As we hurtle past spring and into the early days of summer, our test rooms are overflowing with new products from the world of hi-fi, headphones and home cinema.
We have the very first RGB Mini LED TV from Hisense in for testing and ready to take on OLED; Anker’s mid-priced, feature-packed wireless ANC headphones vie for a place in a hugely competitive market; Dali’s new slimline floorstanders aim to make a big impact from a small footprint; and Naim’s flagship, four-box amplifier combination want to showcase the very best of hi-fi separates.
If you have any questions about the products we have in for testing, drop us a comment below or send us an email to whathifi@futurenet.com, and we’ll endeavour to get back to you with an answer.
Article continues belowNaim NAC 552/NAP 500DR pre/power amplifier
The pinnacle of Naim’s separates hi-fi is the Statement amplifier, which will cost you just shy of £235,000. The next step down from that is the brand’s flagship 500 series pre/power amplifier combination that consists of four – yes, four – imposing black boxes.
We’ve got the NAC 552 preamplifier and the hefty NAP 500DR power amplifier, each with its own power supply, which combine to serve as “a remarkable showcase of Naim Audio amplifier technology” and aims to deliver the very best sonic performance at this high-end level (just over £50,000). We can’t wait to hear how it sounds, especially when paired with our reference ND 555 music streamer.
JBL Xtreme 5 Bluetooth speaker
JBL’s line of portable Bluetooth speakers are on enviable form, with one of its beefiest – the Xtreme 4 – nabbing a What Hi-Fi? Award win two years in a row.
Its successor, the JBL Xtreme 5, doesn’t rest on its laurels. There are upgrades to make the burly speaker even more drop-proof and rugged, refined cosmetics to make it more user-friendly, while the acoustics have been overhauled for a deeper, louder and clearer sound. If that wasn’t enough, it now has customisable ambient lights, a real-time smart EQ Mode, lossless audio playback via wired USB-C, and you can use it as a powerbank for your phone. That’s a lot of speaker for £330.
Dali Sonik 5 floorstanders
Dali’s new Sonik range effectively replaces the much-loved Oberon speakers, and we have the smallest of the three floorstanders – the Sonik 5 – in for review.
Promising “a significant leap in detail, dynamics and musicality”, the Sonik 5 features an ultra-light 29mm soft-dome tweeter and two 13.3cm mid/bass drivers that use Dali’s Clarity Cone structure with patented SMC Essential Magnet System – a technology originally seen in the more premium Epicon speaker range.
Standing just 82.6cm tall (under three feet), this slimline floorstander is yours for £899 / $1800 per pair, which puts it up against ferocious competition from the Award-winning Fyne F501E.
Soundcore Space 2 wireless headphones
Anker’s range of wireless headphones has caused quite a stir with their blend of good features and sensible pricing, so we’re keen to find out how well the new Soundcore Space 2 over-ear cans perform.
They feature active noise-cancellation, hi-res LDAC codec support over Bluetooth, a massive 70 hours of battery life (50 with ANC on), and customisable audio tuning based on your hearing. All for just £130 / $130? That seems quite exciting, and we hope its audio claims live up to the competition, especially from the likes of five-star Sony and Austrian Audio rivals.
Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED TV
The first RGB Mini LED TV to hit our test room, the Hisense UR9 is out to prove that a backlit TV can beat a flagship OLED. The £3000 launch price for the 65-inch model puts it in direct competition with OLEDs such as the LG G6 and Sony Bravia 8 II – and, indeed, we will be comparing it side by side with precisely those models.
Can its RGB LEDs and extreme brightness trump the pixel-level contrast of its OLED rivals? We’ll know soon enough.
Hisense XR10 projector
If an RGB Mini LED TV isn’t quite cinematic enough for you, this alternative Hisense product might be right up your street.
The XR10 is what we like to refer to as a ‘coffee table projector’, but its £5000 launch price and 6000 ANSI lumens of claimed brightness mark it out as a very different beast to other models in that category.
Q Acoustics 3050C 5.1 speaker package
Q Acoustics has an enviable track record where it comes to wallet-friendly speakers and speaker packages, so we are excited to start listening to the 3050C 5.1 system.
As the name suggests, the system is built around 3050C floorstanders, which perform front-left and front-right duties. A pair of 3010C bookshelf speakers work as surrounds, and you also get a 3090C centre and 10-inch Q SUB100 subwoofer.
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