When Sony officially unveiled its 2026 TV range, there was plenty of disappointment that it didn’t include a new OLED model – much of it from me.

These days, Sony tends to work on two-year lifecycles for its TVs, so I wasn’t expecting a successor to last year’s Bravia 8 II; but a replacement for 2024’s Bravia 8 seemed a fairly safe bet – as did a successor to the A90K, which is now an incredible four years old.

The omission prompted some (again, mostly me) to theorise that Sony had in fact turned its back on OLED entirely, and that the Bravia 8 II could be the brand’s last OLED model.

Last month, though, we reported on rumours that Sony was bracing to launch a brand-new OLED TV. And now, those rumours have been all but confirmed by the appearance of this new OLED set on several of Sony’s own websites.

The listings, first spotted by High Def News (thanks, The Walkman Blog), confirm that the new OLED is indeed the Bravia 6. And, if the name wasn’t a big enough hint, the TV’s tagline – “OLED essentials, now within reach” – also confirms that this is indeed an entry-level OLED TV.

Naturally, I’m disappointed that Sony isn’t launching a new flagship OLED at this stage, but if the Bravia 6 is indeed Sony’s most affordable OLED TV yet, as the tagline suggests, that’s rather exciting news in its own right.

Full tech specs are currently absent from the live pages (another suggestion that they have gone live earlier than planned), but there are some nuggets of information to be gleaned.

First, the TV is listed in sizes ranging from 48 inches to 83 inches. That’s a broader range than Sony typically offers for its OLED TVs, but it’s also highly suggestive of the Bravia 6 using LG Display’s new OLED SE panel, which is available in exactly those sizes and notably not in 42 inches.

While it’s not confirmed, we believe this is the panel that is already found in the LG B6, a set we will be reviewing very soon.

Another encouraging detail is that the Bravia 6 sports four HDMI 2.1 sockets. Gamers (myself included) have long lamented Sony’s models being limited to just two HDMI 2.1 sockets, with that limitation even being true of the new flagship Bravia 9 II, so this is very good news.

The listing also confirms that Dolby Vision is supported on the video side, and that Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are present on the audio side.

Unsurprisingly, like every other modern Bravia TV, the Bravia 6 also features the Google TV platform, which can be operated via voice control (though it’s not clear whether this is via a microphone built into the remote control or the TV itself).

We do know the TV includes ambient sensors, with the listing promising automatic picture adjustments based on room conditions.

None of the leaked listings includes pricing, so we don’t yet have any indication of where the Bravia 6 will sit in Sony’s range.

We don’t even know, in fact, whether the Bravia 6 will even come to the UK. Sony has a recent habit of releasing some models in certain regions but not others.

If it does launch the new model in the UK, there’s no guarantee that it will do so in all sizes: I note that Sony Hong Kong is listing the Bravia 6 in 48-, 55- and 65-inch sizes, while Sony Gabon is listing the 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inch sizes.

We have approached Sony UK for comment. We don’t expect the company to confirm the Bravia 6 ahead of an official announcement, but with multiple regional Sony websites now listing the TV, that announcement surely can’t be far away.

Stay tuned for more on the Sony Bravia 6 as we get it.

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Will the Bravia 6 be good enough and cheap enough to hit our list of the best cheap TVs?

There’s a conundrum that many movie fans face. You might be perfectly happy with your TV’s picture performance, but the audio is often another matter entirely. Punchy action scenes might be missing a sense of energy, and it may be difficult to make out dialogue during busy parts of a film.

Luckily, there is a way to fix this common problem. If you don’t have the budget or space for a multi-speaker package to upgrade your sound, then adding a soundbar to the mix is a great way to go.

• View all the Prime Day deals on Amazon

And, for those on the hunt for an even more room-filling experience, there is the option of getting a soundbar with Dolby Atmos support, which can provide a much-desired extra boost of surround sound.

With Amazon Prime Day deals swarming your search like ants to a melting Calippo, it can be hard to find a model that is genuinely right for you. That’s where we come in. We have tested hundreds of soundbars over the years, and have hand-selected four products that provide immersive sound and are at a discounted price right now.

Sonos Beam Gen 2

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 holds the crown as the top entry-level Dolby Atmos bar in our best soundbars guide.

The Beam Gen 2 measures just 7 x 65 x 10cm (hwd) and weighs 2.8kg, making it easy to place in front of your TV without obscuring the picture. Under the hood, you will find four front-facing elliptical mid-woofers and a centre tweeter.

Most importantly, it offers a detailed, rich, and enveloping audio experience, which is particularly impressive considering its compact footprint.

Despite the bar’s lack of up-firing drivers, the soundfield is immersive and we get a good sense of height as well as scale. In fact, we note in our review: “Whether it’s a chirping bird, a car or a voice, there’s remarkable consistency across the complete soundfield, and seamless handover between drivers, which we have to say doesn’t always happen when a Dolby Atmos soundbar has upward drivers to contend with.”

It launched at £449, but this Prime Day deal has seen its price drop to £337 at Amazon. That’s a saving of £112, and is well worth considering if you are looking to add an Atmos soundbar to your system.

Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

If you are looking for a step-up soundbar to add to your system, then the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is hard to beat. This Sony sounds exceptionally crisp and precise, and the Atmos-ness of its delivery is hugely impressive for a standalone bar.

We find there is a slightly clinical tone in its overall delivery, but its superb detail and punch mean it still achieves five-star success.

In terms of connectivity, gaming fans will be pleased to hear that the Bar 9 has a dedicated HDMI 2.1 input and support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM.

You can find it for £999 at Richer Sounds, chopping £400 off its launch price. At this price, it is also worth considering the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra. It’s a brilliant-sounding system, offering a rich overall sound with expressive vocals.

It features only a single HDMI eARC port, however, which is not as comprehensive as the Theatre Bar 9’s offerings. The Sonos model is currently available at its launch price of £999 at Smart Home Sounds, but we have our fingers crossed for a reduction before the end of Prime Day.

Hisense AX5125H

All-in-one soundbars work excellently for some people, but you might be craving that extra sense of immersion that can come with a soundbar package. And our top budget soundbar system recommendation is currently available for an absolute steal.

You can pick up the Award-winning Hisense AX5125H for just £199 at Currys, making it easily one of the best-sounding affordable soundbar systems we have heard.

The 5.1.2 system, which supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, offers a relatively compact design that is easy to accommodate in most homes. It is made up of two small wireless surround speakers, a wireless subwoofer and the main soundbar. Even though the surround speakers are surprisingly compact (each one measures just 14 x 9 x 11cm), they produce an impressively enveloping soundfield that massively improves upon our experience with the TV’s sound.

We noted in our review when watching Civil War: “Bullets whizz from the front to the back of the room and even behind the listening position, helicopters hover at ceiling height, and distant explosions rumble menacingly.”

Vocals are clear and sound relatively emotive too, although the subwoofer can get a little overzealous and cause them to become muffled in the busiest sections. Still, the Hisense system is a top performer in its class and is even more tempting at this discount.

Samsung HW-Q990F

Finally, we have the Samsung HW-Q990F, an Award-winning 11.1.4 soundbar package. Like the Hisense system, it is made up of a soundbar, a subwoofer, and two surround speakers.

It is a chunkier system in terms of its build, though. The surrounds, for instance, measure 25 x 25 x 25cm and the soundbar comes in at a more hefty 7 x 123 x 14cm (hwd).

With support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, we were impressed by the soundbar’s ability to create that all-important dome of sound as well as ensuring the sound moves organically between the channels.

When it comes to its bass performance, we say in our review: “There is a much greater sense of tonal variation from this subwoofer [compared with the older Q990D model], which unearths a new layer to the bass. The Q990F’s bass feels more organic, balanced, and seamlessly integrated into the system as a result.”

That all makes it a focused, tonally varied overall sound that immerses us in whatever we listen to. You can find the system for £750 at Amazon, saving you around a whopping £949 off its original price.

We recently reviewed the Q990F’s successor – the Samsung HW-Q990H. This new system managed to build upon our favourite aspects of the older model, resulting in an even more detailed and nuanced performance. That meant the Q990H took the crown when we put them head to head – but the Q990F is without doubt still a brilliant performer in the category.

Plus, the Q990H's price has dropped only a small amount for Prime Day (the cheapest we have seen so far is £1299 at Amazon). That makes the older model all the more tempting.

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Check out the best budget soundbars

And here are the best TVs right now

You know how fancy restaurants have this tendency to deconstruct classic recipes? Well, Sony’s done the same thing to the soundbar, but unlike that deconstructed lasagne, which you rather wish was just a perfectly delicious, fully constructed lasagne, the Bravia Theatre Trio is an almost flawlessly tasty treat.

Sony’s thinking behind the Theatre Trio is that as TVs get ever bigger, soundbars will struggle to create audio on a scale to match the visuals. The obvious solution is to switch to having speakers on either side of the screen, which is what the company’s done previously with the HT-A9 and Bravia Theatre Quad, but that creates its own issue: a lack of central focus, which is particularly important for dialogue.

The solution to the solution, then, is to break the soundbar down into three parts: a centre, a front left and a front right.

In a way, this is the antithesis of the soundbar, which was created, of course, to reduce all of the speakers needed for satisfying home cinema into one, slender unit. What’s next: the return of full home cinema in a box systems?

Let’s not get bogged down in the circular nature of home theatre fashion right now, though. Let’s just enjoy the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio for what it is: one of the finest lifestyle Dolby Atmos systems you can currently buy.

Price

The Sony Bravia Theatre Trio has launched at £1999 / $2000 / AU$2999, making it a very premium proposition indeed.

It’s a highly unusual proposition in today’s market, too, which makes direct comparison rather tricky. Someone considering the Bravia Theatre Trio might also have on their shortlist solo soundbars such as the KEF XIO, Sonos Arc Ultra and Bravia Theatre Bar 9; full soundbar systems such as the Samsung HW-Q990H; and bar-less set-ups such as the Bravia Theatre Quad.

It’s a good job, then, that we have all of these on hand for comparison with the Trio.

Almost inevitably, the Trio system can be expanded through the addition of wireless surround speakers and up to two wireless subwoofers. The new Rear 8, Rear 9, Sub 7, Sub 8 and Sub 9 are all compatible with the Bravia Theatre Trio, and if you buy everything together, the prices of the surrounds and sub(s) are halved.

Several legacy accessories – the SA-SW5 and SA-SW3 subwoofers, and the SA-RS5 and SA-RS3S surrounds – are also compatible with the Trio, should you already own any of those.

We’ve tested the Trio with the Rear 9 surrounds and Sub 8, as well as solo, and you can read our thoughts on the value of expanding the system in the sound quality section.

Design

The Bravia Theatre Trio is a slightly odd thing to behold, especially if you're coming from a soundbar.

The left and right speakers will look familiar to anyone who remembers Sony's HT-A9 system. They share a similar cylindrical shape and fairly substantial dimensions, though the Trio's versions are considerably more stylish, with a black fabric (rather than grey plastic) finish that helps them look modern and discreet despite their size.

They're attractive speakers, too. A metallic ring around the top of each cabinet adds a touch of class, while perforations in the top reveal the up-firing drivers responsible for the system's height effects. Build quality feels reassuringly solid throughout, too.

The centre speaker is a little more divisive.

Essentially a very narrow soundbar that sits beneath the TV, the centre isn’t unattractive exactly, but there is something slightly awkward about its proportions, particularly when it’s positioned beneath the sort of super-sized TV that the Trio is primarily designed to partner.

Thankfully, its low-profile design means it won't obstruct the screen, and Sony includes spacer feet in the box should you need it to straddle your TV’s pedestal stand.

Sony has also done an excellent job of making the Trio as installation-friendly as possible.

The rear of each speaker is flat, allowing for neat wall-mounting, and the left and right speakers require little more than suitably positioned screws. A dedicated wall bracket for the centre speaker is included in the box, too, alongside an HDMI cable and usefully long power leads.

Sony has gone out of its way to ensure that the system isn't overly fussy about speaker placement. It's still worth positioning the speakers as symmetrically as possible, but if real-world constraints mean one speaker ends up slightly higher or further away than another, the calibration system is designed to compensate.

There are compromises to the minimalist approach, though.

Like many modern soundbars, the Trio has no traditional display. Each speaker instead features a small status light that indicates power and connection information. Anyone wanting more detailed feedback will generally need to open the Bravia Connect app, which isn’t always ideal, despite the quality of the app itself.

This is a non-issue for owners of compatible Bravia TVs, at least, as the Trio’s settings and status information appear directly within the television's interface.

Sony also supplies a small but useful remote control that provides quick access to the essentials, including volume, bass level, sound modes, voice enhancement and input selection.

Features

While the Bravia Theatre Trio's three-piece design is its most obvious distinguishing feature, the real cleverness lies in how Sony attempts to make those three speakers sound cohesive, like a soundbar, yet also much bigger, like a more traditional home cinema set-up.

Officially, the Trio is a 3.0.2-channel system comprising dedicated left, centre and right speakers. The centre houses two front-firing woofers and a tweeter, while the left and right speakers each feature a front-firing woofer and tweeter, plus an up-firing driver. Together, Sony claims the three speakers deliver a total power output of 405W.

The system supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. It’s IMAX Enhanced certified, too, but only once compatible rear speakers and a subwoofer have been added.

Key to the way the Trio handles these 3D audio formats is Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology. Using the physical speakers as a foundation, 360SSM then creates up to 24 'phantom' speakers around the room. These virtual speakers are designed to bolster the real ones and create a larger, more immersive soundstage than would otherwise be possible.

One area in which Sony has clearly put particular effort is set-up and calibration.

Installation is handled via the excellent Bravia Connect app, which guides you through the entire process with clear, well-illustrated instructions. Despite the sophistication of the system, getting everything connected, positioned and configured is refreshingly straightforward.

As part of the set-up process, you're asked to specify the locations of the speakers relative to one another, either approximately or by entering precise measurements. You can also specify their height, allowing the system to compensate for the sort of less-than-perfect real-world placement that often comes with living-room-friendly home cinema set-ups.

The calibration itself is unusually thorough, too. As well as using microphones built into the speakers, the Trio comes supplied with a dedicated USB-C calibration microphone that you plug into your phone before measurements are taken from the listening position. The result should be a level of consistency and accuracy that's difficult to achieve with systems that rely solely on onboard microphones or a smartphone.

Despite that thoroughness, the process is remarkably quick and painless, and, once complete, Sony's Sound Field Optimisation technology adapts the system’s performance to both your room and speaker placement.

There are plenty of further adjustments available within the app should you wish to experiment. You can choose between Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping processing, Dolby Speaker Virtualiser and DTS Neural:X, adjust the height of the soundfield, create a temporary listening position and access the usual assortment of voice enhancement, bass and night mode settings.

Happily, Sony's default settings are generally spot on, and most users will never feel the need to delve into the Trio’s advanced sound settings.

Connectivity is solid, too. The centre speaker houses an HDMI eARC connection for your TV, plus a dedicated HDMI input with support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM passthrough.

Wireless support includes Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect, while Sony's DSEE Ultimate processing can be used to upscale compressed music files.

Owners of compatible Bravia TVs get a few extra perks, including Voice Zoom 3 dialogue enhancement and, as mentioned, the ability to control many of the Trio's functions directly through the television's interface.

Sound quality

The whole point of splitting a soundbar into three separate speakers is to create a larger and more spacious soundstage, and that's exactly what Sony has achieved.

Compared with even the best conventional soundbars, the Trio sounds huge. Effects stretch much further to the left and right, dialogue remains firmly anchored to the screen, and there's a greater sense of sound being projected out into the room rather than simply originating from beneath the TV.

Blade Runner 2049 demonstrates these strengths particularly well. The sounds of the city as K walks towards his apartment spread far beyond the physical locations of the speakers, filling our large listening room with impressive width and scale. More importantly, the system doesn't just sound wider than a soundbar; it sounds taller, too.

In fact, the Trio's Dolby Atmos performance is one of its most impressive achievements. The sounds of passing vehicles, overhead announcements and environmental effects frequently extend above the listening position, creating a genuinely convincing sense of height. Given the size of our test room and the almost three-metre distance between the seating position and speakers, that's no small feat.

The system proves equally adept with the chaotic battle sequences of Civil War and the aerial action of Top Gun: Maverick, maintaining an impressively large and immersive soundfield without losing track of the finer details.

Perhaps even more impressive than the scale, though, is the cohesion. Despite the fact that you're listening to three physically separate speakers, the Trio rarely sounds like three separate speakers. Instead, it creates a single, unified wall of sound that stretches right across the front of the room.

That sense of integration is particularly important because it allows the system to retain one of the key advantages of a traditional soundbar: you never find yourself consciously thinking about which speaker is producing which effect.

Much of the credit for this appears to belong to Sony's Movie Theatre Acoustics processing. Switch it off, and the soundstage immediately shrinks, while the illusion of a single coherent soundfield begins to weaken. Leave it enabled, however, and the Trio sounds significantly larger, more immersive and more convincing.

There is a small trade-off. The processing can occasionally exaggerate echo that's already present within a soundtrack. The interviewer's voice during K's baseline test in Blade Runner 2049 is one example, while Nandez's dialogue during the early autopsy sequence gains a touch more resonance than is strictly correct.

These moments are relatively rare, though, and the benefits broadly outweigh the drawbacks. Some people might prefer the cleaner delivery when Movie Theatre Acoustics is disabled, but most will want to leave it enabled (as it is by default) for the additional scale, weight and cohesion it brings.

In some respects, the Trio highlights the limitations of conventional soundbars.

Using the excellent Sonos Arc Ultra as a reference point, Sony's system delivers substantially greater scale, bass weight and Atmos immersion. This isn't really a criticism of the Sonos, which remains one of the most capable soundbars at its price, but it does neatly demonstrate what can be achieved when you physically separate the front channels: the Trio simply fills the room more effectively.

One small issue to note regarding movie sound is that the centre speaker can buzz slightly when pushed by super-deep bass, such as that at the start of the second chapter of Blade Runner 2049. It's not something that crops up often enough to become a significant issue, but it is one of the few occasions on which the centre speaker draws attention to itself.

For music, meanwhile, the Trio offers something that most soundbars simply cannot: genuine stereo reproduction.

Switch Sound Field processing off and the centre speaker drops out, leaving dedicated left and right channels handled by dedicated left and right speakers. Give those speakers a small amount of toe-in, and the resulting stereo image is impressively focused, while still benefiting from proper separation.

My Curse by Killswitch Engage is delivered with excellent punch, dynamics and drive, while Rosalía's Divinize demonstrates the system's ability to produce serious low-frequency heft. The dense instrumentation of Karnivool's Salva remains composed and controlled, and Alone On A Hill by Silversun Pickups is rendered with convincing scale and strong stereo focus.

Sony's hi-fi heritage shines through here. The Trio sounds weighty, energetic and engaging in a way that most soundbars simply don't.

That doesn't mean it's a replacement for a properly sorted pair of powered hi-fi speakers, of course, but it comes closer than most lifestyle home cinema products.

One similarly priced alternative to the Trio that we’ve not yet mentioned is the excellent KEF XIO.

With both movies and music, the KEF sounds cleaner, crisper and more detailed than the Sony, with excellent organisation and precision. The Trio counters with greater weight, larger scale and the sort of genuine stereo separation that only physically separated speakers can provide.

Neither approach is inherently better than the other, and preferences will inevitably vary, but the comparison reinforces the fact that Sony has created something genuinely distinct rather than simply another premium soundbar.

And, while the Bravia Theatre Trio is a complete and highly capable package on its own, adding Sony's optional speakers and subwoofer takes things to another level.

Testing with the Rear 9 surrounds and Sub 8 dramatically increases immersion, creating a seamless bubble of sound that extends around the entire listening position. Atmos effects become even more precisely placed, and the busy cityscape of Blade Runner 2049 becomes extraordinarily convincing.

Just as importantly, the minor shortcomings of the standalone system largely disappear. The slight buzz from the centre speaker vanishes once deep bass duties are handed over to the subwoofer, while the occasional over-emphasis of echo through Movie Theatre Acoustics is also cured.

There remains a very slight amount of distortion from the Sub 8 itself during the deepest bass moments, and we'd be fascinated to hear whether the larger Sub 9 can eliminate this final remaining niggle. That's a discussion for another review, though.

Judged as an initial package, the Bravia Theatre Trio is a hugely impressive performer that successfully combines the scale and spaciousness of a separate-speaker home cinema system with much of the convenience and cohesion that make soundbars so appealing.

Verdict

Sony's Bravia Theatre Trio could easily have ended up feeling like an awkward compromise: neither as neat as a soundbar nor as capable as a traditional speaker system. Instead, it succeeds in taking many of the strengths of both approaches while avoiding most of their weaknesses.

It's not quite perfect – the centre speaker isn’t quite as capable as the larger speakers flanking it, there's no display, and some rivals can sound a touch cleaner and more detailed – but those shortcomings are minor in the context of what the Trio achieves overall.

Ultimately, Sony's deconstructed soundbar concept proves brilliantly effective. If you're looking for a premium lifestyle Dolby Atmos system and have the budget to stretch this far, the Bravia Theatre Trio is one of the most compelling options in years.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the KEF XIO

Also consider the Samsung HW-Q990H

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Best Dolby Atmos soundbars: our reviewers' five recommendations

I’ve reviewed a whole range of soundbars in my time at What Hi-Fi?, ranging from five-star wonders to less-than-satisfactory models.

But it is not every day that a product like the Focal Mu-so Hekla enters the test room. This all-in-one sound system comes in at a whopping £3000 / $3600 (around AU$5625), placing it firmly in the high-end soundbar category.

The system supports Dolby Atmos (but there is no DTS:X), plus you get the full complement of streaming-service support, including Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify.

While it is branded as Focal, it is a collaboration between the French manufacturer and its sister company Naim Audio. Both brands hold a strong pedigree, so we had high hopes when we got the system into our test room.

And (spoiler alert) we were not disappointed. My colleagues and I spent days testing the Mu-so Hekla, so here are three things that impressed us the most about the model, and one thing that gave us some trouble.

Immersive, detailed sound with music and movies

First off, the Hekla sounds amazing with whatever we throw at it, whether that is a tense action thriller or a delicate piece of classical music. During testing we felt like we were immersed in everything we listened to, thanks to the system’s enveloping soundstage that wrapped around the listening position.

This experience was heightened by the system’s excellent precision, as you can hear effects placed around the soundfield with startling accuracy. When watching Dune: Part Two, we found in our review: “The levels of detail are breathtaking, as we can hear the grains of sand falling with an impressive exactness.”

Turning to music, this same show-stopping performance continued. Vocals sounded natural and expressive, and each frequency remained well-balanced.

We tested the Hekla against one of its closest competitors – the Award-winning KEF XIO. This five-star model launched at £1999 / $2500 / AU$3600, and holds the crown as the top premium soundbar in our best soundbars guide.

While the XIO is still an excellent performer, the Hekla justifies its higher price tag with better dynamics, detail resolution and refinement.

Clean, agile bass

Another sonic standout is Hekla’s bass. The low frequencies are meaty yet agile, lending its performance an extra sense of impact.

We felt the tight punch of initial bass in the soles of our feet during Dune: Part Two as our central character slips the thumper into the sand to call the worm.

Later as the worm bursts out from the depths, the roar of sand was forceful but not overwhelming, as you still hear Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides slinging his metal hooks and shouting in his efforts. It never stood out from the rest of the sound despite its low-end heft, and remained balanced even during busy action scenes.

We said in our review that it “reaches the lowest we have heard for an all-in-one system”, making it a class-leader in the soundbar category.

Stylish design

Aside from its audio performance, the Mu-so Hekla has a stylish design that feels worthy of its premium price tag. It is made from anodised aluminium with sandblasted finishes, which gives the system a sturdy and smooth feel.

Under the hood, it is equally impressive. There are 15 drivers in total, including seven on the front (three woofers, two midrange and two tweeters), two full-range drivers each on either side of the unit, and four upward-firing drivers at the top.

The Hekla is available only in an all-black finish – the idea is for the unit to disappear in a dark room (you can also turn off the LED illumination surrounding the control dial) for ultimate immersion in what you are watching or listening to.

There is also a tactile dial on the top of the bar that also acts as a touch screen, and adds to its sleek appearance. You can control volume with a twist to the side, and the dial acts as a touch screen to adjust input and power.

No display and bulky design

As much as we like this stylish touch dial, it makes navigation a little difficult when it is being used as a soundbar. As the display is on the top of the bar, it is not as intuitive as other designs we have seen such as the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max where the change in volume or output is clear.

In our test room, the light from the dial also reflected off the screen from certain angles. This won't be a problem if you're using the Hekla as a hi-fi system away from your TV, though.

The bar is also pretty hefty, weighing 15.5kg and measuring one metre long and almost 30cm deep. That means it’s less easy to accommodate than other premium soundbar rivals, as it needs a relatively large piece of furniture to support it.

This design makes sense from an engineering perspective, as Focal says it had to be this large to fit the required drivers, electronics and acoustic technology into the box to deliver the high-quality sound and immersion it wanted. Still, it is certainly worth considering how it will fit into your space.

Despite this design quirk, the Focal Mu-so Hekla is an incredibly strong sonic performer that more than justifies its high price tag.

MORE:

Here is our full review of the Focal Mu-so Hekla

Check out the best soundbars

These are the best budget soundbars

If you are looking for a way to upgrade from your TV’s subpar audio without taking up space in your home, then a soundbar is a great way to go.

There are a range of options on the market, from budget bars to more premium models. The Sonos Arc Ultra is an example of the latter, and it has snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award for its excellent performance.

Since its release in 2024, the Arc Ultra has been relatively unchallenged. But the new Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S has stepped into the ring with its eye on the prize.

Boasting both a subwoofer and a soundbar as opposed to the Arc Ultra’s all-in-one design, they are two different beasts. But who will come out on top when it comes to audio performance? We have put both soundbars head-to-head in our test room, so we can tell you from experience which model is most worth your money.

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: price

So how much will each soundbar set you back? The Sonos Arc Ultra launched at £999 / $999 / AU$1799 but, since its release, you can get it cheaper. In the UK, the Sonos model has dropped to £799 at most retailers, although we have seen it fluctuate.

The Sony system launched at £799 / $1100 (around AU$1320), and has remained at that price since its release. This combo has not been out as long as the Arc Ultra, so there is still an opportunity for the price to drop as time goes on.

There is the option to buy the Bravia 7 without the subwoofer but, for reasons that will become clear, we recommend spending the extra cash.

Right now, though, it is a tie between the two bars when it comes to cost.

**Winner: draw**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: design

The two soundbars offer opposing designs that cater to different sides of the market.

The Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S consists of a soundbar and subwoofer, so there is one extra bit of kit to consider compared to Sonos’ single all-in-one bar.

Offering a versatile design, the accompanying subwoofer is easy to place in our test room and connects to the soundbar quickly. You can use it in two different positions, either with the grille facing the listener or the side of the room.

The Arc Ultra is longer than the Bar 7 soundbar, coming in at 8 x 118 x 11cm (hwd) versus Sony’s 6 x 95 x 13cm (hwd). The Sonos model is also heavier, weighing 5.9kg compared to 4.6kg.

With the Sony bar, you will find a small remote control that puts functionality over style. From here, you can control the power, input, bass levels, volume and turn on Night mode. There’s no such addition with the Sonos, however.

You can find the Sonos bar in either a black or white finish, whereas the Sony system is only available in black. Neither of the bars has a display, and the Sony has no buttons on the top of the bar. The Arc Ultra features touch-sensitive buttons, though these are situated on a ledge at the back. A display with both models would make navigating the settings without relying on the accompanying apps feel more straightforward.

Both designs offer their own benefits. The Sonos offers a slightly simpler set-up with its all-in-one build, but the Sony’s soundbar is more compact and offers versatility with the subwoofer’s placement.

That all depends on what you need from your soundbar, so it’s a draw this time round.

**Winner: draw**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: features

In terms of physical connectivity, both bars have an HDMI that supports eARC, but the Sony model has an extra HDMI port.

Dolby Atmos is available with both systems, but the Bravia 7 also offers DTS:X, which provides more options for surround sound.

The Sony bar offers a 5.1.2-channel configuration. Under the hood of the main bar, you will find nine drive units, split between side, centre, up-firing and bass channels. That differs from the Sonos, which is packing a 9.1.4-channel configuration. This is made up of seven tweeters, six midrange woofers, and a 'Sound Motion' woofer.

They both use their company's respective apps. The Bravia Connect and Sonos apps let you fine-tune the settings of the bars. With the Sony’s app, you can also pair the subwoofer (and the surrounds if you have them) from the app, where they recognise the product almost immediately, which makes for an easy set-up.

Both apps are easy to use, but Sony’s user interface is more intuitive and this results in a smoother overall experience.

From both apps, you can calibrate the soundbar to your space (the Arc Ultra employs Sonos Trueplay). Once we have calibrated the bars to our space, we are offered a wider soundstage with both systems. It’s worth noting that the subwoofer is not included in this process with the Sony system, so it must be adjusted by ear using the bass settings with the app or the remote.

There is also the option to expand your set-up with both systems. With the Sony soundbar and subwoofer, you can also add in the Sony Theatre Rear 8 speakers, costing £449 / $500 / AU$599 on their own.

Sonos’ offerings here are more comprehensive, as you can connect other products from the brand, such as the Sonos Sub 4 or the Era 300 speakers. These can be arranged in a multi-room set-up or in one room.

For its more comprehensive HDMI support and better app experience, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 takes it.

**Winner: Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: sound

Sony and Sonos take different approaches when it comes to audio performance here. But both are five-star systems that provide a massive upgrade from the majority of TV speakers.

When we start up the Bravia Theatre Bar 7, we are greeted with a punchy, cohesive sound that is immediately likeable. It offers an immersive experience, which is put to the test with Top Gun: Maverick as Maverick attempts to reach hypersonic speed in a jet, and the soundbar stretches the height effects above the TV screen.

The Arc Ultra also impresses, matching the Sony’s sense of scale and punch. Effects sound like they're coming from all around you, and are placed with precision, while certain sounds (like rain) stretch far beyond the confines of the TV to which the soundbar is connected.

Bass performance is strong with both soundbars, but the Sony’s added subwoofer gives it the edge in terms of agility and precision. We also find that the bass is well-integrated with the main soundbar and performs with the same precision as the rest of the system. That’s not to dismiss the Sonos performance with lower frequencies, as the bass it delivers is "tight, tuneful and expressive in a way that is rare in the soundbar world".

We listen to the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 without the subwoofer, and it still delivers clear vocals and convincing height effects. But the sound is thinner and lacks the sense of scale and authority that we get when the subwoofer is added.

Both soundbars produce clear vocals, but the Sonos model produces richer voices that lend a more emotive and warm feel to the sound.

When playing music, this warm approach carries foward with the Sonos to make it a more emotive performer than the Sony. The soft vocals of Aurora’s Churchyard start with the appropriate low-level dynamics and build to the punchy chorus as the bass kicks in. As with the Sony’s performance with movies, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S delivers a more precise and energetic bass than the Arc Ultra.

Both soundbars are excellent sonic performers, but the Sonos bar inches past the Sony system for its warmer overall sound.

**Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra**

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S: verdict

If you are looking to upgrade your TV’s audio and get a more immersive audio experience, then either of these soundbars will deliver. Where the Sonos Arc Ultra offers a warm, spacious sound, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S counters with a more agile and well-integrated bass.

One of their designs might suit you more, but the Sonos Arc Ultra just takes the crown for its richer sonic performance.

**Winner: Sonos Arc Ultra**

MORE:

These are the best soundbars on the market

Here's our full review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Sony has just unveiled its new flagship home theatre system, and it’s a bit of an odd one.

Neither a soundbar nor a four-speaker surround system in the vein of the Bravia Theatre Quad, the Bravia Theatre Trio is, as the name suggests, a system comprising three speakers: a centre, a left, and a right.

The centre looks like a particularly stumpy soundbar and is designed to sit in front of or below your TV, while the other two speakers are tall, spherical towers intended to go to the left and right of your TV.

The Trio’s raison d’être is the growing popularity of super-sized TVs. Sony has itself just announced the Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II TVs, both of which are available in sizes larger than 85 inches.

Sony says that most soundbars can’t create a wide enough soundstage to match the scale of the imagery, and that while a system such as the Bravia Theatre Quad can supply the width, the lack of a dedicated centre speaker can compromise focus and dialogue solidity.

Now that the company is (thankfully) doing away with Acoustic Centre Sync, in which the TV serves as the centre speaker, another solution was required – hence the Bravia Theatre Trio.

As you would expect of a modern home cinema system, the Bravia Theatre Trio supports Dolby Atmos (and DTS:X), with the left and right speakers each featuring an up-firing driver for genuine height effects.

A new version of Sony’s Spatial Sound Mapping is also on hand to create an aural bubble featuring phantom speakers for an authentic 3D audio experience.

On top of that, Sony Electronics says it has worked with its colleagues at Sony Pictures on the tuning of the Bravia Theatre Trio, with the intention of delivering a sound that’s as true to the cinema experience as possible.

And, in order to ensure consistency in living rooms of all shapes and sizes, Sony has even developed a bespoke USB-C microphone that you plug into your phone for use during the calibration process.

In other words, this feels like a real belt-and-braces approach to home cinema and, when I heard the Bravia Theatre Trio in Tokyo in March, it absolutely knocked my socks off.

There is, though, a massive caveat that explains why I was so impressed.

You see, the Bravia Theatre Trio’s three speakers can be enhanced through the addition of surround speakers and up to two subwoofers, and that’s how I heard it.

In fact, I heard it with a pair of Rear 8 speakers as surrounds and two of the awesomely monolithic new Sub 9 subwoofers on bass duties.

Seeing how the Bravia Theatre Trio is £2000, a pair of Surround 8s is £449, and a single Sub 9 is £900, that means what I listened to was a £4249 home theatre system, so you’d flipping well hope it sounded good.

Honestly, though, even within that pricey context, the expanded Theatre Trio system really rocked me.

Sony started by playing the spice harvester scene from Dune, and the first thing that struck me was the bass. The quantity and depth of it was close to breathtaking, but it was also brilliantly integrated with the rest of the tonal range.

Dialogue clarity was deeply impressive, too, especially during the heavy action and compared with the Bravia Theatre Bar 9 system that was used as a comparison.

There’s a fair amount of sparkly treble in the Dune soundtrack, and the Trio system delivered this without drifting into brightness or sibilance in a way that’s rare for a ‘lifestyle’ product. Detail levels across all frequencies were sky high, too.

Sony then played me the opening of Top Gun: Maverick, which brilliantly illustrated the dynamic range of the system. The shifts from quiet, subtle dialogue to bombastic, thumping effects – the launch of the hypersonic jet, for example – were handled with the sort of energy and flexibility I would usually associate with a traditional AVR and speaker package.

The weight provided by those subs was striking, too, underpinning the whole presentation with deep, tight and tuneful bass that integrated seamlessly with the midrange delivery of the main speakers.

Despite the very different form factors of the centre and left/right speakers, I found the sound to be seamless across the front of the soundfield, and the connection between the fronts and the surrounds was perfectly natural, too – though that’s less surprising given the hardware similarities between the Trio’s left and right speakers and the Surround 8s.

In short, the Dolby Atmos presentation was exemplary, with the 24 phantom speakers of the extended package assisting in passing effects around the room in a brilliantly natural, immersive way.

I hope you can understand, though, that while the system I heard sounded utterly brilliant, I can’t even begin to deliver a verdict on the Bravia Theatre Trio.

A couple of clips is never enough for firm conclusions to be drawn, and I heard the Trio with accessories that, combined, cost more than the core system itself.

My instinct is that the Bravia Theatre Trio will be very good on its own, but I worry slightly that it could sound a little feeble without at least one sub thrown into the mix.

We’ll be testing that theory just as soon as we can get the core system – and its accessories – into our dedicated test rooms for a comprehensive review.

MORE:

Read our Sony Bravia 9 II hands-on and Sony Bravia 7 II hands-on

Here are all of the best soundbars and best surround systems you can buy right now

After months of teasers and snippets of information, Sony’s first line of RGB Mini LED TVs is finally here.

The Sony Bravia 9 II and the step-down Sony Bravia 7 II use ‘True RGB’ technology, which the company claims can offer “up to four times the colour volume of OLED” – and outdo the brightness of Mini LED.

Sony follows a host of other brands that have thrown their hat into the RGB Mini LED ring, with Hisense, Samsung and TCL all delivering their own take on the technology.

Some brands use two-diode LEDs for their RGB models. These employ green and blue diodes that shine light through a phosphor layer to generate colours.

But Sony is using independently controlled red, green and blue diodes, which the brand claims will deliver a more accurate image.

The TVs are also powered by Sony’s proprietary RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro, which the company says, “drives each LED with high precision, improving brightness, reducing blooming, and producing purer colour than conventional Mini LED displays”.

The Sony Bravia 9 II is the brand’s flagship ‘True RGB’ model.

It claims to reach the same peak brightness levels as the BVM-HX3110 mastering monitor, which goes up to 4000 nits. No official figure has been given for either new TV model, but if it goes as high as the monitor, we could be in for a very bright picture.

The flagship model is also powered by "RGB Triluminos Max and Luminance Booster Pro", which Sony claims delivers "smoother gradation, and accurate hues at higher brightness levels".

You can see the pricing of both the Bravia 7 II and Bravia 9 II below.

The TVs should launch in late spring with pre-orders available now. And we should have US and Australian pricing soon.

Both TVs offer Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, which gives a comprehensive set of surround sound options.

While Sony says both models offer a three-dimensional audio experience, the Bravia 9 II has the edge with the inclusion of up-firing beam tweeters. The company says this delivers more cinematic surround sound with "powerful depth and true immersion".

You will find Dolby Vision support with both models but, like all Sony TVs, there is no HDR10+ on the cards.

They both also employ X-Wide Angle Pro technology, which Sony says means “colours stay consistent even at wide viewing angles”.

Only available with the Bravia 9 II is the Immersive Black Screen Pro feature, which aims to reduce screen reflections.

Both TVs have a central ‘mirage stand’ which uses a layer of clever transparent material to conceal wires under the base of your screen. This isn't available with the biggest screen sizes, however.

RGB LED TVs have already been dubbed as a possible “OLED killer” by many because of the higher colour volume and brightness claims.

We’ll have to wait until we get both models into our test room to see if the proof is in the pudding – but you can read our first impressions in our Bravia 7 II and Bravia 9 II hands-on reviews.

MORE:

All you need to know about RGB Mini LED

These are the best TVs

The best Sony TVs on the market

If you are looking for a soundbar to upgrade your home cinema's sound system, you may be surprised at the amount of variety when it comes to their design. From single all-in-one bars to entire soundbar packages with separate surrounds and subwoofers, there is a lot to consider.

But do you actually need to have a separate subwoofer to get the best home cinema performance with a soundbar? The short answer is: it depends. Before we get into that, though, let's take a look at what a subwoofer is actually for.

Sound has a huge range of frequencies, with the human hearing range typically going from 20Hz to 20KHz. Soundbars usually perform most convincingly from the midrange upwards, despite manufacturers' best efforts to extend the low-frequency reach. This is all down to physics; the smaller size of the drive units and the soundbar itself brings limitations in terms of how deep the bass can actually go.

And that is where subwoofers come in. They offer a larger driver in a bigger box with a dedicated amplifier, which results in more bass.

But is it worth investing in the extra bit of kit for your home cinema system? There’s the obvious increase in bass. But the knock-on effect is a greater scale of sound, stronger dynamics, and an increase in the sense of overall solidity, which adds to the immersive feel when watching movies.

Of course, that is dependent on whether the soundbar and subwoofer work well together, because if things don’t gel, there is the risk that the bass frequencies will overwhelm the rest of the sound. The bass does not need to be booming and room-shaking to make a punch, either.

One soundbar and subwoofer combo that delivers cohesive overall sound is the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S, which offers Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support. We say in our review that the subwoofer gives each scene "an injection of energy with the added bass, but the lower frequencies never stand out as overzealous. Instead, the bass is well-integrated with the main soundbar and performs with the same precision as the rest of the system."

Like the Sony model, many soundbars come with a wireless subwoofer, which gives you added flexibility compared to one with cables snaking around your living room.

In theory, it seems like a no-brainer on whether you should invest in a soundbar with a subwoofer. But not all products are created equal. A soundbar paired with a badly integrated subwoofer can result in a worse overall sound when compared to an all-in-one bar. A buzzing, distorted subwoofer will detract from the immersive experience and create a worse overall sound compared to the soundbar on its own.

On top of that, you might not have the space for an extra bit of kit and would be better suited to an all-in-one soundbar such as the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra, which still offers a tight yet punchy bass performance.

A subwoofer can take your home cinema system to the next level, but if you are thinking of adding one to your setup, make sure you choose wisely.

MORE:

These are the best subwoofers right now

Here are the best soundbars we have tested

Check out our review of the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S

With any luck, everyone knows by now that even the best-sounding TVs sound pretty rubbish by home cinema standards.

But we don't all have the space, budget or patience for a full system comprising an AV receiver, speaker package and the cables required to wire everything up.

In truth, even the super-popular soundbar systems that typically combine a bar, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds (the Samsung HW-Q990H, for example) are “too many boxes” for many people.

So, what’s the solution for those who’ve forked out for a gorgeous, premium TV and want equally gorgeous sound without all of the boxes and/or cables?

The premium solo soundbar, that’s what. In fact, that’s exactly the problem that the soundbar was originally designed to solve.

These days, a premium soundbar is a very sophisticated bit of kit that typically combines svelte styling with effective Dolby Atmos processing for movies and games, plus music streaming, simple operation, and the option to add additional speakers further down the line.

Here, we’re pitching four such soundbars against one another.

The benchmark is the Sonos Arc Ultra – the successor to the multi-Award-winning Arc and now an Award-winner in its own right.

This is a soundbar that really nails the confluence of simplicity and sound quality, and, being a Sonos product, the Arc Ultra also functions as a multi-room speaker for music.

The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 have met before, albeit in slightly different circumstances, with the Sony priced much higher.

These days, you can usually get it for the same price as the Sonos, making the head-to-head far hotter, especially as the Bar 9 has features that the Arc Ultra does not, such as DTS:X support and HDMI passthrough.

This isn’t a head-to-head test, though: two newer soundbars are looking to disrupt the Sonos vs Sony scuffle.

The first of those is the very fancy LG Sound Suite H7. As the name suggests, this is a component in LG’s new Sound Suite family of speakers, but it’s also a Sonos Arc Ultra-rivalling soundbar in its own right.

Finally, but most unusually, we have the JBL Bar 1000MK2, which, as you may have spotted, isn’t really a solo soundbar.

However, we’ve decided to include it here as the ability to connect the surround speakers to the main bar means it can function as a solo bar – albeit one that also comes with a subwoofer.

Which of these premium soundbars deserves the spot beneath your lovely TV? Let Dolby Atmos battle commence!

Picking a winner

Each of these premium soundbars proves that you don’t need a stack of separates and a room full of speakers to get genuinely enjoyable cinematic sound from your TV.

Of course, they all tackle that challenge in slightly different ways.

The JBL leans into flexibility and sheer spectacle, the LG focuses on design and cutting-edge tech, the Sony majors on immersion and detail, and the Sonos aims to blend simplicity, sophistication and sonic excellence into one sleek package.

4. LG Sound Suite H7

All four are good products in their own right, but there is a clear hierarchy here, and in fourth place is the LG Sound Suite H7.

The H7 is certainly an interesting proposition. Its styling is refreshingly different from the norm, and those who own a compatible LG TV will appreciate the way it integrates visually and functionally with the screen. It’s also packed with features, including Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will be a real boon if you decide to expand your system in the future.

There’s no denying, either, that the H7 sounds impressive out of the blocks. It goes loud, delivers plenty of bass weight and throws effects around the room enthusiastically enough to create a decent sense of scale.

Ultimately, though, it lacks the refinement and subtlety of the best soundbars here. Dynamics are a little blunt, detail levels aren’t especially high, and there’s a hardness to its delivery that can become fatiguing over longer listening sessions. Dolby Atmos effects are present, but they don’t knit together cohesively enough to fully convince.

It’s a decent soundbar, then, but against this level of competition, decent simply isn’t enough.

Read the full LG Sound Suite H7 review

3. JBL Bar 1000MK2

Third place goes to the JBL Bar 1000MK2 – and this one is perhaps the trickiest to judge.

Strictly speaking, it’s not really a solo soundbar at all, thanks to the inclusion of a wireless subwoofer and detachable surround speakers. But because those surrounds can be physically attached to the main unit, we felt it deserved a place in this test – and we’re glad we included it.

There’s no question that the JBL delivers the biggest and most overtly cinematic presentation here. With the surrounds deployed, it creates an impressively expansive soundfield, and the dedicated subwoofer gives action scenes a level of low-end heft that the true solo bars simply can’t match.

It’s a hugely entertaining listen, too, with a bold, energetic character that makes blockbuster movies enormous fun.

The problem is that it’s not the most nuanced or controlled performer on test. Bass can occasionally become overbearing, subtle details are sometimes overshadowed by sheer bombast, and musicality isn’t really its strong suit. In stereo music playback, particularly, the Sonos and Sony sound noticeably more balanced, cohesive and sophisticated.

If your priority is maximum home cinema impact with minimum hassle, the JBL remains a very appealing option. But as an all-round premium soundbar package, it falls short of the class leaders.

Read the full JBL Bar 1000MK2 review

2. Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

Which brings us to the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9.

When this soundbar first launched, its pricing made it difficult to recommend wholeheartedly, but now that it can regularly be found for around the same money as the Sonos Arc Ultra, it becomes a much stronger proposition.

And it really is an excellent soundbar. Sony has managed to produce an impressively spacious and immersive presentation from a single bar, with Dolby Atmos effects projected with remarkable precision. Its sense of verticality is particularly convincing, and it fills a room with sound more effectively than almost any rival.

It’s detailed and dynamic, too, with crisp dialogue, excellent placement of effects and plenty of punch when movie soundtracks demand it. The inclusion of HDMI passthrough and DTS:X support also gives it a useful edge in the features department.

Ultimately, though, while the Sony is deeply impressive, it doesn’t quite achieve the same all-round balance and naturalness as the Sonos. There are moments where its presentation becomes just a touch forward or forceful, and while it sounds spectacular with movies, it’s not quite as consistently musical or cohesive across all content types.

Read the full Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 review

1. Sonos Arc Ultra

The Sonos Arc Ultra nails the brief.

It delivers Dolby Atmos with scale, precision and convincing height effects, but it never loses sight of subtlety or cohesion in the pursuit of spectacle. Dialogue is crystal clear, effects are expertly placed, and there’s an openness and spaciousness to the presentation that makes movie soundtracks utterly engrossing.

Crucially, it’s also the most musical soundbar here. Whether you’re watching films, gaming or simply streaming music, the Sonos sounds balanced, expressive and refined in a way that its rivals can’t quite match.

The lack of HDMI passthrough will be an annoyance for some, and the Sonos app isn’t quite back to its slick best yet, but many buyers are unlikely to bother with the app after initial setup and the superb performance of the Arc Ultra far outweighs those relatively minor niggles.

The Sonos Arc Ultra will surely be beaten one day – but today isn’t that day.

Read the full Sonos Arc Ultra review

Here it is, folks: our first full review of an RGB Mini LED TV.

We have previously run extensive hands-on tests of a couple of RGB Mini LED TVs – most notably the huge Hisense 116UX – but, due to their astonishing sizes and prices, we’ve had to do the testing outside our own facilities. In our world, that’s not a full review, so those TVs haven’t received star ratings.

The 65-inch Hisense UR9 we have before us today is designed to address the size and price issues that have until now prevented more people from hopping on the RGB Mini LED bandwagon.

This set, then, is leading the mainstream RGB Mini LED charge. And, while it’s a fair way short of perfect, particularly next to a flagship OLED TV, the UR9 is an impressive TV in its own right and a tantalising glimpse at the technology’s long-term potential.

Price

Price is always a hugely important factor whenever we test a product, but it’s particularly crucial to how the Hisense UR9 will be viewed.

In the UK, the launch price of £2999 places the 65-inch UR9 in the same category as flagship OLED TVs such as the new LG G6 and last year’s Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II.

In Australia, though, the AU$3999 price puts the Hisense UR9 up against step-down OLEDs such as the LG C6.

Most interestingly (and confusingly), while the announced launch price in the US was a super high-end $3500, when the TV actually arrived in shops, the tag was a vastly cheaper $2000, placing the UR9 in an entirely different category, below even step-down OLED models.

Essentially, then, this Hisense is a rather different proposition in each of those three regions. Seeing as we are UK-based and it’s a UK sample we’re reviewing, though, it’s the UK price that we are primarily working with here. And that means the UR9 is going to have to face off against the mighty Bravia 8 II QD-OLED.

Design

The Hisense UR9 is not one of those modern flagship TVs that disappears into your living room.

At 4.5cm thick, it’s decidedly chunky by current premium TV standards, particularly next to the impossibly slim OLED models with which it competes on price.

The rear panel is completely flat, though, which makes the UR9 fairly tidy for wall-mounting, and the overall build feels solid and substantial.

The TV’s general styling is perfectly pleasant, too, though it stops short of being genuinely luxurious. Bezels are slim enough, the dark metallic finish is smart, and the overall aesthetic is clean and restrained, but the UR9 lacks the slick elegance and premium flair of rivals such as the Sony Bravia 8 II and Samsung S99H/S95H.

Hisense has made some nice, practical decisions, though.

The centrally mounted pedestal stand has a relatively narrow footprint of around 42cm, making the UR9 easier to place on narrower furniture than many similarly sized rivals. It also offers two height positions, allowing you either to keep the screen sitting low and tidy or raise it slightly to create extra clearance for a soundbar.

Rows of tiny perforations run down both sides of the set, while larger openings line the top edge. These house the UR9’s side- and up-firing speakers, which form part of its integrated Devialet sound system.

Overall, then, the UR9 is more functional than fashionable – a practical, purposeful TV rather than a particularly glamorous one.

Features and specs

The headline feature here is, of course, the UR9’s RGB Mini LED backlight.

Unlike a conventional Mini LED TV, which uses a white backlight shining through a colour filter layer, the UR9 instead uses separate red, green and blue Mini LEDs to generate colour directly. In theory, this approach allows for both greater brightness and more precise colour reproduction.

Hisense claims peak brightness of up to 3500 nits for the 65-inch model we’re testing here, alongside 980 local dimming zones and a native 170Hz panel, all driven by the company’s Hi-View AI Engine RGB processor.

Gamers are generally very well served – with one unusual caveat. Unlike most premium TVs, which have four HDMI sockets, the UR9 has just three. These are accompanied by a PC-gaming-friendly DisplayPort connection – something that remains extremely rare on TVs.

Is a DisplayPort connection more valuable than a fourth HDMI socket? We have our doubts, but to a small number of very committed PC gamers, it may be very useful.

All three of the HDMI sockets are 2.1-specified, though, with support for 4K/170Hz (and the console-friendly 4K/120Hz), VRR and ALLM. Some brands, including Sony, still offer just two HDMI 2.1 sockets on their TVs.

The UR9’s input lag is decent rather than exceptional. We measured 32.5ms at 60Hz in the standard Game mode, though enabling the Refresh Rate setting reduces that figure to a more respectable, though far from groundbreaking, 24.6ms.

The UR9 supports every significant HDR format currently in use – HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision – plus the intelligent Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive variants that respond to ambient room lighting conditions.

It is also IMAX Enhanced certified, and the UK version of the TV features an anti-reflective, anti-glare screen coating that proves fairly effective at combating bright-room reflections.

Audio specifications are unusually ambitious by TV standards, too. The UR9 features a Devialet-tuned 4.1.2-channel speaker system with dedicated up-firing drivers, plus support for both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks.

In the UK and Australia, the UR9 runs Hisense’s own VIDAA smart platform, while the US version instead uses Google TV.

VIDAA still isn’t the prettiest smart system around, but it’s fast, responsive and logically laid out. App support is broadly very good, too, with all of the major streaming services and UK catch-up apps present and correctly supporting the relevant picture and sound formats.

There are, however, a few frustrating omissions. Most notably, the Apple TV app lacks access to the Apple TV store and users’ purchased libraries, so it can’t be used for movie purchases and rentals. That’s a real disappointment, as Apple’s pay-as-you-go store is the best around.

While far less important for a TV, it’s worth noting that music streaming support is sparse, too, with Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and Qobuz all absent. There are no cloud gaming apps, either.

The inclusion of Freely is welcome, though, as it allows live TV channels to be streamed over the internet without an aerial connection.

Picture quality

The Hisense UR9 makes a superb first impression. In fact, perhaps the most impressive thing about it is just how rarely it behaves like a traditional backlit TV.

Before getting into that, though, some setup advice is required, because the TV’s default HDR settings do it few favours.

When first fed HDR10 content, the UR9 automatically switches into its HDR Energy Saving mode which, despite its name, is surprisingly aggressive. Colours skew cool and bluish, motion processing is overly intrusive, and the overall image looks unnatural and overcooked.

HDR Standard and HDR Dynamic are similarly best avoided, both pushing sharpness, brightness and processing much too hard.

Thankfully, Filmmaker Mode proves far more successful. It delivers the most accurate and balanced picture of the available presets, and it quickly becomes our preferred overall option.

Interestingly, though, IMAX Cinema is also unusually compelling. While its underlying settings appear almost identical to those of Filmmaker Mode, it consistently produces a noticeably brighter and punchier image without obviously compromising balance or naturalism.

As a result, we would stick with Filmmaker Mode for dark-room and purist viewing, but happily switch to IMAX Cinema during the daytime or whenever we fancy a little extra visual intensity.

Once properly configured, the UR9 is an extremely accomplished performer.

Play 1917 on 4K Blu-ray, and the opening logos immediately demonstrate just how well controlled the TV’s backlight system is. Blooming around the bright white text is minimal, black depth is strong, and colours look rich, warm and nicely cinematic.

More importantly, the local-dimming system generally goes about its business without drawing attention to itself. Throughout our testing, the UR9 almost never exhibits the flickering, brightness pumping or visibly shifting backlight behaviour that can make many Mini LED TVs distracting.

That consistency quickly emerges as the UR9’s defining strength. While many bright Mini LED TVs constantly remind you that they are dynamically manipulating a backlight behind the scenes, the Hisense instead achieves a broadly very composed, stable and natural delivery that often feels surprisingly OLED-like.

Blade Runner 2049 showcases this particularly well. Black depth is consistently strong, shadow detail is excellent and subtle blooming is tightly controlled. There’s also impressive richness and stability to colours, especially reds, which look wonderfully pure and saturated without drifting into pink or magenta tones.

Extra-bright HDR material suits the UR9 especially well, too. Pan looks spectacular here, with dazzling highlights and bold, vibrant colours that comfortably outgun the Sony Bravia 8 II for outright brightness in many scenes. Sunlight bursting through clouds and glinting off the fantasy scenery of Neverland is delivered with real punch and intensity.

Crucially, though, the UR9 generally achieves this brightness without sacrificing balance. Skin tones remain natural, and there’s a pleasing cinematic warmth to the image – and it doesn’t drift into gaudiness.

Motion handling is strong, too. The default Film setting is decent enough, but switching Motion Enhancement to Clear results in noticeably smoother pans without introducing the distracting soap-opera effect or processing artefacts that such systems often create.

The notoriously difficult Matera cemetery and chase sequence from No Time To Die is handled particularly well, with impressively little judder to the panning shots and clean rendering of drifting smoke and rapid camera movement.

Dropping down to standard-def and SDR, our Kiss Kiss Bang Bang DVD is reproduced with pleasing warmth, strong detail and impressively clean upscaling. Colours are arguably pushed a touch too hard at times, but the overall presentation remains highly enjoyable and consistently cinematic.

For all of the UR9’s strengths, though, direct comparisons with a top-tier OLED TV still reveal the limitations of even this undeniably refined RGB Mini LED model. Despite its impressive local-dimming system, the Hisense simply cannot match the pixel-level contrast control of the Sony Bravia 8 II.

Extremely bright highlights against deep black backgrounds are sometimes handled slightly conservatively, presumably to avoid blooming. Perhaps counterintuitively, those bright white logos against pitch-black backgrounds appear more intense and impactful on the Sony OLED than on the much brighter, on paper, Hisense.

More significantly, the OLED TV produces a more solid and perceptually three-dimensional image across the board. Objects and characters stand out from their surroundings with greater depth and dynamism, while subtle gradations within clouds, shadows and highlights appear more convincing and refined, creating a more rounded look.

This isn’t a new phenomenon: we have documented that extra solidity you get from OLED plenty of times previously, most notably when we used the Sony Bravia 8 OLED as a comparison in our Bravia 9 Mini LED review. But it bears repeating for those who are choosing between an OLED and a backlit TV.

Viewing angles are another clear OLED advantage. While the UR9’s picture performance doesn’t entirely fall off a cliff when you move off-axis, the sweet spot in which it performs at its very best is surprisingly narrow.

And while the UR9 usually keeps blooming impressively well controlled, especially for a backlit TV, particularly torturous scenes can still expose its limitations.

The bomb-test sequence in Oppenheimer is a great example. From the UR9, there’s a slight general greying to the image, plus some visible glow around isolated spotlights in the darkness. The opening starfield of Alien: Romulus, meanwhile, reveals that the UR9 cannot simultaneously maintain truly inky blacks and perfectly intense star highlights in the way an OLED can.

To be clear, the Hisense performs well in these scenes by LCD standards, and many owners may never notice such shortcomings during normal viewing. But they do prevent the UR9 from truly matching the effortless contrast precision and dimensionality of the best OLED TVs.

Sound quality

Developed in partnership with Devialet, the UR9’s 4.1.2-channel speaker system delivers a surprisingly expansive and full-bodied presentation by TV standards, with particularly impressive width and height effects.

The Theatre sound mode is the most immediately striking of the available presets, producing a presentation that extends well beyond the physical boundaries of the TV and creating a convincing sense of spaciousness with Dolby Atmos soundtracks.

There’s decent bass depth, too, and the UR9 maintains good composure at high volumes, avoiding the harshness and distortion that can afflict many flatscreen TVs when pushed hard.

The overall presentation is smooth and rich in character, which makes the UR9 an easy and enjoyable listen over long viewing sessions.

It isn’t perfect, though. Dynamics are a little stunted, and action scenes lack some of the punch and excitement they deserve, while dialogue could be projected with greater clarity and emotional expression.

The Theatre mode also slightly overplays its hand at times. While its extra spaciousness is undeniably appealing, it introduces a faintly diffuse and echoey quality to voices, along with a slight sense of delay that makes speech sound less natural than it should.

As a result, we find ourselves preferring the Standard sound mode for most content. It still sounds pleasantly spacious and open, but delivers dialogue with greater focus and cohesion while maintaining good weight and scale.

Ultimately, while even a modest dedicated soundbar will comfortably outperform it, the UR9’s audio system is better than that of most TVs, even at this lofty level.

Verdict

In several ways, the Hisense UR9 is one of the best backlit TVs we have ever tested.

Most of the time, you’re not even made aware that it is a backlit TV, so good are its black levels, its control of blooming and its consistent, flicker-free contrast.

While it is possible to trip up the backlight, it’s quite hard to do so, and many buyers may never see an unsightly bloom in their period of UR9 ownership.

But while this first mainstream RGB Mini LED TV is broadly mercifully free of the flaws that generally afflict backlit TVs, it still can’t match the overall picture quality of the best OLED models.

The pixel-level contrast control of OLED brings benefits in several areas. There are the notably brighter highlights on very dark backgrounds that even accomplished backlit sets, such as the UR9, are too cautious to go all guns blazing with for fear of blooming. There are the almost flawless viewing angles, too, which the UR9 is a long way from matching.

The biggest thing, though, is the generally more solid, more perceptually three-dimensional image that OLED provides. Next to the Bravia 8 II, the Hisense UR9 simply looks flatter, less dynamic and less impactful.

Ultimately, as enjoyable and technically impressive as the UR9 is, we can’t think of a good reason you would buy it over a flagship-grade OLED, and that’s the level at which Hisense is pitching it – at least in the UK.

Of course, if you are someone who has a flagship-level budget for their next TV and a general aversion to OLED, the Hisense UR9 should be right around the top of your list.

If you’re a UK buyer, it’s probably a good idea to wait and see if we get a massive US-style discount before placing an order, though.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Also consider the Sony Bravia 8 II, LG G6 and Sony Bravia 9

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

If you are looking for a soundbar system, one of the names you will keep seeing in your search is Samsung. And that's for good reason, as it has delivered plenty of strong contenders to our test room over the years.

And one of the top-performing models comes in the form of the Samsung HW-Q990F, which holds a place on our best soundbars guide. The soundbar system consists of a main soundbar, wireless subwoofer and two surround speakers.

But the newest version of the bar, the Samsung HW-Q990H has now leaped onto the scene. We put the two systems head to head in our test room, so we know how they compare. Let's see which model is the overall winner…

Samsung HW-Q990F vs HW-Q990H: price

The Samsung Q990H launched at £1599 / $2000 / AU$1999, placing it in the high-end soundbar category. It’s still a new addition to the market so we don’t expect any notable discounts just yet, but these are likely to come later down the line.

We can say that with a reasonable certainty, as that’s what happened with the Samsung Q990F. It launched at £1699 / $1999 / AU$1999, which is slightly more pricey in the UK and the US than its successor.

Since its release, the system has seen significant discounts and is regularly available for around £999 in the UK.

That means that, although the Q990H launched at a lower price initially, the Q990F’s cheaper price tag now makes it the winner in this category.

**Winner: Samsung HW-Q990F**

Samsung HW-Q990F vs HW-Q990H: design

Side by side, you would be hard-pressed to tell the two soundbar systems apart. Both of the main soundbars measure 7 x 123 x 14cm (hwd) and weigh in at 7.3kg.

You’ll find a selection of buttons on top to change source, mute the onboard microphones and adjust the volume, with a dot-matrix display on the front displaying corresponding information.

The subwoofer with both models is a cube measuring 25 x 25 x 25cm and weighing 8.3kg. Finally, the surround speakers are also the same, featuring a boxy, angular design that includes a handy cable channel on the bottom edge. They also carry identical dimensions, measuring 20 x 13 x 14cm.

Both are well-built and feel premium with everything constructed from aluminium or a sturdy, high-quality plastic. But overall the design is starting to get a little tired, especially considering the previous Q990D and Q990C models look practically identical.

The brand bundles a remote with functions to change the input, sound mode and EQ for the system, as well as adjusting the subwoofer level.

There’s not much to compare here as they are basically twins, so it has to be a tie.

**Winner: draw**

Samsung HW-Q990F vs HW-Q990H: features

It’s a familiar story when it comes to the features. Both Samsung systems offer an 11.1.4 channel configuration, with an impressive total of 23 individual drivers on board. This includes 15 drivers in the main soundbar, three in each of the wireless surround speakers, and two 8-inch woofers (in a push/pull configuration) in the wireless subwoofer.

Both the soundbars and surround speakers feature upward-firing drivers, which brings us neatly onto the immersive sound formats that the systems support.

They both support three immersive-audio formats: Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Samsung’s Eclipsa Audio. The last of those hasn’t been adopted by any other services aside from YouTube so far, but it’s nice to be future-proofed in case that changes.

To adjust settings for both systems, the Samsung SmartThings app is on hand to help. With both bars, we find this is the preferred way of interacting with the settings menus, thanks to the snappy connection and easy-to-understand menus.

You can also control your source from this app, including music streamed wirelessly to the system. Both the Q990F and Q990H support Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Tidal Connect and Bluetooth; they are even Roon-compatible.

But what about physical connectivity? The soundbar has three HDMI sockets in total. This includes an HDMI eARC for connecting to your TV, alongside two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 passthrough sockets, which support up to 4K/120Hz signals with VRR and ALLM, as well as HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision (a nice touch, as Samsung TVs don't support Dolby Vision).

Samsung’s SpaceFit Sound Pro feature, which is essentially this soundbar’s calibration system, is also present in both bars. The optional feature utilises the built-in microphones to constantly monitor and adjust the soundbar and subwoofer to accommodate your viewing space.

There are four sound modes with each bar: Standard, Surround, Game and AI Adaptive. With both soundbars, Surround mode is the best for movies and TV shows, as the wider sound field means all components hang together in a more sonically cohesive way. Standard is our preferred preset for music, as it features minimal processing and a more focused sound.

One of the few differences here between the two bars is the Q990H’s inclusion of Samsung’s new Sound Elevation feature. This is designed to raise the audio upwards to match the position of your screen.

Samsung hasn’t given a clear indication of how it determines where to place the audio, and for us it seems to overshoot slightly, placing the sound towards the top edge of our reference TV. This setting may appeal more to those who wall-mount their TV and leave a gap between it and their soundbar.

On top of that, Q Symphony – in which your Samsung TV’s speakers work in tandem with the system – is also supported.

Although the Q990H offers the new Sound Elevation feature, it is not impactful enough to sway the result, so we are once again looking at a tie.

**Winner: draw**

Samsung HW-Q990F vs HW-Q990H: sound

Both soundbar systems are five-star performers, delivering a rich and engaging sound that is a huge improvement on the vast majority of TV speakers.

Vocals sound natural and detailed while carrying plenty of subtle inflexion. With the Samsung Q990H, this system manages to unearth subtler sonic nuances, which results in a slightly more natural sound than the Q990F. It’s not a night-and-day difference, but the newest model is the slightly better performer in this area.

The Q990H continues just to get the edge on its predecessor when it comes to height effects. When watching Chapter 2 of Blade Runner 2049 with the two models, both place the sound of the holographic announcements near Officer K’s apartment with excellent precision. But the newer model takes this even further than the Q990F, offering a greater sense of accuracy and spaciousness.

Continuing with Bladerunner 2049, both soundbars show off their excellent bass performance. With the famously tricky chapter two sequence, both systems deliver rich and powerful bass sounds that are controlled and dynamic, as we gain a sense of mounting tension as K approaches the police precinct.

But how do the two bars perform with music? With both systems, most, if not all, of the positive attributes from our movie testing are present and correct for music. We play a range of tracks, and the Q990F and Q990H both offer a clear-cut sense of timing and rhythmic drive. Vocals continue to sound clear and emotive, while instruments have depth and texture.

While they are both excellent-sounding systems, Samsung’s subtle upgrades to the HW-Q990H make it the better of the two soundbars.

**Winner: Samsung HW-Q990H**

Samsung HW-Q990F vs HW-Q990H: verdict

Each Samsung system is very well matched in design and features, offering ample surround sound options and a sturdy build.

The Samsung Q990F is a top-performing system when it comes to audio, but the Q990H takes everything we love about the previous generation and delivers it with even more nuance, detail and scale.

The Q990H is the more expensive option right now, but we expect the price to drop soon, as we have seen with its predecessor. If your budget cannot stretch to the newest model, however, the Q990F is still an excellent-sounding alternative.

**Overall winner: Samsung HW-Q990H**

MORE:

Check out our full review of the Samsung HW-Q990H

And here is our Samsung HW-Q990F review

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Bose has just taken the wraps off its new Lifestyle Collection, a three-strong line-up of multi-room-friendly audio products, which it hopes will give a certain brand – cough, Sonos, cough – a serious run for its money.

The focal point is the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar.

Bose claims it represents the biggest change to its soundbar design in a decade and boasts a whole new architecture, designed to deliver improved immersion, detail and clarity.

It uses nine drivers in total, including six full-range drivers, which are split into four front-facing units and two upfiring for handling Dolby Atmos soundtracks (no DTS decoding is built into the ’bar). When you’re not watching Atmos, Bose’s TrueSpatial technology takes over the processing to create a similar effect.

These drivers work with a pair of Bose’s proprietary PhaseGuide drivers, which help spread sound in specific directions to give a wide, all-encompassing soundstage.

• Hands on: Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar review

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra soundbar features a textured-knit fabric that wraps around the unit with a glass top which stretches across the soundbar and includes a touch-sensitive control panel for playback, volume and Bluetooth pairing.

Struggle to understand conversations in modern movies and TV shows? Bose’s new SpeechClarity technology uses an AI algorithm to boost dialogue but not the effects around it. There’s also CleanBass technology, which works with Bose’s QuietPort design (there are two ports on the rear of the bar) to deliver quality bass without any unwanted distortion.

To help with set-up, you can use Bose CustomTune (which used to be called Bose ADAPTiQ). This is a technology that analyses your room dimensions, surfaces and furniture placement to deliver the best audio experience for your particular room layout. It’s all done through the microphone in your Android or iOS device.

No remote control is provided in the box, although one is sold separately (as is an optional wall mount. Bose has revamped its own app, which you use to control and set-up the soundbar, connect a subwoofer and/or surrounds and alter audio settings.

You do get an HDMI cable, though, which you can use with the soundbar’s eARC-supporting HDMI socket.

There’s an ethernet port on the rear of the bar for a wired connection, or you can use the built-in wi-fi. Music streaming is enabled via Bluetooth 5.3, Google Cast, Apple AirPlay or Spotify Connect. Surprisingly, there’s no Tidal Connect at launch, but Bose guarantees us that it is working on bringing it to the Lifestyle Collection as soon as possible post-launch.

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is available in black or white smoke and costs £1000 / €1000 / $1099 / AU$1800, which puts it right up against the all-conquering Sonos Arc Ultra.

Want to add more oomph to the soundbar? This is where the matching Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer comes in. Priced at £900 / €900 / $899 / AU$1300 and available in the same black or white smoke finishes, the sub is ported underneath and features a 10-inch upfiring woofer.

If you want to add a couple of surrounds to the system or simply want a wireless speaker for another room in your house, Bose has also unveiled the Sonos Era 100-rivalling Lifestyle Ultra Speaker. Priced at £300 / €350 / $299 / AU$550, it uses a three-driver array (two front-facing and one up-firing) to disperse sound, although unlike the soundbar, it doesn’t support Dolby Atmos when used by itself.

It is available in the same black or white smoke finishes, but there is also a rather fetching ‘Driftwood Sand’ option, which features a solid white oak base. At £349 / €369 / $349, it does set you back a little bit more.

Like the rest of the products in the range, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker includes Bose’s CleanBass technology, which combines the speaker’s QuietPort on the rear of the speaker with clever DSP (digital signal processing) to deliver deep, tight bass.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker can be used on its own or in a pair for stereo playback. Alternatively, you can add them as surround channels for the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar. The speakers aren’t backwards compatible with any of Bose’s older soundbars, though.

Like the soundbar, the wireless speaker features Alexa support, wi-fi connectivity, Bluetooth 5.3, Google Cast, Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect. It adds an auxiliary 3.5mm input should you want to connect an external source. You also get touch-sensitive controls on top of the device, including the ability to mute the built-in microphone.

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer will ship from the 15th of May and can be preordered today through the Bose website.

MORE:

Read our Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar hands-on review

And our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Our pick of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy right now

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

Now this one is a bit bonkers, really.

A full Dolby Atmos home cinema with, practically, a 100-inch screen for three grand? If you had asked me for an estimate on the overall cost of that lot a decade or so ago, I would have had to double that price. At least.

And ease of use? Forget it. This was the realm of the full home cinema projector (with a decent screen) and a good multichannel amplifier with a full surround sound speaker system to go with it – and hours of painstaking set-up to go with it.

Not with this system. Just three components (one of which is really only a bonus) that are a doddle to set up together are all you need for a stunning, cutting-edge home cinema.

The system

• TV: TCL 98C7K (£1999)
• Sound system: Samsung HW-Q990F (£849)
• Console: Sony PlayStation 5 (£400)
• Total system price: £3248

The TV

TCL seems intent on finishing off the projector business – in the home at least – as quickly as possible.

To get this screen acreage on a TV for less than £2000 was complete science fiction a few short years ago. To get it today, and for it to have the performance capabilities it does, is astonishing.

Yet here we are. How TCL has managed to deliver so much TV for so little money is, frankly, beyond us.

The 98C7K is an all-out assault on the super-sized screen market. And it achieves the seemingly impossible: a 98-inch 4K Mini LED TV for a price that would make many 65-inch sets blush.

The raw cinematic impact of a 98-inch picture never grows old, but this TV is far more than just sheer acreage. It is built on a foundation of spectacular picture quality, driven by its Mini LED backlight and Quantum Dot colour system.

TCL claims a mighty 3000 nits of peak brightness, which, when married to more than 2000 separately controlled local dimming zones, results in a picture that is dazzlingly bright and contrast-rich.

Small HDR highlights, such as the glint of metal or the gleam in an eye, look bold and lifelike, while bright daylight scenes maintain much more brilliance than even the best OLEDs can muster up.

TCL’s new ‘Halo Control’ technology is the ace up its sleeve. This impressive tech focuses on greatly reducing the unwanted light halos that can plague local-dimming LCD sets.

While subtle, deliberate clouding is occasionally introduced to disguise potential blooming, the overall result is a beautifully handled performance with contrast, with deep, convincing, neutral black tones and a vibrant, subtle colour palette.

The picture also feels sharper and denser than previous models, holding up nicely even with motion, and the set supports every major HDR format: HDR10, HLG, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision.

The console

Crucially, for the modern living room, the 98-inch C7K is a superb gaming hub.

It supports 4K/144Hz, VRR (including AMD FreeSync Premium Pro), and ALLM, with an input lag of just 13.1ms at 60Hz.

It’s an enormous, responsive window into your gaming worlds – which is why we suggest you include a PS5 in this set-up, and connect it to one of the TV’s two full HDMI 2.1-capable ports.

Gaming on this scale needs to be experienced to be believed, and it would be a shame not to take advantage of the TCL’s talents in this area.

Besides, you can also use the PS5 as a Blu-ray player while you’re saving up for a dedicated machine for your amazing new home cinema.

The sound system

While the enormous telly boasts (or tries to boast, at least) a 6.2.2-channel sound system, designed in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen no less, our usual advice with a big-screen TV holds true, even with one as big as this: invest in decent sound to make the most of your lovely big picture.

And with Samsung’s Award-winning HW-Q990F soundbar system currently available in UK shops for vastly less than the £1699 price at which we believed it worthy of not only five stars, but also a Product of the Year gong for 2025 – our choice of sound booster was clear.

The HW-Q990F is last year's iteration of Samsung’s exemplary all-in-one solution. And it has taken an already spectacular package and turned it into an exemplary one.

The Q990F is an 11.1.4 system, boasting 23 drivers across the main bar, the wireless rear surrounds, and the sub. It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and it sounds terrific.

Dialogue sounds excellent, with natural and detailed voices that carry plenty of subtle inflexion.

This carries forth to sound effects, and, as we say in our review: “We have to commend the Q990F’s delivery of Dolby Atmos effects. The ‘bubble of sound’ that we look for in any Dolby Atmos system is well and truly present here, and it’s not just the impressively placed height effects that we like. It's the way that the soundbar and surrounds are so tonally well matched, while the audio processing ensures that sounds move organically between the channels, that truly seals the deal for us.”

The real star of the show is that new subwoofer. Samsung has swapped from a tall, narrow unit to a much more compact, rounded-cube design. Don't be fooled by its smaller dimensions compared with the sub that comes with the Q990D; this one packs an almighty punch.

We find the Q990F’s bass to be rich, powerful, and, most importantly, controlled and dynamic. It’s a huge step up from the previous model. There is a newfound sense of tonal variation in the low-end, making the bass feel more organic and seamlessly integrated into the system as a whole.

The TCL 98C7K and the Samsung HW-Q990F work so well together. The TV’s only real weakness – the inevitable shortfall in sonic ability – is surgically corrected by the soundbar’s greatest strength: its class-leading, controlled, and deeply textured low-end from the new subwoofer.

The verdict

The TCL 98C7K delivers a picture that is utterly dominant and absorbing, with intense brightness and deep contrast, and it does a great job of replicating the look of a premium, high-end cinema display.

The Samsung HW-Q990F soundbar system then adds the scale and immersion to the sound that the picture deserves. The 11.1.4 system’s superb delivery of Dolby Atmos effects – the precise placement of height effects, the organic movement of sound – wraps the enormous visual in a convincing, three-dimensional audio landscape.

You get a full 98 inches of bright, sharp, detailed, and colourful 4K images, backed by a dynamic, cohesive, and deeply immersive surround sound performance – all without the hassle and cost of a separate AVR and countless passive speakers.

Now that, for us, is the definition of a fuss-free cinema. Just make sure your room is big enough for that telly…

MORE:

Read the full TCL 98C7K review and Samsung HW-Q990F review

Here are all of the best TVs and best soundbars you can buy right now

If you’ve been eyeing up the Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 II for your next TV, but don’t have the budget to stretch to it, taking a look at the other models in the Sony range might feel like a good starting point.

There’s always the hope that the more affordable models have retained some of the flagship greatness at a lower price – but at the very least, that they’ve strived for the same goals when it comes to getting the best picture performance bang for your buck.

However, despite their similar naming conventions, the Bravia 5 and the Bravia 3 are not only completely different panel types to the OLED-packing Bravia 8 II, but also different from each other – so it’s important to step with caution.

While our star rating is always a great indicator of the products we recommend, when you’re comparing two models at quite different prices, it’s good to understand what the differences are between them, and what you’re getting for the extra outlay. Allow us to explain all.

Sony Bravia 3 vs Bravia 5: pricing

Right now, you can pick up the 65-inch Bravia 5 that we tested for around £1299 / $1000 / AU$2695. That’s not a bad price at all for a Sony-branded Mini LED TV with local dimming, and a nice saving from the launch price of £1699 in the UK.

The Bravia 3 is considerably cheaper, and at the time of writing is available for around £849 / $650 / AU$1399. That’s pretty close to its launch price of £899 in the UK (US and Australian savings on RRP are slightly heftier), but we have known this screen size to go as low as £749 during big sales periods.

We'll tackle the question of value through the course of the review. This round is all about which option is cheapest, and that's comfortably the Bravia 3.

WINNER: Bravia 3

Sony Bravia 3 vs Bravia 5: design

It’s fair to say that neither of these TVs are going to be the best choice if you're hoping to wall mount.

In our review, we noted that the Bravia 5 has a rear panel that sticks out further than its competition, which could make it feel a bit clunky and awkward for wall hanging.

When you consider that the Bravia 5 measures 5.8cm deep, and the Bravia 3 measures in at 7.2cm, we’d say that both of these sets lend themselves best to life on a TV stand.

As you might expect for the price difference, the Bravia 5’s overall aesthetic is a little elevated compared with the Bravia 3. Both have relatively slender bezels, but the Bravia 5 sports a tasteful dark grey brushed metal effect finish, whereas the Bravia 3 is unashamedly black plastic.

It feels all the more lightweight when you’re putting it together too, and at least for our taste, the feet on the Bravia 3 lack some of the sophistication of those on the 5.

We do appreciate Sony’s no-screw mechanism on both TVs though, which allows the TV to just slot onto the stand, saving fuss and making setup out of the box really straightforward.

The Bravia 3 does score points over the Bravia 5 for its two-way stand, which allows you to set the feet into either narrow or wide positions to suit your furniture or soundbar requirements.

The Bravia 5’s feet only have one position, but thankfully that is relatively narrow to allow you to place it on most stands without issue. If you have a soundbar though, you’ll just want to check that it can fit in front of the stand – the Bravia 5 does adjust to two different heights to make sure the screen isn’t blocked by adding one.

Overall, although the two-way stand on the Bravia 3 is a nice addition for soundbar owners, we much prefer the design of the Bravia 5, and think it can accommodate a soundbar in the majority of situations.

WINNER: Bravia 5

Sony Bravia 3 vs Bravia 5: features

One of the biggest differentiators between the Bravia 5 and the Bravia 3 is their panel technology – the Bravia 5 is a Mini LED TV with local dimming across 240 zones, whereas the Bravia 3 is a direct-lit LED TV without any local dimming.

That’s going to have a fair impact on its picture quality capabilities, but we’ll come on to that in the next section.

Elsewhere, the processing chip that runs the show is different between the two models, too.

Given the price difference, it’s not surprising that the Bravia 5 has the more sophisticated of the two – Sony’s flagship XR processor, which also powers the Bravia 8 II.

The Bravia 3, on the other hand, uses the older, midrange 4K HDR Processor X1.

What that means in isolation is hard to quantify, given the TVs’ differing features elsewhere. The XR is clearly a more powerful processor that can draw out more by way of picture subtlety and colour accuracy, but how much that would be as noticeable on a direct-lit LED screen with no local dimming is questionable.

In other words, going for a lower-power processor in the Bravia 3 feels like the right choice for its price and capabilities.

As these are both Sony TVs, their HDR capabilities are the same – they both support HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision, and don’t support HDR10+.

However, of the two, only the Bravia 5 is IMAX Enhanced certified, and it’s also the only one that offers a range of ‘Calibrated’ picture modes to get the best picture quality from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Sony Pictures Core.

Both have Dolby Atmos and DTS:X spatial audio support, though the Bravia 5 has a better sound system to deliver it on.

The Bravia 5 offers 40W of sound across four speakers (two full-range drivers and two tweeters), compared to the 20W across two full-range drivers on the Bravia 3.

If you’re keen to hook up a games console to your TV, the Bravia 3 wouldn’t be the best pick of the two due to its 4K/60Hz panel, with the 4K/120Hz panel on the Bravia 5 making it a much better choice.

The Bravia 5 also has VRR on two HDMI ports, as well as ALLM on all four of them, whereas the Bravia 3 only has ALLM. That makes the Bravia 5 a clear winner for gamers.

Both TVs use Google TV for their smart features, offering a good selection of streaming apps, along with the addition of YouView in the UK for the catch-up services that Google doesn’t offer.

Using Google’s interface also means that both TVs have access to features such as Google Assistant and Chromecast, as well as AirPlay 2. While we did notice a few small glitches initially in the Bravia 3’s handling of the UI, overall, both TVs work smoothly and without issue.

The Bravia 5 also has the compatibility to work with the Bravia Cam, to control the TV by gesture – something the Bravia 3 does not offer.

We don’t particularly value the extra tricks the Bravia Cam adds to the TV-watching experience, particularly considering its £199 / $200 / AU$149 price tag, but if you do, the Bravia 5 is the only set out of the two to get it.

All things considered, it’s not exactly surprising that the Bravia 5 has better features than the Bravia 3, given its higher price tag. However, it’s when you look at the wider market that the winner becomes clear.

The Bravia 5 shoots above its pay grade in many respects, including by being one of Sony’s XR Backlight Master Drive panels. That’s a premium feature found on many of its much pricier TVs that aims to boost picture quality and reduce power consumption by improving local dimming performance.

However, when you consider the Bravia 3 against other competitors at its price, its specs are disappointing. There are similarly priced TVs that use better panel technology and have local dimming and better gaming features.

For those reasons, the Bravia 5 takes the win here again.

WINNER: Bravia 5

Sony Bravia 3 vs Bravia 5: picture quality

That feeling of the Bravia 5 delivering value for money only continues when it comes to picture performance.

It might be the cheapest Mini LED model in the Bravia lineup, but the picture quality doesn’t feel compromised by its more affordable ambitions – the Sony DNA runs clearly through this set.

In particular, that XR Backlight Master Drive panel does exactly what we’ve seen it do elsewhere, in that it maximises the performance of the backlight, meaning we get impressively bright and well controlled pictures for this price category, with even and consistent blacks and minimal blooming.

It means the Bravia 5 really holds its own in the contrast stakes, which ensures – when combined with its well-judged shadow detail – that both bright and dark scenes look as natural and cinematic as each other.

All this greatness only starts to become compromised in extremely complex HDR shots, or when you watch the Bravia 5 from much of an angle, when its more affordable local dimming mechanism might become more apparent. Overall though, this is a great performer at its price.

Unfortunately, the Bravia 3’s handling of contrast and shadow detail is not such good news. What strikes us most is how the entire picture has an almost grey hue, which means it lacks solidity in blacks from the get go, and makes dark scenes almost unwatchable.

The panel almost seems to glow in darker sequences, losing a lot of detail in the process, but even in scenes with lots of light, the image lacks contrast. This means Sony’s calling card of excellent three dimensionality is largely lost, which is a big hit on our overall picture enjoyment.

Thankfully, the Bravia 3 manages to look much more like a Sony TV when it comes to colour.

As long as you switch from the out-of-the-box settings to Professional mode, colour performance is pretty good, looking balanced and natural, while retaining a degree of believable richness.

The Bravia 5 has a little more flexibility on its presets, thanks to its more sophisticated processing, but ultimately also manages a great mix of punchiness, shading subtlety and balance, even retaining an impressive amount of colour saturation during darker scenes.

Both TVs manage to show off Sony’s talent for motion processing, with sweeping panning shots handled admirably by the Bravia 3. The XR processor in the Bravia 5 will arguably push motion handling that little bit further, by way of subtlety and realism, but there’s no reason for complaint with either set here.

Despite this, the overall picture quality is a clear win by the Bravia 5 – even at the set’s individual price points.

Once again, the Bravia 5 punches above what we might expect at this price, giving 4K images a sense of density, texture and clarity that we are more used to seeing in Sony’s more expensive TVs.

While some of Sony’s famous picture processing is still evident in the Bravia 3, its poor backlight control leads to a loss of contrast and shadow detail that’s hard to forgive. This is an easy win for the Bravia 5.

WINNER: Bravia 5

Sony Bravia 3 vs Bravia 5: sound quality

While we all know that a soundbar or surround sound system will always make your new TV sound its best, both models do a pretty good job for built-in TV audio.

Even with the pretty modest speaker set-up in the Bravia 3, Sony manages to provide impressively clear dialogue alongside a decent sense of low-level dynamics.

Sound even has a good sense of height to it, giving more space to big effects such as explosions or planes flying overhead. Bass could be heftier, but to be honest, the Bravia 3 already outperforms what we have come to expect from a TV at this price.

The Bravia 5 is equally impressive. No elements in a mix pass the Bravia 5 by, yet the processing is also sophisticated enough to ensure no detail takes on more significance than it should.

The four drivers here create a spacious soundstage that offers a good sense of height, with both dialogue and sound effects placed accurately within it.

There’s power to the sound too, but also a level of precision that ensures sound is never distorted.

Like the Bravia 3, it’s lacking a little bass, but we would always take that over too much, and overall find the sound to be precise and immersive. We’re calling this one a draw.

WINNER: Draw

Sony Bravia 3 vs Bravia 5: verdict

From the get-go, this head-to-head might have looked like a shoo-in for the more expensive, better specified, and better reviewed Bravia 5.

But even when you consider both of these TVs’ positions within their respective markets and price categories, it’s hard for us not to recommend – if you are truly torn between the two – that you try to save up the difference and opt for the Bravia 5, or consider a different TV at the Bravia 3’s price instead.

The Sony Bravia 5 follows in the footsteps of the other five-star TVs from Sony’s most recent TV lineup, offering impressive features for its price, a formidable picture performance and a pretty decent sound performance to boot.

By comparison, the Bravia 3 is lacking the features we might expect at this level, and delivers a picture performance we find almost unrecognisable as a Sony TV.

For anyone considering these two TVs, hoping to get Sony’s famed picture processing on a bit of a budget, the clear winner is the Bravia 5. From everything we have seen so far, it’s the clear value proposition in Sony’s current TV lineup.

OVERALL WINNER: Bravia 5

MORE:

Here are all of the best TVs you can buy right now

Sony has just announced the latest additions to its Bravia Theatre Bar range of Dolby Atmos soundbars (plus two new Bravia TVs). And it’s not quite what we were expecting.

Rather than replace the flagship Bravia Theatre Bar 9 or the step-down Bravia Theatre Bar 8, both of which launched almost two years ago, Sony has decided to launch more affordable models below them.

Bravia Theatre Bar 7

First up is the Bravia Theatre Bar 7, which replaces the long in the tooth, four-star rated HT-A3000.

The Bar 7 has a design very similar to that of the Bar 8 and Bar 9, with a rounded mesh front and a metallic, angular rear.

But while it’s the same height and almost the same depth as its more premium siblings, the Bar 7 is significantly narrower, at 95cm compared with the Bar 8’s 110cm and the Bar 9’s 130cm.

It’s worth noting that this means the Bar 7 is still a good deal longer than the 65cm Sonos Beam Gen 2 with which it seems destined to do battle.

As with the other Theatre Bar models, two feet are included in the Bar 7’s box. These can be used to elevate the Bar 7 just a little so that it can straddle an awkward TV pedestal stand. A wall mount is included as well.

Unlike the Sonos Beam, the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 features dedicated up-firing speakers, one at each end of the top panel. These are full-range Sony X-Balanced designs.

They are joined by a full-range X-Balanced driver at each end of the bar, plus two forward-facing X-Balanced woofers for the left and right channels, a full-range X-Balanced centre speaker, and two tweeters.

And that’s not all – there are four passive radiators for additional bass, too.

Sony then uses its 360 Spatial Audio technology to create an additional five phantom speakers, which are designed to generate a bubble of sound.

This is the basis for the Bar 7’s reproduction of 3D Audio, which it can handle in both the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats.

The compact bar is IMAX Enhanced Certified, too, though only when the optional rears and a subwoofer are connected.

Speaking of which, there are two variants of this new soundbar. You can buy the solo Bravia Theatre Bar 7 (also known as the HT-A7100), or you can buy a bundle that also includes the 100W Sub 7 subwoofer.

This bundle is known as the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S, or HT-AP710.

Away from movies, there is support for Apple AirPlay and Spotify Connect, but Tidal Connect appears to be absent.

The Bar 7 comes with the same remote as the Bar 8 and Bar 9. It isn’t fancy, but it is better than no remote at all.

Of course, it will be possible to control the volume using your TV’s remote control, and if your TV is a recent Sony, you’ll be able to access more or less all of the Bar 7’s settings and controls via the TV’s onscreen menus.

Want more ways to control and tweak the Bar 7? No problem: it’s also compatible with the very good Bravia Connect app.

This is also where you complete Sony’s ‘Sound Field Optimisation’ calibration, which attempts to adapt the sound to your room and seating position.

As you would expect, the Bravia Theatre Bar 7 is designed to be connected to your TV via HDMI eARC (in fact, this appears to be another new soundbar without a legacy optical input), but unlike many rivals, there is also a dedicated HDMI input, and the soundbar supports passthrough of 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM.

Bravia Theatre Bar 5

Sony has also announced a new entry-level model in the Bravia soundbar range.

The Bravia Theatre Bar 5 is a package that contains a compact three-channel soundbar and a fairly bijou wireless subwoofer to make a neat 3.1 system.

Despite the lack of up-firing drivers, the Theatre Bar 5 is able to reproduce Dolby Atmos and DTS:X signals using Sony’s Vertical Surround Engine, which has previously impressed us in models such as the Bravia Theatre System 6.

Unlike the Bar 7, the Bar 5 doesn’t feature HDMI passthrough, but it does have an optical input nestled alongside the HDMI eARC socket.

News subs and surrounds

The two new soundbars are joined by optional new subwoofers and surround speakers, and these are very much flagship models.

The new Bravia Theatre Sub 9 is a gorgeous, sci-fi-styled cube that replaces Sony’s current SW5 flagship subwoofer.

Each half of the cube (it’s not actually a perfect cube, but it looks close enough) features a 20cm aluminium driver.

These are dual opposing drivers that employ phase cancelling to deliver smooth, ultra-deep, distortion-free bass, according to Sony, which also claims a monstrous maximum power output of 600W for the Sub 9.

The Bravia Theatre Sub 8, meanwhile, is essentially half of the Sub 9. It features one of the 20cm aluminium drivers and a claimed power output of 300W.

The new subwoofers are compatible with the Bravia Theatre Bar 9, Bar 8 and Bar 7, as well as the Bravia Theatre Quad.

Thanks to a post-launch software update, you will even be able to pair two of these subs (or two Sub 7s, for that matter) with one of the bars, though the Quad system can still have just one subwoofer.

Finally, the new surround speakers.

The Bravia Theatre Rear 9 speakers replace the RS5s and sit above the existing Rear 8s.

They feature a minimalist, cylindrical design, with a metal ring around the top that matches the metal band around the rear edge of the soundbars.

Each Rear 9 features two 80mm aluminium drivers, one facing forwards and the other upwards (with a bit of a forward-tilting angle), plus a front-firing 16mm tweeter and a side-facing passive radiator.

A swivelling wall-bracket for each speaker is included in the box.

Unfortunately, Sony hasn’t yet given us launch dates or prices for any of this new audio kit, but as soon as we have that information, we will update this story.

MORE:

The one to beat: here's our Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

Here are all of the best soundbars you can buy right now

Philips is releasing three new soundbars, which the brand says will all offer “excellent performance, high power and good specifications.”

Kicking off with the B8301 model, this 3.1.2-channel system consists of a soundbar and a wireless subwoofer in a “slimline” package according to the brand.

There’s support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, which will be good news for movie lovers looking for multiple surround sound options. Under the hood, you will find dedicated LCR (left, centre, right) channels and with two up-firing drivers, all running on 190W of total system power.

The wireless subwoofer, which features a twin driver, can be mounted vertically or horizontally and includes 100W power output.

In terms of connectivity, there is an HDMI eARC port with 4K/120Hz passthrough, and Bluetooth on the cards. Like all of the new models, the bar offers an AI-powered "Intellisound Engine" which automatically chooses the sound profile based on what's playing. Options on offer include all the usual suspects: Movie, Music and Voice Boost.

They all also feature Philip’s EasyLink 3.0 system, which allows both the soundbar and a Philips TV to be controlled using one remote control.

So far, only the European pricing has been released, coming in at €329. That’s around £285 in the UK and $380 in the US. At that price, the B8301 is up against the Award-winning Hisense AX5125H (£249 / $350) soundbar system, which scored highly for its amazing weight, scale and spaciousness for the money. Tough competition, indeed.

Next up, the B5601 is a more compact model which Philips says is “designed to bring a full-size performance to smaller spaces.”

The 2.1 system is made up of a main soundbar and a subwoofer. You won’t find any Dolby Atmos support this time, however, as the model offers Dolby Digital+ and DTS: Virtual X compatibility.

Finally, the B5201 is Philips’ latest all-in-one model, which measures 6.5 x 77 x 91 cm (hwd) and has the smallest footprint of the bunch.

With 80W of total output power, the company says it “offers a simple but high-quality upgrade to TV sound as a single compact 2.0 soundbar”. Dolby Digital+ and DTS: Virtual X compatibility. The B5201 also includes an HDMI ARC connection, but there's no 4K passthrough on the cards.

There’s no word on price for the two more compact models, but the B5201 could well be gunning for the four-star Sony HT-SF150 (£90 / $100 / AU$199). With increasingly tricky competition in the budget soundbar market, Philips’ new range will have to work hard to stand out from the crowd.

MORE:

Here's our review of the Sony HT-SF150

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

These are the best budget soundbars

An entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbar is, in theory, a great proposition. It means you can bring an immersive yet precise experience to movies at home, while not taking up your whole living room with AV kit. That’s not to mention their more affordable price tag compared to a multi-room speaker system is quite the boon.

There is a huge variety in the types of models you can choose, from small single bars to complete soundbar systems. And it is an example of each that we have before us today.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is an all-in-one model and our top current recommendation for buyers on a budget. It’s snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award every year since it was released back in 2021, and has batted away competition from countless other models in that time.

It’s getting a little long in the tooth, however, and more soundbars have started to trouble the reigning champ. Enter the Hisense AX5125H – a complete Dolby Atmos (and DTS:X) system in a box that's cheaper than the Sonos and offers more kit for your money. It scored a What Hi-Fi? Award last year, quickly making its mark as a great option for those on a budget.

That will rightly lead you to ask: which model should I buy? Well, don’t worry too much, because we’ve compared both models side by side to help you decide which one is worthy of your home set-up.

Hisense AX5125H vs Sonos Beam Gen 2

As we mentioned, the Hisense AX5125H is the cheaper option of the two. It comes in at £249 / $350 (around AU$500), which is quite the bargain considering you get a main soundbar, a subwoofer and two small wireless surround speakers.

This makes it the most affordable soundbar package we have ever had in our test room.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2, despite being just a single soundbar, launched at £449 / $449 / AU$649. We have occasionally seen it drop down to around £349 / $399 / AU$700 during sales events, but it has stuck pretty close to its launch price since it came out.

That still means the Hisense model is the clear winner here, costing £200 / $100 (around AU$200) less than the Beam.

**Winner: Hisense AX5125H**

Hisense AX5125H vs Sonos Beam Gen 2: build

When it comes to design, the Beam is certainly the simpler of the two, with its all-in-one bar measuring 7 x 65 x 10cm (hwd).

It has quite a stylish yet compact design, sporting rounded ends with a perforated polycarbonate grille facing the listener. There are two colour finishes available – white and black.

On top of the Beam’s body are touch-sensitive buttons, LEDs, and far-field mics for voice control of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Hisense’s main soundbar is a fair bit longer, measuring 6 x 92 x 9cm (hwd), and is only available in black.

While the Hisense is longer than the Sonos, both main soundbars are compact enough to sit on most furniture and in front of most TVs without blocking their display, but not so small as to look insubstantial.

Hisense’s wireless subwoofer comes in at 29 x 21 x 30cm, and the surrounds measure 14 x 9 x 11cm each. Each bit of kit with the package model has a little more of a dull overall look than the Sonos, but nothing feels or looks cheap.

Unlike the Beam, there’s an LED display on the front of the Hisense soundbar, which is a pleasant surprise at this price and delivers information such as the input, sound preset and surround mode selected, as well as volume level.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 does not come with a remote control, but it can be operated via the Sonos app and the TV remote.

With the AX5125H, there is no dedicated app to control the product. Instead, we get a remote that feels fairly basic and plasticky, as you would probably expect, but it does the job well enough. From here, you can turn on Bluetooth, change the output, adjust the volume, bass and treble levels, and dim the soundbar’s display.

Both soundbars are practical and easy to set up, but which one you prefer will be down to whether you are short on space or want more kit for your money. Hisense just takes it, however, for its handy LED display.

**Winner: Hisense AX5125H*

Hisense AX5125H vs Sonos Beam Gen 2: features

Under the hood of the Sonos, you will find one central tweeter and four elliptical mid-woofers, each powered by Class D amplifiers.

The 5.0 bar contrasts with Hisense’s 5.1.2-channel configuration. That consists of three front-firing channels and a driver in each surround for the ‘five’, one big driver in the sub for the ‘one’, and two up-firing drivers in the soundbar for the ‘two’.

At the back of the Sonos bar, you will find sockets for power, ethernet, and a single HDMI eARC as well as a connect/reset push button.

You will find more connectivity with the Hisense AX5125H, which offers a dedicated HDMI input. Passthrough is limited to 60Hz, so there’s no support for 4K/120Hz gaming signals, but any passthrough functionality at this level is a bonus, especially since the Beam does not have it.

Both soundbars support Dolby Atmos, but the Hisense AX5125H also supports DTS:X. That’s a big tick for movie fans looking for more options when it comes to surround sound technology.

The Sonos bar can be controlled by the Sonos app, which acts as a hub for the product. From here, you can access EQ controls and more advanced sound settings.

The app also offers room calibration to fine-tune the sound to your space, but it's worth noting that the Beam's calibration requires an iOS device – Android devices aren't compatible.

The Beam does not offer any separate sound modes, whereas the Hisense gives you a variety of presets to choose from: Movie, Music, Game, News and Sport. While it defaults to the AI setting, we settle on Movies for movies and TV shows, and Music for Music, after much testing.

For its offering as a complete system rather than a solo bar, as well as its DTS:X support, the Hisense model takes the crown for this category.

**Winner: Hisense AX5125H**

Hisense AX5125H vs Sonos Beam Gen 2: sound

Now for the juicy part: how do the two models compare when it comes to audio quality? Here, both the Hisense AX5125H and the Sonos Beam Gen 2 are quite different.

Hisense’s model produces an enveloping yet cohesive overall sound that delivers a more immersive soundstage than the Beam Gen 2, thanks to its separate satellite surrounds.

When watching Civil War in our test room, we note: “Bullets whizz from the front to the back of the room and even behind the listening position, helicopters hover at ceiling height, and distant explosions rumble menacingly.”

The bass delivered by the subwoofer is impressive considering the soundbar’s cost, with explosions and deep gunfire having a good impact and solidity.

There are frequencies at which the sub gets a little too excited, and it delivers a big thump that sticks out. This is made clear when watching The Batman, as our hero approaches the thugs in the subway tunnel, and one recurring bass note in the soundtrack is reproduced much louder than the others.

With the Sonos, although it is not as room-filling, counters with a more detailed and balanced overall sound that makes for a more authentic listening experience.

It is a particularly solid performer with voices, too, and we say in our review: “Whether it’s a chirping bird, a car or a voice, there’s remarkable consistency across the complete soundfield, and seamless handover between drivers, which we have to say doesn’t always happen when a Dolby Atmos soundbar has upward drivers to contend with.”

This is stronger than the Hisense’s performance in this area. We find with the AX5125H that while voices sound natural and pretty emotive, the busiest, bassiest sections cause them to become a touch muffled.

Unlike a lot of models at this level, both perform well with music, although the Hisense doesn’t quite match Sonos’ abilities.

The Sonos Beam’s strong vocal performance continues to shine with music, and keeps a good cohesion between the different frequencies.

When playing Tool’s Invincible with the Hisense, it manages to deliver some of the subtle warble in Maynard James Keenan’s vocals. But even at its lowest volume level, the subwoofer can’t resist interjecting slightly rudely at times and adding bass notes that stick out awkwardly.

It’s hard to pick out a clear winner here, as it really depends on what you are looking for. If you want a soundbar that offers clarity, detail and sophistication, then the Beam Gen 2 is a great pick. But if you are on the hunt for a genuinely room-filling, three-dimensional Atmos effect with a bassy sound to boot, then the Hisense model is the better choice.

**Winner: draw**

Hisense AX5125H vs Sonos Beam Gen 2

Both the Hisense AX5125H and the Sonos Beam Gen 2 are top five-star soundbars that will suit your home cinema setup if you are on the hunt for Dolby Atmos without a hefty price tag.

Sonos’ model delivers a more controlled overall performance with an excellent sense of precision and finesse that the Hisense system can't match.

But the AX5125H offers a more immersive soundstage with excellent Atmos presentation thanks to the extra surrounds and subwoofer. Plus, its more affordable price tag is a great choice for those on a budget.

We’re all tied up, folks.

**Overall winner: draw**

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars right now

Check out our review of the Hisense AX5125H

And here are the best budget soundbars

I (along with several of my colleagues) just had the pleasure of reviewing the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6.

It really was a pleasure, too, because while this is a highly unusual and somewhat old-school Dolby Atmos system by 2026 standards, the sound is excellent for the money.

Nothing is perfect, though, even a five-star product such as this, and there are some flaws to the Bravia System 6 that buyers should be aware of.

In most cases, these flaws are likely known compromises that Sony had to make in order to prioritise other qualities while hitting the wallet-friendly price tag.

That’s entirely fair, and it means they might not be ‘fixed’ for the next model, but you can’t blame a chap for dreaming, can you?

Besides, as I say, I’m mostly writing this so you, the prospective buyer, know what to expect.

Before I get to the minor flaws, though, let’s highlight some major strengths.

The major strengths

Meaty, expressive bass

Many soundbars at this level are just solo bars, and the subwoofers that come with those that have them tend to be afterthoughts. Not so here.

The System 6’s subwoofer is the star of the show. Yes, its size and weight are at least partly influenced by the connections and processing bits it houses, but they’re also a result of the large driver and hefty amplifier on board.

Sony rates the sub to 200W, and the oodles of deep, weighty bass it produces give me no reason to doubt that figure. But what’s most impressive is how tuneful and articulate it is at the same time.

For a system at this level, this is a deeply (pun intended) impressive low-end performance.

Enveloping Dolby Atmos processing

The System 6’s cabling (more on which below) might look rather old-fashioned by 2026 standards, but its Dolby Atmos performance is anything but dated.

When fed proper Atmos content, it creates a genuinely immersive bubble of sound. Height effects are placed convincingly above you and the sense of scale is far beyond what you’d expect at this price.

What’s more, effects are very accurately placed in this soundfield. In Blade Runner 2049, for example, voices and ambient effects land precisely where they should, and large interior spaces feel appropriately vast and echoing.

Good clarity, particularly to dialogue

This is a punchy, muscular system, but it doesn’t sacrifice clarity in the process.

Dialogue remains crisp and intelligible even when the soundtrack gets busy. During chaotic battle scenes, voices cut cleanly through the mix without sounding artificially boosted or thin. There’s also pleasing natural tonality – speech sounds human rather than processed.

For everyday TV viewing as well as movie nights, that consistency is really valuable.

Surprising musicality

With music, most soundbars, particularly at this level, sound either weedy and artificial or fat and muffled. The System 6, though, is a different beast.

The bar brings detail and decent rhythmic precision, and the subwoofer adds depth and weight while gamely keeping up with the required pace.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is still a more crisp, consistent and energetic soundbar for music, but the Sony system adds a good deal of depth and scale without sacrificing too much in those regards.

It's still absolutely a movies-first system, but it's more musical than is typical of a soundbar set-up at this level.

Solid build quality

The Bravia Theatre System 6 is very plain in its appearance, but there’s reassuring heft to every component. The bar feels sturdy, the surrounds don’t feel like hollow plastic shells, and the subwoofer is seriously substantial.

Nothing about the package feels cheap or compromised. Given the price Sony is asking, that’s impressive in itself.

Wall-mountability

It’s a minor thing, but there are those who will really appreciate the fact that the soundbar, the surround speakers, and even the wireless receiver, can be wall-mounted.

Just remember there are cables that will need hiding if you want a super-sleek set-up.

(Some) Bravia TV interoperability

While the integration doesn’t run as deep here as it does with Sony’s more premium home cinema options, those who connect the Theatre System 6 to a recent Bravia TV will find that several of the sound system's settings appear in the television’s menus.

Given that the System 6 has no display of its own, that’s actually very useful indeed.

Price

This is a lot of sound system for your money.

For the scale, bass depth and Atmos immersion it delivers, the UK asking price of £549 in particular feels very good value indeed, and it's usually available for under £500 (it's $798 and AU$1199 in the US and Australia).

There are several accomplished soundbar options at this level, but nothing that can produce this kind of blockbuster impact.

That makes it very easy to recommend, despite the foibles. Speaking of which…

The minor flaws

Small sonic weaknesses

For all its strengths, the Bravia Theatre System 6's sound is not flawless.

The surrounds occasionally draw attention to themselves when they should melt into the soundfield, and there’s a faint fuzz to the very deepest bass notes in one or two of the most demandingly deep moments.

These issues are minor enough that some people will never notice them, but those with a keen ear will very occasionally hear a distraction.

Cables

Cabling of any kind is anathema to many people in 2026, and there are plenty of completely wireless (power cables aside) soundbar systems, even at this budget level. The super-affordable Hisense AV5125H is a case in point.

That makes the Bravia Theatre System 6’s design – which involves cables between the subwoofer and soundbar, and from a wireless receiver to the two surrounds – seem somewhat archaic.

There’s no wire running from the front to the back of the room, and that’s good news, but having cables dangling from the surrounds in particular will be a problem for neat-freaks.

No display

The System 6 has no proper display. Instead, there’s just a single LED on the subwoofer to indicate what’s going on.

As you can imagine, that doesn’t tell you very much, so you find yourself having to open the (admittedly very nice) Bravia Connect app to change settings and check what’s playing more often than you would like.

No HDMI passthrough

Connectivity is straightforward but limited.

There’s no dedicated HDMI input among the system’s (subwoofer-housed) inputs and outputs, so all of your sources have to go into your TV and then back out via eARC.

Having at least one extra input on the System 6 to compensate would have been a nice touch, particularly as the eARC socket is also one of the precious gaming-friendly HDMI 2.1 ports on most TVs.

No auto-calibration

The System 6 doesn’t feature auto-calibration for the sound.

To be fair, it sounds very good out of the box, but getting the best out of it involves manually inputting speaker distances, and getting the very best out of it involves tweaking levels with the help of an SPL meter.

In short, auto-calibration would be easier and would, in theory at least, result in more buyers getting the best out of the system.

No music streaming

This isn’t a smart speaker system.

There’s no built-in wi-fi streaming platform or native music service integration, and the likes of Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect are off the menu. If you want to send music to the System 6, you’re going to need to do that via Bluetooth, or perhaps via your TV if it has the music apps you use.

That’s not a big deal if movies are your priority, as they probably are, but it does differentiate the Sony package from the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), which is a full music speaker as well as a movie soundbar (albeit a solo one, rather than a full system).

MORE:

Read the full Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 review

Also check out our Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

And here are all of the best soundbars and best budget soundbars you can buy right now

We have seen (and heard) plenty from Arcam’s Radia range of two-channel hi-fi electronics in recent months. At the same time, we have been patiently waiting for any morsel of news about a new home cinema amplifier.

That time has finally arrived. Arcam has just unveiled a trio of new AVRs and a processor/power amp pairing that, on paper at least, look the business.

The Radia AV range kicks off with the Arcam AVA15 (£2599 / € 2999 / $3000 / AU$6,995), which is being billed as a successor to the old AVR11, and is the most affordable option in Arcam’s new line-up.

The step-up AVA25 (£4499 / € 4999 / $5000 / AU$9,995) comes next, and the receiver range tops out with the AVA35 (£5999 / € 6999 / $7000 / AU$13,995). As you should expect, moving up the price points adds more to the mix in terms of features and performance.

All three AVRs boast the trademark design cues of Radia, so expect a deep black finish with yellow highlights, including a backlit halo around the volume dial.

Each model has a 6.5in glass-bonded full colour display, multiple HDMI 2.1a, (and 8K compatible) HDMI inputs and at least two HDMI outputs, one of which supports eARC.

You also get several analogue and digital inputs, streaming support for Spotify, hi-res for Tidal, Amazon, Qobuz, plus UPnP, digitally controlled analogue volume controls, and internal wi-fi and Bluetooth antennas.

There’s two-way Bluetooth, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support and Dirac Live Bass Control and Active Room Treatment (ART)

Stepping up from the AVA15 to the AVA25 adds a third HDMI output (including Zone 2 functionality), Auro-3D support and more channels of processing power (up from 12-ch to 16-ch).

Processing in the AVA15 and AVA25 is handled by an ESS Hyperstream IV DAC chipset.

Power switches from 9x100W of Class D amplification on the entry-level model to 9x100W of Class A amplification on the AVA25.

The AVA25 is deeper and heavier than the AVA15, and Arcam claims its sound quality isn’t a million miles away from the performance you get from its Award-winning A15+ stereo amplifier.

The jump up to AVA35 introduces the more advanced ESS Hyperstream IV DAC Pro, which the company already uses in its five-star SA45 streaming system. Power is once again rated at 9x100W, but this time it’s Class G amplification – this is the first time Arcam has used Class G for nine channels in one box.

You also get what Arcam calls ‘matrix channel assignment’. This new feature allows you to use any of the amplified channels for any channel you like. So, you could go into the menus and swap all the channels for use as height and rear channels if you wanted, so you could run another amplifier for the main channels.

Want a serious two-box home cinema solution? Arcam also has an option for you in the shape of the Radia AVP45 processor (£5299 / €5999 / $6000 / AU$11,995) and a matching Radia PA9 power amp (£3499 / €3999 / $5000).

The AVP45 boasts all the processing power and features of the AVA35 in a slightly shorter box, while the matching Radia PA9 power amplifier features the same Class G amplification as AVA35.

Last but by no means least, Arcam has even introduced a smaller, wall-mountable four-channel power amp called Radia PA4 (£899 / €999 / $1499). This could come in handy if you want to drive more than 9 channels and it boasts 4x50W of Class D amplification.

Arcam is also promising big improvements where the software is concerned, including its Radia app, with changes designed to make the amplifiers more intuitive for users and easier to install.

A new AVR range from Arcam is just what we’ve been waiting for, especially since it has produced some of the most musical AVRs we have tested over the years – even if they perhaps weren’t the most advanced in terms of features.

We are extremely excited to see how these new models perform in our test rooms when they go on sale in Q3 later this year.

MORE:

Arcam's new Radia loudspeaker range could be the perfect match for its Award-winning electronics

Read our Arcam A15+ review

Our pick of the best AV receivers you can buy right now

And the best surround sound systems

How to build the perfect home cinema system

Marantz has announced the newest additions to its home cinema range: the AV 30 Preamplifier and AMP 30 Power Amplifier.

They are taking a page from the Award-winning Marantz Cinema 30's design, featuring an "iconic porthole" screen and stylish illumination on the side. The remote controls for each model also feature backlighting to “ensure an effortless user experience in darkened rooms".

Taking a closer look at the AV 30, the 11.4-channel preamplifier is deploying “state-of-the-art processing” and “comprehensive features”, according to the brand.

The AV processor comes with the "latest and most powerful" Analogue Devices SHARC dual-core DSP chipset, which is paired with 32-bit two-channel DACs.

Marantz claims the AV 30 will be able to decode and process "all forms of incoming audio", including Dolby Atmos, IMAX Enhanced, DTS:X and AURO-3D.

And, with 11.4 channels supported by the discrete HDAM SA-2 preamplifier stage (via either RCA or XLR), it seems promising that the AV 30 will be able to deliver an immersive audio experience.

The brand is offering an impressive seven HDMI 2.1 inputs, which can support up to 8K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz video.

On top of that, the AV 30 is powered by the HEOS platform to give you access to a range of music streaming services. That includes Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect for hi-res tunes, as well as AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth.

You can fine-tune the product to your space with the help of Audyssey MultEQ XT32 advanced room optimisation, which automatically calibrates based on speaker size and distance via the included microphone.

Moving onto the AMP 30, Marantz has dubbed the entry “powerful and versatile”.

It delivers six channels of amplification, rated at 200W per channel, which Marantz claims is ideal for "multiple different system configurations".

It also provides the option of reconfiguring pairs of 200W amp channels into bridged-tied-load (BTL) outputs, with up to a maximum of three channels of 400W available if the chosen speaker system requires it. You can also choose to bi-amp up to three speakers.

Having 'just' six channels of amplification means that a single AMP 30 can't take full advantage of the AV 30's 14 channels of processing, but buyers can, of course, partner the AV 30 with the 12-channel AMP 20 or 16-channel AMP 10 if they prefer.

The AV 30 and AMP 30 will be available this month from select retailers, with each priced at £3500 / $4000 (around AU$7105).

MORE:

Check out our review of the Marantz Cinema 30

Here are the best AV receivers right now

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars on the market

It’s easy, when looking for a bargain set-up, whether it be home cinema or hi-fi, to get a little too distracted with driving the price down, rather than looking at the quality you might be getting. If it’s cheap, after all, there must be some leeway for a few performance foibles, surely?

Often, of course, that simply has to be the case. But not always.

With this pairing, we are confident that, as well as spending a remarkably little amount of money for what you get, you are also getting almost unreasonable performance for your pound.

Fifty-inch televisions may be par for the course nowadays, but for most living rooms it’s a size that is plenty big enough to bring a cinematic sense of scale to proceedings.

The system

• TV: TCL 50C6KS (£419 / AU$590)
• Soundbar: Hisense AX5125H (£249 / $350)
• Total system price: £668

The TV

And the 50in TV we have for you here is, quite simply, a revelation. For years, the premium panel technologies – Mini LED and OLED – remained firmly in the territory of flagship pricing. TCL has shattered that barrier with the 50C6KS. It’s a 50-inch slice of visual excellence that makes you question how much money you need to spend to get a truly bright, punchy, and detailed picture.

The core strength of the TCL 50C6KS lies in its Mini LED backlight. The set’s ability to control local dimming zones is far more sophisticated than anything else we’ve seen anywhere near this price. And it translates immediately into the real-world performance: excellent brightness and contrast that fundamentally elevate all content you throw at it.

Watching high dynamic range (HDR) content, especially from Dolby Vision or HDR10+ sources, is where the magic truly happens. Sunsets blaze with intensity, streetlights pierce the inky blackness of a night scene, and explosions have a genuinely searing quality.

The black levels, while not reaching the absolute, pixel-off-perfection of a true OLED panel – this is a £350 50in TV remember – are deep and satisfyingly dark, particularly when viewed in a moderately lit room. Critically, we found very little evidence of a common pitfall for lesser LED TVs – blooming or light haloing around bright objects against a dark background.

The picture has depth and dimension, and avoids the flat, washed-out look that plagues so many budget rivals. Its colour palette is rich and vibrant, offering nuanced shades of green and red that bring nature documentaries to life.

There are, inevitably, some minor foibles. The most noticeable compromise is in motion handling. It’s generally perfectly competent, particularly for standard TV viewing; but watching fast-paced cinematic action can occasionally reveal an over-smoothing effect.

While this can be mitigated somewhat by tweaking the motion settings, out of the box it can lead to a slight soap-opera effect on fast pans and camera moves.

The other key limitation to be aware of, particularly for the enthusiastic gamer, is connectivity. The 50C6KS lacks the full suite of HDMI 2.1 features. This means the latest generation of consoles – the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X – will be limited to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. For the casual gamer or those who prioritize cinematic picture quality over extreme frame rates, this is a perfectly acceptable trade-off.

For most of the people, most of the time, the TCL 50C6KS offers a picture that is, in its own way, “even better than its specs suggest”. This is a television that simply loves light and is desperate to share it with you.

The soundbar

To pair with the television, we have a rare product indeed. A sub-£500 Dolby Atmos soundbar system that actually performs brilliantly for its price – indeed, it’s the first of its type to merit the full five stars (and a Best Buy Award) from What Hi-Fi?’s necessarily strict reviewing team.

Two top-value products, then, that bring so much more than you should expect for the less than £550 you will have to pay for them.

If the TCL is the visual bargain of the year, the Hisense AX5125H is without doubt its audio equivalent. This system is a certified winner, and it represents a genuine landmark: it’s the first truly good and incredibly affordable Dolby Atmos system What Hi-Fi? has reviewed.

What’s more, the Hisense is not simply a soundbar: this is a complete 5.1.2-channel system in a box. That means you get the main soundbar unit, a dedicated wireless subwoofer, and, crucially, two dedicated wireless surround speakers.

The system supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and the soundbar incorporates upward-firing drivers (the ".2" in that 5.1.2) to bounce audio off your ceiling, creating the true height and immersion that defines the Atmos experience.

And, when we had the system in our test room, we were stunned by the sheer scale and spaciousness of the sound it produces. Explosions don't just happen in front of you; they feel as though they are detonating across the entire room.

Aircraft fly overhead, and rain seems to fall from above. The soundbar itself handles dialogue and the front soundstage with a cohesive and detailed grip, ensuring that even in the most chaotic action sequence, you can still clearly hear the actors' voices.

The star of the show, though, is the wireless subwoofer. It delivers a room-filling, sofa-shaking exuberance that is addictive, providing a proper foundation for the sound, lending weight and dramatic scale to action movies and giving music a satisfyingly deep beat. This is bass that you don't just hear; you feel it in your chest, instantly transforming the sense of immersion.

The fact that you can get this sonic quality for 200 quid (at the time of writing) is, quite frankly, absurd.

The verdict

The beauty of pairing the TCL 50C6KS and the Hisense AX5125H lies in their complementary strengths.

The TCL is focused almost entirely on delivering a stellar image, one that is bright, contrast-rich, and detailed. Its internal audio, while more powerful than many rival TVs, is still, ultimately, TV audio. Which is to say, not ideal in a home cinema context.

The Hisense AX5125H steps in not just as an upgrade, but, as it turns out, as the ideal partner to the TCL's visual prowess. It solves the TV's one key limitation – the need for serious audio – and does so with an authority and completeness that is rare.

Where the TV draws you in with its stunning use of light and colour, the sound system holds you captive with its enveloping sonic landscape.

MORE:

Our pick of the best TVs we tested in 2025

Are 4K Blu-ray discs better quality than streaming?

Subwoofers have been the MVPs of 2025; here are three examples of subs that wowed us this year

2025 set the foundation for a Dolby Atmos revolution – here's hoping it ignites in 2026

Christmas has come (slightly) early for home cinema fans, as one of the best AV receivers that we've tested is currently subjected to a deal that knocks thousands from the price tag.

The JBL Synthesis SDR-38 is an enthusiast option for dedicated cinephiles with deep pockets, and we awarded it five stars at its launch price of £7300.

That is an unquestionably steep asking price, and we highlighted that in our full review of this amplifier. Thankfully, Richer Sounds has come to the rescue, as a deal has surfaced that makes this AVR a must-buy for anyone looking to get serious about home cinema sound.

It's being offered for just £3999 at Richer Sounds currently; that's still a fair chunk of change; however, it's a meaty £3301 discount nonetheless.

The JBL Synthesis SDR-38 won't appeal to the masses thanks to its high price tag and enthusiast-leaning setup and operation, but the sound it provides is guaranteed to win over even the pickiest of audiophiles.

Beneath its stylish and premium chassis, the SDR-38 features 180W of Class G amplification with all seven channels driven, and seven HDMI 2.1 sockets which feature the full 48Gbps bandwidth. It also supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X for immersive home cinema sound.

Furthermore, it supports a plethora of wireless connectivity options, including Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Google Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth with the aptX HD codec.

Onto that all-important sound performance, and the Synthesis SDR-38 is an absolute dream thanks to its "excellent detail and clarity", alongside its impressive handling of big dynamic shifts. It delivers a sound with oodles of warmth and richness, and music is also handled with "rhythmic precision and a rich vocal presentation".

Despite it being nearly identical to the SDR-35 it replaced, we found that JBL improved the bass response on this upgraded model, meaning low-end effects are handled with extra low-end oomph and sensational control.

It's seriously difficult to pick holes in the SDR-38's sound performance, hence why we were so complimentary towards it in our full five-star review. It excels at everything from large dynamic shifts (such as explosions or soundtrack crescendos) to hushed conversations, making it a top-notch choice for home cinema aficionados.

It's undoubtedly still a pricey option, but at a £3301 discount at Richer Sounds, it becomes an even more enticing AVR. Be sure to sign up for Richer Sounds' VIP Membership to access the full savings; it's a free and easy process that's well worth doing to score this huge saving.

MORE:

Read our full JBL Synthesis SDR-38 review

As well as our Denon AVC-X6800H review

And check out our picks for the best AV receivers

For those who lack the space or budget for a multi-channel speaker system, choosing a soundbar is a great way to upgrade your TV’s often unsatisfactory audio performance and get a more cinematic experience.

This is where Dolby Atmos soundbars, in particular, have found their audience, as they can produce immersive, sometimes room-filling sound despite their often relatively compact dimensions and accessible pricing.

While you may think of JBL as more of a hi-fi brand with its headphone and speaker offerings, it’s also a big name in the world of soundbars.

Amazingly, though, it’s been 12 long years since a JBL soundbar last achieved the Hollywood handshake of the What Hi-Fi? world – that coveted five-star rating. Another one, then, is long overdue…

Price

The JBL Bar 300MK2 comes in at £350 / $450 / AU$549, which places it in the lower mid-range of the Dolby Atmos soundbar category.

Looming large in this area (despite its compact dimensions) is the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), which nominally costs £449 / $449 / AU$649 but is often available for less.

The Sonos model is a multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards winner, thanks to its effective Atmos handling, warm yet crisp character and impressive musicality. Still, the JBL’s cheaper price tag and more substantial spec sheet could have the class leader worried.

The JBL Bar 300MK2 is, as you will surely have guessed, the successor to the JBL Bar 300, which we tested at £330 / $400 / AU$529 but can now be bought for just £230 while stock lasts.

We enjoyed this original model’s clear dialogue and impressively deep bass, but its slightly weak midrange resulted in an overall four-star rating.

Build

In terms of design, the JBL Bar 300MK2 is not much different to its predecessor.

The black unit features rounded edges with a plastic grille on the front. On top, JBL has kept things simple, with buttons for volume and wi-fi that sit flush with the body. The soundbar can also be wall-mounted using the two included brackets.

There’s an LED display at the front of the bar, which is a pleasant surprise at this price (the Sonos Beam Gen 2 doesn't have a display of any kind) and makes volume and output changes instantly visible.

The soundbar weighs 2.9kg, so it’s easy to move around and position.

It measures 5 x 94 x 10cm, making it slightly wider than a 42-inch TV, and arguably perfectly suited to partnering with a 48- or 55-inch model. But, as you’d expect, it also fits easily under the 65-inch TV with which we test it. The 5cm height means it will sit in front of most TVs without blocking the screen.

The remote’s design is a similar affair to the main bar, in that it’s long, thin, simple and entirely black but for the symbols on the buttons. From here, you can turn on Dolby Atmos and Bluetooth, change the output, adjust the volume, and crank up the bass from 1 to 5.

There’s no backlight, which can make navigation in the dark a bit of a faff, but let’s bear in mind that many soundbars at this level (and many that cost significantly more) have no remote at all.

Features

Within the JBL’s slender body are five mid/bass racetrack drivers and four 0.75-inch tweeters, which together create a 5.0 sound system.

While the soundbar does not feature upward-firing drivers, it offers virtualised Dolby Atmos as well as DTS Virtual:X. In terms of power, the JBL is packing a claimed 450W.

Around the back of the bar, there are two HDMI connections – one dedicated input and an output that can also receive sound from your TV via eARC. While there’s no 4K/120Hz support, the HDMI passthrough does support Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

The JBL One app acts as an all-in-one hub to control the bar. You can also calibrate the soundbar from here to personalise the sound to your space. This is done by playing a range of different frequencies from the system in a quiet room. Once we’ve run this calibration, we certainly find that there is an extra sense of spaciousness to the sound in our test room.

The JBL One app offers a variety of streaming support, including Tidal, Amazon Music, and Qobuz. Additionally, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect are supported by the soundbar. You can send music to it using Bluetooth 5.3 as well.

Rather unusually, there are no preset sound modes available (not even a night mode or speech enhancer), but you can adjust the treble and bass via the equaliser on the app. We don’t find it necessary to change these to get the best sound.

Sound

Straight out of the box, the JBL soundbar provides an immersive sound experience that is, as you would hope, a massive improvement on almost any TV’s audio.

We kick off with Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning on 4K Blu-ray to challenge the soundbar’s Dolby Atmos performance. As Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt takes a lift on a chopper over the ocean before jumping in (as you do), the 300MK2 delivers a convincing Atmos effect considering its size and price.

As the camera follows the progress of the helicopter in the sky, the sound stretches into the room, along the ceiling, to a point just above the listening position. While the solo soundbar can’t push audio beyond our seats, it does an excellent job of filling the room between us and the screen.

It packs a punch in terms of bass, too, which gives these action-heavy moments an extra level of excitement. When the helicopter flies overhead, we can feel the thrum of the chopping in the soles of our feet.

The 300MK2 even does reasonably well when we play our classic bass stress test in the form of Chapter 2 of Blade Runner 2049. The JBL manages to keep the different frequencies separate while still creating a floor-shaking bass effect.

As the soundtrack reaches almost subsonic low frequencies, though, you do get a bit of chuffing where the bass driver gets a little out of control. Bear in mind that most soundbars, even many more expensive ones, struggle with this more than the JBL, so this is a small niggle.

Even though the JBL offers a weighty performance, the bass does not overwhelm the rest of the sound, and voices remain clear. This becomes obvious when watching the energetic Dancing Through Life scene in Wicked. As Jonathan Bailey’s Prince Fiyero waltzes his way through a magical library, you can hear every word of the song with this forward midrange, all with the bass excellently keeping the beat.

The JBL also manages to maintain a dynamic range that evokes a good amount of tension. In the newly remastered Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World on 4K Blu-ray, the ship’s crew sit in anxious silence before being bombarded by cannonballs by the opposition.

This makes for a suitably tense audio experience, as the sound goes from eerily quiet to crashing and loud. You can hear the treble of the wood exploding as well as the fragments scattering across the deck. It doesn’t quite reach the same levels as the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), which is the more dynamic performer overall, but the JBL model still does well here.

When we switch to music via Spotify Connect, the JBL still performs well, but it’s certainly more suited to movies. We listen to Aurora’s My Name, which features various overlapping vocal tracks and a synth-heavy bass. The JBL bar again creates an immersive, bassy sound.

At the track’s most congested moments, though, the soundbar struggles to keep all the different elements effectively differentiated, which results in a slightly clogged delivery.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is clearly more musical, with greater control, finesse and precision. These qualities lend themselves well to movies, too, with the Beam more accurately placing effects both spatially and rhythmically, and digging up more detail.

Verdict

The JBL Bar 300MK2 is a clear step up from its predecessor, improving on all aspects to give us one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we have tested at this price and giving the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) a real run for its money.

Ultimately, the Beam’s greater precision, detail and dynamics – and its musical ability – make it the better choice overall, but the JBL’s weightier, more bombastic and more room-filling sound will win it many fans.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

Also consider the Hisense AX5125H

Best Dolby Atmos soundbars: our reviewers' five recommendations

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.

MORE:

These are our thoughts on the TCL C7K

Here's our full review of the TCL C8K

Check out the best TVs under £1000

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

With Black Friday fast approaching, you might already be having a browse to see what home cinema deals are available. And who could blame you? Plenty of retailers have some bargains on offer for a variety of different pieces of kit, from projectors to Dolby Atmos soundbars.

But how do you know which ones are worth your time? I have been keeping my eye on the best deals in the latter of these categories, and I know when you are getting a good bang for your buck.

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbar deals that are on offer currently ranging from a budget (but brilliant) soundbar system to more premium models that are sure to upgrade your home cinema setup.

• Hisense AX5125H was £249 now £199 at Argos (save £50)
• Sony HT-S2000 was £349 now £299 at Amazon (save £50)
• Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 was £1399 now £899 at Peter Tyson (save £500)

Hisense AX5125H

First up, the Hisense AX5125H is a five-star complete soundbar package that blew us away during testing and has just snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award this year.

With support for both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, as well as easy set-up and operation, the 5.1.2-channel system consists of a soundbar, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surround speakers.

When we had it in our test room, we praised its amazing weight and spaciousness for the money as well as its tonally expressive bass.

The Hisense model has dropped from £249 down to £199 at Argos, making it even more tempting for those on the hunt for a budget steal.

Sony HT-S2000

The Sony HT-S2000 is another budget Dolby Atmos soundbar that offers a surprisingly cohesive and expressive audio performance.

The 3.1-channel arrangement offers clear dialogue, an impressive directionality and decent kick from the built-in subwoofer.

We say in our review while watching Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice: "As fists (and bodies) start flying, there is a crisp and impactful thud to each hit, and this bar’s dynamic capabilities are shown off in further detail with the culmination of the scene when Batman crashes through a wall in dramatic fashion."

Its singular bar design is easy to set up, taking less than a minute to upgrade your TV's sound quality. In terms of connectivity, it features Bluetooth 5.2 and HDMI eARC – as well as an Optical audio connection in case your TV lacks eARC capabilities.

While it launched at the more than reasonable price of £349, this early Black Friday deal drops its tag all the way down to £299 at Amazon.

Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

At the more premium end of the Dolby Atmos spectrum, the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 is a great model that is certainly worth a second look.

Having tested the Bravia Theatre Bar 9 in our dedicated listening rooms, we awarded it a five-star rating – positioning it among the finest Dolby Atmos soundbars available today.

When watching Unbroken, the soundbar showcased what we described as "arguably the most Atmos-y delivery we've heard from a solo soundbar".

The soundbar's ability to project audio far beyond its physical boundaries – extending sound to the ceiling and well into the room – represents an impressive achievement in single-unit Atmos implementation.

It has dropped from £1399 to £899 at Peter Tyson, saving you some of your hard earned cash while still bagging a top-notch soundbar.

If your budget can stretch a little further, it's worth checking out the five-star Sonos Arc Ultra which we just crowned a victor at the What Hi-Fi? Awards this year. After all, Black Friday might result in drop from its current price of £999 / $999 / AU$1799.

MORE:

These are the best soundbars we have reviewed

We rate the best surround sound systems

Sonos Arc Ultra vs Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9: which flagship Dolby Atmos soundbar is better?

At What Hi-Fi?, our team of experts have tested more soundbars between us than we care to count.

In fact, we've been covering them since the category emerged in the early 2000s when Yamaha launched the world's first soundbar, the YSP-1.

Since then the models appearing in our review rooms have ranged from dinky designs under £100 to beefy £1000-plus Dolby Atmos systems aiming to rival a full fat multi-speaker set-up.

That means we know what makes a good soundbar, and lets us keep our best soundbars guide up to date and accurate to with all the models we know are worth your time and money.

And with our What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025 testing giving us more clarity than ever on what products are best for your home cinema set-up (and your wallet), it was a no-brainer to add two of the best performing soundbar packages to our list of recommendations.

With one model taking the budget soundbar market by storm and the other setting a new precedent for premium packages, there’s something for everyone here.

A surprisingly brilliant budget package

When we got the Hisense AX5125H into our test room, we were not expecting audio excellence.

That's not because we're biased against it. It's just that we've been let down by a lot of cheap soundbars recently, many of which have decent specifications, on paper, but sound terrible in the real world.

We tested this model at £249 / $350 (around AU$500), which is quite a jaw-dropping price for a system consisting of a main soundbar, subwoofer and two surrounds.

But this Award-winning Hisense model proves that you should never judge a book (or bar) by its cover.

With support for both DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this soundbar system is an incredibly cohesive and immersive performer at this price.

While watching the dystopian action thriller Civil War, for example, we found: “Explosions and deep gunfire have good impact and solidity, and there’s just about enough tonal expression for bassy soundtrack elements to sound reasonably musical.”

The vocals remained nicely clear and sounded relatively emotive too, although the subwoofer can get a little overzealous and cause them to become muffled in the busiest sections. Still, you can get an impressively cinematic and immersive sound from this system, which is a serious surprise given its price.

Even its specifications are shockingly comprehensive for this price point.

While many owners will simply connect their TV to the Hisense AX5125H via HDMI eARC/ARC and be done with it, those with external sources (particularly those with lots of them) will be pleased to see that the soundbar also has a dedicated HDMI input. Passthrough is limited to 60Hz, so there’s no support for 4K/120Hz gaming signals, but any passthrough functionality at this level is a bonus.

We haven’t tested a soundbar system that comes close to this level of performance for such an affordable price, so it’s an easy recommendation for those looking to upgrade their TV’s audio without breaking the bank.

A step up system from Samsung

If your budget can stretch further, there is another What Hi-Fi? Award winner that we would heartily recommend.

Enter the Samsung HW-Q990F – a system once again consisting of a soundbar, two surround speakers and a subwoofer.

Its predecessor, the Samsung HW-Q990D, received a five-star rating after being reviewed in our test room where we praised its three-dimensional and dynamic performance.

This makes it a tough model to beat, but the Q990F manages to only improve upon this system’s sound quality.

It's an 11.1.4-channel system, with 23 drivers in total. With support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, we were impressed by the soundbar's ability to create that all-important dome of sound as well as ensuring the sound moves organically between the channels.

When it comes to its bass performance, we say in our review: "There is a much greater sense of tonal variation from this sub [compared to the Q990D], which unearths a new layer to the bass. The Q990F’s bass feels more organic, balanced, and seamlessly integrated into the system as a result."

Its connectivity options continue to impress. The system carries a very well-stocked feature set, with DTS:X audio, HDMI 2.1 passthrough with 4K/120Hz gaming and Dolby Vision HDR support. There are also countless sound modes to choose from, including SpaceFit Pro, which adapts the sound to best suit your room and speaker placement.

We awarded the Q990F five stars at its full price of £1699, but you won't need to spend that much to pick up right now as this hugely talented Dolby Atmos soundbar system is already getting discounted. You can grab it for around a grand at most stores right now, making it an even more enticing option for home cinema aficionados.

MORE:

These are the best soundbars right now

Check out the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

And here's our full review of the Hisense AX5125H

The soundbars category is always one of the most exciting to judge as part of the What Hi-Fi? Awards.

This is a category that’s jam-packed with contenders of all styles and prices, and each year there is technical advancement that pushes the boundaries in terms of sound quality.

This year, the biggest surprises came at opposite ends of the price spectrum, in the form of the very different KEF XIO and Hisense AX5125H.

From super-premium to amazingly affordable

The KEF XIO is a marvel that packs unique KEF technology (some from its hi-fi products, some entirely new) into a gorgeous, premium soundbar that’s as fabulous with music as it is with movies.

It’s the new, super-premium soundbar of choice, beating the incumbent Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max and the new Yamaha True X Surround Surround 90A.

The Hisense AX5125H couldn’t be more different. This is a super-affordable system that, despite its low price, includes a wireless subwoofer and surround speakers, and supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The fact that you get so much for your money here is remarkable enough – the fact that it sounds really good is borderline astonishing. What a bargain.

Sonos unseats Sony

We’ve got two more new winners in the soundbars category, the first of which is the Sonos Arc Ultra.

“New?”, we hear you ask. Well, yes; while the Sonos Arc Ultra has actually been available for almost a year now, it crucially came out after our Awards deadline last year, so didn’t publicly exist in time for consideration.

It’s a different story now, of course, and the Arc Ultra’s brilliant reproduction of Dolby Atmos soundtracks and its superbly tight, tuneful bass make it a fairly comfortable winner over solo soundbar rivals from the likes of Sony (including last year's Award-winning Bravia Theatre Bar 9), Samsung and Marshall.

Another Samsung system victory, and a return of a repeat winner

Samsung does still take a big win here – for its HW-Q990F soundbar system.

This replaces the HW-Q990D in Samsung’s range and in our list of winners, having faced and defeated competition from the likes of JBL, Yamaha, Sonos, Sony and Hisense over the course of 2025.

Our final winner is the incumbent Sonos Beam Gen 2. This small but mighty Dolby Atmos soundbar has now been a winner five years in a row, which is incredibly impressive, particularly considering how much competition it has faced in that time.

This year, it defeated new challengers from JBL, Harman Kardon, Sony, LG and more. We’re starting to think that the Beam Gen 2 will only be beaten when Sonos launches its replacement.

So, which one of these five deserved winners will be crowned the 2025 soundbar Product of the Year at the glitzy What Hi-Fi? Awards ceremony on 13th November? Tune in to whathifi.com to find out.

MORE:

See every What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025 winner here

These are the best Dolby Atmos movie scenes with which to test your soundbar

And here is the complete list of the best soundbars you can buy right now

While one of the perks of being a What Hi-Fi? reviewer is, of course, getting access to super-premium products well beyond the means of many, few things put smiles on our faces like unearthing a brilliant budget gem.

And that’s what we have before us today.

The Hisense AX5125H is a complete Dolby Atmos (and DTS:X) system in a box that costs less than most solo soundbars, and it sounds so much better than it has any right to at its price – and than we were expecting.

Price

The Hisense AX5125H currently costs £249 / $350 (around AU$500), which is frankly ridiculous value for what it is.

For reference, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is occasionally available for around £349 / $399 / AU$700 and is just a soundbar, whereas the Hisense package includes a soundbar, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds.

There really is nothing else we’ve reviewed that offers so much for so little. Perhaps that’s why our expectations were so low.

Design

All of the components in the Hisense system have a slightly dull, functional look to them, but nothing appears or feels cheap. On the contrary, the soundbar in particular feels solid and well put together.

The soundbar’s dimensions are sensible, too: at 6 x 92 x 9cm (height x width x depth) it’s compact enough to sit on most furniture and in front of most TVs without blocking its display, but not so small as to look insubstantial.

The surrounds are less confidence-inspiring, as they’re very dinky indeed. This of course makes for easy placement (as with the soundbar itself, there are integrated keyhole fixings for wall mounting, if that’s the route you want to go down), but tiny speakers rarely make a big sound. Aren’t these going to sound really thin and tinny?

The subwoofer is also fairly compact by the standards of its brethren, but less alarmingly so. The dimensions (29 x 21 x 30cm) make it very easy to find a nook for the sub, though we recommend giving it a little space, preferably quite close to the soundbar itself, for maximum effectiveness.

While many soundbars have no display at all, the Hisense AX5125H has a simple dot-matrix number that delivers information such as the input, sound preset and surround mode selected, as well as volume level. It isn’t fancy, but it is fairly clear and effective. It can also be dimmed or turned off entirely via a button on the remote.

Said remote is fairly basic and plasticky, as you would probably expect, but it does the job well enough. Many owners will rarely, if ever, touch it anyway, as their TV’s remote will handle changes in volume as long as it's connected via HDMI eARC/ARC.

Features and specs

While many owners will simply connect their TV to the Hisense AX5125H via HDMI eARC/ARC and be done with it, those with external sources (particularly those with lots of them) will be pleased to see that the soundbar also has a dedicated HDMI input. Passthrough is limited to 60Hz, so there’s no support for 4K/120Hz gaming signals, but any passthrough functionality at this level is a bonus.

Should you have an older TV or some other audio equipment to connect, there’s also an optical input, and Bluetooth is on board for music.

Hisense rates the total power output at 500W, split across 5.1.2 channels. That’s three front-firing channels and a driver in each surround for the ‘5’, one big driver in the sub for the ‘1’, and two up-firing drivers in the soundbar for the ‘2’.

There are several audio presets to choose from, with the system defaulting to the AI setting. You can trust this to choose the right profile for different sources if you really want, but we prefer to take the guesswork out of things and, after much testing, settle on Movies for movies and TV shows, and Music for Music.

Game, News and Sport have little value (just stick with Movie for these content types), but the Night mode will likely prove useful at times, as it suppresses bass and dynamic range to reduce disruption to those in the house who might not want to hear what you’re listening to.

There are also two surround modes, Pure Surround and Surround Pro. The differences between these are, disappointingly, not outlined in the manual, but Surround Pro sounds the bigger and weightier of the two, while Pure Surround is cleaner, clearer and more direct. It’s the latter we choose.

Sound quality

We didn’t have particularly high hopes for the AX5125H’s sound, largely because of its price, but also because of those dinky surround speakers. Surely they wouldn’t be able to deliver convincing surround effects.

But as soon as we get the system running in earnest, using the fight for Washington, DC from Civil War as our first real tester, we’re struck by how cohesive and enveloping the presentation is.

As the gentle guitar track recedes and is replaced by the sounds of war, we’re surrounded by gunfire and incidental effects. Bullets whizz from the front to the back of the room and even behind the listening position, helicopters hover at ceiling height, and distant explosions rumble menacingly.

The subwoofer is really rather impressive, given the system cost. It’s capable of going very loud and very deep, and while it of course lacks the sophistication of a good, standalone sub, it’s not the woolly, monotonal blunt instrument that one would expect at this level.

Instead, explosions and deep gunfire have good impact and solidity, and there’s just about enough tonal expression for bassy soundtrack elements to sound reasonably musical.

That said, there are frequencies at which the sub gets a little too excited, and it delivers a big thump that rather sticks out. The bass in the soundtrack as Batman approaches the thugs in the subway tunnel in The Batman is a great example, with one recurring note being reproduced much louder than the others.

It’s also clear that the system relies heavily on the subwoofer for dynamics, which means that less weighty effects can sound a little flat. You can lessen this by keeping the bass volume to somewhere between about 0 and +2, and then increasing the overall volume. You won’t rob the system of its weight, but you will get greater balance, particularly in loud sections of soundtrack.

While you’re at it, we recommend keeping the treble level around the 0 mark. Increasing it adds a little more zing to some effects, but it also adds sibilance to voices.

Keep the treble in check, and voices sound natural and pretty emotive, with the system having just enough low-level dynamic ability to reveal the nuance in an actor’s performance. The dialogue also remains clear in the vast majority of situations, with only the busiest, bassiest sections causing them to become a touch muffled.

We switch to Dune 2, and as a swarm of Ornithopters takes to the air, the Atmos effect is really well delivered. While the lack of up-firing drivers in the surround speakers means this isn’t quite a full dome of sound, the height effects appear quite deep into the room and the overall delivery is brilliantly enveloping.

A system with up-firers at all points should be even more impressive here, but such a system will cost significantly more.

While the AX5125H punches well above its weight with movies, it’s a more qualified success with music. The surround modes are surprisingly not horrible with stereo music, but there’s still an inauthentic aspect to their delivery, so turning them off is still advised.

The soundbar has a good crack at Tool’s Invincible, gamely driving the frantic percussion and even delivering some of the subtle warble in Maynard James Keenan’s vocals. But even at its lowest volume level, the subwoofer can’t resist interjecting slightly rudely at times and adding bass notes that stick out awkwardly.

This isn’t a horrible musical delivery by any means, but it’s not a patch on the Hisense’s performance with movies.

Verdict

The Hisense AX5125H caught us completely off guard. Most solo soundbars that cost this sort of money are seriously deficient in terms of audio quality, so surely sound must have been compromised even further for Hisense to have delivered a complete system with these specs.

That’s simply not the case, though. This remarkably affordable system delivers Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks with room-filling, sofa-shaking exuberance, and while it of course has its limitations, it’s a vast upgrade on the sound of any TV we’ve tested.

If you thought convincing, exciting Dolby Atmos sound was out of your budget, it’s time to think again.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 4
• Features 5

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Amazon Prime Big Deal Days has thrown us a few pleasant surprises when it comes to savings on Award-winning home cinema gear, and this Panasonic Blu-ray player happens to be one of my favourites to come from the savings event so far.

If there was ever a time to reject streaming and embrace the disc life, it's now, as the Panasonic DP-UB820EB has dropped from £350 to £285 at Amazon; that's a saving of £65, which should comfortably cover the cost of a couple of 4K Blu-rays to start your collection.

• Browse all the Amazon Prime Day deals

This Blu-ray player has won the coveted Product of the Year title in the Best Blu-ray players category for six years running, which should stand as a testament to how great we think it is.

We'll start with a quick disclaimer: we initially tested this 4K Blu-ray player at its launch price of £290, which is the price you'll see in our full review. However, that was all the way back in 2019, and since then, we've seen the price creep up to £350 at all major retailers. That's why I've highlighted this deal, as it still offers a decent saving from its new, widely available price.

Back to the player itself, the DP-UB820EB may not have a catchy name, but it provides the goods when it comes to the two most important aspects: picture performance and sound quality.

We praised the Panasonic's ability to deliver an "eye-catching and immersive picture", complete with punchy colours and clean details, which is why we continue to champion it in our AV testing room to this very day.

It supports up to 4K in a handful of HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+. But don't worry if you haven't got any 4K Blu-ray discs yet, as you can still play HD and standard definition Blu-rays and DVDs on this player, which will be upscaled for a sharper picture. We do, of course, recommend feeding it the highest quality material for the best results.

And it nails cinematic sound too. Action movie fans will be pleased to hear that it boasts a "weighty and powerful performance that’s capable of delivering explosions with plenty of gusto", and movie scores build with a "weighty and deliberate swell of sound".

Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are both supported on this player, meaning you can get the best immersive cinematic sound from your 4K Blu-rays (providing you have a Dolby Atmos soundbar or AVR that supports these formats).

Its success is mostly since it shares most of its picture processing technology with the flagship DP-UB9000, which happens to cost three times the price.

For those who want an uncompromising cinematic experience, but are perhaps on a slightly stricter budget, then the DP-UB820EB is a sensational pick, especially at this discounted price at Amazon.

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Stepping into our test room right now, you might think an AV fairy had plonked all of her yearly stock into one place for safekeeping.

With oodles of TV and AV kit every which way you look, you can barely move for TVs, soundbars and surround sound speaker packages.

It is of course our yearly preparation for the What Hi-Fi? Awards.

This involves testing a wide variety of different products and pitting them against each other to find the best of the bunch in each category.

We have already seen some excellent entries that have blown us away, but there is one entry to the Dolby Atmos soundbar system category that has surprised us in more ways than one.

Enter the Hisense AX5125H, a wireless sound system consisting of a soundbar, subwoofer and two small surrounds.

The 5.1.2 soundbar package offers both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and takes a matter of minutes to set up.

In terms of connectivity, there is an HDMI input and HDMI output with eARC. On the main soundbar, there is also a front display, which makes navigation a doddle and is a feature that many models neglect from the design.

You’ll have to wait for our full review to get a detailed rundown of its performance but – spoiler alert – it also sounds great. We tested it with a variety of movies from Barbie to Thunderbolts, and found that it offers an impressively rich sound straight out of the box.

The bass is tight and controlled, adding an impactful punch to the overall sound without overpowering the other frequencies.

When the Kens engage in an over-the-top fight scene in Barbie, the soundbar package does a good job of making sure nothing gets lost in the mix and maintains a clear performance throughout.

During a more subtle scene when Barbie looks around a park and sees the highs and lows of humanity, the Hisense system shows its ability to be delicate, with the soft piano soundtrack brilliantly balanced with the sounds of laughter and rustling leaves.

This engaging performance continues with music, as well. When playing Uh Uh by Thundercat, the AX5125H picks up every guitar pluck with a good amount of low-end heft – an impressive feat considering just how fast the artist is playing.

And the kicker? It is now widely available at a price of £249 / $299 (around AU$510). That’s an insane price tag for a soundbar system that actually produces immersive and cinematic audio.

We have also recently tested the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6, which costs £549 / $800 / AU$999. And while this system does also produce a solid surround sound experience, it costs more than double the price of the Hisense model.

It doesn't offer the same easy wireless setup experience, either. The Sony system features a much bulkier design with an external reception box and requires long cables to connect everything together.

There's only virtualised DTS:X and Atmos sound as well, which is quite disappointing when compared to the Hisense's up-firing speaker offerings. Again, you will have to wait for our in-depth review to go live for our full verdict.

But – spoiler alert – we're sure that, for under £250, the immersive, full-bodied Hisense soundbar system will be a home cinema bargain that we will be recommending time and time again.

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Marantz struck gold when it launched the Cinema 30, a premium Dolby Atmos-touting AVR that looks as good as it sounds.

While we acknowledged in our full review that it is a pricey piece of home cinema equipment, we couldn't resist its smooth, rich, and powerful cinematic sound, which is why it found its way onto our best AV receivers list and earned a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award.

Thankfully, our sticking point regarding the price of this home cinema amp has been addressed, as it's just seen a major discount at Peter Tyson, which drops the price from £3999 to £3499.

We deemed the Cinema 30 to be an AVR of "rare ability", due to its sensational cinematic sound. Rich, punchy, dynamic, detailed; this AVR has it all, and it's the perfect amplifier to take your home cinema to the next level if you've been thinking of upgrading.

With 11 channels of amplification and a claimed 140W of power when two channels are driven, the Cinema 30 can easily drive a 7.2.2 channel Dolby Atmos system. DTS:X and Auro-3D are also on board, and you can easily configure and calibrate your system with the included Audyssey microphone.

And it's the perfect hub for all of your connected devices, thanks to its seven HDMI 2.1 inputs, all of which support up to 4K/120Hz or 8K/60Hz with VRR, ALLM and QMS. HDR is also supported in all of the major formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG.

Wireless streaming is also a key component of this AVR, with a wide range of services supported. Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Amazon Music HD, and HEOS are all available, allowing you to beam music directly to the amplifier from a smartphone or tablet.

We also have to give Marantz credit for how this AVR looks. Available in two finishes – Black and Silver Gold – the Cinema 30 is a handsome piece of home cinema kit, with Marantz's iconic circular display up front and sleek accent lighting which accentuates the textured metal finish; this AVR is easily the best-looking home cinema amplifier that we've tested.

Having all of these features and good looks to match is all well and good, but sound performance is paramount. Thankfully, the Cinema 30 delivers a smooth and refined sound that can balance huge scale and control without breaking a sweat.

This AVR has earned its spot as our reference amplifier in our AV testing room, which should serve as a testament to its performance. I've been using it to test the capabilities of the latest speaker packages from Fyne and KEF, so keep your eyes peeled for reviews of those 5.1 speaker systems coming soon.

The on-screen setup menus and easy calibration have made this process refreshingly simple, and its reference-worthy sound has ensured that these speakers are performing at their very best.

If you've been considering an AVR upgrade for your home cinema setup, the Marantz Cinema 30 is simply the best around. While it costs quite a lot more than our current pick for the best AV receiver – that being the Sony TA-AN1000 – its stellar sound (and looks) make it a worthy consideration if you have extra cash to spend.

This deal at Peter Tyson will, of course, soften the blow to your wallet, and we assure you that you won't regret the purchase once you hear it in action.

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Read our full Maratnz Cinema 30 review

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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

No sooner have we had the chance to be wowed by TCL’s new premium C8K TV than we find ourselves faced with something from much lower down the 2025 pecking order.

With features such as Mini LED lighting, local dimming and universal HDR support to its name, the 50-inch TCL C6KS is arguably just as impressive as its flagship sibling, given its vastly lower price.

Price

The TCL 50C6KS costs, at the time of writing, just £419 in the UK, and $590 in Australia (there isn’t a direct equivalent in the US). This pricing would look very affordable on any 50-inch LCD TV, but we’re heading into potential bargain of the year territory when, as we’ll see, this price isn’t just getting you the stripped-back, ultra-basic TV you’d expect.

Similarly affordable 50-inch TVs are rare. You can now, though, get the latest version of the 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED for only a little more. The Amazon set also offers comprehensive HDR support, Quantum Dot colour and local dimming, as well as an Amazon-based smart system that some people may feel more familiar with than the Google TV smarts used on the TCL 50C6KS. Amazon’s set deploys significantly fewer dimming zones than the 50C6KS, though, and does not benefit from Mini LED lighting.

Another very different bargain you could consider would be the Sharp 70GK4245K, which remarkably gives you a 70-inch QLED screen for just £489. It isn’t on the same performance level as the 50-inch C6KS, but there’s nothing around for similar money to match it if screen inches for your buck is your main motivation.

One final note here: the C6KS is not to be confused with the C6K. The model without the ‘S’ is higher-spec (most notably in that it features a 120Hz panel) and doesn’t come in a 50-inch size. It’s also predictably more expensive.

On the subject of sizes, the C6KS is available as a 55-, 65- and 75-inch model, as well as the 50-inch version we have before us today. Backlit TVs can vary greatly in quality as you move up the sizes, though, so it’s best not to assume the larger versions will perform as well as this one.

Design

The 50-inch C6KS looks decently attractive for its money. The frame around the screen is narrow enough not to become a distraction from the picture or take up any more space in your room than necessary, while the shiny black finish of the left, right and top edges looks crisp and contrasts attractively with the glossy silver finish of the bottom edge.

The two feet look a bit plasticky and basic, but their slender profile means they don’t significantly distract you from the screen above.

General build quality is heavy on the plastic, too. But you only really notice this when you’re handling the TV. It’s not obvious just from looking at it from a normal viewing distance.

The set isn’t the slimmest around the back, despite TCL optimistically describing it as having an Ultra Slim Design. But while this slightly deep rear doesn’t make the 50C6KS the most elegant wall-hanging TV option, you won’t notice its chunkiness when it’s sat on its feet unless you watch it from a pretty wide angle.

The C6KS’s remote control feels a bit lightweight, but its long, thin shape, angled rear and gently brushed front edge make it comfortable to hold. Its layout is fairly sensible as well, with good emphasis on the main navigation area and a helpful collection of buttons at the bottom for direct access to some of the most popular video streaming services.

Features

The 50C6KS’s price is arguably its single biggest feature; it’s ridiculously cheap for such a feature-laden and strong-performing TV. But this value component wouldn’t be so strong if its other features didn’t count, too, so let’s get stuck into them – starting with its Mini LED screen.

The Mini LEDs used to illuminate the C6KS are, as their name suggests, many times smaller than the regular LEDs used in most very affordable LCD TVs. This enables TCL’s TV to deliver, on paper at least, both more brightness and more localised light control. What’s more, the 50C6KS backs up its Mini LED lighting with 160 local dimming zones.

Getting any sort of local dimming on a TV this cheap is impressive enough, but getting three figures-worth of dimming zones is unheard of. Though, as ever, it’s not as much about the number of zones, but how they’re used, which we will of course get to in the picture quality section.

The good news continues with the discovery that the C6KS uses a VA-type panel rather than an IPS one – a panel choice that almost always results in better contrast.

In fact, it uses one of TCL’s new HVA panels, which brings a number of enhancements to the table compared with the brand’s equivalent 2024 models. These improvements include wider viewing angles and a suite of new ‘halo control’ innovations designed to minimise the strength and scope of the distracting backlight blooms and leaks that LCD TVs – especially those using local dimming – can throw up around bright highlights when showing HDR pictures.

These halo-reducing tricks include micro lenses in the optical array that are claimed to deliver almost a 19 per cent improvement in halo suppression, a 143 per cent backlight uniformity improvement, and eight times more optical stability.

There are also Quantum Dots in play to help the C6KS deliver a wider colour gamut (TCL claims coverage of 93 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum used for most HDR mastering) and more colour brightness than regular RGB filter systems can manage.

As noted earlier, the C6KS goes further than many TVs – including some far more expensive ones – in supporting all four of the main HDR formats currently used in the AV world: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. This means it will always play the best available version of any content you feed it.

This C6KS backs up/unlocks the full potential of its strikingly premium hardware features with TCL’s latest AI-boosted AiPQ processor, while hopes for its audio performance are bolstered by the fact that its 2 x 15W 2.0-channel speaker system has been designed with respected audio brand Onkyo, plus its ability to decode both Dolby Atmos and DTS HD soundtracks.

Smart features are delivered by Google TV, which brings with it the vast majority of the most popular global streaming services. TCL has also gone the extra mile, too, and brought on board separately all the catch-up apps for the UK’s key broadcasters – something Google TV doesn’t manage by itself. Though you don’t get the Freeview Play or Freely ‘umbrella’ apps for UK broadcasters that some other TVs provide.

The Google TV support does bring with it, though, the potential to operate the 50C6KS by talking to it courtesy of Google Assistant.

TCL has established itself as one of the best supporters of gaming on TVs over the past couple of years, so it’s not entirely surprising that even a TV as affordable as the C6KS carries such handy gaming features as TCL’s dedicated Game Bar onscreen menus, ALLM switching, support for the ultra-wide aspect ratios delivered by some PC games, the ability to raise the brightness of dark areas to reveal hiding enemies, and an aiming aid.

There’s even support for VRR – though only up to 60Hz. Yes, that’s right – we’ve stumbled across the one compromise TCL has had to make to keep the 50C6KS so affordable: its screen is a 60Hz one rather than a 100/120Hz one. But so are the screens of practically every other TV selling for around the C6KS’s price.

The 50C6KS’s connections are also marginally compromised versus TCL’s mid-range and premium models in that they only include three HDMI ports rather than four. There are a couple of media-capable USBs alongside those HDMIs, though, and in truth, three HDMIs is pretty par for the course at the sort of price level the C6KS hits.

Picture

If there was a weak point in TCL’s mostly outstanding 2024 range, it was at the equivalent C6 level. The C6KS wastes zero time, though, in proving that TCL isn’t in the mood to make the same mistake twice.

For starters, there’s far less greyness in the 50C6KS’s dark scenes than there was with its predecessors. In fact, black levels are now excellent for a TV at this price point.

This is not just down to the new TV being better at manipulating light in dark scenes to produce deeper black tones, either. These improved black levels also appear to owe a debt to the new HVA panel at the C6KS’s heart, as revealed in particular by the way the screen typically manages to render such an impressive amount of shadow detailing in dark scenes.

The 50C6KS’s much-improved light engine creates precious few backlight blooming distractions either. Even on the rare occasions where a particularly tough, contrast-rich shot does reveal signs of backlight blooming around bright highlights, the halo of extraneous light is invariably faint enough not to count as a remotely serious distraction.

There’s no instability in the 50C6KS’s presentation of very dark scenes, either. We detect neither obvious signs of distracting mid-shot dimming zone adjustments nor any brightness fluctuations during cuts between light and dark shots. And unlike last year’s C6 model, fade to blacks don’t require an obvious ‘full switch off and subsequent full switch on’ of the entire backlighting system.

Making the C6KS’s much-improved handling of dark scenes all the more impressive is the fact that it’s achieved alongside some very impressive brightness for a TV so affordable. In fact, as well as looking two or three times as bright as other similarly priced reference sets we test it against, it gives a fair number of mid-range LCD TVs a run for their brightness money.

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.

The 50C6KS’s colours retain better saturations during very dark shots than we would expect to see with a TV at this level, too, while colour volumes (the combination of saturation and brightness) leave the vast majority of similarly priced TVs looking murky and flat by comparison.

That vibrancy does not come at the expense of subtlety, either. On the contrary, we’re pleasantly surprised by how much refinement and subtle toning the TV retains in areas that are notoriously tricky for affordable TVs, such as skin tones, blue skies, leafy trees and grassy meadows. Nothing feels clumpy or cartoonish.

This has a knock-on effect on the C6KS’s sharpness, joining forces with the strong shadow detail performance to really convince you that you’re looking at 4K images despite this TV sporting a relatively small screen size by today’s standards. Our only warning here would be to not get too carried away with the TCL’s Sharpness Booster feature, as pushing this too high can start to exaggerate grain.

Despite not supporting 120Hz, the C6KS continues TCL’s long run of TV gaming form. The screen’s impressive core 4K sharpness is, if anything, even stronger with gaming graphics than video, while the impressive brightness and contrast for this price level feed into some really punchy game HDR – complete with excellent highlighting that adds to the sense of detail and texture.

Colours are slightly less vibrant in Game mode than they are in, say, the Standard video mode, but tones always look balanced and subtle.

Input lag is a super-fast 9.9ms, too, which is an excellent result by any TV standards.

Inevitably, for a 50-inch TV at this price, the C6KS isn’t perfect. For starters, there’s a little resolution loss over moving objects, especially with 24p movie sources. A few motion processing options are provided, but none of them fully removes the slight motion softness issue.

Next, while the 50C6KS generally handles its impressive brightness well, it can succumb to a little clipping (lost shading details) in some of its brightest highlights.

The Dolby Vision Dark setting, meanwhile, can track a little too dark, resulting in some slight loss of the shadow detail that the TV handles so well in its other picture presets.

We also find that, every now and then, an area of what should be subtle HDR colour blending can suffer from a mild banding effect, and there’s a slight drop off in colour saturation and contrast if you have to watch the screen from a wide angle.

Finally, you need to tweak a few things to get the best out of the 50C6KS. The default Dynamic Tone Mapping system for optimising HDR images to the screen’s capabilities can push highlights a bit high, for instance, so it needs toning down, while colours can look a bit cool out of the box, so you should use the colour settings to add a bit more warmth.

Plus, as we mentioned a moment ago, the default motion processing settings can be a touch heavy-handed.

We can’t stress enough, though, that while the 50C6KS isn’t completely issue-free and needs a little legwork to get the best out of it, there’s nothing in the negative column that’s anywhere near enough to stop this being a TV that spectacularly over-performs for its money.

Sound

It’s nice to find a TV at this price level that supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X playback – especially as the 50C6KS actually delivers these premium audio formats with more volume and power than expected without the sound breaking down or sounding coarse.

In fact, its sound is extremely detailed. We pick up subtle elements in some Dolby Atmos soundtracks on this TV that other models miss entirely – even many sets costing many times as much.

The sound is projected nicely out from the TV’s chassis, too, spreading comfortably to the left and right but also managing to sound as if it is being propelled forwards from the screen, despite the lack of any front-firing speakers.

The large soundstage combines with a knack for subtle sound details to place sound effects and handle sound transitions around the soundstage with good accuracy and conviction.

Dialogue is clear at all times, and sounds like it’s coming from the onscreen images rather than from speakers below or behind the screen. There are no distortions, buzzes, crackles or dropouts even at near maximum volumes, and there’s a surprising amount of treble headroom to help the TV handle shrill elements without making you wince.

While the freedom from buzzing and crackling issues extends to the 50C6KS’s handling of bass, though, this might in part be down to the fact that there isn’t actually much bass for the TV to handle.

The set’s midrange is reasonably open and expansive, but a lack of significant low-frequency heft can leave dense mixes sounding a bit lopsided in favour of the treble. This can cause a little over-brightness in the treble register and, more rarely, with dialogue.

Finally, while the 50C6KS sounds generally pleasingly punchy for such an affordable TV, its sound can slightly withdraw into itself when faced with Hollywood’s densest, loudest soundtrack moments.

As with its minor list of picture foibles, though, the 50C6KS’s audio limitations don’t stop it from sounding excellent overall for such an affordable TV.

Of course, it’s still not a patch on the sound quality of even the most affordable soundbars, so we recommend that you head to our best budget soundbars page to find a suitable sonic partner.

Verdict

TCL’s latest ultra-affordable TV is even better than its specs suggest and fixes pretty much everything that was wrong with its predecessor.

The price seems like it must be too good to be true – but it isn’t.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sharp 70GK4245K

Also consider the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED

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

Yamaha unleashed the world's first soundbar back in 2005 with the YSP-1, an innovative piece of home cinema equipment that, at the time, was a whole new concept.

20 years later, the Japanese audio brand has launched its latest model, the True X Surround 90A.

It's set to maximise cinematic scale and immersion, backed by over two decades of expertise and development – Yamaha says that this soundbar has been years in the making.

It follows on from the True X lineup, which launched back in 2023, and which included the Bar 50A, Bar 40A and SW-X100A subwoofer, and the nifty True X Speaker X1A wireless surrounds, which could also be used as individual Bluetooth speakers.

We reviewed the True X Soundbar System and generally approved of its "agile, fast sound" and its "well-integrated sub". Think of Yamaha's new 90A soundbar system as the True X set-up on a heavy dose of steroids.

The whole system has been redesigned, with a hefty main soundbar unit that houses no fewer than 19 drive units.

There are four full-range, custom-designed, eye-shaped oval drivers, which Yamaha says deliver "rich midrange tones and impressive volume from fewer components, preserving sonic purity across the frequency range".

These newly designed drivers, which are backed up by three tweeters for higher frequencies, have allowed Yamaha to condense the number of drivers in the soundbar without sacrificing clarity or introducing distortion.

However, it seems to be the opposite story when it comes to the height speakers, as Yamaha has upped the number of drivers compared to other models on the market.

Whereas most Dolby Atmos soundbars make do with two up-firing units, Yamaha has implemented an array of top-mounted beam tweeters, with six drivers at each end of the soundbar.

Yamaha's proprietary beam speaker technology, which is backed by its YDA-141 high-performance amplifier, is calibrated and angled to fire sound towards your ceiling with "remarkably accurate sound localisation".

These height-focused beam speakers have been inherited from the YSP-1 – yes, that soundbar from 20 years ago. The YSP-1 featured 40 beam-firing drive units, which bounced sound around your room to create a convincing surround effect.

They exclusively handle height channels on the new system, and they're poised to do quite a remarkable job if Yamaha's claims are to be believed.

According to Yamaha, the X90A's Dolby Atmos height effects will set the bar (pun intended) for the soundbar market as a whole; it even claims that they will rival dedicated ceiling-mounted speakers, with a "truly dynamic" and "authentic" three-dimensional sound experience.

Yamaha has also included new True X wireless speakers with this package. They look like stretched versions of the existing surrounds included on the current True X system, which disappointingly means that they don't feature upward-firing drivers.

However, it looks like the height effect from the soundbar should handle this, so Yamaha ensures that we needn't worry.

The final piece of Yamaha's new sonic puzzle is a brand-new wireless subwoofer. It sports a patented symmetrical flare port design, with both the inlet and outlet ports sharing an identical shape.

They're connected to an internal plate that is integrated into the base of the sub, which allows for controlled airflow. Yamaha says it will deliver "powerful yet natural low-frequency reproduction", with minimised distortion and port noise.

The True X Surround 90A features a sleek design with a metal chassis and a built-in display; an appreciated addition, as we noted that the LED lights on the previous model were difficult to interpret at times.

It supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and Yamaha claims that it's the first soundbar to support the Auro 3D immersive audio format. It also includes the Surround: AI soundfield optimisation technology, which is found on Yamaha's AVR lineup, which can analyse content in real time to deliver the most immersive sound.

Connectivity-wise, you'll find HDMI eARC and HDMI passthrough (Yamaha has yet to confirm the specifications of this HDMI out socket), as well as optical. Wireless streaming is possible via Yamaha's MusicCast platform, as well as Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay.

Pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed; however, Yamaha has provisionally priced the system at £2499 (US and Australian pricing to be confirmed) with a September release date in mind.

That puts it well above the likes of the Samsung HW-Q990F (£1699 / $1999 / AU$1999), and instead puts it more in line with the Sonos Arc Ultra Immersive set or Sony's Bravia Theatre Bar 9 with the optional subwoofer and surround speakers.

It's a competitive market, so Yamaha has its work cut out. However, with the promise of immersive cinematic sound and some serious pedigree behind it, the True X Surround 90A is shaping up to be an interesting addition to the soundbar market.

MORE:

Read our hands-on review of the new Yamaha True X Surround 90A

That Was Then... Yamaha YSP-1 review

Here are our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Read our Samsung HW-Q990F review

Marshall made its name with its rock and roll guitar amps, and the British brand has also been making wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers for quite some time.

The Marshall Heston 120 is, however, its first soundbar.

As well as rocking classic Marshall styling, the Heston 120 has a 5.1.2 speaker configuration and supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. It’s also being marketed by Marshall as “the loudest thing for your TV”. A bold statement indeed.

But how does the new soundbar actually perform?

Price

The Marshall Heston 120 costs £900 / $1000 / AU$1799.

That puts it firmly at the upper end of the market and in direct competition with five-star favourites such as the Sonos Arc Ultra (999 / $999 / AU$1799) and the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9.

The Bar 9 launched at the higher price of £1399 / $1400 / AU$1795, but we have seen regular drops that bring it down to a price more comparable with the Heston 120’s.

The quality of these Dolby Atmos soundbars ensures there’s some stiff competition for Marshall’s first soundbar.

Build

Soundbars have a tendency to look quite dull. And we get it, it’s hard to make a black or white rectangular bar look jazzy.

Marshall has made its model stand out with a retro design in keeping with its other products. The rotating metal knobs on the top, for example, certainly take a page from Marshall’s amp designs.

These knobs allow you to adjust the volume, source, sound mode, bass and treble. They even illuminate red when you interact with them, with a more solid colouring on the selected setting.

There are also three buttons that can be customised for super-quick access to your favourite playlists or radio stations.

At the front of the soundbar, there is a removable grille made from sturdy woven paper. The body consists of wrapped leather trims and a brushed metal panel.

It might not be to everyone’s taste, but the textured feel and light-up display do certainly make it a unique proposition.

The only thing to be aware of is that it has quite a long design, as the soundbar measures 110cm in length.

That means you will need a full rack to accommodate its size. For those on the hunt for a smaller bar, Marshall has said that a more petite model will be released later in the year – the Heston 60.

Under the hood, there are five full-range drivers, two tweeters, two mid-woofers and two subwoofer units.

Three of the full-range drivers are positioned at the front of the soundbar, leaving the remaining two at either end in order to fire the sound sideways. The tweeters and mid-woofers are upwards firing.

That leaves the rectangular bass drivers facing forward towards the listener, with four passive radiators around the back to boost the lower frequencies.

On a sustainability note, the soundbar is designed so that it can be repaired easily. That includes being able to unscrew and replace the fret, end caps, drivers and circuit boards.

This is a rare and positive sight on a soundbar. The only other recent soundbar we can think of with a similar repair-focused design is the premium Bang & Olufsen Beosound Theatre.

Features

Each driver is powered by a dedicated Class D amplifier, giving a peak power output of 150W for the 5.1.2 bar. For comparison, the Sonos Arc Ultra has 14 drivers, 15 Class D amplifiers and a 9.1.4-channel configuration – though Sonos doesn’t quote a peak power output.

Of course, it’s not the number of drivers of amplifiers that matters – it’s what you do with them.

Unlike the Sonos Arc Ultra, the Marshall Heston 120 supports DTS:X as well as Dolby Atmos, which will be a big deal to a fairly small portion of hardcore home cinema fans.

In the music streaming department, the Marshall supports Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, plus Bluetooth 5.3, Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Airable internet radio.

There is HDMI eARC for connection to your TV, plus a dedicated HDMI input, which is something the Sonos Arc Ultra doesn’t have. The Marshall will even pass through 4K/120Hz signals, which will be music to the ears of hardcore gamers with precious few HDMI 2.1 sockets on their TVs.

The Marshall Heston 120 doesn’t come with a remote, but you can of course control volume through your TV’s remote, and there is, inevitably, a companion app.

Through this app you can control everything from volume to EQ. The app is easy to set up and provides a simple selection of menu options.

On the home page (or via the button on the top), you can switch between the Heston 120’s different EQ modes: Movie, Music, Voice and Night. It’s worth noting there’s no Standard or Direct option here.

Movie mode widens the soundstage while keeping the midrange central, whereas Music narrows the sound to make the vocals more direct.

Voice works to highlight the dialogue, and Night compresses the dynamic range and reduces bass so as not to disturb others in your household (or your neighbours, if you’re really cranking the volume).

You can fine-tune the EQ in Movie and Music, and the other modes offer the option to adjust the intensity of the setting.

Through the app you can also calibrate the soundbar to the room using its built-in microphones.

The changes in our dedicated test room are minor, but in the less ideal conditions of a typical living room, they could be more pronounced. It’s certainly worth going through the simple process to find out.

Sound

After a thorough running-in period, we begin our testing in earnest, using an array of Dolby Atmos movies that include Civil War, Blade Runner 2049, Dune: Part Two and more.

As you would very much expect, the soundbar is a huge improvement on the sound you get from a TV, with far greater weight, body and spaciousness. It’s not, however, in the same league as the very best soundbars in this class, particularly the Sonos Arc Ultra with which we compare it.

That isn’t to say that this Marshall doesn’t have some strengths. The clarity and detail with which it delivers dialogue are impressive indeed. No matter how intense and wild the action becomes during the climactic battle of Civil War, the Heston 120 ensures that the characters’ voices emerge clearly.

There’s decent low-level dynamic subtlety, too, which ensures that these voices also retain their intended emotional resonance.

Broadly speaking, there’s good tonal balance and cohesiveness here, with the treble, midrange and bass merging fluidly.

But there are issues, too. The treble can be provoked into brightness that irritates the ears, and there’s a sibilance that draws out the ‘s’ sound in voices, most notably Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha in Dune: Part 2.

And while the Heston 120 produces plenty of bass, it doesn’t extend as deeply as we would like and doesn’t have the tonal flexibility of the best. There’s rhythm to the bass notes, but not a lot of nuance.

The bigger issue, though, is that the Marshall Heston 120 isn’t particularly engaging to listen to. There are two main reasons for this: a lack of dynamics and a lack of punch.

As we said, low-level dynamics are decent, but bigger shifts in volume are poorly handled. Just when we’re expecting a big, dramatic shift – a sandworm bursting through the dunes, for example – we’re left disappointed by the flatness of the Marshall’s delivery.

It’s a soundbar that is capable of going quite loud, but it doesn’t seem either willing or able to produce the volume changes necessary to deliver real drama. In fact, we even wondered if Night mode had been activated inadvertently (it hadn’t).

And while the soundbar is relatively rhythmic, there’s a lack of solidity to the leading edge of notes, so effects that should be exciting and impactful (the gunfire and explosions in Civil War, for example) end up sounding a bit soft and limp.

The final flaw in the Marshall soundbar’s performance is its underwhelming Dolby Atmos delivery.

The Atmos sound stretches beyond the extremes of the partnering TV, of course, but not very far. The whole presentation is confined to the far wall of the room, not stretching out towards the listening position, let alone above it.

This gives the whole presentation a rather distant feel, and while truly room-filling sound is almost impossible to get from a solo soundbar, rivals such as the Sonos Arc Ultra have a much better stab at it – and make the Marshall sound very confined in comparison.

As a helicopter hovers above the main characters, it should sound as if it’s directly above the listener. From the Marshall, it sounds as if it’s hovering just three or four feet above the top edge of the TV.

Does the Marshall Heston 120 perform better with music? Not particularly.

Despite the change in preset from Movie to Music, the same broad traits remain, and everything we play, including Hammer by Lorde, Trials Of The Past by SBTRKT and Invincible by Tool, suffers from the soundbar’s lack of dynamic expression and definition.

Like the dialogue in movies, the vocals in music are presented with good clarity and detail. Unfortunately, they’re left sounding separate from the rest of the track, with the instrumentation pushed to the background, where it sounds rather cluttered and soft.

Verdict

The Marshall Heston 120 is certainly an improvement on any TV’s speakers, producing a weighty sound and clear dialogue. That’s really the very least we expect from a soundbar, though, particularly one in this price range.

Ultimately, the Heston 120 commits one of the cardinal sins of home audio – it sounds lifeless.

A lack of dynamics and punch means those big movie moments sound flat and soft, and the disappointing Dolby Atmos doesn’t surround you in sound the way the best soundbars do.

The unique design is nice and will draw the eye of many a musician, but there are much better soundbars available for the same money.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 5
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our Sonos Arc Ultra review

Also consider the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we've tested and recommend

The five-star Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max has been our favourite premium soundbar since we tested it back in 2019, when it earned a What Hi-Fi? Award for its overall excellent performance. Fast forward to 2025, and it has remained on that esteemed list ever since.

However a new player has entered the scene that could well trump the Sennheiser – and anyone familiar with the world of hi-fi should recognise the name.

The KEF XIO directly challenges our long-time favourite with a similar specification sheet in a smaller package. Can the Ambeo Soundbar Max hold its own against this newcomer? Let's find out.

KEF XIO vs Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max: price

The XIO launched at £1999 / $2500 / AU$3600. It is still early days for the product, but we are hoping to see its price drop during sales events such as Black Friday.

Higher up the price ladder is the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max which was first released at £2199 / $2500 / AU$4000.

Since its launch, we have seen that price drop to as low as £1549 in the occasional sale. It is now regularly available for £1999 in the UK, placing it in direct competition with the KEF.

**Winner: draw**

KEF XIO vs Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max: build

Both soundbars take very different approaches when it comes to their design.

The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max is quite the beast, weighing in at 18.5kg. The brand has opted for this beefy build to negate the need for an external subwoofer, instead favouring large drivers capable of covering a far more significant portion of the frequency range.

Because of its size, the Ambeo will inevitably block a few inches of the bottom of your TV screen if placed in front (unless you raise your telly of course), so it is best enjoyed wall-mounted. It's worth considering if this is something you think would work for you, and finding the perfect positioning can be a bit of a tricky task.

Still, once it is set up, the soundbar is quite straightforward to use. It has a screen display on the front of the 'bar, which is handy for knowing at a glance what EQ mode has been selected.

The KEF comes in a sleeker package with relatively compact dimensions. You can wall-mount the soundbar or keep it flat on a table, so it is rather more flexible than the Sennheiser.

The differences continue under the hood. With the XIO, there are six Uni-Q MX drivers, three of which are on the top of the soundbar for upward-firing sound when the 'bar is placed on a stand under the TV, but with the central unit unemployed in that orientation. The rest are facing forward.

When the soundbar is wall mounted, though, it intelligently deciphers which position it has been placed in and redesignates the drivers. So what were the upward-firing drivers now take on the role of the left and right channels, with the previously unused middle unit taking on the vital centre-channel role.

There's no display with the XIO, which can make it difficult to tell what setting has been selected. Overall, though, the KEF's sleeker design and enhanced flexibility when it comes to placement mean it beats the Sennheiser in this category.

**Winner: KEF XIO**

KEF XIO vs Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max: features

One negative of the KEF XIO when it comes to physical connections is that it does not have an HDMI passthrough, instead including only HDMI eARC and optical.

The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max boasts three HDMI 2.0 inputs and one HDMI 2.1 port, which supports eARC, meaning it can handle Dolby Atmos in its lossless True HD format.

While these ports aren't capable of delivering next-gen gaming features such as VRR and ALLM, they can pass through signals from external sources in 4K HDR, including Dolby Vision.

That's a big positive for those looking to wire up all their connections through the soundbar instead of the TV.

Both models have an app to customise your listening experience and have Bluetooth connectivity. The XIO uses the KEF Connect app, where you can calibrate the soundbar to the room, switch to different EQ sound profiles and use the various streaming services.

The Sennheiser Smart Control app also offers "a dizzying number of sound personalisation options", as we say in our review. When we tested it, we did find that the Smart Control app was a bit clunky to navigate.

It also includes a microphone in the box, which allows for a simple automatic room calibration setup – something the KEF does not feature.

All the big hitters in audio format support are included with both 'bars, including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Sony 360 Audio.

The same can be said in terms of music streaming support, although there are a few differences here. Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast are available on the Ambeo but not the XIO.

Both soundbars also support Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. KEF's model does, however, offer more options with Deezer, Qobuz and Amazon Music all on the cards.

The lack of physical connections on the XIO here means that the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max must take the crown for features.

*Winner: Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max**

KEF XIO vs Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max: sound

Now for the main event. When we tested the Sennheiser model, we were immediately blown away by its floor-shaking bass yet overall balanced sonic performance.

While watching Unbroken, for example, we find that the Ambeo provides a "brilliant, focused build up as the plane approaches, then a huge, room-filling zoom as it flies by."

The quality of dialogue is not sacrificed, either. Voices feel natural and weighty, with the bass frequencies helping to flesh them out.

With the XIO, we get a more transparent listening experience, as each frequency is clear and unconfused. It does not reach the same weight of bass as the Sennheiser, but we find during testing that this is not so much of a problem.

We comment in our review: "The KEF counters with more clarity, greater precision in the way sounds are rendered and notably more finesse in the way low-level dynamics are delivered. It’s the more transparent performer, and it ultimately gives us greater insight into the soundtrack being played."

Moving on to their performance with music, the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max manages to portray a coherent and warm sound. When listening to The Two of Us by The Beatles through Tidal, we say it is not the "snappiest speaker we have heard" but does still manage a "rhythmically astute" performance.

The XIO, on the other hand, impresses us just as much with music as it does with films. KEF's entry captures the excitement of the music more than the Sennheiser, with a brilliant musicality.

In fact, we say that it can "easily serve as a standalone music system, which is more than we can say for the vast majority of soundbars that come our way."

Because of the XIO's excellently expressive performance and coherent meld of frequencies, it's a no-brainer for this category.

**Winner: KEF XIO**

KEF XIO vs Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max: verdict

Even though these soundbars will cost you the same price now, there are quite a few differences in terms of the audio quality they offer.

Where the Sennheiser is a brilliant performer with a bass-heavy but overall balanced sound, the KEF XIO provides such an easy listening-experience as both a home cinema and a standalone music system.

The XIO's lack of physical connections may be a drawback, but it more than makes up for it with its compact design and overall sound quality.

**Overall winner: KEF XIO**

MORE:

Read the full review of the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max

And here's our in-depth look at the KEF XIO

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars right now

I spent a considerable amount of time listening to KEF’s first-ever soundbar, the XIO, this past month.

The 5.1.2 single soundbar is quite the proposition on paper, boasting Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive surround sound support, a relatively compact design (at least compared to soundbars of similar ambition that come with separate subwoofers and/or satellite speakers), and a comprehensive companion app that acts as a gateway to plenty of streaming connections, including Amazon Music, Qobuz, Tidal Connect, Deezer and Spotify Connect.

There’s a lot to like under the hood as well. KEF’s trademark Uni-Q drivers – a staple of the company's stereo speakers – are present, albeit perhaps not in the form you are familiar with, where a tweeter and mid/bass fit into a single assembly.

The Uni-Q MX drivers in the XIO – three forward-facing and two upwards-firing – instead have a dual diaphragm arrangement that features a mechanical crossover to allow the high-frequency central section to operate separately.

But what did I learn about KEF's debut 'bar throughout my days of testing it alongside my colleagues? Well, ultimately – and excuse the spoiler for those who have yet to read our full KEF XIO review – that it is a huge success, so much so that it has overtaken the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max as the best high-end model in our best soundbars buying guide.

It also has trumped the Sennheiser as the best premium model in our best Dolby Atmos soundbars page.

That said, it isn't perfect. Here are three areas in which the XIO stands out, and a couple of things that me and my colleagues aren’t as keen on.

Like: exciting yet precise sound

'Exciting' and 'precise': two words that can rarely be confidently used when describing a soundbar's sound. But the XIO is not your average ‘bar in terms of sonic performance.

KEF has clearly put a lot of effort into ensuring its debut soundbar is tough competition for its rivals, producing an overall sound that is thrilling yet balanced.

When watching John Wick 2 on 4K Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos during testing, for example, we noted in our review: “The deep revving of engines feels textured with the rhythm of the vehicle throbbing, but it does not overpower the lighter soundtrack.

“One car leaps over a bump in the distance and then moves into the forefront, displaying the soundbar’s sense of precision. You can really feel the three-dimensionality of the sequence as the vehicle moves across the screen.”

Like: clear and tight bass

Moving on to the XIO’s performance with lower frequencies, we are not disappointed here either.

This is partly down to the four ‘P185’ bass drivers housed within the soundbar.

The P185 is a rectangular design, 51 x 180mm in size. KEF claims that each of these has the same radiating area as a traditional circular 10cm driver unit, but that the rectangular shape allows the soundbar chassis to be considerably slimmer than would otherwise be the case.

Directly comparing the KEF model to the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max, we find that both soundbars take very different approaches to the bass.

While the Sennheiser better succeeds in spreading the sound around the room and providing a better floor-shaking bass than the XIO, the KEF “counters with more clarity, greater precision in the way sounds are rendered and notably more finesse in the way low-level dynamics are delivered," to quote our review.

Despite the XIO not having the biggest bass sound in this product category, then, we find it is the best all-round bass performer we have seen so far at this price point.

Dislike: no HDMI passthrough

This may not seem like a big deal considering the huge array of streaming capabilities the XIO offers, but the absence of HDMI passthrough could be a drawback for many.

In terms of connectivity, the XIO features one HDMI 2.1 eARC socket, one optical connection and Bluetooth. This is a common offering in the budget-to-mid-market soundbars that pass through our test rooms, so it comes as a surprise not to see a more generous spread on the XIO's rear panel.

Having more HDMI 2.1 inputs or 4k/120Hz passthrough would allow users to connect their sources – their games console, Blu-ray player and/or set-top box – to the soundbar rather than the TV, with simply one cable then going from the bar to the telly.

If KEF decides to produce a second model down the line, we hope more HDMI connections will be on the menu.

Like: amazing music performance

It's not a given that a soundbar is as good with music as it is with movies, so it came as a pleasant surprise that the XIO delivers excellent musical expression.

With Music mode activated, the delivery is more direct but still just as compelling. Each frequency feels distinct and crisp on its own, while still coming together into one overall cohesive presentation.

When listening to Radiohead’s Codex, for example, we found during testing that “the mellow bass feels well separated from the midrange but still melds together well”.

We added that “vocals sound natural, but the slightly echoing effect baked into the track is still picked out”.

Indeed, the XIO stands out in the soundbar realm for being a capable music system too.

Dislike: no display

While the XIO’s look is pleasing overall with its flat and compact dimensions, we were disappointed to find there is no display on the soundbar itself.

This would not be as big an issue if the buttons on the ‘bar were a little more tactile and you could therefore be more assured that the product has received a command. But the buttons blend in with the chassis, making it a little fiddly.

On the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max, for example, there is a small text display that visualises which EQ mode is activated or what the volume has changed to.

While not a deal-breaker by any means, it is a user-friendly feature that makes the setup process that bit easier.

MORE:

Check out the full KEF XIO review

And here's our review of the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we recommend

Amazon Prime Day has delivered countless soundbar deals, including the Sonos Arc at its best-ever price, but what if you're after a complete surround sound system with surround speakers and a subwoofer included?

We have just reviewed the Samsung HW-Q990F, awarding it five stars last week during our Home Cinema Week event. However, there is already a major deal on Amazon that means you can save over £550.

Now available for £1134 at Amazon, the Q990F originally launched for £1699, which means you're saving a grand total of £565 – not bad at all.

We awarded the HW-Q990F five stars at its full price of £1699, but you won't need to spend that in order to pick up this hugely talented Dolby Atmos soundbar system. Despite the fact that it's been on the market for just a few short months, there is already a deal that knocks it down to just £1134.

So what exactly do we like about the Q990F? It retains much of what we liked about its predecessor, the Q990D, such as its clear, dynamic and detailed sound. It delivers a convincing surround sound effect, with excellent tonal balance and consistency between the 'bar and surround speakers, and height effects are very well presented.

What really makes this new soundbar package shine is the redesigned subwoofer. It's much smaller than the old model, with dual 8-inch drivers which act in a force-cancelling arrangement. This 300W sub pumps out surprisingly meaty and deep bass, with excellent tonal variety and reduced distortion, which makes the system more engaging and cinematic as a result.

It also carries a very well-stocked feature set, with DTS:X audio, HDMI 2.1 passthrough with 4K/120Hz gaming and Dolby Vision HDR support, and countless sound modes including SpaceFit Pro, which adapts the sound to best suit your room and speaker placement.

With £565 off at Amazon, this five-star system is a sure-fire way to bring true cinematic sound into your home at a major saving.

MORE:

Find the best TV and home cinema Prime Day deals live here

Find more home cinema deals on Amazon this Prime Day

More great TV deals to be had at Richer Sounds

Sevenoaks Sound & Vision is home to some home cinema bargains right now

After decades at the forefront of the speaker game, KEF has just launched its first soundbar, called XIO.

• Read our KEF XIO review

The British brand says it is the “KEF signature hi-fi system in a soundbar, delivering a transcendent cinematic sound experience”.

The KEF XIO boasts a 5.1.2-channel configuration and houses 12 Class-D amplifiers.

The drivers include six Uni-Q MX drivers, two of which are on the top of the soundbar for upward-firing sound.

On top of that, there are four P185 LF bass drivers that feature a technology named ‘P Flex’, which is an indented surround that allows the cone to retract and detract more. Then there are two conventional full-range drivers.

In terms of connectivity, the XIO has HDMI 2.1 eARC, Optical and Bluetooth.

An RCA output is also available so you can connect a standard wired subwoofer, and KEF has also launched the KW2 RX transmitter (£149 / £160 / AU$280), which allows any subwoofer (though it's neatest with KEF's own models) to be connected wirelessly.

The XIO supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, as well as MPEG-H, with specific compatibility with Sony 360 Reality Audio.

It’s available in two finishes: black or silver.

The KEF XIO costs £1999 / $2500 / AU$3600, pitting it firmly against the Award-winning Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max. While the Sennheiser launched at £2199 / $2500 / AU$4000, we have seen it drop down to £1999 / $1999 although the Australian price has remained mostly unchanged.

Although the XIO has only launched today, we have already had it in our test rooms for three weeks, and our review is now live. In short, it's superb, but you should check out the full KEF XIO review for all of the juicy details.

MORE:

These are the best soundbars we recommend

Check out our review of the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we have tested

KEF was one of the first specialist hi-fi manufacturers to get into home cinema speaker packages back in the early nineties, and it has continued to operate in the market since then.

It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the brand is only now releasing its first soundbar.

Enter the KEF XIO, a 5.1.2 premium soundbar that the company says is designed to excel with music as well as movies.

This is a tough ask considering most soundbars struggle to achieve this duality. KEF is equipped to do this better than most, though, given its expertise in both fields.

Price

The XIO launches at £1999 / $2500 / AU$3600, placing it firmly in the high-end premium soundbar category.

That pits it firmly against the Award-winning Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max, which was originally priced at £2199 / $2500 / AU$4000 when we first tested it back in 2019. Now, though, we are seeing regular discounts down to £1999 / $1999, although the Australian price has remained mostly unchanged.

The Sennheiser currently holds the crown as the best high-end model in our best soundbars guide, and is our current benchmark at this price.

Build

The XIO comes in a choice of two finishes, black or silver, with cloth grille panels covering the ends, front and back.

Unlike its Sennheiser rival, which has a bulky design that really needs to be wall-mounted, the XIO (which can also be wall-mounted) fits nicely under a TV with its shallow height. It has an overall mature and premium appearance, too, which we think will blend well into most living rooms.

This relatively thin design is quite a feat considering the XIO houses an impressive 12 drive units, each with a dedicated Class D power amplifier. Added together, KEF claims the complement of amplifiers delivers a meaty 820 watts of peak power.

There are six Uni-Q MX drivers, three of which are on the top of the soundbar for upward-firing sound, but with the one in the centre employed only when the soundbar is wall-mounted. That leaves the remaining three facing forward.

The MX isn’t like a traditional Uni-Q design. Rather than having two separate drive units, a tweeter and mid/bass, that fit into a single assembly, this new MX driver has a dual diaphragm arrangement that features a clever mechanical crossover to allow the high-frequency central section to operate separately.

Then there are four ‘P185’ bass drivers. The P185 is a rectangular design that is 51 x 180mm in size. KEF claims that each of these has the same radiating area as a traditional circular 10cm driver unit, but the rectangular shape allows the soundbar to be considerably slimmer than would otherwise be the case.

That’s not all. KEF has arranged the four P185 drivers into two pairs that face in opposite directions, so that any vibrations generated by each driver are cancelled by the opposite reaction of its partner. This layout should result in appreciably less vibration being generated by the soundbar and fed into its support, which bodes well for the XIO’s bass performance.

The P185 is an interesting design for more than its shape. It has a distinctive indented surround that KEF calls ‘P Flex’ to allow the cone greater freedom of movement and control.

Perhaps even more unusual is the Velocity Control Technology (VECO) built into the drive unit. Here, a flexible PCB printed with a sensing coil takes the place of a traditional former (the component that the main coil wraps around) and measures the speed of movement. This allows the soundbar’s ‘brain’ to compensate for any errors detected.

Finally, there are two conventional full-range drivers on either side. Given that they are only 50mm in diameter, maybe ‘full range’ is pushing it, but what they do is push the soundfield wider.

You can wall-mount the soundbar or keep it flat on a table. When it is wall-mounted, the orientation changes so the forward-facing drivers now point upwards. In this guise, what was the central driver is now activated and pointed at the listener. The bulk of our testing was done with the soundbar facing forward sitting on our rack.

On one side of the XIO, you will find a panel with indented touch buttons for power, output and volume. Sometimes these are not as precise in use as we would like. When we press a button, it is not entirely clear whether the unit has registered the command. If we had an on-unit display, this would be less of an issue.

The XIO comes with a lightweight remote that is simple to use with a clear layout. While the remote covers the basic commands, the KEF Connect app has a more comprehensive range of controls, which we suspect most people will lean towards.

Features

In terms of inputs, the XIO has HDMI 2.1 eARC, optical and Bluetooth.

It is also possible to connect an outboard subwoofer either through a standard line-level analogue output or via wireless transmission. Alongside the XIO, KEF has launched the KW2 RX adapter (costing £149 / £160 / AU$280) to allow this wireless sub connection.

At this level, we really expect a soundbar to have dedicated HDMI inputs as well as an HDMI eARC port. The XIO’s main rival, the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max, has three HDMI inputs. Largely due to its age, they're not 2.1 spec, so won't support 4K/120Hz from a games console, but they are still useful.

The Samsung HW-Q990F, which is more affordable than the KEF XIO and a full system in a box to boot, has two HDMI 2.1 inputs and full 4K/120Hz passthrough.

With these extra HDMI inputs, you can connect everything to your soundbar rather than going through the TV. KEF's approach in having all of your sources running into your TV is far from uncommon, but is something we expect more from mid-range and budget models.

In terms of 3D sound formats, the XIO supports Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Sony 360 Reality Audio, and when it comes to music, there’s plenty to choose from, including Amazon Music, Qobuz, Tidal Connect, Deezer and Spotify Connect.

The KEF Connect app is simple to set up and use, with easy-to-navigate sections at the bottom. From there, you can select the XIO’s output, see the exact volume setting, and control all the streaming services.

There is also the useful ability to change the speaker volume sensitivity. You can make one press of the plus button increase the volume by multiple or single steps, for example. There’s the option to set a maximum volume limit as well, which is handy for young and sensitive ears.

In the KEF’s EQ settings, there are different sound profiles to choose from. Default has a great sense of balance and naturalness. Movie, on the other hand, projects the audio to fill the room, giving a more spacious sound field and a greater feeling of movement to sounds. However, there are losses in terms of focus and impact at lower frequencies. This leads us to use Default more often.

As you would expect, there is a Night mode that compresses dynamic peaks and bass impact, which is handy for those times when you don’t want to disturb the other people in the house. Understandably, it also removes much of the tension from the sound, and voices sound less natural than in Default or Movie, so it should only be used when it’s really needed.

Music mode, meanwhile, creates a more cohesive and directed sound that is, as the name suggests, best reserved for stereo music.

Finally, there’s a Direct setting with minimal processing and equalisation. This mode is noticeably quieter and reduces the impact of the surround effects. While we’re normally fans of such ‘pure’ sound modes, on this occasion we find the sonic performance loses too much in the way of entertainment.

The XIO also features ‘Intelligent Placement Technology.’ This allows the soundbar to detect if the orientation changes, and you can calibrate it to further adjust its performance based on the space.

Built-in microphones allow it to measure your room, including being able to detect walls and furniture.

Once it’s set up, it produces balanced results in our test room. Turn the EQ modes off, and the sense of immersion is much reduced.

Sound

We begin our full sound testing with Jurassic World on 4K Blu-ray with DTS:X sound.

As the unwitting children get a first glimpse of the park, the expressiveness of the score is immediately portrayed with a pleasing musicality. The sparkle of the brass feels crisp but not sharp, while the midrange is full-bodied and solid.

We move to later in the film, where things have turned south and our protagonists are being chased by hyper-intelligent raptors. The tension of the pursuit is really heightened by a tight bass with plenty of punch.

As the raptors run after a moving truck, the pounding of their feet on the ground has the right balance of being muffled yet impactful.

Despite the XIO’s slim and relatively compact dimensions, it still manages to produce an impressively wide and immersive soundstage.

When watching Labyrinth on 4K Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos, this becomes apparent. As our protagonist, Sarah, is stuck in the Bog of Eternal Stench and attempts to escape, the sound of the rocks rising surrounds the listener and makes the impact feel palpable as they come to the surface.

The XIO’s ability to spread sound around the space feels incredibly natural, all while keeping each frequency clear and unmuddled.

Take the opening scene of John Wick 2 on 4K Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos, as Keanu Reeves’ rugged character embarks on a hair-raising car chase. The deep revving of engines feels textured with the rhythm of the vehicle throbbing, but it does not overpower the lighter soundtrack.

One car leaps over a bump in the distance and then moves into the forefront, displaying the soundbar’s sense of precision. You can really feel the three-dimensionality of the sequence as the vehicle moves across the screen.

We test the XIO against the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max and find that the two have very distinct strengths and weaknesses.

The Sennheiser certainly has a bassier and bigger overall sound, managing to spread the audio around the room more. As objects move across the screen, it is able to project the movement of the sound in a more emphatic way, wrapping us in the sound field a little more convincingly.

But the KEF counters with more clarity, greater precision in the way sounds are rendered and notably more finesse in the way low-level dynamics are delivered. It’s the more transparent performer, and it ultimately gives us greater insight into the soundtrack being played.

The XIO certainly produces less bass than its rival, but those lows are better formed and more controlled. If you do want greater low-end heft, however, then there is always the option of adding a dedicated subwoofer.

When we switch to Music mode to test out some tunes, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect work seamlessly.

With Radiohead’s Codex, the mellow bass feels well separated from the midrange but still melds together well. Vocals sound natural, but the slightly echoing effect baked into the track is still picked out.

In fact, the XIO can easily serve as a standalone music system, which is more than we can say for the vast majority of soundbars that come our way.

Overall, this is an effortlessly organised sound that captures the excitement of what you are listening to, whether that’s movies or music.

Verdict

The XIO is supremely easy to listen to, creating an impressively wide sense of space for a soundbar while maintaining balance and expressiveness.

With a comprehensive app and plenty of streaming connectivity, it also works as an excellent sound system for music alone.

KEF says that it wants the soundbar to effectively act as a hi-fi package wrapped up in one product, and it has achieved that. Put simply, it is one of the best soundbars we have heard.

SCORES:

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Also consider the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max and Samsung HW-Q990F

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy right now

Home cinema speaker systems are our preferred method of achieving immersive cinematic sound. We’re willing to admit, though, that they are, frankly speaking, a bit of a hassle to set up and live with.

We wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to traipse cables around their living room, or have floorstanding speakers take up precious space – so what’s the alternative?

The wireless soundbar surround-sound system, of course! This genre of easy-to-use sound systems has been steadily growing in popularity, with more and more manufacturers adding wireless surround speakers and a subwoofer to their Dolby Atmos soundbars.

When it comes to nailing the concept, we have to give Samsung some kudos, as last year’s HW-Q990D was an absolute doozy. This all-in-one surround sound solution skyrocketed its way into the Product of the Year slot, as it delivered grade-A audio performance in an easy-to-use, fuss-free package.

So, when the Korean tech goliath announced the newest version of this neat concept, we were immediately intrigued. Enter the HW-Q990F, a soundbar package that, on the surface, doesn’t look a whole lot different from its predecessor.

In fact, the spotlight seems to be placed mostly on an adorable new subwoofer, but don’t be fooled by its cute cubic chassis, as it packs an almighty punch that takes this already superb soundbar system into a whole new league.

Price

The Samsung HW-Q990F is officially priced at £1699 / $1999 / AU$1999. That’s the same price as its predecessor in the UK and Australia, though the US has been subjected to a $400 price increase.

That being said, we’re already seeing discounts that bring it down to $1600. That’s still $200 more than its predecessor’s launch price in the States, but it's a start.

Therein lies a wider issue; the HW-Q990D is still available at a wide selection of retailers, and it can be snapped up for around half the price of the new model.

The good news is that the 2024 model has seen some truly aggressive discounts throughout its lifespan, so we expect to see some equally good deals eventually come to the HW-Q990F.

Largely speaking, Samsung is its own biggest competitor in this sector, as LG’s equivalent package scored an underwhelming three stars in our review, so we can’t really recommend it as an alternative.

There is the Sonos Arc Ultra Immersive Set, which combines the power of the Sonos Arc Ultra (five stars) with a pair of Era 300 speakers (Award-winners), but you’re looking at £2969 / $2969 / AU$4596 for that package – and even more if you also want to add a sub.

Build

If there is one area where we’d like to see Samsung change things up with this concept, it's the design. Most of the elements of the Q990F package look very similar to the Q990D, which in turn looked very similar to the Q990C.

The bar itself is an angular hexagonal shape measuring 7 x 123 x 14cm (hwd), with a lined pattern running the length of the top panel. You’ll find a selection of buttons on top to change source, mute the onboard microphones and adjust the volume, with a simplistic dot matrix display on the front displaying corresponding information.

Samsung bundles a simplistic remote with functions to change the input, sound mode and EQ for the system, as well as adjusting the subwoofer level and enabling or disabling the SpaceFit Sound feature.

The surround speakers are also the same boxy, angular design as found with the 2024 model, including the handy cable guide on the bottom edge. They also carry identical dimensions to the 2024 versions, measuring 20 x 13 x 14cm.

Where this version truly differs from its predecessor is with the included subwoofer. Samsung has swapped from a tall, narrow cuboid sub to a much more compact, rounded-cube subwoofer. Side by side, the old subwoofer absolutely dwarfs the new model, with its dimensions of 25 x 25 x 25cm (hwd).

Features

We can’t really find fault with the HW-Q990F’s feature set. It’s an 11.1.4 system with 23 drivers across the bar, surrounds and sub. That’s 15 drivers in the main soundbar, three drivers in each of the surround-sound units, and dual 20cm force-cancelling drivers in the subwoofer, which features a claimed 300W power output.

The soundbar and surrounds feature upward-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos height effects (DTS:X is also supported). Samsung recommends placing the rear surround speakers at a 135-150-degree angle behind the listening position, though the system will compensate if you opt to place them in a different position.

Interestingly, the Smart Things app, which can be used to control a variety of functions on the soundbar, has an option to reconfigure the system with the surround speakers at the front to work in tandem with the soundbar. We strongly recommend placing them in the intended rear position for the best surround-sound experience, though.

Speaking of the Smart Things app, we deem it to be a solid, and in many cases, the preferred method of interacting with the bar. The included remote has plenty of useful buttons, including a dedicated rocker to increase or decrease the subwoofer level, but the simplistic dot matrix display on the front of the soundbar is often hard to interpret.

The wireless surrounds and subwoofer connect to the bar seamlessly with an easy pairing process, and once they’re in position, you shouldn’t need to adjust anything. Samsung kindly provides different-length cables in the box, despite all components of the system using the same connection for power. It’s worth saving the longest leads for the surround speakers as this allows for greater flexibility during set-up.

Samsung has, unsurprisingly, imbued the Q990F with a hearty helping of its proprietary functions and technology.

SpaceFit Sound Pro returns, which utilises the built-in microphones to constantly monitor and adjust the soundbar and subwoofer to accommodate your viewing space. It’s an optional feature, but we find it to work rather well and see no reason not to switch it on.

Q Symphony is also on board, allowing Samsung TV users to utilise the speakers in their TV alongside the soundbar system, using the power of AI to synchronise the sound. Your mileage with this feature will vary depending on the Samsung TV you pair it with, though we often find that the different drivers within the TV don’t always gel well with the rest of the system; especially considering that the Q990F features excellent tonal balance between its components (more on this later).

There are a handful of Samsung-specific sound processing modes too, many of which can also be found on Samsung TVs – who doesn’t love a bit of synergy? Active Voice Amplifier Pro, which is an AI-backed dialogue enhancement sound mode that can adapt to ambient noise levels in your viewing space, is on board.

Private Listening mode, on the other hand, disables the soundbar and subwoofer and instead relies on the surround speakers to direct sound to your specific listening position. This is an interesting alternative to the sort of Night mode that is found on many sound systems.

There is also a Moderate Bass setting, which disables the subwoofer to allow the soundbar to handle lower frequencies, and a Party mode, which synchronises the rear speakers to play music in all directions.

On top of these are a handful of other sound modes, including Standard, Surround, Game and Adaptive. The last of these will automatically adjust the sound based on the content you’re watching, whereas the Standard option will output the audio channels carried by the original signal.

This is, of course, restricted to anywhere between 2.0 to 7.1.4, meaning the system will never utilise the full 11.1.4 channels that the system is capable of. Instead, the named sound modes above will use processing to upmix signals into the full 11.1.4 output.

Alongside Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, this is the first soundbar in Samsung's range to support Eclipsa Audio. Samsung partnered with Google to develop this open-source immersive audio format as an alternative to Atmos, though it can only be accessed via YouTube currently, with no current plans to extend this to films or TV shows via the mainstream services that we are aware of.

Finally, we have the connectivity features of the HW-Q990F. HDMI eARC and optical ports handle audio transmission from your TV, while the additional HDMI sockets, of which there are two, serve as passthrough sockets.

Both are rated to the HDMI 2.1 standard, with support for up to 4K/120Hz signals, plus HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.

Wireless connectivity is also stellar, with Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Amazon Music and Deezer, and it's even Roon compatible.

Alongside the music services, the HW-Q990F is also compatible with a duo of voice assistants, with Amazon Alexa built in and Works with Google Assistant certification.

Sound

It takes a moment to decipher the upgrades that the Q990F delivers over its predecessor. However, once we become attuned to the new system, we realise that Samsung has taken a spectacular soundbar package and turned it into an exemplary one.

We’ve paired the system with our reference Sony Bravia 8 OLED TV, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, and a handful of our reference discs, including Civil War, Dune: Part Two, Blade Runner 2049 and The Dark Knight Rises.

We set up this system in the same way we did its predecessor, opting for the Surround mode with SpaceFit Pro on.

Adaptive is also a good option for those who appreciate a punchier and more assertive sound. However, we feel that it makes certain sound effects stick out in an unnatural way. That being said, it's a close second to Surround, and we especially like that it can, as the name suggests, adapt to different types of content.

We’ll start with the positives that translate from last year’s model. The Q990F retains its clear and crisp sound. Dialogue, such as the conversation between Officer K and Joi in the former’s apartment, sounds excellent, with natural and detailed voices that carry plenty of subtle inflection. This carries forth to sound effects, with the slashing Fremen knives in Dune sounding crisp and textured.

Furthermore, we have to commend the Q990F’s delivery of Dolby Atmos effects. The “bubble of sound” that we look for in any Dolby Atmos system is well and truly present here, and it’s not just the impressively placed height effects that we like. It's the way that the soundbar and surrounds are so tonally well matched, while the audio processing ensures that sounds move organically between the channels, that truly seals the deal for us.

The disembodied voices that narrate the hologram adverts outside K’s apartment in Blade Runner are at an appropriate height and are placed relative to their position on screen with impressive accuracy. It’s not miles apart from the Q990D, but the Q990F’s handling of Dolby Atmos is certainly an improvement on an already very capable product.

We try a non-Atmos movie in the form of The Dark Knight Rises, using the plane heist sequence from the beginning of the film. The HW-Q990F once again has no issue delivering a convincing surround-sound experience, and while the height effects are missing, we still hear plenty of effects being passed from the ’bar to the surrounds in the ensuing chaos.

Another familiar area that the Q990F excels in is dynamics. The pulse-pounding battle sequence in the final third of Civil War features dynamic build-ups with punchy and weighty payoffs, while immediate dynamic shifts, such as sudden gunshots, are impactful too.

Subtle improvements in areas we already approved of with its predecessor are one thing; however, the Q990F has an ace up its sleeve in the form of its new subwoofer. To cut a long story short, it is incredibly effective, and it elevates the system as a whole.

We run our bass stress test, Blade Runner 2049’s chapter two sequence, which includes the notoriously tricky Flight To The LAPD track. The crackle and occasionally unfocused low-end that we observed on the Q990D’s subwoofer is nowhere to be heard. Instead, the Q990F’s rich and powerful bass sounds are controlled and dynamic, as we gain a sense of mounting tension as K approaches the police precinct.

There is a much greater sense of tonal variation from this sub, which unearths a new layer to the bass. The Q990F’s bass feels more organic, balanced, and seamlessly integrated into the system as a result.

Dune: Part Two’s Harkonnen Arena sequence has a range of bass-heavy alien chanting and a bone-rattling score, and we are immediately immersed thanks to the Q990F’s encompassing sound and rich, textured bass.

Switching to music, we put the bar into the Standard sound mode for some two-channel testing, though we should mention that the subwoofer is still activated in this setting.

Aurora’s Churchyard and Wolf Alice’s Bloom, Baby Bloom (via Tidal Connect) are both presented with a clear-cut sense of timing and rhythmic drive, more so than the previous model. Vocals sound clear and emotive, while instruments have depth and texture.

Our music testing ultimately affirms the positive attributes that we discovered with our movie testing.

Verdict

This is how to take a product that was already highly regarded and make it even better. Samsung’s upgrades didn’t appear to be that striking on paper, but the HW-Q990F’s enhancements need to be heard to be believed.

Once again, this system should be on the radar for anyone who wants a full Dolby Atmos experience without having to buy an AVR or finding the space to place countless speakers around your room.

The compact new cube subwoofer is easily the star of the show, offering a richer, more focused sound with greater tonal variation. Who knew shrinking down a core component of your system could deliver such huge performance gains?

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 4

Also Consider

FAQs

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

The best surround sound systems for anyone looking to upgrade from a soundbar

Best soundbars options for every need, recommended by our experts

When JBL announced its latest range of home cinema AVRs, there was a collective sense of excitement throughout the What Hi-Fi? AV team.

Denon has ruled the roost with very little competition for a long while now, dominating the entry-level and mid-range markets with its excellent X-series of home cinema amplifiers.

JBL’s mission is simple; the Modern Audio series is an accessible line of AVRs aimed towards those looking to dabble in home cinema audio or graduate from a soundbar. Likewise, JBL hopes to entice seasoned cinematic audiophiles, which is a tricky balance, though the five-strong lineup of amplifiers should cover most bases.

We have the MA7100HP here today, which serves as the step-down model from the flagship, and it has a promising feature list on paper, too, but the most important factor is – no surprises here – sound quality. With a small yet talented cohort of competitors in this area, the MA7100HP must excel. So, does it?

Price

The JBL MA7100HP is priced at £1399 / $1199 / AU$2055, putting it into the mid-range sector of the AVR market, where the five-star Denon AVC-X3800H looms large.

Some notable alternatives undercut the MA7100HP too, including the Sony TA-AN1000 (£999 / around $1240 / AU$1850) and Denon AVR-X2800H (£869 / $1200 / AU$2399) – both of which are now heavily discounted at many retailers. Need we also remind you that both the Sony and Denon are previous What Hi-Fi? Award winners, so the competition is piping hot.

If we’re being honest, the JBL feels a touch overpriced for our liking – especially when we take the build quality and feature set into account compared to its aforementioned peers.

Build

We’re not entirely convinced by the JBL’s build as, while it's unique compared to the fairly uninspired-looking Denon models in our test room, we wouldn’t consider it to be to our collective taste.

We’ll start with the positives; the display on the front is a really nice touch – especially when you stream music to the AVR as it shows album artwork, track listing and a 'play bar' akin to a premium music streamer. It also makes navigating the system menus a breeze, though these menus are handily mirrored on your connected TV or projector.

Furthermore, the customisable LED light strip along the bottom of the unit adds a pop of colour, and it can be disabled if you have an aversion to ambient light.

Flipping the unit around, we appreciate how straightforward the set-up is; you’ll find neatly laid-out ports that are all clearly labelled. This should make set-up very easy, even for those not au fait with home cinema receivers.

The AVR is also available in two finishes – black and white – and the cheeky nod to This Is Spinal Tap that adorns the volume knob is also a fun Easter egg.

That all being said, we find that the MA7100HP doesn’t feel particularly premium to the touch.

At 7.6kg, the JBL is much lighter than the Sony TA-AN1000 or Denon AVR-X2800H; and while that isn’t necessarily an issue, it just makes the JBL feel slightly cheap despite it costing considerably more than both of those models.

And, while the edgy orange accents might suit some people’s taste, and we certainly can’t knock JBL’s effort to create something unique that’s not just another black cuboid, it certainly won’t appeal to everyone.

Features

This home cinema receiver features seven channels of Class D amplification and two subwoofer outputs, meaning it can support up to a 7.2 surround-sound system or 5.2.2 Dolby Atmos system.

This is on par with its Sony, Denon and Arcam competitors, and means you’ll need to step up to the JBL MA9100HP if you have a larger system such as a 7.2.2 speaker package with rear surrounds and height channels. Sound format support includes all of the usual suspects, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

JBL claims 125W of power output with two channels driven, which is considerably higher than the Sony and Denon (85W and 95W, respectively), and less than the Denon AVC-X3800H’s claimed 180W power output.

There are a total of six HDMI inputs, three of which are the 2.1 standard that support 8K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz sources with VRR and ALLM. All inputs support HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, too, while the dual outputs feature HDMI eARC connectivity and Zone 2 functionality.

There is also a built-in moving magnet phono connection for hooking this AVR up to a turntable, alongside coaxial, optical and USB digital audio inputs, and RCA line-level analogue inputs. Wireless connectivity is solid, with Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast and Bluetooth with support for the aptX Adaptive codec.

JBL has also taken an unconventional and, if we’re being brutally honest, frustrating approach to room correction.

You’ll need to download the EZ EQ app, which is different from the JBL Premium Audio app that’s required to stream music and connect devices via Bluetooth.

From there, the app requires you to correct each speaker individually (front, centre and surrounds) by walking around the room with your iPhone’s microphone (tough luck if you have an Android smartphone, as you’ll need to buy an external microphone).

There’s a catch to this process, however: it doesn’t set speaker distances or levels, you’ll need to do that yourself. The Sony and Denon receivers, on the other hand, have intuitive microphone-driven auto calibration systems that handle this for you.

It’s a strange omission considering that JBL is attempting to make this a user-friendly home cinema amp. This amplifier is Dirac Live Ready, though that process is a lot more involved and incurs additional costs.

Sound

This is the make-or-break category for any home cinema receiver, so does the JBL deliver? Unfortunately, we’re not entirely convinced it does. We’ve hooked the amplifier up to our reference speaker package – the PMC Twenty5.23 package in a 7.2 configuration – and raided our 4K Blu-ray shelf for a collection of reference discs including Interstellar, Blade Runner 2049, Oppenheimer and Dune: Part Two.

There are positive aspects to the MA7100HP, namely its big and bold sound characteristics. For scenes that require sheer brawn and scale, the JBL can deliver a punchy, room-filling sound with ease, which is shown off in the rip-roaring introduction montage of Top Gun: Maverick.

It also does a solid job of tracking the positions of the fighter jets as they speed down the aircraft carrier and soar into the sky, with effects passing seamlessly between channels.

Speaking of which, the MA7100HP manages to create a harmonious balance between each channel in a convincing surround-sound effect, with no noticeable gaps between the speakers to detract from the immersive bubble of sound.

Finally, it produces a solid, weighty kick of bass when needed, with plenty of punch and heft. We’d hesitate to compliment its bass control, but if you’re after sheer low-end rumble, then this JBL is capable of delivering.

Unfortunately, that’s really where the positives end, as elsewhere the JBL just misses the mark.

There is an overall sense that the 7100HP is lacking in subtlety, as the spacious sound comes at the expense of finer sonic details.

Low-level dynamics, for instance, are a notable weakness, which leads to flat and unengaging dialogue. The strained conversation between Cooper and Brand, as they realise that the minutes they’ve spent waiting for their waterlogged engines to reboot equate to years in Earth-time in Interstellar, should be conveyed with desperation and panic – but the JBL doesn’t quite capture this.

Sticking with Interstellar, we take issue with synthetic-sounding effects – specifically the waves that lap against the hull of the Endurance space shuttle. There is a metallic quality to the water that’s accentuated when a character steps through it, causing unnatural-sounding splashes.

Furthermore, the overall sound of this AVR can be best described as mushy, with a noticeable shortcoming when it comes to definition and detail.

There is a congested nature to the audio, which means that dialogue is often lost in scenes with many competing effects. The bustling Fremen party in Dune: Part Two, during which Paul Atriedes is granted the Muad’Dib title, is a prime example, as crucial pieces of dialogue are mixed up in the general hustle and bustle of the tent.

Switching to some music in stereo, the JBL’s issues persist, with Taylor Swift’s The 1 and Bombay Bicycle Club’s Luna both sounding fine, but by no means particularly engaging or inviting.

We pair the MA7100HP with JBL's own Stage 2 loudspeakers to see if the synergy between the AVR and speakers improves the experience.

While you don’t necessarily have to pair these together, they were developed in tandem to suit each other when it comes to sound characteristics. Ultimately, though, we find the issues to persist, with scale and punch presented at the expense of subtlety and detail.

While these sonic shortcomings are certainly an issue in isolation, they become even more apparent when we put the JBL side-by-side with the Award-winning Sony TA-AN1000.

Considering the Sony costs considerably less, there is no competition when it comes to sound quality. The Sony’s expert handling of dynamics and more detailed sound seal the deal, while the comparatively expansive soundstage makes it the obvious choice.

Verdict

The JBL MA7100HP isn’t a complete write-off, thanks to its big, bold and encompassing sound. However, it's not a home cinema receiver that we can really recommend.

The sub-par detail, weak dynamics and lack of sonic subtlety hinder its true potential, and it likely won’t be enough to tempt die-hard soundbar fans to join the world of true home cinema sound.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Build 3

MORE:

Read our review of the Arcam AVR5

Also consider the Sony TA-AN1000

Read our Denon AVR-X2800H

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

JBL has announced its new Dolby Atmos soundbar series for 2025, and it's aiming to deliver some seriously powerful home cinema sound.

The American audio company has revealed a five-strong lineup of new soundbars, with "MK2" editions of its current soundbar range hitting the market immediately.

The star of the show is the new JBL Bar 1300MK2, which is a successor to the four-star wireless soundbar package that we tested last year.

JBL is calling the MK2 model the "most packed soundbar we've ever made", and it's touting its extensive experience in cinema audio systems as inspiration for this new soundbar system.

So, what's new? The Bar 1300MK2 starts strong, as it features no less than 29 drivers throughout the full package.

That includes six upward-firing drivers, plus two 8-inch woofers in a push-pull configuration subwoofer.

The system's 29 drivers deliver a total of 11 audio channels in a 7.1.4 configuration, with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

All of those drivers require ample amplification, and JBL claims to have delivered the goods with a whopping 2470W of total system power.

1200W of that comes from the subwoofer, which has been redesigned to resemble a square-ish barrel in stature.

Interestingly, it appears to be following in the footsteps of the Samsung HW-Q990F's more compact subwoofer, and it even has a similar driver configuration.

When quizzed about this, JBL – which exists under the Harman Audio umbrella that's owned by Samsung – says that there is often an "exchange of technology" within the Harman brands, but that JBL still operates separately.

Importantly, it claims that the Bar 1300MK2's new subwoofer is more powerful than the one in the Q990F, though it could share "some parts" with the Samsung system.

Moving on to the unique selling point of the Bar 1300MK2; the nifty detachable speakers return.

There's a new mechanism to make detaching the wireless surround speakers from the main chassis of the soundbar even easier, and the upgraded Bluetooth-enabled speakers have a few new tricks up their sleeves.

There's a new feature called Broadcast, which will allow users to take a surround speaker with them if they need to leave a room, turning said speaker into a multi-room audio device.

This switches the wireless speaker from just delivering surround effects to outputting the full bandwidth of the audio being played by the soundbar, to ensure you don't miss out on any of the action – perfect for those people who leave the room during a movie and say "don't pause it, I'll be right back".

These wireless surrounds can also be used as traditional Bluetooth speakers, and they even feature AuraCast, meaning they can be synced up with JBL's other wireless audio products, including the Charge 6 and Flip 7.

Speaking of JBL's other offerings, this new soundbar system is packed with proprietary JBL technology, including AI Sound Boost, which is also featured on the portable speakers listed above.

JBL promises that it's "not just slapping AI in front of a feature to appeal to users" and that it will deliver "big consumer advantages". It uses AI to analyse the sound and predict what's about to play, allowing the system to redistribute power in the process to amplify parts where the sound could otherwise be limited.

Multibeam 3.0 is also onboard, which spaces sound out on a horizontal axis to deliver a more expansive soundscape. JBL says this latest version spreads sound more evenly, and it's set to deliver a wider sound too.

Other software features include a new Night Listening mode, PureVoice 2.0, which is JBL's answer to dialogue enhancement, and SmartDetail, which will reportedly amplify softer and more subtle environmental sounds to enhance immersion.

The Bar 1300MK2 sounds completely feature-packed already, but it doesn't end there. Wi-fi streaming is on board, with support for all of the streaming platforms including Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect. Roon is also supported thanks to Harman now owning the platform.

Two HDMI passthrough sockets are also included for wired connectivity, but it hasn't yet been confirmed if these are full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets.

The soundbar can be controlled via the JBL One app, with further implementation into JBL's full audio ecosystem for multiroom playback, and you can stream music directly to the bar via the JBL One app too.

You can also pair other JBL speakers to work in tandem with the system, which is an interesting concept that we're looking forward to trying out.

Let's take a breather from that onslaught of features and discuss price, as JBL has confirmed that the Bar 1300MK2 will launch at the same £1300 launch price as its predecessor. We'll add international pricing once we have it.

The new soundbar system is launching in September of this year, when it will take on the best Dolby Atmos soundbars on the market, including the Sony Theatre Bar 9 and Sonos Arc Ultra.

Step-down Dolby Atmos soundbars aplenty

Alongside the new Bar 1300MK2, JBL has announced a full range of Atmos-ready 'bars. The Bar 300MK2, Bar 500MK2, Bar 800MK2 and Bar 1000MK2 will launch this month.

The Bar 300MK2 and Bar 500MK2 are practically the same, though the latter includes a subwoofer while the former does not. These respective 5.0 and 5.1 channel options deliver virtualised Dolby Atmos and include support for Multibeam 3.0, PureVoice 2.0 and SmartDetail.

Stepping up to the Bar 800MK2, we're introduced to Night Listening, detachable wireless surround speakers, and the same 10-inch subwoofer found on the Bar 500MK2.

Climbing a further rung on the JBL soundbar ladder, we have the Bar 1000MK2, which brings full Dolby Atmos with upward-firing drivers into the mix.

All of these soundbars are compatible with the JBL One application and feature streaming support over wi-fi

UK pricing for these soundbars is as follows:

• JBL Bar 300MK2: £350
• JBL Bar 500MK2: £500
• JBL Bar 800MK2: £800
• JBL Bar 1000MK2: £900

MORE:

Read our full JBL Bar 1300 review

As well as our Samsung HW-Q990F review

And check out our overall picks for the best soundbars

Marshall has launched its first-ever soundbar, the Heston 120. It's set to deliver an "immersive and spacious sound" with "powerful, deep and rich bass", which all sounds good to us.

But can it dethrone the best soundbars we have tested? Until we get it in for review we can't say, but it does come with some impressive hardware. The soundbar has a 5.1.2 speaker configuration, comprising 11 drivers in total.

While the amplifier-turned-home-audio company hasn't mentioned specifics regarding driver placement, we know that there are five full-range drivers, two tweeters, two mid-woofers and two subwoofer units in total, and they are "facing in different directions".

These are backed by 11 Class D amplifiers, two of which are 50W (we presume for the subwoofers) while the remaining nine are 15W. That creates a total peak power output of 150W.

The Heston 120 supports both of the major immersive audio formats currently available, too. Both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are supported, which gives the Heston an edge over its Sonos rival.

Ed Camphor, audio technology and tuning lead at Marshall Group, says: “It was important to us that we spent equal time and effort on both TV and music, not one over the other.”

The soundbar is fitted with 11 drivers facing different directions in an effort to “throw sound out to the places that have the best impact on your experience.”

In terms of connectivity, the new ‘bar integrates with TVs with HDMI eARC, and it also features HDMI pass-through for connecting other devices such as Blu-ray players and games consoles.

Marshall has confirmed that this HDMI passthrough socket supports up to 4K/120Hz signals with Dolby Vision HDR, which is handy if your TV only has two HDMI 2.1 sockets.

Wireless connectivity includes Google Cast, AirPlay, Spotify, or Tidal via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and the 'bar sports an Ethernet connection for wired network connectivity.

Notably, this soundbar supports the Bluetooth LE codec and Auracast, making it a solid option for those looking for a soundbar that's primed for music streaming.

Black is the only colour option here, and the UK brand says the soundbar’s design “brings rock ‘n’ roll flair to the TV-sound category.”

This refers to the retro knobs on the top of the ‘bar which can be used to adjust the audio, including the bass and treble levels. You can also save presets for quick access to your favourite playlist or radio station.

The Marshall app can be used to customise the sound by adjusting channels, volume, and the EQ settings. The soundbar also comes with a range of different sound modes to fit the moment, including Music, Movie, Night and Voice.

Furthermore, the Heston 120 features two microphones, used for the on-board room calibration system, which can also be accessed via the app.

At a launch price of £900 / $1000 (around AU$1875), the Heston 120 is up against some stiff competition.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is a little more expensive, but it currently occupies the top spot in our best Dolby Atmos soundbars list. We praised its “clean, precise, spacious and three-dimensional sound” during testing as well as its overall excellent performance, which earned it a five-star review.

There’s also the Sony Theatre Bar 9 to contend with, which earned a five-star rating from us and went on to take a coveted spot at our yearly Awards.

The soundbar launched at the higher price of £1399 / $1400 / AU$1795, but we have seen regular price drops that bring it down to a more comparable price to the Heston 120.

With two big hitters at a similar price point, the Heston 120 has got its work cut out. We are yet to hear the soundbar perform, but we will keep you updated.

Interestingly, this appears to be the first product in a full range of Marshall home cinema audio lineup, as the brand has also referenced the Heston 60 (potentially a cheaper soundbar to rival the Sonos Beam Gen 2 or Sonos Ray) and the Heston Sub 200, which appears to be an optional subwoofer akin to the Sonos Sub.

The Heston 120 is available for pre-order now on Marshall's official online store and will go on sale from the 3rd of June. The soundbar will be available at select retailers from the 16th of September.

MORE:

Here is our review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

And these are the best soundbars right now

Check out the best soundbar deals

Marantz has unveiled its latest preamplifier and power amplifier duo, and they feature a medley of features derived from the Award-winning Cinema 30 AVR, as well as the company's flagship AV 10 series.

The AV 20 AV Preamplifier and AMP 20 Power Amplifier sport classy designs similar to the Cinema 30, with the stylish "porthole" screen and tasteful side illumination returning; two aspects we thoroughly approved of in our full review. Marantz's premium aluminium remote is also included, with backlit buttons ideal for operating these new amps in dark home cinema rooms.

While these amps certainly pass the style check, it's how they sound that's truly important. Starting with the AV 20 preamplifier, Marantz has outfitted this AV processor with the "latest and most powerful" Analogue Devices SHARC dual-core DSP chipset, which has been coupled with 32-bit two-channel DACs complete with dedicated jitter reduction.

It claims that this powerful digital platform will be able to "precisely decode" and "accurately process" a wide range of cinematic audio formats, including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X Pro and IMAX Enhanced. And, with 13.4 channels supported by the discrete HDAM SA-3 preamplifier stage (via either RCA or XLR), the AV 20 should have no trouble delivering a full immersive surround sound experience.

Connectivity seems strong in usual Marantz (and its sister company Denon, for that matter) fashion, with seven HDMI 2.1 inputs capable of supporting up to 8K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz signals. While Marantz hasn't explicitly confirmed which HDR formats the AV 20 will support, we'd be surprised if it wasn't the same HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision suite found on the five-star Cinema 30. The AV 20 also sports three HDMI outputs, two of which are labelled as supporting 4K signals.

Wireless connectivity appears equally strong, too. Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Tidal Connect, and the newly announced Qobuz Connect are all supported, alongside Bluetooth and Marantz's HEOS multiroom streaming platform.

There is also a robust suite of room correction technologies on board, including Audyssey MultEQ XT32 advanced room optimisation via the included microphone.

This will automatically measure speaker sizes, levels, distances and more via a simple setup process; in our experience, it has worked a treat on various Marantz and Denon AVRs. This is supported by an on-screen display, which should make setup even more of a breeze.

Furthermore, optional Dirac configurations are available, with Dirac Live Room Correction plus Dirac Live Bass Control for "fully optimised low-frequency integration" on up to four independent subwoofers.

Dirac Live Active Room Treatment (ART) is also supported, which will reportedly deliver the "most cohesive and tonally consistent listening experience" of any available room optimisation system. It's worth noting that this feature won't be supported at launch, but will be added with a firmware update down the line.

Moving onto the AMP 20, Marantz is positioning this as a powerful and versatile power amplifier. It delivers 12 channels of amplification, rated at 200W with two channels driven, which Marantz points out is enough to "drive multiple different speaker configurations and speaker layouts with ease".

If their speaker system requires more power, users can reconfigure the 12 channels into up to six 400W bridged-tied-load (BTL) outputs. Alternatively, if preferred, users can bi-amp up to six speakers.

The Marantz AV 20 and AMP 20 will be available starting today from selected retailers, and are both priced at £4750 / $6000. Therefore, the full system should cost £9500 / $12,000, though Marantz notes that these components are available to mix and match with other preamplifiers and power amplifiers in its range.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best AV receivers

As well as our Marantz Cinema 30 review

And our JBL Synthesis SDR-38 review

We know that higher-end soundbars can cost a lot, but sometimes a mid-range product does the job without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for a step-up soundbar, you may well have come across the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus or the Sony HT-S2000 in your research.

Looking at a product’s specifications on paper is one thing, but hearing it for yourself is a different experience entirely. Luckily for you, we have had both of them in our test rooms to make a direct comparison in design, pricing and (most importantly) sound.

Let’s get into it.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus vs Sony HT-S2000: price

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus launched at £250 / $250 in the UK and US, but is not available in Australia.

The Sony HT-S2000 launched at £349 / $500 / AU$595. That pricing would make for a rather unfair comparison, but the HT-S2000 is now available for under £300 / $300, so we think it’s highly likely that someone would consider it alongside the Amazon ’bar.

**Winner: Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus**

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus vs Sony HT-S2000: design

Both of these soundbars offer a 3.1 speaker configuration with a built-in bass driver.

They also both have similar connectivity options in terms of ports, including Bluetooth and optical. The two ’bars each have a single HDMI socket for connection to a TV, but the Amazon’s HDMI is only ARC-compatible, while the Sony’s is eARC.

In truth, though, this difference is pretty unimportant. While eARC offers high bandwidth, streaming services are happy with the more limited bandwidth of ARC. And, at this level, we wouldn’t expect sound quality to be high enough for higher-resolution audio to sound discernibly better.

An LED display is visible on the front of both soundbars. These offer minimal information about volume, sound modes and input.

In terms of size, the Amazon soundbar is larger, measuring in at 6.4 x 94 x 13.2cm (hwd). The plastic body and neat cloth grille give the soundbar a clean overall feel, and all the connections are located in a nook around the back. It weighs a considerable 4kg.

The Sony HT-S2000 is a little smaller (6.4 x 80 x 12cm) and lighter (3.7kg), but it also sports a black plastic body.

Neither soundbar is going to have you swooning, but they are practical and get the job done.

**Winner: Draw**

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus vs Sony HT-S2000: features

There are no upward-firing drive units in either of the soundbars, which means that the height channels for the supported spatial audio formats (Dolby Atmos and DTS:X) are achieved through digital processing.

Both of the soundbars offer different sound modes to choose from, with the two including Night (a setting that compresses louder sound effects while keeping dialogue at an audible level) and bass adjustment.

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus also has Movie, Music and Sport, and you can separately adjust the dialogue and treble levels.

The Sony HT-S2000 doesn’t have any genre-based presets, but you can turn on or off its Sound Field mode, which adds Atmos-style processing, and Voice mode, which boosts dialogue.

In both cases, these settings can be adjusted using a remote control that also has volume, power and input buttons.

Unlike the Amazon soundbar, though, the Sony HT-S2000 has an app that you can also use to change settings. We did note in our review, however, that “it doesn’t really add much to the experience other than replicating controls you can already find on the remote”.

**Winner: Sony HT-S2000**

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus vs Sony HT-S2000: sound

The sound performance of these two soundbars is where their differences really become clear.

With the Sony HT-S2000, we are treated to crisp and clear dialogue as well as solid dynamics.

In our review, we tested it out with a scene from Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice. "The grizzled tone of Batman, as he strategises with Alfred before launching into the warehouse to lay the smackdown on Lex Luthor’s goons, is crisp and detailed," we wrote.

"The subtle clicks of the thugs’ weapons and tense shuffling movements while they wait for the Dark Knight to burst through the door are all clearly defined, too."

Even without upward-firing speakers, the directionality of sound is also nicely handled, though we do find that the Sound Field setting loses a lot of focus and definition, leaving us with a “mushy and unfocused delivery”. That’s easily solved, of course, by simply leaving Sound Field switched off.

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus, on the other hand, is a big disappointment on the sound front, regardless of the settings we choose.

The overall sound has a generally unpleasant feel, with a “flappy and thin” bass and shrill treble.

When we turn up the volume in the hopes of getting a more full-bodied sound, this results in a shrill and unpleasant sound from both the lower and higher frequencies.

There is a wide sense of space with the action, at least, and the Atmos-ness of the presentation is relatively impressive considering there are no up-firing speakers, but that isn’t enough to save the Amazon ’bar.

Improving on a TV’s sound is the bare minimum for a soundbar’s performance, and the unpleasant-sounding elements of the Fire TV Soundbar Plus’ delivery make most TV speakers preferable.

**Winner: Sony HT-S2000**

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus vs Sony HT-S2000: verdict

Even though the two soundbars are pretty even in terms of features and build, the Sony HT-S2000’s sound quality massively outweighs that of the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus.

Although it’s slightly pricier than the Amazon soundbar, the Sony HT-S2000 gets you more for your money. In fact, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus is best avoided at any price.

MORE:

Check out the best soundbars right now

And here are the best budget soundbars we have tested

This is our in-depth review of the Sony HT-S2000

"Hamamatsu is known as the city of music," Yamaha tells us of the coastal city it calls home. Sitting slap-bang between Tokyo and Osaka, it is indeed the base of a handful of legendary audio and musical instrument brands, including Roland and Kawai.

And if its music reputation alone doesn't make it a suitable base for an audio brand as strong as Yamaha, Hamamatsu is also renowned for its motorcycle industry!

Yamaha's founder, Torakusu Yamaha, established the company there back in 1887, intending to produce pianos and reed organs. Of course, Yamaha is today a brand with an unquestionably rich and diverse product catalogue and history, which made our visit to its headquarters last week an extremely interesting one.

We toured its instrument manufacturing plants, spent time in its hi-fi listening room, and heard a range of its existing (and some secret upcoming) products within its vast hi-fi and home cinema ranges.

While those aspects focused on the present and future of Yamaha, we were also lucky enough to discover the company's past by visiting its Innovation Road museum, which houses everything from grand pianos to decades-old hi-fi and even Yamaha-branded bathtubs, ski boots and archery equipment.

It was a perfect opportunity to look back at some of the key products that shaped the hi-fi and AV powerhouse we know it as today.

It was a tricky task, such was the scale of the museum, but we picked 10 of our favourite classic products from Yamaha's back catalogue: five classic hi-fi and five notable AV products from the last 50 years that caught our attention during the museum tour...

1. Yamaha NS-1000 (1974)

The NS-1000M’s claim to fame is that they are the first speakers to use pure Beryllium for their driver diaphragms. Considering the use of this material is considered exotic even today, we can only imagine how impressive it must have seemed in the mid-’70s.

Here, Yamaha specifies it for both the 30mm dome tweeter and 88mm midrange, while opting for paper in the 30cm bass unit. It’s all wrapped in a chunky, impressively sturdy cabinet around 70cm tall.

Read the marketing spiel of the day, and it’s amusing to find that the company refers to this monster of a standmounter as a ‘bookshelf’ design. We would like to see a bookshelf that could properly support such a speaker!

The NS-1000M were designed as studio monitors, so it is no surprise that they have a highly analytical sound and are as fussy about partnering electronics as they are about recording quality.

Their sound was taut, punchy and powerful, delivering an impressive level of insight for their time. Stereo imaging was of a high standard too. These hefty monitors are considered something of a cult classic these days, and rightly so.

2. Yamaha AVX-2000 DSP (1990)

The Yamaha AVX-S2000 DSP was ahead of its time and brimming with class. Just from taking a glance at its suave exterior (just look at those wooden side panels!), it is clear this is truly a special piece of AV equipment from Yamaha's archive.

This seven-channel power amplifier could deliver ample power to 7.1 surround sound speaker systems, emphasising an "as the director intended" approach to cinematic audio that we still seek out 35 years later.

Furthermore, it featured Yamaha's proprietary digital sound processing system, which encompassed a whopping 23 different modes in total: eight home cinema modes and 15 hi-fi modes.

Notably, this included the CENE-DSP sound mode, a revolutionary step forward in creating immersive sound at home. Nowadays, we take this sound processing feature for granted, as Dolby Atmos is a widespread feature, and other manufacturers include their own immersive sound processing modes on many of their AV amplifiers (take the Sound Field mode on Sony's TA-AN1000, for example).

For those DSP modes alone, we have a lot to thank the AVX-S2000 DSP for, as it unquestionably helped to shape the AVRs we know and love today.

3. Yamaha B-6 power amplifier (1980)

Our first reaction upon seeing the B-6 stereo power amplifier was confusion. Looking at it from the front, we couldn’t tell what it was.

Indeed, there is little in the world of hi-fi that looks anything like it. Get beyond the striking visuals, and you will find more here than just the unusual appearance.

It turns out that this small pyramid-shaped amplifier was something of an object lesson on how to get a lot of power out of a small box. It could deliver a claimed 200 watts per channel into an 8 ohm load while producing low levels of distortion and heat. This is partially thanks to a clever switching power supply circuit Yamaha simply called 'X-Power'.

That unusually shaped casing is made of cast aluminium and vented at the back to help with heat management. Oddly, the company never made a suitably styled partnering preamp, which is a shame.

4. Yamaha DPX-1 (2000)

"Yamaha makes a projector?" may sound like a redundant question in a museum also featuring bathtubs, archery equipment and tennis rackets made by the same company, but it still came as a surprise to see Yamaha's first projector in the flesh.

In fact, the DPX-1 was the first in a short-lived series of Yamaha projectors, which seemed to tail off in the mid-2000s. It's a shame the company isn't still in the projector game, especially after the news that Sony is having to withdraw its stellar models from the European market.

According to Yamaha, the DPX-1 features "a rich array of tonal variation" and, impressively, a "noiseless design". Projector fan noise is a pesky yet unavoidable issue that has been the undoing of a handful of models in our AV testing room, and while we didn't get to verify that this projector is truly "noiseless", its great to see that Yamaha was looking for solutions to this issue two and a half decades ago.

5. Yamaha TC-800GL (1976)

There aren’t many pieces of hi-fi that make it into the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, but Yamaha’s TC-800 GL cassette deck is one of the fortunate few. It was styled by the renowned Italian industrial designer, Mario Bellini, who is famous for his distinctive buildings and furniture.

The TC-800GL’s sloped shape made quite a statement. This unusual look wasn’t just for appearance’s sake, as it made operating the various controls (and seeing the twin level meters) easier to do, even when the user was standing up.

The technical side wasn’t overlooked either, with the TC-800 GL equipped with Dolby noise reduction (to reduce tape hiss) and a nicely engineered transport mechanism. That distinctive casework was made of plastic coated with Nextel to give it protection and a pleasant texture.

6. Yamaha DVD-C900 (1999)

We're familiar with CD changers, capable of storing and swapping between multiple discs to continuously play your favourite albums. In fact, Yamaha brought back the legacy ’80s/’90s design with its CD-C603 in 2023. But imagine that concept for playing your favourite movies.

The DVD-C900 was an AV enthusiast's dream, as it was capable of storing and playing five DVD discs in succession – ideal if you want to binge all of the Monty Python films back-to-back, or just the good Star Wars films.

It was also compatible with video and audio CDs while supporting Dolby and DTS audio formats with a built-in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital recorder, making this a multi-disc player of many talents.

As soon as we laid eyes on the DVD-C900, we began dreaming of a modern 4K Blu-ray equivalent for modern AV set-ups. We're well aware that's a pipe dream... unless Yamaha is open to reviving this concept?

7. Yamaha GT 2000X (1985)

That the initials 'GT' in this turntable’s name stand for ‘Gigantic’ and ‘Tremendous’ tells you pretty much everything you need to know about this limited-edition high-end record player.

The GT 2000X is an imposing design that looks like a scaled-up version of a normal deck, and weighs in at a meaty 34kg. These Yamahas are rare and highly sought after by those who love exotic Japanese direct drive turntables – and we can understand why.

It features a coreless, direct drive motor controlled by a quartz PLL (Phase Lock Loop), so speed stability shouldn’t be an issue, particularly when you consider the inertial effect of a hefty 5.8kg die-cast aluminium platter.

The GT-2000X came equipped with the YSA-1 tonearm, which has a straight arm tube and gimbal-type bearing.

As a treat, the X came as standard with an auto-lifter that takes the stylus off the record at the end of a side. Neat.

8. Yamaha DSP-A1 (1997)

The second revolutionary AV amplifier on show at Yamaha's Innovation Road installation, the DSP-A1 carried forth much of what made the AVX-2000 DSP special, with a few key improvements that helped to cement its legacy.

It continues that eye-catching design (once again, just look at those wooden panels), though you'll notice a new logo emblazoned on the metal front plate.

Indeed, this was the first AV amplifier in the world to feature DTS surround sound support, which is a feature we take for granted, considering any current AVR on the market worth its salt will feature this.

It also carries over the DSP features from the AVX-2000, including the seven-channel immersive sound processing feature, which was renamed 'Cinema DSP'. Sound familiar? That sound mode still exists on the company's current AVR range, including the five-star RX-A6A receiver.

9. Yamaha NS-10M (1978)

Yamaha’s NS-10 may have started life as a poorly reviewed domestic standmounter, but it went on to become the nearfield monitor of choice in recording studios all around the world.

It was a small, sealed box design and didn’t have much in the way of bass extension or weight. However, it did have an agility and cohesion at low frequencies that ported rivals couldn’t match.

The speaker’s peaky treble performance highlighted flaws in recordings in a way that many studio engineers found useful. It allowed them to mix recordings in a way that worked well on low-fi audio products such as portable transistor radios and in-car units.

Essentially, they assumed that if a mix sounded good on these speakers, it would sound good on anything listeners used.

With Yamaha claiming sales of over 300,000 units over the speaker’s 13-year lifespan, there is no doubt these were a huge success. Given those numbers, we are certain that there are plenty of NS-10M still in service in studios around the world.

10. Yamaha YSP-1 (2004)

The humble soundbar began life here. The YSP-1 was the first on the scene back in 2004. 21 years later, we're practically drowning in soundbars from nearly every AV and hi-fi company around, though it was Yamaha that conceived the idea – and it did so in pretty spectacular fashion.

Instead of a handful of mid-sized drivers, which is what we tend to see in most modern soundbars, Yamaha crammed a whopping 40 small drivers and dual bass drivers into this digital sound projector, which is what the YSP-1 was known as before the term "soundbar" was adopted.

It featured a total power output of 120 watts: dual 20-watt amplifiers powered the bass units, while each of the remaining drivers made do with two watts each.

Despite this being the first product to line up all of its speaker drivers side-by-side in an (at the time) unusual fashion, Yamaha still managed to take a stab at delivering immersive 5.1 channel surround audio thanks to its extensive history in developing its DSP modes on the above AV amplifiers.

While it certainly wasn't perfect, it was a breakthrough product, earning a very respectable four stars in our now-21-year-old review.

We even complimented its ability to deliver surround sound without the hassle of dotting speakers around the room, though we noted that it would be better with a subwoofer. Soundbars with bundled subwoofers... we wonder if that will ever catch on.

MORE:

Read our Yamaha R-N800A review

Check out our picks for the best stereo amplifiers

As well as our best AV receivers list

The Bravia 7 is the second most high-end Mini LED TV in Sony’s current (and ever-expanding) TV range.

As such, it inevitably loses some of the eye-catching headline specifications of the flagship Bravia 9.

For instance, it has fewer local dimming zones, isn’t as bright and it has a less powerful sound system.

It’s also, though, substantially cheaper than the Bravia 9 – and, as we’ll see, it retains enough of Sony’s Mini LED picture quality mastery to make it arguably the best value option yet from the brand’s current range.

Price

The 55-inch Bravia 7 was £1899 / $1900 / AU$2935 at launch, but it is now available for significantly less – just £1299 / $1300 / AU$2495.

That still puts it in mid-range TV territory – maybe slightly towards the top end of mid-range territory, given the sort of aggressive pricing the likes of TCL and Hisense are applying to their mid-range and even high-end models these days.

It backs this status up with plenty of on-paper promise, including a Mini LED backlight with local dimming and an uncompromised version of Sony’s dependable XR processor.

Design

The Bravia 7 unsurprisingly isn’t as opulently well built as the Bravia 9. It still retains plenty of the combination of subtle elegance and flexibility that seems to be built into Sony’s TV design DNA at the moment, though.

For starters, the screen and its frame are both designed to finish on the same flush level, which always instantly creates a premium impression. The frame is trim, too, and while the rear panel sticks out a little further than today’s TV trendsetters, it could still make for an effective wall-mounting option.

If you’re going to place your Bravia 7 on a piece of furniture, there’s more good news.

For starters, its feet slot into place without the need for any screws. Also, the feet can be placed in no less than four different configurations: out wide under the bottom corners with the screen either sitting flush down on them or raised up an inch or three, or closer together towards the middle of the screen, again either with the screen sitting low on the feet or raised slightly.

The option to place the feet close together means you can put the 55-inch Bravia 7 on a piece of furniture much narrower than the TV, while the option to raise the screen gives you room to put a soundbar underneath.

The Bravia 7 ships with a tidy-looking smart remote control boasting a tactile, stripped-back button count, but which still finds room for a selection of direct app access buttons and a mic button to activate its Google Assistant voice control features.

The handset is apparently made from approximately 80 per cent recycled plastic, too, and it’s finished in an easy-to-clean polyurethane coating.

Features

Even though there are two TV series sitting above it in Sony’s current range, the Bravia 7 still boasts a Sony XR Backlight Master Drive panel that combines a Mini LED lighting system with local dimming that operates, in the case of the 55-inch model we're testing, across more than 300 separate zones.

This combination promises tight control over where the TV delivers its available light – especially considering how effective Sony’s backlight control systems have tended to be over the years. Even with TVs that have far fewer dimming zones than the Bravia 7 at their disposal.

The Bravia 7 also boasts a Quantum Dot colour system, driven by Sony’s Triluminos technology. This is part of the latest version of Sony’s XR processor, which extends its tendrils into just about every aspect of picture quality – including delivering automatic HDR conversion of SDR with some of its picture presets, and subtly adjusting multiple picture facets to make the resulting images more closely resemble the three-dimensional way our eyes perceive the real world.

Its relative affordability doesn’t stop the Bravia 7 from adopting Sony’s policy of pursuing the picture endorsements of multiple third-party AV industry big guns.

So there are ‘calibrated’ modes for Netflix, Prime Video and Sony’s own high quality (up to 80Mbps streams) Sony Pictures Core streaming service. These are designed to automatically adopt picture settings that get as close as possible to the different studios’ preferred video mastering conditions.

The Bravia 7 is also certified by IMAX as being up to the job of doing justice to the special, ultra-clean IMAX Enhanced mastering system – as well as allowing you to take advantage of the IMAX Enhanced titles provided on Disney+ and the aforementioned Sony Pictures Core.

There’s plenty of Dolby cooperation, too, in the form of Dolby Atmos sound and support for the Dolby Vision dynamic HDR format. Dolby Vision appears alongside the more basic HDR10 and HLG systems, but as ever with Sony TVs, there’s no support for HDR10+.

The Dolby Atmos (and DTS:X) sound is delivered courtesy of a multi-channel audio system that also features a 5.1.2-channel ‘upmixing’ system to embellish stereo or 5.1-channel soundtracks.

There’s also the option to have the TV’s speakers join forces with various Sony soundbars, home theatre speaker packages and personal listening systems to take advantage of Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology, which creates a hemisphere of virtual speakers all around your seating position.

Connections on the Bravia 7 include four HDMIs, two of which can handle the 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM gaming features deliverable by the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 and some PC graphics cards.

There’s support for a low-latency Dolby Vision game mode, too, as well as a special game-specific onscreen menu system, and compatibility with the Perfect For PlayStation 5 feature, where the console can automatically recognise the TV and output some pretty accurate HDR settings accordingly. You can even stream PlayStation games to the TV via the PS Remote Play app.

It’s a pity that only two of the HDMIs can handle all these gaming features, but this limitation is slightly easier to accept on the Bravia 7 than it is on Sony’s flagship TV ranges. Still, similarly priced LG and Samsung TVs have four top-spec HDMI sockets.

Smart features are provided by Google TV. This brings with it the usual extreme plethora of video streaming, gaming and information apps, bolstered in the UK by the YouView platform, which adds the catch-up services for the UK terrestrial broadcasters that Google TV does not typically cover.

Google TV also brings with it both compatibility with Google Chromecast for streaming from your smart devices, and the Google Assistant voice recognition and control system. There’s compatibility with Apple AirPlay 2, too, and if you’re not a fan of Google Assistant you can use either Alexa or, if you own an Apple Home device, Apple’s Siri voice recognition system.

One last unusual feature of the Bravia 7 is the Bravia Cam. This optional extra attaches magnetically behind the screen’s top edge, providing a camera that introduces the ability to control the TV via gesture; a Proximity Alert to warn children not to get too close; a facility to reduce brightness if the camera detects nobody is present in the room; video conferencing; and even the ability to detect where you are in relation to the TV and adjust the brightness, contrast, sound balance and volume accordingly.

Picture

The Bravia 7’s picture quality is clearly built on the same DNA as Sony’s spectacular flagship Bravia 9, delivering more of that TV’s in some ways groundbreaking picture quality than you’ve any right to expect.

At the heart of the Bravia 7’s picture charms is its outstanding backlight control. At the bright end of the spectrum, Sony’s TV delivers exceptionally bright and intense HDR whites and colours that blaze off the screen with more intensity than they do on many much more expensive flagship TVs.

Just as impressively, though, the Bravia 7 also delivers startlingly deep, dark, convincing, and at times quite OLED-like blacks.

Even better, the Bravia 7 doesn’t deliver these light extremes in isolation – as in, it doesn’t only deliver convincing blacks with exclusively dark shots, or only deliver outstanding brightness with exclusively bright shots. Rather, its backlight controls are so astute and powerful that they’re able to retain most of the brightness punch for bright highlights and most of the black level depth and uniformity for dark areas even with shots that contain a mix of dark and light content.

As well as producing a level of contrast that’s exceptionally rare if not unique to find on a mid-range TV, the Bravia 7’s ability to maintain so much brightness and black depth with the sort of mixed brightness images that make up the vast majority of what we watch means that it delivers a fantastic level of consistency across bright and dark scenes.

And wherever you’ve got consistency, you’ve got a more immersive experience, where nothing the TV does throws you out of what you’re watching.

The Bravia 7’s consistency whether it’s showing mostly bright or mostly dark images extends, too, to its ability to bring out pretty much every detail in even the darkest picture corners. The only exception to this is with the Movie preset, but even here the ‘black crush’ effect is pretty minor. Not enough, at any rate, to make dark scenes look hollow or flat.

Maybe the biggest sign of just how clever and effective the Bravia 7’s backlighting is, though, comes from how well it manages to keep a lid on blooming around stand-out bright objects.

In particular, the black bars above and below wide aspect ratio films remain almost completely free of either general greyness or areas of blooming, even if a bright object appears right alongside them – a really useful feat of backlight isolation engineering that precious few rivals these days even seem to attempt.

The extent and intensity of clouding around bright objects, even when they appear against nearly black backgrounds, is also startlingly limited for such a bright mid-range TV.

In fact, the only time the backlight engine struggles enough to become noticeable in a negative way is in the appearance of slight general clouding and occasional slight blue colour shift with shots that contain a particularly complex mixture of scattered extreme light and extreme dark elements.

As well as being rare, though, even during these moments the Bravia 7’s backlight ‘flaws’, such as they are, are much less likely to distract than the sort of heavy dimming of bright objects or really pronounced halos of extraneous light that many other locally dimmed LCD TVs exhibit.

The combination of high brightness and strong contrast also joins forces with Sony’s excellent XR Triluminos Pro system to deliver a sumptuously wide, vibrant, but also natural-looking and refined colour range. Sony’s TV even manages to retain full saturations in very dark picture areas, as well as, like the Bravia 9, bringing out subtle light differences in very bright areas that elude most if not all other TVs in its class.

The Bravia 7’s superb level of light and colour control for a mid-range TV unlocks an exceptional sense of sharpness and detail with native 4K pictures, too. This is delivered without any sign of the sort of exaggerated grain or ‘glowing’ object edge issues associated with heavy-handed sharpness processing, too, and remains largely unsullied by either motion blur or judder if you set the TV’s XR Motion Clarity feature to one of its relatively low-powered modes.

The Bravia 7 also upscales HD sources to its 4K resolution brilliantly, offering palpable detail and insight without introducing colour shifts or obvious unwanted digital processing side effects.

Gamers will be pleased to hear that all the attributes that make the Bravia 7 such an excellent video performer also make it a fantastically fun and immersive gaming display. The TV’s input lag of 17.9ms in Game mode is a touch higher than we’ve seen with some other Sony TVs, but not enough to affect anyone but the most hardcore competitive gamers.

It’s tough to find anything negative to say about the Bravia 7’s pictures for its money, really.

Aside from the relatively minor cloudiness and colour shifting with rare shots containing a broad mix of light and dark extremes, all we can come up with is that backlight blooming becomes more noticeable if you have to watch the TV from much of an angle.

Otherwise, it’s all good. Really good.

Sound

The Bravia 7 features one of Sony’s so-called Acoustic Multi-Audio sound systems, which in this case means 40W of power pumped into a four-speaker system comprising two full-range bass reflex drivers and two tweeters for, according to Sony, cleaner, more accurately placed detail sounds.

While not quite as potent as its pictures, the resulting sound – especially if you remember to run the provided audio auto-calibration system – is very good for a TV in this price category.

It manages to create, for instance, a soundstage that projects nicely away from the TV’s physical chassis, and then populates the large, room-filling sense of space it creates with plenty of clean and well-positioned details. Enough to do at least some justice to the three-dimensional sound fields created by Dolby Atmos and DTS:X mixes.

Dialogue emerges from the heart of the Bravia 7’s soundstage with conviction and clarity, and while occasionally the sound can feel too polite and trebly with the most explosive action movie moments, lacking a little bass heft, none of the speakers collapse into distortion under pressure.

Verdict

Much more of the groundbreaking backlight technology Sony developed for its flagship Bravia 9 range seems to have filtered down to the Bravia 7 than we would have expected for its money.

In fact, while not feeling quite as explosive and ‘next-gen’ as the Bravia 9, the Bravia 7’s images are actually a little more consistent, resulting in as good a mid-range LCD TV as we’re likely to see this year.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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Read our review of the LG OLED55C4

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Read our Philips 55OLED809 review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and affordable flatscreens tried and tested

Despite being regarded as some of the most fully-featured TVs on the market, it appears that LG's OLED TVs will lose two features this year. We're usually the first to rave about the four HDMI 2.1 sockets and webOS smart platform, so it's strange to see LG drop support for existing features, but what is leaving the lineup?

First up is DTS audio support, which has reportedly been left out of the 2025 LG OLED TV lineup, including the C5 and G5, as well as its LCD TVs. Despite including it on its 2023 and 2024 TVs, LG has opted to revert to a Dolby-exclusive audio approach, meaning it will rely on Dolby Atmos rather than DTS:X.

While this isn't necessarily the end of the world, it's a shame to see DTS be left out, as it's a fairly crucial aspect of the IMAX Enhanced format, which has launched on Disney Plus. The discovery, made and verified by Vincent Teoh (via FlatPanelsHD), was found on the G5, however, it's speculated to affect LG's full 2025 lineup.

Furthermore, LG has confirmed that it will end support for Google Assistant on all of its compatible TVs. Samsung made the same move by dropping Google Assistant support last year; it seems that LG has followed suit by removing it not only on its new 2025 models, but also on existing TVs.

A pop-up stating that the "Google Assistant will no longer be available on this device starting on May 1, 2025" has been spotted by LG TV users, which confirms that Google's voice assistant will no longer work on their TV, regardless of whether it's a 2025 model or a previously released set.

While LG hasn't released an official comment as to why it's dropping support, we do know that its 2025 TVs feature a new upgraded AI chatbot assistant backed by Microsoft Copilot. However, that AI function is, for now, exclusive to its latest TVs, which sport the most recent generation Alpha AI processors.

It could have something to do with Google streamlining its Assistant feature with the use of its Gemini AI platform, which it has confirmed will come to Google TV-equipped models from supported manufacturers later this year.

Ultimately, the loss of the Google Assistant isn't detrimental to the performance of the TV, and while DTS:X is a frustrating omission on the 2025 models, Dolby Atmos, which is more widely supported, remains.

That being said, removing features after someone has invested their hard-earned money into an OLED TV is not something we like to see, and we hope that it doesn't set a precedent for removing more features in the future.

MORE:

Read our full LG C5 OLED TV review

As well as our LG G5 65-inch review

And check out our picks for the best OLED TVs

Amazon is one of the best known brands on the planet, so it barely needs an introduction. You may be surprised to learn, however, that this is the retail giant’s first soundbar. It’s a modest initial plunge, focusing on the entry-level market with a simple 2.0 speaker configuration.

For those wanting a more sophisticated soundbar including Dolby Atmos and 3.1 speaker channels, the brand has also released the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus, available for £250 / $250. In this review, though, we’ll be focusing on the cheaper ’bar.

Disappointingly and somewhat misleadingly, neither of Amazon's 'Fire TV' soundbars sport Fire TV smarts. If you were hoping for and expecting a Roku Streambar-style soundbar with streaming capabilities, then, you will be disappointed. In fact, even Alexa is absent here.

However, with its compact dimensions, the very affordable Amazon Fire TV Soundbar could still be an appealing way to boost a TV’s sonic performance without breaking the bank or taking up lots of space. If it sounds any good, of course.

Price

The launch price of the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is £120 / $120, which is on the cheaper side of the spectrum. We have already spotted discounts on the product, too.

Even cheaper is the four-star Sony HT-SF150 (known as the HT-S100F in the US) which we tested at just £90 / $100 / AU$199. We rated its all-round performance highly and were especially pleased by its impressive scale and width considering its price.

Another soundbar to enter our testing room and challenge the Amazon soundbar is the Hisense HS214, which costs just £79 / $150 / AU$147. For its clear vocal projection and compact size, we gave it a respectable four-star rating.

Design

With this soundbar, Amazon is keeping it simple by including Dolby Digital and DTS Virtual:X, but there is no Dolby Atmos.

For that reason, it has just two drivers, which are situated at the front of the product firing outwards through a plastic grille.

It does include DTS Virtual:X which, when implemented correctly, can give sound a sense of height and three-dimensionality without additional speakers, but don't go expecting proper 3D audio.

Around the back you can find the connectivity options in a nook, consisting of HDMI, optical, and a USB socket that has no practical at-home use. There’s only one gap in the soundbar to house all of the connections, so it does feel a bit cramped.

You can also send music (and podcasts, etc) to the soundbar via Bluetooth. The touch buttons, which control volume, Bluetooth, power and input, are satisfying to press thanks to a tactile feel, with the symbols raised slightly so you can feel them with your finger.

Given the price point, it’s not a shocker that this is not the most glamorous of units – but it is properly made and reasonably solid. Still, it has a small and light build that makes it easy to move to wherever you would like it positioned.

At 61cm wide, the Fire TV Soundbar is a good partner aesthetically for smaller TVs, but it also looks fairly smart alongside the 55-inch LG C5 with which we test it.

That said, Sony’s HT-SF150 appears a little more premium thanks to its textured finish and slightly slicker cosmetic touches.

Features

With no app or Amazon features integrated into the ’bar, there is a lot less than usual to talk about here. As mentioned already, even Alexa is absent.

At this price, we would not expect a full-blown display, and we don’t get one. Instead, what we get are coloured light indicators to show information such as whether the volume has been changed or Bluetooth enabled.

There are times when it is not clear whether a setting has been changed, so it’s sometimes hard to tell just what function the unit has switched on or off.

The remote follows in the main soundbar’s footsteps with its small size. It feels a bit too dinky to fit snugly into your palm, though the button layout is fairly straightforward and the remote is overall easy to use.

Through the remote, you can access the three sound modes: Music, Dialogue and Movie. Music gives you the most cohesive and punchy presentation, while Movie increases the sense of scale at the expense of some precision.

Dialogue mode makes voices clearer – ideal for podcasts or watching the news – but this comes at the expense of the rest of the sound, which becomes more muffled and undefined.

With the lack of an app, you can only access these modes by cycling through the options via the remote, with a voice telling you which one is currently selected.

There are other ways to customise the sound on offer, too. There is a Bass button that allows you to crank up the lower frequencies with three levels to choose between. We decide to stick to the second level as the lowest option does not provide enough bass weight and the highest overpowers the rest of the sound.

On top of that, there’s a Surround option that widens the soundstage to create a bigger sound.

Sound

We kick off with Dune 2, as protagonist Paul attempts to master the art of riding a sandworm. The Amazon’s 2.0 soundbar does an impressive job of capturing the scale of the scene, especially considering the lack of Dolby Atmos.

As the massive worm bursts out of the sand with what should be an ear-splitting boom, the soundbar does not quite achieve that but it does keep the sound balanced and relatively composed.

Compared to our LG C5’s own speakers, the soundbar boosts practically all aspects of the sound to create a more immersive overall experience. Instead of the TV’s thin bass, the soundbar offers a punchier and more expressive sound.

There is also a big improvement in terms of scale and weight, as the sound wraps around you far more than it does when delivered by the LG TV’s speakers.

With the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, we play around with the Surround mode to see how it performs with a more musical choice. The iconic Live Aid sequence featuring an incredible performance by Rami Malek boggles the mind with the number of people crammed into London’s Wembley Stadium.

With Surround mode on, we get a real sense of the sheer scale of the stage, but the nuance of Malek’s vocal performance is pushed to the background.

It’s a bit of a Catch 22. When Surround is off, you can hear the subtleties in his voice much more clearly. The problem is now that the sound feels narrower and the size of the performance is underwhelming.

This makes for a slightly frustrating experience, as most people are unlikely to be switching between modes every five minutes. On the balance of things, we decide that if you’re going to pick one setting for all movies, it should be Surround on.

Even in our preferred Surround mode, the soundbar lacks definition in the bass. When Paul runs at the worm in Dune 2, for example, the staggering impact of the creature moving through the sand feels undefined instead of textured and floor-shaking.

In a later scene with Paul having an ominous chat with Fremen Stilgar, both voices are clear and central within the soundstage. It does feel oddly like a voiceover in some parts, however, with the dialogue sounding too smooth and missing the emotion of the performances.

To put the Amazon ’bar to the test with music alone, we switch on Music mode with Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place. This setting definitely helps to push the sound to the front, capturing the dream-like vocals and smooth synths well.

Still, it lacks the ability to give the bass an extra punch and the voices sound disconnected from the rest of the track.

The Sony HT-SF150 is not flawless either, but comparing the two soundbars proves that it's comfortably better than the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar, with a richer and more detailed sound that its newer rival can't match.

Verdict

If you are looking for a soundbar to improve upon your TV’s sound for a reasonable price, Amazon’s entry ticks a lot of boxes with its clear dialogue performance and unfussy features. And, if you wait for one of Amazon’s many sales, you should be able to pick it up for much less than the original price.

However, even when discounted it’s not the best option at its level. Based on the more rounded overall performance, we would choose the Sony HT-SF150.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 3
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony HT-SF150

Also consider the Roku Streambar

Best budget soundbars: affordable home cinema sound tested by experts