Bang & Olufsen has unveiled its Beosystem 3000c Dune Grey Edition, a compact music system comprising a restored Beogram 3000 Series turntable alongside a pair of modern Beolab 8 wireless speakers.

As part of the Danish brand's 'Recreated Classics' initiative, the limited edition Beosystem 3000c setup pledges to "bring together the tactile ritual of vinyl and the flexibility of contemporary listening in one compact music system".

At the centre of the setup is an original, restored Beogram 3000 Series turntable, the first of which launched in 1985, sporting a lightweight tonearm and B&O's 'Optimum Pivot Point' technology for reducing vibrations from interfering with playback.

In case you're unfamiliar, the Beolab 8 are wireless speakers with built-in network streaming capabilities, supporting Tidal and Spotify Connect alongside Chromecast AirPlay 2, and Bluetooth 5.3. To get a standalone pair, you'll tend to pay around £2199 / $2749 / AU$4499.

The Dune Grey Edition of the Beosystem 3000c pairs grey aluminium with dark walnut details on both the speakers and the turntable, a combination "inspired by the tones and textures of the Nordic coastline".

Getting hold of a system will put you in a rather exclusive club. The Beosystem 3000c Dune Grey Edition is limited to 100 pieces worldwide, with each unit individually numbered, engraved, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

According to Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, Director of Product Circularity at Bang & Olufsen: “Our Recreated Classics programme goes beyond the preservation of nostalgia. It is about honouring the fact that exceptional audio designs continue to matter to people over time. The Beosystem 3000c represents a more intentional way of listening, built around ritual, presence and emotional connection to music".

The Beosystem 3000c Dune Grey Edition is available now from selected B&O stores, priced at £22,800 / $30,000 / €27,000.

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TCL ruled the affordable TV roost in 2025.

The 65-inch C8K is the best premium TV that we've seen from the brand to date, and the genuinely cheap 50-inch C6KS took home a What Hi-Fi? Award thanks to its excellent picture quality and diminutive price tag.

However, the sweet spot from the Chinese AV giant's 2025 range is the C7K. We called it the "performance-per-pound champ" thanks to its "super-aggressive pricing, much-improved Mini LED backlighting and expansive Quantum Dot colour"; it should be pretty clear why we like this TV as much as we do.

So, you can imagine our delight when we came face-to-face with its successor, the C7L, during the company's Nxt Home event in Paris. While our first encounter was fleeting, the claimed upgrades are enough to pique our interest.

We have a few initial thoughts and some impressive specs to share, but our complete review will come further down the line, once we've fully tested the C7L in our dedicated AV testing facility.

Price

TCL hasn't shared pricing information for the C7L yet, but it promises that it's coming soon. As long as it can get the price on par with the C7K, we'll be happy.

We reviewed the 65-inch version of that TV at £899 initially; however, at the time of writing, it can be snagged for just £749. That's mind-boggling value for a TV of this size and ability, so we hope TCL is equally aggressive with this sequel.

Design

As you'll see from our hands-on pictures, TCL opted to showcase the C7L by mounting it on a wall. That makes judging the build quality and design fairly tricky.

We have seen photographs of the TCL C7L with its stand attached, though, and it looks almost identical to the C7K.

That means we can expect a fairly substantial centrally mounted pedestal stand and slim bezels surrounding the screen; that said, the pictures we've seen suggest this TV may be slightly slimmer than its predecessor.

If we're being honest, the build wasn't exactly the highlight of last year's C7K. It's quite a chunky and plasticky TV, though (as we mentioned in our full review), that's to be expected for "a premium TV being sold for a barely even mid-range price".

Features

Here's where things get exciting.

TCL is introducing the next generation of its Quantum Dot Mini LED panel technology this year, and it sounds like the C7L will be among a handful of models (including the C8L and X11L) getting a superpowered upgrade.

The new panel technology is called Super Quantum Dot Mini LED (or SQD-Mini LED for short), and it incorporates a few key picture upgrades.

TCL highlights its new Deep Colour System, which it claims will help to reduce colour bleed between light and dark areas, so colours remain natural and authentic in scenes with challenging contrast.

Furthermore, TCL says that there has been a 33 per cent improvement in colour gamut performance and a 69 per cent improvement in colour dot accuracy, which should result in richer, more authentic colours and enhanced subtlety and precision, respectively.

On top of this, TCL is touting better light control as part of its new SQD-Mini LED panels. It has blooming in its sights, and it says that it aims to "effectively minimise" the presence of the halo effect through its All-Domain Halo Control System.

Realistically, we're not expecting an OLED-level experience here, but TCL is promising a "more natural and immersive" experience when it comes to the most challenging hurdle for most backlit TVs.

Speaking of the backlight, TCL has been very forthcoming with the C7L's number of dimming zones and claimed peak brightness figures.

The 55-inch model will reportedly sport 800 precise dimming zones, the 65-inch version will have 1152 dimming zones, the 75-inch model will feature 1352 dimming zones, the 85-inch version will have 1624, and the 98-inch screen size will cram in an impressive 2176 precise dimming zones.

Brightness-wise, TCL says that the 55-inch model will max out at 2700 nits, whereas the other models (65- to 98-inches) will feature a slightly higher peak brightness figure of 3000 nits. For reference, the 65-inch C7K that we tested had a claimed peak brightness of 2600 nits.

TCL is also outfitting the C7L with its HVA 2.0 Pro Panel technology, which should supposedly support wide viewing angles of up to 178 degrees, and greatly reduce reflectivity, even in high-brightness environments (making this, on paper, ideal for daytime living-room viewing).

As is the case with its existing range, the C7L continues the company's HDR agnostic approach. This means it supports Dolby Vision (with Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Vision Gaming), HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG. Sound is also covered thanks to Dolby Atmos support, and this TV is among a select few to natively support Dolby Atmos FlexConnect.

We'll quickly touch on built-in audio, too. TCL is continuing its partnership with Danish high-end hi-fi brand Bang & Olufsen, and this TV (like its predecessor) sports a sound system that's been tuned by B&O.

TCL didn't go into much detail regarding driver configurations or power output, but we expect something similar to the C7K's sound system.

Gamers should also feel right at home on the C7L.

The TV sports a native 144Hz refresh rate with VRR, although TCL's Game Accelerator feature will reportedly allow you to double the refresh rate to 288Hz (at Full HD resolution rather than 4K), while also retaining VRR.

TCL also claims that it has reduced latency on this new model for improved response time, and ALLM is also supported.

Finally, the C7L will support Google TV for a wide range of streaming apps. Based on our experience with the C7K, we expect it to carry the version that supports all of the terrestrial UK streaming platforms, alongside the ever-expanding list of global streaming apps.

Picture quality

As is the case with many of the TVs that we see at these hands-on events, the C7L featured a looping roll of demo content that doesn't entirely represent real-world content.

Furthermore, it looked as though the C7L wasn't in one of its most authentic picture modes, but that's to be expected, as TCL wants to show off this TV's new brightness and colour capabilities to their fullest.

This seems to have worked, as the C7L was mounted on a wall with several other TVs, and yet it stood out the most among the bunch. This is mostly due to the rich, vibrant colours exhibited by the set, paired with the improved brightness.

While this did throw up some over-saturated colours – notably in the case of some concerningly neon foliage – we're fairly sure we could wrangle these colours back into a more natural state by switching over to Filmmaker Mode.

One of the demo shots simply showed a white TCL logo on an all-black background, and while it's early days, we were impressed by how deep the blacks looked for a backlit TV.

The blooming control around the TCL logo was fairly impressive too: while there was unquestionably a white glow around the company's logo, it seemed fairly localised and controlled.

We'll need to test the C7L further, in a more accurate picture mode, to further assess colour accuracy, motion and detail levels with real-life content, but we can certainly see where TCL is going with this SQD-Mini LED panel tech from this brief introduction.

Sound quality

Disappointingly, TCL didn't demo the C7L's built-in sound system. Despite it carrying the name of a notable high-end hi-fi manufacturer, we didn't get to hear it at TCL's event, so we'll have to reserve judgment for this section until our full review later this year.

What we can say is that the C7K sounded pretty good during our testing, so we hope that TCL continues this trend. We commended its clean, detailed sound, which conveyed an open mid-range and impressive treble, which covers much of the day-to-day listening requirements.

However, we found that it held back slightly when it came to producing low-end frequencies, which left the sound feeling somewhat unbalanced, especially when it came to dense cinematic soundtracks.

On our wishlist for the C7L is more bass, which should help to round out an already impressive sound system nicely.

Early verdict

We'll need to test the C7L in our dedicated home cinema testing space to reach a final verdict, but this is so far shaping up to be another impressive mid-range TV.

With a souped-up panel and a long list of specs to suit cinephiles and gamers alike, the C7L could be another compelling Mini LED TV – so long as TCL gets the pricing right.

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As well as our TCL X11L hands-on review

And check out our picks for the best Mini LED TVs

Bang & Olufsen has unveiled the final two members of its five-part Atelier centenary series: the Beolab 90 Monarch Edition and the Beolab 90 Zenith Edition.

Following on from the Titan, Shadow and Mirage Editions, which were created to celebrate 100 years of B&O last year, the new limited production speakers boast exclusive materials and design aesthetics to put a new spin on the brand's mammoth Beolab 90 loudspeakers.

The Danish company already celebrated its big birthday last year with a trio of special edition products, including the reimagined Beoplay H100 headphones and an exclusive spin on the Beosound A5 wireless speaker.

The Belolab 90 Monarch employs rosewood lamellas alongside precision-engineered aluminium components to transform the flagship speaker, says B&O, into a "flowing, sculptural object".

The new Monarch speakers also feature semi-transparent fabric sections so that you can catch a glimpse of the many acoustic drivers working beneath, in a bid to seamlessly meld functionality and aesthetic into a cohesive, unified design.

The Zenith Edition, meanwhile, are described by its creators as "a symphony of pearls", wherein thousands of aluminium spheres and mother-of-pearl inlays combine to give the special speakers a layered, tactile effect.

The Zeniths' machined aluminium facemask has been pearl blasted and anodised in a dark grey so as to closely resemble an oyster shell, while semi-transparent fabrics have also been added to grant a glimpse of the workings beneath.

Both editions deploy the angular, 360-degree design of the classic Beolab 90 speaker, with each driver firing in a different direction to help disperse sound around the room. The towers hold a total of 18 drivers, consisting of seven 30mm tweeters, seven 8.6cm midrange drivers, three 21cm side and rear woofers, and a single 26cm front woofer.

Limited to just ten pairs per edition, each pair is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and come with a miniature aluminium Beolab 90 sculpture in the corresponding edition, presented in a custom aluminium delivery box.

Want to be part of a very exclusive club? That'll be £410,000 / €480,000 per pair, please, for either the Zenith or the Monarch.

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What Hi-Fi? turns 50 in 2026 and we're looking back on some of the most important hi-fi and home cinema products in our lifetime – and beyond!

We're going back further than 1976 in this article as we look back on a series of debut speakers from hi-fi brands that went on to great things.

Our list details the first-ever models from some of the most renowned loudspeaker brands in history, including Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, KEF and Quad, some (but not all) of which started life long before What Hi-Fi?.

Wharfedale Bronze 2 (1932)

Wharfedale’s first speaker was built in the cellar of founder Gilbert Briggs' llkley home in 1932.

The Bronze was purely a drive unit (in those days, radio enthusiasts assembled their own cabinets). A year later, it was housed in a wooden cabinet for those who wanted an ‘extension’ speaker. Shortly after came the ‘Nubian’ cabinet speaker in 1934.

But it was a whole decade before Wharfedale marked the first of many milestones: the invention of the first two-way loudspeaker.

In 1945, the company combined a 30cm bass driver with a 25cm full-range ‘treble’ unit, using a crossover at 1kHz. And in the years after the company’s introduction of ceramic magnets to moving coil drive units led to the company’s much-celebrated Diamond series.

• That Was Then... Wharfedale Diamond review

Bang & Olufsen Hyperbo (1934)

Not uniquely, Bang & Olufsen came to the speaker market through radio manufacturing. In 1925, Peter Bang & Svend Olufsen’s first commercial radio – the modest production of which began in Olufsen’s attic – was the Eliminator, a radio component that allowed the connection of a radio directly to the mains, eliminating the need for batteries.

Having moved to a factory in Struer just two years later (B&O remain at that same site today), the Hyperbo – a radio, gramophone and integrated loudspeaker – arrived in 1934.

Like every B&O product produced since, the Hyperbo was heavily influenced by the emerging Bauhaus style in the early 1900s: a design attitude that has consistently manifested itself in the artistic craft behind the company's many speakers and TVs.

Acoustic Research AR-1 (1954)

Acoustic Research was founded in 1952 by inventor Edgar Villchur and his student Henry Kloss. Based on the acoustic suspension principle patented by Villchur in 1956, its first model, the AR-1, sold for $185 (over £1000 in today’s money).

The AR-1's woofer trapped air in the speaker’s sealed enclosure to provide a spring for the diaphragm, enabling it to move back and forth – doing the same job as the more conventional mechanical spring.

This was followed quickly by the AR-2 but it was the AR-3, released in 1958, that became Acoustic Research's landmark speaker, borrowing the AR-1's acoustic suspension technology but bringing onboard newly designed drivers.

Quad ESL-57 (1957)

Quad founder Peter Walker was the first to implement electrostatic technology in loudspeakers, waving goodbye to traditional driver cones and cumbersome cabinets.

In their place he put a thinly-stretched, electrically-charged diaphragm between two metal grilles, which received the music signal from the amplifier.

The first in what has become a brand-defining range of electrostatic speakers, the ESL-57, was in production for nearly 30 years, while the ESL-63 continued Quad’s electrostatic legacy until 1999. Quad continues to manufacture electrostatic speakers to this day.

KEF K1 Slimline (1961)

KEF’s oldest speaker was born out of founder Raymond Cooke’s desire to achieve outstanding sound quality from a slim, living room-friendly enclosure.

At 12.5cm deep, the K1 Slimline incorporated the same driver innovations as the Monitor versions that arrived in the K1 series: the B1814 woofer with its flat rectangular diaphragm of aluminium skinned polystyrene, the M64 elliptical midrange unit with a similar diaphragm construction, and the T15 tweeter with its hemispherical Melinex diaphragm.

To minimise colouration, the wall panels of the braced cabinet were dampened with bituminous pads. And, lounge-friendly in their aesthetic as well as their size, the K1 Slimlines were finished in walnut with 'coffee' fleck grilles – a far cry from some of the designs it employs today.

• That Was Then… KEF Reference Model 101/3

B&W P1 (1966)

Beginnings don’t get much more humble than B&W’s. The year after founder John Bowers started hand-assembling speaker systems in the electrical store he ran with Roy Wilkins in Worthing, Bowers & Wilkins (then B&W Electronics Ltd) released its first loudspeaker: the P1.

The cabinet and filter were B&W's own, but the drivers came from EMI and Celestion – this was in the decade before the company started using the bright-yellow Kevlar woven composite.

The profits from the P1 allowed Bowers to purchase a Radiometer Oscillator and Pen Recorder, meaning that every speaker the company sold could have calibration certificates.

• That Was Then… B&W 602 S3 review

Spendor BC1 (late ’60s)

Bextrene was the material of choice for the speaker diaphragms in Spendor’s first pair of speakers, the BC1.

A product of BBC engineer Spencer Hughes (co-founder with Dorothy Hughes, hence the Spendor name) and co-designer Dudley Harwood, the BC1 speakers had a three-way design: the only commercial 8in Bextrene mid-bass driver, a Celestion HF 1300 tweeter and a Coles 4001 G supertweeter.

They were fed by a nine-element crossover comprised of film capacitors for frequency and temperature stability, and radio metal cored chokes that allowed for high transients and low resonances.

The BC1s hit the market in the late ‘60s and found their way into broadcast and recording studios before eventually being available to buy for consumers. Some 600 pairs were supposedly in operation at the BBC at one time.

• That Was Then… Spendor SP2/3E review

Harbeth HL Monitor Mk1 (1977)

British speaker brand Harbeth came about due to the discovery, by founder H.D. Harwood, of a potential new film plastic for speaker cones.

Towards the end of his career in the BBC’s Research Department, and during investigation into bextrene plastic as a cone material for BBC monitors in the ‘60s, Harwood proposed that polypropylene would make a good cone material.

And so, upon his formal retirement, he set up Harbeth to make a speaker with his patented polypropylene-coned driver. The HL Monitor was released in 1977, and four versions subsequently followed over the next decade.

Dynaudio P-series (1977/78)

We have to pedal back almost 50 years to find Danish brand's first speakers – the five P-series models in 1977. However, they were short-lived, had limited distribution and, while using the company’s own crossovers, were the only Dynaudio speakers to rely on OEM drivers.

The P series (P for 'passive') comprised the P16 (pictured), P21, P31, P46 and P76. All models used specially coated soft dome tweeter with high power handling – something Dynaudio would later become renowned for.

The first range to use Dynaudio’s in-house MSP (Magnesium Silicate Polymer) woofers and tweeters, and receive international distribution, was the four-strong MSP series in 1984. Dynaudio has used its own drivers ever since.

• That Was Then… Dynaudio Audience 52 review

ATC S50/S85 (1978)

After a few years making drive units, ATC produced its first speaker systems in 1978: the bass-reflex S50 (pictured) and infinite baffle S85, which established a naming tradition based on the internal volume of the speaker.

Inside the plywood-based 50- and 85-litre cabinets were 2.5cm soft dome tweeters, a 7.5cm soft dome midrange driver and a 22.5cm woofer (two in the S85).

Unusually, the crossover arrangement allowed for true active tri-amping, allowing you to choose between either the internal passive crossover or an external electronic crossover via a rotary switch.

ProAc Tablette (1979)

A few years after founding loudspeaker manufacturer Celef Audio Ltd in 1973, Stewart Tyler decided that producing more expensive designs in smaller quantities, rather than increasing production capacity and potentially sacrificing quality, was the way forward.

With that decision came a new company name: ProAc, short for Professional Acoustics.

The first speaker to bear the name was the Tablette; mini monitors – they really are dinky – which have spawned more than ten variations since their original production in 1979.

Wilson Audio WAMM (1982)

Following Wilson Audio’s Smart turntable, which was essentially a re-jigged Acoustic Research deck and became Wilson Audio’s first ever product, founder Dave Wilson introduced the company’s first pair of speakers, the Wilson Audio Modular Monitor (WAMM), in 1982.

Each channel comprised two towers: one sub-bass module, and one with twin mid-bass drivers and an electrostatic supertweeter flanked by twin midrange/tweeter modules. It sold for $28,000 and was the most expensive speaker you could buy at that time.

The WAMM evolved through six versions from 1982 to 1993, and has since been revived, with the Master Chronosonic and Master Subsonic speakers still current in the company's catalogue.

Focal DB13 (1982)

JMlab established Focal for speaker driver production in Saint-Étienne in 1979, and three years later the company's first pair of speakers appeared.

The DB13 bookshelf speakers were equipped with a double voice coil driver plus Polyglass and Polykevlar driver cones, and were capable of volumes more akin to larger speakers.

They propelled the company towards the high-end audio market and to international shores.

Martin Logan Monolith (1983)

Convinced they could make a class-leading electrostatic speaker capable of adequate bass and suitable for rock music, Gayle Martin Sanders and Ron Logan Sutherland (later ‘Martin Logan’) conceived a prototype in 1980. Unfortunately, its flat aluminium panel blew up when they turned up the volume...

Undeterred, their first production-ready speaker arrived three years later: the Monolith. A revised transducer saw a clear Mylar diaphragm sandwiched between two perforated-steel stators.

And to ensure good sound dispersion, a horizontally curved panel was implemented, and this curvilinear transducer has been central to the design of every Martin Logan electrostatic since.

Sonus Faber Parva (1983)

In 1983, three years after Sonus Faber founder Franco Serblin produced his first system (an all-wood, all-in-one model called the "Snail" that really needs to be seen), the brand was established in a small laboratory in Monteviale, northern Italy.

It was in that year Sonus Faber launched its first product: the Parva 2-way speaker, featuring a Kevlar midrange cone and solid walnut wood cabinet.

This paved the way for some legendary models (such as the Extrema and Guarneri ranges), and what is today, 35 years later, one of the world’s most distinguished and design-savvy high-end speaker brands.

Dali 2 (mid '80s)

The Dali 2 was released shortly after the renowned Danish speaker company Dali (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) began in 1983.

The debut speaker had a two-way configuration, with a 6.5in laminate pulp/polyvinyl cone woofer, 1in tweeter with a soft polypropylene dome, and walnut veneered wooden cabinets.

The Dali 2 was followed by larger models in the range, the 3, 4, 6 and 8, which Dali explained shared the same design philosophy and signature sound: they don't "'thunder' or 'boom' bass – they just handle more power and provide better bass response".

Acoustic Energy AE1 (1987)

With the introduction of the AE1 Loudspeaker in 1987, Acoustic Energy Ltd was officially born. The concept was to create a compact studio monitor (it measured 30cm tall and 18cm wide) that could handle the high volumes and dynamics of larger speakers.

To achieve this, Acoustic Energy lined its cabinet with a concrete/plaster compound to eliminate as much resonance as possible, and developed a new mid/bass driver. It featured a 10cm cone of spun aluminium, thicker at the centre than the edges and anodised to create a ‘ceramic sandwich’, and used an oversized magnet assembly that allowed the AE1 to accept 200W of power.

The AE1 was refined in several revisions until 2016, when its SEAS tweeter went out of production. The design has since resurfaced in the amplified AE1 Active model.

• That Was Then... Acoustic Energy AE2 Signature review

Neat Petite (1991)

Neat Acoustics began life as a hi-fi shop in Darlington called North Eastern Audio Traders. After identifying a gap in the market for a small musical speaker, its owners developed the Neat Petite.

When we reviewed them in 1993, we heralded these speakers a musical success. We called their sound 'hugely stimulating', mostly due to the way they portrayed timing and dynamics – something that's continued to be a trademark in the brand’s more recent speakers.

• That Was Then... Neat Petite review

PMC BB5-A (1991)

After a stint as the manager of BBC's Maida Vale studios, Peter Thomas and former BBC engineer Adrian Loader designed the first PMC speaker, the BB5-A.

It introduced the company’s hallmark Advanced Transmission Line technology, in which drivers were used to improve bass output.

In an interview with What Hi-Fi?, Thomas said: “The design was certainly not conventional. Whereas the majority of speaker designers used ported or sealed cabinets, we found that a transmission line system for bass loading, if refined, gave a performance that significantly exceeded conventional bass loading principles.”

Wilson Benesch A.C.T. One (1994)

Five years after launching its first product, the Wilson Benesch Turntable, the British company launched a second: the A.C.T. One loudspeaker.

Unveiled at the 1994 Frankfurt High End show, the A.C.T. One used carbon fibre – the world’s first curved carbon fibre composite panel in a speaker design. It sported the sloping top and solid metal baffle that remain part of the company’s distinctive designs today.

While many years before the implementation of crossover-free midrange driver designs, as seen in the company’s Eminence series, the A.C.T. One placed great importance on phase coherence and the reduction of crossover elements.

Eclipse TD 512 (2002) 

Deviating from the traditional two-driver configuration and box design, Eclipse’s speakers are as distinct as they come. The company’s first, the 36cm-tall TD 512 speakers, were a "radical departure from the speaker norm" (as we stated in our 2002 review), with only one drive unit and an egg-shaped enclosure made of marble-loaded resin.

The former’s job to cover the whole frequency resulted in some shortcomings – namely, a rolled-off treble – but ultimately these beautifully imaged and detailed speakers did more than enough to enjoy a five-star debut. As we said at the time: "Little else at their price (£2350) will deliver such unrestricted access to the recording."

Q Acoustics 1000 series (2006)

Q Acoustics may not have the heritage of some other brands, but the British company’s debut, the six-strong 1000 series in 2006, has been one of the most notable of the 21st century.

The 1000 series comprised the 1010 and 1020 bookshelf speakers, 1010C centre channel, 1030 and 1050 floorstanders, and 1000S active subwoofer. Each model featured the same ferro-fluid cooled, micro-polyester weave tweeter and Linkwitz-Riley crossovers, and every drive unit was ‘torque mounted’ into its front baffle.

The 1010s were five-star performers in their own right, and later received another five-star review as part of a complete multi-channel surround package.

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The RM9L represents TCL’s first and most high-end foray into the suddenly oh-so-popular world of RGB Mini LED technology.

As such, it's the model that we would have expected to be TCL’s flagship TV for 2026. At CES 2026, though, the brand announced that the flagship title is in fact going to its ‘Super QLED’ X11L.

We went into some detail in our TCL X11L hands-on to explain just why TCL has gone against the current TV industry grain with this unexpected hierarchy, but we’ll try to sum it up more succinctly again in the course of this hands-on with the RM9L, which has left us with a very positive first impression despite its sub-flagship status.

Price

Unlike the X11L, the RM9L was not made available to order following its unveiling at CES 2026, and no price information has so far been provided.

All we can confidently say at this stage is that it will cost at least a little less than an equivalent-sized X11L.

Prices for the X11L, to give at least a little context, have been confirmed for the US at $7000 for the 75-inch version, $8000 for the 85-inch model, and $10,000 for the 98 incher.

There’s no UK pricing available for the X11L yet.

Design

The RM9L sticks out substantially further around the back than the X11L does.

The result isn’t ugly or even really cumbersome, though. In fact, TCL can even just about get away with its description of the design as “slim and integrated”. It just doesn't look quite as slender and elegant when hung on a wall as the X11L does.

Build quality and finish seem high, though, and TCL leaves you in no doubt about what technology is inside the RM9L by stylishly incorporating a badge saying 'Premium RGB MiniLED' into the screen’s right-hand edge.

There’s no repeat on the RM9L of the soundbar along the bottom edge that you get with the X11L – though a Bang & Olufsen logo in the bottom corner confirms that the premium Danish brand has again been involved in this new QD model’s sound design.

Features

TCL essentially claims in its 2026 TV range information that its new ‘Super’ class of QLED TV is capable of delivering more colour brightness, more local dimming precision and more colour precision than the RGB Mini LED can.

The X11L certainly did a compelling job of selling these claims during our hands-on with that model, but, on paper at least, the RM9L really doesn't come up far short of TCL's SQD flagship set.

Set to be available in 85-, 98- and a monster 115-inch screen size, the RM9L is claimed to cover ‘up to’ 100% of the massive BT.2020 HDR colour spectrum.

TCL also claims that the RM9L is capable of hitting a mammoth 9000 nits of peak brightness (only 1000 nits down on the peak brightness of the X11L), while control of all that light is delivered by a pretty epic 16,848 claimed local dimming zones (a drop of just under 4000 from the unprecedented claimed dimming zone count of the X11L).

As with the X11L, the RM9L is built on TCL’s new WHVA 2.0 Ultra panel. It also shares a bunch of other features, including native 4K/144Hz gaming support (or HD 288Hz support via TCL’s Game Accelerator system), Google TV smarts, playback of both the Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ premium HDR formats; and playback of the IMAX Enhanced system supported by most Marvel films on Disney+.

There’s also the Bang & Olufsen-designed speaker system capable of playing Dolby Atmos sound that we alluded to earlier.

TCL’s new AiPQ Pro processor is provided, finally, to help continually optimise pictures to the screen’s emphatic capabilities. Though you can also choose a more ‘as the director intended’ look for movie nights if you prefer.

Picture quality

Looked at in isolation, our early 85-inch RM9L's picture quality looks seriously, in some ways next-generationally, impressive.

The ‘next-gen’ bit comes from its phenomenally intense colours, which are delivered with a level of richness and purity – at least with the majority of TCL’s predictably extreme demo footage – that’s arguably even more easy on the eye than the vast colour scapes achieved by the first two RGB Mini LED and Micro RGB TVs we got our eyes on last year.

The ‘out there’ contrast and colour range of most of TCL’s demo footage would have represented a substantial challenge to lesser TVs, but the RM9L's light controls handled everything as if it were the easiest job in the world.

We were blown away, for instance, by how spectacularly bright pictures typically looked, despite the screen also being able to deliver black levels that often appeared almost OLED-like in their depth and freedom from clouding and instability.

The screen’s colours don’t degenerate/fade away in the most vibrant areas either, and the brightness is especially impressive with relatively complex colours involving a mixture of the panel’s core red, green and blue components.

Colours hold up excellently well with wide-angle viewing, too, and aside from clipping a little subtle shading in the brightest HDR highlights, the amount of subtle shading that’s retained in richly coloured picture areas is generally outstanding.

While the RM9L looks genuinely sensational when viewed in isolation, though, side-by-side comparisons with TCL’s flagship SQD X11L TV does reveal one or two limitations.

The RM9L's pictures aren’t quite as bright, for one thing, especially in picture areas containing an expanse of fairly pure red, green or blue content. This brightness disadvantage applies to HDR peaks as well as general baseline and full-screen bright HDR content.

To be clear about this, though, this brightness ‘limitation’ is only evident against the insanely bright X11L. Against pretty much any other TV around today, it’s still blazingly bright.

The remarkable colour saturation advantage so evident with relatively pure red, green and blue image content on the RM9L reduces somewhat with the rare moments of more natural, less extreme moments in TCL’s content reel.

There’s also a touch more greyness around bright highlights when they appear against black backdrops than there is on the X11L, especially if you’re watching the TV from a severe angle.

This blooming and clouding difference seemed fairly small under the show floor lights, though, and certainly never turned into aggressively obvious backlight clouding or blooming.

We didn’t feel troubled, either, by potential colour crosstalk problems during the play-through of TCL’s demo reel, though the starkness of this content versus regular video may have played in the demo screen’s favour in this respect.

The RM9L's pictures aren’t quite as crisp and sharp as those of the X11L – but, again, it’s a small difference, really, and doesn’t stop the RGB Mini LED model from looking every inch a native 4K TV.

While the RM9L's pictures don’t achieve as much intensity and impact or quite as much general picture consistency as the X11L's, they still look outstandingly promising versus most of the rest of even the premium TV world – and let’s not forget that the RM9L will likely be more affordable than the X11L.

Sound quality

The RM9L's sound appears to be a more substantial step down from the X11L than its pictures.

While Bang & Olufsen was still involved in the TV’s speaker design, there’s no forward-facing speaker ‘bar’ hanging from the screen’s underside, so all of this TV’s sound depends on speakers built into its sides and rear – a fact that immediately makes the set’s sound feel less direct and impactful. Bass sounded significantly more limited during our demo session, too.

Subtle effects were still presented quite cleanly, though, with a good balance , and we were impressed by how the sound seemed to exist right across the screen area, rather than only emerging from its edges and leaving a ‘gap’ where the pictures are.

There was none of that sense of an empty audio space between the left and right edges that you can get with other big-screen TVs.

Early verdict

While the RM9L we hung out with during CES wasn’t quite as all-round explosively impressive as TCL’s flagship X11L, it still delivered a premium performance, especially with relatively pure colours, that’s got us salivating for the finished product.

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TCL’s flagship TV for 2026, the X11L, is a real tale of the unexpected.

For starters, unlike the top tier of TCL’s 2025 range, it looks as though UK buyers will actually be able to buy the X11L if they fancy it.

It also delivers a technical surprise, though, in that it's sticking with Quantum Dot technology rather than boarding the RGB Mini LED / Micro RGB bandwagon being so enthusiastically embraced by most other TV brands this year.

This isn’t to say that TCL isn’t doing RGB Mini LED at all in 2026 – the brand actually has more than one RGB Mini LED TV range waiting in the wings – but it’s definitely a twist to find ‘QLED’ still sitting at the top of TCL’s new TV pile.

Of course, TCL has long leaned into Quantum Dots more than most, from small touches such as the QD LED badges it incorporates into many of its TV designs, to the epic quantities of QLED panels it produces from its own factories.

Its extensive QLED history, though, is not the only reason TCL has decided that QDs still reign supreme versus RGB Mini LED. The brand also believes that QLED TVs can still be the best performers.

Especially when, as with the X11L, they’re packing TCL’s new Super QLED technology…

Price

Unusually, TCL actually had the X11L ready to buy in the US on the same day it was announced at CES 2026, with prices set at $7000 for the 75-inch screen, $8000 for the 85-inch version, and $10,000 for the 98-inch model.

UK pricing has yet to be confirmed, however.

Design

It's the 85-inch version of the X11L that we were able to spend time with for this hands-on, and the first thing that struck us about it was how slim it is.

Its monolithic shape is just two centimetres deep – substantially slimmer than the bodywork of TCL’s most premium RGB Mini LED TV, the RM9L (hands-on coming soon).

This is actually one reason why TCL favours its Super QLED screens over RGB Mini LED for flagship status, as the latter technology needs more depth in order to minimise the potential for its different red, green and blue LEDs to bleed into each other. We’ll get into this in a bit more detail later.

The slender side panels of the X11L have a premium-looking dark metallic finish, while the bezel around the screen, as you sit looking straight at it, is remarkably slim considering the screen sizes in question.

Build quality appears excellent too, and the design is elevated by a couple of unusual touches: a logo embossed down the screen’s right side saying 'Premium SQD-MiniLED', and the unmissable addition of a full-width integrated ‘soundbar’ that adds two to three inches of grilled elegance to the screen’s height.

This speaker enclosure sports a Bang & Olufsen logo, confirming that it’s the latest result of the TV sound design relationship TCL established with the premium Danish audio brand in 2025.

The X11L’s slim, monolithic shaping makes it ideally suited for wall mounting, but it can also be placed on a pair of large, metal-finished feet if you prefer.

Features

TCL’s new Super QLED TVs do not, sadly, wear capes or have laser eyes. They do, though, feature two significant new hardware innovations that TCL claims take QLED TVs to a whole new level.

First, their QD layers feature a new generation of Quantum Dots developed using new, more excitable (which in TV speak means responsive and efficient) crystal substances.

Second, TCL’s SQD MiniLED TVs use a new super high ‘Ultra’ colour filter.

Put together, TCL says these new innovations deliver five key claimed advantages: a wider colour gamut (TCL claims that the X11L can cover 100% of the world’s most extreme BT2020 colour gamut); the potential to use more local dimming zones than RGB MiniLED screens can due to the relative compactness of Super QLED’s single blue or white (rather than RGB) LED light source; enhanced brightness; slimmer designs than you get with TCL’s current RGB Mini LED technology; and, last but not least, immunity to the colour crosstalk issues it seems that RGB Mini LED displays can suffering with.

This crosstalk issue – which we’ll be on the look out for in our hands-on with TCL’s most premium RGB Mini LED model, the RM9L – is caused by the way the red, green and blue colours emitted by the three LEDs in an RGB Mini LED lighting ‘zone’ can end up scattering and spilling across one another, causing areas of coloured clouding.

For instance, if the light from a red LED crosses over into an area that already contains light from a neighbouring green LED, then you could see brown clouding as the two stray colours mix.

Such crosstalk troubles can apparently be reduced by increasing the RGB LED ‘throw distance’ (i.e. making the TVs thicker), but it isn't an issue for SQD Mini LED TVs in the first place, hence the potential for slimmer designs.

The higher brightness TCL claims for SQD Mini LED screens vs RGB Mini LED is explained by the fact that for the vast majority of the time, not all of the red, green and blue LED chips involved in an RGB Mini LED array will be fully activated at the same time.

For instance, with a relatively pure green hue, the red and blue LEDs will be pretty much dormant. This results in lower overall screen brightness, at least with content that uses fairly stark and pure colours, compared with the SQD Mini LED approach, where every LED ‘chip’ is effectively always fully illuminated by the white or blue LED.

Using a single LED to light each picture zone rather than an RGB LED trio is also the reason, according to TCL, that it’s possible to fit more separately controlled local dimming zones into an SQD Mini LED screen than it is with a same-sized RGB MiniLED screen, resulting in potentially finer light control.

Putting some numbers on all of this, TCL claims that the X11L can hit a huge peak brightness of 10,000 nits, and that it features 20,736 dimming zones – the highest such figure we’ve seen from a consumer TV. Even Hisense’s 116UX RGB Mini LED debutante had 'only' 3584 dimming zones.

Other key features confirmed for the X11L so far include a new Pro edition of TCL’s AiPQ processor, designed to ensure that even today’s relatively limited content can potentially make use of the full range of the TV’s capabilities; native 4K/144Hz gaming support that can be switched to HD/288Hz support via TCL’s Game Accelerator feature; Google TV smarts; support for both of the premium Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ HDR formats; support for the IMAX Enhanced format that most Marvel movies are available in on Disney Plus; and support for Dolby Atmos sound.

Picture quality

It took no time at all during our hands-on with the X11L before we started noticing its pretty remarkable picture quality charms.

Its killer combination of 10,000 claimed nits of brightness and more than 20,000 dimming zones delivered a truly spectacular contrast performance, for starters, where inky blacks share the screen with bright highlights that erupt off the screen with an intensity that its RM9L RGB Mini LED stablemate just couldn’t match.

In fact, we can’t recall seeing an equivalent level of brightness from any other screen, bar some of the crazily expensive Micro LED displays that pop up at technology shows every year. Not even the uber-expensive Hisense 116UX gets beyond 8500 nits.

It wasn't just the X11L’s raw brightness that impressed, though. The way it was able to retain most if not all of that peak brightness even when a bright highlight appeared against a near-black backdrop (something that TCL boldly allowed to happen a lot in its X11L demo footage) was incredible to behold – especially as it was achieved while throwing up remarkably little sign of the sort of haloing, blooming or zone ‘flickering’ issues that we’d normally expect to see with a local dimming TV delivering contrast even a fraction as intense as that of the X11L.

The brightness also held up outstandingly well with HDR images that filled the whole screen with bright content, providing a stark reminder of this advantage that LED currently retains over even the latest and brightest OLED screens.

The incredible contrast also held up remarkably well even when looking at the X11L from a wide viewing angle – though there was some mild colour shift from wide angles, and backlight haloing/blooming became a bit more noticeable.

In all of the above image areas, the X11L outperformed the RM9L screen next to it. The only area where the RM9L consistently outperformed (kind of) the X11L was with very pure colours.

Rich red flowers or bright green meadows, for instance, enjoyed purer saturations on the RM9L. A simple side effect, we guess, of the X11L having to mix QD colour filters with a single-colour LED backlight, rather than colours being crafted from pure red, green and blue LEDs as happens with the RM9L’s RGB Mini LED lighting system.

It certainly seemed to us, though, that as predicted earlier, the RM9L’s greater single-colour purity comes at the expense of some brightness versus the X11L.

Perhaps because of its extra dimming zones and brightness the X11L’s pictures also looked slightly sharper and more detailed than those of the RM9L.

Sound quality

The full-width integrated B&O ’soundbar’ attached below the X11L's screen carries left, centre and right channels, while two more speakers in the chassis fire sideways to left and right, and a pair of large, gold-finished rear-mounted woofers provide low frequencies.

The sound produced by all these speakers really did sound excellent in the admittedly highly imperfect surroundings of CES. The soundstage sounded really detailed, but also had a lovely, rounded, harshness-free tone, even at high volumes.

The way the sound was propelled towards us from the forward-facing integrated soundbar created a much more immediate and impactful sound, too, than anything we heard from TCL’s 2025 B&O-toting TVs, while the new woofers deliver seemingly more low-frequency heft than those of any 2025 TCL model, too.

If you really want to take the bass to properly cinematic levels, though, you can add TCL’s new Z100-SW wireless subwoofer.

In the demo session, this extended both the impact and depth of the bass substantially, but did so impressively seamlessly, enjoying a good tonal match with the TV’s integrated sound system and avoiding any obvious frequency response ‘gap’.

Early Verdict

We’re going to need to spend much more time with a finished, production sample of the X11L and our own favourite real world content before we can deliver a final judgment on TCL’s surprising new flagship screen. But the signs so far are looking auspicious to say the least.

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IKEA's Symfonisk speakers, made in collaboration with Sonos, was an affordable way of getting Sonos sound in a more lifestyle-friendly design. This collaboration came to an end this year, with the Symfonisk speakers – such as the bookshelf model and the lamp speaker (both four stars) – being phased out globally.

But that hasn't stopped IKEA's ambitions for a speaker range, and the Swedish furniture giant has unveiled three very colourful Bluetooth speakers of its own in time for Christmas.

The Solskydd range – which means "sunscreen" or "sun protection" in Swedish – is made in partnership with Swedish designer Teklan (Tekla Eveina Severin), and features bold colours and patterns that are certainly eye-catching. And they are rather affordable, too.

The IKEA Solskydd speaker range features circular designs varying in size: a small, portable 8-inch/19cm model that costs £29; a medium-sized 11-inch/29cm version costing £50; and a large 18-inch/45cm speaker for £80.

Prices in the USA are $89, $100 and $140 respectively, while the fabric finishes available are a bold-patterned orange and a minimal white (for the smallest model), a green and pink diagonal pattern (medium and large), and a textured orange option for the largest model only.

The smallest speaker features one 6.5mm full-range driver that outputs a claimed 9W of power and has 25 hours of battery life, although note that the USB-C cable and power adapter are sold separately.

The other two models have a 25mm tweeter and a 10cm woofer, and they feature 3.5mm aux and digital optical inputs. Power ratings are claimed at 20W and 40W respectively. These models can also be put in stereo pair mode and offer three EQ settings to fine tune the sound to your preference.

All models feature Bluetooth streaming, although the version and codec supports are not specified. Spotify Tap is available for one-touch streaming from the music service, and you can connect all three speakers together for a multi-speaker arrangement.

You can wall-mount the largest model, while the smaller two can be wall-mounted or placed on their stands.

There are shades of Bang & Olufsen in the Solskydd's design: the largest model is reminiscent of the iconic Beosound A9, while the smallest one puts us a little in mind of the Beosound A1 Gen 3 Bluetooth speaker.

There are LED and buttons on the top of the speakers, for controlling playback and volume adjustment.

Also part of the new smart home range is two lamps with built-in speakers, with equally bold colours and scalloped lamp shade designs that are meant to mimic soft-serve ice cream – or like a bobbing jellyfish, even.

This range is called Kulglass (a combination of the Swedish works for "cool/fun" and "ice cream"): there is a dark green base model with a light green shade, and a red-brown model with a pink shade. They also feature Bluetooth, Spotify Tap and multi-speaker mode.

IKEA says this "vibrant and playful" new range aims to create "high-quality sound products with bold patterns and unexpected colour combinations set to make technology a more enjoyable and visible part of the home."

All models are available from December 2025 onwards.

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Black Friday is still a little way away, but we are seeing an impressive wave of deals flooding in from different retailers on some top-notch home cinema kit.

And, if you're looking for a super-sized TV to upgrade your set-up, you are in luck! The 85-inch TCL C7K is available for £1349 at Argos, saving you a whopping £850 off its original price.

Now, we haven't tested this exact size in our test room. But both the 65-inch and 98-inch C7K models hugely impressed during testing, with both receiving five-star reviews.

If their bright performance and excellent gaming features are anything to go by, its sibling should offer impressive picture quality at a bargain price.

While we cannot vouch for the 85-inch entirely as we have not fully reviewed it in our test room, it's safe to say that the C7K models we have tested are incredibly competent performers especially considering their price.

We call the 98-inch C7K's 98C7K’s picture "spectacular". When it comes to colour performance, the screen’s Quantum Dot system delivers a range and volume of colour that would normally only be found on a really top-end LCD TV, rather than one as aggressively priced.

This results in a dazzling yet detailed picture that is apparent both with general HDR images, as well as intense small HDR highlights such as reflections of sunlight on glass or metal, glints in people’s eyes, street lights, the moon, stars, candles and so on.

The 98-inch model does well with games, too. We say in our review: "High frame rate games look particularly smooth and feel impressively responsive, making it easy for gamers to bask in the glories of the screen’s bold colours, rich contrast, excellent detail and raw size."

Gamers are exceptionally well catered for when it comes to features, thanks to such features as ALLM, support for refresh rates up to 144Hz (and even 288Hz in Full HD resolution), VRR (including AMD FreeSync Premium Pro), and just 13.1ms of input lag with 60Hz games when running in Game mode.

But how does it sound? The Bang & Olufsen speakers offer support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and the system in the 98-inch model delivers crisp dialogue with a reasonably expansive soundstage.

We do find it is lacking in the bass department, so there just isn’t much depth or heft to its low frequency response, leaving action scenes sounding a bit thin, and mid and treble tones sounding slightly too dominant. Still, it's a decent performer and budgeting for a soundbar would instantly upgrade its sound performance.

Still, this TCL model looks set to provide an immersive super-sized viewing experience at a price that won't break the bank for Black Friday.

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Black Friday quick links

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• B&W speakers: save £200
• Bluetooth speaker: 48% off five-star JBL
• Bose QC Ultra Earbuds: save £100
• Bravia 8 TV: save 34% on 55in Sony TV
• Denon AV receiver: save £500
• Dolby Atmos soundbar: down to £299
• ELAC Debut 2: five-star speakers now £199
• Headphones: Sennheiser Momentum 4 now £169
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals

In case you didn't know, Bang & Olufsen turns 100 this year.

The Danish company has already celebrated this mega milestone with a trio of special edition products, including reimagined Beoplay H100 headphones and a twist on the Beosound A5 wireless speaker, and now its turned its gaze back to hi-fi with a centennial version of its striking Beolab 90 flagship speakers.

Dubbed the 'Beolab 90 Titan Edition', the new floorstanders broadly replicate the geometric, almost alien design of the originals, only this time, their outer housings have been removed to reveal the vast array of drive units beneath.

The Titan Edition once again deploy an angular, 360-degree design, with each driver firing in a different direction to help disperse sound around the room. The distinctive towers hold a total of 18 drivers: seven 30mm tweeters, seven 8.6cm midrange drivers, three 21cm side and rear woofers, and a single 26cm front woofer.

The Beolab 90 Titan Edition speakers are constructed using 65kg aluminium cabinets, sandblasted using particles from crushed volcanic rock to produce a "raw yet elegant texture".

Bang & Olufsen has made sure to pay attention to the finer details for its celebratory edition. Laser-engraved details commemorate Bang & Olufsen’s centenary, each speaker fastener has a commemorative engraving, while inscriptions around the drivers pay tribute to Bang & Olufsen's high-end heritage.

According to Kristian Teär: “In 1925, when Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen founded this company, they were guided by a never failing will to create only the best. Today, a century on, that same spirit drives us in everything we do: in every speaker, in every handcrafted detail, in every bold leap forward”.

The Beolab 90 Titan Edition are available now, with prices currently pending. Over the coming months, four additional editions of the Beolab 90 will be unveiled as part of B&O's 100-year celebrations.

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Danish hi-fi brand Bang & Olufsen has announced the release of the Beosound Premiere – a “bold and sculptural” soundbar taking on the top-end of the premium market.

The 7.1.4 soundbar offers Dolby Atmos support as well as the brand’s own Wide Stage Technology which, B&O says, uses signal processing custom-designed to create the illusion of having added external speakers.

In usual Bang & Olufsen fashion, the soundbar is designed to look like a piece of art as well as acting as a piece of home cinema kit. It is made from pure aluminium, and the chassis is pearl blasted to create a matte satin finish.

The brand has taken a different approach to many other soundbars by leaving the ten speaker drivers exposed rather than hidden under a grille. Inside the soundbar are 90 responsive LEDs that “illuminate [the product] with an ethereal glow” which changes with the user’s preferences.

There are even 1925 tiny perforations machined into the up-firing driver to mark the year the company was founded.

You can also add additional Bang & Olufsen speakers through the Beolink Surround feature.

Launching at £3900 / $5800 / AU$9,400 for the Natural Aluminium finish, the Beosound Premiere certainly comes with an eye-watering price tag. Other finishes, Gold Tone or Black Anthracite, will come out early next year.

The best premium Dolby Atmos soundbar we have reviewed this year is the KEF XIO, which comes in at the considerably cheaper price tag of £1999 / $2500 / AU$3600.

We rated it extremely highly when we had it in our test room, praising its exciting sound and agile bass performance which resulted in a five star review, and a What Hi-Fi? Best Buy Award.

The Beosound Premiere is going to have to be an exceptionally strong performer to compete with the XIO's more affordable price and excellent sonic abilities, although its stacked speaker offerings do sound promising.

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This week Bang & Olufsen celebrated its 100th birthday. And as I read our news story covering its celebratory special edition Beoplay H100 headphones and Beosound A5 and Beosound A9 wireless speakers, I found myself taking a trip down memory lane.

After 18 years of covering B&O as an AV journalist, I found myself thinking about what actually defines the iconic Danish brand.

There are certainly a lot of possibilities. For starters, its origins as a metal-working specialist explains a lot about its legendary focus on making sure its products have striking designs.

Then there’s the wave of iconic products it has produced over the past century, many of which hold a special place in people's hearts. Older members of the team fondly remember the wall-mounted BeoSound 9000 CD player, for example.

Even for me, a distinctly haggard professional shiny things chaser who’s never been able to afford to own one of its flashier speakers or players, there are a number of highlights to choose from.

Within the past decade alone I’ve jetted to Berlin to look at the giant Beosound Theatre soundbar, covered the launch of its 360 Beosound Balance speaker and its first foray into wireless earbuds, the Beoplay E8.

Interesting products all – and launches I remember to this day due to their distinctive designs and atypical focus on looking like works of art as much as sounding good.

Editor’s Note: There were also some funny moments covering the events, including the time a very senior colleague I won’t name accidentally spilled a full glass of red wine over the company's only fully functioning sample at the event. I shouldn’t laugh at others’ misfortune, but I’d already had my demo session and the way they did it had a particularly comical, Mr Bean-like, quality – any other tech hack reading this knows whom I am talking about.

But, even in this Rocky-level montage of awesome memories, as I thought about it, one key thing crystallised in my brain as to what I actually associate most with the brand. And it had nothing to do with Bang & Olufsen products' audio quality or visuals.

Instead it was the brand's recent eco efforts.

Bang & Olufsen will claim sustainability has always been a part of its DNA. But there was a watershed moment for me, where I started actively associating the idea with the brand.

It occurred at the launch of Bang & Olufsen’s Beosound Balance speaker in 2020. During the event I shuffled into a swanky looking lifestyle demo room, as I had many times before, and was met by Bang & Olufsen’s then vice president of design, Gavin Ivester, who was eager to show off the brand's new speaker.

I remember the moment because, as I ran through my standard suite of questions, he actually answered a tricky one that most of the executives I talked to at the time skipped over. Specifically, about how sustainable the speaker was.

Rather than just giving a generic “I'll get back to you on that”, he talked about how they got the wood used in its chassis, the type of metal they source and more – all the things that actually make a difference.

He even ended it telling me, “wait a bit and we’ll have something even better to share about this,” as I was leaving.

At the time I wrote this off as a hint that I would be doing the time warp and doing the exact same thing in a few months for another new speaker, or pair of headphones from the brand. But, come 2021, Bang & Olufsen delivered on his promise when it unveiled the Beosound Level (pictured above).

This was a big moment – for the Level was the first speaker to achieve a key sustainability milestone: Cradle-to-Cradle Bronze certification.

Covering the event, I was given the time to have a proper chinwag about the accreditation with two key players in the initiative and speaker's design: the independent Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute's then vice president of strategy & development, Christina Raab; and Bang & Olufsen’s then senior global product manager for classics and product circularity, Mads Kogsgaard Hansen.

All this may sound normal now, when sustainability is such a hot topic. But at the time it was rare to get access like this – and rarer still to find an audio company comfortable enough with its efforts to have an external auditor who could, and at times did, correct them at an interview.

That’s what stood out to me: the transparency and focus on proving their claims as much as just mouthing off a bunch of half-hearted stats or forward-looking promises. Unlike rivals I spoke to, B&O was there already doing it – and with one of the most stringent certification standards I had encountered at the time.

The Cradle-to-Cradle initiative is a tiered standard that gauges a product’s holistic impact on the environment.

This covers everything from the materials used, to the supply chain and then how recyclable and repairable it is. The accreditation is granted only after the independent Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has checked that all the criteria have been met.

Even after that, each accreditation has a shelf life, and the company has to resubmit to go through the process again, to prove it is still meeting the criteria after a certain amount of time has passed.

Fast forward to 2025 and very few tech products have met the standard due to its stringent criteria. There are 12 to be exact – and, of those, eight are from Bang & Olufsen. Even then, these only meet its lowest Bronze Full Scope standard.

Since then, B&O has continued its efforts, and has launched its latest Beosound A1 3rd Gen Bluetooth speaker and Beoplay H100, which both have a similar focus on sustainability, over the past 12 months.

For me, it is this openness, transparency and awareness among all the executives I have spoken to over the years that really stands out as the main thing I associate with Bang & Olufsen.

As we found during our 2025 Sustainability Week event, this level of “show your working” transparency is still a rare thing among audio companies.

Here’s hoping it continues its efforts and more companies follow Bang & Olufsen's lead with their sustainability efforts.

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Bang & Olufsen is celebrating its 100th birthday with its new Centennial Collection, a special edition series which pays tribute to the Danish brand's design legacy and audio heritage by reimagining three of Bang & Olufsen’s most popular products.

First up are the Beoplay H100 over-ears, the high-end wireless cans which its manufacturer claims are still “the best pair of headphones” it has ever created.

Furnished with a pair of 40mm custom-made titanium drivers housed behind aluminium grills, plus Dolby Atmos capabilities and advanced noise cancelling, the centenary edition ‘Century Brown’ cans are adorned with an anniversary logo and a red headband to distinguish them from their standard counterparts.

Bang & Olufsen has also given the centenary treatment to its established Beosound A5 wireless speaker. Billed as a “powerful speaker with wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity”, the A5 boasts “360-degree sound” thanks to its quad driver array and 280 watts of power.

The Beosound A5 Century Weave comes fitted with a paper raffia weave in beige and chestnut brown, designed to reimagine the chequered speaker grills of the 1950s and emulate the aesthetics of Bang & Olufsen’s earliest radios.

The special edition speaker also boasts a brushed aluminium frame complemented by a ‘century red’ leather strap and anniversary edition engravings to further underscore its unique credentials.

Last up is the Beosound A9 Century Blue, a celebratory iteration of B&O's established A9 wireless speaker. Immediately recognisable by virtue of its larger circular design, the A9 is a high-end wireless speaker which has been designed, thanks to its replaceable, modular design and updatable software, to be fully future-proof.

The reimagined edition is wrapped in a chequered woven fabric in blue and brown colours. The aluminium ring and legs are finished with a heritage-inspired brushed treatment, with the new A9 also boasting ‘cable blue’ feet.

Each product in the anniversary collection is finished with the ‘B&O Est. 1925 Anniversary’ logo and features a written tribute recalling Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen founding motto: “A never failing will to create only the best.”

According to Kristian Teär, Bang & Olufsen’s CEO: “Since our founding in 1925, timeless design has been at the heart of everything we craft. The Centennial Collection honours our past, celebrates our present, and looks to the future. It is a tribute to the icons that have shaped Bang & Olufsen and to the enduring values that define our legacy.”

Bang & Olufsen’s Centennial Collection will be available from 22nd October, with prices as follows:

- Beosound A5 Century Weave: £1250 / €1500 / $1750
- Beoplay A9 Century Blue £3800 / €4500 / $5500
- Beoplay H100 Century Brown £1500 / €1800 / $2300

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What would you spend £1000 / €1200 / $1500 on? A mahogany coffee table? Professional teeth whitening? An all-out holiday to the Caribbean? A week’s worth of rent in London?

How about a pair of wireless earbuds? That colossal sum is how much the Bang & Olufsen’s Beo Grace will set you back, with the luxury buds promising to be “the best-sounding and most intelligent earbuds the brand has ever created”. At that figure, you'd hope so.

Taking the same acoustic principles as found in Bang & Olufsen’s flagship Beoplay H100 over-ear headphones, the Beo Grace have been promised to deliver “unrivalled audio performance” thanks to their 12mm titanium drivers and advanced acoustic architecture.

The new buds employ ‘EarSense-powered’ Adaptive ANC, billed as being “four times” more effective than any previous B&O earbuds, tailoring noise cancellation in real time for a more personalised experience. The big-money in-ears are also furnished with Dolby Atmos’s take on spatial audio.

The Beo Grace tease “optimal performance for extended periods” without compromising on comfort, boasting B&O’s updated oval ear tips for a better fit and seal. The big-money earbuds are dust and waterproof thanks to their IP57 rating, with an integrated nylon mesh that safeguards the driver from unwanted debris.

The Beo Grace promise up to 4.5 hours of playtime from the buds with ANC switched on, as well as up to 17 hours of life taking the charging case into account.

According to Bang & Olufsen's CEO Kristian Teär: “Beo Grace is more than a new product, it is a symbol of the century ahead… we are bringing our heritage of acoustic ingenuity into a form you can wear – a piece of design sculpture that ushers in a new era of wearable sound.”

The B&O Beo Grace will be available from 17th November, priced at £1000 / €1200 / $1500). The buds come in a standard aluminium finish, but if you want the full luxury experience, a bespoke leather pouch, available in black, red or grey, is also available for a further £250 / €300 / $400.

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The 65-inch C7K (known as the QM7K in the US) arrives on our test benches on the back of a remarkable run of TCL TV form across a wide range of price points and screen sizes.

It’s fair to say, then, that the auspices for the C7K are seriously good. Can it really keep TCL’s good times rolling, though, when its large screen and promising feature count come at such a (relatively) low price?

Pricing

The TCL C7K’s price is definitely one of its star attractions, with the 65-inch model we’re testing costing just £899 / AU$1595. This TV is known as the QM7K in the US, where it launched for $1500 but is now available for around $900.

That makes it significantly cheaper than the recently reviewed C8K model that sits above it in the 2025 TCL TV range.

Yes, there are plenty of 65-inch TVs out there these days that are cheaper than £899, but you’ll be very hard pushed indeed to find any of those cheaper models getting even close to matching the C7K’s feature set and, as we’ll see, performance.

If 65 inches isn’t quite right for you, the C7K is also available in sizes ranging from 50 inches all the way up to 115 inches. Bear in mind that the different-sized versions of the TV will have slight specification differences, such as the number of dimming zones. We have already reviewed the 98-inch TCL C7K, though, and it’s excellent.

TCL also produces a Q7C model which, the company says, is identical to the C7K in all ways but one: the Q7C doesn’t have the anti-reflection film that the C7K does. Given how much such elements can affect picture quality, this review shouldn’t be seen as also covering the Q7C.

Design

The C7K looks and feels exactly like what it is: a premium TV being sold for a barely even mid-range price. Its screen is wrapped in a slick, narrow brushed-metal trim, behind which a narrower black back section protrudes to provide room for the new Bang & Olufsen multi-channel speaker system to breathe.

The screen sits on what appears to be the same metal central desktop mounting plate as the one provided with the C8K, and this stand attaches to the screen using the same wide-neck-with-detachable-cover arrangement into which you can ‘tidy’ all your cabling.

The C7K is robustly built, and since it’s quite a bit slimmer than the C8K, it is arguably the more attractive of the two – especially if you’re looking to wall hang your TV.

The C7K doesn’t get the same premium silver metal-finished remote control the C8K has, but the elongated black handset provided still bears a premium brushed metal-style finish (even though it’s really all plastic). It feels comfortable to hold, too, the buttons are numerous but helpfully well spread out, and there are direct access buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, TCL Channels (a curated selection of streamed TV channels) and Disney Plus.

Features

There’s far more to get through here than you have any right to expect for the price.

Starting with those headline-grabbing facts that, despite its affordable price, the C7K’s screen is illuminated by Mini LEDs rather than the usual large ones, and that these Mini LEDs are organised into a remarkably numerous 1008 independent dimming zones.

Add to this a claimed peak brightness of 2600 nits, and you’ve got some core specifications that most really high-end TVs would struggle to match.

We’ve been around the block enough times to know, though, that it’s not just how many Mini LED dimming zones you’ve got; it’s what you do with them that counts.

That is where TCL’s new AIPQ Pro picture processor will hopefully play its part, controlling those dimming zones and Mini LEDs with enough intelligence to ensure they boost contrast and general light control without drawing undue attention to themselves.

The C7K joins all the other new 2025 TCL TVs we’ve seen to date in deploying a whole ‘Halo Control’ suite of new hardware and software technologies to deliver better dark-scene consistency.

This sees the features we have mentioned already joined by other innovations such as new super-condensed LED lenses claimed to focus light more effectively and stably; a new six-crystal light-emitting chip reckoned to deliver nearly 30 per cent more brightness and more than 30 per cent more energy efficiency; the introduction of Polyimide to the liquid crystal molecules to make their microstructure more controllable; and 16-bit bi-directional screen control delivering 65,000 levels of precise light control.

This isn’t even the full extent of the innovations TCL has introduced to the C7K’s new CrystGlow WHVA panel, but we’ll leave it there before your eyes start to glaze over. And because the resulting picture quality is what really matters in the end.

The C7K’s connections are good for a TV in its price range. Four HDMIs lead the way, as we’d expect of a premium TV, and these are backed up by a single USB port, an optical digital audio output, an ethernet port and the now obligatory wi-fi and Bluetooth (v5.4) wireless connections. The wireless connectivity includes Apple AirPlay and Chromecast support.

It’s slightly disappointing that only two of the C7K’s HDMIs support high frame rate gaming, rather than all four of them, and that one of these gaming-friendly HDMIs has to do double duty as the only one equipped with the eARC HDMI technology required to ship sound – including lossless Dolby Atmos and DTS:X – to compatible soundbars and AVRs.

Most premium TVs provide more than one USB these days, too, though that matters much less.

Most households will be more than content with the C7K’s connections overall – and we shouldn’t forget that this is a 65-inch TV that costs only £899.

The C7K scores major brownie points with us for supporting all four of the key high dynamic range formats: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

In fact, it even supports the versions of Dolby Vision and HDR10 that can adapt their picture presentation to the ambient conditions in your room, and its Dolby Vision support further extends to a low-latency Dolby Vision Game mode.

Other gaming features include support for 4K feeds at frame rates up to 144Hz – and that frame rate support remarkably (and arguably a bit pointlessly at the moment…) jumps to 288Hz using TCL’s Game Accelerator technology, provided you don’t mind the resolution dropping to Full HD.

VRR is supported right up to the 288Hz maximum, and there’s support for the AMD FreeSync Premium Pro VRR system as well as the core HDMI one. TCL’s screen will automatically switch into its fast-response Game mode when a game source is detected, rendering 60Hz game graphics in this mode in just 13.2ms.

As we’re seeing with most mid-range and high-end TVs these days, the C7K lets you call up a dedicated Game Bar main menu screen when a game source is detected, from which you can check information on the incoming game signal and activate such game aids as an onscreen crosshair, a system for brightening just the darkest parts of the image, and support for the super-wide aspect ratios supported by a few PC titles.

Smart features on the C7K are provided by Google TV, complete with support for the Google Assistant voice-recognition system. TCL has also seen to it that its version of Google TV includes all of the UK’s main terrestrial broadcaster catch-up TV services – something that regular Google TV systems fail to do.

It’s a pity, perhaps, that there’s no support for Freeview Play or Freely, but all the key individual UK broadcaster catch-up apps are present and correct.

Last but not least on the C7K’s extensive feature list is its all-new Bang & Olufsen sound system. This replaces the brand’s previous Onkyo collaboration with new high-fidelity speaker designs fed by 60W of power and capable of handling both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks.

Picture quality

With the 98C7K having already shown us that TCL’s new C7K range can deliver the goods even on a screen as big as 98 inches, it’s no great surprise to find that the more modestly sized 65-inch C7K is at least as good.

Particularly stellar for its price is its contrast. On the most basic contrast level, it can deliver both extremely intense, vibrant HDR peaks by sub-£1k 65-inch TV standards, and some of the deepest and most neutral, natural-toned blacks and dark scenes the mid-range LCD TV world, at least, has to offer.

What’s more, it’s able to deliver its light and dark extremes on screen simultaneously, without either significantly compromising the other. By which we mean that shots where bright highlights stand out against dark backdrops appear without distracting light halos around them; the bright objects in such shots aren’t heavily dimmed to achieve that lack of haloing; and for the most part, blacks remain as inky as they do with uniformly dark shots.

Throw in excellent shadow detail reproduction (the C7K is actually slightly better in this respect than the more overtly punchy C8K) and an almost complete absence of either fluctuating dimming zones or noticeable jumps in brightness during cuts between bright and dark shots, and you’ve got a brilliantly effective and, thanks to its consistency, immersive backlight system that punches well above the TV’s weight.

The C7K’s impressive brightness holds up strikingly well even when an HDR shot fills the whole scene with intense light, too, looking at least twice as bright with such shots as even the best new OLED TVs can – further contributing to the excellent consistency of the C7K’s HDR images.

The brightness and contrast both play their part, too, in the C7K’s precociously brilliant colour performance. In its Standard picture preset, colours across a huge spectrum look radiantly beautiful, combining vivid intensity with a level of blend and tone subtlety that feels too good to be true on a TV as affordable as this.

The colours the Standard mode produces might not be particularly accurate to established video standards, but every tone looks impeccably balanced against the rest, painting extremely enjoyable – and believable – worlds for anyone not obsessed with true-to-creative-intent accuracy.

If you are obsessed with true-to-creative-intent accuracy, even after witnessing the splendours of the 65C7K’s Standard preset, then worry not: the C7K’s Filmmaker Mode delivers pictures that follow the established HDR and SDR standards impressively closely. They do this, too, without ending up looking drab or washed out, as can be the case with the Filmmaker Mode on LCD TVs with less impressive ‘native’ screen talents.

As part of our C7K tests, we ran it side by side with the step-up C8K, and we were startled to see during this head to head that the C7K’s colours actually look slightly richer and more rounded in its Standard preset than they do on the C8K – perhaps because the C7K’s slightly reduced brightness versus the more expensive C8K doesn’t put its Quantum Dot colour system under quite so much strain.

The head-to-head also shows, though, that the 65C8K delivers slightly more effective colours in its Movie and Filmmaker Modes than the C7K.

The excellent subtlety of the C7K’s light and colour handling helps it deliver impressive sharpness with native 4K sources, while the latest AiPQ processor also upscales HD sources to the screen’s 4K pixel count very handily, adding sharpness and density without exaggerating noise or creating significant unwanted processing side effects.

The C7K retains its clarity excellently when required to handle 24fps motion too, suffering pleasingly little with either hardware judder or resolution loss over moving objects.

There are a couple of niggles with the C7K’s pictures to report. A small patch of yellowish colour sometimes creeps in just below the middle of the top black bar when watching wide aspect ratio films (though we suspect this might be an isolated issue with our review sample), and occasionally, slightly too much detail is revealed in dark areas, revealing faint traces of noise along with the ‘correct’ shading information.

That’s basically it on the negative front, though. The 65-inch C7K is, overall, every bit as excellent a performer for its money as every other 2025 TCL TV that has come through our doors so far.

Sound quality

As with the C8K, the C7K’s audio isn’t quite as all-round brilliant as its pictures. The new Bang & Olufsen influence is enjoyably evident both in the extremely clean and prolific detailing the speakers present with good film soundtrack mixes, and in the way it can hit trebles other TVs cannot reach without sounding whiny or harsh.

The midrange is nice and open, too, providing plenty of room for soundtracks to ebb and flow, as well as helping vocals sound well-rounded and reasonably contextual.

The main problem is that the speakers don’t lean into low frequencies as enthusiastically and effectively as they deal with the higher end of the spectrum. So bass doesn’t reach as deep as trebles reach high, and what bass there is is delivered a bit too politely. This results in a slightly treble-heavy presentation where background and ambient sound effects can sometimes draw more of your attention than they should.

Exceptionally dense soundtrack moments, such as the swelling score during the extreme close-up of an eye opening near the start of Blade Runner 2049, sound slightly more swallowed and condensed than they do on the more powerful C8K, and very deep and extended bass sounds also exhibit a little chuffing and buzzing interference that the 65C8K typically avoids.

Despite these niggles, though, the C7K’s sound is good overall for a TV in its price range. It’s just not quite as good as that of its step-up sibling, and leaves room for improvement next time round.

Verdict

TCL has done it again. The C7K follows the C8K and C6KS in scarcely putting a foot wrong – and once again it does so at a price that also makes it outstanding value.

SCORES:

Picture 5

Sound 4

Features 4

ALSO CONSIDER:

• TCL C8K review
• Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED review
• LG QNED93 review

Back in April we brought you the news that Porsche was getting a major infotainment upgrade and the addition of Dolby Atmos support.

Now we can add another member of the Volkswagen Group (VAG) to the list of brands getting a sonic boost. Starting in July we are going to see the arrival of the first Audis compatible with the format.

As was the case with Porsche, the feature is going to be limited to certain models, at least with the initial rollout.

In this case, it’s the Audi Q7, Q8, A8 and Audi e-tron GT models fitted with Bang & Olufsen’s Premium 3D Sound System or Bang & Olufsen Advanced 3D Sound System. According to Audi’s press release, they have been “specially adapted to integrate Dolby Atmos”.

As was the case with the Porsche rollout, you will need to access tracks via the streaming services found within the Audi Application Store, which is accessed through Audi’s infotainment system, MMI (Multi Media Interface).

To take advantage of tracks available in the immersive audio format, you will need to have either an Amazon Music, Audible or Tidal subscription.

Like the Porsche rollout, it has been confirmed that Dolby Atmos support won't be backwards compatible with older models and will only be available on models on sale from July onwards.

Audi is the latest automotive manufacturer to announce Dolby Atmos support, with Polestar, Mercedes-Benz, Lotus and Cadillac all offering a more immersive listening experience with certain models.

We shall have to wait to see whether Dolby Atmos in an Audi can reduce anyone to tears until we can take one of the compatible cars for a spin.

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Do portable Bluetooth speakers need a wired audio connection? It’s not quite a question as old as time, and perhaps not as important as whether there’s life on other planets (definitely) or what the best flavour of Monster Munch (picked onion, obviously), but it has cropped up recently amongst our review team following a spring period packed with Bluetooth speaker testing.

We’ve had the five-star JBL Flip 7 and JBL Charge 6 pass through our doors, as well as the classy Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Gen), all portable models capable of delivering excellent wireless sound to take with you on your travels. After all, isn’t that the point of a Bluetooth speaker?

Well, yes and no. Connecting your smartphone (or other music source) to any of the aforementioned units’ predecessors was done exclusively via Bluetooth, but according to JBL, one request from customers was the inclusion of a wired audio connection. Why? JBL told us it's because their customers wanted to be able to hear the higher-quality 24-bit lossless audio provided by the best music streaming services these days, like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Tidal.

And that's what JBL did. The new Flip 7 and Charge 6 feature wired listening for the first time, supporting up to 24-bit/96kHz hi-res lossless audio playback from a smartphone, laptop or other source device using USB-C. The new B&O Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) that we just tested offers a wired listening option via USB-C for the first time, too.

This all feels a bit counterintuitive, considering the type of portable products we’re testing, but it’s hard to deny the sonic gains achieved by using a wired cable. Naturally, a wired connection will offer better sound quality than the very compressed and lossy Bluetooth wireless connection, and we can confirm from our testing that all three speakers undoubtedly sound better when using USB-C.

Sound-wise, wired is the way to go

To quote from our recent Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) review: “A wired connection to an iPhone 15 offers noticeable sonic improvements, with the speaker hardening up just a touch but finding new levels of clarity, punch and spriteliness when listening to the same songs on Tidal via wired compared with Bluetooth”.

It’s the same with the two JBL speakers. From our JBL Charge 6 review: “Switch to wired lossless listening, and there is considerably less noise in the background. You get subtler depths to both detail and dynamic shifts when listening via USB-C, too, but the character remains the same as Bluetooth.”

Well, that’s that then, isn’t it? If a wired connection makes your Bluetooth speaker sound better, why wouldn’t you include one and, more importantly, why wouldn’t you use it? We’re all here for better sound, aren’t we?

Better sound, less convenience?

Yes and no. The reason we ask the question in the first place is that we do wonder if people who buy portable Bluetooth speakers (especially the affordable ones) really care enough about sound quality to prioritise a physical connection over the more convenient Bluetooth one.

Better sound is great, of course, but the Bluetooth performance you get is still great by current standards for a portable product. And let’s be honest… isn’t the cable-free convenience of a wireless speaker the whole reason you buy them in the first place?

It’s much less convenient in practical terms to be physically tethered to your JBL or B&O as well. The fun of a Bluetooth buddy is that you can be standing on the other end of a field or have the speaker in any place in the house and still control your tunes. It’s nice to be able to switch tracks quickly from your phone at a house party rather than having to drop what you’re doing and, hunched over like a gremlin, start trying to find Tina Turner on Tidal.

Plus, if you are using a cable, you may have to relinquish use of your smartphone and not have it on your person at all times – which means not being able to check those all-important WhatsApp messages the second they come in, or being able to change the music as easily. Unless you want to be carrying both around at the same time, you’re going to have to leave your smartphone by your speaker in order to keep it connected. That can be impractical if your speaker is placed out of reach, and if you're using a short cable.

A Bluetooth speaker gives you so much freedom and flexibility – that's the whole point. We imagine most people will still use the JBLs and B&O exactly as intended – wirelessly – for the most part, but it's nice to at least have the option for wired listening for those who really want it.

Being able to simply switch from wireless to wired gives you the best of both worlds. It’s having your cake and eating it, but the cake here is a JBL Flip 7. Or maybe it’s a lossless USB-C tether...

It's nice to be heard

What we appreciate most is manufacturers actively listening to consumers about their desires and concerns. JBL is a huge player in the portable speaker game, and it has a proven record of listening to feedback and making improvements to its products. Sony has recently exhibited similar behaviour, adding foldability and strengthened hinges to its five-star WH-1000XM6 over-ears after customer feedback.

Will we start to see a wired connection option become commonplace with Bluetooth speakers going forward? We're not sure, but it is encouraging to know that there is a growing appetite for higher-quality and hi-res music listening from the users of these popular portable Bluetooth speakers.

Across products of all types and prices, users are demanding better sound alongside ever-improving convenience. Now that's something we can get behind.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the latest entry into our weekly Rewind news digest, where our team of hi-fi and home cinema experts explain all the latest top stories you need to know about.

It was another hectic seven days for the team, with us delivering our final verdict on big name products, including Bang & Olufsen’s latest Bluetooth speaker, and sneaking past company watchdogs to get an early look and listen with the successor to a repeat Award-winner.

Here’s everything you need to know.

B&O’s latest Bluetooth offers decent bang for your buck

2025 has been a great year for Bluetooth speakers, thanks to the launch of the five-star JBL Flip 7 and JBL Charge 6.

Last week, Danish design and audio powerhouse Bang & Olufsen looked to get in on the action with its latest Beosound A1 (3rd Generation).

And while we found plenty to like about the tiny, beautifully crafted speaker during testing, its higher price made it slightly difficult to recommend. Hence its four star rating and our reviewers’ verdict:

“You can buy larger, more powerful alternatives for a lower price, but its excellent build quality and notable sonic talents make the stylish Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) a tempting proposition.”

Read our full Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Generation) review

We had an opening look at Ruark’s latest desktop speakers

Ruark Audio’s MR1 line of tiny speakers will be a familiar sight to any regular What Hi-Fi? reader.

This is because both the first generation Ruark Audio MR1 and subsequent Ruark Audio MR1 MK2 were repeat Award-winners and a common sight in our best speakers buying guide during their heyday.

But, it’s no secret the MK2 has begun to show its age. Which is why we were delighted to see the company launch a new Ruark Audio MR1 MK3 speaker last week. And having rushed past the crowds to get an opening look and listen to it, you can colour us impressed.

Featuring a wealth of technical upgrades, including a new driver design, and the same beautiful, retro, wood finish we loved on past models, there’s a lot to like about the new MR1 MK3.

Here’s hoping it continues to deliver the goods when we get it into our listening rooms for the proper What Hi-Fi? review treatment.

Read our in-depth Ruark Audio MR1 MK3 preview

Elipson’s new speakers want to please hi-fi and home cinema fans

Last week Elipson unveiled its new Prestige Facet II speaker series, claiming the new line is perfect for hi-fi and home cinema fans.

The series sits at the affordable end of the French audio firm’s portfolio and consists of three floorstanders (2.5-way 14F, 3.5-way 24F and 3-way 34F), two standmounts (2-way 6B and 8B), two centre channels (11C and 14C), a Dolby Atmos module (5AT), a surround-sound speaker (7SR) and an LCR (14LCR).

This means they can be combined to create a variety of surround-sound configurations, including Dolby Atmos.

Read the full story: Elipson’s Prestige Facet II speaker series flies the flag for both hi-fi and Dolby Atmos home cinema

Beyerdynamic launched new open back headphones

Beyerdynamic is a brand with a long history in the open-back headphone space, which is why we were excited to see it unveil the new DT 990 PRO X last week.

On paper, the open back headphones have a lot going for them, featuring a detachable cable design and new driver tech.

The new Stellar 45 driver is quoted as being capable of delivering a 5-40kHz frequency response and “industry leading” levels of analytical precision, according to Beyerdynamic.

We’re yet to see the new headphones in the flesh, but considering the firm’s track record in the space and our experience with their closed back Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X sibling, we’re taking the claims seriously.

Read the full story: Beyerdynamic’s new studio headphones are gunning for analytical precision

Hisense has new tiny 4K projector

Hisense has developed a strong track record in the coffee-table and UST projector space, with its PL2 earning five stars in May.

Which is why the announcement of its smallest 4K, portable projector to date turned some heads last week.

The catchily named Hisense M2 Pro Smart Mini Projector certainly lives up to its name, measuring in at an outright miniscule 19 x 22 x 23cm (7.6 x 8.6 x 9.1") and weighing just 3.9kg – making it just about light enough to take camping.

Despite the small dimensions it has some impressive specifications. Highlights include Hisense's proprietary Triple Laser technology, a decent 1300 lumens peak brightness – which should make it usable outdoors, based on our experience – and 200-inch maximum projection size.

Read the full story: The M2 Pro is Hisense's smallest portable 4K projector yet

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The new Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) has sparked some interesting conversations within the What Hi-Fi? offices.

It's been five or so years since the previous generation of Beosound A1 model arrived, so the prospect of a successor was a big moment – Bang & Olufsen doesn't exactly pump out products with the machine-like regularity of JBL or Sony.

Those conversations have, as we'll see, had me questioning myself, the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) and, perhaps most importantly, our own test procedures.

Ever since I've been at What Hi-Fi? (around two and a half years, doesn't time fly etc), I've worked, as have we all, on the principle of sound-per-pound (or dollar) performance, assessing products relative to the amount they cost to buy.

We view and assess through the lens of value, not pure objective quality, in order to give the most salient and useful buying advice possible. Of course, a multi-hundred-pound pair of wireless headphones is probably going to trounce a set that costs 10 per cent of their price from the back-end of Amazon in terms of their outright performance, but not necessarily in terms of their performance value.

The new B&O Bluetooth beauty, however, has slightly thrown these assessment metrics into question. We like the Beosound A1 (Gen 3), awarding it four stars and praising its build, usability and sweet-sounding midrange.

Yet based on sound-per-pound performance and overall value, it is a fair way behind its more affordable JBL Bluetooth speaker rivals, which, as you might have noticed, keep scooping those tasty five-star reviews.

The five-star JBL Charge 6 is roughly on a performance par but will cost you £130 / $50 / AU$400 less than the B&O, meaning that, by our traditional sound-per-pound metric, the JBL is the better-value speaker. Heck, you could buy the JBL Xtreme 4 (currently £230 / $250 / AU$330), which is superior still and about five times the size of the B&O.

So why is the new Beosound A1 such an easy speaker to covet and, perhaps more crucially, to actively recommend? Well, for a start, it has certain qualities which can't readily be quantified in terms of cold hard cash.

The B&O has an indefinable 'cachet', a sort of strange allure and prestige that you just don't get from a JBL, and that's a tough thing to put a price on.

You can tell from the way we hold it. Give us a JBL Flip 7 or Charge 6 and the first thing we'll do is chuck it in the air, toss it to a work colleague or start trying to take chunks out of its rubberised edges. And hey, that's no bad thing – it's designed to be rugged and hard-wearing.

But with the Beosound, we spent most of our time holding it before us like a votive offering, cradling the speaker as though it were made of ivory and glass. The main metal body grille feels classy and substantial, as does the rubberised underside, all coming together to create something that feels like it has genuine worth.

The perceived value is just so much greater than with the JBLs, despite their price difference, and we instinctively treat it accordingly.

As we've said in conversation, if you had work colleagues around for dinner at a swanky party, you'd pull out the B&O. If you were going down the park with your mates, you'd bring the JBL. Environment and context matter, and the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) would feel right at home nestled among John Lewis soft furnishings or placed next to some boujee Le Creuset cookware.

Let's also establish that the idea of value has its elastic limits. The price tag of the B&O may be a limitation for me, especially as someone who views everything as a comparative 'performance for the price' judgement, but this is a Bluetooth speaker for a buyer who isn't necessarily working within those parameters, or indeed any parameters at all.

"Ah, but what if money were no object?" was the question a more perceptive colleague put to me, quite rightly, when I was defending the What Hi-Fi? party line. "What if you could have any Bluetooth speaker you liked?"

Okay, I'd be more tempted by the stunning Dali Katch G2, but the principle is the same: it's not always about value as you go up the cost ladder, it's about getting the thing that you want, cost be damned.

That Katch G2 started life at well over £300 and actually justified its high price tag with a sound superior to that of the more affordable competition – to the extent that it won a What Hi-Fi? Award. But not every prospective buyer would necessarily be so concerned with value; they just want the best, swankiest speaker they can find.

It's also about the unique amalgamation of features and qualities that makes a product enticing. Yes, you can get a much larger speaker at a lower cost, but what if you want something portable? Again, you could get a smaller JBL Flip 6, but what if build quality and aesthetics are paramount? You could find something cheaper and better value, but as we've covered, what if money is simply no object?

The thing is, whether we're writing reviews or reading them, it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the most important aspect of consumer advice: do you actually want the product in question?

The recently reviewed Neat Iota II bookshelf speakers are a great example of this: their large price tag led to a four-star review, but that doesn't stop them from being a charming duo that we can't help but covet. Even when you know you're not getting the best deal, they offer something unique – style, function, that indefinable 'want it' factor – that sets them apart from more 'sensible' alternatives.

It's the same with the Beosound A1 (Gen 3). Is it the best value Bluetooth speaker you can buy? Definitely not? Would I buy one for myself? Not at this price.

But do I want one? Absolutely.

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So much has changed in the world since the last Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) hit the shelves in 2020. The stylish portable Bluetooth speaker was a big hit with the What Hi-Fi? team, scooping up a five-star review and earning admiring 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from our testers for its entertaining sound and beautiful build.

We didn’t expect that it would take five whole years for the third-generation model to arrive. We’ve had a global pandemic, seismic political instability and, most shockingly of all, Tottenham Hotspur FC managed to win a major trophy – that’s how long it’s been.

Much as we admired the Beosound A1 (2nd Gen), the world has moved on. JBL has put its foot on the proverbial gas during those interim years, upping its game with one brilliant portable Bluetooth speaker after another, while Bose has staked its claim in the portable realm with the likes of the excellent Soundlink Max.

That leaves us with a simple question: is this a triumphant return for the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Gen), or has it failed to keep up in an ever-changing, ever-competitive audio world?

Price

Small it may be, but cheap it is not. The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) is priced at £299 / $249 / AU$639, which puts it in a decidedly premium bracket as far as Bluetooth speakers are concerned. B&O devices of any shape or size rarely come cheap, let’s be honest.

Competition is fierce. The five-star JBL Flip 7 is a slightly smaller alternative which costs just £130 / $150 / AU$170, while the superb JBL Charge 6 currently sits at around £170 / $199 / AU$200. The premium Dali Katch G2 is still around, and as it’s getting on a bit, you can usually pick one up for £299 in the UK, AU$600 in Australia, and at an unusually high US figure of roughly $600.

If you want something that’s truly price comparable to the B&O, you’re going to have to go all the way up to the JBL Xtreme 4 which costs around £250 / $300 / AU$400 at the time of writing. However, the JBL is much larger, much less portable operator – you can’t fit the Xtreme 4 in your rucksack, after all.

Build & design

When we reviewed it in 2020, we described the Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) as having dimensions similar to “a large floury bap or an English muffin”. In the spirit of intercontinental co-operation and to aid our non-UK-based readers, imagine a large burger bun or an oversized, extra-thick pancake.

If food analogies aren’t your thing, the third-gen iteration is a round, relatively thick portable speaker that’s smaller than a Frisbee and bigger than a coaster.

Whatever your point of comparison, it’s a beautifully made product. There’s something about a B&O speaker that just exudes class, and it’s no different with the third-generation iteration of the Beosound A1 portable speaker.

Costly as it is, we understand that some buyers will simply enjoy the thrill of owning something that feels premium and exclusive, qualities that Bang & Olufsen products tend to exude in spades.

The Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) retains its compact, circular form, designed to fire out a fully 360-degree sound from its pearl-blasted aluminium body.

A leather strap completes the ensemble, while an impressive IP67 rating will keep your speaker safe from splashes, dust ingress and even submersion in water for around 30 minutes. We tested how the Beosound A1 handled a swim, happily discovering no lasting damage after a quick dip in the office sink.

It’s probably not quite as robust as its rough-and-ready rivals, though. The speakers on JBL’s extensive portable roster, with their rubberised ends and shockproofed designs, feel as though they could survive a nuclear war.

We feel less confident chucking the Beosound A1 around with such abandon – it just doesn’t seem as comfortable enduring such punishment. It won’t break if you toss it into your rucksack, but it may be susceptible to marks if you’re not careful with how you treat your boujee companion.

Bang & Olufsen has gone for an elegant design with as few obstructions as possible, meaning that the speaker’s small touch controls are smoothly integrated onto the side of the unit in a bid to preserve that perfectly round shape.

On the one side, you’ll find the play/pause button alongside volume up and down, while on the other you’ll discover Bluetooth pairing, power and microphone switches. All buttons are responsive in use.

A tiny LED indicates your speaker’s current power or pairing status, though for the sake of clarity, B&O could have made it larger and more obvious to the eye. A small quibble.

The speaker’s circularity extends beyond its literal physical form. B&O claims the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) design is the first Bluetooth speaker in the world to be ‘Cradle to Cradle Certified’, so it should be serviceable and repairable well into the future.

The A1 has an extended 10-year lifetime in its first lifecycle and a replaceable battery, so maybe putting time and money into such future-proofed elements go towards justifying its substantial outlay.

Features

It’s good news if you thought that the second generation Beosound A1’s 18 hours of battery life was a little miserly, with the newer model increasing that figure to a very respectable 24 hours if you’re willing to play at slightly more conservative levels.

That matches the 24 hours of the JBL Charge 6 (although this will manage 28 with its Playtime Boost feature) and easily trumps the 12 hours offered by the smaller JBL Flip 7. It falls short of the 30 hours boasted by the Dali Katch G2.

Codec support is solid, with the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) offering the standard SBC and AAC protocols alongside the higher-quality aptX Adaptive. Like the outgoing model, the third-gen speaker sticks with Bluetooth 5.1 – when contemporary alternatives are loaded with more current Bluetooth 5.3 and 5.4 standards, that feels just a tad retrograde. It’s hardly a dealbreaker for a portable speaker, though, and there are no issues with pairing or connection.

One update on this new model is that the A1 3rd Gen's USB-C connection works for playing music from a wired source device as well as for charging, with a fabric-covered USB-C to USB-C cable included in the box.

The Beosound A1 has a three-microphone array assisted by B&O’s ‘FarField’ technology for clearer, more transparent voice calls, meaning you can use your portable pal as a speakerphone if you’re at home or in the office. Calls are well-handled, reproducing human speech with solid levels of clarity and isolation, even if voices can sound a little hard-edged and processed to our ears.

The stylish circular speaker does have its blind spots. There’s no sign of Auracast, the increasingly popular audio sharing protocol which allows you to tether multiple Auracast-compatible units in tandem.

You can, however, create a stereo pair with another Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) unit or even an older A1 (2nd Gen) speaker – handy if you’ve still got your old model and don’t want it to go to waste.

Perhaps more notably, Bang & Olufsen has decided to drop Alexa support from this latest generation. We’re sad to see it go, but perhaps not many users found the need for a smart assistant from a portable speaker that, a lot of the time, wouldn’t be connected to the internet anyway.

Sound

According to B&O, the third-generation Beosound A1 "features the largest woofer in its class, delivering deeper bass" for a "rich, room-filling sound from a compact form". The new unit boasts two 30-watt Class D amplifiers powering the 82.5mm woofer and a 15mm tweeter, with Bang & Olufsen promising sonic gains that see 2025’s edition outshine the smooth and authoritative presentation of the older model.

Ludwig Goransson’s Can You Hear The Music from Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic Oppenheimer kicks off our testing, and wouldn’t you know it, we’ve played right into the new Beosound A1’s hands. The speaker has a noticeable talent for midrange reproduction, bringing authenticity and sweetness to the rising, soaring strings of Goransson’s powerful, ever-undulating arrangement.

Naturally, this midrange adeptness extends to vocal reproduction. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ heartrending Into My Arms is up next, and the B&O speaker excels at making Cave sound like his grave, sincere self.

Even when placed up against the excellent JBL Charge 6, Cave’s crooning grabs us more starkly through the Beosound A1. He’s simply more emotive, authentic and natural sounding – a great result for B&O.

The new Beosound A1’s talents extend beyond the midrange. No, it’s not the bassiest operator you’ll find, but what lower-end reproduction there is comes across as taut and nicely controlled, so there’s rarely a sense that your tunes will be bogged down in a sea, or indeed a swamp, of blobby bass.

The B&O's presentation is, in fact, remarkably cohesive, but it doesn't spread music out with quite as much scale and depth in the way that a rival JBL rival will. We like the cohesion and tightness the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) delivers, though.

While we’re never short on detail as we listen, things get even better when a USB-C tether is involved. A wired connection to an iPhone 15 offers noticeable sonic improvements, with the speaker hardening up just a touch but finding new levels of clarity, punch and spriteliness when listening to the same songs on Tidal via wired compared with Bluetooth.

In terms of pure wireless performance, is this the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker you can buy for the price? Naturally, the much larger (and cheaper) JBL Xtreme 4 will outperform it comfortably, while a head-to-head comparison with the (also cheaper) JBL Charge 6 makes for a more interesting test.

The Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) has that cohesion, authenticity and mid-range sweetness, but the engaging dynamism and musicality of the Charge 6 means that it’s hardly a whitewash in the B&O’s favour. Bear in mind that the Beosound A1 costs £130 / $50 / AU$400 more than the Charge 6 – in terms of sound-per-pound performance, the JBL does seem to offer better value for money.

Verdict

Initially, it can be tough to look past the price of the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen). At this level, you could get a JBL Charge 6 or Xtreme 4 for cheaper – both speakers with greater power and size than the Beosound can manage. When you can have rivals of such calibre and potency, it can be hard to see where the A1 has its place.

The thing is, it’s still an admirable performer given its compact size – not everyone wants a whopping speaker after all – bringing with it sufficient sonic talents which, when combined with its stylish, classy build and premium cachet, make for a charming product.

It’s not quite the best in class sound-wise, but given its unique appeal, the B&O Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) is the kind of thing that you can’t help but covet.

Review published: 3rd June 2025

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 4

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Bang & Olufsen has unveiled its latest music system, which bridges the gap between the past and the present. The new Beosystem 3000c reintroduces the original Beogram 3000 turntable from 1985 and pairs it with the company's current Beolab 8 stereo speakers for a retro-modern fusion setup.

Limited to just 100 sets, the Beosystem 3000c combines classic analogue listening with modern practicalities, wherein "analogue warmth and effortless streaming live side by side in one timeless system".

For the uninitiated, the Beolab 8 are wireless speakers with built-in network streaming capabilities, offering support for the likes of Tidal and Spotify Connect alongside AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Bluetooth 5.3. Their standalone price is £2199 / $2749 / AU$4499.

The Beogram 3000 turntable, meanwhile, debuted forty years ago, with the original offering a lightweight tonearm and B&O's 'Optimum Pivot Point' system for reducing vibrations from interfering with musical playback.

It also employed tangential tracking, wherein the tonearm moves across the record in a straight line, in a bid to reduce tracking errors.

Bang & Olufsen hasn't merely shunted these two mainstays together and given the resultant combination a fancy new name, though.

As part of the brand's 'Recreated Classic' series, aimed at giving established products a new lease of life, the materials within the Beosystem 3000c have been preserved, cleaned, upgraded and even futureproofed at B&O's factory headquarters.

The Beogram 3000's original aluminium parts have been remanufactured and finished in pearl-blasted and brushed treatments for an updated aesthetic, whereas the companion Beolab 8 are fitted with walnut lamellas and aluminium shells for what B&O describes as a "cohesive visual and acoustic experience".

"Through our Recreated Classics series, we honour the cultural impact of vinyl listening while showcasing the long-lasting value of B&O products," says B&O's Mads Kogsgaard Hansen. "The Beosystem 3000c invites our customers to rediscover their vinyl collections and enjoy the emotional richness of music as it was meant to be heard.”

The Beosystem 3000c is made to order and available now, priced at £22,100 / $30,000 / €26,000.

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2025 is rapidly turning into one of the most turbulent years in recent memory for hi-fi and home cinema fans.

Just five months in, we have seen the launch of key new technologies, potential big price hikes caused by US tariffs and, just this week, the sale of Masimo’s audio brands to Harman International.

Honestly, it has been a genuine rollercoaster ride for the What Hi-Fi? team – and we still have huge events, including High End Munich, to cover.

Here, to help you keep up with all the latest developments, is the latest entry of our weekly Rewind news digest, detailing everything you need to know.

Harman International is buying some big-name hi-fi brands

The announcement that Harman International has entered a definitive agreement with Masimo to buy its audio brands by the end of the year is without a doubt some of the biggest news to drop in 2025.

The deal will see Harman International, which is owned by Samsung, buy big-name brands including Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, Classé, HEOS and Boston Acoustics for the lump sum of $350m.

While we haven’t been given any details about Harman’s plans for each brand, we are cautiously optimistic that the sale could be a good thing for at least a few of them given the company’s AV focus.

Masimo is big, certainly, but it is primarily a medical technology company, so its ownership of audio brands always felt a little odd for many in the hi-fi industry.

Read the full story: Harman is buying Bowers & Wilkins, Marantz and Denon as Masimo sells its consumer audio business

High End Munich is fast approaching

This year's High End Munich is a big event for a couple of reasons. First, because High End is one of the biggest hi-fi shows in the world.

Each year our team hits the floor and finds more top-end hi-fi treats than can easily be counted.

Given what we know so far, this trend looks set to continue in 2025, with big name brands including Chord, JBL, Qobuz, Elipson, Audiolab and more hosting launch events at the show.

The second, and in some ways more important, reason is that this is the last show to be held in Munich; High End is set to migrate to Vienna next year.

We have covered the event for many years, so the move feels a little bit like the end of an era.

With this in mind, we’re expecting some extra special treats to come out of High End Munich, where our team of experts will be on the ground reporting live.

Read the full story: High End Munich 2025 preview: what to expect from the upcoming hi-fi show

Bang & Olufsen has a new Bluetooth speaker

Bang & Olufsen last week launched its new Beosound A1 (3rd Gen) Bluetooth speaker. As the name suggests this is the third A1 speaker it has launched.

At first glance it may look very similar to the five-star Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen), but under the hood B&O has made a few key upgrades.

These include a new woofer that B&O claims is “the largest in its class” and a new tweeter design.

It is powered by two 30-watt Class-D amplifiers, and B&O promises the new A1 will deliver deeper bass, higher volume and generally more detailed audio than its predecessor.

Our reviewers were really impressed with the second generation A1, so if the new model delivers on that promise we could be in for a treat when we get one into our listening rooms.

Read the full story: Bang & Olufsen's incredibly stylish Bluetooth speaker promises "elevated sound" and "enduring design"

We asked a Sony hi-fi legend what his favourite product is

Last week we caught up with What Hi-Fi? Outstanding Contribution Award winner and general audio, wizard Eric Kingdon and asked him which product he is most proud to have worked on.

Kingdon is often called “the ears of Sony” and has worked at the brand for more than 40 years, in which time he has helped to create some of its most iconic products. His hit list includes everything from Award-winning stereo amplifiers to class-leading speakers and Blu-ray players – so there was plenty for him to choose from.

After some gentle pushing from our managing editor, Becky Roberts, he revealed that the Sony STR-DN1080 home cinema amplifier holds a particularly special place in his heart.

Read the full story: “I guess a product becomes truly special when it’s the first thing you switch on when you’re home.” The man behind Sony’s sound picks the product he’s proudest of

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Bang & Olufsen's elegant, smooth-sounding Beosound A1 has been a mainstay of our best Bluetooth speakers guide ever since we reviewed the second-generation model back in 2020. It's been a long time coming, but the Danish brand has finally unveiled the third-generation Beosound A1.

The Beosound A1 3rd Gen remains a compact, portable speaker in a circular design, with 360-degree sound emitting from its classy-looking, pearl-blasted aluminium body. A waterproof leather strap completes the design, which comes in three finishes: natural aluminium, honey tone and eucalyptus green.

The Beosound A1 3rd Gen keeps things simple for a Bluetooth speaker: it sticks with Bluetooth 5.1 as before and supports the higher aptX Adaptive codec. Battery life has been increased to 24 hours, while B&O says its mechanical engineers and acousticians have managed to maximise output and eke out an additional 2dB of deeper bass compared with its predecessor, while still retaining the same compact dimensions.

According to B&O, the A1 3rd Gen "features the largest woofer in its class, delivering deeper bass with a Bass SPL of 64dB" for a "rich, room-filling sound from a compact, go-anywhere form." Inside the speaker are two 30-watt Class D amplifiers powering the woofer and tweeter.

We were big fans of the A1 Gen 2's smooth, authoritative and expansive presentation, so we're looking forward to hearing how the sound quality has improved and can compete with today's best in the market.

The A1 should survive most weather conditions and outdoor adventures thanks to an IP67 dust and waterproof rating, and it has a three-microphone array with FarField technology for clear voice calls – useful when using the A1 as a speakerphone at home and in the office.

We have also had it confirmed that the A1 3rd Gen's USB-C connection works for playing music from a source device such as a laptop, as well as charging the device. The speaker comes with a fabric USB-C to USB-C cable included in the box, too.

Compared with the A1 2nd Gen, the third-generation A1 has shed its Amazon Alexa smart-control integration. There's also no sign of any future-proof Auracast support as we have seen adopted by many new Bluetooth portables, such as the new five-star JBL Charge 6.

On the other hand, the A1 does support multipoint connection up to two devices, and it supports stereo pairing between two Beosound A1 3rd Gen speakers, and even between a 3rd Gen speaker and an older 2nd Gen A1 speaker. It's great to see B&O recognise that many people will want to hold on to their older speaker, rather than discard it for something new.

This longevity is another key element of the Beosound A1 3rd Gen's design. B&O says this is the first Bluetooth speaker in the world to be Cradle to Cradle Certified (Bronze Level), which means it is designed with the aim to be serviceable, upgradeable, and repairable. The A1 3rd Gen has an extended 10-year lifetime in its first lifecycle, its battery is replaceable at any time via the official Bang & Olufsen store, and B&O offers a five-year warranty for the speaker.

This 'circular' approach (which aims to minimise waste and keep resources in circulation for as long as possible) is threaded throughout the A1 speaker. We spoke to Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, Head of Product Circularity & Portfolio Planning at Bang & Olufsen, who told us that while the A1 hasn't had many significant changes in the third iteration ("why should we fix something that is not broken?") as far as visual design, usability and listening habits is concerned, the team has taken a deeper look at reducing waste materials overall.

"It's often a younger customer who is buying this product," says Hansen. And this target audience has a "more keen interest in circularity and more conscious consumption, and trying to understand the consequences of their purchases." And so "we are starting to implement recirculated elements" in the A1, he says.

"You will see now that the aluminium dome and also the small aluminium lock on the leather strap is partly based on recirculated materials: a combination of post-consumer recirculated and post-industrial recirculated materials. The same is true for the inner plastic parts; the more structural parts of the cabinet is based on 70 per cent post-consumer recycled plastic."

It's clear that finding ways to be more sustainable is just as important as delivering a product that looks and sounds good, especially for a luxury brand such as B&O. It's not easy, however, as Hansen states, albeit positively.

"The best we can do in our industry, when we talk about being more sustainable, is to make sure that we get more value out of the materials and resources we do extract and use, and postpone the point in time where they end up as waste that needs to be recycled, right? So there's definitely a dilemma we have in the industry."

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen is available now for £299 / €349. The previous model was tested at £199 / $250; it's no surprise the price has gone up in the intervening years, but we're excited to hear how the new B&O speaker squares up against excellent rivals from JBL, Dali, Bose and more, once we get a review sample in. Stay tuned for our review in due course.

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JBL is a name that pops up in many areas of the hi-fi world, but when it comes to portable Bluetooth speakers, the American brand is definitely one of the big dogs.

We have been handing out five-star reviews and What Hi-Fi? Awards to JBL for its portable speakers for years now, thanks largely to their excellent combination of rugged build quality, handy features, and terrific sound quality for the money.

If you’re in the market for a portable Bluetooth speaker, then it’s likely that JBL has come up as part of your research; but which one should you actually part with your hard-earned cash for?

Whether you want something small to chuck in a beach bag, a larger boombox that’s capable of getting a party started, or something in between, JBL has a portable Bluetooth speaker for you. Read on and we’ll help you find it.

JBL Charge 6

Should you buy the JBL Charge 6?

The Charge 6 is one of the most recent additions to JBL’s extensive range of portable Bluetooth speakers and it’s a wonderful all-rounder that strikes a lovely balance between performance and price.

The Charge 6 will set you back £10/$20 more than its predecessor (it costs the same in Australia), but it improves on the Charge 5 in a number of small but meaningful ways.

Weighing in at just under 1kg and taking up about the same amount of space as a bottle of wine, the Charge 6 is well suited to life on the go, particularly with its sturdy build, IP68 durability rating and detachable handle.

Lengthy battery life of up to 28 hours also makes it a suitable travel partner, and you can even use its USB-A port to charge your phone. It also has Auracast sharing tech on board, so you can pair it with other similarly equipped speakers when one isn’t enough.

Inside there’s a 20mm tweeter and a newly developed woofer that share 40W of power; but JBL has also added ‘AI Sound Boost’, which is designed to analyse the songs you play in real time and help to cut out any distortion. Connect a suitable source using a USB-C cable and it can even play hi-res tracks at up to 24-bit/96kHz.

The result is a powerful, punchy sound that is clearer and more detailed than the Charge 5 could manage. Considering that speaker won multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards, the JBL Charge 6 is a very worthy successor.

Should you buy the JBL Charge 6?

The JBL Charge 6 is easy to recommend to anyone. It’s a brilliant combination of portability and performance, with a price tag that’s not prohibitive.

Perhaps the only thing that could potentially tempt you away from the Charge 6 is its own predecessor. The Charge 5 is still available at a hefty discount (we have seen it for under £100 / $130 / AU$200, depending on which colour you choose) which is quite the bargain. That’s worth considering while stocks last, but do bear in mind that the Charge 6 is still the superior speaker.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

In a word: yes. In fact, we recently made the JBL Charge 6 the top choice on our list of the best Bluetooth speakers.

Its closest rival is the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1, which we tested at £199 / $250 / AU$330 but is now available for slightly less, albeit still more than the Charge 6. The B&O has also been around for a number of years now, so while it still very much looks the part, its feature set is perhaps starting to look a little stale.

• Read our full JBL Charge 6 review
• Full comparison: JBL Charge 6 vs JBL Charge 5

JBL Flip 7

Should you buy the JBL Flip 7

The JBL Flip 7 was introduced earlier this year, at the same time as the Charge 6, and as the smaller of the two units it’s particularly appealing to those who prioritise portability from their Bluetooth speaker.

Its cylindrical shape fits nicely in the hand – our reviewer compared it to a burrito – and at 560g it won’t weigh you down either. In fact, it should fit nicely into the side pocket of the average backpack. If not, it comes with a carabiner clip for hooking it on instead.

It's built for life on the road, too, with a hardy IP68-rated build that fends off almost anything you throw at it. You can spill stuff on it, drop it on the pavement, or take it camping and not have to worry about it tapping out.

The Flip 7’s more compact dimensions mean it has less power to play with: 35W powers a single woofer and tweeter, but it still gets the same AI Sound Boost, Auracast and hi-res support over USB-C that the larger Charge 6 offers.

Its battery doesn’t last as long either, but its 14 hours is a four-hour increase on its predecessor. You can squeeze an extra two out of it if you activate Playtime Boost, although doing so does have a detrimental effect on the performance.

Should you buy the JBL Flip 7?

The seventh-generation Flip is the best-sounding version JBL has ever made. It sounds more insightful than ever, with added bass, clarity and excellent dynamics – a common weakness when it comes to more compact speakers.

If you’re looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker that majors on portability but can still put on a performance that belies its compact dimensions, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

The Flip 7’s closest contender is the Beats Pill, but that has a slightly higher RRP and a less favourable four-star review, so the JBL is the clear favourite.

What complicates things slightly is the current availability of JBL’s older Charge 5. The arrival of its successor means the Charge 5 is now available for the same price as (and sometimes even less than) the Flip 7, which presents something of a dilemma.

The Charge 5 is the more capable of the two speakers, but it is bigger and heavier – so whether it actually represents a better option is entirely down to your particular requirements.

• Read our full JBL Flip 7 review
• Full comparison: JBL Flip 7 vs Flip 6
• Full comparison: JBL Flip 7 vs Charge 6

JBL Xtreme 4

Should you buy the JBL Xtreme 4?

The Xtreme 4 isn’t the heftiest of JBL’s portable Bluetooth speakers – that honour goes to the Boombox 3 Wi-Fi – but weighing in at 2.1kg and shipping with an optional shoulder strap, it’s certainly on the large side.

That bulbous IP67-rated chassis houses two 70mm woofers, two 20mm tweeters, and up to 100W of power to drive them. That drops to 80W when using battery power, which lasts up to 24 hours on a single charge. Plugging it in for just 10 minutes adds an extra two hours to the tally, plus you can use it to charge other gadgets if they are running low.

Like JBL’s other recent releases the Xtreme 4 uses AI to fend off distortion, and it also ditches JBL’s own PartyBoost connectivity in favour of Auracast, but it doesn’t get the support for lossless audio over USB-C.

You might expect a speaker that looks so beefy to be something of a sonic sledgehammer, but there is real refinement to the sound the Xtreme 4 produces. It’s clear and consistent with plenty of detail, and while the bass is plentiful it’s both tight and weighty.

Should you buy the JBL Xtreme 4?

Its appearance might not be exactly what you’d expect from a premium Bluetooth speaker, but as a combination of rugged portability, useful features and head-turning sound quality that fills a large space, it doesn’t get better than this.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

Yes. Its nearest competitor would be Bose’s SoundLink Max, which is a touch more compact and looks a bit more upmarket, but the JBL Xtreme 4 has the edge sonically and is often available for less than its full RRP of £330 / $380 / AU$430.

Throw in longer battery life, Auracast support, and a better app, and there’s nothing else at this more premium price for a Bluetooth speaker that we would recommend over the JBL Xtreme 4.

• Read our full JBL Xtreme 4 review
• Full comparison: JBL Xtreme 4 vs JBL Xtreme 4
• Full comparison: Bose SoundLink Max vs JBL Xtreme 4

JBL Go 4

Should you buy the JBL Go 4?

• Read our full JBL Go 4 review

For some people the ‘portable’ part of a portable Bluetooth speaker is the bit that matters most – and that means it needs to be as small and light as possible. Well they don’t come much more portable than the JBL Go 4.

Barely bigger than a bar of soap and weighing just 190g, the JBL Go 4 is small enough to fit in a coat pocket, and the perfect size for taking to the park or beach without being a nuisance to carry.

Obviously that limits how loud the Go 4 can get, with just 4.2W to play with, but nobody buys a speaker this size and expects to bother the neighbourhood with it. It does have Auracast, though, so you can create networks of compatible speakers if you want more volume, or create a stereo pair using two of them (although in our testing the synchronisation wasn’t perfect).

The battery lasts up to seven hours, although JBL has also included its PlayTime Boost feature, which squeezes out an extra two – but that comes at the expense of bass weight. Considering this isn’t a speaker that is blessed with much low-end oomph in the first place, it’s not worth using unless you really have to.

Despite its compact dimensions the JBL Go 4 makes up for its lack of power with a cohesive and engaging sound. Both indoors and outdoors this little speaker shines.

Should you buy the JBL Go 4?

If you’re looking for something extremely portable that won’t break the bank there’s a lot to like about the JBL Go 4. It has a solid set of features for a speaker that is so cheap; it sounds great considering its size; and it’s built to withstand the elements. It’s hard to think how you could possibly be disappointed by this little champ.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

You’ll struggle to find better for less than £50 / $50 / AU$100, but in the ‘budget’ category the JBL Go 4 is edged out by the Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 (£60 / $60 / AU$109).

It might also be slightly bigger, but the Tribit just sounds that little bit more open and mature than the Go 4 – plus its battery life of 12 hours is significantly longer.

When talking about much more expensive products, a price difference of £20 / $20 / AU$40 is negligible, but at this level it’s a fairly big chunk of the overall cost. If you can afford it, though, the Stormbox Micro 2 is worth the extra cash.

JBL Charge 5

Should you buy the JBL Charge 5?

JBL’s Charge 5 was our favourite portable Bluetooth speaker for years, but the arrival of its successor means it has been replaced at the top of our best Bluetooth speakers list. So does that suddenly make the Charge 5 a bad choice? Of course it doesn’t.

It is now available for less than the Flip 7, and there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a JBL Charge 5 – you just might need to be quick to make sure you bag one before the stock runs out.

It’s not as hardy as the Charge 6 and the button positioning isn’t quite as intuitive, but with an IP67 rating it’s certainly no shrinking violet and the general usability was never a problem; it’s just better on the newer model.

It doesn’t sound quite as energetic or detailed as the Charge 6, but this is still a five-star speaker. Its punchy and engaging sound was impressive when we reviewed it at £160/$180, so the fact that the same performance is available for significantly less cash makes it an even better deal.

There’s no hi-res support here – the USB-C port is purely for charging – but we’d argue that lossless playback on a portable speaker isn’t exactly essential. You can still use it as a powerbank for your smartphone, too – a useful feature.

Should you buy the JBL Charge 5?

The Charge 5 had an impressive run as our favourite portable Bluetooth speaker and it was brought to an end only by its own replacement, so there’s still life in the old dog yet.

The improvements JBL has made to the Charge 6 mean we would guide you towards that if you can afford one, but the Charge 5 is still an excellent option if you’re operating on a tighter budget.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

Depending on how much you can find one for, there’s an argument that the Charge 5 represents the best performance-per-pound of any JBL speaker currently available – but that will only be the case while stocks last.

You have to pay a fair chunk more for the Charge 6, and the Charge 5 sounds better and has a longer-lasting battery than the Flip 7, so as long as you don’t mind the extra size and weight it’s a bit of a no-brainer.

• Read our full JBL Charge 5 review
• Full comparison: JBL Charge 6 vs JBL Charge 5

JBL Flip 6

Should you buy the JBL Flip 6?

The JBL Flip 6 is another portable Bluetooth speaker that has recently been usurped by its own replacement, but as with the Charge 5 that has meant a price cut to the Flip 6 that makes it an appealing option if you’re not too bothered about owning the very latest model.

Now available for as little as £79 / $100 / AU$170 (as long as you’re not too fussy about the colour) the Flip 6 remains an excellent choice thanks to its tough build and fun sound. It provides plenty of oomph and enthusiasm, with punchy bass considering its size.

The Flip 6 also offers JBL’s trademark looks and rugged build quality, with an IP67 rating and a wrist strap to make it harder to drop. In fact, if you put the two models next to each they’re pretty hard to tell apart.

Throw in 12 hours of battery life and this is a speaker that might not be the newest anymore, but still has plenty going for it at a price that’s lower than ever.

Should you buy the JBL Flip 6?

As with the Charge 5, there is one good reason to buy the Flip 6: it’s a five-star speaker that is now available for much less than it was when we originally reviewed it.

The Flip 7 is certainly a better speaker overall, but the Flip 6 still sounds great. If you have older JBL speakers that you want to pair with the Flip 6, it also still supports PartyBoost, whereas the Flip 7 has switched to Auracast, which means it won’t be compatible with older models.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

Now that they have both been heavily discounted and there is very little difference in price between the Flip 6 and the Charge 5, it’s hard to pick the former ahead of the latter. The Flip 6 has portability on its side, but the Charge 5 is just that little bit better all round.

Neither will be around for ever, though, so if you decide you want to save some cash on one of these older models you probably need to act sooner rather than later.

• Read our full JBL Flip 6 review
• Full comparison: JBL Flip 7 vs JBL Flip 6
• Full comparison: JBL Flip 6 vs Sony ULT Field 1

JBL Xtreme 3

Should you buy the JBL Xtreme 3?

You might have detected a pattern emerging here, but since the arrival of the Xtreme 4, JBL’s Xtreme 3 has remained on sale for a reduced price. You can save yourself around £70 / $50 / AU$145 by opting for the older model; but is it a false economy?

JBL’s Xtreme 3, which was originally released back in 2021, looks almost identical to the newer Xtreme 4 that succeeded it last year. It has that familiar barrel-shaped chassis, which weighs a fraction under 2kg and houses two 7cm woofers, a pair of 20mm tweeters, and a passive bass radiator at either end.

Power maxes out at a suitably chunky 100W, although it’s limited to 60W unless you plug it into the mains. Use the built-in battery and you are looking at around 15 hours before it needs charging.

JBL has gradually made its other portable Bluetooth speakers more hardy over time, but the Xtreme 3 has the same IP67 rating as the newer version. That means it can get caught in the middle of a downpour, thrown into a pool, or covered in dust and dirt, and emerge unscathed.

Give it some tunes to play and the Xtreme 3 does so with a real sense of gusto, delivering weighty but controlled bass while keeping the high frequencies clear and insightful. Detail and dynamics are impressive, and there’s a particularly strong sense of timing.

Should you buy the JBL Xtreme 3?

Much like the other older JBL speakers on this list, the Xtreme 3 didn’t become a bad product just because a newer version appeared on the scene. Even four years after we first tested it we stand by the five-star review, especially considering we found the sonic differences between the two models to be fairly minor.

The Xtreme 4 does offer much longer battery life – 24 hours compared with just 15 – and it supports Auracast rather than the older PartyBoost, but in terms of ruggedness and driver configuration, the two are identical.

If you can afford the Xtreme 4 then it’s certainly worth it, but if you opt to save yourself some cash, the most noticeable difference will be in how often you have to charge it.

Is it the best portable Bluetooth speaker at its price?

£230 / $270 / AU$399 for a speaker that’s more than four years old does feel like quite a lot, especially when you consider that the JBL Charge 6 – the top overall pick on our list of the best Bluetooth speakers – is available for quite a lot less.

The Charge 6 is quite a bit smaller and doesn’t have as much power, so if sheer volume is required it’s probably not a sufficient substitute, but if it was our money we’d go for the newer speaker and pocket the spare cash.

• Read our full JBL Xtreme 3 review
• Full comparison: JBL Xtreme 4 vs JBL Xtreme 3

So, should you buy a JBL portable Bluetooth speaker?

There’s a good reason JBL products take up multiple spots in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers: they sound great, are packed with features, and are designed to put up with exactly the kind of punishment that a portable speaker is likely to face throughout its life.

JBL has also done an excellent job of developing a wide range of speakers that cater for different wants and needs. If portability is your priority there’s the Go line, while the Xtreme requires a lot more muscle to lug around but has the kind of power needed to soundtrack a decent-sized gathering. And in the middle you will find the Charge and Flip, consummate all-rounders that are easy to recommend to everyone.

We also like how JBL keeps older generations of products around and continues to sell them at a reduced price, giving potential buyers more choice. It’s the ideal way to cater to different kinds of customers, rather than forcing everyone to buy the latest product regardless of whether they need all the features or not.

How about JBL alternatives?

JBL is hardly short of competitors when it comes to portable Bluetooth speakers, but it’s difficult to think of another brand that has this breadth of products of such consistently high quality.

There are certainly alternatives out there for those who aren’t so keen on JBL’s active aesthetic though.

Dali’s Katch G2 has been a favourite of ours for some time now, although you will pay a premium for its classy build and finish. For something more affordable (albeit still more expensive than the Charge 6) we also like the B&O Beosound A1 (2nd Gen), which not only looks great but also offers Alexa support.

As well as the aforementioned Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 and Bose SoundLink Max, Sony’s LinkBuds Speaker might also be worth considering. It lacks the sonic chops of JBL’s best, which is why we awarded it only four stars when we reviewed it at the end of 2024, but if you like Sony’s audio products and can find one at a discount, it definitely has its charms.

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Bang & Olufsen has unveiled a striking limited edition of its Beosound A9 wireless speaker featuring iconic photography of David Bowie, partnering with acclaimed British music photographer Denis O'Regan to create an exclusive collector's piece.

Limited to just 30 units worldwide, the special edition A9 showcases a rare Bowie photograph on the speaker's fabric cover, captured by O'Regan at Newcastle's City Hall. The image was taken several years before O'Regan became Bowie's official tour photographer, documenting the iconic musician more extensively than any other photographer throughout his career.

O'Regan, whose impressive career also includes roles as official photographer for Live Aid and numerous legendary acts including Queen, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, described the selected image as one of his favourites, and one that fans often cite as their preferred Bowie photograph.

Beyond its visual appeal, the Beosound A9 remains technically unchanged from the standard model, featuring seven custom-built drivers with dedicated Class D amplification, popular wireless streaming features from AirPlay to Google Cast, including wired Ethernet playback, and a room calibration feature to optimise the sound to your space.

The speaker's flexible design allows it to either stand proudly as a statement piece on three wooden legs, or be wall-mounted for a more minimalistic appearance.

Each unit comes packaged with a signed and numbered 12" x 8" print from O'Regan, a custom box sleeve, and a Certificate of Authenticity documenting the collaboration.

Tom McKenna, Market Director at Bang & Olufsen, states that: “It is entirely appropriate that one of our most iconic designs, the Beosound A9, should act as the canvas for this classic image of a British music icon. The A9 doesn’t look like any other speaker and its distinctive circular canvas can be put on display anywhere, transforming sound to a piece of art through its form factor and highly limited-edition partnerships, such as this one. We want to empower our customers to curate, artisan pieces for their homes, through collaborations with acclaimed artists such as Denis.”

Naturally, this exclusive release comes with a substantial price tag of £3995 per unit – a premium over the standard Beosound A9's regular £3200 retail price. The speakers will be available exclusively through West Contemporary Editions from 12:00 BST on Friday 25th April.

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We're all about practical buying advice here at What Hi-Fi? We want you to buy the best kit for your budget, so you get the most sound per pound from your investment.

Usually that doesn't mean spending £50,000 on a record player.

But every now and again, a special edition model comes along that makes us sit up and pay attention.

Maybe it's a collaboration with an iconic company or band, or it's just got a really cool theme – either way, fun is the name of the game.

And all of the below are a ton of fun.

No, they're not priced remotely within the means of most people. They might not even sound as good as the best turntable to grace our test rooms.

But man, do they catch the eye.

Here are five special edition record players that must be seen to be believed.

Pro-Ject AC/DC Turntable

This is most definitely one for those about to rock.

It's part of Pro-Ject's Artist Series of turntables – which includes a Metallica version, a cute Yellow Submarine model and various others; see also the Pink Floyd model below – and features a tonearm styled after the band's iconic lightning bolt logo.

That's not the only nod to the veteran Aussie rockers. The sub-platter's stainless steel axle is illuminated by red LED lighting to give the player a striking appearance, just like the highway to hell.

Technics SL-1200M7B

This is basically the Technics SL-1200MK7 with added Lamborghini.

Not only do you get a plinth pattern featuring the Y shape used across so many of Lamborghini’s designs, you get a choice of lurid colours too.

Yellow. When we get a Lamborghini, it's going to be a bright, highlighter yellow.

You get stickers too, and special edition slipmats. But the real fun happens when you play the bundled picture disc record featuring the V12-engine sounds of six Lamborghini super sports cars.

These include the 400GT 2+2, Miura SV, 25th Anniversary Countach, Diablo 6.0 SE, Murciélago LP 640, and Revuelto.

Otherwise, you get all the features of the non-Lamborghini MK7, including a coreless direct-drive motor, a sensitive-but-robust tonearm and two-layer structure platter for improving vibration damping.

But it's the Lamborghini styling that really sets it apart. Brrrm!

• Read our Technics SL-1200MK7 review

Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000c Series Saint Laurent Rive Droit Edition

Quite a mouthful. But then there's a lot to say about this deck.

It's a modern spin on one of B&O's most established turntables, done in collaboration with a fashion house, of course (hence the long name).

The original Beogram 4000 Series turntable debuted in the 1970s. But this reimagining takes things up a notch.

Each new unit is housed in a ziricote wood case, and is individually numbered, accented with aluminium details and adorned with an etched logo.

Only 10 have been made. Editions don't come much more limited than this.

Pro-Ject The Dark Side Of The Moon Turntable

Pro-Ject is at it again, this time putting a Pink Floyd spin on one of its classic record players.

This one was created to celebrate 50 years since the band's groundbreaking album The Dark Side Of The Moon.

The pièce de résistance has to be the LED-backlit rainbow, which, as the vinyl spins, recreates the refracted light from the iconic album cover. Immense.

It even has a dimming function, while the deck's extended on/off lever doubles as the beam of white light.

The triangular 10mm glass plate mirrors the dispersive prism on the album cover. Talk about attention to detail.

Linn LP12-50

Jony Ive – the design guru responsible for most of Apple's most iconic products – collaborated with Linn on this turntable, and the results are just as sleek as you would imagine.

The LP12-50 is a 50th-anniversary edition of the Sondek LP12 record player.

Once Ive had spent some time with the original deck, he suggested some improvements, including precision-machined metal hinges for the dust cover, circular power switches machined from aluminium, a curved-edged top plate and arm board to mirror the new power switch’s curves, and a new lid badge.

But the improvements aren't purely aesthetic.

There's also a new plinth, made extra resistant to resonances by compressing layers of beech wood under extreme pressure.

Linn says this results in a new level of sonic performance.

If it sounds anywhere near as good as it looks, it'll be a treat for the ears.

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"Mini LED is the best TV technology."

Those are TCL's words, not ours. They have just been exclaimed at the launch of TCL's new 2025 range of Mini LED TVs, which feature huge boosts in brightness, new panel technology to improve local dimming, and sound by a prestigious name from the world of hi-fi.

The latest range of TVs from the Chinese manufacturer hopes to steal the spotlight by implementing QLED panel tech across the range, starting from its smallest and cheapest Full HD sets and going all the way up to the flagship X11K model.

Furthermore, it's using new panel technology to trim down the bezels around the screen, reduce reflections, and achieve deeper blacks with less blooming.

The top-of-the-range models, namely the X11K and C9K, won't be coming to the UK (though they will be available in a range of European markets), which is a shame as they boast claimed peak-brightness figures of up to 6500 and 6000 nits respectively.

The former is spearheading TCL's extra-large screen mission, with options for 85- and 98-inch screen sizes, while the latter is slightly more manageable (but still massive) at 65-, 75- and 85-inches.

The UK flagship will be the C8K

If you are looking to dip your toes into TCL's new range and happen to live in the UK, the flagship model you'll be looking at is the C8K, which replaces the C855K in TCL's current line-up.

This model is set to deliver a peak brightness of up to 5000 nits, which is a massive step up over the claimed 3500 nit peak brightness of its predecessor.

It features the CrystGlow WHVA coating, which seeks to reduce the presence of reflections and enhance contrast, meaning it should perform better in living rooms with lots of pesky ambient light.

Not only that, but TCL has also incorporated its Halo Control System, which seeks to significantly reduce blooming through a more precisely controlled backlighting system.

Furthermore, the C8K supports a wide range of HDR formats, including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision (including the IQ version) and HLG, as well as 4K/144Hz gaming with VRR and ALLM on two of its HDMI 2.1 sockets.

There will be huge step-down models, too

In fact, the HDR formats and gaming specs mentioned above apply to the majority of TCL's mid-range sets, including the C7K, C6K and P8K.

These models feature screen sizes ranging from 50 inches to a whopping 115 inches, and TCL quotes a brightness of up to 3000 nits on the C7K.

A unique feature of the higher-end models (specifically the X11K, C9K, C8K and C7K) is built-in sound systems tuned by Bang & Olufsen, which TCL says it has developed a close partnership with to develop speaker systems for future TVs.

The C8K appears to feature dual-rear firing subwoofers branded with 'enhanced ultra bass' for deeper low-end punch.

Moving towards the entry-level sector of TCL's 2025 lineup, we have the S4K, S5K, P6K and P7K, which feature screen sizes ranging from 32 to 85 inches.

These entry-level 'S' models feature the Android TV operating system (the entire rest of the range utilises Google TV) and more basic Full HD and 2K panels with 60Hz refresh rates.

Initial pricing for some of the models has been revealed; the 55-inch C6K starts at £799 with the 98-inch version costing £3199.

Moving up to the C7K, it starts at £799 for the 50-inch version, and the largest 115-inch variant comes in at a hair-raising £12,999.

Rounding things out with the C8K, it will cost £1599 at 65 inches, £1999 at 75 inches, £2799 for the 85-inch version, and £4799 for the super-sized 98-inch model.

TCL's new range should be available to order now, with availability expected within the next week.

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Most of us may be schlepping it back to work, but to help get over those Monday blues, the What Hi-Fi? team has penned a fresh entry into our weekly Rewind news digest.

In it we once again detail the most interesting, and important, developments in the world of hi-fi and home cinema.

It was another big week for the team, with our reviewers finishing the testing of the LG C5 OLED TV, more than a few surprise audio announcements from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) expo in Barcelona, and fresh hi-fi from some big name brands.

Here’s what you need to know.

A bit of music history turned 60

The Moog synthesiser may not be a household name to the masses, but it is a hugely influential piece of music technology that played a key part in many iconic songs – some of which we still use to test hi-fi to this day.

So when it turned 60 last week we couldn't resist the urge to write a celebratory piece detailing our favourite test tracks featuring the Moog.

Read the full story: 7 top test tracks that celebrate the iconic Moog synthesizer

The world’s first wi-fi earbuds appeared

Mobile World Congress isn’t a show you normally associate with audio news, but last week Qualcomm and Xiaomi used the Barcelona show as the launchpad for the world’s first wi-fi earbuds.

The two showed off the new Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro which will be the first buds to feature Qualcomm’s S7 Pro chip.

This is interesting as it features wi-fi connectivity that, in theory, lets the buds stream 4-bit/96kHz lossless audio at a bandwidth of up to 4.2Mbps. That's more than double the bandwidth of Bluetooth 5.

Read the full story: The world's first wi-fi earbuds are here... but there's a catch

We finished testing LG’s latest OLED

Last week our home-cinema reviewers finished testing the new LG C5 OLED TV – which is a direct successor to the Award-winning LG C4.

We have had to hold off giving it a star rating, as we still await final pricing details from LG. Our comparative tests, however, reveal that it is certainly a top performer, offering better peak brightness, colour volume and motion handling than its predecessor.

Read our LG C5 review

Bang and Olufsen revived a retro-classic

Bang and Olufsen unveiled its fifth new collaboration with fashion house Saint Laurent last week.

The Beogram 4000c Series Saint Laurent Rive Droit Edition, says B&O, “reimagines the established Beogram 4000 Series” turntable for a contemporary audience.

While it looks cool, you’ll have to have a surplus of cash and luck on your side to get your hands on this extremely limited edition; the 10 that have been made are set to retail for £27,000 / $30,000.

Read the full story: Bang & Olufsen has given its iconic Beogram 4000 Series turntable a stylish rebirth – but good luck getting one!

Dynaudio promised us "the biggest upgrade in active hi-fi in over a decade"

Finishing off this week’s Rewind, Dynaudio unveiled its new Confidence 20A active speakers.

The Danish audio brand is making some big claims about the new active speakers, claiming they will offer "the biggest upgrade in active hi-fi in over a decade".

We haven’t had them in for testing yet, but they are built on the same foundation as the four-star, passive, Conference 20 we reviewed in 2021, so the punchy messaging has caught our attention.

Read the full story: Dynaudio's Confidence 20A active speakers boast "the biggest upgrade in active hi-fi in over a decade"

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Bang & Olufsen has teamed up with iconic fashion house Saint Laurent to create a new spin on one of its most established turntables. Unveiled as an exclusive new release to mark the fifth collaboration between the two powerhouse brands, the Beogram 4000c Series Saint Laurent Rive Droit Edition reimagines the established Beogram 4000 Series spinner for a contemporary audience.

The deck made its debut in the 1970s, with Bang & Olufsen describing the original belt-driven Beogram 4000 Series player as a "design classic". For this reimagined and exclusive version, B&O and Saint Laurent have restored 10 original Beogram 4000C turntables and transformed them into new Beogram 4000c Rive Droit Edition decks, making for a modernised twist built for collectors and connoisseurs alike.

Acting as exclusive collector's pieces, each new unit is housed in a ziricote wood case, individually numbered, accented with aluminium details and adorned with an etched logo, so everyone will know exactly how special your stylish new spinner is.

Continuing on the legacy of the original 1970s deck, the reborn deck features a tangential tracking tonearm and is capable of playing records at 33⅓ and 45rpm.

This isn't the first time the Beogram has enjoyed a rebirth. Bang & Olufsen introduced the Beogram 4000c Recreated Limited Edition back in 2020, after tracking down 95 original Beogram 4000 Series turntables and bringing them back to its company headquarters in Denmark for a full factory restoration. It's a treatment this latest reiteration will also enjoy, as each element is cleaned and restored by hand courtesy of B&O's team of engineers and craftspeople.

The Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000c Saint Laurent Rive Droit Edition will set you back around £27,000 / $30,000 – but, as there were only 10 made, you may already struggle to nab one. You might still be able to get hold of Pro-Ject's AC/DC Turntable instead, though...

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Chinese TV manufacturer TCL has joined forces with luxury Danish audio brand Bang & Olufsen in a new six-year venture that will see TCL TVs with "Audio by Bang & Olufsen". While TCL is known for offering TVs across a range of budgets, these sound systems will unsurprisingly be reserved for TCL's premium offerings, starting with the NXTFRAME art TV.

This TV is TCL's answer to Samsung's wildly popular The Frame TV. Much like Samsung's interpretation of this concept, the TCL NXTFRAME will show artwork when it's left idle and features a picture frame-like bezel that can mimic a piece of art – making it an ideal TV for the interior design-conscious crowd that is put off by having a conventional unit in their carefully curated living room. 

The NXTFRAME will feature a soundbar and subwoofer that have been co-engineered by TCL and Bang & Olufsen's audio teams. These audio components will also feature BeoSonic compatibility, which will allow users to customise the sound characteristics via an app. There is no word on what sound formats are supported on this included soundbar, however, we'd expect Dolby Atmos to be included considering this is expected to be a premium product. 

TCL and B&O's partnership is set to officially begin when the NXTFRAME launches in China this week, with future premium models expected to take advantage of this collaboration. While it will remain exclusive to TCL's home country of China for now, FlatpanelsHD reports that we could see a European launch at this year's IFA convention in Berlin.

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Check out our picks for the best TVs

And the  best TV deals

As well as our TCL 85C805K review

For anyone with deep enough pockets for a £450,000 / $600,000 Lamborghini Revuelto, we could understand if the only audio they are interested in is the monster V12 engine screaming and spitting flames behind their head.

Sonus Faber hopes to change those opinions by offering an exclusive sound system for one of 2024’s hottest supercars.

“Working on the Revuelto has been exhilarating yet challenging given the cabin’s restrictions and the sound of the incredible V12 behind the seats” said Fiore Cappelletto, Vice President and General Manager Automotive at McIntosh Group.

Those cabin restrictions are presumably part of the reason why the system is a relatively modest affair by modern standards. It features just seven speakers in total: one tweeter and mid/bass driver in each door, one full-range centre channel in the dashboard and two full-range surround speakers, one behind the driver, the other behind the passenger.

Sonus Faber claims it delivers a “natural, clear and detailed sound” using a natural fibre composite material developed specifically for the Revuelto. The centre speaker has been designed “to provide a distinctive sound experience directly in front of the pilot and co-pilot.”

The system is powered by a new Class D amplifier with 750 watts of total power. It works in tandem with a powerful DSP (Digital Signal Processing) unit which “ensures smooth transitions between electrical signals and acoustical tones.”

Should your bank balance be buoyant enough to afford one, you can pre-order your Sonus Faber-equipped Revuelto this month – but you could be in for quite a wait. The car is now sold out until late 2026. Lamborghini will confirm pricing later this month.

Lamborghini has teamed up with Bang & Olufsen in the past and we have been lucky enough to experience its system in the Urus SUV, so we’re interested to hear what type of sound Sonus Faber brings to the party.

Also, it’s not the first time Sonic Faber has joined forces with a luxury Italian car manufacturer. A collaboration with Maserati has seen optional systems roll out across its current range; adding another Italian partnership to its portfolio makes perfect sense.

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Sustainability is a theme in the world of tech at the moment, with everyone from powerhouses like Apple to specialist audio brands like Meze Audio attempting to boost their products' eco-credentials.

But despite the push, we’re yet to see many hi-fi products launch carrying independently audited sustainability credentials.

Eager to learn more about the challenges involved in making eco-friendly hi-fi, we caught up with Bang & Olufsen’s head of product circularity, Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, who just announced the firm's latest sustainability-focused speaker, the Beolab 8. Here’s what he told us.

External auditing 

Hansen flagged that one of the main challenges in designing sustainable audio kit is making sure that every aspect of a product, ranging from the materials used to its repairability and even the supply chain, is environmentally friendly. He added that the latter is particularly difficult for most companies to do solo as they don't control their entire supply chain. It was this mix of factors that led Bang & Olufsen to target the cradle-to-cradle standard.

“Last year, B&O made the decision to commit 100 per cent to the Cradle-to-Cradle design principles in all products designed and developed going forward,” he explained. 

“The key point is to design for longevity and circularity from the beginning. Buy less, buy better is our mantra, and that resonates really well with our customers.”

Cradle-to-Cradle is a design standard run by the Cradle-to-Cradle Products Innovation Institute. It offers accreditation that marks products as bronze, silver and platinum tiers. 

The certification is updated on a yearly basis, based on the latest scientific research and factors in key things like whether the product uses recycled parts, the environmental impact of its supply chain and how easy it is to repair. As an added protection, the accreditation only lasts two years, at which point the product must be recertified using the Institute’s latest standard.

Despite Hansen’s comments, to date, Bang & Olufsen’s Beosound Level and Beosound Emerge are the only products to achieve the institute's lowest standard. Its current Beosound 8 is still running through the certification process and being checked by the institute. The company has pledged to have “at least 10 Cradle-to-Cradle certified products in the portfolio by 2025”.

The difficulty of electronics and need for modularity 

According to Hansen, the next biggest challenge for sustainable hi-fi is the fact that electronics and tech in general are moving at such a fast pace, so a product can simply be out of date in a very short space of time, especially if it has smart or wireless functionality.

“Some product categories will be more challenging to design with principles of cradle-to-cradle thinking in mind. At the same time, we know change cannot happen in isolation, we need the entire value chain from raw material suppliers to technology providers to final manufacturing processes, distribution systems, retail and service networks to waste management companies to work in the same direction,” he said.

He added headphones are a good example of these issues.

"For the earphone category specifically, there are a number of factors like the speed at which technology is evolving, a continuous focus on increased miniaturisation [and] the vast complexity of addressing individual ergonomic fit,” he said.

“These factors constitute a very real challenge for implementing modularity at the same level as we have already started to for larger speaker products.”

Hansen is one of many audio experts to flag modern smart functionality and circuitry as a key issue hindering sustainable design. Monitor Audio technical director Michael Hedges made a similar claim during an interview with What Hi-Fi? earlier this year. In it, he argued this is a key reason separates are more sustainable than all-in-one systems.

Modularity and reparability

Hansen said Bang & Olufsen is taking a slightly different approach in its attempt to make more sustainable audio. 

Instead of separates, it’s designing its wireless speakers and products to be modular, with the potential to add new functionality, like support for new wi-fi or Bluetooth standards down the line.

We saw this during a demo of the BeoSound Theatre soundbar at IFA 2022. The premium soundbar has an upgradable dock design that aims to let buyers add new functionality to it, using physical hardware as well as software updates.

He added the approach also makes it easier for the firm to service and repair its hardware.

“We already have an ambitious service strategy to support the long lifetime of our products, and our service team in Struer Denmark is already doing more than 25,000 repairs and service tasks every year. We believe that applying modular design across all product categories we operate in will support long life and easy repairability,” he said.

Bang & Olufsen’s push to improve its eco-credentials comes during a boom in the number of audio companies attempting to improve their products’ sustainability.

High-end headphones company Meze Audio designs its products with sustainable wood and is completely glue-free in a bid to make them easier to service and increase their longevity. Apple and Sonos also have public sustainability policies, which include pledges around carbon neutrality and sustainable materials. Both the Apple HomePod 2 and Sonos Era 300 have parts built from recycled materials.

Recently, a wave of audio brands including Marantz, Sonus Faber, McIntosh and Focal have all run trade-in schemes designed to encourage customers to trade in old unneeded hardware for discounts in a bid to reduce the amount of waste the industry generates.

Do you think the hi-fi industry is doing enough to improve its sustainability? Let us know in the comments section, and on Twitter and Facebook!

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Bang & Olufsen has revealed the newest addition to its Beolab range of speakers. The new Beolab 8 is designed to be a versatile, compact wireless speaker, with B&O claiming that the flexible and attractive unit can be used solo, paired as part of a stereo duo, or else linked with other models for an immersive home cinema set-up (provided said models were created in or after 1984).

Featuring a three-driver set-up consisting of a 16mm tweeter, 76mm midrange and a 133mm woofer, the Beolab 8 incorporates numerous smart features for what B&O hopes will be enhanced sonic capabilities. The speaker's beam width control, for instance, allows users to switch between listening profiles for either a narrower listen or a wider, more diffused sound, while the 8's "room compensation" optimises the soundscape based on a given space's acoustic character. There's also wide-band tech incorporated within the Beolab 8, allowing it to direct its acoustic sweet spot based on a user's phone location through the official B&O app.

Speaking of apps, the Beolab 8 uses the Danish brand's Mozart platform as its central operating system, and can connect either to wi-fi or Bluetooth 5.3. Powerlink, meanwhile, facilitates wireless and wired connectivity. 

It wouldn't be a new Bang & Olufsen release without some striking, high-end design flair. Using premium materials, the Beolab 8 is another unique piece from the Scandinavian manufacturer, with an aluminium body combined with either wooden lamellas or a fabric front, depending on your choice. The rather attractive glass interface that forms the speaker's top, meanwhile, "creates a perfect curve that guides the user's finger along the surface effortlessly". So say its makers, anyway.

The new model is designed with the planet in mind, too. Using quality, degradable resources that B&O promises can be continuously customised, serviced and/or upgraded over time, the Beolab 8 can adapt to the latest tech standards, something we saw recently with the company's future-proofed Beosound A9 and Beosound 2 wireless speakers.

“Our goal is to create powerful and immersive listening experiences for our customers. Beolab 8 provides this", says Michael Henriksson, Bang & Olufsen's VP of Product Marketing. "It is a scalable speaker that is all about flexibility, performance and innovation."

The Beolab 8 is available now in an array of customisable colourways, including silver & natural aluminium, gold-tone or black anthracite, pairable with speaker covers in either oak, light oak, dark oak or classic fabric. Prices start from £2199 / $2749 (further prices pending).

MORE:

Read our five-star Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) review

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Our pick of the best Bluetooth speakers we've tested

Bang & Olufsen has recently announced the release of its latest Bluetooth speaker, and it’s a thing of absolute beauty. The new Beosound A5, designed in collaboration with Danish-Italian design duo GamFratesi, once again sees the famed audio manufacturer looking to combine audio substance with oodles of Scandi style.

The Beosound A5 promises to become Bang & Olufsen’s most powerful portable speaker ever, teasing hefty sound wherever it goes thanks to a four-way driver with four digital amplifiers putting out a combined 280 watts of power for dynamic 360-degree sound. With a 13cm woofer, two 5cm midrange drivers and a 2cm tweeter, the A5 should be capable of offering big sound on the road or in the home. 

The technology within the A5 is taken from the B&O Beolab 90 and 50 hi-fi speakers, both of which use “ beamforming technology”, an innovation that the manufacturer claims “creates an immersive experience far beyond the expectations of a portable speaker.”

As was the case with the recently upgraded Beosound A9 and Besound 2 wireless speakers, the A5 uses the company's Mozart platform. This, in essence, allows B&O products’ software to be updated and upgraded well into the future, thus removing the need for consumers to buy new products as often as they otherwise might. 

Bang & Olufsen also claims that the speaker has been designed to be serviced and repaired easily, further extending its lifetime; and it promises to produce easily swappable front covers in new materials and colour schemes, to change things up even more.

It’s worth talking about that design, too. The A5 features two colour schemes - aluminium with a woven paper fibre front and a light oak handle, or black anthracite aluminium with a dark oak cover and handle - and is designed to hark back to classic B&O models such as the Beolit 607 from 1961. 

It’s not designed only to be looked at, either. The fully portable Beosound A5 can be taken anywhere thanks to an IP65 water and dustproof rating, not to mention more than 12 hours of playtime from a single charge. There is also the option to daisy-chain two A5s together via the Mozart platform, as well as to integrate the speaker into the B&O smart home multi-room system. Featuring Bluetooth 5.2, the Beosound A5 is also compatible with AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Spotify Connect.

“Beosound A5 combines Bang & Olufsen’s long-standing approach to timeless design with our vision on sound for the future,” states B&O's VP of Product Marketing, Michael Henriksson. "We are excited to collaborate with GamFratesi to create two speaker designs that are rooted in a Scandinavian aesthetic with a distinct design signature on their own.”

Pricing for the B&O Beosound A5 varies depending on the choice of colour scheme. The A5 in Nordic Weave will cost you £899/ $1049/ AU$1650/ €999 and is available in stores and online from 27th April 2023, while the Dark Oak scheme will set you back £999/ $1149/ €1099 and will be available in stores and online from 27th April 2023.

MORE: 

Read our Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) review

Here’s how Bang & Olufsen's Dolby Atmos soundbar is designed to outlive your TV 

Our pick of the best Bluetooth speakers we've tested

Stylish high-end audio pioneer Bang & Olufsen has announced updates for two wireless speakers in its Beosound range. The fifth generation of the Beosound A9 and the third generation of the smaller Beosound 2 will both launch with new colours, features and an updated design, along with a future-proofing module that will ensure the speakers’ longevity with new technologies.

The oval A9 speaker will now come in three new standard finishes: Black Anthracite, Gold Tone and Natural Aluminum. An improved interface in the new model allows you to change volume by sliding a hand across the surface, while a simple tap controls skipping, playing or pausing instantaneously.

The Beosound 2 retains its unique conical shape for 360-degree sound, but adds a new Black Anthracite finish to join the already available shades of Gold Tone and Natural. There’s also an upgraded interface for easier use, as well as Active Room Compensation. This will allow the Beosound 2 to “detect” its position in a room and adjust its sound accordingly to provide an optimised listening experience, claims B&O.

The big new improvement coming to both models, though, is the addition of Bang & Olufsen’s Mozart software platform, a move designed to essentially future-proof current models and products so that they can be updated or revised to correlate with changes or innovations in platforms and software. 

Central to this is a replaceable module that B&O claims is so powerful that it can receive software updates and features “for many years to come”. If the connectivity or streaming platform becomes obsolete or outdated, the module can simply be replaced as and when it becomes necessary. Both speakers, theoretically, can integrate into any multi-room system well into the future.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen B&O referencing the capabilities of its Mozart programme. The company’s new Theatre Dolby Atmos soundbar, for instance, is designed to outlast the very TV it originally accompanied by continually introducing new features and connectivity to whatever new products or services it is paired with.

The Beosound A9 (fifth generation) will be available from March, with prices starting from £2,899 / $3,699 / €3,299 – certain finishes and accessories will cost extra. The Beosound 2 (third generation) will be available from April, and will cost £2649 / $3199 / €2999 for the base model.

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Check out our original Beosound 1 review 

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LG has unveiled a jaw-dropping 136-inch 4K Micro LED TV at this year's CEDIA Expo, with a reported cost of $300,000 (around £262,906/AU$462,658).

The "luxury residential display", called Magnit, is powered by LG's Alpha 9 AI-enhanced processing that uses technology to reduce picture noise as well as optimise colour and contrast based on ambient light conditions. 

Magnit runs the brand's webOS smart TV platform and will support screen sharing capabilities via AirPlay 2 by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Miracast functionality means that content from any iOS, Android, macOS or Windows 10 device can be wirelessly streamed to the TV.

Also due in the final quarter of 2022 is a dedicated Magnit mobile app that will allow users to load digital art directly onto the screen, including a collage feature to make it easy to arrange and display personal photos.

The display delivers 2000 nits of peak brightness and has a 120Hz refresh rate. Connectivity includes four HDMI ports, LAN, digital out, two USB inputs and an RS232C port.

MicroLED is a next-gen TV technology that effectively takes the best qualities of OLED and removes many of its shortcomings. Like OLED, each pixel is self-emissive, so one can be completely black while those next to it can be bright white or a vibrant colour, producing fantastic levels of contrast.

But MicroLEDs can go much brighter than OLEDs, theoretically resulting in even more spectacular contrast. Unlike OLED TVs, which use organic materials ('OLED' stands for 'Organic Light Emitting Diode'), MicroLEDs are inorganic, so they don't degrade and can't suffer from image retention or burn-in. 

LG is keen to emphasise that despite its moniker, the technology used in MicroLED TVs distinctly differs from conventional LED TVs. LED is a term brands, including LG, use to describe a TV with an LCD backlit by LEDs.

Magnit is the latest luxury LG Micro LED display designed for domestic use following the 2021 launch of the DVLED Extreme Home Cinema line that includes an enormous 325-inch 8K display.

Rival manufacturer Samsung is also producing consumer MicroLED TVs. The company first unveiled its MicroLED technology with The Wall, demonstrated at CES 2018. At 146-inches and costing an estimated $100,000 (around £87,918/ AU$154,616), it seemed pricey at the time, but compared to LG's latest offering, is a bargain in hindsight. 

Samsung announced more accessible MicroLED sets in 2021 with the 110-inch MNA110MS1 and 99-inch MNA99MS1 4K models, each costing six figures and requiring professional installation. Despite also promising a 76-inch version, the company settled instead on introducing 89-inch and 101-inch screens for 2022. Pricing for these smaller sizes is still TBC, but reports suggest a cost starting at around $80,000 (around £72,540 / AU$123,692).  

The new LG MicroLED Magnit Display is available in the United States exclusively through LG distribution partners, including Bang & Olufsen stores. LG has teamed up with the Danish audio brand to bundle its Beolab 90 speakers with the TV when sold through its stores. 

Michael Kosla, vice president of LG Electronics USA, said, "When paired with Beolab 90, LG Mangit delivers one of the most incredible home cinema experiences ever imagined." LG also suggests partnering the TV with Bang & Olufsen's wider portfolio of home theatre loudspeakers, including Beolab 50 and 28 models.

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Bang & Olufsen has announced a new Dolby Atmos soundbar at IFA, the Beosound Theatre, with a modern modular design that can be paired with any TV.

Shaped to evoke "the grace of sailboats", the Beosound Theatre is a Dolby Atmos soundbar system with 12 drivers providing physical left/centre/right and side-firing channels as well as a pair each of surround and height channels that B&O describes as being virtual.

Support for Dolby Atmos in its Dolby Digital TrueHD form is on board. Although it's a shame there's no mention of DTS:X, the Beosound Theatre has a generous connectivity spec with three 40Gb HDMI inputs and one eARC offering 4K/120 and 8K/60 passthrough. There's an analogue USB-C audio input, and wireless music streaming options include Apple AirPlay 2, Bluetooth, built-in Chromecast and Spotify Connect. 

Two 6.5-inch woofers provide the Beosound Theatre's low-end, while the centre channel consists of a 5.25-inch midrange driver and a 1-inch tweeter in a coaxial configuration. The rest of the system comprises two 3-inch midrange drivers, four 2.5 full-range drivers and a pair of 1-inch tweeters. B&O claims that the Beosound Theatre delivers 800 watts of amplification power and up to 112dB of SPL.

Intended to produce an immersive home cinema experience from a single standalone product, the Beosound Theatre features B&O's 'Beam Width' and 'Beam Directivity Control', first developed for Beolab 90. Previously the function of this technology was used to try and reduce the effect of sidewall reflections, but now it's being employed to direct sound away from the listener to increase the perception of spaciousness for a 3D soundstage.

Despite its stance as a one-product solution, the Beosound Theatre is a bit of a multi-tasker and can also form part of a multi-channel system. It can process 7.1.4 channels of Dolby Atmos and supports up to 16 external loudspeakers via eight physical Powerlink outputs and eight wireless Powerlink outputs. In this set-up, the soundbar functions as a centre speaker and Dolby Atmos decoder with Bang & Olufsen’s proprietary True Image algorithm onboard to aid integration with other Bang & Olufsen loudspeakers.

Also supported is Bang & Olufsen’s new calibration technology, Roomsense, which uses an external microphone (included) placed in the listening position to measure the distance from the listener to the soundbar. Roomsense will also assign a role for each speaker in the system based on its location, automatically compensating for unsymmetrical placement.

The Beosound Theatre uses the brand's Mozart software platform, which helps its products, dating as far back as 1986, integrate together. B&O says the platform's processing power and capacity mean that as technology evolves, it will be able to continually introduce new features and connectivity.

Explaining the brand's approach to future-proofing and longevity, Jakob Dyreby, Senior Technology Specialist at B&O, said, “You can buy Beosound Theatre as a soundbar and later add a pair of rear loudspeakers such as Beolab 28 in a triangular set-up.

"All you need to do is connect them. That flexibility also means that our customers are not limited by their initial purchase decision, which in turn helps us extend the lifetime of Beosound Theatre and increase the likelihood of multiple ownerships.”

Physically inspired by boats, the Beosound Theatre's keel-like shape is intended to create the illusion of the soundbar floating on the aluminium blade that runs through its centre. The soundbar comes in a choice of two materials for the main body, grey fabric or an oak lamella cover with wooden fins that clip into place.

The oak option is available in dark medium or light finishes and is manufactured in Denmark to match Bang & Olufsen’s existing family of Beolab speakers.

Built for tabletop, floor standing, or wall mounted placement (except in its largest size), the interchangeable aluminium fins that extend from the soundbar come in different dimensions to fit 55, 65 or 75-inch screens for a seamless design that masks cables and clutter. Made from extruded aluminium, they come in gold, black or silver polished and anodised finishes.

Although its dimensions are optimised to match LG OLED C2, G2 and Z2 TV, B&O say that almost any TV will be able to slot almost into the motorised Beosound Theatre bracket, so you won’t need to replace it if you decide to update your screen.

“We know that our customers want to invest in products that last, which is why Beosound Theatre has been modularly designed to outlast many TVs in its lifetime. We have made a solution that enables you to update your product rather than replace it, and a product that can evolve with you over time,” explains Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, Head of Product Circularity at B&O.

“The Beosound Theatre interface bracket provides the possibility to dock almost any screen to the soundbar. This means that people don’t have to invest in a new TV or can simply choose what they believe is the best TV solution.”

Availability for the Beosound Theatre has not yet been announced but, priced at £5590 (around $6498/ AU$9473), it will be quite the investment.

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We wonder how many headphone and hi-fi manufacturers saw a green light beam in front of their eyes when, at the end of 2020, Apple announced a pair of wireless headphones costing twice as much as the then-current premium competition. The AirPods Max didn’t exactly push the price parameters of wireless over-ear headphones – Bang & Olufsen’s flagship pairs had already attracted a ‘premium’ for, as had a handful of special edition pairs (remember the 24ct gold-plated Dr Dre Beats Pro?). 

Nevertheless, the audacious move by such a big company would have surely spurred some brands to consider similar ambitions. The rise in pricier wireless headphones in the years since, like these Mark Levinson No. 5909, the T+A Solitaire T, Focal Bathy and Bowers & Wilkins Px8, would suggest so – though the ongoing maturation of headphone and Bluetooth technology will have naturally played its part too.

The Mark Levinsons enter our test room doors as one of the most expensive wireless pairs we have tested and therefore do so with a weight of expectation on their shoulders. Can wireless performance ever be so good as to justify such an expense? That’s the question our in-house reviews team set out to answer.

Price

• One of the priciest wireless pairs we've come across
• Now significantly discounted in the UK

Price is naturally the elephant in the room with us as we unbox the No. 5909. It’s their most obvious talking point – before you’ve heard them, at least. 

When they launched in January 2022, they carried a price tag of £999 / $999 / AU$1599 – twice as heavy as that of the five-star AirPods Max and Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless and roughly three times more than the Sony WH-1000XM5 and their Bose, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins rivals. You can now pick up the Mark Levinsons for closer to £600 in the UK, although the original pricing is holding up much better in the US and Australia.

While it’s hard to quantify how much better sounding than their more affordable peers they need to be to justify their price – twice as good? – it’s clear that to earn a recommendation from us they need to be significantly better than the cheaper competition. And the only way they’re going to do that is by sounding significantly better.

Features

• High-quality Bluetooth codec support
• Competitive battery life with 'fast charging'
• Decent albeit not class-leading ANC performance

While there’s more to most products we test than their specification, you’d expect a pair at this price to tick the right boxes – and the right boxes the No. 5909 do indeed tick. Wireless connectivity comes in aptX Adaptive and LDAC flavours, which are essentially the best-quality Bluetooth codecs currently widely adopted. Qualcomm has come up with a superior next-gen aptX Lossless solution that can supposedly wirelessly transmit lossless audio uncompressed, but two years on from its launch it is still yet to reach a decent number of devices. So, high-quality Bluetooth support: tick.

Active noise cancellation – an increasingly prevalent feature in wireless headphones and earbuds to the point that it’s almost expected – is another box ticked and comes in three modes: ANC High, Adaptive and ANC Low. An Awareness mode designed to let noise in for temporary convenience is available in (effective) Voice Pass and (more effective) Ambient options too. You can set your preferred ANC and Awareness settings in the accompanying Mark Levinson app, and they are then the two modes that, alongside ‘off’, you can cycle through using the right earcup’s dedicated ANC button.

That’s arguably the biggest justification for using the app, which otherwise simply lets you activate on-head detection so that music is automatically paused when the headphones are taken off/put back on (which works well); set an auto-timer to turn the headphones off after a period of no music playing; and choose between Neutral (default and, we find, preferred), Enhanced and Attenuated EQ sound profiles. For many, following initial experimentation, the app will be surplus to everyday listening needs.

Noise cancellation is well implemented, albeit more functional than forceful in its intensity (you don't get Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones levels of ANC, that is for sure). That’s not a criticism exactly; the Mark Levinsons physically block sound more than most pairs anyway due to their substantial build and solid-yet-satisfactory clamp force, and we admire the consistency of their sonic character and quality when noise-cancelling is on and off – not by any means a given for ANC wireless headphones. We don’t feel compelled to activate ANC on relatively noisy public transport but are pleased it’s there when a quieter classical piece comes on and that extra isolation from the outdoors and focus on the music is beneficial. 

Activating noise cancellation doesn’t detrimentally impact battery life as much as it can either, though naturally there is a difference between the claimed ANC on (30 hours) and ANC off (34 hours) figures, which we’re pleased to say translate in real-life too. We find an hour of mid-to-high volume, ANC-activated playback drains three to four per cent (note that battery status is also viewable in the app).

Handily for the forgetful, a 15-minute ‘fast’ charge offers six hours of listening, too. In this day and age, you won’t be surprised to read that the No. 5909 charge via USB-C, and you’ll also be more relieved than surprised to know that a 1.2m USB-C charging cable and both 1.25m and 4m USB-C to 3.5mm cables for wired listening come supplied, packaged in an ovular hardshell case alongside a USB-C to USB-A adaptor, an airplane adaptor… and of course, the headphones themselves. Mark Levinson clearly believes the No. 5909 will be used both on the fly and at home, and it’s probably right.

Build

• Exceptional build quality
• Basic plasticky on-cup playback controls

Their design panders to both use cases – hefty and padded enough to enjoy for hours at home, yet also glitzy and compact enough (the cups can fold flat) to take out and about. Perhaps dubiously resembling AKG’s Quincy Jones-endorsed N90Q model from years previous, their red anodised aluminium frame, metallic painted ear cups (in red or black) and leather headband and earpads don’t immediately strike us as impressive for the money. Initially, we find ourselves questioning their perceived-versus-real value, especially as we slide our fingers over the small, plasticky earcup buttons. But after handling and wearing the No. 5909 for several weeks, it becomes easier to appreciate the remarkable quality of their construction. 

In that time, however, we don’t become any more attached to the on-cup controls. We wish Mark Levinson had opted for a classier, more intuitive three-key volume and playback button, as it isn’t easy to quickly discern between the middle (play/pause and skip track) and side (volume up and volume down) controls when they’re being worn.

Sound

• Clearer, cleaner and more detailed than the cheaper competition
• Decent wired headphones and DAC pairing still sounds superior

That an unremarkable button is the first and last of our criticisms gives you a strong hint at the answer to the question we posed at the beginning of our review: can wireless performance ever be so good as to justify such an expense? Again, the No. 5909 need to perform substantially better than the class-leading crop of cheaper competition – and they do.

If we hadn’t unboxed the Levinsons and gone through the simple Bluetooth pairing process ourselves, we would be tempted to check for any wires dangling from the earcups. While the No. 5909’s performance is still short of the best available from similarly priced wired headphones, it’s easily the best wireless headphones performance we’ve come across.

The first adjective that comes to mind when we don the Mark Levinsons on our heads, connect them to our Astell & Kern music player via aptX HD Bluetooth and play Black Country, New Road’s Chaos Space Machine is ‘sparkling’, such is the crystal-clear and crisply detailed manner in which they present the track’s thespian instrumentation. The soundfield their 40mm Beryllium-coated drivers produce has the spic-and-span cleanliness and astute organisation to not be overwhelmed by the sonic density and frenetic energy of the experimental piece – even at higher listening levels, surprisingly. And every corner of it appears to embrace the subtle details and dynamics the septet has artistically shoehorned into the wild composition.

The vivacious production of Toto’s Rosanna gives the Mark Levinsons a sonic canvas on which to truly showboat – those drums biting, vocals rich, and guitar lines and keyboards infectiously musical. They lap it up as enthusiastically as a dog eats spilled ice cream. No part of the frequency spectrum is given undue priority, and that, coupled with the headphones’ attention to detail and brisk nature, makes the No. 5909 utterly compelling to listen to in a way lesser wireless headphones are not.

They aren’t just concerned with having a good time, either, as impressively shrewd when delivering the subtle dynamics and lingering harmonics of Ludovico Einaudi’s piano playing, and when asked to convey the woodwind textures and hit the climactic heights throughout The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey soundtrack. 

The Mark Levinson No. 5909 aren’t necessarily replacements for a wired set-up you’re happy with; a laptop feeding a Chord Mojo 2 DAC connected to Grado SR325x wired headphones offers greater all-round sonic sophistication and finesse. But they are not a million miles away and, of course, are much more practical to travel with.

First reviewed: August 2022. Updated review: November 2024.

Tester's notes

Our rigorous testing process for the Mark Levinson No.5909 involved comparing their sound and noise-cancelling abilities against the cheaper crop of premium competition to see whether they justified their higher price tag. We test dozens of wireless headphones across all price ranges every year and consequently have an unparalleled context of the market, while direct, side-by-side comparisons allow us to assess new arrivals against our What Hi-Fi? Award winners and five-star favourites to gauge exactly where they sit within it. You can read more about how we test and review headphones at What Hi-Fi? here.

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Looking for a top-notch TV that delivers might seem like an uphill struggle if you are on a budget. After all, a casual scroll through the latest TVs on the market might make your eyes pop, and your wallet shed a little tear.

But don't worry! There are plenty of great TVs on offer that don't have to break the bank and can be bought for under a grand.

At that price, the more premium QD-OLED and 8K are off the table, but standard OLED and Mini LED TVs are very much up for grabs.

You don't need to sacrifice gaming specifications if that's what you are looking for, either – plenty of the sets below can cater to your next-gen gaming needs.

We have gathered together a list of the best sub-£1000 TVs currently available, all tested by our team of experts in our test room. You can read more about how we test TVs, but the short version is that we compare each model against the best in class to make sure you are getting the best value for money. That means you can trust our buying advice.

The best TV under £1000 overall

Despite this 48-inch model originally launching at £1499, you can now reliably find it for below £1000. This is great news, as it's a TV that has impressed time and time again in our review rooms.

As an OLED should, it delivers superb contrast, with rich and vibrant colours, excellent motion, and high levels of detail. This is thanks to LG’s OLED Evo display, which helps deliver an upgrade in brightness from its predecessor.

We said in our review of the OLED while watching Mad Max: Fury Road: "The C4 delivers this film with equal parts punch and composure, with the rich reds and yellows of the smoke flares contrasting beautifully with the natural cool blue of the sky and burnt golden sand."

In terms of sound, the 48-inch C4 is underwhelming compared to its 65-inch counterpart. However, you can easily improve its sonic performance with soundbar and its excellent picture quality does make up for its sub-par sound.

Its gaming specs are also a stand-out, including four HDMI 2.1 sockets with full 48Gbps bandwidth support for 4K/120Hz gaming with VRR and ALLM supported. There's also 144Hz VRR support, meaning PC gamers with capable rigs can hook their towers up for even smoother high refresh-rate gaming.

Throw in the excellent webOS interface and the C4 delivers everything many people will need from a TV.

Read the full LG OLED48C4 review

The best 42-inch TV under £1000

For a long time, those who only had space for a 42-inch TV had to settle for something without all the latest bells and whistles, but LG’s C Series delivers all the benefits of an OLED at a size that’s more manageable for those with compact living areas.

This mid-range OLED impresses when it comes to brightness and, during testing, we found that "the small C4 creates a stellar spectacle that matches what’s being shown on its larger 48-inch sibling and beats the peaks offered by the older C3."

If that's not high praise, I'm not sure what is. And while its colours aren’t quite as warm as with its big brothers, this is the best small OLED you can find at this price.

Excellent sound quality on a 42-inch TV is hard to come by, and the C4 does not manage to buck this trend.

This is why we would recommend investing in a soundbar to get the best viewing experience with the OLED.

If you do, be warned, the OLED's foot placement means there’s just enough space to slot a small soundbar between them, but the fact they can only be set to one height means you will want to measure before buying one.

Those looking for a capable second TV to use for gaming will be pleased to see the inclusion of four HDMI 2.1 inputs, all of which support 4K/120, VRR, ALLM, HGiG, and Dolby Vision game mode, so you can plug in both current-gen consoles and a gaming PC, and still have one socket spare for the soundbar.

The inclusion of webOS 24 is another selling point, as it has the best app support of any TV platform and an easy to use UI.

Snagging all that for under a grand in a neat 42-inch package is a pretty good deal for us.

Read the full LG OLED42C4 review

The best 50-inch TV under £1000

It might seem impossible to find a 50-inch Mini LED TV that won’t break the bank but still provides an excellent overall picture performance, but the TCL C6KS proves there is hope.

This is a TV that is very good value at its full price of £419 – but you shouldn’t pay that much for it. That’s because it is frequently discounted, and regularly is dropped down to £399.

What makes the Mini LED such a bargain is its specification, which includes 160 local dimming zones, support for every current HDR format, gaming features such as VRR, ALLM and even Dolby Vision gaming, and the app-packed and user-friendly Google TV operating system.

So how does it look? During our testing, we were blown away by its impressively bright and colourful performance. We say in our review, for example, that: “The brightness feels very organic to the 50C6KS’s picture, too, by which we mean that, as well as not generally straining the TV’s black levels and local dimming controls, it doesn’t cause the brightest colours to start looking faded or washed out.”

It's not without its faults, though. There are occasionally cases of colour banding, and the motion handling is not the best. For the money and the brilliant performance in other areas, however, these issues are easy to forgive.

On the sound front, the C6KS supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X playback. This provides an extremely detailed sound that is projected nicely from the TV's chassis, although it can slightly withdraw into itself when faced with the loudest soundtracks.

That's why we still advise adding a soundbar for movies to get the most immersive experience.

Read the full TCL C6KS review

The best large TV under £1000

A 65-inch Mini LED with expansive Quantum Dot colour and excellent gaming support, all at a price tag now under a grand? Yes, please.

The TCL C7K managed to wow us when we had it in our test room, offering an explosively bright and vivid picture performance that is a rare find at this price point. We say in our review: “The brightness and contrast both play their part, too, in the C7K’s precociously brilliant colour performance. In its Standard picture preset, colours across a huge spectrum look radiantly beautiful, combining vivid intensity with a level of blend and tone subtlety that feels too good to be true on a TV as affordable as this.”

Even in comparison with the step-up model, the TCL C8K, we were pleasantly surprised to find the C7K’s colours actually look slightly richer and more rounded in its Standard pre-setting than they do on the C8K. That's quite impressive, considering the step-up TV will set you back a few hundred quid more.

The C7K packs a Bang & Olufsen multi-channel speaker system. The midrange is open and clear, and this set also manages to hit high frequencies that many other TVs cannot reach without sounding whiny or harsh.

The bass doesn't pack much of a punch or make a real impact, however, so we recommend budgeting for a soundbar here.

There's plenty to offer for gamers, with support for the versions of Dolby Vision and HDR10 that can adapt their picture presentation to the ambient conditions in your room, and the TV’s Dolby Vision support further extends to a low-latency Dolby Vision Game mode. It also has support for 4K feeds at frame rates up to 144Hz – and that frame-rate support remarkably jumps to 288Hz using TCL’s Game Accelerator technology, provided you don’t mind the resolution dropping to Full HD.

If you are looking for a large TV with solid picture quality and plenty of gaming connections, this could be the model for you.

Read the full 65-inch TCL C7K review

Also consider

Sharp GK4245K: If you want a giant screen but are short on cash, then the Sharp GK4245K is an outright bargain and the best 70-inch cheap TV we’ve tested in recent years.

Samsung 48-inch S90F: Although it launched at £1500, we have consistently seen the price of the five-star 48-inch S90F drop to just over £800, making it a worthy consideration if you are on a budget but still want a top-notch OLED.

How to choose the best TV under £1000 for you

There are normally two main factors that determine which TV you end up buying: budget and size.

We’ve already covered the former by limiting the models here to under £1000, but when it comes to the latter there’s a bit more to it than just picking the biggest one that’ll fit in the boot of your car.

At this price you’re unlikely to find any genuine whoppers, but a 65-incher isn’t out of the question. What you should be really asking yourself, though, is whether you really have room for it. You see, it’s not just about whether you have space for the TV itself, but whether you’re going to be sitting far enough away from it to see the picture at its best. Fortunately, you can read our full guide that will help you to work the best viewing distance here.

Nobody in 2024 should consider buying a TV with a resolution that’s lower than 4K (and you wouldn’t find any on this list anyway), but it is worth considering what kind of screen technology you want. OLED tends to offer the best contrast and vibrant colours, but at this price the size of the screen you’ll be able to get will be limited, so you might want a Mini LED or QLED if you’re after more inches.

It’s also worth checking which HDR formats a TV supports. HDR10 and HLG pretty much come as standard these days, but not all models play nicely with HDR10+ or Dolby Vision. If you’re a gamer, you’ll also want to make sure at least one of the HDMI ports can handle 4K/120Hz, VRR, and ALLM, otherwise you won’t see your console performing at its best.

We’ve tested TVs that cost a lot more than £1000 that still don’t sound great, so while underwhelming audio shouldn’t be a deal breaker when it comes to choosing your next television, it makes sense to go for one that sounds acceptable when watching everyday TV. As always, though, we’d recommend budgeting for a soundbar as well, with plenty available at similarly wallet-friendly prices.

TVs under £1000 FAQ

How we test the best TVs under £1000

The process of testing a sub-£1000 TV is no different to what we subject one over £1000 to, which means it involves a number of days in our state-of-the-art testing facilities in London, Reading or Bath.

Sitting in front of the TV might sound like a leisurely task, but thoroughly testing one requires a methodical process of feeding it various sources, including 4K Blu-rays, HD terrestrial TV, and good old DVDs, and comparing the TV's performance in real time with its best-in-class rivals, which we keep in our stockroom at all times for reference.

We also check which streaming apps are available and confirm that they are able to play all the video and audio formats they claim to, before plugging in both a PS5 and Xbox Series X to check which HDMI ports support any claimed gaming features, such as 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM, Dolby Vision, and HGiG. Input lag is then measured using a Leo Bodnar device.

While we don’t have a professional calibrator on hand to get each TV performing at its best, we won’t just accept the settings as they are when it comes out of the box either. Each one is tweaked and adjusted, and different picture and audio modes are tested, until we’re absolutely sure the TV is performing to its full potential.

Speaking of sound, almost every flatscreen television benefits from being connected to an external sound system of some sort, whether that’s a full speaker package or a more compact soundbar, but it’s still important to test the built-in speakers to find out what they’re capable of for those without the space or budget to augment it.

Our in-house testers have over a century of combined reviewing experience, with each verdict settled upon by the whole team rather than just one individual, so if you buy a product off the back of something we’ve written, you can be sure your purchase is based on consistent, impartial advice.

For more on how we test products here at What Hi-Fi? read our full in-depth explanation.

Recent updates

8th January 2026: Removed TCL 32SF540K as best 32-inch model due to lack of availability. Edited Also Consider section to reflect the current market.

20th October 2025: Added TCL C6KS as best 50-inch model, added TCL C7K as best large TV model. Removed Best Mini LED and Best 55-inch TV categories.

1st April 2025: Added OLED48C4 as best overall and OLED42C4 as best 42-inch model. Also added Amazon Omni as best mini-LED, and Samsung Q80D as best 55-inch model.

1st August 2024: Added the TCL 32SF540K as the best 32-inch model.

10th April 2024: Added LG OLED55B3 as the best overall and LG OLED42C3 as best 42-inch choices. Also added sections on how to choose, how we test, FAQ and other options to consider.

Harman Kardon has inked a deal with Renault to provide in-car audio systems. The first collaboration between the Samsung-owned hi-fi firm and French car maker will be the Renault Mégane E-Tech 100% Electric, due out next year.

There's no word on how long the partnership is for, but Harman describes this car as the "first step" in the collaboration, so presumably it's a multi-year deal.

According to Harman, the system's spatial arrangement and custom sound tuning mean precisely localised sound sources, creating the sensation of a bigger space. An algorithm equalises phase responses in the car to create a stable, well-defined, coherent sound image with stereo sound for all occupants, while Virtual Centre technology processes each speaker's audio signal to ensure the sweet spot is in just the right place.

Automatic level adjustment compensates for differences in sound intensity, so there will be no jarring even if you're going from dance to classical. Nine speakers and a sub provide 410W of power, while Harman's Externally Coupled Subwoofer technology reduces the sub's weight and volume without compromising performance.

Everyone in the car can tweak their individual audio stream, choosing between five presets: Studio, Concert, Immersion, Lounge and Club. And you don't have to worry about music being drowned out by the sound of the roaring engine – Harman's Vehicle Speed Compensation adjusts the music volume and tonal balance depending on the car's speed.

Harman's system will come as default on the top-line trim of the Mégane E-Tech 100% Electric, and as a premium option on the mid-level trim. Look out for it in 2022.

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Go behind the scenes with Bang & Olufsen and the Audi A8

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Aspirational Danish audio specialist Bang & Olufsen has just launched a new pair of true wireless headphones and, visually at least, the company has not disappointed. 

B&O says that to achieve maximum noise-cancellation, it has decided to use an Adaptive ANC solution for the first time. Essentially, it is a more sophisticated ANC variant, involving a dedicated ANC DSP chip and six microphones, all promising automatic adjustment of ANC levels when you're out and about. Those six directional beamforming microphones should also provide crystal clear call and speech quality.

The earphones are available in Black Anthracite or Sand Gold Tone (pictured) and come with interchangeable eartips in four different sizes to suit a range of ears.

Beoplay EQ’s technical specifications are on point too: aptX adaptive, the latest Bluetooth 5.2 and an IP54 dust- and splash-proof rating are all here. The set-up process should also be a breeze for both Android and Apple devices, thanks to the inclusion of Microsoft Swift Pair and Made for iPhone licences.

The Qi-certified wireless charging case is crafted from spacecraft-grade aluminium – we'd expect nothing less from Bang & Olufsen. The company also claims that the case has been designed to be as small as possible, and will fit easily into a pocket.

Users can expect musical immersion for up to 20 hours of total playtime including charging from the case, and 6.5 hours of playtime from the buds with ANC turned on. Thanks to the fast charging, a quick 20-minute charge means two hours of playtime too.

Be warned though, these earbuds don't come cheap. The Beoplay EQ in Black Anthracite or Sand will be available to purchase online and in Bang & Olufsen stores from 19th August, retailing at £349 ($399, around AU$600). 

That's the same price as the Bowers & Wilkins PI7, £100 more than Sony's recent (and rather wonderful) WF-1000XM4, and a £70 hike on the launch price of the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, our current What Hi-Fi? Award-winners. 

But we're certainly still interested...

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Read all of our Bang & Olufsen reviews

See our pick of the best true wireless earbuds: the best AirPods alternatives 2021

ANC a priority? Read best noise-cancelling headphones 2021: in-ears and on-ears, budget to premium

Audi has taken the wraps off its latest all-electric vehicle and the big news is it’s going to be powered by Sonos. Of course, being an EV it's actually going to be powered by a battery, but the car’s sound system will be the first to be tuned by the multi-room audio maestros.

This brand new partnership will not only see Sonos feature in the Q4 e-tron, but it will also tune the systems for future A1, Q2 and Q3 models.

The Sonos set-up in the Audi Q4 e-tron is being billed as a “premium sound system” according to Audi’s press release. It’s going to be fitted as standard to Vorsprung versions and will be available in other variants of the car as part of the optional Comfort and Sound pack.

It uses the Sonoamic Panorama algorithm, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, to process audio and distribute it to 10 speakers inside the cabin. The algorithm claims to “use stereo recordings to generate a three-dimensional surround sound, where it places the individual sound sources on a virtual U-shaped sound stage. This gives the listener the impression they are sitting in the middle of the orchestra or band”.

The way the Sonos system is configured is as follows: four tweeters and a centre speaker are driven by a dedicated amplifier built into Audi's MIB 3 digital architecture, while a separate eight-channel “booster” amp handles the four bass speakers and the subwoofer in the luggage compartment. With both amps combined, total power for the Sonos system weighs in at 580 watts. At this stage, there’s no news on whether we’ll be seeing any extra Sonos features or sound modes provided by the system, but presumably, you’ll see Sonos logos dotted around the cabin to mark its presence in your shiny new Q4 e-tron.

One question this new Sonos/Audi partnership does raise, is what does this mean for Audi’s current arrangement with Bang & Olufsen? In-car systems tuned by the Danish manufacturer already feature heavily as options throughout Audi’s current range of vehicles. Does this mean there’ll be a new direction for Audi’s sound, (pardon the pun)? Hopefully, we'll be able to take a Q4 e-tron for a spin to find out...

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Behind the scenes with Bang & Olufsen and the Audi A8

Best B&O speakers Buying Guide: Welcome to What Hi-Fi?'s round-up of the best B&O speakers you can buy.

2025 marks 100 years in the hi-fi industry for Bang & Olufsen, and the celebrated Danish brand is showing no signs of slowing down, continuing to wow us year in and year out with its edgy designs and meticulous quality control. It's best known for its premium speakers, some of which will set you back the price of a small car.

Yet to win the lottery? You'll be pleased to hear that B&O has poured its engineering excellence into the audio equivalent of a diffusion line. The B&O Play (formerly BeoPlay) speaker range – aimed at a younger, style-conscious audience – is more affordable and includes portable Bluetooth speakers that aren't afraid of the great outdoors, as you'll see below.

(There are B&O Play headphones too.)

That said, B&O has been known to choose style over substance on occasion, so it's important to pick wisely. To help you avoid a dud, we've curated this list of the best B&O speakers we've tested – from budget, picnic-friendly portables to pairs of truly epic, high-end floorstanding speakers. Let's hear them out.

The B&O Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) wireless speaker is the company's second most affordable model in its line-up, and also the world’s first Bluetooth-only Alexa smart speaker.

It's about the size of a large floury bap, and feels typically high end. It's a little more svelte than its predecessor, with bigger, more clearly labelled buttons making it easier to control. It's also water- and dust-proof to IP67, meaning it should survive being placed in water up to one metre deep for 30 minutes. And battery? A reasonable 18 hours at normal listening volume, or up to 48 hours at a more conservative level.

To use Alexa, you'll need to Bluetooth it to your phone, which is connected to wi-fi. Which is pretty straightforward to set up.

Sonically, it's accomplished and smooth. B&O has managed to capture its trademark sonic profile in this small a form factor, which is no mean feat. A great device for listening at home or on the move.

Read the full B&O Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) review

Given that B&O is best known for its high-end audio products, you might suspect that a few corners have been cut to create this pocketable speaker. Thankfully, that's not the case – it's elegantly-crafted from aluminium and leather.

Sound quality is spot on: soulful and solid, with impressive midrange clarity that will flood the room. Battery life is no less impressive: 2.5 hours charging returns 24 hours of playback. There's no NFC support, but the A1 does rock aptX Bluetooth connectivity.

If size matters, this scaled-down speaker is the equivalent of drinking champagne on a beer budget.

Read the full B&O BeoPlay A1 review

They might cost a small fortune, but these swanky floorstanders are dripping with premium materials and cutting-edge technology. Each speaker has seven drivers, each with a dedicated 300W power amplifier, which adds up to effortless dynamic shifts, agile bass and a thrilling level of detail.

The control app, which is bespoke to the BeoLab 50, helps you keep a firm grip on all that power (2100W per channel) as you blast out some Hans Zimmer. Could they sound a little more rhythmic? Yes, but If you're looking for a stellar system without too many extra boxes, B&O's deluxe floorstanders sound as good as they look.

Read the full B&O BeoLab 50 review

Once again, B&O's designers have come up with a striking, space-age design that reimagines the speaker as some sort of small sculpture. The tip of the cone, which appears to be floating, doubles as the volume dial with touch-sensitive controls.

The unusual shape offers excellent 360-degree sound dispersion and is laden with features. The latest version of the Beosound 1 supports hi-res streaming up to 24-bit/192kHz and has Google Assistant voice smarts built-in.

Musically, it's not as dynamic as some rivals (the Naim Mu-so 2, say) but if you want an all-in-one streaming hi-fi that makes a visual impact, the cone-shaped BeoSound 1 is on point.

Read the full B&O BeoSound 1 review

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We now live in a world where new iPhones drop once a year and true wireless headphones and portable speakers reach fifth and sixth iterations in as many years, so a Bluetooth speaker that took four years for an update is pretty unusual by today's standards.

But Bang & Olufsen isn’t noted for following the herd. In the Danish electronics specialist’s catalogue you'll find a wheel-shaped wireless speaker, a TV that opens up like a butterfly, and an 8200-watt monolithic speaker comprising 18 drivers. Its output could reasonably be described as "premium" and "innovative".

The B&O Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) wireless speaker is no exception. It's the company's second most affordable model in its line-up – the Beoplay P2 takes the accolade for being the cheapest and, incidentally, the smallest – so to make the product stand out, Bang & Olufsen has billed it the world’s first Bluetooth-only Alexa smart speaker.

Build

The Beosound A1 boasts similar dimensions to a large floury bap or English muffin. Thanks to its stunning pearl-blasted aluminium chassis, our ‘pink’ A1 (there are four other colourways) shimmers with a hue not unlike the premium mystic bronze finish of Samsung Galaxy Note fame. The included USB-C charging cable is the same shade too, albeit in tactile rubber – a typically higher-end touch.

Although the resemblance between the original and new A1 is striking, the latter has been tweaked significantly, both in terms of design and performance. It is slightly more svelte and, though still reassuringly substantial, a little lighter.

There is also a new control arrangement that sees slightly bigger, more clearly labelled buttons situated closer to the leather strap. To the left are play/pause button and volume controls; and to the right you'll find power, Bluetooth pairing and mic on/off buttons. The once disc-shaped metal slider for the leather wrist strap is now tubular and, thus, far less likely to snag your winter knitwear.

The A1 is now water- and dust-proof to IP67, meaning it should survive being placed in water up to one metre deep for 30 minutes. Quoted battery life is a reasonable 18 hours at normal listening volume, or up to 48 hours at a more conservative level, besting given times from cheaper rivals such as the Sonos Roam (10 hours) and UE Wonderboom 3 (14 hours). If you're really careful, the A1 could even chase down the Dali Katch G2's whopping 30 hours, although this should be taken with a pinch of salt considering how frugal you'll probably have to be in terms of listening volume.

A solo LED warning light now shines out from the metal grille to indicate power and pairing status, while the A1 sports triple the microphone count of its predecessor – a three-mic array for Alexa operation and hands-free calls. Support for Microsoft Swift Pair and Google Fast Pair has been included to make conference calling easier, too.

It's worth noting that the 3.5mm headphone jack found on the inaugural model is gone, but, honestly, we don’t miss it.

Ultimately, we cannot fault the Beosound A1's build quality and finish. If you're looking for quality portable speaker that majors on both style and substance – something to pack into your picnic hamper, perhaps – this is it.

Features

The new A1 supports Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec, and of course Alexa is built-in. You'd be perfectly in your right to simply switch the A1 on, press its Bluetooth button to pair it to your phone, and start streaming. But to fully take advantage of the A1's offering, you’ll want to get Amazon Alexa up and running.

Now, Alexa voice control requires an internet connection, which the A1 does not have. So how, you may well ask, can it work without one? Essentially, the A1 has to be Bluetooth connected to a smartphone (or other source) that is itself connected to wi-fi.

It's relatively straightforward to get set up, although you'll need to download both the Amazon Alexa and Bang & Olufsen apps. The latter immediately directs you to the former to link the A1 to your Alexa account. Once in the Alexa app, we find our A1 under the ‘devices’ tab and hands-free Alexa is activated. Simple.

The speaker must always be within Bluetooth range of your phone or source, but considering the A1 supports Bluetooth 5.1 (which claims a range of around 800 feet or 240m) that shouldn’t be a problem. Thanks to the A1’s far-field microphone technology, Alexa can be activated from up to five metres away – and during testing the voice assistant never ignores us.

Alexa is attentive, although since there’s no wi-fi or Chromecast onboard, you cannot link streaming services – you can’t say “Alexa, play Prince on Tidal”, for example. However, say “Alexa, play Prince” and you’ll get a station based on Prince from the Amazon Music catalogue.

Talk to the A1 and you’ll hear an endearing low bleep to signal that your request has been acknowledged – either a nice touch or slightly disconcerting, depending on your preference.

You can stereo pair two Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) speakers – albeit not a second-gen model with a first-gen model – which is simple enough to do through the well-designed B&O app. Open the app and you’ll get a shot of your speaker with its battery status underneath; a volume slider, with haptic feedback that clicks as you slide your finger along it; four customisable listening EQ presets; and a ‘Beosonic' circular dial that involves placing a dot somewhere on a spectrum of 'bright', 'energetic', 'warm' and 'relaxed' pointers to create your preferred sound profile. 

We don't find they add to our listening experience at home, though; after a good fiddle we set everything back to ‘optimal’ (neutral).

Sound

We stream Beyonce’s Deja Vu featuring Jay-Z on Tidal, and her vocal acrobatics are relayed faithfully and with space around her voice, despite the complexity and layering of the track's production. The same song through the Apple HomePod Mini feels marginally more compressed in comparison. As the Homecoming album continues to Lady Revisited, the difficult, snappy strands in the Fela Kuti-inspired afrobeat soundscape are well handled by the A1.

Switch to Laith al Dean’s Bilder Von Dir, and Dean’s deep vocal is audible and full. The A1 proves a good time-keeper and adept with dynamics as the subdued vocal transitions into a heavy synth beat, too.

Switch over to Miles Davis’ Blue In Green, and the central trumpet is clean – never harsh – and underpinned by an expansive double bass, keys and drums. Although the HomePod Mini sounds comparatively more forward and energetic in its rendition, it’s not a mark against the A1. Thanks to the Beosound’s smoother performance, there’s an extra ounce of detail to be gleaned.

Indeed, Bang & Olufsen has succeeded in maintaining its trademark sound profile in this diminutive and affordable proposition – no small feat considering Bluetooth speakers of this size and price can easily come off heavy through the mids and harsh in the treble in an effort to offer volume and clout.

Verdict

Ultimately, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) delivers a pleasingly comfortable yet authoritative performance that you'd be happy listening to all day. Throw in its classy, well made design, easy to use operation and the bonus of Alexa, and you're looking at a Bluetooth speaker sequel that has very much been worth the wait. 

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 5
• Build 5

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If you’ve headed to Bang and Olufsen’s website in recent times and clicked through to its "Speakers for TV" category, you’ll probably have been surprised to be presented with only a handful of its high-end floorstanding speakers. Indeed, while B&O has made countless speakers (including some for its own TVs) its product line-up has been sorely bereft of a soundbar – that is (and you knew this was coming) until now.

The Beosound Stage – “the first soundbar that brings the rich and powerful Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound to any TV” – is just the gorgeous-looking, geometrically unique soundbar you’d expect from the company. And you could say it delivers everything but the kitchen sink – 11 speakers, Dolby Atmos, Google Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth.

The Beosound Stage, designed in collaboration with Danish studio NORM Architects, sees a frame (available in aluminium, bronze tone aluminium and smoked oak), complete with an engraved touch control panel, run right around a clothed speaker. A 2mm gap between the frame and the speaker’s fabric intends to give the illusion of the speaker "floating" within it – which it does. Not just another black box, the Stage is evidently a B&O design through and through.

There are no upward-firing Atmos speakers, then; instead the Atmos processing works its magic to heighten and widen the soundstage through the three-channel Stage’s 11 front-firing speakers, each of which are driven by a dedicated 50-watt Class D amplifier.

The centre channel speaker configuration comprises four 10cm woofers (B&O has chosen large woofers to facilitate bass depth), two 3.8cm midrange drivers and a 2cm tweeter.

Meanwhile, the left and right channels are each made up of a 3.8cm driver and 2cm tweeter, placed close together at a 45-degree angle to aid a wider, and thus more immersive, soundfield.

While built-in wi-fi and an Ethernet socket leverage the bar's networking streaming, connections to a TV are via HDMI: there's an output that supports both eARC and ARC support, as well as a HDMI input, with both supporting the standards that allow the passthrough of 4K HDR content. Alternatively, there are RCA and 3.5mm sockets.

Lastly, there are four listening modes to choose from – TV, Music, Movie and Night Listening – each adjustable to the user’s taste via an EQ.

The B&O Beosound Stage will be available globally from late autumn, priced £1250/€1500 for the aluminium and bronze finishes, and £1900/€2250 for the smoked oak (available exclusively in Bang & Olufsen stores).

We're currently getting a hands-on preview of the Beosound Stage, so we'll be bringing you a first-look review tomorrow. Watch this space.

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The new B&O 3D Advanced Sound System is designed to provide an enveloping soundfield within the car by adding a height dimension to the standard horizontal dimension of conventional surround sound. A Dolby Atmos approach to in-car audio, if you like.

B&O has teamed up with German research institute Fraunhofer, and used its sound processing algorithm, Symphoria. This system, specifically tuned for the Audi Q7's cabin, extracts the height signals via "intelligent signal separation and semantic analysis".

Designers and sound engineers from Audi, B&O and Fraunhofer have all been involved in the development of the B&O system. The result is an "authentic and multidimensional automotive sound experience".

Bang & Olufsen is no stranger to in-car audio, having delivered a B&O system for the Aston Martin Vanquish, amongst other high-end motors.

Bang & Olufsen's own Class-D BeoCore amplifier is installed in the car to power the system and delivers in excess of 1900 watts of power.

The rest of the system is made up of 23 loudspeakers, with an amplifier channel for each speaker. Some speakers have been positioned in the upper section of each A-pillar.

Patented ALT (Acoustic Lens Technology) aims to deliver a 180-degree sound dispersion, and uses redesigned B&O tweeters.

Vehicle Noise Compensation (VNC) technology is also included in the system. This uses an on-board microphone to constantly measure the system's sound, making adjustments to compensate for any external or internal noise.

The sound quality should be further enhanced thanks to a scalable DSP, Truelmage matrix processing and 5.1 multi-channel support. Optional sound settings, including 'Front', 'Rear, 'All' and 'Movie' are available. Three more 3D sound settings of varying "intensity" are also available.

Peter Blum, head of infotainment/vehicle application, said: “Equipped with the latest assistance systems, infotainment modules and connection features, the new Bang & Olufsen 3D Advanced Sound System will reproduce music in innovative 3D sound that will fascinate even discerning hi-fi users, while providing clearly the best bass performance seen in an Audi so far." He thinks it's pretty good, then.

The new Audi Q7 is expected to be released mid-2015.

MORE: Read about the new Audi Q7 on Autocar

Danish industrial engineer Torsten Valeur – head of David Lewis Designers – is the man behind the design of the BeoPlay S8, with pearl-blasted aluminium used in the build as part of efforts to offer "acoustic stability" when in use.

MORE: Bang & Olufsen unveils BeoLab 14 surround speaker system

The BeoPlay S8's sound profile is the Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound, with its 8in subwoofer coming with a frequency range of 20-150Hz. A 280W class D amplifier can also be found under the cover, which powers the subwoofer.

Meanwhile, the system's satellite speakers sport 2.5in full range speaker drivers – each powered by a 140W class D amplifier inside the subwoofer.

B&O Play also says that you'll be able to hook the BeoPlay S8 up to "almost any streaming device" – such as Apple's AirPort Express and Sonos Connect – as well as a standard audio amplifier, BeoPlay V1 or a Bang & Olufsen TV.

The BeoPlay S8 will be available from Bang & Olufsen retail outlets, the B&O Play online store and selected design and department stores at a cost of £1000.

MORE: Read all our B&O reviews and news

Today the likes of Bang & Olufsen, Naim, Mark Levinson and Bowers & Wilkins are busy developing in-car systems for the luxury end of the automotive market.

So we thought it would be fun to try out Jaguar's new, and much-acclaimed, XF kitted out with a top-of-the-range B&W audio system. It's one of several in-car audio reviews we'll be running in the Ultimate Guide to High-End Entertainment, on sale July 31st.

Check out our exclusive review, brought to you by whathifi.com.

Jaguar XF
£33,900

5 stars

For
Terrific bass, fine imaging and real character; superb to use; DAB and iPod options included in the purchase price

Against
Assuming you can afford the car, nothing at all

Verdict
About to order a new XF? You absolutely must make sure you get one with these systems fitted

If your first reaction to the notion of high-end hi-fi in a car is a dismissive one, think again. Many's the audiophile brand with a foothold in the automotive market, including such luminaries as B&O (Audi), Mark Levinson (Lexus), Naim (Bentley) and, as in this Jaguar, Bowers and Wilkins.

The cynical could attempt to paint this as a marketing exercise, but in practice, it makes plenty of sense. Assuming you drive, how many hours do you spend in a car? More than you'd like, we'd wager. So it makes sense to have a decent hi-fi onboard: there's every chance you might be listening to it more than your home system, at least during the week.

Plenty of speakers, lots of power
Hence the amount of effort poured into the XF's hi-fi system by B&W: the company says the finished product took three years to develop and fine-tune.

At its heart, it uses a powerful 440w amplifier coupled to Dolby Pro-Logic II processing. An impressive 14 speakers are strategically positioned around the cabin, including four aluminium-dome tweeters, nine Kevlar-cone midrange drivers, and a subwoofer the size of a small fuel tank mounted in the spare wheel underneath the boot floor.

One drive unit is mounted in the top of the dashboard to ensure a proper 'fill' between left and right channels, coupled to better imaging: it's supported by the Pro-Logic II processor, which operates in full 7.1 mode for optimum results.

Smarter than the average system
The front-end, meanwhile, is just as impressive. Opting for the B&W speaker system (£1290 in basic XFs, £890 in Premium Luxury and SV8 models) automatically includes an iPod controller, which cleverly gives full track and artist info on the screen, as well as DAB radio and the already-standard single-slot CD player. Voice control, a CD changer and digital and analogue television options are also available at extra cost.

Delivers the sonic goods too
Sound quality is exactly as a B&W system ought to be, with plenty of drive in the midrange, a fast, expressive touch with complex rhythms, and - most impressively – none of the leaden, boom'n'bang bass that can afflict some cars with powerful boot-mounted subwoofers.

Instead, low-frequency support is taut, agile and properly placed within the car, while voices have excellent character and presence. Overall, it's a real achievement, and well worth ticking that option box for.

Tech specs
Power: 440w
Drive units: 4 x aluminium-dome tweeters, 8 x Kevlar midrange drivers, subwoofer
iPod support: Yes
DAB Support: Yes
TV option: Yes,
analogue and digital
Touchscreen control: Yes