Rewind: New Arcam hardware, KEF speakers reviewed, Dolby Atmos developments and more

Happy Monday, and welcome to a fresh entry into our hi-fi and home cinema news digest.

In it, our team of experts once again detail all the top stories to break over the past seven days, and as always, it was a hectic period.

We saw everything from new Temptation-level amps to affordable portable DACs launch.

Here’s what you need to know.

New Arcam hardware

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Kicking us off, last week Arcam chose to unveil a wealth of new hardware, including a new set of speakers and home cinema amplifiers.

The new speakers are part of the firm’s 2024-launched Radia range and come in six varieties. These include two floorstanders (R45, R35), two bookshelf models (R25, R15), a centre speaker (R35C) and a subwoofer (R25B). As you’ve likely guessed, these can be combined to create a home cinema surround sound package.

The firm also unveiled its new home cinema amplifiers. These include the entry-level AVA15, step-up AVA25, and top-end AVA35. The amps’ specifications scale with their place in the range, but given how much we’ve loved Arcam’s older AVRs, which offer a sense of musicality missing on many rivals, we can’t help but get a little excited about the new models.

Read the full story: Arcam's new Radia loudspeaker range could be the perfect match for its Award-winning electronics

Read the full story: Arcam’s Radia AV line of home cinema amps promises serious movie magic

A headphone shootout

The wireless headphones market is a noisy, chaotic mess with every man and his dog offering a pair. Which is why knowing which is best is a tricky task, even if you follow the market.

To help, last week our intrepid senior staff writer, Harry McKerrell, took the time to run all the big sets in our listening rooms head-to-head to help offer the best, most up-to-date advice possible for potential buyers.

These include top pairs from Sony, B&W, Sennheiser, Bose and more. And, while the final winner wasn’t a huge surprise, quite how competitive the battle was between each set definitely was.

Read the full story: I've heard every major pair of premium wireless headphones – and one set reigns sonically supreme

LG Sound Suite pricing

We had an early look at LG’s latest flagship Dolby Atmos system, the Sound Suite, at CES in January.

And during the demo, we found a lot to like about it, including the inclusion of Dolby’s swish new FlexConnect tech, which promises to make it much easier to optimise speakers to the specific space they’re playing in, amongst other things.

But there was one big concern the entire home cinema team shared: their very high price.

With the soundbar alone costing £1000 and its top-of-the-range M7 satellite speakers £700, Sound Suite looked set to be one of the most expensive systems on the market. Thankfully, last week, LG made moves to partially address the problem, announcing price reductions across the entire range.

Read the full story: LG's just fixed a key issue we had with its latest Dolby Atmos soundbar system – and it’s not even out yet

KEF speakers tried and tested

Finishing off this week’s digest is our review of KEF’s new Coda W standmounts. They’re an interesting set of active speakers, in that, unlike their established cousins, the KEF LSX II LT and LS50 Wireless II, they’re distinctly focused on working with vinyl and CD players, over streaming.

That’s why, instead of built-in wi-fi streaming support for Tidal Connect and the ilk, they only have Bluetooth functionality. But, to make up for that, you get a built-in moving magnet phono stage.

Has the change paid off? After thoroughly testing them, we’re happy to report that the answer is, for the most part, yes. Either via Bluetooth or with a price-appropriate turntable or CD player connected (in our case Cyrus CDi and Rega Planar 3 RS Edition) the speakers delivered a clear, detailed presentation and deep, but controlled, low end.

Hence, our verdict:

“While the phono stage could be better, listening via the other inputs is a joy. The sonic performance is a step above its smaller, Award-winning cousins, and costs you less money to enjoy, too. If you’re happy to live without the wi-fi streaming features and are looking for a neat speaker system that doesn’t cost thousands, this should definitely be on your radar.”

Read our in-depth KEF Coda W review

MORE:

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