Another week, another sea of hi-fi and home cinema announcements. If, like many of us, you have struggled to stay on top of all of them, don’t worry, as our team of experts has come up with a fresh entry to our weekly Rewind news digest!
Once again, we detail all the top stories and developments every AV fan should be aware of in a handy summary, making it quick and easy to stay on top of all the latest news.
We finished reviewing Sonos’s new hardware
The Sonos Beam Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar and Ace Ultra wireless headphones are two of September’s hottest releases, coming from the audio firm behind multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winners. Last week, our reviewers published their full reviews of both products.
The Beam Ultra proved to be the more impressive of the two, with its new driver arrangement delivering a better sense of height and much improved, tighter low end than its step-down sibling, the Beam 2. So much so that we gave it a five-star rating and reported: “Sonos has struck Dolby Atmos gold yet again.”
The Ace Ultra proved to be a solid step in the right direction for Sonos’s wireless headphone offering, delivering a more powerful, rich and weighty sound than the three-star original Sonos Ace. But a slight lack of finesse stopped them from troubling the best of the best in their category, hence their four-star rating and our verdict:
“While they’re still not quite on the level of the class leaders, Sonos’s sophomore wireless headphones are a marked improvement in sound quality, along with their comfortable design and healthy features set.”
Read our full Sonos Beam Ultra review
Read our full Sonos Ace Ultra review
Fiio launched a new CD player
Last week, FiiO launched its new DP11 CD digital transport. In true FiiO style, the product is crammed to the brink with hardware, offering a kitchen-sink solution to people who want an affordable CD player that can double as a ripper, DAC and pre-amplifier.
Built around a Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chip, the unit shares a common circuit design with Fiio’s S15 streamer, and is being pitched as an affordable, flexible solution for CD collectors who are short on space. The unit is set to launch in the US and EU, costing $189 / €185. We still await UK pricing.
Read the full story: FiiO’s new CD player wants to do it all – with a DAC, pre-amplifier and more
Qualcomm unveiled its next-gen wireless headphone chip
Qualcomm (the company that builds the wireless chips used in numerous big-name wireless headphones, from the likes of Bose, Cambridge Audio, Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkins and more) last week unveiled its next-gen Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform.
Smaller, more power-efficient, and packed with AI features, the firm made a lot of noise about the chipsets’ technical upgrades. But for us here at What Hi-Fi? it was the firm’s audio claims that caught our attention. Qualcomm claims the reduced size will give headphone makers more freedom when it comes to driver size and, thanks to their advanced AI processing, better ANC and improved sound.
We’ll have to wait for headphones with the new chips to start appearing before we can confirm any of these claims, but if even a few of them ring true, we could be in for an audio treat.
Read the full story: Wireless headphones are about to get even more advanced with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Sound tech
MORE:
These are the best wireless headphones we have reviewed
We rank the best Dolby Atmos soundbars
Our picks of the best CD players
