Tiny vinyl’s big draw, new Dolby Atmos soundbars from two audio legends, affordable hi-fi speakers and more

With Black Friday 2025 fast approaching, most of the headlines are currently dominated by nebulous “X per cent off” stories promoting deals to help Davos attendees keep their one per cent status.

Which is why you may have missed the actual hi-fi and home cinema news to have broken last week. Helpful souls that we are, we have pleaded with our bourgeoisie overlords and have been given a respite from our seasonal deals-hunting to write a fresh entry into our weekly Rewind news digest.

And what a week it was, with our hi-fi and audio editor, Kashfia Kabir, escaping the office to get a hands-on look at one of 2025’s most interesting new Dolby Atmos soundbars in France, and Bang & Olufsen and Fyne unveiling two fresh audio surprises.

Here’s what you need to know.

Naim and Focal collaborate on a new soundbar

Last week, Naim and Focal unveiled what is the brand's second true collaboration product since merging in 2011: the Mu-so Hekla.

The system is being pitched as an all-in-one solution that will delight both hi-fi and home cinema fans. It is designed to work both as a single-box hi-fi system akin to the five-star Naim Mu-so 2, and a premium Dolby Atmos soundbar similar to the recently reviewed, Award-winning KEF XIO.

Under the hood there’s plenty of ammunition to back up the claim. The Mu-so Hekla offers 660 watts of Class D amplification powering 15 drivers to deliver what the firm claims is a “room-filling” 7.1.2 experience.

If that wasn’t enough to get you excited, Kash also managed to get an opening listen at the Mu-so Hekla’s unveiling and came away with a positive first impression, reporting: “From our initial look and listen, the Mu-so Hekla seems like a powerful-sounding, lifestyle-friendly and versatile product with plenty of clever technology in one unit.”

Read our full Focal Mu-so Hekla preview

Bang & Olufsen also has a new premium soundbar

Danish audio and lifestyle brand Bang & Olufsen also launched a new premium soundbar last week.

The shiny new Beosound Premiere follows in the footsteps of the Beosound Theatre from many moons ago. The giant Dolby Atmos soundbar, one of the most expensive you’ll find, is set to retail for £3900 / $5800 / AU$9,400.

Most soundbars try to look as discreet as possible, but Bang & Olufsen has gone in a different direction with the Beosound Premiere.

As with most Bang & Olufsen products, the bar has an undeniably premium metal finish, featuring an eye-catching, atypically tall and flat design that’s available in black or gold. But, in a bid to make it even more flashy, it has also loaded it with 90 mini LED lights which will “illuminate [the product] with an ethereal glow” when it’s in use.

Thankfully, for people who want to use the unit for movies, it comes with some decent-looking hardware to back up those good looks. Under the hood and flashy lights, you’ll find a 10-driver arrangement designed to deliver a 7.1.4 experience.

We haven’t had a chance to see or hear the Beosound Premiere in the real world, so we can’t comment on its performance. But, as is the case with a lot of B&O products, it’s certainly interesting to look at and has piqued our interest.

Read the full story: Bang & Olufsen's latest “bold and sculptural” soundbar is taking on the premium Dolby Atmos market

We chatted to the makers of Tiny Vinyl

Remember those new 4-inch vinyl records we reported on earlier this year? Cool right? We thought so.

So much so that last week our regular contributor, Joe Svetlik, caught up with Tiny Vinyl founders Neil Kohler and Jesse Mann. During the interview they talked about everything from why they think there’s a market for a new type of vinyl, the format’s general appeal and its impact on the environment.

Read the full story: "Vinyl records will be around forever" – the Tiny Vinyl founders on the black disc's enduring appeal

Fyne launched new “affordable” floorstanders

Fresh off the back of its F501E speakers nabbing a What Hi-Fi? Awards Best Buy trophy, Scottish hi-fi brand Fyne Audio launched its new, more affordable F55E floorstanders last week.

The slim profile speakers are designed for small to mid-sized rooms. Despite being smaller than their siblings, they will still deliver, Fyne assures us, “the refinement, delicacy and imaging precision of a small stand-mount speaker, but with the body, bass weight, and scale of a floorstander.”

And there’s some supporting evidence to that claim. Despite costing less than the F501E, the new speakers feature Fyne’s signature IsoFlare driver array and BassTrax Tractrix diffuser system.

The former places the tweeter in the throat of the mid/bass drive unit in a bid to improve the uniformity across the frequency range and stereo imaging. The latter sees the speaker-port fire directly onto an upward-facing cone in a bid to deliver a “deep, articulate bass that integrates effortlessly with the room”.

Given how well the technology has worked on other Fyne speakers, we’re looking forward to getting the new F55E into our listening rooms ASAP.

Read the full story: Fyne Audio’s affordable speakers aim to blend the delicacy of a standmount with the weight and scale of a floorstander

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atoms soundbars we have reviewed

We rate the best floorstanding speakers

Our picks of the best hi-fi systems