the Evo 300 – partnered with a pair of £8000 Dynaudio Contour Legacy floorstanders – to give us a flavour.

We kick things off with a blast of Inertia Creeps by Massive Attack, and there seems to be plenty of power behind the drum thwacks.

The overall delivery appears focused and precise with a good amount of insight. Edges of notes seem well-defined with a good amount of texture.

Switching to Foo Fighters’ Stranger Things Have Happened, and there seems to be good separation in the stereo image with space around both the guitar and Dave Grohl’s vocal.

It’s an open, expansive image, and the guitar strums sound nicely defined with a good amount of weight behind them.

As the intensity of the guitar play and the vocal pick up during the course of the track, the amplifier seems to follow suit.

Initial verdict

In terms of build, design and features, it certainly looks as though the Cambridge Audio Evo 300 ticks a lot of boxes.

And, although we aren’t too familiar with the speakers used by Cambridge Audio in the demo, what we hear in our brief time with the streaming amplifier is more than enough to make us keen to get one into our test rooms for a closer listen.

The streaming amplifiers category is growing in size all the time, so it will be interesting to see if Cambridge Audio can set the benchmark for performance at the price.

MORE:

High End Vienna 2026: all the news and what to expect from Europe's biggest hi-fi show

I’ve had a first listen to Bowers & Wilkins’ new flagship 800 Series Diamond speakers – and now I’m desperate to hear more

Our pick of the best hi-fi systems for all budgets

The separates approach has held sway in the world of high-end hi-fi from the very beginning. That is perfectly understandable, given the idea that each component only has one job to do, and so can be optimised for that task. Such logic is undeniable. When you are charging huge sums of money for a premium product, every last degree of performance matters, after all.

But we’ve noticed a change in recent years. Manufacturers are getting better at integrating functionality without compromising the sound, particularly in the digital space. Esoteric’s new N-05XE streaming preamplifier is a prime example of that trend.

This beautifully made unit combines network streaming, digital-to-analogue conversion and a preamplifier in one neat, albeit chunky box. Any house-proud hi-fi enthusiast will appreciate the reduction in interconnects, mains cables and required rack space a product like this brings. Just add a power amp with passive speakers or, even better, a pair of actives, and you have a minimalist but well-featured system that (potentially) can still match the best at the price.

Design & features

The N-05XE seems like an ideal front-end for such a set-up. It is well equipped, sporting a streaming section that ticks almost all the boxes. This Esoteric will play any music file available on your home network, but has to be hardwired via an Ethernet cable or optical using an SFP port. wi-fi connectivity, while undeniably convenient, is not on the menu on stability and performance grounds.

We have no complaints about file compatibility. It is excellent. This Esoteric is happy to play high-res recordings up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD 22.5MHz. We can’t imagine anyone getting caught short with this player. Embedded streaming services include the Connect versions of Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify, and the N-05XE is certified as Roon Ready.

This streaming preamp’s digital section is a little out of the ordinary. Rather than use off-the-shelf DAC chips for the N-05XE’s digital module, the engineers decided on an in-house solution based around an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array); a powerful processor programmed with the company’s own software instructions. This converter section is a multi-level Delta Sigma design based around discrete components to optimise performance.

Should the upgrade bug strike, which we suspect may take a while, it is possible to add an outboard 10MHz clock to the N-05XE. Esoteric’s own G-05 clock costs £5500 / $5800 / AU$9000, so it's a serious investment. We have heard such things make a notable improvement, so it is worth a listen.

For a streaming preamp to be successful, the analogue side of things has to be as capable as the digital. Esoteric’s engineers haven’t cut corners with the N-05XE’s analogue preamp section. It is a dual-mono, fully-balanced design with a sophisticated power supply arrangement that even goes as far as delivering a dedicated feed to the volume control circuit. Great care has been taken to ensure that the preamp performs consistently, whether driving a power amplifier, the line output or the headphone socket.

That headphone output is no afterthought. Esoteric has taken things seriously here, developing a new dual-mono parallel single-ended amplifier module. The aim was not only to improve the sound but also to ensure good drive characteristics across a broad spectrum of headphone types. There is a choice of a conventional 6.3mm socket or a 4-pin XLR output on the front panel. The headphone amplifier is rated at a healthy 1200mW per channel into a 32-ohm load, which should be enough in most cases.

The company has worked hard to ensure that the N-05XE can slot easily into a wide range of systems. There is a good choice of digital connections on the rear panel (USB Type B, coax x 2, optical x 2 and AES/EBU) alongside a USB Type A for playback of stored music. In addition, there is a USB Type C socket on the front to connect either a flash drive or a digital source such as a computer or personal music player.

Bluetooth 4.2 is included too. While it isn’t the best sounding connection option as far as sound quality goes, compatibility with higher-quality aptX and LDAC codecs means the results are still more than acceptable. We like that Esoteric has included this wireless functionality, as there are times when the convenience trumps the need for absolute performance

On the analogue side, there are two line-level inputs (stereo RCA and XLR), where the XLR can be configured for conventional balanced use or running Esoteric’s proprietary ES-Link system.

ES-Link is a current-based transmission method (rather than voltage-based, as is conventional), and is claimed to be less sensitive to the impedance characteristics of whatever it is connected to, so improving sound quality. The choice of single-ended RCA, balanced XLR and ESL-A is mirrored on the analogue output side of things

Build

Esoteric has built an enviable reputation for excellent build and engineering, and rightly so. We are happy to report that the N-05XE lives up to those traditions. Its casework is immaculately made and finished, feeling reassuringly solid. Finish options? The N-05XE is available in both black and silver.

The large volume dial spins on ball bearings, so its rotation is as smooth as you like, while every switch and button works with precision, and feels like it will last a generation. We even like the small, double-sided metal remote. It is logically laid out and easy to use.

Esoteric’s engineers are clearly happy to defy convention when they think it is justified. In this case, the N-05XE’s top panel floats loose rather than being attached solidly. It is essentially free to move a millimetre or so and rattles when we tap it.

During development, it was found that mounting the lid loosely in this way lends an increased openness to the product’s sound. Similarly, you will notice that the unit’s feet move around when you take it out of the box. These feet are of a surprisingly complex design, featuring an internal spike-and-base arrangement claimed to disperse mechanical vibrations.

In day-to-day use, a network streamer lives or dies by the quality of its partnering app. Esoteric’s Sound Stream app is a solid effort that proves stable in use. It has the usual range of features, but isn’t quite as slick and intuitive as the best we’ve come across. The layout can look rather cluttered, though we get used to things relatively quickly.

A product at this level deserves a top-class partnering system. We slot the N-05XE into our reference set-up, using it first with our Burmester 088/911 MKIII pre/power driving ATC SCM50 speakers, and then bypassing the preamp and plugging directly into the power.

Our main streamer comparison is with Naim’s pricier ND 555/555 PS DR, but we also have recent experience with price rivals such as Moon’s 681, Linn’s Selekt DSM Edition Hub and Naim’s NSS 333.

Sound

If you love to tweak, you are in luck. In line with most modern digital products, the Esoteric N-05XE allows the user to switch between various upsampling and filter settings.

We spend a good few days experimenting with the various options, and settle on the highest rate (512) for the Delta Sigma Modulator operating frequency and the RDOT option (a slow roll-off design with some clever processing) for the digital filter. But note, the differences between the various settings are subtle at best. The choice comes down to taste and partnering system as much as any obvious superiority.

If you like an extrovert, end-of-the-seat presentation, then this or any other Esoteric product isn’t for you. In our experience, the company’s sonic signature is all about precision, refinement and delicacy. It is a cultured sound that’s impressively clean, combining class-leading detail resolution with a degree of understatement that takes time to appreciate. Once you get used to it, most alternatives seem a little uncouth in comparison.

Stream a demanding classical piece such as Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and the N-05XE’s composure is welcome. It takes a frantic piece of music and lays it all out effortlessly for the listener. Each instrumental strand is easy to track, and nothing gets lost as the composition becomes ever more difficult. Instruments are carefully rendered, with the texture and shape of notes presented with care.

Tonally, this Esoteric is as balanced as they come, with no particular part of the frequency range gaining undue prominence. The highs are sweet without sacrificing too much in the way of bite, while the top-to-bottom balance remains beautifully cohesive and nicely judged. The presentation doesn’t have the architectural solidity of our reference Naim, but it remains clean and stable.

The N-05XE’s stereo imaging is excellent. The product’s dual-mono configuration obviously pays dividends here, with a broad and spacious soundstage populated by crisply focused instruments. Everything is locked in position and doesn’t blur as the music becomes more demanding. We’re particularly pleased with the way that the N-05XE renders soundstage depth, giving the recording a wonderfully three-dimensional feel.

It is pleasing to note that this Esoteric is equally as talented when used as a DAC. We use a variety of sources from our MacBook Pro (loaded with Audirvana music-playing software and plenty of high-res music files) and Naim’s ND 555 streamer serving as a digital source to an iPhone 14 Pro Max to test Bluetooth.

The N-05XE does well. It has a highly-resolving DAC module and equally talented analogue output stage, which combine to deliver whatever the recording requires. Rosalía’s Berghain comes through with dynamic intensity and rhythmic momentum intact. We marvel at the music’s drama and the Esoteric’s ability to communicate the singer’s emotion while still delivering a high degree of clarity and control.

We switch between various file types from 24-bit/192kHz Beethoven recordings to Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions on DSD, and the N-05XE copes with ease. There is no hint of unwanted hesitation or noise. It gets on with the job without fuss.

Bluetooth pairing is swift, and we have no issues with stability. The sound quality via this input is obviously limited compared to the other options, but it is perfectly fine for casual listening.

It is also pleasing to note that the Esoteric’s analogue inputs sound good too. Such a talent isn’t a given with digital-based components, but it means that the N-05XE is perfectly capable of working well with both analogue and digital sources.

The story is just as positive with headphones. We try Yamaha’s magnetic planar YH-5000SE, Austrian Audio’s open-back The Composer and Focal’s closed-back Stellia, and all work well. The N-05XE drives every headphone with ease, delivering a balanced and detailed sound that is neutral enough to put the spotlight on the headphones rather than the source component.

Verdict

Convenience and the high-end aren’t usually comfortable bedfellows, but this Esoteric proves it is possible to combine the two in a neat, easy-to-use package.

The N-05XE is a hugely capable product that compromises very little compared to more purist options. If you are looking for a top-class sound and don’t want the clutter of conventional high-end separates, this Esoteric is a great place to start.

Review published: 3rd June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Naim NSS 333

Also consider the Moon 681

Read our Linn Selekt DSM Edition Hub review

Best music streamers: top network audio players tested by our experts

Wharfedale seems to believe in the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach, if the new Diamond 12i range is anything to go by, and who can blame it? On paper, the highlights of this updated range aren’t particularly exciting: they include a revised set of finishes, redesigned reflex ports and a tweak of each speaker’s internal damping.

Nothing to get particularly excited about, although Wharfedale deserves praise for keeping the entire range’s pricing unchanged from its predecessors. In a world where every manufacturer is pushing up prices, this comes as a refreshing and pleasant surprise.

The original Diamond 12 series launched in late 2020 and quickly became our go-to recommendation for anyone looking for great value, affordable speakers, whether for stereo or home cinema use.

The original 12.3 floorstanders were a particular favourite of ours, offering an excellent all-round performance in a neat, easy-to-accommodate form. They won multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards over the years and remained the class leader right until it ended production in late 2025.

Design

Its replacement, the Wharfedale Diamond 12.3i, looks reassuringly familiar. In fact, you have to look hard to notice any substantial changes beyond the three new finishes (black, walnut and grey).

The revised rear firing port looks much the same from the outside, though we did notice a soft rubber ring mounted to the end on the inside, something the original never had.

The trio of drive units is essentially the same. That’s no problem, as they were hardly a weakness.

The 12.3i remains a 2½ way design where the upper 13cm driver handles the midrange and bass, leaving the lower one to add a bit of muscle only at the lowest frequencies.

Both of the larger drivers use Wharfedale’s Klarity diaphragm material. Klarity is the company’s marketing name for mica-loaded polypropylene, a material claimed to offer a good balance between stiffness, damping and light weight.

A 25mm textile dome tweeter takes responsibility above the 2.2kHz crossover frequency. We’ve heard this high-frequency unit in various Diamond 12 models and it has always impressed with its detail and refinement.

Build & compatibility

Take a look at the specifications and you will find nothing obvious has changed from the previous gen model. The 12.3i’s sensitivity is still 89dB/W/m and nominal impedance continues to be rated as 8 ohm compatible, with a minimum of 5 ohms.

These numbers imply that these floorstanders should be easy enough to drive for most price-compatible amplifiers. Certainly, the Arcam A5+ integrated amplifier we used for much of this test had no difficulty driving them.

We do notice that these speakers are now single-wired only. Is that a major loss? We don’t think so, and suspect most owners never took full advantage of the previous generation’s twin set of terminals.

Overall, the Diamond 12.3i’s build quality is good for the money. We have a pair of the originals for comparison, and notice that the finish on the new ones’ metal feet isn’t quite as neat, but to be fair this is something that you would never see once the speakers are installed.

There is little to complain about elsewhere. The cabinets feel solid and are finished neatly. Our review sample is in the new black finish and looks understated but still classy.

At 97.5cm tall and just 18cm wide, these Diamond floorstanders are compact enough to fit into most rooms without dominating, and in the UK at least, that’s a big positive.

We do find that the 12.3i is a little fussier about room positioning than its predecessor. Its revised porting arrangement has resulted in a more muscular bass performance, which many will prefer, but it also makes the speakers less forgiving about their proximity to a wall.

In our 3 x 7 x 5m listening room, the 12.3i sound most comfortable around 70cm into the room, and slightly angled towards the listening position to solidify their stereo imaging. The previous generation model could be placed closer and still sound balanced.

Sound

A floorstanding speaker at this price has a difficult balancing act to perform. It has to be forgiving with budget separates and streaming systems, yet still shine with more ambitious electronics. The original 12.3 did that superbly, and so does this new version.

The change of port and internal damping may seem slight on paper, but they have changed the Diamond 12.3’s character a little. The new “i” models are certainly bigger and bolder-sounding. Play a dramatic piece of music, such as the Indiana Jones theme by John Williams, and there is no denying that these new Diamonds produce more dramatic results.

Dynamic shifts are a little more vivid with the new-gen model going from quiet to loud and back again with greater conviction. The bass also kicks harder and, perhaps surprisingly given the identical specifications, seemingly a little deeper.

The tweeter is unchanged, so we’re surprised to find that the treble is now a little more forward than before. It adds to the sense of space in the recording and makes low-level details a touch more apparent. But don’t worry, things aren’t overdone, as the Diamond 12.3i still sounds refined and well-behaved by class standards.

As we work our way through the likes of De La Soul’s Cabin In The Sky set and Jill Scott’s To Whom This May Concern album, it becomes clear that the 12.3i floorstanders should still be considered class leaders. It is hard to argue against the fact that their combination of insight, dynamic expression and control is hard to beat at the money.

Given a song like De La Soul’s YUHDONTSTOP, the 12.3i are a fun listen, rendering the group's vocal flow with enthusiasm and clarity. Vocal and instrumental textures come through well, certainly better than any rival floorstander we’ve heard.

Rhythmically, these Diamonds are surefooted rather than enthusiastic, but they convey the music’s momentum and energy well enough. We’re having fun and these Wharfedale floorstanders are playing their part in that.

However, as good as these new speakers are, there are areas where we feel the older model edges things. In side-by-side comparisons, the original 12.3 sounds a little more cohesive and conveys musical momentum a touch more emphatically. Its bass is a little better integrated too, though clearly less powerful.

Verdict

Given that this “i” model replaces the original, perhaps the comparisons don’t matter so much. It is how the Diamond 12.3i compares to its price rivals that is more important.

In this respect, there is little out there to worry these Wharfedale floorstanders. They remain a cut above the competition, and that makes them an excellent buy at the money.

Review published: 1st June 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 4
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Also consider the Dali Oberon 5

Best bookshelf speakers: top standmounts for every budget tested

Bigger boxes and bad vibrations – why floorstanding speakers can be tricky to build

We’ve always rather liked Tribit’s Stormbox Micro line of Bluetooth speakers. Tribit isn’t an established name in the same vein as Sony or JBL, yet it has produced a couple of charming, affordable portable speakers which, especially the Micro 2, exhibit real talent in the midrange frequencies. Plus, “Stormbox” sounds like it was named by Thor.

The problem with making a good budget Bluetooth speaker is that you’ve got to follow it up while meeting the challenge of newer, more capable rivals.

It’s no secret that JBL is the name ruling the Bluetooth speaker roost, and with the pocket-sized Go 5 recently earning a glowing five-star appraisal, the third-gen Stormbox Micro is going to have to work even harder than its predecessors if it doesn’t want to be out-muscled by the ever-advancing competition.

Price

You can get your hands on a Tribit Stormbox Micro 3 for around £63 / $65 / AU$130 approx, the same price at which the outgoing second-gen model started life.

At this more budget-friendly end of the cost ladder, the five-star JBL Go 5 clocks in at around £40 / $50 / AU$59 at the time of writing, and if you want to go even cheaper, you can get an older Go 4 for as low as £25 / $30 during sales events.

If you seek something a little more premium, the JBL Flip 7 tends to sit at roughly £110 / $150 / AU$170 at the time of writing, but again, it tends to enjoy decent discounts when the time is right.

Build

Build-wise, the Stormbox Micro 3 hasn’t deviated hugely from its five-star predecessor. Its flat, coaster-like design remains generally unchanged, with the top half of the speaker dominated by a woven textured grille and the bottom half clad in rubber to give you plenty of non-slip grip.

Large, bold volume buttons flank a circular play/pause toggle, which can also be used to summon Siri if held down for a few seconds. Those big, bold buttons do give the Tribit a clean and simple interface, but during our tests at least, we do find that they require quite a forceful press to elicit a response.

Backlit buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing, toggling XBoom and managing stereo mode/party mode are neatly housed on the speaker’s thin front-end, and thankfully, don’t require the same levels of brutish force for us to get them to cooperate.

View it from the top-down, and the new Stormbox is a bit chunkier than its outgoing ancestor, though the difference is slight – you’ll still manage to slide it into a backpack, perch it on the side of your bathtub (it’s waterproof, don’t worry!) or hold it in the palm of your hand without too much trouble. Thankfully, portability is still the name of the game here.

That said, we would’ve liked some kind of carry loop for taking the Tribit on your travels, such as you’d find adorning the side of the JBL Go 4 or larger Bose SoundLink Plus, although the Stormbox Micro 3 does have an elastic rubber strap at its base which Tribit bills as being attachable to bikes, bags and the like.

Forget the elastic strap, though, because what that base also has is magnetic powers. Yes, you can stick the Stormbox to pretty much any magnetic metallic surface you can find, and the novelty never wears off as we spend our time roving our office looking for places to stick our test sample. On the side of the fridge, attached to our boardroom whiteboard, stuck to a metal pillar outside… oh, the fun you can have.

Let’s return to the more technical side for a moment. Within, the Tribit boasts 13 watts of power driving a 48mm driver and dual coaxial passive radiators for producing what the brand describes as "crisp clarity and deep, punchy bass". More on that in a moment.

Features

Credit where it's due, Tribit has really bolstered the battery life for its third-gen Stormbox Micro. The Micro 2 gave you a very admirable 12 hours of playtime on a single charge, but that’s been doubled to a whopping 24 hours, a figure which trounces the roughly 10 hours of the JBL Go 5 and the 16 or so hours of the more expensive JBL Flip 7.

A big bonus for the Tribit and, we envisage, a major part of its potential appeal.

Speaking of battery, the Micro 3 also doubles as a powerbank, meaning you can juice up your smartphone on the go via USB-C – akin to the charging feature you’d find on the likes of the chunky JBL Charge 6. To have charging capabilities on a speaker this small is not something we’ve often seen, so kudos to Tribit for implementing it with the Micro 3.

Elsewhere, the third-gen speaker boasts an impressive IP68 water and dustproof rating, keeping it in line with the major class leaders at this price. Splash it with water or give it a quick soak in the sink, and that water-repellent body does a fine job of keeping those precious insides dry and working as they should.

Tribit has also granted support for True Wireless Stereo pairing with its latest Stormbox Micro, but note that this can only be done with two models of the same generation, so you won’t be able to dig out your old Stormbox Micro 2 and form a stereo pair with the new third-gen model.

Many of the above features can be managed and monitored by the Tribit app which, while not the most in-depth platform you’ll ever come across, is clearly laid out and easy to navigate thanks to its bold, uncluttered menus.

A nine-band customisable equaliser is nice to have as well, or you can select one of Tribit’s seven genre-led presets if you want the legwork done for you.

Sound

Judged on its own terms, the Stormbox Micro 3 is a reasonably capable performer. It’s quite a personable little speaker, and the sound that it produces does have some appeal, especially if you feed it tunes that play to its relative strengths.

The midrange where the outgoing Stormbox Micro 2 excelled, and as we listen to a slice of Nick Cave’s Into My Arms, we discern that those particular talents haven’t entirely skipped a generation. Cave’s voice is fairly rich and full, with the Tribit spotlighting the Aussie crooner nicely as his emotive sincerity shines through.

Tribit’s promise of a fulsome lower end also rings reasonably true, evidenced by the depth of the opening bass plucks on Noisettes’ Never Forget You. Depth and grip go hand in hand, giving adequate shape and texture to what can be, in the care of lesser speakers, amorphous rumbly tones.

At this price, the Stormbox Micro 3 has enough organisational ability to stop music falling over itself or feeling as jumbled as a load of socks flying around inside a tumble drier.

Detail levels across the frequency range – piercing highs, sweet mids and deep lows – are decent for a speaker of this size, even if we do notice some occasional hardness in the upper reaches, such as when we play Rosalía’s complex, operatic Berghain.

The Micro 3 is a decent Bluetooth speaker, then, but it’s simply not a class leading one, a fact that is spotlighted when put up against the JBL Go 5. Practically everything that the Stormbox Micro 3 can do, the JBL can do at least as well, and that’s a real issue when it comes to recommending the former.

After all, why would you buy a Tribit at around £63 / $65 / AU$130 when you could pick up an equally talented Go 5 for cheaper at £40 / $50 / AU$59?

The Go 5 may be smaller in size and price, but sonically, it matches the Micro 3, even when playing at the highest volumes or pushed to challenge tricky tunes such as Berghain or Tool’s Forty Six & 2.

In fact, the JBL often outshines the Tribit, with its more adept rhythmic and dynamic handling bringing out the underpinning beats of Muse’s Madness with more confidence and skill than the slightly sluggish Stormbox.

JBL’s diminutive class leader is just as clear and detailed, too, and that’s again a problem when you consider the price disparity between the two. Switching back and forth between both while playing Debussy’s Sarabande, we find that we prefer the more rounded, punchy sound of the outstanding JBL.

We do like the Stormbox, but if we’re being honest, we like the JBL Go 5 quite a lot more.

Verdict

We had high hopes for the Stormbox Micro 3, especially considering that the two speakers which preceded it both earned five-star ratings. This is by no means a bad effort, and still feels in some ways like an improvement over its predecessors thanks to its bolstered feature set and solid sound.

Sadly for Tribit, the world has moved on. The JBL Go 5 is currently our top pick if you’re after an ultra-portable, ultra-budget Bluetooth speaker, and when it costs a good deal less than the Stormbox Micro 3 but sounds noticeably better, it makes Tribit’s effort a much tougher sell.

Review published: 29th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the JBL Go 5

Also consider the JBL Flip 7

Best Bluetooth speakers tried and tested for every budget

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

If you can believe it, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless made their debut in the second half of 2022, meaning we’ve been waiting nearly four years for a fifth-gen sequel. In wireless headphone terms, that’s a long wait, especially when you consider that most manufacturers tend to update their premium lines every two or so years.

Think of the premium wireless headphones that have been released since the Momentum 4. The Sony WH-1000XM5 and the WH-1000XM6. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and their second-gen successors. The Apple AirPods Max 2. The Dali IO-8. The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2, Px7 S3, Px8 and Px8 S2. That’s a lot of very impressive premium alternatives.

It might have been a long wait from one generation of Momentum Wireless to the next, but we know that Sennheiser can still compete with the best – just look at the benchmark-setting Sennheiser HDB 630 over-ears for proof. The Momentum 5 Wireless are a notch cheaper than their more audiophile bigger brothers, but if they share similar sonic talents, they might well make the case for the old adage that slow and steady really does win the race.

Price

As you might have gathered, the Momentum 5 Wireless have a lot of competition, but most of it comes at higher prices. The Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 are £400 / $450 / AU$699, while the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) started life at £449 / $449 / AU$700 but often drop to £349 in the UK.

Let’s not forget about the five-star Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, which will cost you £399 / $499 / AU$699 at full price, whereas the Apple AirPods Max 2 are a step up at £499 / $549.

Build & comfort

We’ve occasionally criticised Sennheiser headphones for looking a little bland or functional in the past, but that’s not an accusation we could level at our stylish ‘Denim’ blue test pair.

True, the overall design language typified by those large oval earcups will be familiar to anyone who has seen a pair of recent wireless Sennheiser over-ears, but little touches, such as the headband’s attractive fabric exterior, go a long way to making the Momentum 5 Wireless feel more premium. They’re certainly a lot more desirable-looking than their rather plain HDB 630 siblings.

To hold in the hand, the Momentum 5 Wireless don’t impress quite so much. That headband exterior looks and feels the part, but the earcups feel just a little cheap and plasticky to the touch. They’ll swivel horizontally without much trouble, but unlike the Sony WH-1000XM6 or the Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), they don’t fold up entirely.

Having earcups with large exterior surfaces does have its advantages, particularly when it comes to touch controls. Sennheiser’s system – customisable via the Smart Control Plus app – is really well implemented, and we find them to be intuitive and easy to manage. Whether we’re swiping up on the right cup to increase volume or across to switch tracks, everything responds crisply and quickly to what we want.

Controls aside, how are the Momentum 5 Wireless to wear? At 290g, they’re not the lightest premium wireless headphones you can find – the Sony WH-1000XM6 weigh just 254g – but they are comfortable. We spend a long time listening to the Momentum 5, and though we find some mild on-ear heating past the hour mark, we generally don’t suffer with that aching, ‘squashed ear’ feeling that can make extended listening a real chore.

They’re secure and stable, too. The Sennheisers accompany us on quite a few dog walks and the occasional trip to the shops, and even when we’re striding purposefully with our eager Labrador in tow, they don’t often feel as though they’re rocking on our ears thanks to the headphones’ well-judged clamping force.

Inside, the Momentum 5 Wireless house a pair of 42mm dynamic drivers, inspired by those found in Sennheiser’s HD 600 series of wired headphones and tuned for what the German manufacturer describes as a “full-bodied sound with dynamic bass”.

Features

When we visited their research and development labs, the team at Sennheiser described themselves as a “sound-first company". That may be so, but we’re pleased to see that Sennheiser hasn’t forgotten that wireless cans need a few mod cons to keep up with the times. As a result, we’re not left cursing a barren features list.

Bluetooth codec support is impressive, with the Momentum 5 Wireless offering SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality aptX HD, aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive flavours. The cans currently use Bluetooth 5.4, but an upcoming firmware update later this year will push this to 6.0 and include LE Audio for reduced latency, better battery life, and potentially improved sound quality.

Speaking of Bluetooth, Multipoint tech is available for connecting to two devices simultaneously, with our test headphones switching easily between an iPhone 15 and our work laptop without much fuss.

Battery life is a highlight, reaching a very healthy 57 hours when noise cancelling is switched on and you’re playing at a reasonable volume. For comparison, the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) generally top out at 30 hours with ANC in play. A nice feather for Sennheiser’s cap, then.

For spatial audio fans, Dolby Atmos is on the menu when listening to supported Atmos content, with head tracking to be added via an upcoming firmware update. We test the tech out using a few Dolby Atmos tracks on Tidal – The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter and Jimi Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic to name a few – and there’s no doubt that the Sennheisers are able to harness their Dolby powers to craft a more three-dimensional listening experience.

Dolby Atmos can be switched on and off via the Sennheiser SmartPlus app, a stable and easily navigable platform which we find a pleasure to use. We’re particularly keen on the amount of customisation on offer, be it dialling in the amount of ANC we want to experience or tinkering with the eight-band custom equaliser.

ANC & call quality

Sennheiser has stated that, in response to customer feedback from the Momentum 4 Wireless, it has made a big effort to improve the noise cancelling for its fifth-generation follow-ups, with the new cans using twice as many microphones (a total of eight) for what Sennheiser describes as “three times” better midrange noise cancellation.

Those improvements add up to a pleasing experience. The Momentum 5’s ANC isn’t on the same level as the excellent Sony WH-1000XM6 or Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), but it’s a good performance which keeps most noises – traffic, wind, the hum of air conditioners – at bay. Sennheiser does keep its promise of better midrange cancellation, with the Momentum 5 doing well to exclude the chatter of external voices.

The overall effect does feel more like a softening of sounds rather than a complete exclusion – something which the Sony and Bose manage more effectively – but it’s still a capable showing. Taking the Sennheisers to the gym, the ANC results in a softening of the hubbub of a busy public space, even if harsher noises, such as clanking weights, can penetrate through.

Happily, call quality is right up there with the best. We take the fifth-gen Momentum out for a test chat on a blustery day in May (thanks, British weather), and our headphones effectively reduce intrusive wind and traffic noise while spotlighting human speech. Voices are clear and natural, even making the WH-1000XM6 sound a little mechanical and bright by comparison.

Sound

For something a little different, let’s start with what the Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless don’t necessarily do quite so well.

The headphones’ bass reproduction is on the richer side, something which makes itself apparent when listening to Hans Zimmer’s Like A Dog Chasing Cars, and while it’s still of a high quality, some listeners might prefer a tauter reproduction at the lower end.

Further, songs with a propulsive central rhythm don’t quite clip along with the same sense of ‘momentum’ when playing via the Sennheisers as they do when switching to the more expensive Sony WH-1000XM6. Load up Radiohead’s Burn The Witch or Kid Cudi’s Day 'n' Nite, and you’ll hear what we mean – the Sonys have a forward-focused urgency to them, while the Sennheisers favour a more relaxed presentation.

Costlier alternatives, such as the WH-1000XM6 or HDB 630 will undoubtedly take things up a notch sonically, but if you’re not willing to spend that extra £80 / $50-100, the Momentum 5 Wireless are an excellent pick thanks to their plentiful sonic virtues.

Their midrange, for instance, is a real highlight. While the Sennheisers can be a touch rich in the lower frequencies, they are right at home in the midrange, offering a naturalness and insight that gives even more premium alternatives a run for their money. Marvin Gaye’s crooning on Mercy Mercy Me comes across as rich, smooth and soulful, with the Momentum 5 crafting a wondrous feeling of emotive intimacy as Gaye bemoans that “things ain’t what they used to be”.

Let’s be clear, however, that these are more than just midrange specialists. These are rich, smooth yet strikingly precise and detailed headphones, with an audio signature that makes listening a refreshingly undemanding experience. Sugar’s If I Can’t Change Your Mind can sound overly urgent or shrill via lesser alternatives, but the Momentum 5 Wireless have the poise and maturity to bring order to what could, in the wrong hands, have quickly descended into chaos.

Those qualities are only amplified when we listen using a wired connection. Both 3.5mm and USB-C options for wired audio are provided, with the latter capable of handling files up to 24-bit/96kHz. A physical connection adds fullness and depth to instrumental textures, and that lovely midrange becomes perceptibly sweeter and even more defined when we return to Mercy Mercy Me via USB-C.

Wired or wireless, dynamics are teased out ably, and the Sennheisers are subtle and delicate in the way that they communicate those key tonal shifts, with the Momentum 5's precise temperament bringing out small scale dynamic shifts superbly.

All told, we could spend days on end listening to the Momentum 5 Wireless and feel neither frustration nor fatigue. While words such as “undemanding” or “relaxed” might otherwise be used synonymously with “boring” or “bland”, we in fact find that these are headphones that strike a great balance between refinement and fun.

Verdict

With the HDB 630 and now the excellent Momentum 5 Wireless, Sennheiser has reaffirmed that it is still a key player in the premium wireless headphones space, with the Momentum 5 Wireless serving as a timely reminder of the quality the brand can produce.

If you’re willing to spend a touch more, it’s well worth considering either the Sennheiser HDB 630 or the Sony WH-1000XM6. If your budget doesn't quite stretch that far but you’re still keen on stellar sound, the excellent Momentum 5 Wireless are an obvious choice.

Review published: 25th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM6

Also consider the Sennheiser HDB 630

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

Best noise-cancelling headphones tested by our in-house review experts

If you’re after a pair of wireless headphones for around £150 / $150 / AU$200, your choices are roughly as follows.

You’ve got the excellent Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT if you don’t need noise cancelling, or you could go for the four-star Philips TAH8000E if you want ANC powers and don’t mind taking a bit of a hit on the sound side. Apart from that, it’s pretty slim pickings in what appears to be a strange market hinterland between budget-friendly cans and their premium, plus-£300/$300 counterparts. Or, you could spend a good deal less and buy a pair of our budget favourites, the Sony WH-CH720N for around £75 / $100 / $AU259.

At £130 / $130 / AU$220, the Soundcore Space 2 seem to fill this gap nicely, at least on paper. With the Hi-X25BT failing to provide ANC and the TAH8000E’s sound not quite reaching five-star heights, the path is open for the Space 2 to stick their flag in this potentially vacant soil. Let’s find out how they perform.

Build & comfort

Both to look at and wear, the Soundcore Space 2 are a well-made, sensibly designed pair of wireless headphones.

They play things reasonably safe on the design front, opting for simple circular earcups, an amply padded leather headband and some functional plastic on-cup buttons, but it would be hard to accuse the Space 2 of feeling cheap. They don’t have the boundary-pushing aesthetics of the more costly Nothing Headphone (1), for example, but this is still a neat, simple yet fairly classy pair of over-ears at a nice price.

They’re rather comfy, too. At a very reasonable 264g, the Space 2 don’t weigh a huge amount, meaning they’re rarely burdensome to wear over extended listening periods. The padding on the earcups and headband is a little on the soft side – some may prefer more firmness – but we don’t feel starved of comfort during our tests.

That headband is easily adjustable via a fairly smooth mechanism which grants roughly an extra inch of wiggle room, while the earcups will rotate from side to side and, even better, fold away fully to make carrying them in a bag easier.

In terms of general usability, it’s a standard, simple showing from the Space 2, and we don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism. The budget cans opt for the same general configuration as many wireless headphones of this type – including the Sony WH-CH720N – with noise cancelling and power buttons found at the bottom of the left earcup, and volume and Bluetooth controls on the right.

They’re not exactly luxurious, and actually finding the buttons when they’re hidden at the bottom edge of your headphones’ exterior requires some acclimatisation – but again, there’s little to really complain about here.

Features

The Soundcore Space 2 go big on battery life, offering around 50 hours with active noise cancelling switched on, and up to 70 hours if you turn ANC off and don’t listen at ear-splitting volumes. We used ours throughout a busy two-day press trip and barely made a dent in their battery. Better yet, a hurried five-minute charge will grant around four hours of standard playtime in a pinch.

For context, the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT offer around 30 hours from a single charge, while even the Sony WH-CH720N’s 50 hours (ANC off) and 35 hours (ANC on) can’t keep up with the Soundcore.

Bluetooth codec support includes the standard SBC and AAC codecs, while those with compatible sources get the bonus of the higher-quality LDAC codec too. There’s also a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable for wired listening, but no direct support for USB-C audio.

Spatial audio is provided, in a sense at least. Soundcore’s spin on the tech is dubbed ‘3D Sound’, and, as the name suggests, it’s designed to make stereo audio sound more three-dimensional by expanding the soundstage. There are hints of the tech working well here, and while it’s not going to challenge Dolby Atmos, we do get a sense of instruments being set further away from our ears a little more noticeably when using the mode.

If you do want to have a go with ‘3D Sound’, the best way to find it is via the Soundcore app. It’s a neat app bursting with features – even its own AI chatbot called “Anka” – and there is plenty to discover. You get an eight-band equaliser, ANC mode toggling and even some on-cup button customisation living alongside quite a few ambient sound options.

While you’re on the app, it’s worth taking advantage of Soundcore’s ‘HearID’ hearing test, which assesses your listening abilities and preferences and then purports to construct your own personalised sound curve. How much of this actually pays off is debatable, but it’s nice to have the option at this level, and we do find ourselves conducting much of our testing with our personalised hearing profile switched on.

ANC & call quality

It’s time to find out how the Soundcore Space 2 handle noise cancelling, and what better way to test out their ANC capabilities than with a quick flight over to Germany? No, we didn’t book the flight just to test out a pair of wireless headphones – we’re committed to our jobs, but we’re not that committed.

Both the flight and the busy airport give us the perfect opportunity to discover what the Space 2 can do, with noise cancelling available in its standard active form as well as a Transparent Mode for letting the world in.

Considering the price you’re paying, both settings are competently realised. The general hubbub of a busy airport terminal is softened nicely, even if peakier higher frequencies can tend to pierce through, while the rumbling and swooshing of an airplane in flight are diminished ably as we take to the skies with the Space 2 clamped over our ears. At this price, we’ve very little to take issue with.

It’s tricky to take voice calls on a plane, so that’s a test for when we’re back on terra firma. The Space 2 harness a 3-mic array and AI-powered algorithms in a bid to give calls sufficient intelligibility, and while speech comes through clearly enough, voices can sound a touch robotic and mechanical when compared with the more natural-sounding Sony WH-CH720N.

Still, the Space 2 are capable of blocking out exterior noises really rather well – perhaps even more so than the WH-CH720N – so that the swirls and whooshes of wind on a particularly tempestuous day barely register. All in all, a box ably ticked on the voice calls front.

Sound

Given the Space 2’s solid performance across other areas of our testing, we’re disappointed that the same levels of talent haven’t translated over to how the headphones actually handle music. In short, there’s very little about the Soundcore cans which we find engaging or exciting, and even less which has us wishing to return for repeat listening sessions.

They are, all told, rather bland performers. True, there’s something to be said for a pair of undemanding, composed headphones if you want to avoid that weary sense of fatigue that can often occur with more over-eager alternatives, but the Space 2 go too far the other way. Where is the excitement when we play Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal? Where is the drama of Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting?

We pick out Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, and while we discern a decent amount of clarity and cohesion, as we listen we find there’s a real lack of emotional involvement, which mars our enjoyment. Withers’ voice is fairly robust yet lacking in any emotional heft, and the strings introduced at around the 30-second mark don’t have the free, swooning effect we might have hoped for.

Part of those strings’ uninvolving presentation owes to the headphones’ flattened dynamics. Muse’s Panic Station is next, and though the Space 2 are able to bring some cohesion and restraint to proceedings, we don’t discern much contrast between each deep bass pluck or the alternating percussive thumps of that key bass-snare drum pattern. Again, a compressed, flat sound prevents things from taking full flight.

Digging out the cheaper, Award-winning Sony WH-CH720N confirms our reservations. Okay, the Sonys sound a little flavoured at times, and their bass can be a little over-eager, but they’re far more entertaining and insightful across the various songs we play. Panic Station immediately pulses with more verve than the Soundcore cans manage, whereas those varying instrumental textures on Goose’s funky So Ready are more fleshed out and have the authenticity and personality we’ve been craving. The Sonys made music sound musical – the Soundcore, conversely, made it sound dispiritingly mechanical.

The similarly-priced Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT also provide an impressive benchmark which the Space 2 cannot match. They’re not as punchy or vicarious as the WH-CH720N, nor do they offer as much bass weight, but these are evidently far clearer, more delicate and more detailed headphones. Switching back to the Soundcore Space 2 simply makes the latter sound lacking in proper detail and bite.

It’s moving over to these five-star rivals that further makes us realise what has been missing from the Space 2s’ presentation. Balanced and reasonably clear they may be, but Soundcore’s over-ears don’t have that je ne sais quoi – be it the expressiveness of the WH-CH720N or the delicacy of the Hi-X25BT – to set our hearts aflutter.

There’s something to admire about how organised and unfussy the Soundcore cans sound, even as the music becomes more demanding and complex, but rarely do they make us feel in any way involved with or excited by the various songs we feed them.

Verdict

While we had hoped that the Soundcore Space 2 might have filled a gap in the mid-priced wireless market, we’re instead struggling to see how they fit into the current landscape.

Yes, a healthy arsenal of features does give them a potential competitive edge, especially with regard to their impressive battery span and comfortable fit. But when they’re sonically outmatched by finer – and cheaper – alternatives, they don’t quite seem like a viable option in comparison with the class leaders.

Review published: 22nd May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 2
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-CH720N

Also consider the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT

Best wireless headphones reviewed and rated by our in-house experts

TCL has achieved phenomenal critical and commercial success over the past couple of years thanks to an (almost) unerring ability to deliver good picture and sound quality at prices so aggressive they’ve had rival brands quaking in their boots. And, on paper at least, the Q6C looks to keep the winning streak going.

After all, features such as Mini LED backlighting, local dimming and a Quantum Dot colour system all sound surprisingly close to the specs found in TCL’s What Hi-Fi? Award-winning C7K series – yet the Q6C costs significantly less.

We guess there must be a catch somewhere, but on TCL’s current form we wouldn’t be at all surprised if whatever catch we find really isn’t that big a deal.

Price

Normally, if you spend £650 on a 65-inch TV, you would expect to get… not very much. Not for the first time in recent years, though, TCL is here to rewrite the TV value rulebook.

The set in question this time is the Q6C, the 65-inch version of which usually only costs £649 yet manages to carry such features as 4K/144Hz gaming support, Google TV smarts, Quantum Dot colours and even a sophisticated Mini-LED backlight system with local dimming.

We’ve been around the block enough times to know that such specifications aren’t automatically a guarantee of great picture quality – but at the risk of showing our hand too early, in the Q6C’s case they really do add up to something pretty special for the money.

TCL also sells 55-, 75-, 85- and 98-inch Q6C models for £409, £819, £949 and £1499 respectively. These are all pretty remarkable prices for screens built on the same key specs as the 65-inch model, where the only major difference is the number of dimming zones (more for the bigger screens).

The Q6C’s main competition, really, is TCL’s own C7K step-up model, which costs £200 more at the time of writing.

TCL also sells a C6K model which, it says, is identical to the Q6C. However, further up the range, TCL's ‘C’ variants often have a different panel coating to their “identical” ‘Q’ counterparts. The fact that matte vs glossy coatings can make a significant difference to picture quality, and that we haven’t specifically tested the C6K, this review only applies 100 per cent to the Q6C.

Design

At first glance, the TCL Q6C looks like a chip off the old TCL block. A narrow black frame runs around the screen, boasting a reasonably premium finish, and the screen sits on a pair of simple arched blade-style feet. These angle out slightly, bringing more attention to themselves than they would otherwise, but this stance also helps the set feel pretty sturdy and wobble-free.

As you go about screwing on the feet in either of the provided wide or close position options, though, you can’t help but notice first that the set sticks out around the back quite a long way by today’s TV standards, and also that the screen is significantly lighter than TCL’s more premium sets.

Most folk don’t spend their lives looking at the back of their TV, though, and the rather lightweight and plasticky nature of its build quality isn’t something you really feel aware of once the TCL has been set in place.

The Q6C’s remote control apes the TV it partners by quite effectively disguising an essentially rather lightweight and plasticky build behind a cute brushed finish, a sleek, long, thin shape, and an ergonomic button layout. That button layout includes direct access buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+ and TCL’s own collection of live-streaming ‘channels’.

Features

Despite its aggressive price, the Q6C is built around a native 4K screen with Mini LED backlighting and a local dimming system that works, in the case of the 65-inch model we’re testing, across 242 independently controlled zones. At this price, local dimming of any kind is a rarity, so getting 242 dimming zones is a real treat. That said, the not vastly more expensive C7K features more than a thousand dimming zones.

The Q6C produces its colours using Quantum Dots, with which TCL claims to cover 93 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum used for most HDR mastering. The HDR support extends to both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ premium formats, with their extra scene-by-scene image information, as well as the core HDR10 and HLG formats.

The set is also IMAX Enhanced certified, meaning it’s been judged capable of doing justice to the special noise-limiting IMAX Enhanced mastering system used on a few 4K Blu-rays and a fair number of films (especially Marvel releases) on Disney+.

Impressively for its money, the Q6C also gets one of TCL’s new HVA panels. These introduce a variety of innovations, including a faster transient response for enhanced clarity; a new light-emitting chip claimed to deliver 50 per cent brightness and 10 per cent efficiency boosts over its predecessor; and a new condensed micro lens system over the LEDs, that apparently focuses light better for greater backlight uniformity, optical stability and halo control.

Smart features on the Q6C, as with most of TCL’s current TVs, are provided by the Google TV platform. Unlike most other brands that use Google TV, though, TCL has managed to get BBC iPlayer on board alongside the other key terrestrial UK broadcaster catch-up apps, and all of the main global streaming services. The only things you don’t get that some rival smart systems offer are Freeview Play and Freely.

Gamers are exceptionally well catered for by the Q6C. It supports 4K/144Hz (and the console-friendly 4K/120Hz) gaming, and can even increase the frame rate to 288Hz if you’re prepared to accept a drop from 4K to Full HD resolution. VRR is supported, too, including in the AMD FreeSync Premium Pro format, and there’s even support for Superwide aspect ratios if you’re playing a PC game that supports them.

A special gaming menu becomes available when the TV knows you’re gaming, too, offering information on the incoming gaming signal as well as easy access to a selection of gaming aids that include a superimposed crosshair, the option to magnify part of the image to give, say, a mini-map more prominence, a couple of genre-specific picture presets, and an option to enhance shadow details in dark game sequences to make it easier to spot lurking enemies.

In a perfect world, all four of the Q6C’s HDMIs would support the full gamut of today’s gaming features rather than just two of them, but you don’t get perfect worlds on 65-inch TVs that cost this sort of money.

The Q6C’s sound system, finally, isn’t one of the Bang & Olufsen-designed systems found higher up TCL’s range. It’s still designed with another acclaimed audio industry brand, though, Onkyo, and still includes a couple of dedicated bass woofers on its rear panel to underpin the sound from its main stereo speakers. This sound system is capable of playing both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X sound formats.

Picture

While the Q6C doesn’t quite hit the giddy picture-quality heights of TCL’s C7K, it gets closer than the price gap would lead you to expect. This means that it also comfortably outguns pretty much every other 65-inch TV around at the same sort of price point – including Samsung’s recently reviewed U8000F.

The single most impressive thing about the Q6C's supposedly budget pictures is their black level performance. Once again, TCL’s particular combination of an HVA panel, local dimming, Mini LED lighting and local dimming processing results in excellent blacks in both dark scenes or dark picture areas and the black bars of widescreen content.

Hardly a hint of greyness slips into dark scenes, and backlight haloing around stand-out bright objects during dark shots is also remarkably well controlled for a 65-inch TV at the Q6C’s price point. We’ve seen 65-inch LCD TVs costing hundreds, even thousands, of pounds more than this TCL fail to deliver black tones so effectively.

As well as instantly giving the Q6C an outstanding foundation for the rest of its images to build on, its excellent black levels are also achieved without causing shadow details to become crushed out of the darkest areas. Dark scenes thus look as three-dimensional and immersive as bright ones, creating a sense of consistency that makes it easy to remain fully immersed in what you’re watching.

The Q6C’s remarkable freedom from the sort of hardware and/or processing issues that almost always to some extent plague the picture quality of other similarly affordable TVs continues across pretty much every other aspect of its picture performance, too. Images look crisp, clean and detailed enough to leave you in no doubt that you’re watching a native 4K screen, for starters – especially if you leave the set’s Precision Detail feature on (which you might as well, as it doesn’t seem to cause any negative side effects) and turn the Digital and regular Noise Reduction features off (at least when watching native 4K sources). Even the Q6C’s upscaling of HD sources is well above par for its level of the market.

Colours impress, too. There’s more vibrancy and lustre on tap than we usually see with such affordable TVs, yet at the same time, in most presets, the impressive vibrancy doesn’t look forced or unnatural. Skin tones look believable, there’s practically zero HDR colour striping, and subtle shading differences are rendered with enough finesse to ensure that even the most colourful images feel three-dimensional and realistic rather than cartoonish and flat. The nuance in the Q6C’s colours contributes in no small measure to the image's impressive sharpness, too.

The Q6C is not as bright as TCL’s step-up C7K model. It’s bright enough, though, to do arguably better justice to HDR images than any other similarly affordable 65-inch TV we’ve seen, combining good full-screen brightness with strong brightness peaks. All delivered alongside those excellent black levels we described earlier.

There are signs beyond its lower brightness that remind you that the Q6C is a step down from the C7K. While it’s faint, where backlight haloing does occasionally become noticeable, it spreads further beyond the bright highlight that’s causing it than it does with the C7K. That includes spreading very occasionally into the black bars of a movie if a really intensely bright object appears right next to them.

The very brightest highlights of bold HDR masters can also cause clipping, where subtle shading and colour details are lost in a sort of ‘white out’ effect, and skin tones can occasionally teeter on the edge of coarseness where they happen to catch bright sunlight, too – though they seldom if ever actually tip over into a distracting level of roughness.

Motion, once you’ve either turned the set’s motion processing off or left it on its low setting (to avoid unwanted over-smoothing or processing side effects), is marginally more prone to judder and blur with 24p movie sources than the C7K’s images are. But again, compared with the vast majority of rivals at its price point, the Q6C’s motion performance is actually pretty easy on the eye.

Colours can desaturate quite noticeably if you watch the screen from a steep angle of around 45 degrees or more, and blooming becomes slightly more noticeable. These problems are usually much more noticeable with budget VA LCD TVs, though, and from narrower angles.

To finish on the high note the Q6C’s pictures deserve, it’s a pretty stellar big-screen gaming display for its money. Graphics look crisp, bright and colourful, while the high frame rate support ensures gaming also feels fluid, smooth and responsive. The responsiveness is further bolstered by a measured input lag of just 13.1ms at 60Hz.

Sound

The Q6C’s Onkyo-designed sound system isn’t as ‘hi-fi’ in tone or as well-rounded as the B&O systems found higher up TCL’s current range. It’s not bad at all, though, for such an affordable TV.

Particularly surprising is the size of the soundstage it produces with DTS:X and, especially, Dolby Atmos mixes. Ambient effects and off-screen details appear well beyond the TV’s left, right and even top edges without the staging becoming incoherent or thin.

Dialogue seems to be coming from the screen rather than somewhere beneath or behind it, helping it sound impressively clear and clean. It still sounds contextualised enough, though, rather than bright or sharp.

Movie scores exist outside the scope of the main in-scene sound, just as they (usually) should, and sound effect detail levels are high enough to point to more quality in the speakers than you’ve any right to expect for this sort of money. Specific location details aren’t, to be clear, placed with the sort of accuracy you get with premium TV sound systems from the likes of Samsung, Philips and Sony, but the Q6C certainly does more with them than most similarly priced rivals.

There’s plenty of volume available, too, and while the sound density and power tend to level off during escalating action or horror scenes rather than continually expanding right to a scene’s climax, at least the sound doesn’t actively collapse under pressure.

Bass levels aren’t quite as rich and deep as we might have hoped, given the presence of two subwoofers on the set’s rear, which occasionally causes some high-pitched ambient effects to sound a little too dominant. Even the epic bass drops of Blade Runner 2049, though, don’t cause the bass speakers to seriously distort or drop out. In fact, the only distortion during Blade Runner 2049’s famous opening soundtrack dynamics comes from the treble, which causes a slight ‘buzzing fly’ effect when the speakers are under their greatest pressure.

The bottom line, though, is that, as with its pictures, the TCL Q6C’s sound is better than that of most, if not all, other TVs in its price class.

Verdict

If the Q6C cost twice as much as it does, we’d still class it as good. In fact, for a 65-inch TV at its price, it’s nothing short of ridiculous. If this is how TCL signs off its current range, we seriously can’t wait to see what the brand brings to the table next.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

Read our review of the TCL C7K

Also consider the Samsung U8000F

Read our Mitchell & Brown QLED1811 review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

Stop what you’re doing – there’s a new pair of Sony wireless headphones in town.

The 1000X range has been Sony’s flagship wireless series for a whole decade, and the brand has decided to mark this anniversary with a completely new addition to its established line-up: the Sony 1000X The Collexion over-ears.

These may be ‘celebratory’ headphones, but think of The Collexion as a fully fledged product in their own right, rather than a limited edition one-off designed for the sake of novelty or sentimentality. These are headphones which exist separately from Sony's WH-1000XM6 – with their own unique sound, design philosophy and materials – and sit comfortably above their stablemates in price.

In fact, Sony has focused on sound above all else for The Collexion cans, for what it has dubbed “the best sounding headphones we’ve ever made”. When you consider some of the absolute gems the Japanese brand has produced in the past few years, that’s a mouthwatering claim. We’d be letting you down if we didn’t give them a listen…

Price

While the 1000X series has always remained a decidedly premium line, Sony had always resisted the urge to move up into the sort of ‘high-end’ territory occupied by the likes of the the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 (£629 / $799) and the Focal Bathys (£699 / $799), but with the 1000X The Collexion clocking in at £550 / $650, these are the closest Sony has ever come to operating within that more rarefied area of the market.

With the B&W and Focal rivals above them, the new Sonys have the likes of the Apple AirPods Max 2 (£499 / $549) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) (£449 / $449 / AU$700) sitting just below.

If you need reminding, the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6 are priced at around £400 / $450 / AU$699, even if discounts are now knocking a few pounds or dollars off that RRP, while the five-star rival Sennheiser HDB 630 will set you back around £400 / $500 / AU$1000.

Build & comfort

Get hold of a pair of Sony’s latest and, if you squint your eyes a little, you might be fooled into thinking that you’d picked up a pair of Sonos Ace instead. The Sonys have the same clean, minimalist exterior as the Ace, as well as similarly designed oval earcups adorned with a few metallic physical buttons on the left earcup.

Sony’s engineers describe 1000X The Collexion as a pair of cans that should both look good and make you feel good when you wear them, and for the most part, that aim has been achieved. Everything on The Collexion is made either from metal or faux leather, with a nicely padded headband designed to spread pressure evenly for extended user comfort and slightly firmer ear padding than found on the WH-1000XM6.

We don’t have an issue with the look or feel of the faux leather, though our test pair are more susceptible to marks and stains than the smooth plastic of most of Sony’s other headphones. That faux material adorns pretty much the whole exterior of the earcup, so grubby fingers, not to mention the rigours of everyday use, do end up making their mark after a time.

A slimmer profile does help to add lightness, though, with the width of the earcups measuring around 40mm from inside to out, compared with the 45.4mm of the WH-1000XM6.

That does make for an appreciably lightweight and unobtrusive wearing experience, and though The Collexion actually weigh more than their XM6 counterparts – 312g against 254g – rarely do we feel that extra weight.

Some of our testers did experience some rocking and instability from the earcups when walking from place to place, but if you’re stationary, the new Sonys often simply melt away into obscurity as you forget you’ve got a pair plonked on your head at all.

While there are a few physical buttons to be found, touch controls are the main way of controlling your Sony over-ears. They work as well as you’d expect, responding quickly and effectively to our various commands, with ample levels of control customisation available via the useful Sony SoundConnect app.

Unlike the XM6 over-ears or the Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), these aren’t headphones which fold up into a ball, but their flattened profile and accompanying carry case – with its hollowed-out handle putting us in mind of a small handbag – mean they’re still relatively portable.

Features

Sony has very much positioned its new premium cans as sound-first headphones, but the 1000X The Collexion’s feature set matches the same generous level as that found on the do-it-all WH-1000XM6.

Battery life clocks in at around 32 hours with ANC off and roughly 24 hours with noise cancelling switched on, and while that’s down from the 30-or-so hours of the WH-1000XM6, it’s still a reasonable lifespan. The AirPods Max 2 only manage around 20 hours, although the Sennheiser HDB 630 are streets ahead with a whopping 60 hours with noise cancelling in play.

If you’re a fan of spatial audio, you get three versions of Sony’s ‘360 Reality Audio Upmix’ tech – ‘Music’, ‘Cinema’ and ‘Game’ – each of which add varying degrees of spatial processing depending on the media content. They’re fun modes to play around with, and we particularly enjoy the more immersive ‘Cinema’ setting which just about lives up to its billing by providing a more open, cinematic experience when watching movies.

On the subject of signal processing, these are the first Sony headphones to make use of its DSEE Ultimate tech for improving lower-quality digital audio files. In the app, you also get access to a 10-band equaliser for tweaking the sound alongside several simple presets, or you can deploy ‘Background Music’ mode to make it seem as though your tunes were playing in the distance to better aid your concentration.

The 1000X The Collexion support standard SBC and AAC codecs alongside higher-quality LDAC – which lets you stream hi-res music at higher data rates over Bluetooth from a compatible source device, such as Sony’s latest smartphones. Bluetooth LE Audio is also on board for lower power consumption and better-quality sound. You can also listen to the Sony headphones wired, thanks to the included 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable, though note that the headphones will have to be powered on when listening through a physical connection.

Sony’s Speak-To-Chat feature, which drops the volume level when you start talking, also returns, though we’d caution that the headphones can often confuse human speech with other sounds, particularly wind. If you don’t want your cans to keep cutting out every few minutes, we’d suggest switching Speak-to-Chat off when you’re outdoors and it’s a bit blustery.

ANC & call quality

While Sony has warned that noise cancelling wasn’t as much of a focus for The Collexion as it was for the WH-1000XM6, it’s still operating at a decidedly high level. Much of the same tech from the XM6 is on-hand here, including the QN3 chip and a total of 12 mics to capture and monitor surrounding noise.

When working in full noise-cancelling mode, Sony’s latest over-ears do an excellent job of suppressing noise throughout the frequencies, and while you might get the slightest hint of a shrill bird tweet just about breaking through that barrier, middle and lower range frequencies are filtered out expertly. The ANC quality on the WH-1000XM6 is still Sony’s best, but it’s very unlikely that you’ll feel short-changed by the noise cancelling on offer with The Collexion.

Call quality is excellent, too. The Collexion house six beamforming mics complemented by a wind noise reduction structure for enhanced vocal clarity and reduced external sonic intrusions, and it really pays off. Voices are clear, articulate and emotive, while background sounds rarely, if ever, intrude on our conversation as we stand next to a busy motorway on a decidedly blustery day.

Sound

Let’s reiterate what we mentioned in our introduction – the 1000X The Collexion are distinct headphones in their own right, with a sound, says Sony, which prioritises refinement, detail and maturity over the punchier, more flavoured personality of the WH-1000XM6.

To achieve this, The Collexion headphones feature a bespoke carbon composite 30mm drive unit, constructed using soft edging and a hard centre in pursuit of an “exceptional frequency response”. Sound has been optimised using a low-phase noise crystal oscillator, while premium components and circuitry, including advanced gold-containing solder, aim for an improved signal to noise ratio to reveal finer musical details and offer a wider soundstage.

That’s a lot of tech under hood, but how does that translate to the real-life listening experience?

Well, in many ways, the Sony 1000X The Collexion do live up to their billing. Just as described by Sony, they’re headphones that deal primarily in spaciousness and clarity, qualities which suffuse nigh-on every track as we bounce from Max Richter’s Never Goodbye to Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place.

That latter track sounds particularly good – The Collexion’s wide, open presentation grants the track a broad canvas on which to play, like an epic drama unfolding on a lovely big widescreen TV.

Detail levels are excellent, and when you have a pair of over-ears that offer clarity, textural insight and spaciousness to this extent, it’s hard not to be impressed. The elegiac strings on Never Goodbye are rich and mournful, while the piano on Debussy’s austere Sarabande strikes a wonderful balance between rich intent and subtle delicacy.

For all of their openness and delicacy, the Sonys don’t lack musical muscle. Think of them as being like a pro ballerina – nimble and graceful, yes, but strong and immensely robust when the time calls for it. It’s a nice balance to have, all aided by a deep, powerful yet controlled lower-end reproduction.

Bass tones are expertly handled, something that really comes across when we load up Massive Attack’s Atlas Air and feel the full force and punch of the tune’s full-blooded drum hits. That bass is nicely separated from the overlaid synth sounds working away above, yet not to the extent that the composition starts to lack any sense of cohesion between frequencies.

These premium Sony headphones really are impressive performers in so many aspects, but they appeal more to the head than to the heart. They certainly trade off some of that signature expressiveness we’ve heard in other Sony headphones for greater openness and detail, something that reduces the extent to which we feel truly involved with our music. Talented as they are, there’s something slightly removed, almost standoffish, about their reproduction.

That’s not something of which we’d accuse the outstanding, and cheaper, Sennheiser HDB 630. The Sennheisers have a more natural fluidity, especially with how they handle dynamic shifts, which makes them a more engaging listen. For us, the Sennheisers seem to strike that balance between naturalness, entertainment and analysis a touch more acutely than the Sonys.

Their rather aloof personality also robs the Sony cans of some of their intimacy. Listen to the first 30 seconds of Black Veil Brides’ Saviour II, and there’s a greater feeling of closeness to the opening guitar and vocal lead when listening via the costlier Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2. When the track opens up as the chorus hits, however, The Collexion show their hand, allowing it to blossom and reveal its gothic grandeur with more scale than the rival B&W cans.

Verdict

There’s much to admire about Sony’s 1000X The Collexion over-ears. It’s impossible to ignore their poised, detail-rich performance, while that ample feature set and classy construction make them tough to resist.

There is a ‘but’, however. In pursuing a particular sonic signature – namely, one that goes after scale, detail and clarity – it’s hard not to feel as though Sony has slightly thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Yes, these are seriously talented performers, but deep down, they feel like headphones which were built to impress rather than entertain. As a result, we find ourselves admiring them rather than completely falling in love.

Review published: 19th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM6

Also consider the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

Read our Sennheiser HDB 630 review

Sony WH-1000XM6 vs 1000X The Collexion: which premium wireless headphones should you pick?

Best wireless headphones reviewed and rated by our in-house experts

The original Naim NAP 500 power amplifier was launched in the year 2000, with the NAC 552 preamplifier joining it in 2002. For more than a decade, this combination was the pinnacle of Naim amplifier performance, and was usurped only when the company launched its ultra-high-end Statement combination in 2014.

Today, that Statement pre/monobloc pairing costs a cool £234,997 / $299,997 / AU$440,000, so there certainly remains plenty of leeway for the NAC 552/NAP 500 DR to thrive.

Given that these 500 series products launched almost a quarter of a century ago, it seems natural to wonder how competitive they are against current rivals. You have already seen the star rating, so you know the answer to that.

However, you should also know that neither product has remained unchanged over the years. Each enjoyed a huge performance boost when Naim added its Discrete Regulator (DR) technology into the respective power supply designs around a decade ago.

It is also worth noting that, while the world of consumer electronics in general moves at a lightning pace, mature technologies such as analogue electronics tend to progress glacially at best. As a result, a well-engineered, no-compromise design from decades ago can still compete at the highest level, as this four-box stereo amplifier proves.

Features

Judged on specifications, the NAC 552 preamplifier (£26,999 / $34,999 / AU$56,500) looks as basic as they come. It is a line-level unit, so if you need a phono stage, digital inputs or Bluetooth connectivity, you will need to add those as outboard boxes.

It isn’t quite from the Stone Age, however, so you do have a remote control.

At least there are plenty of inputs, though all of them are single-ended. Naim’s engineers didn’t see the benefits of including balanced connections on a domestic product when this preamp was designed. The company’s latest 200 and 300 series products, interestingly, do include the option.

Look on the back panel and you will find seven of the company’s long-favoured DIN connectors and two conventional stereo RCA pairs. So, a choice of nine input connections; but look at the front panel and you will find only six input buttons. What gives?

Each input button can be linked to any of the rear-panel connectors, which is the kind of flexibility we didn’t expect in what is otherwise a purist product. Equally, there are multiple line-level outputs for those who still use a recorder, be it reel-to-reel, cassette or digital.

There are two rows of buttons on the NAC 552’s front panel. The top line selects what you listen to, and the lower row decides the source to be recorded – the two work independently, which is handy.

To the left of the buttons, there are dials for volume and balance; these connect to carefully selected motorised potentiometers. No issue with that in principle, though the volume control in particular works in an abrupt way that makes small changes at low levels harder to perform than they should be.

The NAP 500 DR (£26,999 / $34,999 / $53,000) is more limited on the connection front, as power amplifiers usually are. Its input is a three-pin XLR per side, but only two of the pins are connected, so it's a single-ended link. Naim supplies a dedicated lead. A word of warning: if you get the left and right-channel leads mixed up, all you will hear is silence.

Design & build

Take a look inside the NAC 552 preamp and you will find that the sensitive audio circuits are mounted on a heavy brass suspended subchassis to minimise any sonic degradation caused by external vibrations. The assembly sits on springs and floats pretty freely, so the preamp shouldn’t be moved around without the four transit bolts being in place to avoid damage.

The preamp’s power supply is housed in an outboard unit called the 552 PS. Separating the audio and power-supply sections in this way reduces any unwanted mechanical or magnetic interactions.

This external supply weighs in at a robust 13.9kg (compared with the preamp’s 12.9kg) and features a hefty 800VA toroidal transformer. Electrically, it is a split-rail design that connects to the NAC 552 via a multi-pin Burndy cable and Naim’s Snaic 5 (DIN) lead.

The two-box approach continues with the NAP 500 DR power amplifier. Its outboard supply, the NAP 500 PS, packs a massive 1100VA toroidal mains transformer, delivering no fewer than 12 DC feeds, each dedicated to specific parts of the amp’s circuit. The connection between the NAP 500 DR and the power supply is also done using Burndy cables, in this case, a pair.

The Class A/B NAP 500 DR is something of a powerhouse, rated at 140 watts per channel into an 8-ohm load. While this is a pretty generous figure, in reality, this beast sounds considerably more muscular than even that number suggests – but more on that later.

Like the preamp, the NAP 500 DR is a beautifully made unit inside and out, just as we would expect at this level. Its casing opens on both sides in a dramatic gull-wing manner, revealing the internal circuitry.

We note that both these Naims have admirably neat circuit layouts and display obsessive attention to detail when it comes to housekeeping things such as cable routing. Both units are packed with quality discrete components rather than ICs – a deliberate choice made on performance grounds.

Compatibility

An amplifier at this level clearly needs a first-class partnering system. If there are any doubts about your source or speakers, get those sorted out before even thinking about getting this pre/power. This Naim combination is utterly ruthless at exposing flaws, particularly in source components, so it pays to ensure those you use allow the amplifier to shine.

Our reference system already features the Naim ND555/555 PS DR music streamer, which is the natural partner for this amplifier. We also connect a Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart MC record player feeding a Cyrus Phono Signature/PSX-R2 phono stage to play our records. Our reference Burmester 088/911 MkIII amplifier serves as a good benchmark for this Naim pairing.

As for speakers, our usual ATC SCM50 are pressed into service alongside JBL’s excellent Summit Ama and the Fyne Audio F1-8 standmounters. We use Naim’s own Super Lumina interconnects alongside the company’s NAC A5 speaker cable, as well as our usual premium Chord Company and Vertere leads.

Once everything is up and running, we’re pleased to note that neither Naim unit gets particularly hot in use. So, while we would still recommend placing them in a rack with plenty of ventilation, heat build-up is unlikely to be an issue.

Sound

Ever heard the Radiohead song Everything In Its Right Place? It's an absorbing piece of music, but also a fitting description of this Naim combination’s sound. This amplifier is wonderfully organised and stable. Every instrumental note, vocal track and sound effect gels seamlessly to produce a musical whole that seems more than the sum of its parts.

It is a crisp, direct and bold presentation, one concentrating on conveying the physical aspects of the music while still having the refinement necessary in this part of the market. There is a pleasing no-nonsense quality to the presentation, where the amplifier’s control and composure makes the music feel almost simplified, so effortless does it all seem.

Corny as it sounds, listening to the Naim in full flow feels as though we have a direct link to the music’s emotional core, making it difficult to step back to analyse the results. This combination simply does what an amplifier should, and that’s to make the signal louder without corrupting it in any significant way.

For this to happen, certain qualities have to be present, and in this regard, the NAC 552/NAP 500 DR tick all the boxes. This amplifier sounds impressively transparent, allowing the quality and character of the source and recording to shine through. Excellent detail resolution should be a given at this level, and the Naim duly obliges. Importantly, the verve and energy in the music aren’t diluted, as can often happen in the search for ever-greater levels of insight and clarity.

Listen to a demanding track such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the Naim pairing is happy to let you follow an individual instrumental strand, or simply to sit back and enjoy the experience. The symphony’s savage dynamic sweeps are delivered with ferocity coupled to a degree of authority that eludes all but the very best.

That claimed 140-watts-per-channel figure is healthy, but barely hints at the muscle on offer here. Naim watts, it seems, are different from others.

Yet power is only part of the equation. This pairing’s impressive detail-resolution translates into convincingly realised instrumental textures. There is delicacy where required, of course, but also a sense of palpability that’s uncommon.

The same applies to voices. Mount The Air by The Unthanks is a lovely, natural-sounding recording, and the Naim reveals the full scope of the group's immaculate vocals with real finesse.

Tonally, we have no complaints. This four-box is essentially neutral and refuses to favour any part of the frequency range over another. It sounds authentic in a way that eludes much of the competition.

Our reference Burmester 088/911 MkIII shows that it is possible to have a more spacious soundstage, but the Naim counters with class-leading image solidity and focus. Instruments are sharply rendered and locked in position, even when the music gets demanding. To our surprise, the Burmester pairing sounds a little blurred in comparison.

Naim’s products are famed for their rhythmic ability, and the NAC 552/NAP 500 DR is as exceptional as we had hoped for. When asked to play Massive Attack’s Angel, this amplifier doesn’t hold back, delivering a feeling of unstoppable momentum coupled to a full dose of the song’s brooding menace.

Lows are delivered with a thrilling mix of power, agility and grip. It’s an enthralling performance; one which leaves us luxuriating in the music rather than thinking about the mechanics of hi-fi.

Verdict

25 years is a long time for any product to be in production. Having talked to Naim’s representative, there is no sign that this pre/power is going to be put out to pasture anytime soon. We are glad of that.

The Naim NAC 552/NAP 500 DR pairing remains an exceptional performer and is up there with the best we have heard at this level. Highly recommended.

Review published: 18th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 3

MORE:

Also consider the Burmester 088/911 Mk III

Integrated vs pre/power amplification: the pros, cons and which is best for you

“What took you so long?”

It’s a fair question we might aim at Cambridge Audio, which, over its near-60-year history, has dabbled in almost every audio category: amplifiers, CD players, music streamers, turntables, subwoofers, wireless speakers… even a Blu-ray player.

The fact that it has taken the British audio brand 58 years to launch its first-ever active speakers is perhaps surprising, but we’ll allow them to be fashionably late. The brand’s new L/R range of active speakers comes in three sizes, and we’ve got the baby of the bunch on test here, the Cambridge Audio L/R S. Is this petite desktop speaker the beginning of a hit series? It certainly looks promising.

Price

The L/R S is the smallest and cheapest model of Cambridge’s L/R speakers, and costs £399 / $549 / AU$949 per pair. This puts it squarely in the crosshairs of the Award-winning Ruark MR1 Mk3 (£399 / $579 / AU$899) powered desktop speakers, while Onkyo’s five-star GX-30ARC can be yours for a little less at £299 / $349 / AU$649.

The L/R S are available in six finishes that include the standard black and white, as well as more colourful green, blue and orange finishes. If you opt for the walnut veneer finish of our review sample, you’ll have to pay a little more at £449 / $599 / AU$1049 per pair.

If you’ll be placing the L/R S speakers on your desk, it’s worth checking out the optional angled desk stands (£49) that tilt the speakers up so the sound is more directed towards you.

Build & design

If you’re working with limited space – small rooms, student digs, not a lot of surface real estate – then these active speakers will work a treat. Each cabinet is just under 23cm tall and about 13cm wide – no wider than your average paperback book – which means they’ll fit onto most desktops and even shelves, ideally perched on either side of a laptop or your TV.

The speakers themselves look neat and stylish, and we can imagine the minimal cabinet design fitting into most interiors, whether you want them to blend into a spartan layout or add a splash of colour with the punchier hues.

Build quality is of a high standard, with clean, crisp edges and a smooth finish. We particularly like how the Cambridge logo is etched into the finish at the top of the cabinet. It looks classy.

Each speaker is furnished with a 21mm aluminium tweeter and a long-throw 76mm mid/bass driver, with a bass reflex slot positioned at the rear of each cabinet. All drivers are powered by Class D amplification, and altogether, the L/R S claim to offer a mighty 100W of total output, split evenly between the two channels.

The tweeter has a large waveguide that, along with the mid/bass driver, occupies the majority of the ultra-minimal fascia, with the metallic orange colour of the dome peeking through to offer some visual interest. The speakers don’t come with a grille, but the tweeter’s phase cap doubles up as a guard to protect it from poking fingers.

This is a fully active design with all the amplification and electronics housed in the primary speaker. The supplied 2m connecting cable has a bespoke 4-pin conductor that carries the signal to the secondary speaker. This cable has a pleasingly secure locking mechanism at either end, too. If you need a longer lead between the speakers, a 5m cable is also available to buy separately.

Keeping things simple seems to be the main aim with these petite active speakers. There are no controls or dials on the speaker for choosing inputs or changing volume – which might irk some users who like having such controls within easy reach – but there is a colour-coded LED under the primary speaker which clearly indicates the input chosen.

A remote control is supplied, which takes care of input choosing, volume and power. It’s a slim unit made of light plastic, but it works well, and we would take pains not to mislay this remote.

You can place these small speakers pretty much anywhere, and, knowing this, Cambridge has taken steps to ensure the L/R S are able to sound their best wherever you place them. At the back, you’ll find a pair of toggle switches: one to indicate whether the speakers are placed on a desk or not, and another to indicate if they are positioned close to a wall (“near wall”) or out in “free space”. The “near wall” mode is straightforward. It reduces the mid-bass around 100Hz to account for any boominess that might occur when placing the speakers very close to a back wall.

The “desk top on” mode, meanwhile, deals with two issues at once – time alignment and desk reflection – and shows how much thought Cambridge’s engineers have put into this design. When the small speakers are placed on a desk, the drivers will naturally be physically lower than your listening height. This desk mode compensates for this effect, delaying the tweeter output and readjusting the top and mid frequencies so that music sounds “right” from your listening position.

Additionally, this mode also notches down the mid frequencies (around 700Hz, says Cambridge) to balance out the unwanted energy coming from the speakers’ sound being reflected from the desk.

We would try out the various combinations to see what works best for your speaker placement. We quite liked the combination of "free space" and keeping ‘desk top’ mode off for a richer and more solid sound overall, but the effect will vary depending on your room and the surface the speakers are placed on.

And finally, there is a third and very useful toggle switch that lets you assign the primary speaker as the left or right channel, giving you greater flexibility for placement.

Features

Whereas the bigger siblings – the L/R X and L/R M – boast full network streaming smarts, the baby of the family is once again keeping things pared down and uncomplicated by offering Bluetooth for streaming. Physical inputs on the L/R S include a pair of RCA line level, optical and USB-C, and there is a subwoofer output.

It’s worth noting that while the optical and USB-C both support hi-res audio files up to 96kHz, the speakers’ DSP will automatically resample/downsample all files to 24-bit/48kHz.

Perhaps surprisingly in this enduring age of vinyl popularity, there’s no built-in phono stage here, as you’ll find in the Ruark and Onkyo rivals. There’s no HDMI ARC input here either, which you will find on the cheaper Onkyo speakers.

Regardless, you can still connect a variety of products to these speakers, including a CD player, a TV, a smartphone/laptop, and even a phono stage-equipped turntable, such as the Sony PS-LX3BT. Bluetooth has the higher-quality aptX and aptX HD codecs on board, and pairing with our smartphone takes seconds.

Using these speakers is a cinch. Once connected, they’re easy to control using the supplied remote or with your paired phone when streaming from Tidal or Spotify.

Along with the toggles for adjusting the speakers’ sound depending on their position, there are also three sound modes to choose from: Normal (the default one), Voice (accentuates mids/voice) and Movie (increases in bass and treble frequency for more impact, and mids for clearer dialogue).

We appreciate that the EQ modes are rather subtle in action. Voices are a tad clearer and more prominent when deploying the Voice mode during podcasts, and the Movie mode doesn’t overdo the peaks in frequencies, but we prefer the more balanced, solid sound of the Normal mode for all kinds of audio.

Sound

We set up the L/R S speakers on the desk in one of our listening rooms, flanking our laptop, connected to Bluetooth, and leave them running in while we do some work. This allows us not only to run the speakers in, but also to gauge how they behave when used exactly the way we imagine most people will. Will the speakers sound too boomy on the desk? Will they sound too powerful and distracting, or will they fade into the background? Is there any peakiness in the treble to annoy us?

As we listen to Rosalia, Eminem, Waxahatchee, Geese, Rachmaninoff and more, we find ourselves living rather harmoniously with these compact Cambridge speakers. What’s impressive is just how nice and even they are throughout the frequencies – it allows for a very easy-going listen, and one you could listen to for hours without getting fatigued.

There is no discernible peakiness in the treble, which sounds rather civilised and cultured even when hitting the brash, brazen highs of Fontaines D.C.’s Starburster. The bass is rather taut and nimble but not overpowering, which is welcome if you’ll be listening to the speakers up close and on resonant surfaces. There is less bass weight on the L/R S compared with the more exuberant Ruark MR1 Mk3 rival, and it doesn’t sound as muscular when faced with the brooding bassline in Massive Attack’s Angel. But it nips along at a good pace.

There is a good amount of detail on offer, thanks also in part to a clean, low-distortion background. Whether we listen to these speakers using Tidal via Bluetooth or USB, or CDs on a connected Cyrus CDi disc spinner, the presentation is consistent. From Waxahatchee’s honeyed vocals to Geese’s more discordant and laconic tones, we find the speakers create a rather lovely solid sweet-spot for voices, too.

Listening at low volume doesn’t quite give us a full picture of the speakers’ abilities; turn up the volume, and you’ll find them spark into life. If you reach your smartphone device’s maximum Bluetooth volume limit and wonder if that’s all they can do, reach for the remote control and turn it up some more. These speakers can go pretty loud. Just be wary of going too high, as things do start to get unwieldy and shouty.

Even as we admire their evenness and orderliness, we find the L/R S speakers can be a touch reserved at times. On some tracks – such as on Eminem’s The Way I Am and Forget About Dre – we find ourselves willing the speakers on, to tackle the propulsive rhythm with more punch and panache. The piano notes in Game Of Thrones’ Light Of The Seven glide along smoothly, but they could do with a greater degree of precision and urgency to better impart the ratcheting-up of tension in the piece.

In comparison, the rival Ruark MR1 Mk3 speakers have the upper hand when it comes to rhythmic impetus and dynamic expression. They are able to deliver a bigger and more open sound too, with a greater amount of space in between the instruments and voices.

We find that the Ruark speakers sound clearer throughout the midrange, too, which reveals a greater degree of subtlety and insight. In comparison, the Cambridge sounds as though there is a cloudy veil over the mids, which we would love to hear scrubbed clean so that textures and subtleties can be unleashed. Bon Iver's voice on Exile is layered with rich textures and full of personality and emotion through the Ruarks – this effect is a little muted through the L/R S.

We would recommend investing in the optional desk stands for the L/R S, as physically tilting the speakers towards your listening position results in a clearer, more solid sound. Listening significantly off-axis changes the balance somewhat, so we would take some care when positioning the speakers and experiment with the various toggle modes to find the ideal sound for you.

Verdict

As Cambridge Audio’s first-ever active stereo speakers, the L/R S are off to a great start. It’s a confident design with thoughtful consideration for how people will use them in the real world. And they look stylish, too.

That even-toned, refined and easy-to-listen-to sound is impressive for a product of this type and price, and we think a sprinkle of energy, precision and insight could well catapult these compact Cambridge speakers to stardom. The Ruarks and Onkyos of this world might rest easy for now, but they’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this new contender.

Review published: 15th May 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Ruark Audio MR1 Mk3

Also consider the Onkyo GX-30ARC

Our guide to the best desktop speakers for hi-fi fans, tested by our experts

Just when you thought JBL couldn’t make its Xtreme portable Bluetooth speaker any more, er, extreme, it goes and blesses us with a fifth-generation model. And this one is not only waterproof and dust-proof – it is now drop-proof too.

The JBL Xtreme 5 can also put on a bit of a show thanks to new colourful, customisable edge lighting, which emits from two strips placed on the front of the speaker.

Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll discover there’s a lot more going on here than just a light show and a newfound sense of invincibility.

Price

The good news for prospective buyers is that the price of the JBL Xtreme 5 hasn’t really changed massively compared with its predecessor. It costs £330 / €350 / $400, while the Award-winning Xtreme 4 started life at £330 / €330 / $380 although it can be found significantly cheaper now, given it launched back in 2024.

It has a close rival in the shape of the five-star Bose SoundLink Max. This, too, originally launched in 2024 for £399 / €400 / $399, but at the time of writing, it can also regularly be found for less than its JBL counterpart.

Design and build