Last week there was a steady stream of interesting hi-fi and home cinema news, including new arrivals from two names with plenty of two-channel pedigree: JBL and Musical Fidelity.
We also spent time testing a very capable pre-power amp pairing from Audio Research, and Apple launched an OLED-equipped iPad Mini with a sonic surprise.
While we have your attention, there are only a handful of days to go until we announce our Product Of The Year winners from the What Hi-Fi? Awards, so keep November 12th in your diaries when you’ll be able to see all the results live on the website.
Join us for a quick recap of all the key stories that you need to know about…
JBL launched a retro-inspired flagship
Anyone familiar with JBL’s loudspeakers will know its Classic Series takes inspiration from designs that featured in the 1970s, and its new flagship, the L150 Classic, delivers more of the same.
Priced at $9999 and wrapped in walnut veneer, the pinnacle of this range is a three-way floorstander which combines a 15-inch woofer, a 6.5-inch mid-range driver, and a 1-inch titanium dome tweeter.
Read the full story:
JBL's new flagship Classic Series speakers are for "serious music listeners"
Musical Fidelity unveiled a new CD player
This week we saw another reason to get excited about CD players again. Musical Fidelity surprised us by taking the wraps off its B1xcd spinner, which can be yours for a very respectable £549 / $799.
It sits neatly between two five-star favourites of ours, the Marantz CD 70 and Arcam CD5, which is great to see. There’s been a dearth of new models in recent years, so it’s nice to finally see the numbers get a bit of a bump.
Read the full story:
Musical Fidelity makes a 'B-line' for Arcam's Award-winner with its new CD player
Apple’s mega iPad Mini announcement
Apple dropped the most high-tech iteration of its ultra-portable to date. The 8th Gen iPad Mini gets several picture and sound upgrades, not least a brand new screen and an all-new speaker system.
The fact that it's only the second iPad model to get an OLED display is big news, but so too is the Acoustic Display speaker set-up. It includes specially designed under-display woofers and custom tweeters, and we can’t wait to hear (and see) how it performs.
Read the full story:
Apple's pitching its all-new iPad Mini as the perfect tablet for cinephiles
We tested a talented Audio Research pairing
It’s always exciting to see high-end hi-fi in our test rooms, and last week we published our thoughts on a capable two-box amplifier from Audio Research.
In our LS-2/S-200 review, we described the pre/power pairing as “a capable and commanding amplifier duo”, with the LS-2 pre-amplifier stealing the show. We said, “it is everything we would hope for in a high-quality valve preamp”.
Read the full story:
Check out our Audio Research LS-2/S-200 review
MORE:
This feature-packed hi-res music streamer's new DAC promises a "natural and analogue-like" sound
Amazon launches its "most capable Echo Dot" alongside the camera-toting Echo Studio smart speaker
