With October finally upon us we are spookily close to revealing the Best Buy winners for the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2025.
But, before then, we still have one more Pick of the Month column in the schedule, where we will once again detail all the top hi-fi and home cinema hardware our reviewers awarded five-stars to over the past month.
These include a triple threat of new standmount speakers, stellar value new Mini LED TVs, a top of the line pair of wired headphones and more.
Here’s what you need to know about them.
Monitor Audio Bronze 50 7G
The Monitor Audio Bronze 50 7G target an increasingly competitive segment of the standmount-speaker market, with their price putting in them direct competition with the five-star Bowers & Wilkins 607 S3, Acoustic Energy AE300 Mk2 and KEF Q3 Meta.
Thankfully a potent combination of a surprisingly premium-feeling design and Monitor Audio’s ongoing use of some atypical hardware, including the use of metal cones for its drivers, lets them carve a unique position in the space.
Paired with the price-appropriate Arcam A5 amplifier and a variety of sources, both streaming and physical media, the Bronze 50 7G delivered a clear, precise, confident sound leading our reviewers to report:
“Their clarity and precision, coupled with a great sense of rhythm, all combine to deliver an exciting, confident presentation that demands your attention and offers quite the battle for its price rivals. These are very capable standmounts for the money, and are worth an audition.”
Five stars
Read our full Monitor Audio Bronze 50 7G review
Graham Slee Reflex M
If you’re on the hunt for a class-leading moving-magnet phono stage, we are pleased to report that your search may be over. Last month we finished reviewing one of the finest we have encountered to date; say hello to the newly crowned five-star Graham Slee Reflex M.
Featuring a deliberately utilitarian design and singular focus on doing one thing well – making your vinyl sound sublime – the unit proved a hit with our hi-fi reviewers. It offers impressive clarity and dynamic expression regardless of the cartridge and partnering system we used.
This led our reviewers to report:
“The Graham Slee Reflex M isn’t much to look at and is pretty limited when it comes to features, but if you are looking for the best sounding, sub-thousand-pound moving-magnet phono stage, then this is it. It is a fit-and-forget device of the highest order. Highly recommended.”
Five stars
Read our full Graham Slee Reflex M review
PMC Prophecy 1
You'll find small, great sounding hi-fi on nearly every member of the What Hi-Fi? team’s 2025 wishlist.
So we were delighted when the PMC Prophecy 1 delivered just that when we got them in for review last month.
They are a fairly standard height, measuring in at 40cm tall, but they are atypically thin (16.5cm wide) and shallow (26cm depth).
Despite this, the units deliver a room filling, but clear and controlled sound with class-leading levels of clarity and precision when partnered well (in our case with a Naim Nait XS3 integrated amplifier and Cyrus 40 ST music streamer or the Rega Planar turntable as sources).
Hence our glowing verdict: “They tick all the boxes for us, from an excellent all-round sound and thoughtful engineering to class-leading build. Feed them with a talented system, and we suspect few alternatives at this level will get you closer to the recording. Highly recommended.”
Five stars
Read our full PMC Prophecy 1 review
Cyrus 40 PPA
The Cyrus 40 PPA caused quite a stir when it landed in our listening rooms last month. A big reason for this is the brand’s pedigree, with the Cyrus's older Phono Signature being a key part of our reference system for almost a decade.
Built with the same core DNA, the 40 PPA had big shoes to fill as a result. At a technical level, key improvements include everything from a new, more modern chassis to a new six-circuit design the firm claims will reduce noise levels.
But, most importantly – when we ran it paired with our reference Technics SL-1000R turntable with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge, Burmester 088/911 Mk III pre/power and PMC Cor integrated amplifiers, both feeding the ATC SCM50 speakers – the results were glorious.
Across a variety of genres, the 40 PPA delivered exceptional clarity and detail resolution, leading our reviewers to report: “The 40 PPA is a great performer. Provided the rest of your system is talented enough, its blend of excellent detail resolution, articulation and expressive dynamics is sure to please. This is also a well made and well-featured unit.”
Five stars
Read our full Cyrus 40 PPA review
Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X
Beyerdynamic is a company with a strong pedigree in the wired headphone space, with many of its past offerings delivering a clean, balanced and revealing performance.
Having reviewed its latest DT 990 Pro X cans, we can confirm that reputation is well earned and continues to this day. From the moment we took them out of the box they impressed, offering a comfortable fit and clean, revealing sound packed with detail regardless of what test track or source we paired them with.
Hence our glowing verdict: “Clear, detailed and beautifully balanced, the DT 990 Pro X are some of the finest and most comfortable wired headphones we’ve heard at this price.”
Five stars
Read our full Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X review
TCL C7K (65C7K)
The TCL C7K is the step-down option in the Chinese tech giant’s latest line of Mini LED TVs, sitting below the TCL C8K. While both sets earned five stars from our reviewers, after we finished testing the 65-inch C7K, it became the one we recommend to most people – hence its prime position in our main best Mini LED TV guide.
For the money you get a fantastic, aggressively priced TV capable of explosive peak-brightness levels that makes HDR content in particular look amazing. On top of this, it has much improved light control, retaining contrast even during demanding scenes in a way TCL’s previous models, including the TCL C855K, couldn’t.
As we say in our TCL 65C7K review: “Super-aggressive pricing, much-improved Mini LED backlighting and expansive Quantum Dot colour make the TCL C7K a performance-per-pound champ.”
Five stars
Read our full TCL C7K (65C7K) review
TCL 98C7K
65-inches a little too small for your liking? No problem: last month our reviewers also finished testing the giant 98-inch version of the C7K.
The larger size costs a lot more, of course, and does suffer from some backlight instability (which we didn’t notice on the smaller model) it is still one of the best-value giant TVs we have tested this year. So much so that our reviewers reported:
“Its 98-inch pictures are as bright, colourful, crisp, detailed, contrast-rich and immersively consistent as they are huge, and it’s got all the gaming features and most of the smart features you’d hope to get from a premium TV. All for less money than you’d expect to pay for some 65-inch sets.”
Five-stars
Read our full TCL 98C7K review
KEF Q3 Meta
The Q3 Meta is the step-down option in KEF’s latest entry-level series of speakers. Despite their competitive price, they come with the firm’s signature Uni-Q driver array and Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT) technologies – two key features that have helped its more premium speakers win What Hi-FI? Awards in the past.
Do both continue to deliver the goods on a speaker in this more affordable class? After putting the Q3 Meta through their paces in our viewing rooms, we can confirm that they do.
Whether we paired them with a 50-watts per channel Arcam A5 integrated amplifier or the more budget 30-watts per channel Rotel A8, the speakers delivered a balanced, controlled presentation that made them an easy five-star recommendation.
As we say in our Q3 Meta review: “The KEF Q3 are mature and refined speakers, showcasing a natural, even-handed and satisfying sonic presentation at this level.”
Five stars
Read our full KEF Q3 Meta review
Samsung S95F (QE65S95F)
The Samsung S95F is the Korean tech giant’s latest flagship OLED TV. This puts it in direct competition with some very accomplished rivals, including the five-star Sony Bravia 8 II, LG G5 and Panasonic Z95B.
At a technical level it has a lot going for it. It features the latest version of Samsung’s brightness and colour-boosting QD-OLED panel tech, an AI focused new chipset and atypically generous four HDMI 2.1 inputs. Run through its specification sheet and the only omission you may notice is Dolby Vision HDR; Samsung continues to insist its own HDR10 is all you need.
Putting it through its paces the TV seriously impressed our reviewers, with our AV and TV editor, Tom Parsons, going so far as to describe it as “Samsung’s finest TV to date”. He doesn’t give praise like that often.
Five stars
Read our full Samsung S95F (QE65S95F) review
MORE:
These are the best OLED TVs we have reviewed
We rate the best standmount speakers
Our picks of the best phono stages
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
