Pro-Ject’s Debut range of turntables has been on quite the journey.

The original Pro-Ject Debut broke cover at the end of the 1990s, carving out a stellar reputation as one of the best-value decks for buyers who wanted a terrific budget turntable that delivered that coveted combination of reliability and simplicity.

Like a young executive upgrading their home as they climb the corporate ladder, the Debut line has become steadily more premium over time, with 2023’s Award-winning Debut Pro making the transition to a more upmarket price of £699 / $999 / AU$1079 to significant acclaim.

At a not-trivial £999 / $1499 / AU$2349, the new Debut 10 Reference turntable once again moves the price needle upwards. Sporting a similar overarching design to the Pro-Ject Debut Pro, this new iteration incorporates a new tonearm, platter and sub-platter as it looks to compete in the higher echelons of vinyl society.

The Debut Reference 10 has traded Cup-A-Soup for caviar, but in moving even further upmarket, does Pro-Ject still remember its Award-winning roots?

Build & design

We have few complaints about the construction of the Debut Reference 10. Certain ‘blingier’ design elements won’t be for everyone, but there’s little question that this is a turntable of admirable build quality.

Those blingier elements include a rather whopping aluminium bearing block and counterweight attached to a carbon fibre tonearm, contrasting starkly with the matte finish of the MDF chassis. The turntable is only available in the satin black finish of our review sample, a colourway that, in our experience, is susceptible to attracting fingermarks.

The Debut Reference 10 incorporates a good deal of shining metal in its construction, from the various milled aluminium components – including an optional record puck and that massive shining counterweight – to the height-adjustable damped feet at its base.

The main platter of the belt-driven record player is made from acrylic, designed to contribute to what Pro-Ject describes as a “natural, liquid sound signature” while reducing the need for additional damping materials.

The main platter is paired with an aluminium sub-platter, machined to add mass to the ensemble and further reduce unwanted sonic resonances, sitting atop a main bearing that uses a stainless steel axle with a bronze bushing.

Setting the Debut Reference 10 apart from its forebears is a new 10-inch tonearm – a good deal longer than the 8.6-inch model of the Debut Pro – made using a carbon-fibre and aluminium sandwich construction. According to Pro-Ject, this longer arm helps reduce tracking and inner-groove distortion, thus improving the resultant sonic fidelity.

At the end of the tonearm is Pro-Ject’s own Pick It Pro Balanced moving magnet cartridge, a revised version of the brand’s Pick It model, and built for reduced noise and interference via its balanced signal transmission.

Nothing here is tricky to set up or to use. The cartridge comes accurately aligned in the tonearm’s headshell, while a detachable acrylic dust cover clicks in and out of place without much trouble. You’ll need to attach the small anti-skating weight and large counterweight to set the cartridge’s recommended 2g tracking force, and while there aren’t any numbers marked on the arm to assist you, Pro-Ject thoughtfully provides a stylus weight scale in the box.

Pro-Ject also provides a decent-quality detachable tonearm lead, which allows an avenue for future upgrading, meaning you can try different leads depending on your personal preference. There is also a mini XLR cable provided to make a balanced connection with Pro-Ject’s own suitably equipped phono stages.

Internally, the Debut Reference 10’s 15V AC motor is decoupled from the rest of the turntable and housed in its own substantial base to prevent vibrations from transferring to the chassis. A small switch on the left-hand side of the deck controls your turntable’s speed electronically, with a click to the left setting it to 33⅓ RPM and a click to the right setting it to 45 RPM.

If you want to go up to 78 RPM, you’ll need to attach the alternative round belt to the outer edge of the deck’s larger pulley, and then move the speed changer to its right-hand setting. The belt does slip off a couple of times as we test out our test turntable’s 78 RPM rotation, but after a few tries, we manage to get everything spinning at the speed we require.

Sound

There’s a weight of expectation sitting on the Pro-Ject’s shoulders as we connect it to our trusty Naim Nait XS 3 stereo amplifier and a pair of five-star Epos ES-7N standmounts.

We need to know exactly what this player can do, so to fully spotlight the extent of the Debut Reference 10’s abilities, we also spend time listening to it plugged into our reference Burmester 088/911 MkIII pre/power combination and a pair of the super-revealing PMC MB2 SE loudspeakers.

These choppy waters aren’t short of rival sharks willing to take a chunk out of the Debut Reference 10, including the Award-winning Rega Planar 3 RS Edition (£1099 / $1795 / AU$2399) and the new Technics SL-1500CS (£1099 / $1800 / AU$2499).

We don’t let the Debut Reference 10 off lightly as we spin our first records, either. We flit between Beethoven’s challenging Ninth Symphony and Dirty Diana from Michael Jackson’s Bad, yet the Pro-Ject takes everything admirably in its stride. Beethoven’s Ninth is handled with precision, authority and stability, while Dirty Diana is suffused with bite and ample lower-end grip.

So easily could the former have sounded muddled and the latter hurried, but Pro-Ject’s impressive performer gives each track just the right amount of rope – not too much for the music to sound strangled and restricted, not too little for things to become slipshod or hurried.

This finely judged balance isn’t the only weapon in the Reference 10’s arsenal. The Pro-Ject’s delivery sounds clear, organised and authoritative, and its presentation is open and spacious, too. Resolution levels are impressive, be it the punchy percussion scattered across Bad or the hazy basslines that are the trademark of Nas’ Illmatic.

The Debut Reference 10 has won us over, but how does it shape up against its key rivals? The Technics SL-1500CS sounds more powerful and authoritative thanks to the deck’s considerable sonic brawn, whereas Rega’s raucously entertaining Planar 3 RS Edition continues to lead the pack when it comes to rhythmic and dynamic expression.

In a pitched battle against the Debut Reference 10, the Rega outguns its Pro-Ject rival, bringing so much snap and verve to Jackson’s Dirty Diana that the Reference 10 can’t quite keep up. For making you want to don your white suit and bust out your best Moonwalk, the Rega remains the king of this particular castle.

That doesn’t, by any means, render the Pro-Ject obsolete or unworthy of praise. This is still a terrifically talented turntable, and with the Rega’s recent price hike taking it from £999 to £1099 in the UK, one that costs a not-inconsiderable chunk of money less.

Drop back to something a little slower-paced, such as Tom Jones’ Did Trouble Me, and the Pro-Ject is back in its element. Jones’ voice is as rich and smooth as a cigar soaked in malt whisky, and the Debut Reference 10 has the requisite weight and warmth to give the gospel tune that lovely feeling of soulful sincerity.

Verdict

Amid such strong competition, there was always a danger that the Pro-Ject Debut Reference 10 might become lost among the crowd. After all, when you’re up against the likes of Rega and Technics, you’re always going to have your work cut out.

Fortunately, the Debut Reference 10 is talented enough in its own right to grant it significant appeal. For its expertly judged blend of sonic authority and spaciousness, not to mention its quality build and ease of use, the Reference 10 is a smart choice for customers not willing to break the £1000 / $1500 barrier.

Review published: 9th September 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition

Also consider the Technics SL-1500CS

Read our Rega Planar 3/Nd3 review

Best turntables: top record players tested by our expert reviewers

We're rather fond of Marantz's Melody (MCR) compact systems that combine CD player, radio, amplification and network streaming into one stylish box. Previous models in the range – such as the M-CR610 and M-CR603 – nabbed What Hi-Fi? Award wins for their user-friendly design, breadth of features and enjoyable sound.

The new Marantz MCR 60n DAB aims to keep that same compact concept going, but is now a much more elevated affair, with plenty of new features, a classy design, and a new price.

The MCR 60n DAB continues to feature a CD player, DAB/FM radio, Bluetooth and AirPlay 2, and it is now joined by a moving magnet phono stage owing to turntables’ continuing popularity.

The system is powered by Marantz's HEOS streaming platform, which brings with it support for popular music streaming apps, which include Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect and Spotify Connect. There is also an optical input and a 3.5mm headphone output.

Hi-res streaming support has been extended to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD 11.2 MHz, while low-latency LE Audio and two-way Bluetooth is also on board. It's Roon Ready, too.

For seamless TV audio playback, it now boasts an HDMI eARC input, which supports 7.1 channels and Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus decoding via built-in DSP, and can play up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM audio.

These are substantial feature gains over the previous model, the four-star M-CR612 (also called Melody X) that we reviewed in 2019. The HEOS platform and app has been updated since, with Marantz saying the onboarding set-up process should be even better than before.

The sound quality has been improved, too. There is an updated power supply for higher and more stable current delivery, while the power rating has been increased to 65W per channel (into 4 ohms) from a previous 50W. Marantz says the extra headroom will result in better power delivery and better sound quality overall from the Class D amplifier. Additionally, there are new custom components in the circuitry to further help deliver a clean, powerful and low-noise performance.

The bottom chassis of the unit features an additional plate to help reduce vibrations coming from the CD mechanism, while the feet have a high density structure and felt cushioning to also help with damping and deliver a more stable bass performance.

The MCR 60n DAB can also be used as a preamp or with active speakers thanks to fixed and variable outputs, while the subwoofer output now has adjustable crossover filters in 10Hz increments from 30Hz to 250Hz.

The unit is also compatible with Dirac Live Room Correction, although you'll need to buy a license separately to make full use of the calibration software.

A new feature is the ability to save four 'Smart Selects' that store your favourite sound configuration for a certain source. For instance, you may want to employ different volume and tone settings and a Dirac-calibrated profile for when watching TV/movie content compared with listening to music via streaming or from radio, and this lets you choose your pre-set sound profiles accordingly.

These can be easily accessed from the button on the unit itself, or by using the updated remote control.

The design of the MCR 60n DAB is inspired by the Marantz Model M1, with a more minimal and luxurious design than before, but it retains the same compact footprint.

The Marantz MCR 60n DAB will be available for £800 / €900 / AU$1,700 from 15th September. This DAB version is for the European and Australian markets and is available in Champagne Gold and Black finishes, while the non-DAB version will be available for $1000 in the black finish only.

That's a substantial jump in price over the previous M-CR612, which we tested at £630 in 2019, while older MCR units tended to cost £500. With all the new features and proposed improvements for the MCR 60n DAB, we're hoping it will be more than justified.

MORE:

Read our Marantz M-CR612/Melody X review

We have a "Rega Special" turntable, a new Dolby Atmos soundbar and TCL's flagship Super QLED in for testing this month

The Linn LP12, Mission Cyrus One or a humble WiiM Pro Plus: what product got you into hi-fi?

The phrase ‘appearances can be deceptive’ could have been coined for the new Technics SL-1500CS turntable. Despite the notable price difference – the standard SL-1500C costs £899 / $1499 / AU$1899 – there is nothing obvious to distinguish the pair on first viewing, bar the new deck’s Metallic Grey finish.

At first we thought the SL-1500CS was intended to replace the original, but Technics sees it as the next step in its turntable hierarchy, with the standard model continuing in production.

Build & design

What’s the difference between the two? It comes down to the direct-drive’s motor controller circuit. The new SL-1500CS design repurposes the company’s Delta-Sigma Drive technology, as seen in its digital amplifiers, to give the motor a purer signal feed. The result is a motor that spins more smoothly and accurately. This may not sound like much, but it affects every aspect of the record player’s performance.

Elsewhere, everything feels reassuringly familiar. The robust-feeling plinth remains a sturdy mix of aluminium, ABS and glass fibre to deliver a rigid, low-resonance structure. It is only available in a single finish, Metallic Grey, and to our eyes at least, looks smart.

The resonance-control theme continues with the SL-1500CS’s platter. It is made of die-cast aluminium and heavily damped with rubber on the underside to produce a more inert support for the record.

The record player’s ‘S’-shaped tonearm is a well-proven aluminium design. Its bearings are smooth and relatively play-free, while the detachable headshell makes cartridge swapping a breeze. The easily adjustable arm height is another tick in the Ease-Of-Use column. The lift/lower lever works well enough but doesn’t feel particularly precise or positive in use.

Technics has included an Ortofon 2M Red moving magnet cartridge as part of the package, and it is a good choice. This much-respected design is an unfussy yet capable performer that tracks securely at a steady 1.8g.

Speed switching is easily done at the touch of a button, with the SL-1500CS offering 78 RPM alongside the usual 33 ⅓ and 45 choices. We like the way the platter gets quickly up to speed without the judder and fuss of most belt-driven rivals.

The SL-1500CS is a semi-automatic design. It can be set to lift the arm at the end of a record side. This takes around ten revolutions to kick in, so don’t worry if it doesn’t happen as soon as the stylus tip reaches the run-out groove.

There is also a built-in phono stage, unchanged from the standard SL-1500C. Most included phono stages tend to be stop-gap efforts that are easily bettered by modestly priced outboard units. That’s not the case here.

We think this Technics phono module is good enough to hold its head high against most sub-£200 phono stages we’ve heard. If the urge to upgrade does strike, the circuit can be taken out of the signal path with the flick of a small switch on the back panel.

Setting up the SL-1500CS is easy. Once the deck is out of the packaging, the user just needs to fit the platter, attach the headshell, and set the tracking weight and bias to match. The Ortofon cartridge is already fitted and aligned in the headshell.

A quartet of large spring and rubber feet provide a degree of isolation from external vibrations, though as with any turntable, a level, low-resonance support is still recommended.

The deck’s tonearm leads are detachable. They do the job, but still leave a little too much on the table for our tastes. They would be our first port of call when the urge to upgrade strikes. All the SL-1500CS’s sockets are deeply inset under the plinth. While this makes for a neater installation, making the initial connections is more fiddly than we would like.

A record player at this level demands a good quality partnering system. We get great results with the Technics feeding an Arcam A15+ amplifier and KEF LS50 Meta speakers. We also installed the Technics into our reference system of Cyrus Phono Signature/PSX-R2 phono stage, Burmester 088/911 MkIII amplifier and ATC SCM50 speakers, to really put a spotlight on its performance.

Our benchmarks are the similarly-priced Rega Planar 3 RS Edition and the standard SL-1500C (fitted with an Ortofon 2M cartridge as standard). The comparisons are intriguing.

Sound

How much difference does improved motor control make? It turns out that the answer is quite a lot. Given how similar the two Technics decks are, the sonic differences are surprisingly large in a suitably transparent system.

The SL-1500CS is a livelier and more energetic performer. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony comes through with greater conviction, with more expressive dynamic shifts and a stronger handle on the individual instrumental strands.

The new model sounds composed and organised, making more sense of the music. We’re having more fun too, thanks to an increased sense of verve and drama.

Both Technics decks are supplied with the same Ortofon cartridge, so there is little difference in tonal character. They both sound even and balanced, though the new model offers notably more insight into the recording.

In general terms, the SL-1500CS proves to be an excellent performer for the money. That improved detail resolution doesn’t just better its cheaper stablemate; it is impressive for the price too. Control and composure are also top class.

We love the Technics deck’s sense of power when playing large-scale music. Its presentation is big, muscular and punchy. Crucially, it avoids sounding brutish; there is too much in the way of finesse to let that happen.

However, given appropriate music, the low-end kicks hard with plenty of weight and authority. Bob Marley’s Catch A Fire comes through with its energy and attitude fully intact. Move up the frequency range, and there is a good degree of clarity, with Marley’s voice coming through with natural warmth, body and emotion.

Add an impressive sense of stability coupled to surefooted rhythmic ability, and it is hard to escape the conclusion that this is one of the best record players we’ve heard anywhere near this price.

Our current class leader is Rega’s mighty Planar 3 RS Edition, of course. This comes fitted with the excellent Nd5 moving magnet cartridge, and sets sky-high performance standards for the price.

Unlike the standard Planar 3, the RS Edition features electronic speed change as well as a smarter finish on the plinth. There is no built-in phono stage, so this isn’t quite an apples-to-apples comparison, but it is close enough to prove useful.

Cutting to the chase, the Rega is ultimately the more transparent and insightful performer. It tells us more about the recording and edges ahead when it comes to dynamic subtlety and rhythmic precision. The Technics counters with more powerful, though less articulate bass and a fine sense of stability, so it isn’t all one-way traffic.

Verdict

If you are after the most sonically capable record player at this level, then go for the Rega. It is a superb product that’s beautifully engineered and a pleasure to use. However, the Technics SL-1500CS isn’t short of appeal either.

It too is superbly made, and feels like it will survive decades of use. If you are the kind of person that loves swapping cartridges, it makes that so easy. Factor in the impressive built-in phono stage and there are enough plus points for the Technics to be considered a worthy alternative to the Rega. The SL-1500CS deserves a high place on any shortlist.

Review published: 7th September 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition

Also consider the Pro-Ject Debut Reference 10

Best turntables: top record players tested by our expert reviewers

British manufacturer Majority has expanded its home audio range with four new products designed for listeners “who want modern music streaming but also want to use their CD collection”.

The new products include the Fitzwilliam trio – which includes the Fitzwilliam CD, Fitzwilliam Amp and Fitzwilliam CD Amp – and the Quadriga Maxi all-in-one system, which combines streaming with a built-in CD player and speakers.

According to Majority, the Fitzwilliam trio has been designed to “let customers choose the right starting point for the equipment they already own, from adding connected sources to an established system, to powering passive speakers”.

First up is the Fitzwilliam CD. This is a slot-loading CD player, which offers support for CD, CD-R and CD-RW formats.

Far from being limited to physical music, the Fitzwilliam CD also features wireless listening and streaming options via Bluetooth 5.2, Spotify Lossless, Amazon Music and Deezer, as well as USB MP3 playback and internet radio. There's even support for DAB, DAB+ and FM radio.

Another analogue source can be connected via stereo RCA inputs, while stereo RCA, optical and coaxial outputs offer a variety of analogue and digital options.

The Fitzwilliam CD’s front panel features an 8cm colour display, showing the station, track and menu information. Users can control the unit wirelessly by remote, through the OKTIV app, or manually using the front-panel buttons.

Alongside the Fitzwilliam CD, the Fitzwilliam Amp provides 100 watts per channel of Class-D power via its Texas Instruments amplifier. Streaming and radio options are built in, with support for Spotify Connect with Spotify Lossless, Amazon Music, Deezer, internet radio and podcasts.

DAB, DAB+ and FM radio are also included, alongside Bluetooth support and MP3 playback from USB drives up to 128GB.

The amplifier has optical and coaxial digital inputs alongside a standard stereo RCA connection. For further listening versatility, outputs include stereo passive speaker outs, stereo RCA pre-amplifier outputs and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

According to Majority, preset EQ modes and customisable ‘My EQ’ controls allow bass, treble and loudness to be adjusted “to suit the room and speakers”.

Last but not least is the Fitzwilliam CD Amp, which pairs a tray-loading CD player with 100 watts per channel of Class D power from a Texas Instruments amplifier.

Like the Fitzwilliam CD, the Fitzwilliam CD Amp supports CD, CD-R and CD-RW, alongside Spotify Lossless, Amazon Music, Deezer, Bluetooth, USB MP3, internet radio, podcasts, DAB/DAB+ and FM.

The Fitzwilliam CD Amp accepts digital and analogue sources thanks to its stereo RCA, optical and coaxial inputs. Outputs include stereo speaker, stereo RCA pre-amplifier, and 3.5mm headphone connections.

The CD Amp has an 8cm colour display screen and can be controlled using built-in physical controls, a remote, or the OKTIV app.

What if you want everything combined in a single box? That's where the Quadriga Maxi comes in. Boasting 200 watts of total power, the 2.1-channel system combines two 7.6cm full-range drivers with a built-in 13cm bass woofer for “room-filling listening without separate equipment”.

The Quadriga Maxi features a slot-loading CD player, with CD, CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 CD support, alongside Spotify Connect, Amazon Music, Deezer, internet radio, podcasts, DAB/DAB+, FM, Bluetooth 5.2 and USB MP3 playback.

The all-in-one system includes optical, stereo RCA and 3.5mm aux inputs. For simple navigation of its extensive feature set, an 11cm colour display is provided, alongside wireless control options via remote and the OKTIV app.

The Fitzwilliam range and Quadriga Maxi are available now. Pricing is as follows:

- Fitzwilliam CD - £180 / €199
- Fitzwilliam Amp - £200 / €229
- Fitzwilliam CD Amp - £230 / €269
- Quadriga Maxi - £350 / €399

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Esoteric has launched the N-01XE, its latest music streamer which promises to blend an "exquisite metal construction" with high-grade components for an "authentic, emotionally engaging sound".

At its heart, the N-01XE incorporates Esoteric's Master Sound Discrete DAC, boasting the brand's second-generation 'G2' architecture for what it teases as a "breathtakingly powerful" and dynamic performance.

The DAC chip itself uses a dual-mono configuration with independent power transformers for left and right channels, contributing to what Esoteric describes as "a smooth, natural, and remarkably analogue-like sound".

The Discrete DAC G2 has been built using high-precision 'MELF' resistors and Esoteric's board-mounting technologies for a more powerful, musical and dynamic audio signature.

Further, Esoteric's own 'Network Engine G4' promises "top-of-the-line" processing power thanks to its powerful CPU and dedicated linear power supply, a configuration that aims to reduce distortion and contribute to the new player's "smooth, richly detailed" character.

The N-01XE is capable of supporting mega-hi-res files up to 48-bit/768kHz PCM alongside DSD512. In pursuit of digital-to-analogue conversion that matches the characteristics of both DSD and PCM files, dedicated digital processing algorithms have been independently developed for each format.

The new unit boasts a wide-ranging connectivity suite, including coaxial, optical and USB-C digital inputs alongside RCA and XLR analogue outputs. The N-01XE is Roon Ready, while wi-fi connectivity grants access to the likes of Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect and Spotify.

On the outside, the network player's multi-layer chassis is built to prevent interference between the various circuit components, while a semi-floating top panel has been designed to contribute to the streamer's sonic openness. A set of isolation feet provides a stable foundation for the N-01XE's "focused, open soundstage".

The Esoteric N-01XE is available now, priced at £22,999 / $28,000 / €26,500. We've previously tested Esoteric's N-05XE streaming preamp (£13,000 / $13,000 / AU$17,000) and was mightily impressed with its excellent sound quality and superb engineering, so we imagine the new N-01XE sets an even higher bar.

MORE:

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What got you into hi-fi? It’s a question people embedded in the hobby get asked a lot.

After all, hi-fi is a time-consuming, sometimes lifelong, endeavour that will see fans design entire rooms from scratch and invest vast amounts of money in the pursuit of sonic perfection – if that even exists.

So from the outside, it can look like a lot of effort for something that, unless you "get it", doesn't seem that important.

There are many answers to this question, even among the What Hi-Fi? team, which includes numerous experts who have chosen to dedicate their professional and personal lives to the endeavour.

But one of the most consistent themes we hear when answering the question is that it all began with a specific piece of hardware.

Which is why, for this month’s Ask The Reader question, we want to know: what product got you into hi-fi?

Maybe, like our editor (me), it was a special turntable your parents had set up in the lounge and let you use to play their (rather glorious) selection of classic rock LPs?

Or was it a set of speakers you bought in college out of the back of a van at a car boot sale, not knowing the treasure you’d just stumbled upon?

Perhaps you’re a bit younger and discovered the magic of hi-fi after adding a streamer to a classic separates set-up you inherited?

Whatever the answer, we want to know!

You can post your answer in the comments section of this page, or in our forums. Just make sure to tell us what the product was and why it was so special.

Maybe it was the album it was playing? Maybe it was the company you kept, or the place you heard it that made it so special?

As always, at the end of the month we’ll publish a new piece collating your most interesting answers! So please make sure to keep your language PG-13 and stick to our community guidelines for a chance to be included.

MORE:

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While it may have forged much of its reputation on its budget hi-fi separates, including the outstanding A8 integrated amplifier, Rotel's premium Michi product series has produced some real gems. From the Michi X3 amplifier to the Michi Q5 CD player, Rotel knows how to operate in the higher echelons of the hi-fi market.

Now, the Japanese brand is adding to its more premium collection of separates with two new additions to the Michi lineup: the Michi Prestige P430 preamplifier and the Michi Prestige S430 stereo amplifier.

According to Rotel, the S430 stereo amp is aimed at listeners who want to step up to a fully fledged separates system, delivering 230 watts per channel into 8 ohms.

The new amplifier uses an advanced architecture which combines an oversized in-house-manufactured toroidal transformer, large bulk-storage capacitors, isolated signal routing and multi-stage push-pull output transistors, all of which combine for "firm bass control" and outstanding "dynamic impact".

In terms of connections, the Michi Prestige S430 houses balanced XLR and RCA inputs alongside dual 5-way speaker binding posts. Externally, the S430 features an aluminium chassis and a front-panel display with selectable metre displays and a backlit power toggle.

Also arriving is the Michi Prestige P430 preamplifier, designed to bridge the gap between traditional and modern sources for listeners who want ample connectivity options alongside the performance of a separates set-up.

Central to the new preamplifier is an ESS SABRE ES9028PRO 8-channel DAC which, says Rotel, renders recordings "with pristine clarity, natural detail, and an open, precisely focused soundstage". The P430 is capable of supporting PCM files up to 32-bit/384kHz, as well as DSD256.

Further, the new preamplifier has been built to preserve signal integrity via its transparent signal paths and refined power-supply architecture, resulting in a sound which balances "exceptional control and musical insight".

The P430 boasts balanced XLR and RCA inputs and outputs, coaxial and optical inputs, and HDMI ARC for connecting to a home cinema set-up and a moving magnet phono stage for partnering with a turntable.

Further connections include dual subwoofer outputs, a 6.35mm headphone port, and wireless Bluetooth connectivity with aptX HD codec support for streaming files up to 24-bit/48kHz.

The Michi Prestige S430 stereo amplifier and Michi Prestige P430 preamplifier are available this September. The S430 will set you back £3599 / $3999 / €3999, while the P430 is priced at £3599 / $3999 / €3999.

MORE:

Read our Rotel Michi Q5 CD player review

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The Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has announced the winners of the EISA Awards 2026-2027, marking the 44th edition of the world's longest-running and most respected awards programme for consumer electronics. Across five categories, Hi-Fi, Home Theatre & Vision, Photography, Mobile Devices and In-Car Electronics, this year's winners represent the products that EISA's expert groups judged to be the outstanding performers of the year.

The winners were selected through EISA's rigorous, long-established judging process. Over several months, editors from more than 50 specialist technology magazines and websites in 27 countries tested hundreds of new products from every major manufacturer, comparing notes and, in the case of most categories, meeting in person to debate and vote on the strongest candidates in each category before reaching a final consensus.

This year's list of winners spans everything from loudspeakers and mirrorless cameras to flagship smartphones, home theatre systems and in-car infotainment, reflecting both the breadth of EISA's expertise and the pace of innovation across the consumer electronics industry over the past 12 months.

“The EISA Award is the award with the greatest tradition in the world,” said EISA president Ljubiša Miodragović. “It is given by a group of the most respected technology editors on the planet, people who spend months carefully judging and reviewing every device before a single winner is chosen. That is what sets these awards apart, and it is what makes today's announcement so meaningful for the winning companies and for our readers alike.”

This year, Australian Hi-Fi participated in judging the hi-fi categories, and Sound+Image helped judge home theatre and vision devices. In both cases, the process involves nominations, short-lists, online presentations, listening sessions and extensive lab testing, before conducting a lengthy final voting session between all the relevant EISA expert group editors.

You can view the full list of all the products that won a ‘Best Product’ prize in 2026-2027 EISA Award categories, including the final Judges’ Citation explaining why each won. A full list of EISA Award winners in other categories such as mobile devices and photography equipment can be found at the end.

To see all the AV winners, you can head here for Sound+Image’s presentation of the 2025-2026 EISA Home Theatre and Vision Award categories.

As a final quick disclaimer, please also note that What Hi-Fi? magazine and website have no official connection with EISA; it's the Australian-based Australian Hi-Fi and Sound+Image magazines which have the longstanding EISA connection, dating back to the organisation's expansion from a European to a global perspective on audio, AV and wider consumer electronics categories.

Earlier this week, Naim launched its new premium Uniti Star Lite streaming amplifier, which retains all the extensive features, connections and design of the original Star – but loses the CD player and ripper.

This is a blow to CD fans, but it was unavoidable due to issues sourcing the original drive mechanism and an inability to find a suitable alternative.

Naim's solution therefore was to cease production of the original Star and introduce the Star Lite as a streaming-focused unit. All sensible, to be fair, especially at the lowered price of £3199 compared with the now-discontinued Star's £3499.

With all the specs, amplification and streaming features being pretty much identical, we had also assumed that the sound quality of the two units would remain the same as well. That would be no bad thing, as the original Uniti Star got an effusive five-star review from us when we tested it back in 2018.

However, Naim has now confirmed to us in a statement that the new Star Lite will actually have a "better audio performance" than the outgoing Star.

Developing the Star Lite gave Naim's engineers the opportunity to tweak elements of the hardware, circuitry and software under the hood, all of which should result in "a cleaner signal path, with improved transparency for a more refined listening experience."

Here is the full statement from Naim below:

"The Uniti Star Lite was developed as a replacement for the Uniti Star following the discontinuation of the CD mechanism. However, during development, we identified some performance benefits resulting from this simplified architecture.

"By removing the CD mechanism, we were able to reduce electrical noise within the product. Combined with software optimisation and a more focused hardware architecture, the result is a cleaner signal path, with improved transparency for a more refined listening experience.

"In short, Uniti Star Lite is not simply the original Uniti Star without a CD drive; the simplified architecture has enabled us to achieve a more optimised electronic with a better audio performance."

So that's more positive news than we initially thought, and credit to Naim for not resting on its laurels. While many will mourn the loss of the integrated CD player, it looks like those investing in the Star Lite will potentially benefit from better sound, too.

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I've recently been testing the iFi iDSD GR 2 DAC/headphone amplifier, and while it's a perfectly decent performer, it has left a question buzzing inside my mind like a wasp trapped in an upturned glass: why does a DAC need a Bluetooth input?

A seemingly innocuous question, perhaps, but one that won't leave my brain. Let's be clear that the iDSD GR 2 will set you back £529 / $529 / AU$849 at the time of writing, a product that's likely going to be driving all manner of respectable wired headphones.

If you're buying a DAC to improve the sound of your laptop-stored digital music files, then sound quality is likely to be top priority, so what's the appeal of throwing much of that out of the window on a less efficient means of audio transmission? Why have a Bluetooth option at all?

The curse of the unticked box

Part of the answer stems, I imagine, from one very simple motivator: consumer expectation. As we've seen with the rise of wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers, customers expect a well-stocked spec sheet, and as soon as certain boxes aren't ticked, alarm bells are set ringing.

It feels as though Bluetooth speakers now must have Auracast, while wireless headphones must deploy in-depth noise cancelling and some form of spatial audio. If they don't, a rival brand will, and that's where a potential buyer might instead head.

Omitting a given feature, even on a more premium or audiophile-centred DAC, might smack of an oversight on the part of the manufacturer, even if said omission was actually a strategic one designed to redirect resources elsewhere.

Try explaining that to an increasingly voracious customer base.

Let's not ignore the fact, either, that having a Bluetooth input is exceedingly convenient. As a means of wire-free transmission from your source (such as a Bluetooth-equipped laptop or smartphone), it's incredibly easy to access and generally very stable, and many users enjoy the freedom of having a source that isn't tethered to headphones or, in this case, their DAC. Like William Wallace fighting at the Battle of Stirling in Braveheart, it's all about freedom.

Bluetooth is also a universal language, and that extends beyond the purely technical. If you've got a friend who wants a quick connection to your fancy new DAC to hear your Tidal playlists in better quality, it remains the king of convenience. Everyone knows it, everyone uses it, and everyone understands how it works.

Plus, the quality is good, and getting better. The iDSD GR 2, for example, offers Bluetooth 5.4 with higher-quality codec support in the shape of aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive and LDAC, which essentially means the chance of streaming files up to 24-bit/96kHz using Adaptive and 32-bit/96kHz via LDAC. Such files can be accepted via Bluetooth, but as we’ll see, this is still a compressed and lossy streaming method which comes with serious drawbacks.

It’s still worth pointing out, though, that the DAC is still the thing doing the audio decoding, not your phone or laptop, so you're still getting some of the benefit of your dedicated device when playing via Bluetooth. Note, of course, the word "some".

Bluetooth(less) audio

No matter the strides that the likes of Qualcomm and Sony have made in improving Bluetooth as a means of audio transmission, there's no question that those trusty old wires still rule supreme when it comes to listening to hi-res files, as it guarantees lossless audio transmission.

As we wrote in our review, "the iDSD GR 2’s (Bluetooth) performance is perfectly capable, as evidenced by its sure-footed handling of a 16-bit/44.1kHz rendition of Goose’s Dripfield, but if you want to make the most out of your DAC – and indeed, the headphones you’ll be partnering it with – (it) should be seen as a nice bonus rather than a primary means of listening."

The problem is, when the DAC is wirelessly connected to your source, the Bluetooth part becomes the weak link in the audio transmission chain. No matter how good your wired cans are, how high the file resolution is, and how firmly you've got them jammed into the very real, very physical headphones socket, this lossly wireless connection to the source will become your limiting factor.

Plus, if you've spent all this money on a DAC, you're likely to be using a decent pair of wird headphones to partner with it, from the Røde NTH-100 (£149 / $149 / AU$249) to the open-backed Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X (£189 / $199 / AU$399), the Grado SR325x (£330 / $295 / AU$419) or, at a push, the Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) (£899 / $899).

Bluetooth has drawbacks which can rob the audio of its initial lustre, the main one being the problem of compression. LDAC, for instance, has a data rate of 990kbps, and while impressive compared with the 328kbps rate of standard SBC, it’s a lot lower than the 1411.2kbps provided by CDs.

Plus, if you've bought your not-inexpensive DAC to use primarily with wired headphones, not using a wire between source and said DAC seems somewhat redundant when the headphones provide a physical tether anyway. The supposed freedom provided by wire-free Bluetooth rather goes out the window, as you're still using a physical connection between your DAC and headphones anyway.

The question you have to ask is whether you'd miss Bluetooth if it weren't there. The Award-winning Chord Mojo 2 DAC doesn't have a Bluetooth input, but for sound quality, it's a cut above, and not once have we listened to the Mojo 2 and wished for wireless connectivity. That, in itself, tells you all you need to know.

It's admirable that iFi, or any other brand, would want its products to be as feature-laden as possible, but the idea of Bluetooth on a premium DAC designed to service the ‘sound-first’ market doesn’t make sense to me.

If you’re willing to spend what is still a considerable amount of cash on a DAC such as this, you’re going to want to get the best sound possible for the money. Bluetooth may be convenient, but the sonic sacrifices you’ll make feel unjustifiable given that the purpose of a DAC such as the iDSD GR 2 is, ultimately, to make your music and headphones-based listening sound as good as possible for the money spent.

MORE:

Read our review of the Chord Mojo 2

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Best DACs: USB, desktop and portable digital-to-analogue converters

Yamaha has expanded its streaming-capable hi-fi lineup with the unveiling of two new products: the WXA-70A streaming amplifier and the WXC-70A network music streamer.

Both fresh-faced additions aim to build on the legacy of the 10-year-old WXA- & WXC-50, with Yamaha promising a potent blend of compact streaming convenience and engineering which delivers "a level of musical satisfaction that approaches full-size hi-fi components".

The WXA-70A streaming amp boasts 70 watts of Class D amplification per channel into 8 ohms. At the heart of both new models is an ESS Sabre ES9039Q2M DAC working in tandem with Yamaha’s high-precision internal processing and stable output architecture, designed to offer "expressive bass" alongside a natural, energetic tone.

Both products employ high-precision internal digital signal processing and clock-rebuilding 'ASRC' technology, designed to help maintain "clarity, timing accuracy and spatial precision". Yamaha’s proprietary 'YPAO' room calibration tech, meanwhile, seeks to optimise playback depending on your given listening environment.

The WXA-70A and WXC-70A are well-equipped with connections, offering optical, line-level and auxiliary inputs, as well as HDMI eARC for integration within a TV or home cinema set-up. For boosting your bass, a dedicated subwoofer output is provided on both, with the WXC-70A streamer also offering optical and coaxial outputs.

On the streaming side, both are powered by Yamaha's 'MusicCast' streaming platform and app, granting support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal Connect, as well as multi-room audio and Roon Ready certification.

The larger WXA-70A and more compact WXC-70A are housed in a rigid aluminium enclosure that promises to be a vibration-resistant structure, which further helps to give each model a "cleaner and more expressive sound".

The Yamaha WXA-70A streaming amp is priced at £1199 / $1300 / AU$1999, while the WXC-70A streamer will set you back £859 / $1000 / AU$1599 with both models set to be available from November.

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High-performance preamplifiers that pack streaming smarts have become a bit of a burgeoning hi-fi category in recent years.

And McIntosh has a new offering which not only delivers both but also packages them using the company’s trademark design cues.

The CS7500 features a signature black glass front panel, illuminated logo and precision rotary knobs, plus an elevated chassis and custom-machined brushed end caps.

It’s also an amplifier of two halves, boasting a mirror-polished stainless steel lower chassis, partnered with a hairline-brushed black titanium stainless steel upper chassis.

And it wouldn’t be a McIntosh without a splash of colour from its iconic blue meters, which peer out of the front of the amplifier like a pair of demonic eyes.

The CS7500 offers a broad range of connections as you’d expect and includes six analogue inputs, including two balanced, three unbalanced, and a dedicated phono stage for connecting a turntable.

You also have seven digital audio inputs, which all take advantage of the CS7500’s Quad Balanced, 8-channel, 32-bit digital-to-analogue converter (DAC). The USB Type-B socket on the rear of the preamp supports native DSD512 files and DXD up to 384kHz, while its coaxial and optical inputs support playback up to 24-bit/192kHz.

You can also extract audio from your TV thanks to its HDMI ARC socket.

On the output front, you have two pairs of balanced and unbalanced variable outputs, plus a fixed unbalanced output for connecting different power amp configurations.

The second set of balanced and unbalanced outputs can also be dedicated to a single subwoofer or pair of stereo subwoofers should your room require a bit more boom.

Streaming support extends to Qobuz Connect, Spotify Connect with Spotify Lossless, TIDAL Connect with TIDAL Max, AirPlay, Google Cast, and Roon. There’s also Apple AirPlay and Google Cast for playing music stored on local devices plus Bluetooth aptX HD and aptX Adaptive.

As you’d expect, the McIntosh CS7500 will have a suitably premium price tag of $12,500 / $17,750 CAD when it goes on sale on the 28th August through authorised McIntosh dealers.

MORE:

Our pick of the best music streamers you can buy

And the best stereo amplifiers for every budget

And the best hi-fi systems

FiiO has unveiled the EA13, a full-size vacuum tube amplifier designed to bring the allure of classic valve amplification in a modern, feature-heavy design.

The FiiO EA13 houses six tubes and Class A push-pull circuitry, delivering 28 watts per channel at 8 ohms, with circuitry designed to "preserve both the smallest details and the scale of a performance".

Digging deeper into the amplification, the new model houses two Sylvania NOS PCF80 preamplifier tubes, selected for their "refined, transparent presentation" and an "open, natural soundstage". Accompanying the aforementioned pair are four JJ Electronmic EL34 power tubes to round out that six-tube configuration.

Key to the new amplifier's performance is a low-noise output transformer, built to suppress unwanted vibrations while improving electromagnetic shielding and stability. The result, says FiiO, is a ​tauter, fuller bass reproduction wedded to a refined treble and improved dynamic handling.

On the connections side, four RCA line-level inputs are available. Like most valve amplifier designs, there are 4 ohm and 8 ohm speaker outputs depending on the nominal impedance of your speaker. For personal listening, a 6.35mm single-ended headphone output is found at the front of the unit.

The EA13 has been designed to house classic valve engineering within a modern chassis. The amplifier has a CNC-machined aluminium front panel which has been sandblasted for a more tactile finish, while a solid metal body has been built to offer electromagnetic shielding.

To complete the vintage hi-fi look, the EA13 houses two mechanical VU meters front and centre, flanked by backlit volume and input selector knobs.

The FiiO EA13 amplifier is out now, priced at £769 / $769 / €665.

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Eversolo has launched two multitasking network music streamers, the DMP-A8 Gen 2 and DMP-A8 Master Gen 2. These pack in network streaming, high-resolution DAC, analogue preamplifier and a host of connectivity, with near-identical features and a refreshed design across both products.

How do you tell them apart? Well, the Master Gen 2 model now has a custom top-loading CD player built-in, meaning you can play your physical CD collection along with your digital music library files and streamed playlists from just one multi-tasking box.

The DMP-A8 Gen 2 and DMP-A8 Master Gen 2 otherwise share plenty of the same streaming and connectivity features. They have full network streaming abilities (wi-fi and wired), including DLNA compatibility so you can stream stored digital files from a connected NAS drive.

There's support for popular and niche music streaming services, while Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect and Bluetooth are on the menu.

As before, both Eversolo models pair an AK4191EQ digital processor with an AK4499EX DAC for greater precision, with support for hi-res music files up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512.

Updates include a more powerful and faster eight-core processing platform, 8GB of memory and 64GB of internal storage. As we found with the Eversolo DMP-A10, there is an awful lot that an Eversolo streamer and its interface can can do, so the increased processing power in the new streamers will no doubt be welcome, ensuring the interface remains responsive while handling hi-res files, large libraries and switching between various sources.

You can also install an optional internal SSD with up to 8TB of storage on both models, so you can save and access your digital music downloads locally.

Both also function as preamplifiers, thanks to an analogue-domain volume control and a fully balanced analogue output stage. This means you can connect either product to a power amplifier or a pair of active speakers and use the Eversolo as control; or you can use either one purely as a network streamer when connected to an integrated amplifier.

Physical connections include AES/EBU, optical and coaxial digital, along with balanced XLR and RCA line-level analogue connections. There are also USB Type-B and HDMI ARC/eARC inputs, and a dedicated subwoofer output with adjustable crossover settings.

Along with the integrated CD player, the Master Gen 2 features a more sophisticated clocking system than the standard DMP-A8 Gen 2 and adds a 10MHz external clock input, allowing those with "more advanced digital systems the option of connecting the Eversolo to a compatible external clock and using a shared precision timing reference across their digital audio equipment."

The aluminium chassis has been redesigned for both second generations, with a larger 8.6-inch touchscreen display that shows off playback information, album artwork, all sources and apps, as well as display options which include VU meters and spectrum analysers.

Both Eversolo models also feature Eversolo's 'evotune Pro' room correction system, and a 20-band parametric EQ that you can fine-tune to your heart's content.

The Eversolo DMP-A8 Gen 2 is available now and costs £1949 / $1980 / AU$3299, while the DMP-A8 Master Edition Gen 2 will cost you a little more at £2489 / $2590 / AU$4299.

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Ever heard of gallium nitride (GaN)? It sounds like a material from a galaxy far, far away or a dietary supplement used by Wolverine, but it’s actually a type of semiconductor material and an alternative to conventional silicon.

Going for it is the fact that it allows for higher switching frequencies and it can handle power and heat more efficiently. It can also be packaged much smaller too.

The material is already used in some home hi-fi electronics, but the Burmester and Porsche application is claimed to be the first use of the tech in an in-car environment.

Working together with the University of Stuttgart, Porsche has adapted GaN tech for use in the Burmester 3D High-End Surround Sound System.

Here, it uses a chip based on the material to take care of the voltage conversion needed for the 400W subwoofer amplifier.

Because less energy is required and less heat is generated, you don’t need as much cooling, which means you can use smaller heat sinks – Porsche claims it can make them 20 per cent lighter and also make passive components smaller, thus reducing the size and weight of your amplifier.

One of the biggest challenges for car audio engineers is always the system packaging and being able to make the most of the available space in the car, and this seems to be a convenient way of adding extra versatility without sacrificing performance.

Because less aluminium is used, less heat is generated during the manufacturing process, which has the knock-on effect of reducing CO₂ emissions during amplifier production, so it’s good news from an eco perspective, too.

There's no word on which cars will be the first to feature the tech, but Porsche has confirmed that gallium nitride for Burmester High-End Sound will enter series production and make its debut "in a future Porsche vehicle in 2027".

MORE:

Read our Burmester 3D High-End Surround Sound System (2026 Porsche Macan Electric) review

And our Burmester High-End Surround Sound System (2020 Porsche 911) review

Porsche is bringing Dolby Atmos audio to its in-car hi-fis, but there’s a catch

iFi knows its way around a digital-to-analogue converter. From the pocket-sized, pocket-change-costing Go Link through to its mid-range Zen DAC line, all the way up to the flagship iDSD Phantom, the British brand has established itself as a solid option for buyers seeking a capable DAC/headphone amp that performs well for the money.

iFi has billed its latest creation, the premium iDSD GR 2 DAC, as “a legend perfected”. Acting as the de facto successor to the company’s xDSD Gryphon from 2021, the new model promises wholesale changes from its predecessor, including redesigned balanced circuitry, a new Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC chip, and a touchscreen display.

A lot of promise on paper; time to find out how the iFi iDSD GR 2 performs in practice.

Build & design

iFi’s premium DAC/headphone amplifier feels like a quality item. Constructed using a ridged aluminium chassis adorned with an OLED touchscreen and topped with a metal control knob, the iDSD GR 2 does a fine job of making you feel as though you’re getting your money’s worth.

If out-and-out portability is your primary concern, iFi offers smaller, cheaper alternatives in its arsenal of DAC/ headphone amplifiers, including the iFi hip-dac 3 (£199 / $199 / AU$449) and Zen DAC 3 (£229 / $229 / AU$399), with the iDSD GR 2 designed to straddle that tricky hinterland between desktop use and on-the-go listening.

Viewed from above, it’s about the size of an iPhone, but the DAC’s metal chassis and chunky profile mean you might struggle to get it in your pocket comfortably. 268g isn’t exactly heavy, but when you consider that an iPhone 15 weighs about 170g, you’ll realise that it isn’t feather-light, either.

Battery life clocks in at around seven hours, and there are plenty of ways to connect your headphones and music sources to the premium DAC. It features balanced 4.4mm and single-ended 3.5mm inputs and outputs, as well as a USB-C input alongside a combination optical/coaxial input. You can also accept a signal from a Bluetooth (5.4) source, with codec support coming in aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive and LDAC flavours.

The iDSD GR 2 features a narrow OLED colour touchscreen, from which you can access volume adjustment, input selection, choose your desired digital filter and see your music’s file rate.

A display is nice to have, and the touchscreen itself is responsive and precise in its operation. Some aspects of operation take a bit of practice, such as holding certain icons down and then swiping across in the same motion to switch the desired gain mode, but we imagine those are things we’d grow accustomed to with time.

Away from the display, a few little usability quirks are worth flagging. The inputs and outputs at either end of the unit aren’t labelled particularly clearly, meaning that we sometimes had to bust out our phone’s flashlight to find our desired connection. Labelling each port with clearly contrasting white text would make legibility a little easier.

The volume control operation also seems counterintuitive – moving the dial forwards with the DAC lying flat turns the volume down a notch, while moving it backwards raises it up. That feels like the mirror image of what we’d expect, but again, we’d likely get used to it over time.

If you’re planning on taking the DAC out and about and want to keep it safe from knocks and scrapes, iFi offers a faux suede protective case, sold separately for around £50 / $50 / AU$79. The case comes with a cut-out so that you can still operate the touchscreen, though we do find that it can make tapping icons near the edge of the screen a bit trickier due to the cut-out being a little too small.

Internally, the iDSD GR 2 employs Class A amplification, in service of iFi’s pursuit of what it describes as a “natural analogue character”. The brand has also refined its new DAC’s circuitry – which is fully balanced from end to end – to reduce noise within the signal path.

The iDSD GR 2 delivers up to a claimed output of 1513m/W RMS – an increase of 50 per cent over the outgoing xDSD Gryphon – to grant more headroom to handle more demanding loads. That matches up with our testing, as from the premium Beyerdynamic T1 (£899 / $999 / AU$1599) to the high-end Sony MDR-Z1R (£1700 / $2100) headphones, we find that there isn’t much that the iFi can’t handle.

Features

The iDSD GR 2 supports DSD512 files and PCM playback up to a sky-high resolution of 32-bit/768kHz, though the chances of any layperson having such ultra-high-resolution recordings are slim. Still, it’s nice to know that, whatever music file you feed the iDSD GR 2, you’ve got a near-cast-iron guarantee it can handle it.

Doing said handling is a new Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC chip sitting at the heart of the circuitry, which is claimed to produce a "warm, analogue character" with "lower distortion and greater dynamic range". That DAC chip is supported by 'K2HD' technology, a harmonic restoration algorithm built to bring recordings closer to their original character by "reintroducing subtle detail" and restoring musical tone.

iFi’s usual parade of digital filters is on hand for tweaking your sound to your own tastes, with four options consisting of ‘Standard’, ‘Bit-Perfect’, ‘Minimum Phase’ and ‘GTO’. Each will impart a slightly different flavour on your tunes – ‘Standard’ makes music crisper and more sharply defined; ‘GTO’ widens the soundstage a little – but for most of our testing, we stick with the smooth, pleasingly fluid balance of ‘Minimum Phase’.

iFi’s complementary ‘XBass’ and ‘XSpace’ analogue processing features have a more perceptible effect. ‘Xbass’ is useful for adding a good deal more lower-end muscle, even if it sacrifices precision and subtlety in the process, while ‘XSpace’ widens out the soundstage for an airier, less ‘on-head’ experience.

Both are fun to play around with – and potentially useful if you’re seeking to make up for a pair of cans with, say, not much oomph in the bass – but we perform the bulk of our testing with them switched off, as this grants the resultant sound a more natural, balanced character.

Away from filters, iFi’s latest DAC offers a hybrid power mode, meaning that the unit will prioritise mains power when connected to an external supply. If extra power is required, the iDSD GR 2 will utilise its internal battery and then switch to the external supply when the demand drops.

While you’ll likely spend a good deal of your time controlling the DAC using its on-unit touch controls, Android users can connect to iFi’s Nexis app. From here, you can access digital filters, fine-tune your listening profile, select your desired input and reap the rewards of any handy over-the-air updates.

It’s not the most stylish control app you’ll ever find, and most of the functionality can be adjusted via the DAC itself, but the Nexis platform is clear and easily navigable. Just be aware that, to get the most out of the app, you’ll need your source device to be connected physically, rather than via Bluetooth. iPhone users can still use the app via Bluetooth, but it’s a far sparser, more limited affair.

Sound

We use a range of premium and high-end wired headphones to test the iDSD GR 2’s capabilities, including not only the Sony MDR-Z1R, but also the budget-friendly Røde NTH-100 (£149 / $149 / AU$249) and premium Austrian Audio The Composer (£2249 / $2699 / AU$3999). We also make sure to test the full range of connections on offer, although we prefer using the punchier, crisper-sounding 4.4mm balanced output over its 3.5mm counterpart when possible.

With the iFi connected via USB-C to our laptop at one end and a pair of the high-end Sony MDR-Z1R connected to the 4.4mm balanced headphone output at the other, we reach for a 24-bit/96kHz rendition of Muse’s Panic Station. The iDSD GR 2 will give any music you play from a laptop a boost, no matter the quality of the files you use, but there’s no question you’ll really notice its full arsenal of capabilities with suitably high-resolution recordings.

Those abilities include impressive sonic clarity wedded to an ear for detail, all painted across a broad, big-picture soundscape. Panic Station is as crisp and funky as John Travolta’s iconic Saturday Night Fever suit, yet the iDSD GR 2 has the poise and restraint to prevent things from sounding sloppy or ill-ordered. Top-end notes are sharp but rarely bright or overdone, whereas low-end bass tones resonate deeply without sacrificing punch or precision.

A 24-bit/48kHz recording of Fleet Foxes’ Wading In Waist High Water further highlights the iFi’s uncluttered, detail-rich presentation. Tremulous vocals shine brightly as the DAC spotlights Robin Pecknold’s featherlight tenor, all while delicate guitar strums and hazy blasts of brass lull us into a relaxed repose.

We can’t stay basking in the glow of blissed-out indie beats forever, and so it’s time to put out the Bat-Signal and recruit the services of Hans Zimmer to see how the iDSD GR 2 can convey the drama and intensity of The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack (24-bit/192kHz).

iFi’s premium DAC has the poise and refinement to keep the many layers of the epic Rise just where they should be, even if we’re left yearning for a touch more dynamic drama as the music builds to its heroic denouement.

This is where the Award-winning Chord Mojo 2 reminds us why it’s one of the best DACs we’ve tested at this kind of level. At £395 / $725 / AU$899, it’s a good deal cheaper than its iFi rival, yet the bite and drama it brings to these big orchestral numbers are beyond anything the iDSD GR 2 can muster.

To see how both DACs perform in a hi-fi separates set-up, we plug each into our reference system. From our network server, we play Michael Jackson’s Burn This Disco Out (in 16-bit/44.1kHz and 24-bit/176.4kHz) via 4.4mm balanced to XLR feeding into our reference Burmester 088 preamplifier, and the subsequent rendition sounds sparkier and more rhythmically capable via the Chord Mojo 2 than it does through the premium iFi.

The Mojo 2 is already a certified legend in its field, and as we switch back to a DSD recording of Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space, we find ourselves continuing to appreciate the GR 2’s strengths rather than bemoaning its relative shortcomings. Mann’s voice is packed full of personality, and the iFi’s loose, relaxed presentation plays into the tune’s hands to create a pleasingly easy-going rendition.

What about Bluetooth? The iDSD GR 2’s wire-free performance is perfectly capable, as evidenced by its sure-footed handling of a 16-bit/44.1kHz rendition of Goose’s Dripfield. But if you want to make the most out of your DAC – and indeed, the premium headphones you’ll be partnering it with – Bluetooth should be seen as a nice bonus rather than a primary means of listening.

Verdict

The iDSD GR 2 is a fine addition to iFi’s considerable stable of DACs. It’s not as entertaining or dynamically expressive as the benchmark-setting Chord Mojo 2, but its clear, detailed sound and extensive feature set, not to mention sturdy build and strong arsenal of physical connections, make it a fine alternative.

Review published: 24th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Chord Mojo 2

Also consider the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M

Best DACs: USB, desktop and portable digital-to-analogue converters

FiiO has unveiled a new cassette player, but it's not the one the brand was originally planning to launch. Confused? Let us explain.

As the company explained in a post on X, plans were initially in place to launch the new CP15 cassette player, but this has now been delayed due to challenges with getting the new ultra-thin loading mechanism to work.

Instead, FiiO has switched things around and teased the CP11, another portable cassette player that will fill the gap left by the CP15. FiiO has a history in this category, cashing in on the retro revival with its CM13 cassette player, which we tried out a few years ago, and its portable DM13 CD player.

According to FiiO, the new CP11 will feature "an all-new ultra-thin mechanism" and a "higher-quality magnetic head," along with a brushless motor, an overhauled circuit design, and Bluetooth functionality for beaming your music wirelessly to compatible headphones or earbuds.

Photos revealed on X show at least three available colours – red, beige cream, and a light turquoise blue – though there could be more beyond the provided images.

As for its official release, FiiO has said "the end of 2026", but no specific price or date has been given just yet. When we get further information, we'll be sure to share it with you.

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Japanese high-end audio manufacturer, Esoteric, has launched a new turntable, the T-01, which includes a contactless magnetic drive system for “uncompromising precision, energy, and realism”.

The T-01 turntable costs £41,999 / $50,000 and includes features from the company’s flagship record player, the Grandioso T1, such as a triple-layer aluminium and MDF cabinet construction and 10MHz external clock synchronisation. The turntable’s clock sync is compatible with the G-01XD and G-05 Master Clock, too.

The turntable also features a Magne-Float platter, which uses magnetic repulsion to reduce the effective mass of the platter from 13kg to 4kg, thereby minimising spindle bearing friction.

The patented drive system, which the company calls “Esoteric MagneDrive” was first used in its Grandioso T1 record player. Esoteric says that the system achieves “extraordinary rotational silence, stability and high-torque performance, revealing music with uncompromising precision, energy and realism”.

According to Esoteric, the “MagneDrive” system was more than five years in the making. It sees a soft Iron induction wheel surrounding the lower part of the aluminium platter, which spins in response to the rotation of a magnetic driver mounted on the drive motor. Consequently, there is no direct physical contact between the platter and motor assembly, keeping the platter isolated from the motor's vibrations.

The turntable has rotational speeds of 33⅓ and 45 RPM, and features a +/- 12 per cent speed adjustment option (in 0.1 per cent increments).

The T-01 consists of a main unit and a power supply unit, which Esoteric says will enhance “sound isolation”.

The turntable will be available with or without a tonearm, priced £38,999 / $46,000 without tonearm and £41,999 / $50,000 with the tonearm included.

Shipping begins in September.

MORE

Read our full Esoteric F-01/PS-01F review

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Another week, another chance to flex your hi-fi and home cinema muscles with a quiz on a topic close to all our hearts.

This time it’s turntables, but we’ve gone down the crossword route – all you need to do is use our playful clues to help fill the squares on the board.

Think you’ve got the knowledge required to complete the challenge? Click play and take it for a spin, and the fastest time will sit proudly on top of our leaderboard!

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R.E.M.’s sophomore album, Reckoning, is about to get a sonic upgrade.

The 1984 American rock classic is set to be released on 180-gram vinyl, with audio sourced from the album’s original master tapes, on 18th September. The reissue comes as the latest addition to Intercope-Capitol Records Definitive Sound Series.

The original co-producers of the album, Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, were personally involved with the release, which was mastered by Grammy-award winning engineer, Chris Bellman.

According to a post shared by R.E.M on Instagram, the involvement of the original engineers “helped ensure that every decision remained faithful to the warmth, dynamics, balance and distinctive character of the original 1984 recording.”

Upon hearing the upgraded masters, Dixon commented that he was “hearing details within the recording that had escaped him on previous vinyl editions”.

When it was released in April, 1984, Reckoning found widespread critical acclaim. One of the album’s songs, So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry), secured R.E.M. their first ever spot in the Billboard Hot 100.

As part of Interscope-Capitol Records’ Definitive Sound Series, the band’s debut EP, Chronic Town, and debut album, Murmur, have also been reissued as limited editions. Both releases have since sold out.

The Definitive Sound Series edition of Reckoning is available to pre-order now and will be limited to 5000 numbered copies – so move fast if you want to hear So. Central Rain like never before.

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Powered by its excellent StreamMagic streaming platform, Cambridge Audio has done a fine job with its Evo range of just-add-speakers streaming amplifiers in recent years.

They’ve delivered convenience and quality in pretty much equal measure, which isn’t always a given when you’re asking a single product to perform multiple functions.

The Evo 300 is the brand’s fourth such system and sits above the Evo 150 SE in Cambridge Audio’s current line-up.

The new model boasts double the power of the 150 SE (300W vs 150W), and the company has gone to great lengths to highlight the fact that it is its most powerful streaming amplifier ever.

But this increase in power comes with an increase in price, which not only makes it Cambridge Audio’s most expensive streaming amplifier ever, but also moves the Evo into new territory, and into the sights of new rivals.

Cambridge Audio has cooked up a solid recipe for its streaming systems so far, but does the Evo 300 have the ingredients needed to impress?

Price

The Evo 300 costs £3499 / $3999 / AU$6399, which places it slightly above our current favourite around that price, the Award-winning Arcam SA35. The Arcam costs £2999 / $3300 / AU$6495 and launched back in May 2024. Despite its comparative age, we haven’t seen much in the way of online discounts on the Arcam.

To give you some extra context, the Cambridge Audio Evo 75 and Evo 150 launched in 2021 for £1799 / $2250 / AU$3299 and £2249 / $3000 / AU$4299, respectively, while the current Evo 150 SE arrived in 2025 with a price tag of £1999 / $3299 / AU$5795. As you can see, that’s quite a jump in price to the new model.

Design & build

If you’re familiar with any previous Evo models, you’ll know what to expect from the Evo 300 on the design front. And it’s overwhelmingly positive.

Cambridge Audio has really nailed the design language – the Evo 300 is a good-looking unit, with styling that should look at home in a wide range of listening environments.

It has a premium-looking and feeling black aluminium cabinet which boasts the Evo’s party piece – interchangeable, magnetic side panels. You get two options in the box: a real wood veneer or a black slatted option, should you want a traditional or more modern aesthetic.

On the front of the amp is a large 7.8-inch display, which is the biggest Cambridge Audio has used to date. It’s an inch bigger than the screen on the Evo 150 SE, and it really helps the system stand out.

It’s bright, crisp and punchy when it comes to showing album artwork and track information. The way it makes use of that real estate means you shouldn’t have any problems reading it from your sofa.

You have several display options to cycle through, whether you want one packed with track information or simple album artwork – there’s even a VU meter for those wanting something a little different. Whichever you pick, it’s always legible. The fonts used are clean and crisp and the sizes well-judged.

A small strip of control buttons runs down the right side of the screen – these relate to system set-up, playback and power. At the far right of the screen is Cambridge Audio’s trademark volume dial/control wheel combination.

The outer wheel has a knurled pattern running around it, which makes it relatively easy to grip, although some members of the team thought the edge could be a touch wider. As it turns, the Evo 300 responds with a confident click. The volume dial turns smoothly.

Bonus points, too, for the supplied remote. The neat design makes a refreshing change from some of the dull, generic-looking wands we’ve come across at this and even higher levels. The shape and positioning of the buttons make it simple to grip and easy to navigate.

But it's Cambridge Audio’s StreamMagic app which will be your main point of interaction with the Evo 300. And it's as intuitive and impressive as ever.

The way it integrates all the various features of the system with a plethora of streaming services, and presents them all in a way which is satisfying to navigate, means it’s ideal for beginners and more advanced streamers alike.

Features

Besides 300 watts per channel (into 8 ohms) courtesy of Hypex NCOREx power modules, the Evo 300 has a broad range of features at its disposal.

On the rear of the streaming amp are two sets of speaker terminals should you want to power an extra pair in a different room.

Want to add a subwoofer to your hi-fi set-up? An adjustable sub output is included and, using the StreamMagic app, you can control crossover, level and phase to make integration as smooth as possible.

In the Evo’s audio settings, you have a seven-band equaliser to play with, plus a number of EQ presets for shifting the sonic balance.

We’d also suggest you experiment with the product’s room compensation feature, which allows you to tweak the sound to match the “reflectiveness” of your room. Move the slider across the screen to the corresponding image, and you’ll hear the Evo 300 change its tonal balance to suit either a damped room or a minimalist one full of glass and hard surfaces..

Beneath the unit’s aluminium chassis you’ll find a dual-mono layout, a balanced pre-amplifier stage and an ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC which supports up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD 512 files, plus the likes of ALAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, WMA, MP3, AAC and OGG Vorbis.

As has been the case with previous Evo models, Cambridge Audio has been more than generous on the connectivity front. You have a choice between balanced XLR inputs and the standard RCA line-level variety. There are optical and coaxial digital inputs and a USB-Type B socket for connecting external digital sources.

HDMI connectivity is all the rage on products like this, and the Evo 300 duly obliges with an eARC-compatible socket. You also have a moving magnet phono stage for connecting a turntable.

As we’ve mentioned, Cambridge Audio’s excellent StreamMagic platform caters for all your streaming wants, with support for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Amazon Music, Deezer and Qobuz Connect, UPnP and Internet Radio. The amp also supports Bluetooth 5.4 (including aptX HD), AirPlay 2 and is Roon Ready.

Last, but by no means least, anyone after a more private listening experience can plug a pair of headphones into the 6.35mm headphone input on the front of the unit.

Sound

It really is a case of so far, so good for the Cambridge Audio Evo 300.

During testing, we use the streaming amp with our reference ATC SMC50 speakers, the five-star Epos ES14N and multi-Award-winning KEF LS50 Meta to get a feel for the breadth of the Cambridge Audio’s abilities.

And in isolation, the Evo 300 is a confident, capable performer. We start with a blast of Starstruck by Lady Gaga and the Evo 300 dispatches several meaty, solid-sounding bass notes and crisp-sounding claps before it opens up a spacious, welcoming stereo image.

There's real power and weight behind the streaming amp’s delivery – you’re left in no doubt that the Cambridge has big muscles, and it’s not afraid to flex them given half an opportunity.

There’s good depth and height to the image too, with a decent amount of space around her vocal and the electropoppy, synthy highs that prod around at the top of the frequency range.

Similarly, the switch to Jupiter from Holst's The Planets shows the regimented delivery of the Evo 300. The tightly controlled string sections are neatly arranged alongside percussion and wind, and it’s a pleasant, straightforward enough listen with no hidden surprises.

Highs and lows are nicely balanced – the strings don’t exhibit any uncomfortable, harsh edges and low frequencies don’t overplay their hand and remain well controlled at all times even when pushed to antisocial levels.

But there’s something missing. The track lacks energy. The strings lack sparkle. The Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal sounds like it’s slumped in its chairs instead of standing to attention.

Dynamically, the whole ensemble just struggles to connect with us. Yes, it’s a powerful, robust sound, but the Evo 300 struggles to convey the sense of life with each instrument. Instead of sounding energetic and rising and falling as the orchestra stretches itself across the frequency range, it just sounds a little flat and lacks drama.

We unbox the Arcam SA35, the Evo 300’s closest rival (it’s actually £500 cheaper) and try the same track. Immediately there's a different feel.

The Arcam breathes instant life into the music, aided by a wonderfully quiet background which allows more detail to shine through, more texture for your ears to unravel and, most importantly, it turns the song into a proper orchestral performance with feeling.

Switching back to the Lady Gaga track, the Arcam’s dynamism hits you as soon as that first bass note kicks in. Set against a super-quiet background, the track’s energy and drive shine through.

Not only does the SA35 reveal more detail and texture in the bass notes and synthy highs, but the whole presentation is more infectious, encouraging you to tap along in time. It communicates with you much more clearly than the Cambridge Audio; Gaga’s vocal sounds more expressive and emotive.

The Evo 300 struggles to strike up a real connection across its other inputs too. We reach for a pair of Austrian Audio The Composer over-ears and the headphone output mirrors that of the speaker terminals. It’s a solid enough performance, but we are looking for more at this level.

The Cambridge’s moving magnet phono stage isn’t at the same level as the SA35, either – plugged into our reference Technics SL-1000R/Nagaoka MP-200 record deck, the Arcam produces a more balanced and more convincing sound.

Verdict

As a proposition, the Cambridge Audio Evo 300 ticks several boxes. It’s a smart-looking, well-built, feature-packed unit that comes with a streaming platform and control app which many brands could only dream about creating.

It also produces a weighty, powerful sound with a decent amount of detail. However, in our opinion, despite all that power, the sound it produces falls flat.

Music should take you on an emotional journey where you feel it just as much as you can hear it, but the Evo 300's lack of dynamism and expression leaves you feeling distant. By contrast, Arcam SA35 draws you into the music and keeps you there, and it’s quite a bit cheaper, too.

We had big hopes for the Evo 300, but in that search for more power it feels like something has been lost along the way.

Review published: 20th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 5
• Features 5

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The fact that What Hi-Fi? is enjoying its 50th anniversary is an uncomplicated reason for celebration, of course, and is deserving of no little admiration too.

Personally, though, I find it a slightly bittersweet occasion – for no other reason than I was the editor of What Hi-Fi? on the occasion of its 40th birthday. I vividly remember the feeling of excitement and, mostly, relief when that good-looking 40th anniversary issue arrived from the printer – and I’m not going to lie, the knowledge that ten years have passed since then makes me feel even older than I usually do.

I joined What Hi-Fi? as a staff writer at the very end of 2003, and I became features editor and then deputy editor; I became editor towards the end of 2012.

Unlike quite a few people who went on to occupy senior editorial roles at What Hi-Fi? I didn’t start out in the stockroom – part of me thinks that’s because the magazine couldn’t wait to get my copy onto its pages, but the bigger part of me knows it’s because I would have been a rotten stockroom manager. Even back then I had no more than two days per week of lifting and fetching and carrying in me before I had to lie down for an extended period of time.

I was editor for just shy of half a dozen years – and so I am more than willing to take an appropriate amount of credit (almost 12 percent of 50 year’s-worth, if my maths is correct) for the fact that What Hi-Fi? flourished during that period, just as it had done before my stewardship and has continued to do since.

The broad editorial template – to offer readers sincere, impartial and expert advice about a wide range of audio/visual electronics, with the emphasis strongly on value for money – had been established long before my tenure, and I know for a fact it hasn’t changed in any fundamental way since.

It’s a demonstrably successful formula, after all, and it will require a personality considerably more iconoclastic than mine to meddle with it.

The decision to add the words ‘Sound and Vision’ beneath ‘What Hi-Fi?’ on the masthead had been taken a fair while before I joined, and during my time as editor I embarked on a long, concerted and determined campaign of ‘going on and on’ in an effort to get it taken off again.

The January 2016 issue was the first to simply carry the What Hi-Fi? branding since 2001. “Everyone knows we cover video equipment as well as audio equipment,” ran my cunningly simplistic argument, “and the What Hi-Fi? brand is plenty strong enough to communicate that fact by itself.”

But there’s no denying that, for the first few years of my editorship, at least, it was around the video products, rather than the audio products, that much of the real innovation was happening.

That’s not to say audio products were standing still, of course. It was during the period I was in charge that wireless, multi-room, voice-controlled and otherwise smart speakers gained something approaching ubiquity.

Although it would have taken quite a feat of imagination to predict the resurgence of compact disc as a viable and popular storage format, the vinyl revival* was in full swing (so much so, in fact, that our friends at Rega supplied a limited edition of just three ‘What Hi-Fi? 1976-2016’ turntables which we gave away to readers as prizes in a 40th-anniversary competition).

(*I solemnly promise, here and now, I will never use the phrase ‘vinyl revival’ ever again.)

And it was towards the end of 2014 that Tidal launched, turning music-streaming services from highly compressed triumphs of convenience over quality into authentically worthwhile sources of high-resolution audio.

But in video equipment, the market was expanding in all directions at once. And not just in the average size of televisions being sold (which rose from around 36 inches in 2012 to 47 inches in 2018 – and currently sits at around 55 inches, despite the fact that no one’s house seems to have got any bigger).

At the end of 2012, Sony launched the very first ‘Ultra HD’ (quickly rebranded as ‘4K’) television for consumers. The 84-inch KD-84X9000 cost $25k, and came with a custom Dell media player loaded with 10 4K movies – handy, given that no native 4K content was available at this point.

By 2013, though, Netflix and YouTube were offering native 4K streaming, and it only took until the end of 2014 for the first 4K Blu-ray players (and the accompanying discs) to be announced.

It wasn’t until the start of 2016 that What Hi-Fi? reviewed the first 4K Blu-ray player a manufacturer was brave enough to submit for testing. It’s safe to say the Panasonic DMP-UB900 (yours for £600 at the time) impressed us – “the future of home cinema, on disc” and “a devastating first blow” were among the accolades in the review. There may even have been an “oh wow!" in there somewhere.

But, of course, What Hi-Fi? is never going to imply that anything is perfect – “sound could be a little more agile” was the one meaningful criticism we could muster.

LG attempted to democratise both 4K and OLED TV technology at CES in 2013 with the announcement of a 55-inch model (its previous OLEDs had been no bigger than 15 inches) that sold for a mere $10,000. Dolby whipped the covers off Dolby Vision HDR in 2014 and by 2015 it was appearing in the mainstream television market.

And in 2017, Samsung – which had spent the previous five years decrying OLED technology as some kind of bourgeois affectation – unveiled its QLED TV technology. Because if there’s one thing the consumer electronics industry loves to do, it’s to throw as many competing formats at the wall as possible in order to establish if any of them will stick.

Of course, the Holy Grail of consumer electronics is ‘convergence’ – or, at least, it is as far as the actual consumers are concerned.

In 2012, Dolby launched Dolby Atmos spatial audio, upgrading 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound with dynamic, object-based, immersive sound. By 2015, the technology was showing up in AV receivers and soundbars (and those receivers and soundbars were being reviewed by What Hi-Fi?) and the more intrepid streaming platforms were fully on board too.

And by the time I vacated the editor’s chair, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision were integrated into television and projectors, while spatial audio had taken its place alongside multi-room sound as a ‘must-have’ for music and movie fans alike. The line between the ‘audio’ and ‘home cinema’ markets has only continued to get more blurred.

It’s safe to say I have never been happier – in my professional life, anyway – than when I was working at What Hi-Fi?. I got to listen, and then paid to write about what I’d heard. I went to places I would never have otherwise been.

And most of all, I met some people – colleagues, members of the consumer electronics industry, readers of the magazine and the website – who I am still in touch with nearly a decade later and some of whom mean a great deal to me.

I realise this is a fairly sentimental way of viewing what was, after all, simply a job at a consumer advice magazine. But the fact that What Hi-Fi? has been around for 50 years lets you know that it has never been any ordinary enterprise.

I don’t doubt for a second that someone (probably as-yet unborn) will be writing with great nostalgia and affection about their time at What Hi-Fi? when its 100th anniversary comes around.

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After a long hiatus, Rotel has announced its return to making passive loudspeakers with the Amora 5 standmounts.

Employing a two-way design, the new speakers have been conceived to integrate naturally with Rotel's established roster of hi-fi separates, deploying what their maker describes as "carefully crafted drive units" held within a compact standmount design.

Alongside their wide frequency response, the Amora 5 have been built to deliver "exceptional resolution and accuracy", low distortion, and an "open, three-dimensional stereo image". To do so, each speaker pairs a 25mm silk-dome tweeter with a 16.5cm woven fibre composite mid/bass driver.

The tweeter is fixed using an aluminium surround ring for a rigid, secure mounting, while a geometrically shaped faceplate aims to minimise unwanted sonic diffraction.

The mid/bass unit, meanwhile, uses a rigid aluminium frame to maintain greater mechanical stability and driver alignment, helping to maintain more consistent driver performance.

Integrating the two drivers is a precision-tuned crossover, designed to deliver a balanced frequency response, clear stereo imaging, and a wide, open soundstage.

The Amora 5 are built using a rigid MDF cabinet, employed to help minimise unwanted sonic resonances. Each speaker also employs a rear-mounted reflex port, tuned to extend low-frequency performance while maintaining a more controlled bass signature.

According to Peter Kao, Rotel's Managing Director: “Rotel’s success has always been built on trusted engineering, long-term relationships, and a shared passion for music. With the Amora 5, we extend the Rotel experience through the final stage of the system, giving our global partners and customers a more complete path from source to speaker."

The Rotel Amora 5 are available now, in a choice of black or white finishes, priced at £999 / $999 per pair.

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From Technics’ iconic turntables to JBL’s Classic standmounts – discover five of the best hi-fi product revivals

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Sometimes, you just can’t let a good thing go.

Whether it’s a great TV series that just refuses to be cancelled – see Futurama, Frasier and Scrubs – or that pop star who desperately clings to relevancy with just one more comeback tour (we’ll let you decide for yourselves whom that could be), it can be hard to step away from the limelight when you know you’ve had a good thing going.

It’s the same with hi-fi. When a brand strikes gold, it’s natural to want to keep on mining that rich vein of ore for ever. And, while there are always new products to make and new areas to explore, sometimes you just can’t help but resurrect, revive and revisit the legends that helped to make your name.

From limited-run anniversary editions to full-scale revivals of beloved classics, these are the hi-fi revivals that proved that lightning can strike at least twice.

The Technics SL-1200 series turntable

Technics’ SL-1200 turntable series is one of the most famous ever made.

Launching in 1972 and then refined in 1979 through the SL-1200MK2, the direct-drive design became a perennial favourite for professional DJs and DIY mixers thanks to its ease of use, hardy construction and faithful sonic reproduction. It also happened to look really cool, and didn’t cost an absolute arm and a leg.

So revered was the SL-1200 series that Technics’ parent company Panasonic just had to bring it back for the 21st-century listener. Technics relaunched two ‘Grand Class’ models in 2026 as part of its revived SL-1200 series, just two years after Technics itself returned as a brand, with What Hi-Fi? travelling to Las Vegas’s CES show to witness the much-anticipated rebirth of an icon.

Externally, Technics didn’t deviate much from the classic SL-1200 design for its 2016 SL-1200G reboot, opting for a three-layered construction with a gleaming brass top and heavyweight aluminium platter mounted above the direct-drive motor.

Back was the vertical pitch control, sleek metallic chassis and left-mounted on-off button, all signatures of a company harking back to its impressive hi-fi heritage.

From vinyl collectors to almost every DJ who has ever spun a record, everyone knows about Technics and its iconic SL-1200 decks.

Read our Technics SL-1200g review

JBL L100 Classic loudspeakers

The L100 loudspeakers are as integral to the image and heritage of JBL as the SL-1200 series of turntables is to Technics.

When we visited JBL’s Los Angeles headquarters in early 2026, a pair of the L100A were proudly displayed within their own themed booth as part of the US brand’s 80th anniversary celebration showcase. These are speakers of which JBL is, quite rightly, extremely proud.

When JBL revived them in the shape of the L100 Classic in 2019, the new standmounts were designed specifically to emulate their predecessor’s appearance and size, once again sporting that iconic ‘waffle’ foam grille and boxy aesthetic that had been such a staple of the originals.

Inside, JBL did make significant changes to its revived units, bringing in a 13cm midrange unit coated with a polymer for improved resonance-control, alongside a titanium-dome tweeter for crisper, cleaner highs. Titanium tweeters weren’t so much of a thing back in the 1970s.

The original L100 speakers had been born entertainers – the famous Maxell ad of the time showed a man nearly being blown away by his pair – a spirit which was fully revived with the powerful, full-scale approach of the reborn Classics.

Five stars, and plenty of envious glances, soon followed.

Read our JBL L100 Classic review

Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier

The A1 was not Musical Fidelity’s first amplifier, but it was the one that really helped the company establish its reputation.

When the A1 launched in 1985, it cost an enviably modest £189, putting it in direct competition with the Cyrus Two amplifier and, as you’ll see below, the iconic Nait 1. The A1 distinguished itself from its competitors, however, via its Class A-biased circuit, designed by the legendary engineer Tim de Paravicini, alongside its wide, distinctive casework.

At the time, not much else looked like the A1, and not much sounded like it, either. Musical Fidelity truly harnessed the power of Class A amplification with its trailblazing amp, resulting in a sound that suffered from minimal distortion and left most of its competitors struggling to keep up.

When Musical Fidelity brought the A1 back in 2023, Class A amplification was a must. Like its 1980s namesake, the newer A1 also runs very hot, but as we wrote in our review, it does a fine job in echoing the spirit of the original “by sounding wonderfully expressive and fluid in a way that eludes most modern alternatives”.

Musical Fidelity also resurrected that iconic casework for the new iteration, resulting in a modern amplifier that does its utmost to capture the look and sound of an icon. It needs care with partnering, and features are somewhat thin on the ground, but the revived A1 gives you a taste of classic hi-fi combined with the reliability of a new product.

Read our Musical Fidelity A1 review

Naim Nait 50 integrated amplifier

The original Naim NAIT (later called the Nait 1) is a legend in its own right.

Launched in 1983, the Nait was seen as something of an oddity when it landed, sporting a relatively modest power rating and marking itself out as Naim’s first-ever integrated stereo amplifier. This, then, was the first time that the British brand had combined power and preamplification into a single unit.

Naim celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023 and, to mark the occasion, gave the world the revised, limited-edition Nait 50 to pay homage to 1983’s original Nait 1. While some brands seek to reinvent or repackage a product for general release, the Nait 50 was limited to just 1973 units, each priced at a not-inconsiderable sum of £2699.

As a celebratory product designed to honour a legend, the Nait 50 shares many of the quirks of the original, and while it’s not perfect, its hugely entertaining, somewhat flavoured sound captures the deeply musical spirit of the Nait 1.

We had the pleasure of getting one of the Nait 50 amps into our test rooms a little after Naim announced its release, so if you’re interested in really digging into the nitty-gritty of the revised Nait 50, we strongly recommend giving our in-depth hands-on a read.

Read our Naim Nait 50 hands-on review

Wharfedale Linton Heritage speakers

The Linton were a big deal for Wharfedale. Making their debut in 1965, the three-way standmount speakers continued to run for several iterations throughout the 1970s, helping to establish Wharfedale’s reputation for quality sound wrapped up in an equally dependable package.

The original Lintons were 25-30cm across, depending on the specific model you picked, producing a big, open sound from their large front baffle and the sizeable drivers that could be held within the cabinet.

When you think of standmounts these days, you will probably be thinking of more compact specimens that could perhaps perch on your desktop or nestle into a bookshelf, but the Lintons were full-blooded standmounts with real presence.

The revised Heritage version continue to honour that legacy. Launched in celebration of Wharfedale’s 80th birthday, they followed the overall design language and general template of their progenitors, albeit with larger cabinets, bigger drive units and upgraded components.

The result was worthy of any 80th birthday celebration. As we wrote in our review: “We get a brilliant sense of scale and space from the Lintons. We play John Williams’s The Raiders March – the main theme from the Indiana Jones films – and get a thrilling sense of these speakers’ dynamics.”

They won’t be for everyone, but as we enthused at the time, 2020’s updated Linton are “the best of old hi-fi combined with the best of the new”. A revival done right.

Read our Wharfedale Linton Heritage review

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Technics is celebrating 55 years since the launch of its iconic SL-1200 turntable with a new limited-edition model, the SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition.

According to Technics, “The model pays tribute to a turntable lineage that has helped define DJ culture.”

Limited to 12,000 units globally, this anniversary turntable will see the conventional SL-1200 design adorned with gold coloured details, including a gold anodised S-shaped aluminium tonearm, a gold-finished tonearm base, a platter with a gold-coloured rim and strobe marks, gold knobs and buttons, and a specially designed gold-themed slip mat.

Each turntable will also feature an individually engraved anniversary badge with its serial number, highlighting the commemorative quality of the release.

The SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition’s design is based on the standard SL-1200 MK7 DJ turntable, and includes a digitally controlled, single-rotor direct drive, a vertical pitch fader with a range of up to 16 per cent, an adjustable height tonearm, as well as a Reverse Play mode.

Originally released in 1972, the SL-1200 was developed, says Technics, as a “high-performance direct-drive turntable for demanding music lovers”. But the SL-1200 soon found favour among DJs for its reliability beyond the living room, thanks to features such as its die-cast aluminium cabinet, high-torque motor, stable rotation and quick start-up.

The Technics SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition is planned for global release in September 2026 and will be available in seven colours: gold, blue, red, black, green, white or grey.

The price of this limited-edition model hasn’t yet been confirmed, with Technics saying it will be shared closer to launch.

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Pro-Ject has given Bluetooth powers to its entry-level E1.2 turntable, alongside a new iteration which features a built-in phono stage.

The Bluetooth-capable E1.2BT and phono-sporting E1.2 Phono ape the general design and configuration of the standard E1.2 model, focusing on budget-friendly performance and convenience bolstered by Bluetooth 5.4 streaming or a phono preamplifier, respectively.

The E1.2 BT turntable features a built-in Bluetooth transmitter with hi-res aptX HD codec support, meaning you can wirelessly stream vinyl playback wirelessly to speakers, headphones, or even compatible amplifiers if you so choose.

The Phono edition, conversely, incorporates what Pro-Ject describes as a “high-quality phono preamp for superior signal processing and noticeably improved sound performance”, boasting advanced circuitry designed to reduce noise and distortion while preserving the detail and natural character of your vinyl.

The E1.2 BT and E1.2 Phono share the same heavy die-cast aluminium main platter as their standard E1.2 counterpart, creating what Pro-Ject describes as an “ideal, anti-resonant platform”. In pursuit of more stable playback, the platter has been precision-balanced to grant a more even rotation and improve acoustic performance.

Each new turntable comes equipped with a Pick It MM E phono cartridge, which uses a conical diamond tip to deliver “warm and smooth audio” with low background noise.

The cartridge is attached to a pre-calibrated 8.6-inch aluminium tonearm with a carbon-reinforced headshell and a heavy-mass gimbal bearing for smooth movement during operation.

Both belt-driven players feature electronic speed-switching for 33⅓ and 45rpm via a single button, with Pro-Ject again aiming for a pair of entry-level decks that prioritise ease of use as much as sonic performance.

The Pro-Ject E1.2 BT is available now, priced at £399 / €399 in the ‘standard’ High Gloss Black or Walnut finishes. The five 'Colour' finishes, which include Satin White and a rather sunny Satin Golden Yellow option, will bump that price up to £449 / €449.

The E1.2 Phono is available now in High Gloss Black, Satin White and Walnut colourways, priced at £319 / €359.

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When you buy a piece of vinyl, you can be certain of a couple of things. First, it's going to sound better than the version available on streaming. And second, it's yours forever, and won't be taken away from you due to a change in licensing agreements.

But if you assumed your 12-inch would contain all the same tracks – with all the same elements – as the streaming version, then we have bad news for you.

Because recently, vinyl albums have been dropping with glaring omissions, including elements of tracks missing, unfinished mixes, and even entire songs absent. Meaning that the lower-quality version you'll get via streaming services is actually superior in some respects.

Understandably, fans are pretty miffed. And the record labels could be doing a lot more to prevent these mistakes from happening, or at least to communicate to fans that the version they're buying is going to be different.

Should do better

The Guardian recently documented cases of this happening, and it's all mainstream artists from big labels who really should do better: Raye, Charli xcx, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd. It's not just a recent phenomenon: the first vinyl pressings of Beyonce's 2024 album Cowboy Carter were missing five tracks that appeared in its digital incarnation, while other albums (like Lil Wayne's Tha Carter VI) were released in much shorter vinyl versions than on digital.

Why is this happening? It's not just ineptitude on the part of the labels, though that does play a part. Vinyl pressing plants need information like artwork and audio masters from the labels weeks ahead of the album's release date in order to guarantee the place in the queue. The Guardian piece quotes six to eight weeks, but an industry source tells us lead times of eight to 10 weeks are more common at the moment.

That means any last-minute changes – or even entirely new mixes created during those weeks – will miss the cut-off.

Streaming services, by contrast, only need around five days to upload digital files for the audio, artwork and promotional materials.

Another reason is cost. Deluxe double- and even triple-albums cost a lot to release on vinyl, not only because they involve more 12-inch records, but also due to the premium packaging. Though you would think the higher asking price would cover that.

Be careful what you buy

Now obviously it's down to the artists and labels to hit their deadlines, and to make sure they're happy with the finished product before sending it off. Admittedly that can be trickier when it comes to collaborations, as it involves aligning the diaries of lots of very busy people (filmmaker David Cronenberg's contribution to Charlie xcx's album Music, Fashion, Film was one of the most egregious omissions from a vinyl version in recent memory). But that's no excuse.

And if there are omissions from the vinyl album, fans deserve to know about them before shelling out their hard-earned. Vinyl isn't cheap. A new LP costs around £30. To then find out that you're not even getting the finished article is pretty galling, to say the least.

So what's to be done?

Until record labels become more honest and open about any differences between the physical media and digital versions, not much. You can hold off buying an album on release day and wait to see what other fans report, but that's not ideal. Instead, we would petition your favourite artists and labels to make clear any discrepancies so us punters can make an informed purchasing decision. £30 is a lot to spend on an album only to find out that the 'full' version is free on Spotify at a crappy bitrate.

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The rise of China’s hi-fi industry has been meteoric over the last decade or so. The likes of WiiM and Eversolo are now firmly part of the hi-fi mainstream thanks to their aggressively priced but technically accomplished products. It wouldn’t be a surprise to find Topping Audio joining them in short order.

Topping Audio is based in Guangzhou and was founded in 2008, so it is hardly a start-up. Take a look at the company’s website, and you will find that it makes a bewildering range of hi-fi electronics. We counted more than 20 models of digital-to-analogue converters alone, alongside an extensive range of amplifiers, be they headphone, integrated, pre or power.

The Topping Audio D900 on test here represents the pinnacle of the brand’s DAC technology. Along with its junior sibling, the D90MKIII, this converter uses a proprietary, discrete 1-bit DAC design called PSRM (Precision Stream Reconstruction Matrix).

This works by converting the original digital audio stream into a sequence of 1-bit pulses. The density of these pulses, whether weighted towards 0 or 1, represents the waveform level. In contrast, other models in the company’s range employ standard off-the-shelf DAC chip solutions, as does much of the competition.

Features

The D900’s digital design is fully balanced, with 32 discrete high-speed switching voltage references for each channel. The cheaper D90MKIII makes do with half that amount. In principle, PSRM reminds us of the high-end Ring DAC technology developed by dCS.

Given that this Topping DAC sells for a fraction of the price of one of dCS’s converters, the use of such a design is impressive.

File compatibility is excellent, with the D900 happy to accommodate hi-res PCM datastreams up to 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512. We can’t imagine this DAC falling short of anyone’s requirements, at least not for the foreseeable future.

The D900 is well-equipped. It has a wide range of connectivity, including two coaxial, two optical and USB in both Type B and C varieties. The D900 also has AES/EBU and I2S digital inputs, which may prove useful for some. Bluetooth 5.1 is included and is compatible with high-quality LDAC and aptX HD codecs.

On the output side, Topping has gone all in with balanced XLR connections for both its variable and fixed outputs. Those whose systems lack balanced connectivity will have to use appropriate adaptors. Such adaptors aren’t particularly hard to source, but it is still a shame that Topping didn’t find a way to include a pair of standard RCA connectors on the back panel.

Build

This DAC is nicely made and reassuringly solid. We have no complaints about the fit or finish of the metal casework. The multi-function rotary dial on the front feels positive and precise, while the 2in display is crisp, but on the small side for reading at any significant distance.

It is good for adding visual excitement to the front of the DAC, though, and can be made to show an analogue VU meter or frequency spectrum bar graph. The display also makes it easier to work through the set-up menus and the built-in equaliser function. There are numerous parametric equaliser settings, but in our system at least, none is quite as satisfying as the default neutral option.

Take a look inside the D900, and it’s clear that the engineers have taken a great deal of care with the circuit layout and appearance.

Our digital sources for the Topping are Naim’s ND555/ 555 PS DR music streamer, a Cyrus CDi CD player and a MacBook Pro running Audirvana music-playing software and loaded with plenty of hi-res files.

The rest of our reference system is Burmester’s 088/911 MKIII pre/power driving a pair of ATC SCM50 speakers. We also use a PMC Cor integrated and Epos ES-14N combination to hear how the Topping performs in a more price-appropriate set-up.

Our DAC comparisons are Chord’s Qutest (£1249 / £1795 / $2400) and Hugo 2 (£1795 / $2595 / AU$3800) along with recent experience of the Rotel DX-3 (£1399 /$1699 / AU$2199).

Sound

Does the D900’s clever DAC circuitry give it any advantage over those that use more conventional off-the-shelf chip solutions? In truth, we can’t be sure. It is impossible to separate the contribution of the conversion technology from everything else inside. Analogue output stages, power supplies, component quality and signal paths all have a huge impact on the final result.

What we can say is that the D900 sounds unusually talented in some regards.

Regardless of input, with the exception of Bluetooth, of course, the Topping D900 resolves an impressive amount of detail. Give it a complex recording such as Mahler’s 4th Symphony, and it delivers a sound full of texture and subtlety.

We love the sense of space this DAC imparts, even when the music becomes dense, and the delicate way it renders low-level dynamic shifts.

The music comes through with an appealing fluidity that puts us in mind of a good analogue source rather than the usual digital stereotypes. The D900 sounds neutral and unforced; qualities that may not impress on a short demo at a dealer, but we think hold plenty of appeal in the long run.

This Topping DAC is flexible in its approach to music replay. Its insight allows us to dig deep into the fabric of the recordings if we want to; alternatively, we can just sit back and relax, letting the music’s emotional impact wash over us. The D900’s ability to resolve plenty of detail without sounding overly analytical is unusual and welcome.

Stereo imaging is expansive and airy, the Topping layering the soundstage convincingly while delivering a fine sense of scale. There is a good degree of stability too, so that the D900’s focus doesn’t waver as the music becomes more demanding.

Tonally, it is as neutral as they come, with no part of the frequency range dominating. Highs are smooth yet don’t lack in bite while the midrange is as clear and articulate as you like. Bass could be better, though. It digs deep but doesn’t have the tautness or muscularity of rivals.

As we try more upbeat music such as Raye’s Click Clack Symphony, Chicago by Michael Jackson and Zion by Soul II Soul, we can’t help but want a bit more energy and drive in the presentation, too.

This Topping sounds restrained and slightly lacking in authority compared to either of the two Chord DACs. We miss their sense of musical cohesion and ability to deliver dynamic contrasts with conviction.

That said, we are still able to enjoy the D900’s clarity and finesse, particularly through the midrange and upwards.

Verdict

There is no denying that the Topping D900 is a talented DAC. Its detail resolution and fluid delivery are right up there with the best at the price, as is its file compatibility and build quality.

While we think this Topping falls short of being a complete all-rounder, it remains a viable and appealing alternative to the established benchmarks.

Review published: 14th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 5

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Quiz! How fast can you solve our turntable challenge? Test your wordsearch skills now

Another week, another opportunity to take part in a quiz designed by the team at What Hi-Fi? Towers.

This week we've put our hi-fi hat on and designed a wordsearch inspired by our love of the turntable.

We’ve hidden several key components from a record player in our grid and sprinkled in a handful of brands associated with the product category to keep your brain spinning.

See how quickly you can complete the search, and let us know your time in the comments below!

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Canadian manufacturer Kanto Audio has just announced the second generation of its first ever turntable, the Obi3, less than a year after the original was released.

The first-generation Obi3, released in October 2025 for £179 / $179, was an entry level belt-drive turntable, featuring a switchable phono stage and built-in Bluetooth.

The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree between the Obi3’s generations, with features such as a switchable built-in phono stage, Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and RCA line-level outputs remaining consistent in the new second-gen turntable. The new Obi3G2 even comes with the same J-shaped aluminium tonearm and pre-fitted Audio-Technica AT3600L moving magnet cartridge as the original model.

But there are a few notable upgrades.

The Kanto Obi3G2 is significantly heavier than the Obi3, weighing 5.5kg compared with the Obi3’s 3.9kg. The company says this extra bulk will help eliminate unwanted vibrations from affecting vinyl replay.

To further help with playback stability, Obi3G2 also features a built-in speed sensor, allowing for continuous speed correction as the record plays. Playback speeds supported are 33⅓ RPM and 45 RPM.

Priced at £180 / $250, the new Obi3G2 is cheaper than our current benchmark for a budget Bluetooth turntable, the excellent five-star Sony PS-LX3BT, which is now available for £233 / $350. Like many turntables in this price range, the PS-LX3BT is fully automatic in operation – where the tonearm automatically cues up at the start of the record with the push of a button – whereas you'll have to position the Obi3G2's tonearm on the record yourself.

There is one convenience added by Kanto: when you reach the end of your record, the Obi3G2’s auto-stop feature will kick into action and stop playback, protecting your stylus from any unnecessary wear.

The tonearm on the Kanto has an adjustable counterweight and anti-skate so there is a degree of setting up required, and there is a ±10% pitch control, too. Kanto Audio says the Obi3G2 is designed to be “a proper manual turntable, without stepping up to a specialist unit”.

According to Brett Smalley, Kanto Audio’s director of marketing: “We wanted the 2nd gen of Obi3 to feel like a high-end turntable at an entry-level price, one you can set up, adjust and grow into.”

The Kanto Audio Obi3G2 is available in five finishes: black, white, green, ice blue and walnut. It is currently on sale in North America, while worldwide sales are set to open in early September.

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Time really is flying by — Father's Day in Australia is now just days away, landing this Sunday, September 6 meaning your time really is running out to secure your father, or father figure, a gift to show him how much he means to you.

We're not the first, and we won't be the last, to say point out socks, a mug or a foolproof skincare set simply won't cut it in 2026, so we've put together a comprehensive list of expert- and dad-approved AV gifts covering everything from hi-fi to home cinema.

Many of our picks are certified What Hi-Fi? Award winners, so you can rest assured that your dad will be beaming like a cheshire cat when he opens it. We’ve also deliberately turned to Amazon for many of our choices, primarily for the super-speedy delivery via Prime. Read on for our selection of the best Father's Day gifts for Aussie audiophile dads.

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Ruka Studio, a Los Angeles based company that was founded by a group of former Apple engineers and designers, is set to launch its first product: a vertically spinning turntable, the TD-1.

Currently priced at $1399, which the company claims is “the lowest price it will ever be”, the turntable features an aluminium body and “switches that click” for playback controls, rotational speed and even Bluetooth pairing.

A magnetic clamp holds records in place, which is good news, given that they appear to hang in the air – equally a feast for the eyes and challenge for the nerves.

The TD-1 includes a swappable moving-magnet cartridge – the company says that buyers can select “which cartridge [they] want” for no extra fee before shipping – and features conventional RCA wired outputs as well as the option for wireless playback via Bluetooth.

The turntable is belt-driven, with a motor that is de-coupled from the platter to minimise unwanted vibrations for a “quieter and smoother listening experience”. The TD-1 is also wall-mountable via a rubber-coated magnetic plate that fixes to the wall.

Those of you familiar with the agony of trying to hang a painting straight will be pleased to hear that the wall-mount features a built-in spirit level. But if this all sounds like too much bother, don’t fret, a record stand and floor stand are also available. No prices have yet been confirmed for the stands, but Ruka Studio’s website says that a ‘table stand’ is also on the way.

The Ruka Studio TD-1 will soon be available to pre-order and waitlist spots for the first production run (of just 500 units) can currently be reserved for $100 on the company’s website. Notably, that $100 credits in towards the full balance of the record player and locks it at a price of $1399. The deposit is also fully refundable.

Pre-ordered units are expected to ship in 2027.

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Some may remember that for our special Vinyl Week in April, I finally set aside two decades of hesitance and decided to try out a turntable at home.

This wasn't a straightforward experiment, though (as most who know me will tell you, nothing is ever straightforward with me), because my living room is really dedicated to home cinema rather than hi-fi.

Not traditional home cinema, either, but a fairly minimalist, lifestyle-first home cinema featuring Sony's HT-A9 wireless speaker system which, it transpired, has no physical audio inputs.

The solution, much to my concern, was a Bluetooth turntable – the very capable Pro-Ject T1 Evo BT. Why the concern? I simply assumed that the richly layered charm of analogue vinyl would somehow be lost in the calculated ones and zeros of wireless Bluetooth transmission.

It turns out I was wrong about that – at least in a broad, conceptual way. Bluetooth carries across the little pops and crackles that help make the vinyl listening experience unique, and none of the hardness I had expected was evident in the delivery.

There was a problem, though: my Sony system's lack of aptX support meant I was limited to a relatively low 327kbps Bluetooth bitrate.

Given that limitation and the general nature of the speaker system itself, the sound was surprisingly decent; but I was clearly leaving detail, dynamics and texture on the platter.

That simply wouldn't do, particularly as my family and I had been instantly bitten by the vinyl bug.

A capable, compact solution

Rather than return the turntable, then, it was time to source an alternative system to partner the Pro-Ject. I didn't want to replace the Sony HT-A9, which has served me well as a home cinema system, and I didn't want to move the turntable from its approved position at the back of our living room.

In other words, I was going to have to stick with Bluetooth, and whatever I added was going to have to be minimalist enough to fit in with my existing AV kit.

After much research, the solution I settled on was the five-star KEF Coda W speakers.

To my eyes, the angular Coda W aren't quite as pretty as KEF's smoothly sculpted LSX models, which have always appealed to me, but they prioritise Bluetooth over wi-fi streaming and have built-in aptX HD support. A perfect match, then, for the Pro-Ject turntable.

They are also quite a lot larger than the LSX II LT, producing a bigger sound that would potentially work well in my decently sized living room, while still being compact enough to fit into the nooks of my existing bookshelf-cum-TV-stand. No furniture upheaval required.

Sure enough, the unpacking and installation of the new Coda W speakers took all of five minutes, and connecting them to the turntable was simply a matter of putting the KEFs into Bluetooth pairing mode and switching the Pro-Ject on. Bingo-bango, I was ready to rock.

Analogue charm with wireless convenience

As a nascent vinyl collector, I had been listening to more or less the same few records since I first took the turntable home in April, so I was intimately familiar with how they sounded through my Sony speaker system. The upgrade provided by the KEFs was vast and instantly apparent.

Playing my much-spun copy of On Circles by Caspian, the huge improvement to dynamics was what struck me first. The Coda W are capable of creating a large, spacious sound, but within that, they deftly handle dynamic shifts both grand and small-scale.

Detail levels, too, were clearly massively improved, thanks to the combination of the revealing nature of the KEF speakers and the upgrade to aptX HD Bluetooth.

In fact, the sound-quality improvements were across the board, as you might expect with a switch from a lifestyle-oriented home cinema system to a pair of powered hi-fi speakers. Greater punch, rhythmic drive and tonal balance – it was all there, along with those subtle imperfections that for many people represent a big part of vinyl's character.

In other words, I'm hugely impressed – and surprised – by the performance that a minimalist, Bluetooth-based turntable system can clearly offer.

I'm not saying that going wired wouldn't be better – it no doubt would, and I may well look into a switch to cables in the near future. But I am saying that the need to go wireless and generally build a system around your lifestyle no longer precludes you from enjoying an excellent vinyl experience in the way that it would have done just a few short years ago.

Back then, a turntable system simply wasn't an option for me. Now, it is, and I’m loving how much less compromised it is than I was expecting.

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I’m always on the hunt for ways to find new music, but I have found myself listening to the same few albums on repeat these last few weeks. Maybe it’s because the ease of streaming has made me complacent, or that the endless options at my fingertips are simply too overwhelming.

That’s why I ventured to a listening bar in central London last week in a bid to find my new favourite artist or "earworm". If you’ve never found yourself in one, here’s what to expect.

Listening bars, or hi-fi bars, are dedicated spaces designed for enjoying curated music (usually on vinyl) on a high-quality sound system while relaxing with a drink in your hand.

It's not about a specific genre or style – the music will depend on DJ on the night. It's also not about requests. Instead, the focus is on listening to the selections of a music lover through some great speakers. (That doesn’t mean you cannot go up to the DJ to ask what they are playing, of course.)

On my most recent visit, however, I started to wonder whether we'd drifted away from the original definition. Most obviously, few people there seemed to be paying attention to the music, and at certain points I couldn't even hear the track over the noise of the room.

There was no denying the bar looked the part, sporting the brown wood and leather-clad seating that has become synonymous with these venues. I just couldn't help but feel that it had become a little style over substance – excellent Instagram fodder but without the genuine desire to really enjoy the music.

Back to basics

Hi-fi bars were born from the Japanese jazz kissa cafes that popped up in the late 1920s. This was in the days before home audio systems, so they became somewhere to collectively listen to music with a quiet appreciation.

This idea was reborn when pioneering spaces, such as Spiritland in King's Cross, London, decided to once again make a great-sounding system, and the music being played, the real focus of the venue.

And the idea arrived at an ideal moment. People are again craving that shared experience around music, since streaming platforms and portable audio have made listening more of an individual affair. I just hope the idea doesn't become commoditised.

Thankfully, there are still plenty of hi-fi bars that put the music at the forefront of the experience, and I have been to my fair share. But it does mean you have to be a little more selective.

If a bar has a detailed description of the system, from the amplification to the turntables and speakers, for instance, that should be a good indication that they really do care about delivering an "audiophile" experience.

Some venues, such as the long-standing Shelter in Tokyo, offer a carefully acoustically treated space to listen and others, such as Jazu in Deptford, London, encourage you to get up and dance to their curated setlist, played through their bespoke sound system. And both approaches definitely work for me.

With an increasingly long list of listening bars across the UK, it’s encouraging to see the concept reach more and more people. We just hope that everyone remembers to keep the music, and the system, at the heart of the venue – and we don't end up with listening bars where nobody is actually listening.

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Goldmund has introduced what it describes as its "most advanced amplifier ever", the Telos 9800.

The new stereo amp delivers 1560 watts of power into 8 ohms and is built around an entirely new amplification platform. For the first time in a Goldmund amplifier, the power supply and amplification stages are physically separated into interconnected units. This, says Goldmund, allows each to operate under optimal conditions while preserving the amp's "mechanical and electrical integrity".

Further, the Telos 9800 also uses a proprietary power management system and the largest capacitor bank ever developed by the company.

Together with its custom-designed capacitors and transformers, as well as a completely redesigned amplification stage built around next-generation power boards, the amp's new platform promises "greater stability" and "exceptional loudspeaker control".

In terms of physical connections, XLR and RCA inputs are joined by S/PDIF inputs and outputs, as well as a quartet of binding posts.

The new amplifier incorporates Goldmund's 'Leonardo' technology, a signal processing algorithm which digitally realigns frequencies to reduce phase distortions for better time alignment and improved sonic realism.

Goldmund's latest luxury offering has been designed in collaboration with Cécile Barani, the same designer who worked with Goldmund on its high-end Gaia speakers. With the Telos, precision-machined aluminium surfaces combine with discreet gold signatures in pursuit of, says Goldmund, a restrained yet premium aesthetic.

The Telos 9800 is priced at £370,000 / €430,000 / $500,000. We called the Goldmund Telos 690 amplifier we reviewed last year "heinously capable" but "hideously expensive", and that only cost a meagre £32,500 / $36,250 / AU$60,000.

Price-wise, the Telos 9800 is in a different league – and Goldmund will be hoping it's in a different league sound-wise, too.

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If you're hankering for the days when you'd take your trusty old MP3 player everywhere you went, your prayers may just have been answered.

FiiO's sub-brand Snowsky has revealed the new Echo Nano, a dinky portable music player that harks back to the iconic MP3 players of the 2000s.

Designed for music lovers seeking a dedicated listening experience without the interruption of pesky apps, the dinky new player uses a Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC, offering support for various file formats such as WAV, FLAC, MP3 and MQA.

The player's internal storage can be bolstered by a microSD card up to 256GB, all while delivering up to seven hours of battery life on a single charge.

Weighing in at around 34 grams, the Echo Nano is constructed using a machined aluminium-magnesium alloy. A metal scroll wheel aims for seamless user navigation, complemented by a 1-inch OLED screen.

Snowsky's pocket-sized portable player can also function as a USB DAC, and can be used to give your smartphones or laptop a sonic boost when listening via wired headphones.

On the subject of headphones, Snowsky has also unveiled a new pair of wireless cans alongside the Echo Nano. The new Snowsky Nature house a set of 50mm dynamic drivers within a nature-inspired design, with Snowsky promising a pair of over-ears "intended to reconnect listeners with the emotional experience of their music".

If you're all about the retro revival, the Snowsky Echo Nano is available now in seven distinct colourways, priced at £55 / $50. The Nature headphones are also on the market, priced at £39 / $ 39.

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Victrola has launched a new finish for its Bluetooth and Auracast enabled Wave turntable and Tempo Bluetooth bookshelf speakers, meaning that your wireless vinyl set-up could look more integrated than ever before.

The Walnut finished edition has also been fitted with an upgraded Ortofon OM5E moving magnet cartridge with a removable headshell, allowing you to upgrade and replace cartridges to your heart’s desire.

According to Victrola, the Wave turntable is engineered around a low-resonance MDF plinth, which the company claims has been designed to “minimise unwanted vibration and maximise audio performance”.

Like previous models of the Wave, the Walnut edition will also feature an aluminium platter, a silicone anti-vibration slipmat and lightweight aluminium tonearm with an easy-set counterweight for “optimal tracking performance with minimal set-up”.

Integrated Auracast support means that your vinyl can be played wirelessly on an unlimited number of compatible Auracast-enabled speakers and headphones. For standard Bluetooth streaming, the turntable also supports aptX Adaptive and aptX HD codecs.

Notably, the turntable doesn’t only transmit Bluetooth, but also includes a Bluetooth input function, enabling music from compatible devices to be played back through your connected system.

In terms of wired connections, the Wave includes a switchable phono preamp, allowing direct connection to powered speakers, while RCA outputs ensure compatibility with traditional amplifiers and hi-fi systems.

Alongside the new Walnut model, a limited edition collaboration with Jack White’s US label, Third Man Records, will see the turntable available in Third Man’s signature yellow and black colours with a custom slipmat thrown in for good measure.

The Victrola Wave is available now, priced at £349 / $499.

MORE

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This £13k Ortofon MC Vertex is the firm's "most advanced moving coil cartridge" ever – and is joined by a new MC X model

Vinyl lovers, you might want to look away now. Because AI slop is coming to a record player near you.

That's right, AI music creation platform Suno now lets you press your AI-prompted tracks onto 12-inch records to play on your turntable.

Suno lets you create songs with 'prompts' – record a sample of you singing, tell it what genre you'd like your song to fit, and it'll generate a track. You can also remix original songs in different ways, and edit manually using instruments and its own software.

Each Suno vinyl fits a maximum of 46 minutes of music. Once you've got your tracks, you can upload your own artwork or create it using Suno to design your own sleeve, cover and label.

Each record costs $45 (around £33 / AU$64) plus shipping.

Suno has proved controversial. In 2024, it was sued by the three major record labels who alleged it didn't pay the musicians on whose tracks the AI model was trained. Warner Music settled its case last year and struck a licensing deal with Suno, but Universal and Sony Music remain plaintiffs in the case.

Suno has also just lost a copyright infringement case to Germany's state-mandated licensing agency GEMA. The court in Munich ruled that Suno violated copyrights in its data scraping practices and must now disclose illicit revenue. Suno will be ordered to pay damages which haven't yet been set.

Suno also suffered a data breach in November 2025 that exposed the personal information of over 55 million users.

All of which is exactly the opposite of everything we love about vinyl.

MORE:

The best turntables you can buy

Why vinyl is greener than music streaming

The A-Z of vinyl: know your cartridges from your cantilevers

KEF has enjoyed considerable success making active wireless stereo systems.

KEF’s LS50 Wireless II speaker system has become an exemplar of this success, becoming something of a modern-day legend in the process. The five-star system has scooped so many What Hi-Fi? Awards, and been on our list of the best hi-fi systems for such a long while, that it has truly earned its place among KEF’s pantheon of greats.

Now, KEF is kicking things up a notch with the arrival of the LS Luxe, once again integrating amplification and streaming into a compact, easy-to-use stereo speaker package. The LS Luxe is a step above the LS50 Wireless II in terms of price, but is it vastly superior regarding its all-around performance?

Let’s find out.

KEF LS Luxe vs KEF LSS50 Wireless II: price

The LS50 Wireless II came into the world at £2250 / $2499 / AU$4295, but as we know, prices are always liable to fluctuate over time.

Currently, you can find the LS50 Wireless II for £2199, a modest but not insubstantial drop from its original RRP. For US buyers, it’s not such good news: you will tend to see KEF’s established Award-winner sitting between $2500-$2999 at the time of writing.

Wherever you are and whatever prices are doing, the LS Luxe is going to cost a good deal more than its more established sibling. KEF’s new kid on the block arrived at £3500 / $4000 / AU$6375, and given it’s so fresh to the market, we don’t expect to see any major discounts any time soon.

For its more affordable asking price, this is one on the board for the LS50 Wireless II.

**Winner: KEF LS50 Wireless II**

KEF LS Luxe vs KEF LSS50 Wireless II: build and design

Let’s just be super clear about what we’re dealing with here.

Both the KEF LS50 Wireless II and LS Luxe are standmounted active wireless stereo speaker systems, meaning you are getting two separate speaker cabinets with built-in amplification, wireless streaming, and a DAC.

At the heart of each pair of speakers is the 12th-generation of KEF’s signature Uni-Q driver array, in which the tweeter sits in the centre of the mid/bass unit for more even sonic dispersion, improved integration, and better time alignment. With the LS Luxe, the Uni-Q driver assembly is mechanically decoupled from the cabinet to reduce panel vibrations.

KEF’s ‘Metamaterial Absorption Technology’ (MAT), which absorbs rearward sound from the back of the tweeter dome in pursuit of greater treble clarity, is also featured in both.

For the LS50 Wireless II, 100 watts of Class A/B amplification is powering the 25mm aluminium tweeter, while 280 watts of Class D power handles the 13cm aluminium mid/bass driver.

The power split in the LS Luxe is the same in terms of wattage and power class, but the driver sizes are a little different, as we are still dealing with a 25mm aluminium tweeter complemented by a larger 16.5cm mid/bass unit. That, as we shall see, helps the LS Luxe generate more lower-end depth and power.

Externally, our contenders’ cabinets look reasonably distinct from each other. That Uni-Q array aside, the LS50 Wireless II speakers are squatter and squarer, albeit with rounded-off edges and a convex front panel helping to give them a modern, stylish appeal.

The LS Luxe, by contrast, really doubles down on its curvy aesthetic, with a smooth, almost egg-like form that aims to improve performance by reducing the build-up of internal standing waves within the cabinet. They are taller and slimmer cabinets than the LS50 Wireless II, and though the look of the speakers won’t be for everyone, the standard of construction is, inarguably, very high.

That rounded design is thanks to a collaboration with Ross Lovegrove, the Welsh designer with whom KEF previously joined forces when creating the mighty Muon floorstanders, the Muo Bluetooth speaker, and the Mu headphones range.

Around the back, the LS50 Wireless II speakers feature a ridged aluminium heatsink and a flared reflex port. The LS Luxe also features a flared reflex port, with a distinctively curved, more deeply ridged aluminium heatsink designed to offer a greater surface area to more efficiently dissipate the heat generated by the active electronics within.

Both systems use ‘Bulk Moulded Compound’ (BMC) composite material in their cabinet construction; the LS50 Wireless II in just the front baffle, while the LS Luxe’s entire enclosure is made out of the material. BMC is an inert, high-mass material that is highly conducive for use in a speaker enclosure.

In terms of control, the LS50 Wireless II offers a touch-capacitive strip panel for adjusting volume, muting the speakers, selecting volume or turning the whole system on or off.

The LS Luxe doesn’t feature any on-unit buttons or controls, but you do get a nicely made aluminium remote, as well as access to the KEF Connect control app, for managing your listening experience. Do note that the LS50 Wireless II also comes with a remote control and app support.

The LS50 Wireless II houses threaded inserts in the corner of each speaker, allowing them to lock onto the top of KEF's S2 Floor Stands (£400 / $449 / AU$800 per pair).

The LS Luxe can also be fitted to their own dedicated ‘S-Luxe’ stands (£800 / $800 / AU$1230), which you will need to put together and screw into the base of each speaker yourself. Expensive they may be, but if you want to hear the LS Luxe at its best, we think a pair of S-Luxe stands is worth the cash.

One more thing: finishes. You get three options from which to choose with the LS Luxe: Eclipse Black, Dusk Titanium or Mineral White. There are four choices with the LS50 Wireless: Carbon Black, Titanium Grey, Moss Green or Sand Shell.

Not much to grumble about on either side, here. The LS50 Wireless II earns points for its on-unit controls and more compact design, whereas the LS Luxe feels a tad more premium and can draw on more-refined design aspects, such as that more-advanced heat sink design and larger mid/bass drive unit.

**Winner: KEF LS Luxe**

KEF LS Luxe vs KEF LSS50 Wireless II: features

Both of KEF’s five-star wireless speaker systems go big on features, offering a variety of ways to enjoy each.

Around the back of both systems’ primary speaker unit, you will find HDMI eARC, 3.5mm analogue, optical and coaxial inputs, as well as an ethernet port for hooking up physically to the internet. With both the LS Luxe and the LS50 Wireless II, each of the two speakers has a dedicated output for adding a single subwoofer or a pair if you really want to go big on bass.

On the streaming side, both use KEF’s W2 Wireless Platform, granting access to popular streaming services such as Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Amazon Music, Qobuz Connect and Deezer, along with internet radio.

If you’re not keen on spending much time on the dedicated KEF app, there is also the further convenience of AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast and Bluetooth for both, with the LS50 Wireless supporting Bluetooth 5.0 and the LS Luxe bumping that up to the more efficient Bluetooth 5.3.

UPnP compatibility on both means you can stream hi-res music from a connected external NAS drive, and while Roon Ready support is already available for the LS50 Wireless II, it is slated to arrive in 2027 for the LS Luxe.

Hi-res file support depends on how you choose to listen. Either KEF system is able to accept PCM files up to 24-bit/384kHz, with the LS50 Wireless II supporting DSD256 and the LS Luxe maxing out at DSD128.

The LS Luxe also lacks MQA support, something you do still get with the LS50 Wireless II; but, as Tidal dropped MQA a few years ago and the format appears to be in decline, this won’t be a major loss for most would-be listeners.

If you are using a wireless connection between your LS50 Wireless II or LS Luxe speakers, higher resolution files will be internally downsampled to 24-bit/96kHz. Connecting the master and slave speakers using the included interconnect cable will bump playback up to 24-bit/192kHz.

As far as apps go, we’re rather keen on KEF’s ‘Connect’ platform, from which you can control and set up your wireless system. You can tweak the sound yourself using the on-board equaliser and use KEF’s ‘Room EQ’ digital signal processing to fine-tune your sound to your listening room – something we recommend to get the best sound possible for your given space.

While the LS50 Wireless II does enjoy the benefit of KEF’s Uni-Q array and innovative ‘MAT’ technology, the LS Luxe is packed with more recent technological advancements that see it outpace its established counterpart.

The LS Luxe, for instance, is the first KEF speaker product to feature the company’s ‘Velocity Control Technology’ (VECO), as seen in this year’s five-star XIO soundbar. VECO essentially measures the speed of the drivers’ cone movement, and any differences between that and the expected value are compensated for in real time, resulting in lower distortion levels.

Additionally, the newer, more premium LS Luxe gains the benefit of KEF’s ‘Music Integrity Engine’ tech, which uses digital signal processing algorithms to maintain accuracy and tonality no matter the volume at which the system is played.

Impressive feature sets and plenty of ways to enjoy KEF’s five-star contenders, but the LS Luxe’s more up-to-date technology suite sees it earn victory here.

**Winner: KEF LS Luxe**

KEF LS Luxe vs KEF LS50 Wireless II: sound quality

Even with the LS Luxe coming along and rather knocking it off its pretty perch, the LS50 Wireless II remains a devilishly talented wireless speaker system.

This is a product that has scooped a raft of What Hi-Fi? Awards since it arrived around six years ago, one we dubbed as being among the “most thrilling speaker systems we had heard” for around £2000 / $2500.

In fact, the LS50 Wireless II is still outstanding at its price. As a major step up at the time from the groundbreaking LS50 Wireless, the LS50 Wireless II remains an exemplary choice if you are seeking a system that offers you a clean, admirably precise sonic presentation.

The balanced, uncluttered signature of the LS50 Wireless II’s sound was, and remains, one of its strongest attributes. KEF’s Award-winning system was a serious step up from its predecessor, offering up a more intricate, open and precise soundstage than we had seen with the original LS50 Wireless.

As we wrote at the time: “mids are cleaner-cut and bass more defined, their extra refinement making the originals sound a touch crude. The whole presentation has been opened out, that extra room not only filled with subtler, more precise detail, but also allowing for greater instrument separation that makes its delivery sound much less congested in comparison.”

Clear, balanced and precise the LS50 Wireless II may be, but what has kept it atop the pantheon of great wireless speaker systems has been marrying those qualities with real verve and drama. Authority and poise are wedded to punch and grip, especially regarding the LS50 Wireless II’s meaty, agile bass reproduction and crisp – yet not overetched – treble response.

The LS Luxe may be a good deal more expensive than the established LS50 Wireless II, but, from what we have heard, it fully justifies that considerable price jump.

The LS Luxe does have a similarly balanced, authoritative character as many of its esteemed KEF stablemates, but have it playing at its best and you’ll soon realise it is a considerable improvement on pretty much any product of this type that KEF has yet made.

When really firing, the LS Luxe is a delight, piling on extra helpings of detail and precision to the confident, articulate presentation found with the LS50 Wireless II. When listened to side by side, the LS Luxe takes the LS50 Wireless II’s presentation and elevates it, sounding more precise, muscular and cinematic in a straight shootout.

Reasonably compact the speaker cabinets may be, but the authority, breadth and depth of the sound go far beyond what we would expect from a relatively compact standmounted speaker system.

The LS Luxe can really put on a show when it comes to delivering cinematic fare with authority and scale, with a taut, authoratative bass reproduction acting as its real party piece. That is partly down to the larger 16.5cm mid/bass unit found as part of the LS Luxe’s updated Uni-Q array.

In all honesty, KEF has struck a marvellous balance with its latest model. This is a system that makes rhythms sound expressive and nimble but rarely skittish or overdone, while dynamics are confidently expressed without seeming forced or artificial.

Few, if any, blind spots are to be found. As we wrote in our review, the LS Luxe knits music together “so expertly that even truly demanding tracks can’t catch it napping. Whether it’s the gale-force hurricane of Slipknot’s Before I Forget or the magisterial grandeur of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the LS Luxe barely breaks a sweat.”

Sonically, the LS50 Wireless II remains a superb wireless choice, but the LS Luxe really does take everything we liked about that sound and kick it up a notch. In terms of pure audio quality, it’s an obvious – and deeply impressive – cut above.

**Winner: KEF LS Luxe**

KEF LS Luxe vs KEF LS50 Wireless II: verdict

The LS Luxe has not made the LS50 Wireless II redundant.

The more established system continues to excel thanks to its impressive host of streaming features and a sonic performance that, at its more affordable price, remains one of the best we have heard.

KEF has also made no indication that it will be phasing out the LS50 Wireless II, meaning it looks set to enjoy a bright future at its £2250 / $2499 / AU$4295 price point.

What the LS Luxe does is raise the sonic bar to another level. You’re getting most of the same streaming features and ways to listen as with the LS50 Wireless II, but a larger driver and new technologies – Veco and KEF’s ‘Music Integrity Engine’, for instance – see the LS Luxe pull well clear in terms of pure sonic ability.

If you are happy to spend the extra cash, and then fork out a bit more for some dedicated stands, the LS Luxe is the system to pick.

**Overall winner: KEF LS Luxe**

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We speak to KEF’s chief technology officer about the LS Luxe

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I arrived at What Hi-Fi? in 2008, fresh from a fast-paced time on men’s magazines and with a haircut to match, thinking that my love of music and tech would mean I could, a) have an easier job and, b) have a quieter life. Neither of these things proved true, though the legendary What Hi-Fi? listening room was an excellent place to have a rest.

Soon after my arrival, I looked at previews of a new 32-page supplement on Blu-ray vs HD-DVD that was just about to go to the printers. I then heard rumours that Toshiba was about to can HD-DVD and give the win to Sony and Blu-ray.

Toshiba may have had a problem but I had a crisis as I was digesting this information in a (mild) panic at London Fashion Week, champagne in hand, looking at new LG TVs as they were the key sponsor of the event.

Needless to say, we cut half the supplement and talked about the death of HD-DVD and added a lot more Blu-ray reviews. It’s amusing to write this at a time when PlayStation has recently announced the end of Blu-ray game discs.

Next, it was a trip to Japan with Sony to see the company's latest headphones and Bluetooth speakers, which included the launch of the Sony Rolly (pictured, below).

This was essentially an egg on wheels that could dance to music and also dance with other Sony Rolly products.

The highlight of the trip was seeing the fabled Sony Walkman room, complete with every model ever made and some of the engineering geniuses dusting the exhibits in the otherwise pristine white room. They were not involved with the development of the Sony Rolly to my knowledge...

Elsewhere in Tokyo, I bumped into Brazilian rock band CSS, who arrived in a club from a ladder located in the ceiling. I still love Japan as well as the fact that Sony can pull something wild out of the R&D lab, even to this day.

There were other notable arrivals and announcements in the office which I enjoyed during my time on the magazine.

Number one was the 2001-style space oddity that was a yellow oval internet radio from Pure called Sensia (pictured, below), which I retain was way ahead of its time in 2009 in terms of style, function and connectivity.

The Sensia had a big touchscreen display, just as the iPhone was taking off, and it felt like the future – so we stuck it on the cover. It was not the future of music (as I, possibly, wrote loudly) but you can trace the Sensia's inspiration in many more recent products from Apple to WiiM, Amazon to Ruark.

In a later review we curiously said, “Once all the promised upgrades are in place, it should function as effectively as a social networking tool as it does as a music-making device.”

In 2008, I also got a short, very corporate press release from Spotify and remember talking with legendary fellow editor Andy Clough about how this was huge – but neither of us could imagine how much it would change things.

Unsurprising, given smartphones hadn’t yet taken over the world and apps (and the App Store) were still in their infancy. The impact among artists is well known but the arrival of Spotify, and the rise of music streaming, was probably the biggest change for audio product development since the launch of CD.

The other huge change in the audio world in the late '00s was the arrival of Beats by Dre, which set a new premium price for mass-market headphones, delivered a blow to the traditional headphone market, and then quickly took it over thanks to great marketing. The brand was soon bought by Apple for a staggering $3 billion.

The boom in over-ear headphones ultimately introduced many people to the idea and excitement of hi-fi sound for the first time, and were a world apart from the free buds that came with early music players, iPods and smartphones. From that day forward, a new audience wanted home audio that sounded as good as their portable headphones.

Looking back through the issues, it’s also clear that we were seeing not only an amazing time for turntable development but the first signs of the vinyl revival, which has only gathered pace in subsequent years. The Clearaudio Concept sounded amazing and looked modern – and that convinced me to get back into vinyl.

The biggest revelation for me on my time on What Hi-Fi? (apart from free pizza on deadline) was how products could really push my digital music collection and deliver astonishing results from CD rips, even when played through giant, revealing Focal speakers.

I was lucky enough to work with the Naim team after What Hi-Fi? and still think so many audio brands owe an awful lot to the people of Naim, and specialist brands like them, such as Arcam, Dali, Grado and PMC.

Towards the end of my time on What Hi-Fi?, audio legend Mark Levison showcased some of his new audio products in London and then joined us at a Morrissey concert.

I don’t remember a great deal from the launch, but I did find a Mark Levinson CD in my jean pocket which consisted of his very own music. It was later issued as a free CD with his limited run of mini hi-fi systems.

I can’t see it on eBay but I swear it’s true. I know of only one other person that carries his own music around with him: Morrissey. Coincidence? Who knows, but I like to think both still read What Hi-Fi?.

I miss my time on What Hi-Fi? but founded an audio PR agency after leaving to stay close to all the kind of innovations I’ve mentioned, and I’m still on the lookout for the next big thing.

And I’m impressed with everyone that has worked tirelessly for decades on What Hi-Fi?, which remains the most trusted, independent voice in tech. In 2026, that’s truly something to celebrate.

Well done Team What Hi-Fi? for 50 years – here’s to the next 50!

MORE:

I edited What Hi-Fi? through the era of plasma TV, SACD and the iPod – and an infamous cover catastrophe

We look back at the very first CD players tested by What Hi-Fi? and the advent of this innovative digital format

The defining TV formats of the 21st century – 1080p, OLED, 3D, 4K, 8K and beyond – and the first time What Hi-Fi? reviewed them

Roksan’s new Caspian 4G range has some big shoes to fill. The previous generation was a firm favourite of ours, winning multiple Awards and gaining plenty of five-star reviews over the best part of a decade and a half.

It is fair to say that Roksan isn’t the same company it was when the previous generation of Caspian products was launched. The brand was bought by Monitor Audio back in 2016, and now no longer makes any of the turntables it was so famous for, most notably the Xerxes.

While we wouldn’t be surprised to see new record players at some point in the future, for now the company’s priority is to re-establish Caspian in the premium sector, and (belatedly) build on the foundations laid by the more affordable Attessa range introduced back in 2021.

Currently, the Caspian 4G series consists of four products: the streaming preamplifier (£3500 / $4500 / AU$7199) and power amplifier (£3000 / $3750 / AU$5999) pairing on test here, alongside an integrated amplifier that’s available with or without a streaming module, retailing for £4000 / $5000 / AU$7499 and £3000 / $3750 / AU$5999 respectively.

Given the excellence of the previous generation Caspian CD player, we have hope that the company will eventually release one to match the amplifiers. Until then, there is no stand-alone disc or streaming source in the range.

Design & features

So, to the products at hand. The Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier is in most ways a very well-equipped unit. As the name indicates, a streaming module is included, but this unit also has a phono stage and a good range of digital and line-level analogue inputs.

The streaming module is from BluOS, and will play music stored on any device connected to it or your home network, up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM files. If you have DSD music, then you are out of luck, as the Caspian 4G streamer can’t play it. Other products that use the BluOS module have DSD ability – the Bluesound Node Icon and Cyrus 40 ST come to mind – so we can only hope that Roksan follows suit at some point.

But let us keep things in proportion. While most premium streamers have better file compatibility than this Roksan, it is fair to say that hi-res music files above 192kHz are something of a niche interest; much the same can be said of DSD. We suggest letting your music library dictate whether the Caspian 4G will work for you. In the vast majority of cases, we suspect it will.

The BluOS platform gives access to a range of streaming services, most notably Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz (in Connect form), as well as Internet radio. Apple AirPlay 2, MQA and Roon compatibility are also on the menu. As is usual, the Roksan will connect to your home network via an Ethernet lead or wirelessly. We tend to stick with wired for the extra stability it offers.

We have few complaints about connectivity. On the digital side, there are two optical inputs, a pair of coax, and an HDMI eARC input to make integrating this Roksan into an AV set-up easier. You can play music files from storage thanks to a USB-A socket.

Bluetooth is included too, though given it is limited to the aptX codec, it should be considered a convenience option rather than something intended for serious listening. Connection to our iPhone 14 Pro Max is swift, and the performance is more than good enough for the job.

On the analogue side, there is a trio of line-level inputs that includes a balanced XLR, and dedicated sockets for both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. The gain levels chosen for both phono inputs (MM is 53dB and MC 73dB) are sensible and will work well with most cartridges. It is possible to adjust those settings by + or - 6dB, just to fine-tune the results.

The phono stage’s electrical loading isn’t adjustable, but the values chosen strike a good middle ground at 47kOhms/100pF for MM and 100 Ohms/470pF for MC. In addition, there is an option of a rumble filter to reduce any unwanted low-frequency noise generated by the record player.

As for the preamp’s outputs, the user can choose between three options: balanced XLR or a pair of single-ended stereo RCA outputs. One of these single-ended outputs can even be configured with a low-pass filter and used for driving a subwoofer.

Take a look inside these Caspian 4G products, and it is hard not to be impressed by the care Roksan has taken with the layout and production engineering; they really are nicely turned-out components. The preamp’s analogue section is fully balanced to keep noise levels low, and the power supply arrangement is generous to ensure a clean, low-noise power feed to the circuitry.

On the digital side, Roksan has used its bespoke ‘Rapture’ DAC circuit; a discrete, dual-mono design that the company claims is capable of high levels of resolution and precise stereo imaging.

The Caspian 4G Power Amplifier is a simpler unit than the streaming preamp. It features a rather generous trio of inputs, mirroring the preamp’s single-ended and balanced XLR connectivity, and, in a nod to tradition, has the same distinctive design of speaker terminal as used on the previous generation of Caspian amplifiers.

It uses a Class A/B circuit and is something of a powerhouse, delivering a claimed 105 watts per channel into an 8-ohm load and almost doubling that to 200 watts as the impedance halves. In bridged mono form, that increases to 420 watts into 8 ohms and 630 watts into 4 ohms. We don’t see this power amplifier having difficulty driving any price-compatible speaker.

Build & set-up

The build quality of both the streaming preamp and power is excellent. Their casework is beautifully machined and elegantly engineered. There are two finish options: black and silver. It is easy to think that Roksan hasn’t been particularly bold with its choice of colours, but that’s what most people buy, even when more adventurous options are offered.

To our eyes, the styling of these products looks understated yet modern. We like the clean detailing and the design language that honours the previous range but moves things on too. That clarity of thought extends to the remote handset, which is a small, solid-feeling unit that is nicely laid out and easy to use.

Nowhere is the evolution of the Caspian range as obvious as it is during installation. Gone are the days when all it took was a couple of pairs of interconnects, some speaker cable and plugging the units into a wall socket. Now, you also need to use an app (available for iOS and Android). Purists may roll their eyes, but it is hard to argue with the degree of flexibility and control this approach offers.

The company’s MaestroUnite set-up app is nicely laid out and intuitive to use. Both the pre and power connect to your device through Bluetooth – the antennas are neatly hidden in the respective caseworks – and then the products can be configured.

The app makes setting up a product as complicated as the streaming preamp pretty straightforward. Inputs can be hidden (if not used), and parameters such as the sensitivity of the MM and MC modules can be fine-tuned to taste. MaestroUnite even includes useful diagrams to help with connections.

There are various DSP modes, including a ‘Tilt’ tone adjustment that pivots the frequency extremes around the midrange, a room boundary adjustment that cuts bass output if your speakers need to be used closer to a back wall than ideal, and the aforementioned rumble filters for the phono stage.

What does the app offer for the Caspian 4G Power Amplifier? It allows you to switch the power from stereo to mono mode, as well as deciding which of its three inputs is selected. It also handles any software updates for the Caspian 4G range as a whole.

In principle, we have no complaints about using an app to set up equipment. Using MaestroUnite on a phone or tablet to set all those parameters is so much easier than trying to do it on the product itself using a (usually small and low resolution) front panel display.

However, early on we did have issues with the app proving slightly buggy in use. Roksan proved quick to react, issuing a software update to fix the problems we had identified, and supplying a replacement Streaming Pre-Amplifier in short order just to make sure.

Once that was done, things worked as well as we had hoped for. There are times when MaestroUnite doesn’t connect to the products as quickly as we would like, but on the whole, using it proves a painless experience.

The well-established BluOS app controls the streaming module, and it works well. In our experience, this is one of the more stable streaming platforms and is relatively easy to use. The layout is fairly intuitive, and the feature set covers the essentials.

Products at this level demand a talented partnering system. Our sources are the Technics SL-1000R record player fitted with either the Kiseki Purpleheart MC cartridge or the Nagaoka MP-200 moving magnet, and the Naim ND555/ 555 PS DR music streamer. The Naim performs as our analogue line-level and digital source along with a Cyrus 40 CD CD player.

As for speakers, our usual ATC SCM50 are pressed into service for much of the testing, but we also use the Epos ES14N and Fyne F1-8 standmounters to see how the Roksan pairing copes.

Sound

In the event, it copes rather well. The Caspian 4G’s streaming section seems a logical place to start, and our impressions are positive. There is a good balance to the sound. It is tonally neutral but avoids the sterility that many similarly tuned products suffer from. The natural warmth of Curtis Mayfield shines through on the hauntingly sad Here But I’m Gone; his voice sounds thoughtful and fragile, yet is as clear and palpable as we have heard at this level.

The backing instrumentation is laid out with care. It is easy to follow individual instrumental strands or just sit back and enjoy the whole. We like the Roksan’s surefooted approach to timing. The song’s steady rhythm track is secure and is delivered with a good measure of drive, letting the music’s easy-going feeling of forward momentum shine through.

We switch to the bass heavy charms of Billie Eilish’s bad guy and enjoy the Roksan pairing’s powerful and articulate bass. Lows hit hard and true as the power amplifier takes a firm grip of our ATC speakers.

The Caspian combo sounds big and powerful, showing plenty of composure even when pushed to high volume levels. However, we notice a touch of reticence with dynamic expression, which robs the music of a bit of drama and involvement.

The sound through the digital inputs retains much the same characteristics. The built-in DAC is a good one, broadly on a par with the better outboard offerings around the £500 / $700 mark. It is an even-handed and textured performer that delivers a good sense of clarity and articulation. Could it be more expressive and exciting? We think it can.

Good as the Caspian 4G combo has been, things get notably better when we switch to analogue. The line level inputs sound great when fed with either our reference Naim streamer or the Cyrus CD player. The level of clarity improves over the built-in streaming module and dynamics gain in verve.

As we work through De La Soul’s Cabin In the Sky, Lux by Rosalía and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, we are surprised at just how good this Roksan combo sounds. It bristles with energy, balancing excitement with control superbly. The level of organisation is impressive, as is the way the Caspian 4G duo still sounds stable and composed when the music becomes difficult.

Despite the high level of insight, these are not fussy performers. Their transparency means that any shortcomings in the source or source material are easy to hear, but such is the level of refinement that the Roksan duo never makes a meal of things. They prefer to highlight the quality of the music rather than focus on how well the recording engineer did their job.

Stereo imaging is impressive. These units render an expansive soundstage that is populated by nicely focused instrumentation and voices. Sounds are nicely layered, and on suitable recordings, we hear a convincing sense of depth.

The good news doesn’t stop there. The built-in phono stage is excellent, retaining all the positives of the line stages. The level of clarity is impressive while noise and hum levels are pleasingly low. It works equally well for moving coils as it does with moving magnets, which isn’t always the case.

A word of warning, though: while the rumble filter does a job, we found it degrades the sound quality a little too much for our tastes, robbing it of dynamics and transparency. We switched it off pretty quickly.

Verdict

The Roksan Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier/Power Amplifier pairing is well made and packed with useful features. It can be a thrilling listen with the right recordings and has a nature that is forgiving enough to keep poorer recordings enjoyable.

The preamp’s analogue stages are excellent, as is the phono module. The latter is good enough that we doubt many owners would be tempted to opt for a dedicated outboard phono stage when the time for upgrading arrives. The streaming and DAC capabilities aren’t quite as impressive, but they are still competitive for the class.

This well-thought-out package suggests that the future is bright for the Roksan brand. We can’t wait to see what it comes up with next.

Review published: 4th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 5

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Also consider the Naim Uniti Nova

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

Technics’ latest turntable, Bose’s new Dolby Atmos soundbar, and Cambridge's most powerful streaming amp are all in for review this month

The sub-£1000 integrated stereo amplifier market is a tough nut to crack. Such amplifiers need to be forgiving enough to work well with budget sources and speakers, while having the sonic stretch to shine with higher-quality partners. Arcam’s A5 has been the dominant force in this sector since its introduction in late 2023, and the revised, current Award-winning A5+ version has simply reinforced that superiority.

The arrival of the Marantz Model 70 could be a problem for Arcam, though. Marantz is a recognised master of affordable amplifiers, as the multiple awards won by various generations of the company’s 6000 series integrateds prove.

The Model 70 is a reimagining of the excellent, long-running five-star PM6007, featuring a more stylish appearance and improved connectivity. The result is a stereo amplifier that is more useful and flexible than its predecessors ever were.

Make no mistake, Marantz has been aggressive here, pitching the Model 70 directly at the class champion. Is that the right move? We've tested both amplifiers against each other to find out.

Arcam A5+ vs Marantz Model 70: price

The Arcam A5+ costs £749 / $1199 / AU$1595, while the Model 70 retails for £749 in the UK and in Australia, AU$1600 (excluding VAT). Marantz has decided not to sell the Model 70 in the USA, feeling other products in the range cover similar ground in that market.

Given the parity of pricing in other territories, it is fair to say that Marantz firmly had Arcam in its sights when setting the price for its new amplifier. The two can’t really be split in either the UK or Australian markets.

**Winner: draw**

Arcam A5+ vs Marantz Model 70: build & design

The Arcam A5+ has been on the market around three years now but remains a fresh-looking design. We like the simplicity of its clean front-panel layout, even though the display could be a little crisper. Indeed, integrated amplifiers further up the Arcam ladder have a much better display.

The two rotary control dials on the front are decently responsive and precise in use, and the A5+ works intuitively. It is easy to set up, even if that display is a little small.

We have no complaints about general build, as the A5+'s casework feels suitably substantial. The quality of the fit and finish is as good as we would expect at this price. There is only one finish option, black. The supplied remote is a small, basic plastic affair, but it is simple enough to use.

This amplifier should have no problem driving any price-compatible speaker. It is rated at 50 watts per channel, just like the Marantz, and while that number isn’t unusually generous, it is more than enough to do the job.

Over the years we have used the Arcam amp with just about every type of speaker, and it hasn’t let us down yet.

The Model 70 is another well-made product. We like the fresh look. To our eyes, the Marantz amp is distinctive and stylish regardless of whether it is finished in black or silver.

Our positive impression is reinforced by the sturdy yet precise feel of the various front-panel controls. They have a heftier feel than those on the Arcam, and we like that, particularly as they turn with a pleasant smoothness.

The remote is good, too. It is more comprehensive than the one supplied with the Arcam, but remains intuitive in use and feels solid.

We are less happy with the Marantz’s casework. The lid feels thin and rattles when we tap it, while the back panel flexes notably when we plug and unplug the speaker leads. Nothing falls off, of course, and we suspect that the Model 70 will have as long a service life as any of its rivals. However, it does feel more like the budget PM6007 than we would like given its higher price point.

**Winner: Arcam A5+**

Arcam A5+ vs Marantz Model 70: features

These two amplifiers are hard to split when it comes to features and connectivity, and should be able to slot into even the most complex of systems with ease. Both have moving-magnet phono stages, three line-level inputs, a headphone output and digital inputs. They both offer a preamp out for those that want to add an outboard power amplifier.

There are small but significant differences, though.

The Marantz adds an HDMI ARC to its coax and optical digital inputs, and has a dedicated subwoofer out. The Arcam’s second coax input and inclusion of higher-quality aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec and Auracast may balance things out for some people. The Marantz is limited to aptX HD Bluetooth.

The Arcam's digital section is built around the well proven ESS Sabre ES9018 DAC chip, and can handle datastreams of up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM, just like the Marantz (which uses the ESS Sabre’s ES9020Q). Neither amplifier offers DSD compatibility.

Each offers a choice of digital filter options, and as is usual, the best one comes down to system matching and taste.

There used to be a time when amplifiers such as these offered the option of connecting two sets of speakers. That time has gone, with only a single set of speaker outputs available on each amplifier.

**Winner: Draw**

Arcam A5+ vs Marantz Model 70: sound

The Marantz Model 70 is a capable performer. There is no doubt in our minds that it is a clear step ahead of its PM6007 predecessor. The new model sounds clearer, more detailed and stable. The Model 70 has more grip and punch at low frequencies too, making the older Marantz amplifier sound soft and blurred in comparison, though we can still relate to its easy-going nature and fluid delivery.

Up against the Arcam A5+, we can appreciate the Model 70’s more even tonal balance and marginally tauter bass. It produces a controlled and well balanced sound that is sure to work well in a wide range of systems.

We are pleased to report that the Model 70 doesn’t drop its standards across any of its inputs. The phono stage is pleasingly capable, being a relatively low-noise design that retains the positive characteristics of the line stages.

It isn’t unusual for there to be a notable drop-off in clarity between the phono stage and the line-level inputs in amplifiers of this price, but that doesn’t happen to any great extent here.

The sound with records is clear, articulate and balanced. Much the same can be said of the digital inputs. Given the amplifier’s price, the digital module is a good one, broadly on a par with some of the better outboard units around the £150 mark.

Moving to the Arcam reveals its richer tonal balance. This isn’t overdone by any means, but it results in lows that are slightly less taut. But, it is also fair to say that the Arcam is the clearer and more expressive performer. It doesn’t matter whether you listen to Debussy’s Clair de Lune or Eminem’s Recovery set, the A5+ consistently sounds more insightful and dynamically expressive.

While the Marantz seems to prioritise balance and control, the A5+ proves better at bringing out the energy and drama present in the recording. Play Eminem’s No Love and the Arcam delivers doses of emotion and drive that the Model 70 can’t match.

The result is that, while we can admire the Marantz’s many sonic qualities, we find ourselves enjoying the music more through the Arcam, and for us, that is the most important thing.

**Winner: Arcam A5+**

Arcam A5+ vs Marantz Model 70: verdict

One of these amplifiers is good. The other is great. There is plenty to like in the Model 70. It is a well-conceived and nicely balanced product that should work well in a wide range of systems. The feature set covers all the essentials and then some. Slightly thin casework aside, it is pleasant to use and, we suspect, to own.

However, the move up in price has put it up against sterner competition than its PM6007 predecessor ever faced. Good as the Model 70 is, it doesn’t quite manage to offer the Arcam A5+’s breadth of sonic talent, and so doesn’t pull us into the music as effectively.

The A5+ is our current Award-winner at this price point and deservedly so. It is a great all-rounder that manages to tick every box we would expect from an amplifier at this level. If it were our money, this is where it would go.

**Overall winner: Arcam A5+**

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Read our full Arcam A5+ review

And our Marantz Model 70 review

Check out the best stereo amplifiers we've tested across all budgets

How do you follow an Award-winning product? If you're high-end portable music player specialist Astell & Kern, you beef up the specs no end. The new PD5 follows the Award-winning A&norma SR35 with eight hours of extra battery life and twice the number of DACs.

Like its predecessor, the Astell & Kern PD5 can switch between the number of DACs at work. But whereas the SR35 could only switch between two and four, the PD5 can go from four to eight.

Using all eight Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs unleashes the device's full sound quality, while dropping down to four will help extend the battery life.

Astell & Kern quotes a total battery life of 28 hours (it hasn't said how long it lasts with all eight DACs firing). Thanks to PD 3.0 charging, it only takes around 2.5 hours to juice it up to full capacity.

A new feature called EnviroTune analyses your surroundings and optimises the sound for the level of ambient noise detected. So your music should stay perfectly clear whether you're walking past lots of traffic or relaxing in a quiet cafe.

Like the SR35, it supports up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and native DSD256 files.

Its octa-core processor and Android OS-based platform pack enough power and smarts to handle music streaming, and while Astell & Kern hasn't confirmed which services it supports, we assume that Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music and Apple Music will all be compatible.

In terms of wireless tech, it has dual-band wi-fi and Bluetooth 5.3, and supports the Qualcomm aptX HD, LDAC and LHDC codecs. Which means plenty of options for high-resolution wireless listening.

A lot of details are still to be confirmed, including its price and release date. The SR35 launched at £799 / $799 / AU$1299, so we would imagine the same or a little higher.

The Astell & Kern PD5 will go on show at the Hong Kong AV show this weekend, and then continue its tour at China's Shenzhen International Audio Show (SIAS) from 14th – 16th August and the US' CanJam SoCal 2026, from August 29th – 30th.

We'll bring you a review as soon as we can.

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Read our Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review

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KEF touted its LS Luxe wireless active speaker system as its “most ambitious creation to date”, and it has certainly been a success in our test rooms.

Costing £3500 / $4000 / AU$6375, the LS Luxe is a more premium proposition than the established £2199 / $2999 / AU$4295 price of the LS50 Wireless II, but the clear step up in performance means that, to our ears, the LS Luxe justifies that considerable extra outlay.

Boasting a distinctively curved aesthetic designed in collaboration with artist Ross Lovegrove, the LS Luxe has ticked all of the right boxes, and gained five stars from us across the board for its excellent standard of construction, vast feature suite and refined, authoritative sound.

To explore the process that brought KEF’s latest creation into the world, delve deep into the technologies behind it, and discover what marks the Luxe out as distinct from its stablemates, we spoke to KEF’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Dr Jack Oclee-Brown, to shine a light on the five-star LS Luxe.

KEF’s journey to active speaker systems

To understand how we arrived at this point, a brief history lesson is in order. After its founding in 1961, KEF’s first speaker was the K1, a three-way monitor with a polyester ‘Melinex’ dome, followed soon after by the original Celeste bookshelf unit and, in the 1970s, the legendary BBC LS3/5A studio monitors.

In the late 1980s, KEF released the C35 standmounter, the first of its speakers to use the now-iconic Uni-Q array, the same array (subsequently refined and amended over the years) that you will find at the heart of the LS Luxe.

More immediate heritage naturally stems from KEF’s recent success in producing full-blooded wireless stereo systems, starting in 2018 with the LS50 Wireless and refined a few years later with the Award-winning LS50 Wireless II.

Housing amplification, streaming and an extensive connectivity suite into a pair of speakers clearly came rather naturally to KEF since the launch of the LS50 Wireless, with later models, such as the LSX II and LSX II LT, garnering further plaudits.

KEF’s success at blending performance with streaming features and built-in amplification is established, and it’s the lessons taken from the successes of the brand’s active streaming speakers which have been instrumental in the development of the LS Luxe.

According to Dr Jack Oclee-Brown, “We’ve always had a strong belief in the technical advantages of active speakers. A key tenet of this is that active and passive loudspeakers shouldn’t necessarily have the same configurations of drivers or technologies.

As he explains, the development of KEF’s active and streaming-capable speakers requires bespoke technologies and design concepts: “We have an aggressive research plan that’s targeting technologies for active speakers. The algorithms are continually improved and are several generations more advanced than in our early active speakers. Our aim is to widen the performance difference between active and passive.”

So, why active wireless systems? It might seem like an odd question, but it’s a big part of KEF’s present and, most likely, its future.

Oclee-Brown explains that part of the reason is ease of use for the consumer. “Active systems are simpler; they don’t require the customer to have any prior experience of hi-fi and no other partnering equipment. The customer makes one purchase, and that’s all they need.

“I believe KEF appeals to hi-fi fans who are looking for cutting-edge performance and the very latest acoustic technology. There are many people who enjoy music and, at KEF, we are also trying to make products that will allow this audience to enjoy their music more deeply. This has been one of the driving factors behind KEF’s active streaming loudspeaker push over the past decade.”

There are advantages on the side of the manufacturer, too.

“From a technical perspective, active speakers have huge advantages, which allow us to make active speaker systems that can outperform a traditional hi-fi system of the same total price.

“It’s even more true today because we have spent the past ten years developing new acoustic technology specifically for active loudspeakers, such as ‘Uni-Core’ and ‘Velocity Control Technology’.” We’ll get to those in a moment.

A smooth operator

It’s hard to talk about the LS Luxe and not mention the design. Before you have listened to a single note from KEF’s new system, you’re probably going to have strong feelings about its curved, almost egg-like speaker cabinets.

We keep our egg-based comparisons to ourselves when asking KEF about its choice to once again collaborate with Ross Lovegrove, the Welsh designer with whom KEF previously joined forces when developing its big-money Muon floorstanders.

According to KEF, the LS Luxe’s design is a blend of the functional, the luxurious and the natural. Says Oclee-Brown: “Ross’s style is very organic, and he uses a lot of shapes inspired by nature. For the LS Luxe, his was an excellent match and resulted in a form that works extremely well from a performance perspective.”

That last part is crucial, as the speakers’ design goes beyond mere looks. Those curved edges seek to improve performance by reducing build-up of standing waves within the cabinet, while durable ‘Bulk Moulded Compound’ (BMC) composite material reduces the need for excessive internal bracing, allowing for greater internal volume within the speakers to aid their low-frequency response.

Oclee-Brown gives us a more detailed explanation as to just how much difference the speakers’ rounded form makes. The smooth shape “reduces diffraction, where sound tends to scatter from sharp edges, and this gives much smoother on- and off-axis performance, leading to the impressive and three-dimensional soundstage.”

For KEF, those rounded exteriors are key to both the LS Luxe’s look and sound.

A Luxe for life

While the LS Luxe has been a success in our test rooms, we are keen to hear how the team behind it perceive their latest creation.

In terms of prospective buyers, KEF believes “there is demand for a higher-performance stand-mount active wireless speaker that is a step up from LS50 Wireless II,” allowing for the introduction of technologies such as VECO and the implementation of that more distinctive design.

The LS Luxe is clearly billed as a step up from the LS50 Wireless II, but what’s interesting to hear is how KEF’s perception of the LS Luxe during its development marries closely to the resultant sound we experience in our listening rooms. We press Oclee-Brown to see if there is such a thing as ‘KEF’ sound, something which he describes as “wide-bandwidth, low colouration and evenly balanced”.

Admittedly, that matches up with what we have heard during our test time. We describe the LS Luxe as being “gratifyingly unfussy about placement” thanks to its “supremely well-integrated sound”. It’s a quality that tallies with KEF’s aim during development “to produce loudspeakers that work well in a wide range of rooms and with a wide range of music”.

Oclee-Brown expands upon that tuning philosophy further, explaining that a KEF speaker “can be listened to for long sessions without being fatiguing. All KEF products follow the same tuning philosophy, and as we develop new technologies or improve our facilities, the KEF sound evolves, but we still have the same overall target.”

We wonder if the tuning of this latest project in any way diverged from that established KEF philosophy, sensing a desire for evolution rather than revolution.

As KEF’s CTO further explains: “The specifics of each product, such as the size, shape, drivers, and technology package, do have an impact on the final tuning. However, we do try to remain faithful to our KEF tuning philosophy, and the outcome is that the sound signature is broadly consistent across the whole KEF speaker range.”

Again, that comes as little surprise. The LS Luxe may outshine the likes of the LSX II and the LS50 Wireless II, but the sound still exhibits the even, balanced, and refined signature of its more affordable antecedents.

The technical innovations behind the sound

A lot has gone in to creating the LS Luxe, and we get a sense that after six years of research and development, there was a desire to push beyond the boundaries of what came before.

KEF has either integrated new technologies or refined its established designs to do so. The integration of its 12th-generation Uni-Q driver array is at the heart of each speaker; it is backed by KEF’s heralded Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT), which absorbs rearward sound from the back of the tweeter dome.

If you’ve already read our review, you might have noticed that each speaker draws on two distinct types of amplification. With our nerdy engineer’s hat on, we probe for an answer as to why:

“One of the huge advantages of an active speaker is that there is one dedicated amplifier for each driver. We use a Class D amplifier for the low-frequency driver, which means we can have high power and high efficiency.

“For the high-frequency driver, we are using a class-A/B amplifier, which avoids switching artefacts and gives a very wide bandwidth. In both cases, the amplifiers are highly customised to the driver they are connected to.”

Notably, this is also the first speaker or speaker system to feature KEF’s ‘Velocity Control Technology’, as seen in the brand’s five-star XIO soundbar. ‘VECO’ measures the speed of the cone movement, compensating for any differences between that and the expected value in real time to reduce distortion levels.

The implementation makes sense. With KEF touting its new system as a simple, easy-to-use solution that can handle the demands of a separates hi-fi system while filling up a listening room, the Luxe needs to be able to handle the sonic demands placed upon its rounded shoulders.

As Dr Oclee-Brown explains, Veco technology has “the dual target of increasing bass output from small speakers, or reducing distortion in conventionally sized speakers such as the LS Luxe.

“In addition, it allows us to use current-output amplifiers, which also give a significant midrange distortion reduction and eliminate power compression.”

We get a feel for that ability in our test rooms. As we say in our review, “the scale and authority showcased belie the Luxe’s compact form, serving up a rendition of Hans Zimmer's Why Do We Fall? that soars… with power, scope and grandeur.”

Integrated systems, be they active, wireless stereo systems or all-in-one units, are becoming ever more popular at a time when modern music fans are increasingly seeking a blend of performance, convenience and ease of use.

The LS Luxe feels like the culmination of KEF’s desire to “appeal to hi-fi fans who are looking for cutting-edge performance and the very latest acoustic technology” in a more user-friendly design.

And we think it might have a hit on its hands. The LS Luxe is undoubtedly pricey, but from what we have heard, it’s an impressively strong alternative to an equivalent separates hi-fi system that could quite easily cost a good deal more.

MORE:

Read our review of the more affordable KEF LS50 Wireless II

Hi-fi in 2076? How engineers envisage the next 50 years of music listening

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

Picture, if you can, a man of entirely average fitness on a bicycle, wheezing his way up a steep rural hillside in a pair of cycling shorts that are rather too small, carrying a ‘work’ rucksack containing Roberts’ new outdoor radio, the SolarDAB 99.

Besides the exciting tech in his bag, it isn’t a particularly charming scene, is it?

Well, let me tell you, it’s even less charming when you are that man. But, having committed to putting the radio manufacturer’s new outdoor-friendly offering to the test, I wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

I arrived at the campsite just before sunset, and much to my delight, found it deserted. On my cycle over, I had worried that it might be too busy for me to test the radio’s volume controls in good conscience. But, without a soul in sight, the sonic landscape was ours for the evening.

So, after pitching my one man tent, I got down to business.

First impressions

Right off the bat, I liked the look of this radio. Like a sleeker, smaller version of a Makita job site radio, it has a rugged, no-frills appearance that is refreshingly out of step with some of Roberts’ more retro-styled lifestyle radios that we have tested. Around the radio’s edges, Roberts has included sturdy bumpers to protect the main body.

With its handy carry strap and various powering options (solar panel, hand crank, USB-C, and a rechargeable battery), the multi-tool approach taken to this design is hard to miss – but it’s well integrated and tasteful.

Pulling the SolarDAB 99 from my bag and setting it down in the dry, yellowing grass, I was also pleased by its weight. On my journey over, I hadn’t felt that I was carrying any excess, but in hand – and despite its plastic casing – the radio feels just bulky and solid enough to give a real impression of quality.

Once I switched the radio on and extended its lengthy telescopic antenna, I was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which I was able to set it up.

Despite being fairly well in the middle of nowhere, I encountered no trouble scanning for and tuning in to a broad selection of DAB, DAB+ and FM stations – more of them, indeed, than I was ever going to get time to listen to.

Connecting via Bluetooth was also a breeze, and the radio appeared in my iPhone 15’s Bluetooth settings almost immediately after I selected pairing mode.

Into the woods

By the time I had spent a while exploring the SolarDAB 99’s features, the sun was bowing out below the horizon. So I thought I had better go for a wander, lest my evening in the wild be wasted.

Clipping the radio to my bag via its robust carry strap, I set off into the woods to the soundtrack of BBC Radio 4.

As it got darker, I turned on the radio’s useful flashlight. This features options for a wide beam of white light, a more narrow, focused beam and a red light. Each setting is available in two brightnesses, and as a flashing SOS signal or a regular flashing mode.

Soon, having lost myself in the forest, I was relieved to find that the torch’s light was more than bright enough to hike by. Fumbling for the illumination mode button, I accidentally set off the radio’s emergency alarm, which, blessedly, starts off relatively quiet, increasing in volume with each beep.

For those of you planning to listen to the radio and hike with a torch simultaneously (you crazy cats, you), it’s worth noting that the flashing modes do sometimes add white-noise interference when listening to weak FM signals. With a strong signal, however, you shouldn’t have any issue.

The radio’s solar panel also seems to work a treat. While Roberts claims a 20-hour battery life from the SolarDAB 99’s rechargeable battery, with the help of earlier sunlight, I didn’t see the charge drop by more than a single bar (of which there are a total of four) during my trip, despite listening for the entire evening.

Roberts says the hand crank offers seven minutes of playback per minute of cranking, but given that I already had charge, I didn’t get to put that to a proper test. It does, however, have a very satisfying feel for a few spins.

Eventually, by a fusion of pure chance and nerve-soothing radio, I made it back to the tent.

But can Roberts sing?

Day to day at What Hi-Fi?, we are blessed with the work of listening to music on a wide variety of systems, some of which are well and truly top of the line products. As such, I was conscious of approaching the SolarDAB 99’s sound with an open mind.

But, as it happened, this radio had no need for my tolerance. Radio presenters’ voices are delivered with naturalness and low-end authority, especially for a small DAB/FM radio measuring just 11.4 x 20.3 x 8.9 cm (hwd). Music sometimes sways towards the richer side of things, but nonetheless comes across with power and a satisfying degree of clarity.

To get the most out of the radio’s high frequencies, I would suggest tilting the speaker towards your listening position. Conveniently, the rear dynamo crank can be pulled part way out to act as a lean support.

Dynamics – which are often all but lost to the compression processes necessary for radio transmission – are also distinct, making for an expressive and entertaining listen overall.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the radio’s maximum volume isn’t going to burst any eardrums, but it certainly goes loud enough that, had I been sharing the campsite with anybody else, I suspect I would have been somewhat unpopular. Turn it down low, and the SolarDAB 99 does a great job of holding on to its low end punch.

One of my favourite qualities of this radio, however, was one I discovered by accident.

Leaving the radio playing while I made my way to the campsite’s primitive latrines, I noticed that, although I had been playing music at an eminently hearable volume, mere metres from my pitch, I could hardly hear a thing.

Morning thoughts

Come morning, as I packed away my optimistically labelled ‘one-man’ cocoon, I found myself feeling rather impressed with the SolarDAB 99 radio.

While its roster of adventure-friendly features might seem overkill at first glance, they had each proven useful – occasionally, completely vital – during my trip. Indeed, finding that my smartphone’s battery was nearly depleted, I could even recharge it via the radio’s 5V USB-A output.

In the words of the architect Charles Eames: “The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host, anticipating the needs of his guests.” In this case, I think Roberts has managed to do exactly that.

MORE:

Best DAB radios 2026: the best-sounding digital radios we have tested and highly recommend

Read the Roberts Stream 219 review

We asked eight sound engineers for their top studio test tracks – here’s what they picked and why

How well do you know your hi-fi history? To put you to the test, we’ve created this quiz to see if you can name the very first audio products from some legendary hi-fi brands, from Wharfedale to Technics to Sonus Faber.

We have focused on just 12 hi-fi brands here – otherwise we’d all be here forever – and we are looking for the exact product name of each brand’s very first commercially available hi-fi product. (If you get stuck, the answers can be found in many of the recent features on the site, as part of our What Hi-Fi? 50th anniversary celebrations this year...)

There aren’t any prizes for getting full marks beyond your own personal pride and our congratulations – but we hope you have fun along the way. Enjoy, and post your score in the comments below!

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We asked 8 sound engineers for their top studio test tracks – here’s what they picked and why

Following its recent global expansion, Australian-owned audio platform, AudioBro, has announced the V2 update for its popular service, representing the “largest evolution of the platform since development began more than three years ago”.

The premise remains the same: in-depth, analytical advice to help hi-fi and home cinema enthusiasts get the best possible sound from their system, without having to resort to buying new equipment.

Where AudioBro has made big strides is in how that advice is delivered. Previously, users of the AudioBro platform would need to select which tool they think will best suit their needs. In the new V2, that’s all changed, as the platform will now take all the guesswork out of the equation.

Users now simply describe the problem they’re experiencing and to upload whatever evidence they have — such as room photos, measurements and calibration data. AudioBro will then intelligently determine which of its tools will best fix the problem, and will recommend “one practical, highest-impact next move”.

V2 also introduces Room Memory, so previous analyses, uploaded measurements, implemented recommendations and verified changes remain connected over time.

To make this process even easier, both Starter and Pro users can now speak naturally to the platform about whatever they’re hearing and discuss uploaded evidence. AudioBro founder Ateeq Sheikh says this makes “the experience feel much more like talking to an acoustic consultant than using traditional software”.

There are differences between the depth of analysis given to Starter and Pro users, with the latter unsurprisingly receiving more curated responses. Starter users can still upload room photos and equipment information, and even speak aloud any issues they’re experiencing, and AudioBro will return guided recommendations.

Pro users can go further, receiving proper two-way conversations with the platform, along with the ability to upload REW MDAT files for analysis. The AudioBro platform also offers more advanced measurement interpretation and deeper optimisation capabilities for Pro users.

And, if you were thinking "surely I can just get the same results from ChatGPT?", think again. As Ateeq explains, "ChatGPT is an exceptional general-purpose AI, but it's designed to know a little about almost everything. AudioBro has been built over the last three and a half years to know as much as possible about one thing: hi-fi, home theatre and room acoustics."

"A good analogy is the difference between visiting a GP and seeing a specialist consultant. Both are knowledgeable, but one has been purpose-built for a specific field. AudioBro has been trained specifically for hi-fi rather than general knowledge."

Full access to the platform requires a subscription, offered in two tiers: Starter at US$24.99 per month and Pro at US$49.99 per month, with annual plans priced at US$199.90 and US$399.90, respectively.

Early adopters, however, can secure lifetime access for a one-off fee of US$199 (Starter) or US$299 (Pro).

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

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

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

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

Price

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

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

Design & build

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Features

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sound

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

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

Review published: 28th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

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

For someone who reviews hi-fi products, a major perk of the job is getting to listen to a variety of music on great speakers and systems.

For a sneak peek into some of the tracks we use for testing here at What Hi-Fi?, you can head over to our Now Playing column.

Recently, while listening to music during testing, I started thinking about other professions that require a playlist of test tracks. Having trained as a sound engineer, which meant spending a lot of time in studios, I can recall countless mornings when an engineer would put on a certain ‘familiarising’ tune to settle into a room before the musicians arrived.

Which got me thinking, what are the people who make today’s records listening to?

To find out, I spoke to sound engineers who have worked at some of the UK’s most prestigious recording facilities, such as Air Studios, Real World Studios and Strongroom Studios.

With clientele ranging from Max Richter to Harry Styles, what follows are professional engineers’ favourite test tracks, alongside their reasons for choosing them.

• Listen to the Sound Engineers’ Top Test Tracks playlist on Tidal
• Listen to the full playlist on Spotify
• Quiz! Can you name all the types of hi-fi and AV cables from the photos?

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

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

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

Build & design

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sound

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict

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

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

Review published: 27th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

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