It’s can be nice, sometimes, to sit back and simply let the full production of a track wash over you, to be immersed in a wide soundstage that’s packed with instruments and information for you to soak up. However, there is also nothing quite like hearing a great acoustic track.

Strip away all the bells and whistles, and music immediately sounds more intimate, encouraging a greater connection between listener and artist. Great acoustic tracks allow you and your system to peer in and dig out the subtlest and finest of details and deliver tone and texture the like of which you haven’t heard before.

Our team of expert reviewers have dipped into their box of tracks to pick the acoustic test tracks that they use to highlight a system’s abilities, or shortcomings.

What are your favourite acoustic tracks? Let us know in the comments below…

Fast Car – Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman, 1988)

As predictable as it might be, there’s no getting away from the fact that Fast Car is one of the greatest acoustic tracks of all time.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I have heard it emanating from our test rooms while our reviewers have been putting hi-fi kit through its paces. It’s hard to resist, especially if you’ve got a talented pair of speakers sitting in front of you.

The track is a catchy mix of folk and pop, and there’s even a sprinkling of rock for the chorus. It’s an emotional story about one person’s desire and dream to leave their current circumstances for a better life, and there's real beauty in the way Chapman delivers emotion in her vocals. You can really feel the hope and yearning in her voice, and any decent system should be able to communicate this.

Add to the mix the delicate guitar playing where you can hear subtle details such as fingers sliding over strings, and contrasting drums that explode into life during the chorus, and you’ve got an awesome switch of tempo and a great test of dynamic versatility.

Words by Andy Madden

Take On Me – A-ha (MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice, 2017)

I first stumbled across this track whilst doing a recce of the Bristol Hi-Fi Show a few years ago. I can’t remember the exact system I was listening to at the time, but I distinctly remember thinking that although the tune was familiar, I had never heard this particular version before. So I pulled up a pew, sat down and proceeded to be blown away.

I suppose because the video for Take On Me is so iconic, you sometimes forget about the actual song itself, the lyrics and composition, so to hear it stripped back to just a vocal, piano and a guitar gave me a newfound appreciation for Morten Harket.

His vocal is beautifully controlled and shows some extremely subtle dynamics, while the natural texture of each instrument shines through. An intimate performance that’s just as memorable as the track’s original 1984 music video.

Words by Andy Madden

S P E Y S I D E, Bon Iver (SABLE, fABLE, 2025)

Bon Iver’s comeback track after a five year hiatus delivered all of the raw emotion I’d hoped it would, and that’s mostly down to the raw, minimalist acoustic production.

This track features minimal instrumentation, with an acoustic guitar taking an equally important role to singer/songwriter Justin Vernon’s delicate and emotionally charged falsetto vocals. Everything is underpinned by a sweeping viola that is woven in throughout the song.

It’s a dynamic showcase, with moments of near silence permeated with Vernon’s harmonised vocals. It’s a delicate balance, and it requires a system that can handle low-level dynamics with finesse for the track to truly shine. Furthermore, the stripped-back production is best served by headphones, earbuds or speakers that lean towards the natural and un-coloured end of the spectrum.

I have used this track to test soundbars, speaker packages and smartphones, as it’s a sure-fire way to find out if a product knows how to handle nuanced dynamic shifts and convey emotion.

Words by Lewis Empson

Old Churchyard - The Wailin’ Jennys (Fifteen, 2017)

If you have looked for folk music tracks on streaming services, then you have most likely come across the Wailin' Jennys. The trio is known for their stripped-back approach, and Old Churchyard from their most recent 2017 album Fifteen, is no different.

It begins with the soft drone of an accordion, setting the foundation for the intimate track to build upon. One voice is introduced, delivered with remarkable expression and delicacy. Then the rest of the vocal harmonies are added gradually; and it’s then that the hairs on your arms will truly stand to attention.

The sense of closeness brings you back to a time when music was one of the only ways we could share stories, as the song is a version of a long-told folk tune that has survived for generations.

The barebones approach will certainly not make for a floor-shaking sound experience, but it should challenge your sound system even more as it calls for a good level of subtlety and refinement.

Words by Robyn Quick

Dancing on My Own – Robyn (Radio 1 Live Lounge Vol. 5, 2010)

I first heard this version of Robyn’s electro-poppy floor-filler in the car, and even listening to it through the subpar speakers in my Vauxhall (that’s Opel for our non-British readers) Astra I was almost moved to tears, such was the quality of Robyn’s performance.

Ditching the pop backdrop for simply a piano and her bare vocal was a genius move and one that completely transforms the emotional intensity of the track. Slowed down, the vocals shine and hit you like a sledgehammer. The delicacy of her tone and the piano play paint such a vivid picture that your attention never wavers. It’s truly heartbreaking to listen to, but in the best way possible.

A word of warning, though. This version of the track is impossible to track down on streaming services, so you’ll need a copy of Radio 1 Live Lounge Vol. 5, which was released in 2010. Kings Of Leon also covered this track for the Live Lounge, and although not quite up to the level of Robyn’s performance, it’s still definitely worth listening to.

Words by Andy Madden

Hurt – Johnny Cash (2002)

Johnny Cash’s rendition of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt remains the cover to end all covers.

With nothing but an acoustic guitar and a single death-knell of a piano stroke chiming under the 70-year-old country legend’s croaking voice, Cash’s rendition was such a powerful and poignant reinvention that it is often misattributed as his own original composition.

While the excellent Nine Inch Nails original employs the more industrial, eerie soundscape which was to define much of 1994’s The Downward Spiral, Cash’s cover stripped everything back, spotlighting the bleak nature of the central vocal performance and its accompanying lyrics of despair and regret.

For a cover that’s actually quite a long way from a wholesale reinvention, it’s striking just how much Cash’s reinterpretation affects the track’s mood and message. Trent Reznor sounds as though he is still fighting his demons; the wearier Cash – more confessional yet composed – seems to have accepted them.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) – Green Day (Nimrod, 1997)

I’ve lost count of how many times I have seen and heard this track used in a nostalgic montage. It tends to be used to help add a layer of emotion to a major sporting occasion, or it’s inserted to try to reduce the audience to tears near the end credits of a TV programme. But I never get bored of it.

The track kicks off with just an acoustic guitar and Billie Joe Armstrong’s instantly recognisable tone holding the track together, but it’s the injection of slow, sweeping strings into the performance which really elevates it to another level.

They rise and fall, complementing Armstrong’s expressive guitar playing. It all rolls along at quite a rate of knots before the guitar starts to slow before fading to black right at the end. It’s a real test of fine detail, timing and low-level dynamics which can be tricky for even the most capable of hi-fi systems.

Words by Andy Madden

Free Fallin’ – John Mayer (Live at the Nokia Theatre, 2007)

John Mayer loves playing the guitar. In fact, his attachment to the instrument as a teenager became such a concern for his parents that they enlisted the services of multiple psychiatrists to diagnose what they perceived to be an increasingly unhealthy obsession.

Whether you love Mayer or loathe him, there’s no denying that those isolated hours of adolescent practice paid serious dividends. The man’s guitar work, even among credible blues and rock circles, is held in truly high regard; it’s a talent onto which the spotlight fully shines during Mayer’s 2008 live album Where the Light Is.

Recorded at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, the concert features Mayer performing as part of a trio and an full-scale band, but it’s his acoustic opening salvo – particularly his acclaimed cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ – that really merits close attention.

Petty’s tune was already a well-worn classic, but the acoustic Where the Light Is rendition gives it an intimate melancholy and vulnerability that now feels lacking from the original recording. Wherever John Mayer goes and whatever he does, his most beloved tune may end up being one originally penned by somebody else.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Change – Big Thief (Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022)

Big Thief have been a major player in the modern alternative scene since the release of their 2016 album, Masterpiece. Over the decade since, the band has gradually embraced a more acoustic, earthy sound than their indie folk beginnings foretold. Their recordings are often roomy, littered with characterful imperfections, and feel – to put it simply – very real.

Of course, a no-frills recording makes a solid live performance all the more essential. Thankfully, Big Thief have no trouble in this department, and Change from Dragon New Warm Mountain I believe In You sees the band shine as a unit, by way of a simple, heart-rending arrangement.

The recording style does much to serve the song, with a substantial kick-drum delivering a healthy dose of room ambience, while close-up vocal harmonies and Buck Meek’s trembling guitar solo contribute a sense of vulnerability and emotional potency.

“Would you smile forever, never cry,” sings Adrienne Lenker – not very easily while this tune is playing.

Words by Ioan Hazell

Michael Hedges - All Along the Watchtower (Watching My Life Go By, 1985)

Michael Hedges is one of the quintessential acoustic guitarists of his time. Featuring an atypical style, for me, he did to acoustic what Eddie Van Halen did for electric guitar in the ’80s.

His revolutionary style features heavy percussive elements and atypical, at times outright bonkers, tunings; even now, there really has been nothing else quite like him. He was also a stellar live performer to boot, as evidenced by the above video.

But despite his diverse portfolio, which kept evolving right up to his tragic death in 1997, for most people it’s his iconic cover of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, especially the performance from his Live on the Double Planet album, that gets recognised.

In true Hedges style, it sees him masterfully use a mix of percussive slapping on the guitar, which is in an atypical D A E E A A tuning, and left-hand hammer-ons and pull-offs to create an enthralling, dynamic rendition of the classic song that is entirely unique.

And the version captured on Live on the Double Planet is a personal favourite. It captures the nuance and dynamism of his playing in a way most other recordings, including the studio version on his Watching My Life Go By album, fail to match. I highly recommend any guitar player or fan of the song give it a listen if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed.

Words by Alastair Stevenson

MORE:

29 of the best tracks for testing bass

12 of the best folk and indie songs to test your system

11 of the best instrumental test tracks to give your hi-fi a vocal-free workout

The ultimate music tracks to test your hi-fi system

Our pick of the best hi-fi systems for every budget

I'm not really one for nostalgia – not only is it misguided, it's pointless too. (Also, it's not as good as it used to be.) But when my brother messaged me about a 20-year-old MP3 player I gave him, I confess I did feel a little pang of excitement.

The player in question is the Acer MP340 pictured above, which came out in 2006 when I was in my first journalism job. This was before the financial crash, in the days when companies would occasionally let us humble journos keep the odd review sample. And so, being the generous sort that I am, I must have sent it to my brother (possibly in lieu of a birthday present, but let's not dwell on that – I blame the first-job wage).

Anyway, I'm sure he got a lot of enjoyment out of it, despite the tiny 1.8-inch, 160 x 128 TFT display (don't zoom in on the photos of it, or you might fall into the gap between the on-screen pixels). It had two headphone jacks for sharing audio with a friend, voice recording, and could display photos as well as playing videos (albeit only in H.264). It even had playable Sudoku built-in! And if that's not the most early noughties thing ever, I don't know what is (the 2020s equivalent would be a Covid face mask with built-in Wordle, I suppose).

But, life being life, the MP340 soon found its way into my brother's garage, where it remained for well over a decade.

He recently started clearing out this garage, and found the MP340 nestled among the old family photos and pointless receipts. And to his – and my – amazement, it switched on on the first attempt. This is despite lying unused in his lock-up for at least the last 13 years (he can trace this back to when his first child was born).

Which made me think: was the MP340 a marvel of engineering? Were all portable music players of the time this durable? And would today's players pass the same test? I put on a 2006 playlist and went in search of answers.

A changing musical landscape

The MP340 launched in a digital music landscape that's unrecognisable to today's. Back then, downloads ruled the roost, led by iTunes, Rhapsody and Napster in its second, legal incarnation. Spotify was still two years from launch.

The fifth-gen iPod Classic was the player to beat (though this was before Apple started calling it the 'Classic'). And for any serious player offering a significant amount of storage, hard drives were the order of the day.

It's not just the landscape that's changed drastically – the players have too.

The MP340 had 20GB of storage, which you could expand using an SD card. Nowadays any portable player worth its salt supports streaming, though for those of us who prize sound quality, local storage never really went away. The FiiO M21, for example, has 64GB onboard (although as with all modern players, it's flash memory rather than a hard drive) as well as taking microSD cards up to 2TB, as does the pricier – but Award-winning – Astell & Kern A&norma SR35.

Apple did sell an iPod with 160GB of storage, which since became something of a collectible. But that's still paltry compared to today's 2TB-via-expansion options.

Industry experts put the jump in storage down to the introduction of hi-res music downloads.

"The early generation of portable players was built around a simple idea: downloads and on-board storage. You filled a device with files you owned, and those files were usually compressed – a CD rip was about as good as it got," says Dave Yang, Business Lead at Astell & Kern (which grew out of iRiver, so has been in the portable music player market ever since MP3s were a thing).

"When high-resolution downloads arrived, that changed the equation completely. Hi-res files are many times larger, so the demand for storage grew with them."

One other area the MP340 lags behind today's players is battery life. While its headline figure of 10 hours doesn't look too shabby initially, it certainly does once you realise that's with the screen turned off. Keep it switched on, and you'll only get a paltry 3-5 hours. Which is laughable by today's standards (though don't tell that to anyone who's pre-ordered the latest AirPods).

For more serious music fans

The rise of streaming completely changed how people consumed music, while smartphones mean everyone has a pretty sophisticated music player in their pocket at all times. As a result, "A dedicated music player had to justify itself all over again: it needed to offer a genuinely higher-quality alternative to listening on a phone, while still delivering the convenience and usability people had come to expect from their phones," says Yang.

Cheaper players fell by the wayside – why would anyone buy an iPod Shuffle when their phone can do all that and more? As a result, the market was reshaped as a more premium product category aimed at those more interested in sound quality.

While Bluetooth became a given (something missing from the MP340), today's players mostly support wired headphones as well, to provide higher-quality sound – which we welcome, of course.

The MP340 might be a relic of a bygone age, but the fact it still works after so long left unused is seriously impressive, let alone that it's held its charge for all this time.

So is this a one-off? Or were players just hardier in those days?

"That story is very familiar to us," says Yang. "We still see people using our first-generation players today, and when they get in touch, it’s rarely because something has gone wrong." Rather, they're after a new battery to replace the worn-out one that came with the player.

And would today's generation of players still turn on if left untouched for that long? I'll let you know in 2046.

MORE:

Best portable MP3 players: budget to hi-res music players

Why the time is right for a new Sony Walkman

Read our Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 review

Autumn is here, which means lots of things are changing. The days are getting darker and we won’t get another Bank Holiday until December. But it’s not all bad news.

In fact, over the past seven days, there have been plenty of great product launches and reasons to celebrate if you’re a hi-fi and home cinema fan.

And to help you shake off the autumnal blues, we’ve even penned a fresh entry to our Rewind news digest, detailing them, in case you missed the news the first time round.

Technics' new direct-drive turntable impressed

The Technics SL-1500CS turned heads when it was first unveiled earlier this year. The latest iteration of the firm’s iconic line of direct-drive turntables, it’s a successor to numerous legendary record spinners, including the five-star, multi-Award-winning SL-1500C.

Initially, our reviewers were a little nervous when the SL-1500CS arrived in our listening rooms, with it looking all but identical to its older step-down sibling, despite costing £300 / $300 more.

But thankfully, the moment we connected it to our reference system, we found plenty to like, with the changes Technics has made to its direct-drive motor control circuit, which features the firm’s Delta-Sigma (ΔΣ) Drive technology, having paid off in spades.

As we said in our Technics SL-1500CS review: “Under-the-skin upgrades take the direct-drive SL-1500 design to new sonic heights.”

The only slight issue is that, while it’s easier to tinker with the Technics, the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition remains the class leader at this level for pure audio quality, based on our testing.

Read our full Technics SL-1500CS review

Audio-Technica is taking on Grado in an unexpected area

Wireless open-back headphones are a rare sight, even in our listening rooms. Not because we think they’re a bad idea, but because there aren’t that many of them out in the wild!

In fact, until last week, the only pair we’ve recently reviewed and recommend that are still on sale were the Grado GW100x. That’s why we were equal parts curious and excited when Audio-Technica unveiled its first-ever pair of wireless open-backs, the ATH-AL5NC mere days ago.

Built around a set of 53mm dynamic drivers and offering 75 hours of music playback (50 if you turn on their “noise reduction” tech), the cans look impressive and, as an added perk, cost £30 less than their Grado rivals, being set to retail for £219 / $279 / AU$499.

Read the full story: Audio-Technica's first wireless open-backs seek to bring audiophile quality to the convenience of a wire-free design

Sony unveiled new affordable headphones

Sony also unveiled new wireless headphones last week. Specifically, the affordable WH-CH530 and WH-CH730N.

The WH-CH530 are the successor to the five-star WH-CH520, while the WH-CH730N replace the Award-winning WH-CH720N. So big shoes to fill for both.

The WH-CH730N has had the biggest refresh, with a new Sonos Ace-like redesign which adds a new look and folding mechanism. The latter is a key feature we wished the old CH720N had that will hopefully improve portability.

Outside of this, both feature the same drivers and core tech as the older models, but Sony is still quoting “palpable” audio quality improvements thanks to tweaks it has made to its digital signal processing and algorithms. Fingers crossed they ring true when we get the new Sony wireless over-ears in for testing.

Read the full story: Sony has finally upgraded its budget five-star wireless headphones range – and it's promising a major sonic boost on both sets

New Apple iPhones launched

Like clockwork, Apple ran its September iPhone launch event last week. Though we’d have liked to have seen a bit more AV hardware on show, it brought a few treats that are of interest.

For music fans, the big-ticket item is the new AirPods 5. Available in two options, the earbuds feature a wealth of upgrades designed to improve ANC and audio performance.

It also showed off three new iPhones: the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the foldable it’s been rumoured to be working on for many moons, which we now know is called the iPhone Duo.

Read the full story: Apple’s foldable iPhone Duo is here – and it's immediately eyeing up the Samsung Z Fold series

Read the full story: Apple AirPods 5 boast improved ANC and updated acoustic architecture for a "richer, more detailed sound"

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It’s been a week since I was on the ground at IFA 2026 in Berlin, and there was a whole range of home cinema equipment that I got to see while at the huge convention.

But there’s one demo that I experienced on Xgimi’s stand that will not leave my head, and it involved a prototype 3D projector system.

And I really do mean "prototype": this isn't a product you can buy, but more of a Frankenstein’s monster combining various products.

There was quite a lot going on behind the scenes, so let’s break it down: Xgimi had two of its newly announced Titan Noir Ultra Max projectors set up side-by-side, each hooked up to the same laptop.

In front of each projector, Xgimi positioned a polarising filter. Essentially, one projector produced the image for the left eye, while the other handled the right. Once you put on the polarised passive glasses, the picture came together to create an incredible 3D experience.

Just one of these projectors will set you back £4799 (around $5000 / AU$9040), but the Titan Noir Ultra Max does boast some impressive specs.

Xgimi claims it delivers up to 8000 ISO lumens of peak brightness and a native contrast ratio of 12,000:1, for starters, and the brand says this results in an “impressive contrast performance for true cinematic depth”.

There are some promising specifications for gaming, too, with Xgimi claiming input lag of just 1ms, which seems preposterously low, but will need proper testing once we get a sample in for review. VRR and ALLM are also on board.

My demo wasn't about gaming, though; it was about 3D movies.

The team had the trailer from Avatar: Fire And Ash on a loop and, even though I had seen it countless times by the end, I was captivated by the video every time it played.

The sense of three-dimensionality was simply breathtaking. When the majestic flying Leonopteryx swooped into the frame, the creature’s wings and tail appeared to flick into the audience with a stunning sense of immersion.

Surrounding the winged animal were floating islands in the sky, and they came out of the frame like a pop-up book.

Instead of feeling limited to the screen on the demonstration room's wall, it really felt as though the picture reached far beyond the frame. I almost thought that if I reached my hand out I could brush the animal's wing.

During the blue-tinted nighttime water scenes, the picture looked detailed despite the movie's lower-light presentation. The bioluminescent spots on the skin of our blue protagonists stood out against the dark woodland instead of getting lost in the background, too.

The picture was bright and punchy as well, and this was in a reasonably well-lit environment. Imagine it in a blacked-out room. That all transported me away from the busy convention space to the world of Pandora in seconds, and it was really a sight to behold.

The sound was less impressive, with the projector's speakers struggling to cut through the bustling showroom floor. But that would obviously change in a more ideal environment, and you could hook up a separate sound system.

It's been a while since I have seen a projector brand, or really any brand at all, running a 3D movie demo. That's hardly surprising, considering that fewer and fewer movies are getting a 3D release.

But even though you won't find it on shelves anytime soon, Xgimi's experiment has still given me renewed curiosity about the world of 3D. Perhaps we gave up too easily, and perhaps it's not too late for a thrilling, three-dimensional renaissance.

MORE:

Check out the best projectors

These are the best soundbars on the market

And here's our review of the Horizon 20 Max

It may have been a week of looking forward to new tech, notably the long-rumoured foldable iPhone Duo and the very welcome surprise of the AirPods 5.

But if you're willing to consider some tech that's a little bit older, there are some absolute bargains available this week.

Bluetooth headphone fans especially are in for a treat, with new lowest prices on everything from budget earbuds to high-end over-ears.

The long-running Hisense HS214 has also somehow got even cheaper, while there are also savings on newer recommendations such as Sony's RGB Mini LED offering.

But it's not just the prices we're excited about – these are all high-quality products that we've tried and tested ourselves. We only recommend the best, and all the devices below earned at least four stars from our expert reviewers.

So take a look at this week's selection...

The fine Focal Bathys were five-star stunners even at their hefty £699 launch price, so with £300 off, they are now rather good value. For your money, you'll get two different levels of ANC, a transparency mode, aptX Adaptive support, a USB-DAC mode that supports 24-bit/192kHz and a compellingly big, spacious and clear sound.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd gen) have rather stubbornly stuck around the £400 mark, but are now suddenly seeing some generous drops. If you're after noise-cancelling, the QC Ultra 2 are class leaders and come with a wealth of functionality in a smart, nicely fitting design. £39.96 is removed at checkout to get this new lowest price.

The Sony WF-C710N not only received five stars, but are Award winners and our recommendation in this price range. They offer a great sense of musicality, fulsome, controlled bass and 30 hours of battery life. Save £10.28 at checkout for the lowest price we've seen.

If you want to upgrade your TV audio for the lowest possible price, we recommend the Hisense HS214 2.1. It's a truly rare breed of a soundbar that delivers a truly likeable home cinema sound at a bargain price, which is now the lowest we've seen. Save £20 with the code CLEAR20.

The Sony Bravia 7 II employs the new RGB Mini LED technology, and the result is one of the best backlit TVs we've tested. Sony's ever-reliable processing adds excellent picture depth and detail too. Get £200 off the listed price with the code TRADE200.

We only reviewed the Xgimi Titan a few weeks ago, and found it to be a highly ambitious offering with an extremely bright, detailed image. The built-in sound is good too, giving decent TV sound systems a run for their money.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Ah, September. A turning point for many as children head back to school, summer turns to autumn and, inevitably, people look towards the end of the year.

That's no bad thing, however – there's plenty to look forward to in the rest of 2026, especially in the dynamic worlds of hi-fi and home cinema.

With IFA and the Apple September event now concluded, we have plenty of new product releases to look forward to, including offerings from heavyweights such as Apple, Sonos and Sony.

That's not all, though! An HDR war is on the horizon as Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced start rolling out across consumer TVs, and RGB Mini LED is now out on the market and facing its first sales season.

So don't start planning Christmas just yet – we've got all this to come...

The HDR format war heats up

It's been a long time in the making, but the next generation of HDR formats is finally here.

Dolby Vision 2 launched on select Hisense TVs on 6th August, with more models set to receive the firmware update over time.

Not to be outdone, HDR10+ Advanced also launched on select Samsung TVs last month, setting the stage for a good old-fashioned format war that the AV industry can't help but love.

Supported TVs are still rather limited, as are compatible streaming services – Dolby Vision 2 has only been confirmed for Peacock, CANAL+ and iQIYI so far, whereas HDR10+ Advanced is currently only on Prime Video.

However, support is only set to grow, so it will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold – we're looking forward to having a closer look in our test room as well...

A Sonos double bill

IFA saw the launch of not one, but two key Sonos products – the long-awaited Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar and Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones.

The Beam Ultra is not a replacement for the beloved five-star Sonos Beam (Gen 2), but instead a step-up model with up-firing Atmos drivers as the big selling point. We'll be sure to test it as soon as possible, but we were very impressed when we heard a demo session.

The Sonos Ace Ultra are a more interesting proposition, as they are only the American brand's second wireless headphones. We were left underwhelmed by the three-star Sonos Ace, but the new drivers, refined tuning and upgraded ANC of the Ultra model look to rectify many of our misgivings.

The Sonos Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra both release on 29th September.

Good things come in threes for Sony

When it rains, it pours. The release of new Sony wireless headphones is always a cause for celebration, but three have come along at once.

Granted, one of them is an update of an old favourite: the Sony WH-1000XM4C is a redesign of the five-star WH-1000XM4, now with EU-compliant batteries and a tweaked sound more akin to the WH-1000XM6. Battery life has dropped from 30 hours to 27 hours, but luckily so has the price tag: the WH-1000XM4C retails for £219 / $300 / AU$449.95.

The other two are newer proposals, even if they are budget offerings. The Sony WH-CH530 and WH-CH730N replace two of the cheapest five-star headphones we recommend, with several upgrades and tweaks to the already great-value cans.

The WH-CH730N have had a notable redesign from the WH-CH720N they replace, with a smoother, more premium look similar to the Sonos Ace. They also fold away and boast a titanic 75-hour battery life.

The Sony WH-CH530 are very similar to the WH-CH520 aesthetically, but have a longer 55-hour battery life. Both models also claim to have a sonic boost thanks to improved digital signal processing and algorithms, as well as upgraded noise-cancelling thanks to Sony's 'Dual Noise Sensor' technology and beamforming microphones.

All three Sony headphones are available now. We look forward to welcoming them to our test room very soon!

Apple joins the folding craze

We're sure you've seen that slick folding animation all over social media by now, but yes, Apple has announced the long-rumoured foldable iPhone. The iPhone Duo has an outer display measuring 5.4 inches and an inner display coming in at 7.6 inches, with speakers at the top and bottom of the screen for spatial audio.

We awarded five stars to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 only a few weeks ago, so the Duo is up against some tough competition. However, we're excited about what the Duo's aspect ratio and wide-angle OLEDs could mean for movie and TV watching.

More of a surprise, however, was the AirPods 5. ANC is now available even on the base model, as well as several AirPods Pro 3 features such as a new multi-port acoustic architecture, transparency mode and live translation.

Two models were announced, with the more expensive version coming with a wireless charging case, volume swipe controls and an extra hour of battery life. We're excited about the AirPods 5, but the four hours of battery life on the base model has left us scratching our heads.

The iPhone 18 range also launched with two new Pro models, with a heavy emphasis on AI and camera upgrades.

The AirPods 5 and iPhone 18 range will be released on 18th September, with the iPhone Duo following on 23rd September.

RGB Mini LED faces its first big sales test

The other big display technology of 2026, RGB Mini LED finally entered our test rooms this spring after months of anticipation.

It's fair to say that while we were impressed with sets such as the Sony Bravia 9 II, the backlit technology was not about to eclipse the impressive contrast, perfect blacks and wide viewing angles of OLED in our eyes.

However, with Black Friday and the biggest TV sales event of the year on the horizon, consumers may well think otherwise. One of our biggest gripes with RGB Mini LED was the OLED-level price, so a healthy discount in the sales week could do wonders – we've already seen huge drops on the Hisense UR9 and Sony Bravia 7 II. Only time will tell...

MORE:

These are the best phones for serious music and movie fans

Our picks of the best wireless headphones

We rank the best soundbars money can buy

It’s not often I’m left bemused by an Apple launch, but the recent unveiling of the AirPods 5, its latest ‘open’ wireless earbuds, has left me scratching my head. It just doesn’t make any sense.

You see, the AirPods 5, like AirPods 4 before them, come in two flavours. But unlike the previous generation, which were clearly distinguishable by price (there was £50/$50 between AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC) and by the cheaper model's lack of noise-cancelling, they have more in common this time around.

Both pairs now offer the same ANC, the same acoustic architecture, the same H2 chip, the same sound modes and the same IP57 rating. And there was nothing said during Apple’s video event to suggest they won’t share the same sound quality.

And this time around, there is only £20/$20 between the two models. Spending that little bit extra gets you better battery life and more useful features, so you can hopefully see where I’m coming from?

Maybe I’m a sucker for specs, but the AirPods 5 Wireless Charging Case as they’re known (and doesn’t that name just roll off the tongue?), just seem the obvious buy.

To me at least, it feels like you’re actually getting shortchanged if you go for the standard AirPods 5 model. And the fact that the cheaper model can only muster four hours of battery life per charge is verging on the laughable in this day and age, as one of my colleagues has already pointed out.

Having the volume swipe feature on the force sensor on the pricier model shouldn’t be underestimated either. This gives usability a big boost and is something I use all the time on my ageing AirPods Pro 2.

So why is Apple offering both? Now, who am I to question Apple’s business plan - they seem to be doing a pretty good job of making money without my input – but is it really cost-effective to be selling two pairs of earbuds so similar in price when one pair is at a disadvantage? I can't wait to get both pairs into our test room to find out which pair is the better buy.

What do you think? If you’re an Apple fan, do you find the cheaper pair of AirPods appealing, or would you rather just spend a tiny bit extra to get the all-singing, all-dancing model? Let us know in the comments below.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless earbuds you can buy right now

Apple AirPods 5 boast improved ANC and updated acoustic architecture for a "richer, more detailed sound"

I'm excited for Apple's newly announced AirPods 5 – but one major issue has me scratching my head

Read our Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review

Apple finally lifted the lid on its most anticipated smartphone to date, with the iPhone Duo marking the Californian tech giant's first step into the foldable phone market.

While Apple spent most of its annual iPhone event touting the AI (that's Apple Intelligence, not Artificial Intelligence, by the way) capabilities and camera quality of its first foldable, we did get a sneak peek at how movies will look and sound on the phone.

An uninterrupted, anti-glare-equipped 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR display with "Wide-angle OLEDs for excellent viewing angles", alongside a stereo speaker system that supports spatial audio, should make this the best AV product to come from Apple this year; and that's an issue in itself...

Apple neglected to update its 4K streaming box yet again, despite rumours that an upgraded version has been in the works for years now. Delays are cited as being caused by Apple having to overhaul its Apple Intelligence system after it fell short of expectations after its launch alongside the iPhone 16 series.

The new Apple TV 4K is expected to rely heavily on the upgraded Siri system shown off during the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event, and a new rumour even suggests that it could sport the same A19 or A19 Pro chipset from the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro, respectively.

While rumours don't always tell the full picture, the truth of the matter is that Apple is really dragging its feet with the new Apple TV 4K. It's already lost some goodwill by raising the price of the existing TV 4K from £149 to £199 for the 64GB model, and from £169 to £249 for the 128GB model, earlier this year.

And need I remind you that the price increase has been applied to a product that launched almost four years ago.

A new Apple TV 4K is the real AV-focused announcement that I'm waiting for, and I feel as though my patience really isn't paying off at this point. I wrote this rant almost exactly a year ago (a year ago yesterday, actually), venting my frustrations and claiming that "I am losing patience"; if I was starting to lose patience in September of last year, you can imagine how I feel now.

While I am genuinely excited to try the iPhone Duo out, and I'm sure it will make a stellar portable movie-watching machine, I prefer to watch my movies on an OLED TV or projector, which is why I'm waiting for Apple to make a proper announcement for home cinema enthusiasts.

In the meantime, I'll keep waiting for Apple to finally pull the plug on the ageing (but still excellent) Apple TV 4K (2022); surely it can't be much longer now...

MORE:

Read our full Apple TV 4K (2022) review

As well as our Apple iPhone 17 Pro review

And check out our picks for the best streaming devices for movies and TV

University is, of course, a time to prioritise study and hard work.

But it’s also the first experience of living away from home for many, and a chance to make a dorm room or shared house that is truly your space.

To do that, you’ll need the essentials. And that, in our eyes anyway, includes a TV setup, noise-cancelling headphones and at least one way to blast out music at the weekend.

Luckily, we have you covered. It may have been a little while since our dorm-room days, but we do rate and review hundreds of AV products every year and know good quality when we see it.

We have rounded up a few of our favourite products below, all of which we’ve tried and tested. They are all within reach of a student budget, but still highly recommended for freshers and students of life alike.

So if you or a loved one has an imminent first week, here are some AV products sure to liven up even the most bare-bones student accommodation:

A What Hi-Fi? Award winner, the Sony WF-C710N are the cheapest noise-cancelling headphones we recommend and brilliant budget earbuds all round. For the new low price of £62, you’ll enjoy fulsome, controlled bass, a great sense of musicality and a cool design. Perfect for studying without breaking the bank.

Good news: you don’t need to pay through the roof for high-resolution music. Tidal has long been the music-streaming service of choice for audiophiles thanks to its 24-bit/192kHz streams, and students can get a £5.99 student plan that is better than half price.

To take full advantage of those hi-res Tidal streams, though, you’ll want a good portable DAC for the best possible sound quality. iFi has been producing affordable five-star models for years, and its latest, the iFi Go Link 2, comes highly recommended.

For the full budget audiophile experience, a Tidal subscription, portable DAC and decent wired headphones will set you up perfectly for three years of studying. The Røde NTH-100 are Award winners and one of our top picks at this price, thanks to its eloquent, revealing sound and well-made design that’s comfortable for hours at a time.

Dinky, portable and highly stylish, the Roberts Revival Petite 2 may look like a humble radio but is so much more. With Bluetooth, a 20-hour battery life, a 3.5mm headphone port and a clearer, richer and more dynamic sound than you might expect, the Revival Petite 2 will bring retro flair to your dorm parties.

They may be a bit costlier than some of the other items in this article, but if you’re looking for desktop speakers on a budget, then the Ruark MR1 MK3 is what we recommend. They are compact enough to lug to student accommodation and back, but most importantly they sound powerful, punchy and dynamic with excellent rhythmic drive.

If you’re on a student budget, the Pro-Ject Primary E is a great choice as an entry-level turntable. It lacks fancy features such as USB ripping, Bluetooth and automatic operation, but if you’re looking for a purist design and great quality sound, the Primary E comes recommended. It’s easy to set up for beginners too.

We’re sure AirPods need no introduction. But the Apple AirPods Pro 3 are the tech giant’s best headphones yet, with spacious, powerful and dynamic sound as well as impressive active noise cancelling. If you already have an iPhone, you can also enjoy snappy user-friendliness and exclusive features.

The Sony WH-CH720N may be getting an upgrade soon, but they still come highly recommended, with a forceful, robust sound and decent ANC for the price. A What Hi-Fi? Awards winner for the best wireless headphones under £100, they are absolutely our top choice at this price range.

The Echo Dot has undergone several generations by now and hasn’t always hit the audio sweet spot, but the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) punches above its weight with an impressively expansive sound. Alexa, now synonymous with audio assistants, is as helpful as ever, particularly if you have other Amazon smart devices such as a Fire TV.

For a TV that is big enough for a flat move night, small enough to fit in the car and cheap enough for a student budget, the 43-inch Samsung U8000F is more than up to the job. Great value at £229, it’s a solid all-rounder for both movies and gaming, and it has all the main streaming and catch-up apps built in.

If you’re moving away from home for the first time, there’s a good chance you’ll need your own games console if you can’t wrestle the family unit away. If you’re getting a PS5, we recommend the disc-based version, as it can double-up as a 4K Blu-ray player.

MORE:

Best cheap TVs: affordable 4K televisions for under £500

Best cheap wireless headphones: tried and tested by our experts

Looking for a bargain? Here are the best budget soundbars

Apple's long-rumoured AirPods with a camera – potentially called AirPods Ultra – made no appearance at the 9th September iPhone 18 launch event, with the release now rumoured to be pushed back to 2027.

Honestly? I'm happy that it was a no-show.

I think this is a wise decision. Not only does this mean that the focus is rightly on the new AirPods 5 models and the brand-new foldable iPhone Duo, but it gives Apple more time to iron out any kinks with these rumoured AirPods with camera (that's assuming it's a real product, of course).

AirPods with a camera were touted as early as 2024, with reports suggesting they will feature embedded IR cameras, centred around augmented reality. This is with a view to them working with Apple's Visual Intelligence, rather than capturing images and video directly.

Considering the current controversy surrounding the Meta glasses that can be used to record images and videos without people's consent and without making the fact they're recording obvious, I can't really imagine Apple going for a similar kind of camera embedded into small earbuds.

Apple has a reputation for being privacy-focused, so the cameras being used for features such as enhancing ANC, spatial awareness, or for accessibility reasons based on your surroundings (which are current best guesses) rather than actually capturing real pictures or videos around you seem more likely.

As reported by MacRumors, a video seen in a macOS Tahoe release doc shows short-term practical applications, such as identifying a book to save it for later.

AI and AI-powered features are all the rage today, and Apple Intelligence/Siri isn't exactly leading the popular race. With the updated, more conversational Siri AI that launched today with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max – and which makes a big deal about protecting users' data and privacy – this could be a way for Apple to differentiate itself from the likes of Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT, and offer practical solutions that embed into users' iOS-led lives in a way that isn't too frivolous like generative AI.

The AirPods with camera, or AirPods Ultra, are rumoured to effectively be integrated in a souped-up pair of AirPods Pro 3, but considering the wealth of features already stacked into the Pro 3's compact buds (live translation, health features, various ANC modes and more) the current H2 chip would be working overtime.

It's not hard to imagine this would have a knock-on effect on battery life, along with perhaps less focus on improving overall performance – and that's not a trade-off I would be happy with.

And that's the key thing here: yes, technology advances in many ways, and it's exciting to have new possibilities, especially when products such as wireless earbuds have become so embedded in our busy, multi-tasking lives.

But I hope Apple doesn't forget what the AirPods' main purpose is: to allow people to enjoy their music.

Of course, Apple could use the proposed AirPods Ultra launch to launch an all-new, more powerful H3 chip. If it does, I hope it brings with it more advancements and improvements in the areas we really care about: sound quality, ANC quality, and battery life.

Camera or no camera, the current AirPods Pro 3 are a pretty great-sounding pair of 'buds. While the class leader, the Sony WF-1000XM6, still rules the roost here, the premium Pro 3 are a five-star pair whose nicely balanced, clear and dynamic sound is enjoyable with all genres, while ANC quality is excellent.

We wouldn't hesitate to recommend them for iOS die-hards, especially if you – like us – are all about the performance, and prioritise sound quality over fancy features.

Apple does a great job of refining features and improving performance, but it can sometimes be incremental – let's hope the next pair is a much bigger step forward in sound quality.

MORE:

Apple AirPods 5 boast improved ANC and updated acoustic architecture for a "richer, more detailed sound"

Read our Apple AirPods Pro 3 review

Our guide to the best wireless earbuds you can buy, tested by our in-house experts

Apple’s events have never been known for their music. Outside of a 2014 snafu when it forced a U2 album on its customers, regardless of whether they wanted it, the firm likes to play it safe.

Muzak and the occasional foray into popular, mainstream acts are generally the official soundtracks of its launch events.

You know, the stuff you could play in front of your grandparents and at worst, they’d just look slightly confused, but probably find a way to happily tap along nonetheless.

But during this year’s iPhone launch, rather than the dulcet tones of Bono or whelps of Chris Martin, as the event trundled on, it was Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke’s voice that was ringing loud and clear – at least in my head.

Specifically, the iconic lyric “no alarms and no surprises” from the band’s 1997 banger of a single, No Surprises, was playing on repeat as the firm rattled off this year’s offerings.

Why? I’m not smart enough to pretend there’s any deep or philosophical meaning behind the thought.

It’s just that, as a serious music and movie nerd, that’s precisely what Apple delivered: no alarms and no surprises. Which made it a far better soundtrack than the official one – which I’ve already forgotten – and the reason I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Unlike days of yesteryear, when founder and former CEO Steve Jobs would famously always have “one more thing” to surprise fans, the pre-event rumours proved to be bang on the money.

New iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max handsets, with the standard smattering of tech upgrades, headlined by a new A20 Pro chipset and an assortment of AI upgrades. And then the new folding iPhone Duo handset people have been harping on about for just shy of half a decade.

Then the new AirPods 5 with ANC, as rumoured by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman before the event, which look like a nice refinement on the AirPods 4 with ANC – though I wish Apple had spent more time talking about the audio quality upgrades rather than all the clever AI gubbins, and had managed to deliver more than five hours of playback with ANC on.

Finally, the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 wearables, which come with yet more AI-powered health features and an Audio Intelligence live transcription service that lets you record, transcribe and check conversations in realtime – but sadly not the hi-res local music playback I’ve long asked for.

Yes, I like some of the stuff on offer, especially the 18 Pro’s new burgundy (Apple missed a trick not calling it Ron) colour and the in-frame camera mode for audio, which lets you cut out background noise when capturing a live performance.

And yes, technically Apple did say "and one more thing" before unveiling the Duo, despite every man/woman and their dog already knowing about it.

And, finally, yes, the two AirPods 5 models look decent, though I’m not impressed with either pair's quoted battery life with ANC on.

But that was it. There was nothing else on show to give us the old Apple “and one more thing” experience where we saw something we really were not expecting, and that, for me, is a crying shame.

Remember when Jobs' “one more thing” unveiled the Apple Cinema Display (a monitor with an atypical, at the time, 16:9 aspect ratio that was ideal for watching films)?

Or 2005, when he surprised us with the iPod Shuffle, and then, one year later, the first Apple TV?

Heck, he may not be as much of a showman as Jobs, but I can still hear the collective “ooh” from the team after Tim Cook’s “one more thing” unveiling of Apple Music in 2015.

To be clear (before I get hunted with torches and pitchforks by the Apple fans among our readers), that’s not a dig at the new hardware from the event – the new iPhones are as interesting as mobile devices can be for AV aficionados.

The firm has a strong record of delivering decent audio and picture quality on its iPhones, after all. That’s why, if you look at our list of Award-winners over the past decade, you’ll tend to see an iPhone on top as our recommended handset for serious music fans. So even a minor spruce-up to its offering is at least partially of interest.

And its foldable iPhone Duo has piqued my interest more than usual, as it has a similar movie-friendly aspect ratio to the five-star Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

If either AirPods 5 manages to fix our minor issues with the previous generation's lack of punch and dynamism, they could be great. So again, it's not about the tech it unveiled being particularly bad. We need to review it before we make any judgements like that.

I just wish it had something more meaty to show serious AV fans. Forget the Apple OLED TV or Dolby Atmos soundbar the team and I have been asking for; at this point, like our senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, I’d settle for a new Apple TV 4K.

Truthfully, I just want new stuff that hasn’t already been fully revealed in the sea of pre-event rumours to start appearing at Apple’s events again, as right now it all feels a bit stagnant.

MORE:

These are the best phones for serious music and movie fans

Our picks of the best wireless headphones

We rank the best wireless speakers money can buy

Apple announced plenty of exciting goodies at its most recent September launch event, including a series of Apple Watches and its first-ever folding phone, the iPhone Duo.

No new HomePods materialised, but hey, you're always going to be let down by at least one major omission. Another year and no HomePod Mini 2? No surprises there, then.

The Californian mega-brand also announced the next generation of its standard wireless earbuds, the AirPods 5, again splitting the new models into two main variants: the AirPods 5 and the AirPods 5 with wireless charging. The standard AirPods 5 will cost £119 / $129, while the AirPods 5 with wireless charging case will cost £139 / $149.

That's a departure from the fourth generation of Apple's core AirPods line, where the key difference between the two models was the use or absence of noise-cancelling. Hence, the AirPods 4 and the AirPods 4 with ANC.

Many of the initial signs look positive. Apple is promising elevated sonic performance from the fifth-generation buds, teasing a "richer, more detailed sound across a wider range of ear geometries" alongside more immersive and dynamic spatial audio.

Noise cancelling should be better, too, with improved "computational audio algorithms" improving noise reduction by around 50 per cent. So says Apple, anyway.

Lots to be excited about, then, but one fly does appear to have landed in the ointment: those battery life numbers.

The standard AirPods 5 are teasing a paltry four hours of playtime from the buds with ANC enabled, which will creep up to around five hours when noise cancelling is switched off.

The AirPods 5 with wireless charging, conversely, offer five hours of in-ear battery, with 22 hours with the charging case. That total just edges the 20 hours of the standard model.

Those numbers seem bafflingly low, especially when compared with price-adjacent rivals. The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024) (£119 / $149) deliver 8.5 hours of in-bud playback with ANC enabled, boosted to up to 12 hours with noise cancelling turned off.

The cheaper Sony WF-C710N (£70 / $130) are also superior, again granting 8.5 hours of playback with ANC turned on, 12 hours with it off, and a total of 30 hours with the charging case in play.

It's not as if Apple has improved on its last-gen offerings, either. The AirPods 4 delivered 4 hours of in-bud playback with ANC on, 5 hours with ANC off, and a total of 30 hours with the charging case. That means the in-bud playtime has gone down, and total playtime has actually decreased from one generation to the next. How has that happened?

It's fine for a more premium pair of earbuds to sacrifice a bit of battery life, or for a new generation to maybe lose out in this area because of new features or hardware, but when the mainline AirPods already offered such mediocre figures, Apple couldn't really afford to lose much more. What will the sixth-gen buds offer? Three hours of battery life if we're lucky?

It won't be a dealbreaker for many, but those figures really do seem poor in an era when some rivals are pushing to almost double the in-bud playback time.

It's not a disaster for Apple, but it means the onus is now on the AirPods 5 to deliver outstanding performance across the board – from sound to noise-cancelling – if they're going to justify such a glaring blind spot.

I might be wrong, but battery life figures do matter, especially when there's a fear of being left high and dry when your buds run out of charge, and you've no way of getting them powered again. I'm optimistic it isn't a decision Apple ends up regretting.

MORE:

The iPhone 18 range launches with a foldable iPhone and two new Pro models

AirPods 4 vs AirPods 4 with ANC: which Apple pair should you pick?

Check out our guide to the best wireless earbuds we've tested and rated

It has been a long time coming, but Apple has finally thrown its hat into the foldable smartphone ring.

The iPhone Duo is Apple's answer to Samsung's dominant Z Fold range, which includes the recently reviewed Z Fold 8 – a five-star phone that convinced me foldables have reached the point where I could happily switch from a slab phone to a bendy one.

Apple's effort, however, will convince any remaining holdouts that this is the case. Like it or not, Apple's influence is so huge that this new foldable will win over naysayers who would never have taken a second look at a Samsung foldable simply because it runs Android.

Thankfully, the iPhone Duo is an exciting announcement for AV enthusiasts, especially those who rely on their phone for entertainment on long flights and train rides, such as myself.

While Apple barely spoke about the AV capabilities of the handset during its presentation, we do know that it has a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display, 3000 nits peak brightness on both displays, and stereo speakers that support spatial audio.

It even has an under-screen front-facing camera for uninterrupted video, which is a concept that Samsung used on its Z Fold phones a few years ago.

For reference, the Z Fold 8 has a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display; now I won't point fingers at who is copying who here, but there have been years of leaks and rumours pointing towards the then-called iPhone Fold adopting this form factor. Samsung was the first out of the gate with this design though, so it's a tricky one to call.

Regardless, I think this is the correct move. While Apple hasn't confirmed the iPhone Duo's aspect ratio yet, it appears to follow the Z Fold 8's lead with a display that squashes letterboxing bars. This should make it pretty fantastic for watching movies and TV shows on the go, and it has an edge over the Samsung thanks to the inclusion of Dolby Vision HDR.

Interestingly, Apple has matched the aspect ratio on the outer and inner displays for a more "continuous" experience, which seems like a smart move, but I'll need to compare the iPhone directly to the Z Fold to see how this works in practice.

Apple also said that it has taken direct inspiration from the iPad lineup during its event, which also saw the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and AirPods 5 break cover, and that could hint towards the iPhone Duo being a follow-up to another Apple product we've previously championed.

The bendable Super Retina XDR OLED display with the Nano Texture anti-reflectivity coating sounds like a chip off the iPad Pro block; and while it looks like Apple has left Tandem OLED to the iPad Pro, the iPhone Duo could be our closest thing to an OLED iPad Mini.

Now, Samsung's latest foldable smartphone really did impress us; so much so that it earned a well-deserved five-star review. That's not to say it's completely perfect, though, and there is some room for improvement where audio is concerned.

Given Apple's stellar reputation for sound, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Duo outperform the Z Fold 8 in this category, as Apple's tuning leans more towards a warmer, more spacious hi-fi sound that's hard to beat.

That said, picture could be a closer race, and these smartphones might be heading towards a ferocious bendable battle, especially as we close in on our Awards testing process...

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review

As well as our Apple iPhone 17 Pro review

And our Apple iPhone 17 review

“Really?!” That was my initial reaction when I heard the first rumours that Sony was readying the WH-1000XM4C.

The use of those two punctuation marks is intended to indicate that it was a reaction of both excitement and confusion. I was excited, because the original WH-1000XM4 is a classic. It’s one of the models that has made the biggest impression on me out of all the pairs of wireless headphones I have tested over the years.

These headphones took performance to a whole new level when they launched back in 2020 – look around online, and there’s still a lot of love shown to this particular pair.

The confused part of me, though, wondered where Sony would place them in its current range, since it already has the XM4’s successor, the WH-1000XM5 (pictured above). And this is a pair which is already pretty well discounted.

Following Sony’s official WH-1000XM4C unveiling (pictured below), though, the picture has become clearer. Or has it?

We know the new headphones cost £219 / $300 / AU$449.95, which is pretty close to where the WH-1000XM5 headphones sit right now.

We also know that the WH-1000XM5 will go end of life in February next year, as they aren’t compliant with EU battery regulation 2023/1542 (which stipulates that portable batteries need to be able to be removed by the end user), which comes into effect at the same time. The XM4C is compliant. So, I’m left wondering where the incentive is for people to go out and buy the XM5?

In our WH-1000XM5 review, we found them to feel less premium than the XM4, and they also don’t have the folding design of that model, which was a big selling point back at the time.

They still sound great, though, and at the time of our original WH-1000XM5 vs WH-1000XM4 comparison, we felt the newer model sounded “clearer and more open” and that the headphones were “more precise in the low-end, making the XM4 sound a little thick by comparison”.

We do know Sony has retuned the sound of the XM4C, but this is only through DSP – the hardware remains the same.

The WH-1000XM5, by contrast, introduced a smaller 30mm driver compared with the 40mm unit of XM4, so Sony will only be able to tweak the sound of the new model so far. We will, of course, let you know if and how the sound has changed once we get a pair into our test rooms.

I’m also intrigued to see how pricing looks over the next few months.

If retailers try to move all their existing XM5 stock with one eye on February next year, could they drop the price of those headphones below WH-1000XM4C? It could be an interesting few months that lie ahead, especially if you’re on the lookout for a new pair of wireless headphones at a great price.

It's not often we have two competing pairs of headphones from the same brand around the same price, but at least this should give an added element of choice for the consumer.

What do you think? Do you think there’s still a place for the WH-1000XM5 following Sony’s recent announcement? Would you consider a pair if they still sound better than the WH-1000XM4C? Let us know in the comments below.

MORE:

Back with a bang! Sony has resurrected a classic pair of wireless headphones by launching the WH-1000XM4C

Sony WH-1000XM5 vs WH-1000XM4: which headphones should you buy?

Our pick of the best wireless headphones for every budget

Read our full Sony WH-1000XM5 review

We are fully into Awards season. That means a bunch of testing to find which new hi-fi and home cinema products will dethrone our current What Hi-Fi? Award winners to reign supreme, and which current trophy holders will carry on leading the field in their respective categories and price points.

This does mean our test rooms are heaving with new products, from feature-packed DACs to new floorstanding speakers and the latest TVs and more.

We won't list them all here (that's in a super-secret spreadsheet for our eyes only), but below we've highlighted a handful of the key products that we can't wait to put through the testing process.

Sonos Beam Ultra

It has just been announced, but we are expecting the arrival of the new Sonos Beam Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar in our test rooms any day now. Costing £699 / $699 / AU$1099, the new model sits above the five-star, Award-winning Beam (Gen 2), and brings plenty of upgrades in its compact form.

The step-up Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam Gen 2 – which includes dedicated up-firing drivers for proper Dolby Atmos sound, for up to a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

The Beam Ultra will work with the updated Sonos 27 app, and will link with the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones to transfer sound between the two products. You'll also be able to use the portable Sonos Play and Move 2 as rear surround speakers with the Ultra.

Will Sonos be able to deliver a winning formula yet again? We shall see.

Rega Planar 6 RS Edition

At long last, we have Rega's Planar 6 RS Edition in our test rooms, which takes the standard, Award-winning Planar 6 turntable as a base and adds elements from the more premium Planar 8 (also five stars) into quite an attractive package.

The 6 RS features a foam core plinth sandwiched between two layers of high-pressure laminate that is coated in the same lovely brushed aluminium finish we've seen on the superb Planar 3 RS Edition. This adds rigidity while keeping things light – a key Rega engineering principle.

The top-of-the-line Nd9 moving magnet cartridge comes fitted as standard, and other elements taken from the P8 include the RB880 tonearm, an outboard power supply with electronic speed switching, and a double belt drive. Costing £2000, could this deliver the mid-way magic between the Planar 6 and Planar 8? We can't wait to take it for a spin.

Arcam A50 Signature

We're not the only ones celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. Arcam has also joined us in turning the big 5-0 and has launched the A50 Signature integrated amplifier to celebrate the milestone.

Billed as the "best-sounding integrated amplifier Arcam has ever produced", the A50 is the new flagship of the successful Radia line, which includes the Award-winning A5+ and A15+ stereo amplifiers.

It boasts 150W per channel into 8 ohms, with a fully dual-mono Class G architecture that aims to deliver purer audio. The specs list is exhaustive – analogue RCA and XLR, digital inputs including HDMI eARC and USB, MM/MC phono stage, and more.

Costing £2499 / $3000, the A50 Signature amp is also joined by a new CD25 CD player, that sits above the Award-winning CD5 – we have high hopes for both.

Ruark Talisman-R

We had an early listen to the Talisman-R speakers at the High End Vienna show in June, and now these premium floorstanders are waiting in the wings in our test room.

With a distinctive sloped baffle that harks back to the 1990 original, the new Talisman-R costs £1499 per pair and features a 27mm silk dome tweeter alongside a 16.5cm long-throw fibre woofer, updated cabinetry with internal bracing and real wood details.

We very much liked the previous-gen Talisman-R III's fast, dynamic and exciting performance, but that was a good 20 years ago. We're keen to find out if Ruark has held on to that same magic when we hear the new towers against their contemporary rivals.

TCL X11L

Despite also having an RGB Mini LED model (the TCL RM9L), TCL has banked on Quantum Dot tech for its flagship TVs. The £3999, 75-inch TCL X11L is the very TV with the tech we've had in our test room.

TCL's 'Super' QLED flagship TV features next-generation Quantum Dots along with a new super-high ‘Ultra’ colour filter, which put together should deliver a wider colour gamut, better brightness, more local dimming zones, slimmer designs and no colour crosstalk issues. The final point being a repeat issue we've seen crop up in some RGB Mini LED displays. It also comes with an integrated B&O sound system.

In our demo earlier this year, we were impressed with the X11L's "raw brightness", high contrast and wide colour range, so we are excited to see how it fares under our full review treatment.

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Back with a bang! Sony has resurrected a classic pair of wireless headphones by launching the WH-1000XM4C

We've pretty much been waiting for a sequel to the Award-winning Sony WH-CH720N wireless headphones since they arrived in 2023.

Not because they fell short of our expectations – quite the opposite – but because the budget noise-cancelling over-ears were so good, we couldn't wait to see what Sony could do when given another chance to impress.

A sequel has indeed finally arrived in the shape of the Sony WH-CH730N, vowing to elevate everything we liked about the WH-CH720N while mitigating their modest but not-trivial limitations.

Those limitations included a slightly bass-heavy sonic signature, as well as a design that, if we're being charitable, wasn't exactly the last word in luxury.

If the WH-CH730N can rectify such minor issues without losing the character of what made their predecessors so great, they could truly be successors to some of our favourite headphones of the past few years. Now that's something worth getting excited about.

When Sony invited us for an exclusive look at the WH-CH730N, we had to take advantage. We haven't heard the new headphones yet, but we've had a sneak peek at how they look and feel, and heard directly from Sony about the changes the next-gen over-ears have made. From what we've seen, they could be something very special.

Excited for: a new folding look

When we went to see them in person a few weeks ago, we really liked the way the new WH-CH730N looked.

Taste is subjective – and how a pair of headphones appear on the outside should be a secondary priority to how they sound – but that wholesale redesign really works for us. The WH-CH720N were, to be charitable, rather rough and ready headphones, but the smoother, more modern design of their successors feels like a big improvement. Out are the rather basic earcups, replaced by larger, more premium cups that come across as far more premium than the headphones' modest price might suggest.

Better still, they should be more ergonomic to live with thanks to the fact that the new over-ears feel sturdier and are now fully foldable, something that was lacking in the somewhat rigid WH-CH720N. It was always a worry that you might accidentally snap your precious headphones in transit, but full foldability helps assuage such fears this time around.

It makes sense considering that these are still reasonably budget-friendly headphones geared towards everyday use. When you've got over-ears that are going to be thrown into backpacks and tossed into the back of the car, you want to know they're going to survive years of potentially hard use.

Excited for: refined tuning and (hopefully) better sound

At first, it was easy to hear the news that Sony hadn’t updated the physical drivers for the Sony WH-CH730N. You expect new hardware from one generation to the next, so the fact that Sony had kept the same 30mm dynamic units as found in the WH-CH720N just slightly smacked of complacency.

Yet that needn’t be the case. The thing is, the WH-CH720N sound great – they might be the best sound-per-pound wireless over-ears you can buy – with their slightly enthusiastic bass the only real point of criticism. Even then, you can tone that down via the in-app equaliser, so it’s not a huge deal.

As it turns out, we want more of the same from the WH-CH730N, albeit with a bit of sonic tinkering to make them as good as they can be. Tweaking tuning algorithms rather than physical hardware can make a surprisingly profound difference, too – just look at how much better the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) sound over their first-gen antecedents.

The punchy, deeply musical personality of the WH-CH720N…but better? Sounds like a recipe for success to us.

Excited for: longer battery life

Wow, check out these numbers. We didn’t think the WH-CH720N were exactly short on battery life, thanks to their 50 hours of lifespan with ANC off and a still-massive 35 hours with it on, but Sony has really doubled down for the sequel.

The WH-CH730N will go for 75 hours before they need a recharge if you have noise cancelling turned off, a figure that quite frankly puts their predecessors in the shade. That’s a huge usability bonus, only sweetened by the fact that a three-minute quick charge will grant around an hour of playback when you’re in a hurry.

Not many rivals come close at this kind of money. The Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT (£129 / $140) will go for around 30 hours before they need a recharge, whereas even the mega-battery-boasting Philips TAH8000E's (£140 / $149) 70 hours with ANC off can't quite keep up.

Excited for: that seamless Sony usability

From the bottom of its range to the very top, Sony's headphones are very rarely a chore to live with. Quality tends to suffuse everything the brand does at the moment, with its wireless cans exemplifying this customer-first focus on usability and performance that few rivals can match.

What the WH-CH730N have in their favour right out of the gate, then, is the fact that they're a pair of Sony over-ears. That means certain features, such as DSEE upscaling for poorer-quality files, as well as 'Precise Voice Pickup Technology' for better noise calls and beamforming mics contributing to improved noise cancelling, are already in the bank.

Plus, access to the Sony Headphones app is never a bad thing, as while it's rarely been the most sleek or stylish platform in the world, the levels of customisation it offers are extremely tough to beat.

Unless something goes horribly wrong, we'd feel confident in stating that, from its voice calls to its ANC, we'll likely be in very safe hands with the WH-CH730N.

A small concern: that higher price

This isn't a dealbreaker for most, but it's still worth mentioning: the WH-CH730N are more expensive at launch than their predecessors. It's not a massive increase – only £10 in the UK – but it does point to a slightly more worrying trend in audio concerning rising prices.

This isn't something for which we blame Sony, but more a reflection of where things could be headed across the market. Due to poor market conditions, the global economic downturn, certain political decisions and an increasing scarcity of computer chips, consumer audio prices are rising, and even the budget end of the audio landscape isn't unaffected.

£10 isn't a huge rise from one generation to the next, but when even massive entities such as Sony are affected, it could point to an unwanted trend: higher prices for your headphones.

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These are the best wireless headphones we've tested

The summer holidays have ended, and we are all well and truly back in work mode as a result. At least that’s what it felt like for our team of hi-fi and home cinema experts last week, who were outright bombarded with hardware launches.

These included everything from multiple new Sonos products launching to the arrival of Yamaha’s new active speakers in our review rooms. So if you struggled to keep up with all the news, don’t worry.

As always, we’re here to help keep you apprised of all the most important AV developments with our latest Rewind column.

Sonos unveiled two new products

The biggest news of the week came from Sonos, which unveiled not one, but two, new pieces of hardware. First up are the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones. These are the second wireless headphones from the brand, following on from the three-star Sonos Ace we reviewed two years ago. Loaded with new drivers, refined tuning and upgraded ANC, Sonos made big claims about their improved audio quality at the event. Fingers crossed they ring true when we get the Ace Ultra in for testing.

Second, there was also a new Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar. Despite the naming, this isn’t a replacement for the long-lived, five-star Sonos Beam (Gen 2). Instead, the Ultra sits between the entry-level Beam (Gen 2) and Sonos Arc Ultra in the firm’s lineup. The biggest upgrade is the Beam Ultra’s new driver arrangement, which includes up-firing Atmos speakers. We haven’t reviewed it yet, but our staff writer, Robyn Quick, walked away from the demo session very impressed. We’re excited to get one into our viewing rooms for the full What Hi-Fi? review treatment, as a result.

Read the full story: Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

Read the full story: Sonos' new Beam soundbar is finally here with a big Dolby Atmos upgrade – but there’s still something missing

We reviewed Yamaha’s active speakers

Active speaker systems are a vogue category in the world of hi-fi right now, with the Cambridge Audio L/R series speakers, KEF LS Luxe and more already having passed through our review rooms this year. Last week, we had the Yamaha NX-70A wireless speaker system in our test rooms, continuing this trend.

Sandwiched between the five-star LS Luxe (£3500 / $4000 / AU$6375) and LS50 Wireless II systems (£2199 / $3000 / AU$4000) on price, they have stiff competition. But during testing we found plenty to like, with the units delivering a mature, spacious sound with a nicely extended, well-controlled bass. Add to this their stellar, high-quality build, and there’s a lot to like about them. Were it not for their strong rivals, which offer slightly more rhythmic drive, they’d be a class leader, rather than merely a valid alternative to the KEFs.

As we said in our review: “The Yamaha NX-70A is a sonically talented and highly adaptable wireless all-in-one speaker system. While it might not be an outright class leader, this system is nonetheless worthy of serious attention for its expansive feature set, heaps of aesthetic panache and mature, expressive sound.”

Read our full Yamaha NX-70A review

What Hi-Fi? readers unite behind Blu-ray

We always love it when we get to chat with you, our ever-opinionated readers – especially when the stars align and you agree with us. That’s exactly what happened last week when we collated your responses to our last Ask The Reader question: are we living in a golden age of home cinema?

You were all united in your response of no, we are not. But it was the reason for your rejection of said 'golden age' that caught our eye, with nearly all of you flagging the prevalence of streaming as a key reason, arguing that the technical and cultural benefits of physical media, especially Blu-ray, mean the days of yore were superior. We can’t help but agree.

Read the full story: The What Hi-Fi? readers have spoken and the age of streaming is not a golden one for home cinema – all hail the Blu-ray

A new premium Dolby Atmos system caught our eye

Samsung has long dominated the premium Dolby Atmos soundbar system space. That’s undeniable if you look at recent years’ What Hi-Fi? Award winners and our latest five-star review of the flagship Samsung HW-Q990H system.

But walking around the IFA tradeshow, our eagle-eyed (and eared) senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, spotted a potential rival with the technical chops to challenge for the crown this year. Specifically, the Hisense UX1.

Featuring satellite wireless surrounds and a subwoofer, complementing the central soundbar, the UX1 impressed him for three key reasons, which you can find out by clicking the article below.

Read the full story: Hisense is taking on the mighty Samsung HW-Q990H with a new Dolby Atmos soundbar system – here are 3 reasons I think it could be great

New Michi amps

Finally, last week Japanese brand Rotel unveiled two new additions to its premium line of separates: the Michi Prestige P430 preamplifier and Michi Prestige S430 stereo amplifier.

Offering music fans 230 watts per channel into 8 ohms worth of muscle, Rotel claims the S430 is designed for people who want to graduate from single box systems into the world of separates. Packed with custom hardware, Rotel claims it will deliver a sound full of dynamic impact and a firm but controlled low end.

Alongside it, Rotel is pitching its P430 preamplifier as an ideal purchase for music fans looking for modern connectivity alongside premium separates performance. Loaded with all the outputs you most people will ever need and built around an ESS SABRE ES9028PRO 8-channel DAC, Rotel claims the preamplifier will deliver audio with “pristine clarity, natural detail, and an open, precisely focused soundstage".

Both units are set to go on sale this month. The S430 will retail for £3599 / $3999 / €3999, while the P430 will cost £3599 / $3999 / €3999.

Read the full story: Double drop! Rotel expands its premium Michi portfolio with a new stereo amplifier and preamplifier

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Our picks of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

This week, one of the biggest pieces of news to break is that, after years of our team wishing upon an AV star, Sonos has released a new Beam Dolby Atmos soundbar.

Specifically, the firm lifted the lid on its spiffy new Sonos Beam Ultra at the IFA trade show in Berlin.

Unveiled alongside the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones, I want to kick off this opinion piece by making clear: I think the Ultra looks impressive and is, in nearly every way, the successor we’ve been waiting for.

In fact, as our reviewer on the ground at IFA, Robyn Quick, rattled off the details about the bar to the team back home, all of us (outside of senior staff writer, Harry McKerrell, who’s always miserable) had a smile growing on our faces.

Upgraded drivers, including the addition of proper up-firing height channels? Yep, it’s got them.

The ability to add Sonos Era 100 or Era 300 satellite wireless speakers as surrounds? Yes, the awesome feature has finally trickled down from the Arc Ultra into the more affordable Beam range.

And as a cherry on top, Robyn then penned a feature detailing how it sounds. The top line is, while it’s too early to give our final verdict, the Ultra left a very strong opening impression – so much so that a game of rock, paper, scissors ensued among the team to decide who would be the primary reviewer (it ended in a stalemate).

All in all, it was huzzahs abound at What Hi-Fi? towers.

But then, one more fact came rumbling in that replaced our smiles with a quizzical expression. Specifically, the Ultra is not a replacement or successor to the Sonos Beam (Gen 2); it’s actually a new step-up model in Sonos’ range.

Yes, we don’t know how the Beam Ultra will perform in our test rooms, but truthfully, given the Beam 2’s age, this was a curveball for us.

Why would the company do that when the Beam 2 is so old? Surely, it’s time to let the old girl retire? These were some of the mutterings that came out of our mouths as we processed the information.

But as I pondered the question, a final bit of information trickled through from the launch event that, at least for me, explained the move.

The Beam Ultra is a lot more expensive, set to retail for £699 (around $946 / AU$1320). The Beam (Gen 2) – outside of big sales events where it’s dropped as low as £349 – usually retails for £429 / $429 in most stores right now.

Cash-rich people may laugh at the idea of going for a soundbar that launched in 2021, when a newer model is out. But truthfully, £160 / $160 is a lot of money for most of us right now.

As a person who has listened to the Beam (Gen 2) alongside newer rivals, I can confirm it is still a very competent unit. That’s why it remains the recommended small option in our best Dolby Atmos soundbars guide.

I cited the cost of living crisis as a key reason I don’t think we’re in a golden age of home cinema during our public debate on the topic earlier this year, and I stand by that sentiment.

So given that it still sounds good, keeping it around and giving normal people an entry point to Sonos’ ecosystem that won’t completely break the bank not only makes sense, but for me is 100 per cent the right thing to do.

It’s also why, even if the Beam Ultra delivers the sonic goods in our review rooms later this year, I can easily envision the Beam (Gen 2) retaining its recommendation. There are very few good, sub-£500 soundbars around and even fewer with the Beam’s compact form factor. So it’s definitely not beyond the realm of possibility…

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Our picks of the best TVs

In the immortal words of Green Day, it might be tempting to skip this month and be woken up when September ends.

But then you'd miss the pretty great deals, especially if you or a loved one are heading to university in the coming weeks.

Whether you're into hi-fi or home cinema, there's a little something for everyone this week, all the way from mid-range Bluetooth speakers to premium AV receivers.

These are all products our expert reviewers have tried and tested, some as recently as last week. And all of the below have earned at least five stars to get the What Hi-Fi? recommended thumbs-up.

Curious? Take a look for yourself...

The Harman Kardon Luna 2 has a classy design with a ring light that is far more elegant than the garish party lights of other Bluetooth speakers. Sonically, it doesn't quite topple the class leaders, but it has an articulate, clear and spacious presentation with a particularly excellent midrange presence.

The iPhone 17 Pro may be superseded in a matter of weeks, but that just means there's some great discounts available now. At the time of writing, at least, the 17 Pro is the best iPhone yet for movies and music, with a gorgeous but balanced picture and superb sound.

The Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X may be studio headphones marketed at content creators, but there's plenty to offer consumers with excellent detail and a musical but articulate sound. If you’ve got a desktop hi-fi system in need of new headphones, these are one of our top recommendations, now at a new lowest price.

The Arcam AVR31 may be getting on a bit, but it's still one of the best AV receivers we've ever tested. It's a sophisticated, premium amplifier that offers both high-class sound and impressive connectivity features, with a healthy seven HDMI 2.1 inputs and three outputs. Now a whopping 57 per cent off.

A former What Hi-Fi? Award winner, the Sonos Era 300 is a wireless smart speaker that comes packing all the goodness and seamlessness of a Sonos system, with a key stand-out feature: spatial audio. However, it performs admirably with any format of music you throw at it, and the vast array of features go a long way toward justifying the price tag.

We've only just reviewed the Hisense PT1, but we were very impressed with the inclusion of a full tri-chroma (RGB) laser projection, built-in Vidaa smarts, a premium design and a potent integrated sound system for a very reasonable price. That price is now a whole lot more reasonable – pay only £1199 with the code RSTV400.

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Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

The long Labor Day weekend is the last big sales event before Black Friday, so it’s well worth taking a look at the deals.

And while it may be tempting to wait a few more months, there are some record-low prices to be had already – including a whopping 50 per cent off a pair of multi-Award-winning headphones.

There’s plenty else to consider, though, including our 2025 TV Product of the Year, a new OLED favourite and a saving on Apple’s best AirPods.

Whatever you decide on, every product below has been tried and tested by our expert review team. Each device is compared to the market leaders, and only those with four stars or more get our sought-after recommendation.

So kick back this long weekend and enjoy some of the deals…

The Sony WH-1000XM5 premium noise-canceling headphones are great performers, and this fantastic half-price saving makes them even better value. The newer WH-1000XM6 have taken their place, but the XM5 are still very much recommended.

The LG C6 is one of our favorite TVs of the year so far, with a new processor delivering a brighter, richer and more refined OLED picture than its predecessor. If you’re looking for a mid-range OLED, this is the one to get, and its awesome gaming specs are ideal for GTA 6 in a few months.

If you’re looking to add streaming smarts to your TV or just upgrade its capabilities, then the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) is our video streamer Product of the Year and our top choice at this price range. The stick adds Amazon’s app-packed Fire OS, with a detailed, rich picture and support for all four HDMI formats.

The AirPods Pro 3 have it all, with spacious, powerful and dynamic sound, effective noise-canceling and a comfortable, lightweight design. If you have an iOS device, these are the AirPods we recommend, and you’ll get to enjoy the snappy, seamless synergy between the two.

JBL has been king of the portable Bluetooth speaker game for a while now, and the JBL Flip 7 is no different. With skilful handling of dynamics and rhythms, excellent build quality and a strong feature set that includes Auracast and lossless wired audio, there’s a lot on offer here.

The Sony Bravia 8 II is our current reigning TV champion, scooping the Product of the Year gong in this category thanks to its exceptionally bright, vibrant and three-dimensional picture, excellent shadow detail and cinematically authentic presets. We’ve been singing its praises for some time, so this discount is the perfect time to see what all the fuss is about.

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It's *gasp* September. But before we start an existential crisis about how the year is moving too fast, the evenings are getting darker and it will be Christmas before we know it, it's time for our Pick of the Month column.

Here, our reviewers once again look back at all the great products that passed through our test rooms this month.

As you'd expect, these products have all been put through the proverbial wringer by our dedicated testing teams. Only devices that earned five stars are included here, with a whopping seven joining the club this month.

So luckily, we've done the hard work of sorting the wheat from the chaff – so take a look, and we'll explain why we rate them so highly below.

• Quiz! I made a TV tech crossword to test your knowledge - can you get 100%?

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro may have a successor in only a matter of days, but we still highly recommend it, especially now that it's available discounted. It's the best iPhone yet for movies and music, with a gorgeous but balanced picture and superb sound.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a pricey but brilliant portable movie machine with a bright, punchy and detailed picture and a new content-friendly aspect ratio. If you've been considering a folding phone, this is the most compelling option we've reviewed so far.

The smallest speakers in Dali’s new Sonik range follow in the footsteps of their floorstanding sibling, the five-star Sonik 5, with expressive, well-balanced sound and solid build quality. The Dali Sonik 1 will also forgive less than ideal placement, making them a strong choice for music lovers without a dedicated listening space.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is as close to cinematic as a tablet can get, with a huge Dynamic AMOLED 2X display screen and a peak brightness of 1600 nits. You'll want to make use of broader performance features and beefy specs for this price, but this is the Android tablet to beat for movies and music on the go.

Amazon's Fire Tablet range has long been incredibly good value, and the Amazon Fire HD 8 is no different. Available for well under £100 when on sale, the Fire HD 8 absolutely nails the basics when it comes to movies and music – and regularly surpasses them.

Yamaha continues one of head-fi's greatest comebacks. The Yamaha YH-C3000 sets a new standard in their high-end class, with a fast, clear, natural sound and fluid, expressive dynamics.

The Roksan Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier/Caspian 4G Power Amplifier has some big shoes to fill, but does so effortlessly. The pairing is a refreshingly forward-looking combination with the sonic talent to worry the class leaders, and makes us highly excited for what Roksan does next. You'll have to purchase them separately – the Caspian 4G Power Amplifier is at Richer Sounds for £2999.

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Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our quizzes over the past few weeks. We’ve had quite a few testing brain teasers, ranging from ‘name that cable’ to ‘can you name these hi-fi firsts’, but this week we’re switching topics to the world of TV, and TV tech in particular.

Below, you’ll find all the clues to our crossword, which packs in multiple TV terms to try and bamboozle you. Give it a go and see if you can record the fastest time and beat our own experts at their own game. Enjoy!

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AI in music is the talk of the town. Whether you’re a music fan, watching from the sidelines as streaming services make continual updates to their AI policies, or a musician fighting for their individuality in a lawsuit against an AI music company, it has become blatantly clear that this particular technology isn’t going away any time soon.

Indeed, with the recent investments of major labels such as UMG, Warner and Sony in AI music companies, it looks as though the role of AI in the music industry is only likely to expand.

Naturally, opinions are divided. Some users of the text-to-music generation software Suno are reportedly abandoning human-made music altogether, in favour of their AI-generated tracks. Meanwhile, others have taken to the streets in protest against licensing recorded music to generative AI companies.

As a 50-year-old hi-fi publication, music is at the heart of our work. While testing products, our review team listens tirelessly to a broad range of tracks, carefully assessing how human emotions and real-life recordings are conveyed by the equipment at hand. As such, we wanted to find out more about the role AI is playing in the records we listen to.

To do so, we spoke to British sound engineers about the ways that AI is changing their work.

Exposing Flaws

In the view of Jake Murray, director and studio manager at Strongroom Studios, generative AI within music is uncovering pre-existing issues within the industry.

“People try to spin it as this new thing on the horizon,” says Murray, “but what I’m seeing – much like during the Covid-19 pandemic when artists lost all touring revenue and it exposed problems with streaming and digital remuneration – is that this new software is exposing flaws with the commercialisation of music and the behaviour of corporations.

“In the case of recent lawsuits, the record labels aren’t happy because data they could monetise is being scraped on a massive scale,” he says. “But for a massive corporation, AI music is incredible, it is product, through and through. There are no creator rights, no unpredictable behaviours on tour, no ‘I’m tired, I want out of my contract.’ I think anyone who believes that major labels are going to continue fighting generative AI once they’ve got a deal in place is wrong.”

Izzy McPhee, a freelance mastering engineer who has worked with acts such as Dream Wife, Walt Disco and Marla Kether, feels that AI’s encroachment presents artists with new challenges. “The pace at which music is created and released now, definitely puts pressure on artists to prioritise singles and virality over the integrity of their music,” she says. “The instantaneous results of AI affect how quickly everyone expects information, and of course, music.”

Such pressures feed back into the use of AI, as musicians reach for tools that allow them to create faster and more cheaply. The attraction of such tools isn’t hard to appreciate given that nearly half of professional musicians were found to earn less than £14,000 a year in a 2023 census by Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union.

One of Murray’s friends, who is a dance musician, recently approached him in a crisis about having used Suno to create a vocal topline. “He found himself really conflicted about whether to use it,” says Murray. “It sounded so close to what he had imagined, but it wasn’t sung by a singer, recorded by a sound engineer, mixed, balanced, processed and submitted to the production house. It hadn’t generated those three or four stages of revenue. It had only cost him the comparatively meagre subscription fee.

“It’s vital that we remember we are talking about lives and livelihoods here,” he says. “I think it’s going to be left to the individuals to decide what they think is kosher or not.”

"Human creativity is what makes beautiful music"

AI has seen widespread adoption beyond music. Even at Strongroom, Claude AI has proven handy in aggregating the studio’s vast discography.

“It has been incredibly useful for data management,” says Murray. “And best of all, nobody would have wanted to do that job. Previously, when I’ve sat down with new employees and broken the news that they are going to spend a few weeks sorting through the discography, the look on their faces is like they are about to die.”

Murray adds that, within musical work, there is a “grey area” of audio effects plug-ins that use AI.

“I’m a bit unclear about what people count as AI in the studio,” he says.

Recent software such as Synplant 2, which uses AI-powered features to turn audio samples into editable synthesiser patches, walks a fine line. “Depending on who you talk to, these are either plug-ins or neural networks or AI. But I don’t think anyone really has a problem with any of those [pieces of] software, aside from whether they like the sound or not.”

When it comes to the creative, musical and technical parts of her workflow, McPhee takes a stronger stance on using AI tools: “I have made a conscious decision not to use AI, and not to master songs that have been AI-created. A big part of my ethos is that human connection, collaboration and creativity is what makes beautiful music, and the bottom line is that I don’t think AI can replicate this.”

Charlie Francis, a mastering engineer who has worked with artists such as REM, Del Amitri and Gruff Rhys, says that he hasn’t yet seen a reason to use AI in his work, but acknowledges that some of the software he uses has been developed with machine learning.

“My perception is that my clients value my instincts and experience above anything else, so I would be very wary of allowing AI to make any judgments for me,” says Francis. “Automated systems in rendering and other areas are very useful, but they don't involve any decisions and have no artistic influence.”

"Heaven forbid, we might be able to define an era"

A common trait in almost all conversations around AI is their tendency to focus on the future. As technological advances outpace all but the experts’ comprehension (and sometimes even theirs), many of us are left guessing about the state of things to come.

Speculating on AI’s musical future, Murray says: “The people who want to produce homogeneous rubbish aren’t going to need anyone to do it for them anymore. As a result, I think we could see a new era of Muzak (background music played in public spaces such as elevators, shops and waiting rooms).

“On the flip side, I think the people who care are going to make more human-sounding music. I think music made by people whose priorities are expression, connectivity and interaction is going to become more characterful and less perfect. We might see a broader spread in terms of how music can sound, perhaps a release of the tension around things sounding ‘perfect’. Heaven forbid, we might actually be able to define an era again.”

McPhee echoes Murray’s sentiment: “I think there will be a corner of the music industry where people are consuming AI music, and are happy to follow algorithms and playlists that are AI-generated. However, I also think a lot of people will tire of the rapid turnaround, viral side of music and seek out human-made music and connection – whether through listening or attending gigs and concerts.

“In a world of constant overstimulation, I already find myself trying to find moments where I can sit down and immerse myself in longer form albums that take me on an emotional musical journey,” she says.

Francis adds: “A musician friend of mine thinks songwriters regurgitate iterations of everything they have heard before, which would make them indistinguishable from AI, but I think the human genius for making unseen connections and making distinctive work can't be written off so easily. We discount our own emotional and experiential life at our peril.”

The consensus among the engineers seems to be that, while AI threatens revenue streams and professional opportunities for musicians, its mass-produced genericism could drive creative innovation among those who view music as an essential, communal art form. The question is: will musicians find the time to create on an income yet further reduced?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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When testing entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbars, there’s one Award-winning model that all new entrants must compete with: the Sonos Beam Gen 2.

Since it burst onto the scene in 2021, the five-star soundbar has blown away the competition with its refined delivery of both movie soundtracks and stereo music.

We have been waiting patiently for a new model for ages now, and the time has finally come.

The Sonos Beam Ultra isn’t a replacement for the Beam Gen 2, but an upgraded model that will sit above it, and the big news is that, unlike its sibling, the Ultra sports dedicated up-firing speakers to aid in its delivery of Dolby Atmos sound.

In fact, the Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam Gen 2. These are arranged in what Sonos says is a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

The Ultra is launching on 29th September for £699 / $699 / AU$1099. That price puts it between the Beam Gen 2 (£449 / $449 / AU$649) and the also Award-winning Arc Ultra (£999 / $999 / AU$1799).

As with both of those sibling soundbars, the Beam Ultra can be upgraded through the addition of surrounds and/or a subwoofer, and you can easily jump from out-loud to personal listening if you also have a pair of Sonos’s Ace or new Ace Ultra headphones.

This is all great stuff on paper, but how does the Beam Ultra actually sound? We got a chance to hear it during a demo session in Berlin, and it certainly sounds promising.

Of course, we will save our final verdict until we get the bar into our acoustically treated test room for extensive, comparative testing, but these are our first impressions.

The demo kicked off with a Dolby Atmos mix of Harry Styles’ Ready, Steady, Go!. Harry’s vocals were clear, direct and expressive, immediately drawing us into the track.

The instrumentals were well placed around the soundfield, too, with the guitar plucking featured in the mid-section delivered with a strong sense of precision.

Next, we got a taste of how the soundbar performs with movies. Watching the scene in Sinners when Sammie summons spirits from the past, present and future, the up-firing drivers worked their magic and the sound could be felt well above the TV screen.

When the track I Lied To You reached its crescendo, it created a room-filling experience that was very impressive considering the size of the bar.

From our first listen, the bass was not the deepest, but the soundbar delivered refined and detailed lower frequencies that gave the demo scenes a strong foundation.

In terms of design, the bar is impressively lightweight and has a compact footprint. There are perforated grilles at the top of the soundbar for the up-firing drivers, and these look quite stylish. On the lip of the Beam Ultra you will find volume and Bluetooth controls, as well as play and pause 'buttons'.

As mentioned, we will of course wait until we have fully reviewed the new bar in our dedicated test room before we deliver our final verdict, but during this initial listening session, the Beam Ultra made all the right noises.

The big question is whether it's the perfect halfway house between the Beam Gen 2 and Arc Ultra or a soundbar stranded in no man's land between two awesome Award-winners. We should be in a position to answer that question very soon.

MORE:

Here are the 5 Beam Ultra things I’m most excited about – and my 3 disappointments

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“We know the home, we know audio, we know music” – those are the particularly bullish words of Sonos's vice president of software, Sid Patel, whom we recently spoke to about Sonos’s new operating system rebrand (we were also given the lowdown on its new Ace Ultra headphones and Beam Ultra soundbar).

In case you’re catching up, last week the company announced Sonos 27, a new overarching name for the company’s audio operating system which covers the entire Sonos ecosystem. It’s promising better integration between Sonos products and various ways to control them, but without completely excluding other brands.

The company plans to update it annually, just like Apple’s iOS, so we’ll see Sonos 28, 29, etc.

But getting back to the quote, we wouldn’t be surprised if those words might have raised an eyebrow or two among current or ex-Sonos customers, especially given the brand’s tricky timeline over the past couple of years.

The last tweaks to its operating system didn’t go down too well. An ill-fated Sonos app update back in 2024 resulted in what was once a robust, rock-solid and intuitive way of interacting with Sonos products turning into a bit of a mess. Not only was it affected by bugs and glitches, but key features were omitted, much to the disdain of numerous Sonos customers.

Such was the fallout from this event that the then Sonos CEO Patrick Spence was forced to step down eight months later, in January 2025. At the time, the Sonos board even went as far as to say it would not take a bonus "unless the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust".

Despite this botched app release happening more than two years ago, it’s probably fair to say there are still many existing and potential Sonos customers who are still sitting on the fence and requiring a bit more reassurance from the brand.

Of course, the proof will be in the experience. If Sonos does what it’s promising and there aren’t any hiccups with either its new software or hardware, then it might be back in the good books of those disappointed by its recent efforts.

But what do you think? Have you been convinced by the statements coming from Sonos?

If you were disappointed by app-gate, have you been convinced to come back into the fold, or are you happy to watch from the sidelines to see what happens before you commit to any new products? Sonos has many music and movie fans in its midst and surely won’t make the same mistake twice?

Let us know by voting in our poll above and commenting below. We’re interested to hear your thoughts!

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Sonos' new Beam soundbar is finally here with a big Dolby Atmos upgrade – but there’s still something missing

I'm excited by the Sonos Beam Ultra’s Dolby Atmos upgrade, but gutted it didn't borrow this feature from the Arc Ultra

Hisense has given us a preview of its first 2027 soundbar at IFA 2026, and it has its sights set squarely on Samsung's Award-winning formula.

The UX1 bundles a soundbar, wireless subwoofer, and two wireless satellite speakers for a true surround sound experience, and Hisense claims it can output a staggering 1840W across the whole system.

The ethos behind this premium package is that Hisense wants to up its audio game to bring it in line with its premium TV offerings.

The company now sells made-to-order Micro LED sets and 116-inch RGB Mini LED TVs, so naturally it wants a premium audio offering that reflects its flagship products.

Hence the UX1's title – Hisense already offers the UX range of premium TVs, so this has been conceived as a dedicated audio companion for that range.

Generally speaking, Hisense is really paying attention to audio this year and, from what we've seen, next year, too – the Chinese tech giant's stand in Berlin had a whole section dedicated to soundbars, party boomboxes, and portable wireless speakers, so it looks as though the brand is taking sound seriously.

And the UX1 is clearly the most serious product of this new range, and I've walked away from the Hisense booth with three key thoughts on why it could be a genuine competitor for Samsung's dominant HW-Q990H system.

1. It's packed full of drivers

Hisense proudly touted the driver tech within this system during my stand tour, and I can see why.

This is an 11.2.6-channel system, and Hisense has packed 26 individual drive units into the soundbar, subwoofer, and surround speakers. 14 of those drivers appear to be in the main soundbar unit alone, with the rest embedded within the other components.

That includes side-firing and up-firing speakers within the soundbar and the surround speakers, which means that the UX1 should (in theory) have no issue presenting Dolby Atmos height effects.

We're anticipating the "bubble of sound" effect we look for in all premium soundbar systems here, so we're hoping the UX1 delivers.

2. It's taken some big bass inspiration

The subwoofer bundled with the UX1 uses an almost identical setup to the Samsung system. It sports dual opposing 8-inch woofers, which Hisense says will help to reduce unwanted bass distortion.

While I didn't get a chance to listen to the soundbar outside of some looping branded demo content, I have relatively high hopes for the bass performance, based on the specs.

That said, Hisense has taken a different approach to the design of its sub. Unlike the petite and polite Samsung subwoofer, this Hisense has quite the presence.

I think it wears its heft well, though: it combines sharp lines with smooth edges, and if the design facilitates better bass performance, then it makes sense to me.

3. It could be a high end version of a system we already love

Hisense struck gold with the AX5125H budget Dolby Atmos soundbar system, so think what it can do with a proper flagship version of that concept.

While that isn't always the case – sometimes budget products aren't indicative of their premium counterparts and vice versa, even when they come from the same company – I think it's fair to say that expectations are high based on our experience with the Award-winning budget package.

If Hisense can scale up the AX5125H into a flagship sound system, then Samsung could have a problem on its hands.

Pricing is, of course, crucial to figuring that part out, and with this being a 2027 product, we don't have that information right now.

That said, if I were Samsung right now, I'd be nervous. The HW-Q990H is a stellar soundbar system, but with fresh competition coming in 2027, the next version of that package might need to be more than an iterative update.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung HW-Q990H review

As well as our Hisense AX5125H review

And check out our picks for the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Quiz! I made a TV tech crossword to test your knowledge - can you get 100%?

What got you into hi-fi? It’s a question people embedded in the hobby get asked a lot.

After all, hi-fi is a time-consuming, sometimes lifelong, endeavour that will see fans design entire rooms from scratch and invest vast amounts of money in the pursuit of sonic perfection – if that even exists.

So from the outside, it can look like a lot of effort for something that, unless you "get it", doesn't seem that important.

There are many answers to this question, even among the What Hi-Fi? team, which includes numerous experts who have chosen to dedicate their professional and personal lives to the endeavour.

But one of the most consistent themes we hear when answering the question is that it all began with a specific piece of hardware.

Which is why, for this month’s Ask The Reader question, we want to know: what product got you into hi-fi?

Maybe, like our editor (me), it was a special turntable your parents had set up in the lounge and let you use to play their (rather glorious) selection of classic rock LPs?

Or was it a set of speakers you bought in college out of the back of a van at a car boot sale, not knowing the treasure you’d just stumbled upon?

Perhaps you’re a bit younger and discovered the magic of hi-fi after adding a streamer to a classic separates set-up you inherited?

Whatever the answer, we want to know!

You can post your answer in the comments section of this page, or in our forums. Just make sure to tell us what the product was and why it was so special.

Maybe it was the album it was playing? Maybe it was the company you kept, or the place you heard it that made it so special?

As always, at the end of the month we’ll publish a new piece collating your most interesting answers! So please make sure to keep your language PG-13 and stick to our community guidelines for a chance to be included.

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We've been begging for precipitation for months, and at long last, it has rained in the UK! The ground is still as dry as a bit of reheated chicken, but we've finally seen evidence that this long, torturous summer might soon be giving way to a damp and soggy autumn.

Like the changeable weather, it's also been a strange and tumultuous time for music: the great Dolly Parton sadly passed away at the age of 80, and we got a new hip-hop album from one of the most left-field celebrities we can think of. We'll get to that below, as we share the songs that have been on our review team's playlist over the past few weeks.

There's even talk that The Rock is planning to release a country album, thus proving that nominative determinism doesn't always work in the way that you expect. You're called The Rock, Dwayne, not The Country. The clue is very much in the name.

• Check out the full playlist on Tidal

Ballerina by YHWH Nailgun

A minute-long song is usually a novelty, a throwaway interlude, something to keep the label's wolf from the door. But despite being exactly that length, Ballerina, from YHWH Nailgun’s sophomore album Magazine, is far from thoughtless filler. It isn't even an exception within the album; Magazine’s longest song comes in at just 1:36.

Ballerina’s 60 seconds are populated by reverberant, growling synths, playful drums and the distinctive rasping of the band’s singer, Zack Borzone, who sounds something like Birthday Party-era Nick Cave with a chest infection. Periodically, the song descends into an erratic cacophony of record-scratching, before returning abruptly to its hypnotic, twisting groove.

The song's overall arrangement (scratching breaks aside) is sparse and staccato, but the depth of its groaning, overdriven synths, alongside a skilful deployment of reverb, makes this an interesting listen when assessing a system’s stereo imaging and depth. If your system is working well, you might be surprised by how quickly Ballerina lures you into its uniquely graceful breed of chaos.

Words by Ioan Hazell

Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire

I’ve been playing rather a lot of Mafia III recently, and while the game itself is somewhat hamstrung by its repetitive mission design, outdated mechanics and reboot-inducing glitches, it proudly boasts one of the best and most bulging licensed soundtracks this side of a Grand Theft Auto title.

Given that it’s set in the southern US in a fictional version of ‘60s New Orleans, Mafia III uses its in-game soundtrack to craft that hazy American mise-en-scène, with contemporary classics such as Aretha Franklin’s Respect and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son reflecting the simmering political upheaval running beneath the central narrative.

Then there’s Barry McGuire’s Eve Of Destruction, an anti-war polemic that also incorporates themes of racial inequality, political polarisation, global instability and, my old favourite, the impending nuclear apocalypse.

The charm of Eve Of Destruction is in its raw, unfiltered nature. McGuire isn’t the most velvety crooner in town, favouring a hard, throaty delivery that only enhances his urgent fury as he pointedly warns the listener: “Don't you understand what I’m trying to say? If the button is pushed / There’s no running away / There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave.”

I wish I could say things had changed, Barry old chum. A man after my own nihilistic heart.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Jolene by Dolly Parton

It's one of the most well-known stories in music: Dolly Parton wrote two of her biggest hits – I Will Always Love You and Jolene – in one day (or thereabouts) in 1973. What a woman. Whitney Houston's powerhouse vocals transformed the first song when she covered it in 1992, although I have a soft spot for Parton's more small-scale, fragile and intimate original.

And while Jolene has been covered many, many times in various genres, Parton's original remains a true country classic.

It's an addictive rhythm, with the guitar strums sounding distinctly tactile and propulsive. Parton's indelible voice holds steady and firm, full of confidence and defiance, even as she begs the titular Jolene to not steal her husband away. True story or not, it's a song that has spanned decades and genres, and shows just how far-reaching Parton's cultural influence is. Jolene is a cracking tune, full of fluid dynamics and a catchy chorus, and with a vocal performance that should keep your attention rapt to the story, no matter how you listen to it.

It's hard to put into words just how much of a shining light Dolly Parton was, not just as a musician, but as an actress, a philanthropist, a savvy businesswoman – coming across both sharp-witted and kind, and imbuing everything she did with a genuine joy. She will be hugely missed, but never forgotten. Not with songs like Jolene, 9 To 5, Here You Come Again out in the ether, that's for sure.

Words by Kashfia Kabir

Present Tense by Pearl Jam

During my formative weeks as a What Hi-Fi? journo, I was shipped off to one of my first press events at a London listening room. One of the hitherto unfamiliar assortment of sound engineers and PRs asked me the standard question about the sort of music I was into, and while I was enthusing about the ‘90s Seattle grunge scene, I mentioned my affection for a nice slice of Pearl Jam.

To my surprise, one of the attendees revealed that they used a Pearl Jam track for testing all the time, although it wasn’t one of the big-hitting anthems, such as Black, Jeremy, Alive, with which I was familiar. Instead, he suggested I check out Present Tense from the lesser-known No Code album, and nearly four years down the line, I still dig it out on the regular whenever testing duties call.

He really was on to something. Instead of sludgy riffs and meaty hooks, Present Tense trades on gentle, almost hesitant guitars which tease and twinkle within a decidedly uncluttered soundscape. This is where a fine pair of wired headphones, say, would have a chance to prove their talents in providing that airy, spacious soundscape in which each twang and strum can rise and decay without bleeding or distortion.

That’s before we even get to lead vocalist Eddie Vedder, a man whose raspy vocals are imprinted onto my brain like initials scrawled into wet cement.

Present Tense is distinct from many of Pearl Jam’s established catalogue because, astonishingly, you can actually make out most of Vedder's lyrics. Listen to Yellow Ledbetter, by contrast, and not even the greatest hi-fi system will give you a hope of understanding what on Earth he’s actually singing.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Mad Technology by Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer

I’m so confused, I don’t know where I am or what day it is.

Surprise number one: Tom Hardy has officially dropped a hip-hop album. Yes, that Tom Hardy. You know, the burly acting chap who played Bane, Charles Bronson and Eddie Brock in Venom. He’s done a hip-hop album, and it’s on Spotify and Tidal and everything.

Surprise number two: he’s brought backup. Performing under the pseudonym Frankie Pulitzer, Hardy has teamed up with hip-hop supergroup Czarface, which itself counts Inspectah Deck – formerly of Wu-Tang Clan – among its key members.

Surprise number three: it’s genuinely, almost unfathomably, pretty darn good. Forget mumble rap churned out over the same off-sync processed beats – this is full-blooded, heavy-hitting hip-hop straight out of the 1990s, with Mad Technology going hard and heavy with its big beats, staccato piano riff and ruthlessly aggressive flows.

Hardy’s turn comes right at the end, and rather than sticking out like – well, an actor in a rap collective – he fits in pretty well. Considering that’s about as likely as Sir Patrick Stewart slotting perfectly into Arsenal’s current back four, our Tom deserves a rather hearty pat on the back.

Well done, Tom.

Words by Harry McKerrell

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Last month we asked you, our ever-opiniated readers, to settle a long-standing argument amongst the reviews team. Specifically, are we living in a golden age of home cinema?

Four weeks on, the answers have come flooding in (many breaking our PG-13 language rule). But, to our surprise, unlike our team of testers, you are not only united in your belief we are not living in a golden age, you also (generally) agree on the reason why.

It’s all about physical media

The importance of physical media was a central point in all your arguments, which shouldn’t be a surprise given how vocal you (and we) are about the benefits of 4K Blu-ray over streaming.

This was initially expressed by reader “mrj6j”, who argued that, despite having a “proper” set-up that he’s spent years, even decades, honing, the age of streaming is a blemish he can’t ignore, which makes it impossible to call the current world a golden age.

“I have been into home cinema for a long time and agree we are at a point where it is more affordable, but mine has grown into a 4k projector in a dedicated room with a 7.2.4 Atmos set-up. And a 136-inch screen in total darkness. But this has taken a long time to grow into what it is today. But it is exceptional; it often sounds better than the cinema (I had it professionally calibrated), and I can enjoy it whenever,” wrote mrj6j.

“The problem is that the 4k discs are the best format, better than streaming without doubt. But do those with a home cinema set-up utilise this? They should, and more distributors should too.”

Reader Michael Peterson agreed, adding that even if you have a more modest set-up, as he does, the increased price and limited selection of 4K Blu-ray discs and players is an issue that stops the 2020s being a golden age for home cinema.

“I have an entry-level Samsung, my Sony receiver, Elac sub1010 and 8-inch speakers in a 2.1 set-up. I use my Xbox One S for Blu-ray and streaming. Good enough [for] me. 4K Blu-ray would be better if the prices of discs and players were more affordable and discs were more reliable,” he wrote.

But it wasn’t just about 4K Blu-ray; some readers, including Andrew Wood, argued: “Culturally [the golden age was], when you shuffled into town, to a shop, to hire or buy a video/DVD and then watched it on your wide-screen CRT TV with built-in 5.1.”

Our hot take

We agree; there is something undeniably special about physical media. At a technical level, we have long championed 4K Blu-ray. It offers a much higher bitrate, superior HDR and far less data compression than streaming, giving you a sharper, more detailed image in most instances. That’s why we use an ever-evolving library of 4K Blu-ray test discs when reviewing home cinema hardware. We even have a monthly Now Showing column where we detail the new movies we're using.

While none of us would go so far as to want to return to tapes and CRT TVs – read this feature chronicling our editor’s attempts to resurrect his VHS collection last year, and you’ll see why – we also agree there’s something emotionally special about physical media. Having it on a disc you own gives you a more personal, emotional attachment to the film, as rather than just clicking on something an algorithm’s decided you will like, you’ve chosen that film, specifically, at some point.

As Andrew Wood points out, there was also something truly magical about the Blockbuster years, when we had to physically go outside to rent a new movie. Many of the team are old enough to remember the experience, and have fond memories of the family trips (and arguments) we had going out to pick a new film to watch after the final school bell rang on Friday. That makes it hard not to agree that there is some substance to his argument that, "culturally", that was a golden age for film fans – even if the hardware was worse and it wasn’t as easy to find new films to watch.

MORE:

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As someone who uses both a Sonos Beam and Beam Gen 2 at home, I’m probably more excited than most about the announcement of the new Beam Ultra.

And, I have to say, I think it broadly looks excellent, delivering pretty much everything that Beam owners like me have been asking for.

But ‘pretty much everything’ and ‘everything’ aren’t the same thing, and we always want more.

So, here are the five features of the Beam Ultra about which I’m most excited, and the three elements that I find slightly disappointing.

Good: up-firing drivers

This is the big one: the thing Sonos Beam owners have been clamouring for since the launch of the original model back in 2018 – dedicated up-firing drivers.

In fairness, the Beam Gen 2 does an excellent job of creating a Dolby Atmos effect with its front-firing drivers and clever virtualisation tech, but the Beam Ultra should be significantly better in this regard. I find that very exciting indeed.

Good: more drivers in general

The Beam Ultra actually features nine drivers, which is four more than the existing Beam Gen 2.

As well as the two up-firers, the new soundbar features a forward-firing driver, two side-firing drivers, and four woofers, arranged into what Sonos says is a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

This should bring improvements to spaciousness and directness as well as Dolby Atmos delivery – assuming Sonos has nailed the tuning, that is.

Good: compact dimensions

It might feature four more drivers than the Beam Gen 2, but the Beam Ultra is still impressively compact, measuring 6.5 x 75 x 10.5cm.

In other words, it’s only 10cm wider than the diminutive Beam Gen 2, which means it will still fit neatly below or in front of most TVs – even smaller models – and it won't visually dominate a typical living room.

Good: upgradability

As with Sonos’s previous soundbars, the Beam Ultra can be upgraded through the addition of a subwoofer and/or wireless surrounds, and the new model’s launch is coinciding neatly with a new feature called ‘Portable Surround’.

This, as the name suggests, will allow you to use two portable speakers – the Play and Move 2 are compatible – as surrounds with one of Sonos’s soundbars.

Why does that matter? If you use a pair of non-portable speakers (Era 300s or Era 100s, for example) as surrounds, that's likely all they’ll ever be. Use portable speakers, though, and they can be picked up and used as music speakers anywhere in or out of the house. That’s much better value for money.

Good: new app

The launch of the Beam Ultra is also coinciding neatly with the launch of the new Sonos app, called Sonos 27.

Sonos is promising fancy features such as integration with any and all AI chatbots, so you can control your system via ChatGPT if you like, but, frankly, I’m just excited for the promised usability overhaul.

I still find the current Sonos app a real pig to operate, so I can’t wait to see how Sonos has (hopefully) improved things.

Disappointing: no HDMI passthrough

Look, I wasn’t expecting Sonos to add HDMI passthrough – I don’t think this is a feature that Sonos will ever support – but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed that it’s not been added.

I own a TV with just two HDMI 2.1 inputs, and one of those doubles as the eARC port. Once that’s taken up by a soundbar, I have just the one left. Seeing as I have both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, that’s a bit of a pain in the bum, and it wouldn’t be if the soundbar just had a dedicated HDMI input and 4K/120Hz passthrough.

For Sonos, though, simplicity is key, so I think the single HDMI socket is here to stay.

Disappointing: no DTS:X

Again, this isn’t something I was expecting, and I don’t actually think a lack of DTS:X in the context of a mid-range soundbar is actually that big a deal, but it would still be better to have than not, especially as there are rivals that offer both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

That said, Sonos hasn't completely ruled out adding DTS:X support in the future.

Disappointing: a fairly high price

Whether the Beam Ultra is good value will ultimately depend on how it sounds, but at £699 / $699 / AU$1099, it certainly looks expensive on paper.

There are rivals from the likes of JBL and Harman Kardon that offer up-firing drivers and similar driver configurations for around the same money as the Beam Gen 2. If the Beam Ultra had simply replaced the Beam Gen 2 at its £449 / $449 / AU$649 price, it would be exceptionally tempting.

At £699 / $699 / AU$1099, though, Sonos is asking us to pay a significant premium, and the new soundbar is going to have to deliver some seriously impressive performance to justify it.

In fairness, this is nothing new for Sonos, which typically prioritises performance over specs – let's see if it's got the formula right again when we get the Beam Ultra in for review.

MORE:

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"Good things come to those who wait", and I've been waiting a long time for a new Sonos Beam. Three long years, to be precise.

Thankfully, it looks like my patience has paid off, as Sonos has finally announced a new version of its compact Beam Dolby Atmos soundbar, and upon first impression, it's exactly what I've been waiting for.

The Sonos Beam Ultra takes the concept of the Award-winning Beam Gen 2 and elevates it; and I mean that in a literal sense.

While the Beam Gen 2 sported a five-speaker array with four elliptical mid-range drivers and a single tweeter, the Beam Ultra takes things up a notch with nine drivers in a 7.1.2 arrangement. That includes two upward-firing drivers for the first time on a Sonos Beam.

This upgrade was top of my wish list for a new Sonos Beam. While the Gen 2's advanced psychoacoustic processing delivers a surprisingly convincing Dolby Atmos experience, it's hard to beat dedicated height channels when it comes to delivering a proper "dome of sound" effect.

The addition of up-firing drivers brings the Beam Ultra closer to the Arc Ultra in many ways. Taking Sonos' usually excellent sound tuning into account, I'm really hoping that the Beam Ultra will deliver the height I felt was missing on the Beam Gen 2 after years of waiting.

However, there's one missing upgrade that has tempered my excitement ever so slightly. Specifically, the firm's SoundMotion woofer technology.

As we mentioned in our Sonos Arc Ultra review, this smaller, redesigned bass driver features "four smaller, lightweight motors in opposing corners" which are "able to push the cone to shift far more air and produce far more bass".

As a result, the Arc Ultra delivers "deep, tuneful and expressive bass", and it's a noticeable difference compared to the original Arc soundbar.

A smaller, more efficient bass driver seems like a perfect fit for the Beam, especially given the footprint of the soundbar. The Beam is also starting to see challengers in the market when it comes to bass performance, so a low-end upgrade would have been appreciated.

Despite this, Sonos appears not to have outfitted the Beam Ultra with its SoundMotion bass tech, which feels like a missed opportunity to me.

That's not to say the Beam Ultra won't deliver better bass. We'll only know if it is better in that metric when we run the two head-to-head in our review rooms. I just think the Arc Ultra tech would have been a great fit for the new Beam, considering our positive experience with it.

Nevertheless, the Beam Ultra is shaping up to be the compact Atmos-equipped soundbar that I've been waiting for, and I can't wait to hear it in action.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

As well as the best cheap soundbars

Sonos has formally named its app and multi-room operating system. Sonos 27 is being introduced this year with two new products – Ace Ultra and Beam Ultra – and boasts new AI control features, and new app navigation.

According to the company's press release, it "represent[s] the next stage of Sonos’ evolution from a collection of connected audio products into an increasingly intelligent and adaptable audio operating system for the home".

Why now? We spoke to Sonos's vice president of software, Sid Patel, and senior director of product development, Brandon Holley, both of whom have been with the company for over a decade, to dig into the newly-christened Sonos 27 operating system.

"For years, people have seen us as a speaker company, but what we actually have been building is an audio operating system," says Holley.

"Why now? We really think we've not done enough justice to tell the story of what the software does with the overall system and the speakers, and what it brings, and so this [branding] gives us a place to talk about the software and hardware and how it all works together," says Holley.

"Underneath it's extremely complex, there's a lot going on... but from a customer's standpoint, we want them to understand that every interaction, every piece of the system, whether it's the hardware or a partnership with a specific music provider – that is all part of a system."

"We've spent 20 years learning how a home feels and functions, and finally, we're naming the thing that we've been building all along," says Holley.

Sonos 27 is the overarching operating system powering the Sonos ecosystem and its many products, with Sonos aiming to treat its "audio operating system" like an Apple/Android operating system that updates every year. The '27' in the name will update every year, changing to '28' next year, we're told, just like iOS 26 will update to iOS 27 this year.

Fabric – "the magic that has been Sonos for 20 years"

While naming the various things the Sonos ecosystem can do might seem like a marketing exercise, what is more concrete is the company's commitment to ensuring its ecosystem isn't a walled garden like other brands, offers various ways to control its products, and that these products work together more seamlessly.

Ensuring that the new Ace Ultra wireless headphones connect to every Sonos 27-compatible product seamlessly is a key component of this. "That is not a promise we fulfilled fully with Ace; we are fulfilling it with Ace Ultra," says Patel.

Sonos Fabric is the name given to the multi-room capability of the ecosystem, in the way that Sonos products can be linked together – or as Patel calls it, "the magic that has been Sonos for 20 years".

That includes the whole-house multi-room grouping of products, a stereo pairing between two speakers, and the new 'headphone linking' feature, which will let you transfer sound between a Sonos speaker or soundbar to Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones.

Another new feature under the 'Fabric' umbrella opens up the possibility of portable surrounds. The Sonos Play and Move 2 portable speakers (which feature Bluetooth and wi-fi) can now be used as rear surrounds alongside the Sonos Arc/Arc Ultra, Beam (Gen 2) and Beam Ultra soundbars. Sonos' Positioning Technology will use high-frequency sound to "sense a speaker's location and adapt its role" accordingly.

New AI-enabled ways to control your Sonos products

It will come as no surprise that AI is a big part of the new operating system, and as an evolution of the brand's "open platform philosophy", Sonos will let users control its ecosystem using any AI assistant they prefer.

"AI is obviously all the rage in the industry, but the way we're approaching it is like how we've approached it from the beginning for everything," says Patel. "We're creating a platform where we plug into other AI ecosystems and AI ecosystems can plug into us, similar to how music partners can plug into us today."

Sonos 27voice is the brand's own assistant for "music and mood curation" that has been customised and is more AI-friendly, while the Sonos 27mcp (Model Context Protocol) infrastructure will let you connect any external AI assistant or agent to your Sonos system (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Siri) so you can ask it to control music anywhere in your home.

"We know the home, we know audio, we know music," says Patel, "and so we've taken a layer and created intelligence there, so what we do is bring that intelligence to the home." The focus is on letting users control their music in a way that's quickest and feels most natural to them, whether that's using voice control, the app, the web app, the on-unit buttons or AI.

"From the time you bring your speaker home and your system home and you set it up, we want you to be listening to TV or music as fast as possible," says Patel of the brand's number one goal for the app.

A new feature called Sonos Custom Agents will also let users "create their own agents" through their system, allowing you to customise the model, persona and voice for your own personal AI assistant.

"We are in a new era where we're listening to our customers a lot more"

A big part of the creation of Sonos 27 and any updates going forward will be listening to customer feedback, especially on the app. It's a concentrated effort after the disastrous app redesign of 2024, which led to widespread customer dissatisfaction, the then-CEO stepping down, and Sonos rolling back many of the app features to re-gain trust amongst its customers.

"We still believe the Sonos app is the best way to experience your system along with all the other control services like voice and web and direct control," says Patel.

"We are in a new era where we're listening to our customers a lot more," Patel acknowledges, and declares many of the new app changes have been "community driven and very experimental", with the Sonos team engaging with customers on Reddit and social media channels to get instant feedback.

"We sort of opened the door to even our engineering team engaging with customers on Reddit, which is not something we did in the past. And it's actually worked out really well for us."

The Sonos 27app will gain fresh discovery and tab navigation, a new "virtual" volume dial, presets, lock screen integration and more. On top of that, the brand says it's still "innovating" and working closely with Apple and Google to further integrate Sonos features within a smartphone's native operating systems.

Will this be a turning point for Sonos, and will it be enough to claim back trust amongst its many long-term customers? There is a definite sense of confidence that the new features will work as promised, and we'll be getting our hands on Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra review samples imminently to try out all the new features and see how the updated app works – so stay tuned.

Sonos 27 will be available as a free update to all current-generation Sonos products (i.e. all products working with the 'S2' app/OS since 2020), with the portable surrounds support, new app navigation and Sonos 27mcp rolling out from 8th September.

MORE:

Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

Sonos' new Beam soundbar is finally here with a big Dolby Atmos upgrade – but there’s still something missing

Read our original Sonos Ace review

Sonos has just taken the wraps off the Beam Ultra, a new Dolby Atmos soundbar that sits between the entry-level Beam Gen 2 and premium Arc Ultra.

One of the coolest things about the Beam Ultra is that, unlike the Beam Gen 2, it has dedicated up-firing speakers for a more involving Dolby Atmos delivery.

Dolby Atmos isn't the only 3D audio format in town, though. DTS:X is a serious alternative, and one that's particularly popular with home cinema enthusiasts, yet Sonos has resolutely refused to support it on any of its speakers.

Given the chance to speak with Brandon Holley, Sonos’s Senior Director of Product, ahead of the Beam Ultra’s launch, we asked about that.

“Beam Ultra doesn’t support DTS:X at this time”, he said.

But could it (and other Sonos speakers) do so one day?

“It’s definitely a question that we ask ourselves, and it’s one of the many features, codecs and partnerships that we’re constantly entertaining. The door isn’t closed to any of those particular things”.

I realise that all seems a bit "nothing to see here", but I actually took some encouragement from the way Holley said it, and I genuinely believe this is a discussion that Sonos is having regularly.

It’s always seemed slightly odd to me that Sonos – a brand that has had format and service agnosticism at its core from its inception – would support Dolby Atmos and not DTS:X.

Sure, DTS:X is comparatively niche, but so are a large number of the streaming services that the Sonos ecosystem supports.

I wouldn't be surprised if DTS:X eventually found its way onto Sonos speakers. The more pressing question, though, is whether the Sonos Beam Ultra is any good in its own right.

We intend to answer that question by putting it through our comparative review process just as soon as possible.

MORE:

Sonos' new Beam soundbar is finally here with a big Dolby Atmos upgrade – but there’s still something missing

Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

Here are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy right now

Happy Monday and welcome to another retrospective on all the big news over the past seven days in the worlds of hi-fi, TV and home cinema, plus our pick of the review headlines from our test team.

We’ve had a bit of everything this week, from Apple’s big annual announcement to a talented tablet from Samsung.

Here’s everything you need to know…

Naim launched Uniti Star Lite

We’ve been huge fans of Naim’s Uniti Star streaming system since it launched way back in 2016. And Naim took the wraps off a new version last week, but with one major change.

The new Lite model doesn’t have the built-in CD player and ripper of the original. Unfortunately, this is due to supply issues, but Naim does claim to have upped the audio performance from the machine. Even with the lack of CD-spinner, we can’t wait to get it in our test rooms.

“Uniti Star Lite is not simply the original Uniti Star without a CD drive” – Naim says its new streaming amp sounds better, too

Apple confirms September event

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Everyone in the world of tech has been waiting for that one email to go around announcing Apple’s intention to unleash its latest generation iPhone on the buying public.

But will it just be iPhones that we see this year? Rumour has it a new pair of AirPods could be on the way together with refreshed tablets and, if we’re lucky, maybe even a new Apple TV 4K. All will hopefully be revealed on the big date…

Apple’s September event has a date, which means the first foldable iPhone looks imminent – but what else is expected?

Xbox’s lifeline for physical media

Both cinephiles and gamers were disappointed when Sony announced that its next-generation PlayStation console was going to ditch physical discs, so imagine our surprise (and glee) when Xbox announced a new initiative which looks like it could keep the disc format ticking over for a little while yet.

"It's really a breakthrough in how we think about physical and digital media" – Xbox's latest announcement is a lifeline for physical media and a direct response to Sony's huge Blu-ray disc fumble

Samsung’s talented big-screen tablet

Our test team had a great time getting to grips with Samsung’s huge Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra tablet this week.

Okay, so we realise a 14.6in tablet isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you’re a movie fan who can’t live without their fix of the big screen on the move, we think the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has iPad Pro-rivalling credentials that need to be taken seriously.

Get the full lowdown in our Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review

Bose’s flagship soundbar falls short

Our experts were also excited to get Bose’s new Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar into our test rooms, but we weren’t exactly blown away by what this flagship Dolby Atmos ‘bar has to offer.

We felt it was a good-looking unit boasting premium build quality and an intuitive control app, but it was ultimately an unsatisfying and undynamic listen, and the Sonos Arc Ultra continues to be our recommendation at this premium level.

Read our full Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar review

FiiO reveals more retro-inspired hi-fi

FiiO loves retro-looking hi-fi components, and this week, it announced a product which “takes inspiration from the 'golden era of 1950s tube amplifiers". At £769 / $769 / €665 the EA13 is a relatively affordable full-size vacuum tube amplifier, but with a solid feature set and design.

FiiO's retro-modern amp takes inspiration from the "golden era of 1950s tube amplifiers"

McIntosh revealed a new streaming preamp

This week we got a glimpse of the wonderful blue lights of McIntosh’s VU meters, this time sat on the front of the company’s new CS7500 streaming preamplifier.

Dressed in McIntosh’s trademark black, green and blue colours, the CS7500 promises a wide assortment of connectivity options and all the streaming smarts you’d expect from a product costing over $12,000.

McIntosh’s new high-performance preamplifier combines classic looks with streaming smarts and a premium price tag

The rest of the week's news in brief:

Castle launches four new speakers that offer "a new level of performance" while retaining the brand's "natural warmth" and handcrafted cabinets

Yamaha bolsters its streaming arsenal with a feature-laden streaming amplifier and network music player

Apple might be about to launch new AirPods 5, but will they feature substantial improvements?

Eversolo brings streaming, downloads and physical CD playback together in one multitasking product

Porsche and Burmester have a new secret weapon for their car hi-fi systems, and it sounds like sci-fi

Plonking a 65-inch OLED TV in my living room came with some unexpected side effects. Namely, my house is now the gathering place for match days, Grand Prix watch parties, and movie nights.

And I couldn't be happier; that's what home cinema is all about in my opinion, and I'm always keen to host so that I can preach (and more importantly show off) the benefits of OLED to my not-so-AV-savvy mates.

While I usually get met with raised eyebrows when I mention the price of OLED TVs, after demonstrating the inherent benefits of OLED, the unanimous sentiment amongst my friends is along the lines of "yeah... I need one of these".

While I have convinced a couple of friends to splurge on an OLED TV already, at the end of the day that price factor is the hardest sell, especially to a group of twenty-somethings living in cramped London house shares.

That said, I usually end up getting a message shortly after they return home to their LCD TV complaining that I've ruined every other TV for them; and no, I am not sorry.

That's why I'm almost always urging them to save up and treat themselves to an upgrade, and I now have a secret weapon to tempt my mates into joining me on team OLED.

My friends and I are all keen gamers, and there's this little game launching in November that we're all quite excited for; it's called Grand Theft Auto VI, you might have heard of it.

As such, the current buzz in our group chats is upgrading our gear to experience the game at its best, including its stunning visuals. This conversation has ramped up since Thursday night's Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, which premiered on Netflix and gave us a glimpse at the vibrant visuals of Rockstar Games' latest flagship title.

Frame rates and fidelity have now become major talking points, and the few friends of mine that don't already own a PS5 are now locked into purchasing one ahead of the 19th of November.

My advice to friends who already own a PS5 but want to upgrade a key component for GTA VI is to upgrade their TV or monitor; and of course, I'm pushing them towards OLED.

The perfect blacks, pixel-level contrast control, and superb response time of OLED make it a perfect panel technology for gaming, and I think the most anticipated game of the decade is a good excuse to take the plunge.

I've also touted the benefits of upgrading to a newer HDMI 2.1-equipped TV, too; most of my friends didn't know what VRR and ALLM were, let alone that their consoles had these features. And, of course, I've already assured them that these sets will exceed expectations when it comes to movies and sports too.

My recommendations are currently down to these three models, all of which are perfectly suited to all content:

The LG C6 is my current top pick; it comes in a range of sizes including a desktop-friendly 42-inch version, and it's one of the best-equipped TVs on the gaming market.

However, a stellar budget alternative is the Philips OLED760, which sports an impressive set of gaming specs and Ambilight, and it's under £1000 for the 55-inch model currently.

And the Samsung S99H is probably the most impressive TV I've seen this year. It happens to support up to eight full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets if you purchase the wireless One Connect system, and the picture performance is simply stunning. That said, the price will put many (my friends included) off.

If you're eyeing up a home cinema upgrade in preparation for GTA VI later this year, then my advice remains: you'd be hard-pressed to go wrong with any of the OLEDs I've mentioned above.

Now, my next task is to talk them into getting Dolby Atmos sound systems, but that's a discussion for another day...

MORE:

Read our full LG C6 65-inch review

Check out our picks for the best OLED TVs

Find the best OLED TV deals here

Another month, another set of home cinema products to review. We have been treated to a variety of models, from 4K projectors to Dolby Atmos soundbars.

But all of that needs to be tested with the very best movies and TV shows. We've got quite the range in our monthly Now Showing column for you, including old-school horror and one major new release that we can't wait to get into the test room.

Without further ado, here are our current top picks for testing.

X the Unknown (1956)

Words by Robyn Quick

If you’re a horror fan, then the cult classic X the Unknown is certainly one to add to your list. Released way back in 1956, it uncovers the cause of a string of mysterious deaths on a military base in rural Scotland. The culprit? A sentient blob simply called 'X'.

Its oozing presence is surprisingly disturbing as it terrorises the nearby sleepy town. The blob’s powers extend to burning and melting skin, which makes for unsettling viewing via the movie's tangible practical effects.

Hammer has just released a 70th anniversary collector's edition of the film in 4K, and it's a brilliant restoration. The crisp and detailed picture looks like it could have been shot yesterday, even in black and white.

There’s no Dolby Atmos, but the 5.1 mix is still a good test of your sound system to hear how it handles the dramatic soundtrack filled with brassy stings.

Buy X the Unknown on 4K Blu-ray from Hammer

The Odyssey (2026)

Words by Harry McKerrell

I might be the last person in the country to do so, but I finally made my own personal pilgrimage to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Honestly, Odysseus got home quicker than I managed to pop down to my local cinema to see 2026’s biggest release.

Well, second biggest, but I wasn’t in the mood for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

What else is there to say about one of the most discussed films in recent memory? The first feature-length movie ever to be shot exclusively using IMAX cameras, Nolan’s epic has all of the sweeping scope and fantastical spectacle you’d hope for from an adaptation of what is arguably Western literature’s most definitive tale, all while keeping the narrative grounded in its very human roots.

Ok, you won’t get the full benefit of IMAX if you’re just watching at your local picture house, but there’s still so much to be said for immersing yourself in that half-mythical world with a decent-sized screen and a full-blooded surround sound system, if only to enjoy Ludwig Göransson’s enchanting, earthy and often eerie masterwork of a score.

Odysseus took a total of 20 years to get back from the Trojan War. The least you can do is drive 15 minutes to the cinema to watch The Odyssey.

Like seeing craggy Ithaca once again, it’s totally worth it.

Buy The Odyssey soundtrack on Amazon

The Bear – Season 5

Words by Daniel Furn

Once a surprise breakout and now a critical darling and recipient of more than a few controversial Emmys in the comedy category, the stress-inducing culinary show The Bear struggled after its first two stellar seasons, with the third and fourth helpings suffering from meandering plotlines, distracting celebrity cameos and a lack of focus.

There’s clearly been a conscious decision to change things for this fifth and final serving, however. The first change is visual, with the show shifting to a widescreen look shot with anamorphic lenses. There’s a plot reason, however – gone are the tight, claustrophobic close-ups of Carmy’s chaotic reign, and in is a wider, more teamwork-oriented framing as the kitchen staff start to bond under Sydney’s more measured leadership.

Hans Zimmer is yet another welcome addition, making a rare crossover to the world of television with a jittery, peppery score that is perfect for the stressful goings-on of a high-end Chicago kitchen on a spectacularly busy night. And while there’s still no Atmos support, the clinking of cutlery and a season-long rainstorm give the surrounds a surprising amount of work this time around.

The third big change? The Bear’s final season all takes place over one particularly dramatic and stormy day. It may be better off binged as, in true The Bear fashion, we have a few aimless early episodes.

However, it all builds to one truly captivating, satisfying and occasionally nail-biting final service, as pretty much every character gets to wrap up their character arc and showcase five seasons of growth. Chef’s kiss.

Stream The Bear on Disney Plus

MORE:

Check out our list of the best 4K Blu-ray players

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

And these are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, too

Happy Bank Holiday weekend!

While Bank Holidays are best known for long weekends away, late evening plans and general relaxation, they're also a great time for deals.

We've seen plenty pop up already, from last year's Product of the Year TV to 2026 contenders, to cinematic tablets and projectors. You can see them all below.

These are all products we've tried, tested and reviewed ourselves – regardless of the discount, we'll only recommend a product if it has earned four stars or more.

So sit back, relax and browse some deals as the weekend begins...

Even if you're not an audiophile, there's a good chance you've heard of the Sony 1000X series before. As a tenth anniversary present, the Japanese tech giant released Sony 1000X The Collexion, which combines the line's technology with a sonic signature that prioritises scale, detail and clarity.

If your budget only stretches to an entry-level OLED, then the Samsung S85H is an excellent contender. It features good peak brightness at this price level, as well as a punchy, three-dimensional picture and solid feature support. Use the code RED20 at checkout to get this deal price.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has a huge, bright 14.6-inch screen that's ridiculously immersive for a tablet. It also boasts enough power to function as a laptop replacement. Use the code BH15 to save an extra 15 per cent this Bank Holiday weekend.

The Sony Bravia 8 II is our TV product of the year at its lowest price yet. Need we say more? We'd currently recommend not updating the system software due to current issues, but otherwise this is an exceptionally bright, vibrant and three-dimensional TV. Save £250 with the code TRADE250.

Finally, the Hisense C2 Ultra is designed with convenience in mind, but we still found the pictures to be bright and punchy and the sound often outstanding for a projector. We only reviewed the 4K projector this week, but there's already a £200 discount.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

How many home cinema formats have you owned over the years? Have you been an avid collector ever since the VHS and Betamax days?

Whether you've owned them all or have only just started, we've put together a little quiz about the films that were notable firsts in home cinema.

They could be the first on a particular format, the first to have notable surround sound technology, or experimental releases that were pioneers in terms of 3D or frame rates.

It's multiple choice, so there's no need to worry about knowing exact answers – you have a one in four chance either way.

So what are you waiting for? Put your home cinema history knowledge to the test...

MORE:

Quiz! Can you name all the types of hi-fi and AV cables from the photos?

Quiz! Can you remember when these pioneering AV products first came out?

Quiz! How fast can you solve our turntable challenge? Test your wordsearch

The Sonos Ace wireless headphones launched back in 2024.

And they were big news for a brand more used to wrestling with multiroom audio than headband and earpad materials.

However, during rigorous testing, we were left underwhelmed for several reasons, all of which added up to a lukewarm three-star rating. (Here's our original Sonos Ace review.)

But, instead of packing it in after its first attempt, if online reports (and an official FCC filing) are to be believed, it looks like Sonos will be giving wireless headphones another go. And I’m all here for it.

Previously, Sonos has hinted that a new product is coming out in September, so if you put two and two together… Having said that, fresh rumours now suggest a new product will be unveiled, but it won’t actually be headphones.

Irrespective of who you believe, the new headphones model is allegedly going to be called the Sonos Ace Ultra. What the word ‘Ultra’ alludes to is anyone’s guess, but you’d automatically think a more premium pair of wireless headphones with advancements in sound quality and onboard tech.

Having reviewed the current Sonos Ace, I can think of at least three things that I’m desperate for Sonos to get right so it can really rival best-in-class models from the likes of Sony and Bose.

Read on for more and let me know if you agree in the comments below!

Improved sound quality

My top wish is quite simple. I want better sound quality. There isn’t anything particularly offensive about the way the Ace sound, but there isn’t anything memorable about them either.

In our Sonos Ace review, we described it as “a simplistic and safe sound – not one we would call exciting or enthralling”. And, in all my twenty-plus years of testing headphones, I can confirm there’s nothing worse than a “safe” sound from a product that fails to pull you in for a closer listen.

At the time, we compared Ace to their main rivals such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra, which sounded much more rhythmic and entertaining. You see, ultimately, if a product doesn’t get my feet tapping, I’m tapping out.

It's worth noting that both Sony and Bose have moved on with new iterations of their flagship wireless headphones since then, and the benchmark for performance has also moved up a notch – will Sonos be able to keep up?

More robust software

When we tested the Sonos Ace, they gave off a vibe that they weren’t quite ready for market. We came across a few bugs in the system, including distortion and crackling while switching from the company’s Arc soundbar to the headphones. We also suffered from a couple of lip-sync issues.

Sonos has released new software update since launch to improve functionality, but a product as big as Ace should really work straight off the bat.

I would hope that any new headphones come with more robust software in tow. I’d also want them to be ready to use with Sonos’ complete wireless speaker ecosystem.

At launch, the only product that worked with Ace was the Arc, until a later firmware update also added the Beam Gen 2, Beam Gen 1 and Ray to the list of compatible products

Being able to hand off the audio from one speaker (or soundbar) to the headphones for a more private listening experience is a unique trick which needs to be properly executed.

Wi-fi connectivity for hi-fi sound

One of the big initial rumours about the Ace headphones was that they might be networked home headphones with Wi-Fi, allowing users to stream high-quality, lossless hi-res audio wirelessly.

What we got was CD-quality audio via Bluetooth thanks to the inclusion of aptX Lossless. However, this only works with compatible source devices (i.e. smartphones and laptops), and because Bluetooth doesn't have the required bandwidth, hi-res levels of sound quality are out of reach.

This feature wouldn't be without issues, though, as joining other networks while you're out and about could be quite tricky, but from a home audio perspective, it could really help a pair of headphones stand out in this ultra-crowded market.

Any other business?

Elsewhere, there are a few extra features I think could make a new Ace model even better.

Besides support for a more advanced Bluetooth protocol (the original Ace supports Bluetooth 4), I’d like any USB-C connection to support more than just 16-bit/48kHz sample rates, given that modern streaming services can offer much higher resolution files.

I also think ANC and call quality will need to be better. All of Sonos’ competitors have moved the game along since we originally tested them, so Sonos needs to take this seriously.

We compared the Ultra to the Sony WH-1000XM5 and the original Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones at the time for both ANC and call quality and found the Ace to be lagging behind the pack.

And finally, there's pricing. The Ace launched at £449 / $449 / AU$699 and struggled to live up to their premium price tag. If a new model is just around the corner, it's going to need to offer a lot more at this price point to be competitive.

Of course, everything is pure speculation at the moment, but the rumour mill continues to turn at pace, and we’ll continue to keep a keen eye on any developments as we roll into September!

MORE:

Here's our pick of the best wireless headphones for every budget

Get reacquainted with our full Sonos Ace review

Sonos will launch new wireless headphones next month, official filing suggests

Reports suggest that Sonos could launch a major product in September – and it isn't the Ace Ultra headphones

I've recently been testing the iFi iDSD GR 2 DAC/headphone amplifier, and while it's a perfectly decent performer, it has left a question buzzing inside my mind like a wasp trapped in an upturned glass: why does a DAC need a Bluetooth input?

A seemingly innocuous question, perhaps, but one that won't leave my brain. Let's be clear that the iDSD GR 2 will set you back £529 / $529 / AU$849 at the time of writing, a product that's likely going to be driving all manner of respectable wired headphones.

If you're buying a DAC to improve the sound of your laptop-stored digital music files, then sound quality is likely to be top priority, so what's the appeal of throwing much of that out of the window on a less efficient means of audio transmission? Why have a Bluetooth option at all?

The curse of the unticked box

Part of the answer stems, I imagine, from one very simple motivator: consumer expectation. As we've seen with the rise of wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers, customers expect a well-stocked spec sheet, and as soon as certain boxes aren't ticked, alarm bells are set ringing.

It feels as though Bluetooth speakers now must have Auracast, while wireless headphones must deploy in-depth noise cancelling and some form of spatial audio. If they don't, a rival brand will, and that's where a potential buyer might instead head.

Omitting a given feature, even on a more premium or audiophile-centred DAC, might smack of an oversight on the part of the manufacturer, even if said omission was actually a strategic one designed to redirect resources elsewhere.

Try explaining that to an increasingly voracious customer base.

Let's not ignore the fact, either, that having a Bluetooth input is exceedingly convenient. As a means of wire-free transmission from your source (such as a Bluetooth-equipped laptop or smartphone), it's incredibly easy to access and generally very stable, and many users enjoy the freedom of having a source that isn't tethered to headphones or, in this case, their DAC. Like William Wallace fighting at the Battle of Stirling in Braveheart, it's all about freedom.

Bluetooth is also a universal language, and that extends beyond the purely technical. If you've got a friend who wants a quick connection to your fancy new DAC to hear your Tidal playlists in better quality, it remains the king of convenience. Everyone knows it, everyone uses it, and everyone understands how it works.

Plus, the quality is good, and getting better. The iDSD GR 2, for example, offers Bluetooth 5.4 with higher-quality codec support in the shape of aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive and LDAC, which essentially means the chance of streaming files up to 24-bit/96kHz using Adaptive and 32-bit/96kHz via LDAC. Such files can be accepted via Bluetooth, but as we’ll see, this is still a compressed and lossy streaming method which comes with serious drawbacks.

It’s still worth pointing out, though, that the DAC is still the thing doing the audio decoding, not your phone or laptop, so you're still getting some of the benefit of your dedicated device when playing via Bluetooth. Note, of course, the word "some".

Bluetooth(less) audio

No matter the strides that the likes of Qualcomm and Sony have made in improving Bluetooth as a means of audio transmission, there's no question that those trusty old wires still rule supreme when it comes to listening to hi-res files, as it guarantees lossless audio transmission.

As we wrote in our review, "the iDSD GR 2’s (Bluetooth) performance is perfectly capable, as evidenced by its sure-footed handling of a 16-bit/44.1kHz rendition of Goose’s Dripfield, but if you want to make the most out of your DAC – and indeed, the headphones you’ll be partnering it with – (it) should be seen as a nice bonus rather than a primary means of listening."

The problem is, when the DAC is wirelessly connected to your source, the Bluetooth part becomes the weak link in the audio transmission chain. No matter how good your wired cans are, how high the file resolution is, and how firmly you've got them jammed into the very real, very physical headphones socket, this lossly wireless connection to the source will become your limiting factor.

Plus, if you've spent all this money on a DAC, you're likely to be using a decent pair of wird headphones to partner with it, from the Røde NTH-100 (£149 / $149 / AU$249) to the open-backed Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X (£189 / $199 / AU$399), the Grado SR325x (£330 / $295 / AU$419) or, at a push, the Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) (£899 / $899).

Bluetooth has drawbacks which can rob the audio of its initial lustre, the main one being the problem of compression. LDAC, for instance, has a data rate of 990kbps, and while impressive compared with the 328kbps rate of standard SBC, it’s a lot lower than the 1411.2kbps provided by CDs.

Plus, if you've bought your not-inexpensive DAC to use primarily with wired headphones, not using a wire between source and said DAC seems somewhat redundant when the headphones provide a physical tether anyway. The supposed freedom provided by wire-free Bluetooth rather goes out the window, as you're still using a physical connection between your DAC and headphones anyway.

The question you have to ask is whether you'd miss Bluetooth if it weren't there. The Award-winning Chord Mojo 2 DAC doesn't have a Bluetooth input, but for sound quality, it's a cut above, and not once have we listened to the Mojo 2 and wished for wireless connectivity. That, in itself, tells you all you need to know.

It's admirable that iFi, or any other brand, would want its products to be as feature-laden as possible, but the idea of Bluetooth on a premium DAC designed to service the ‘sound-first’ market doesn’t make sense to me.

If you’re willing to spend what is still a considerable amount of cash on a DAC such as this, you’re going to want to get the best sound possible for the money. Bluetooth may be convenient, but the sonic sacrifices you’ll make feel unjustifiable given that the purpose of a DAC such as the iDSD GR 2 is, ultimately, to make your music and headphones-based listening sound as good as possible for the money spent.

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Has a film ever changed you?

If you're a fan of home cinema, then there's a good chance that a movie has (hopefully) touched you in some way or stuck with you over the years.

But how many films have actually changed home cinema?

There are many great reference discs out there which have surely opened some people's eyes to the possibilities of truly immersive home cinema, but only a handful of film titles can lay claim to have impacted the industry.

We're going to go through some of the most notable firsts in home cinema below, as well as a few pioneering titles which single-handedly changed the industry.

It's an interesting mix of absolute classics, smaller innovators and a few films you probably wouldn't expect. See how many you own...

1976: The first-ever VHS is... disputed

So what was the first film to kickstart the home media revolution? Well, no one's really sure. A long-standing rumour suggests that South Korean drama The Young Teacher came out on tape in 1976, shortly after JVC released the technology, but this claim has been widely contested.

The first Western releases are a bit more certain – Magnetic Video released the first 50 titles in a wave in 1977, which included classics such as M*A*S*H, Patton and Hello, Dolly!

1995: Batman and Jack Ryan bring surround sound home

Okay, bear with us here – surround sound technically entered our living rooms in the 1980s, when Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic used a matrix to decode stereo into multi-channel sound. But surround sound as we know it today, with completely separate, discrete channels, came a bit later.

Batman Returns made history in 1992 as the first film to be released in cinemas in what is now Dolby Digital, making digital sound and 5.1 the new standard. However, it wasn't until the 1995 release of Clear And Present Danger on LaserDisc that a discrete Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track was available on home media.

Dolby Digital would then, of course, become the audio specification for DVD, and is still in use today, even if it has been superseded by the object-based Dolby Atmos.

1996: DVD arrives with a Harrison Ford double bill

DVD premiered in Japan with four titles in December 1996: Eraser, The Fugitive, Assassins and the fittingly futuristic Blade Runner: The Final Cut.

The format reached the US a few months later in March 1997, with 32 titles on launch day, including Twister, which became the top-selling DVD of the year and a notable early demo disc for the format.

DVD arrived in the UK in June 1997, when former What Hi-Fi? staff members were distinctly unimpressed with the Thomson DTH-1000U in our first-ever DVD player review. We were limited to region 2 imports from Japan at the time, however – DVDs didn't hit UK shops until 1998, when Mars Attacks! topped the first UK DVD chart.

Sony would later add a DVD drive to the PlayStation 2 in 2000, which would launch a DVD boom – with veteran AV experts contending that home cinema really took off when the disc-based format arrived. While DVD (and most physical media) is undoubtedly facing some challenges, they're still being made and released 30 years later – a lifetime in AV terms.

1997: DTS roars into home cinemas with Jurassic Park

We're sure many home cinema fans are familiar with DTS. But did you know the dinosaur mega-hit Jurassic Park played a key role in its development? Not content with revolutionising digital effects, director Steven Spielberg did the same for digital sound too, investing in the creation of DTS to showcase the film's sound design and various dinosaur roars.

This resulted in Jurassic Park becoming the first film to debut in cinemas with DTS surround sound in 1993, and also claiming the title of the first DTS home video release when it debuted on LaserDisc in 1997.

Dolby Digital and DTS have had a heated rivalry ever since, with DTS also creating several more advanced versions – including their own object-based codec, DTS: X.

2006: Adam Sandler and Arnie bring us Blu-ray

With Sony set to kit out the then-upcoming PlayStation 3 with a Blu-ray disc drive, it's no surprise that the Japanese tech giant also led the charge when it came to the discs themselves in June 2006.

50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, Underworld: Evolution and xXx were the very first Blu offerings courtesy of Sony, along with MGM's The Terminator.

A real mixed bag then (was anyone who purchased a ludicrously expensive early Blu-ray player reaching for an Adam Sandler rom-com?), and HD-DVD arguably had a stronger launch line-up with The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, The Phantom Of The Opera and Serenity earlier that year.

However, we all know how that one went – HD-DVD waved the white flag in February 2008, and Blu-ray continues to be sold to this day, though it's of course competing with its successor...

2010: Avatar leads the 3D charge

Avatar was not, in fact, the first 3D Blu-ray – that honour goes to Monsters Vs Aliens in 2010, which was initially only available with Samsung 3D TVs or Blu-ray players.

However, almost anyone who invested in 3D home theatre technology at the time (which wasn't many, let's be honest) did so because of the Avatar effect, hoping to recreate the visual splendour of James Cameron's blockbuster at home. Avatar would have its 3D home premiere on Sky on Christmas Eve 2010, with a 3D Blu-ray release two years later.

Studios had mostly abandoned 3D Blu-ray by 2018, though certain regions worldwide still receive new releases. The most notable recent worldwide release has fittingly been a remaster of Avatar, as well as its two sequels – Avatar: Fire And Ash was released on 3D Blu-ray as recently as May 2026.

2014: Dolby Atmos arrives with a Michael Bay bang

Brave was the first feature-length Dolby Atmos film after a special installation at the El Capitan Theatre for its premiere in 2012.

However, it wasn't the first use of Dolby Atmos on disc – that honour goes to, um, Transformers: Age Of Extinction on regular old Blu-ray in 2014. Whatever you think of the film, it is a technical showcase, and it coincided with the announcement of the first Dolby Atmos technology for home theatres.

2016: X-Men, Hitman and Kingsman are the first 4K discs

As What Hi-Fi? reported at the time, the first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs came to the UK in a wave in early 2016, meaning it was a photo finish with no definitive winner.

The eight discs in total were all 20th Century Fox titles: Fantastic Four, Maze Runner: Chapter II - The Scorch Trials, Kingsman : The Secret Service, The Maze Runner, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Life Of Pi, Hitman: Agent 47 and Exodus: Gods And Kings.

While you might call the quality of these films, well, mixed, there's no denying the excitement in the air when this new format was announced, and 4K Blu-rays can now often be found strewn across our test room after a lengthy review session.

It's been a rocky road for 4K Blu-ray since, with some of our favourite 4K Blu-ray players disappearing, key manufacturers leaving the market and Sony seemingly hinting that the next PlayStation won't support any disc-based home media at all. Will we even get another home cinema format? Time will tell...

2017: Billy Lynn's Long, High Frame-rate Walk

Ang Lee's experimental war drama Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk was not the first high frame-rate movie release (that was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which was released in cinemas in 2012 at a divisive 48fps), but it was the first to take its high frame-rate to home media in 2017.

The 4K Blu-ray was presented in 60fps rather than the 120fps seen in cinemas, but it was still a first for the format. We found both the film and the high frame-rate experience to be a bit hit and miss in our Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk review, noting a hyper-real sense of depth at the cost of a cinematic feel.

It's not a trend that would catch on, however – Ang Lee would return to high frame-rate for his next film Gemini Man, but otherwise home video has stuck with good old regular 24fps.

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If you try to book Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in glorious IMAX 70mm as a last-minute trip to the pictures, you'll most likely be disappointed. Take a look at the BFI IMAX's booking page for the film, and you will see that showings are fully booked until the end of September.

There are other ways to watch it in the cinema (including Dolby Vision or standard IMAX), but our TV and AV editor, Tom Parsons, rated his experience with IMAX 70mm highly, going so far as to report:

“Perhaps surprisingly, I’m not usually one to make the effort for IMAX, but with The Odyssey being the first movie to be shot entirely in 65mm, I felt a trip to the Science Museum’s IMAX screen was justified [...] I wasn’t wrong: while the movie itself sits in around 7/10 territory for me, as a cinematic experience, it was a clear 10/10.”

So if you want the best experience possible, IMAX 70mm is the way to go, and you are currently out of luck.

But as a silver lining, if you have been holding out to watch the film from the comfort of your own home, there is some good news. The Odyssey will be released on 4K Blu-ray and digital on the same day: the 17th of November.

That date is just for US viewers, so those of us in the UK and Australia will have to hang on a little longer to find out when we can watch the epic at home.

It’s rare for a film to be released on physical media at the same time as digital, and I’m pleased to see Nolan and his team take this approach. Increasingly, movies are pushed onto streaming platforms quickly after their cinema release or skip theatre showings entirely. Hopefully it's the start of a new trend.

The only minor downside is that Universal has not confirmed what aspect ratio it will be released in for either format. The only inkling we got came from Flatpanels HD, which reported that it will be available in 1.78.1 for the 4K Blu-ray. That’s a little shorter than the IMAX 70mm ratio, so you are not quite getting the full picture.

In terms of sound, Flatpanels also states that early reports hint that DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound is on the cards. That makes sense considering Nolan tends to avoid Dolby Atmos, with the 4K Blu-ray releases of Oppenheimer and Tenet both featuring DTS-HD 5.1.

You can sign up to be notified about pre-order of The Odyssey for the 4K Blu-ray, although the design is yet to be unveiled.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the latest entry in our regular hi-fi and home cinema news digest, Rewind.

The heatwave may be over in our native Blighty, but that hasn’t stopped a wealth of hot new hardware from flooding our review rooms, including a particularly capable set of affordable standmounts from Dali.

Here are all the facts on the top stories from last week.

Dali’s affordable standmounts are great

Dali is now officially one five-star review away from being on a hot streak. Following our five-star review of the firm’s Sonik 5 floorstanders, lightning struck again last week, with the smaller, more affordable Sonik 1 also earning top marks from our testers.

Designed to work in even the smallest spaces, while retaining Dali’s “iconic” sound, the Sonik 1 is one of the most affordable options you will find in the Danish brand’s current range. As we said in our review:

“With an expressive, well-balanced sound, these standmount speakers are an excellent pick for anyone seeking serious sonic performance in a compact package at this price.”

Read our full Dali Sonik 1 review

Monitor Audio updated its Silver range of speakers

Monitor Audio last week unveiled its new Silver Series 8G range of speakers. Designed for stereo and surround sound arrangements, the range includes seven models.

If you want floorstanders, there are two options: the top-end Silver 500 8G and the step-down Silver 300 8G. Below them, you then get the Silver 100 8G and Silver 50 8G standmounters.

For home cinema systems, it then features the Silver Centre 8G central channel and Silver AMS 8G Dolby Atmos-enabled height speakers. Finally, the range also includes a wall-mountable model, the Silver On-Wall 8G.

Specifications and pricing differ among each model, but every 8G speaker features Monitor Audio’s proprietary Ceramic-Coated Aluminium / Magnesium (C-CAM) driver material, which the firm claims will let them “set a new benchmark for high-fidelity performance”.

We’ll hopefully be able to check this claim if and when we get the new speakers into our listening rooms.

Read the full story: Monitor Audio updates its popular Silver range of speakers to “set a new benchmark for high-fidelity performance at its price”

Technics launched a limited edition turntable

The Technics SL-1200 is an iconic turntable, especially in DJ circles, thanks to its durable direct drive design. So much so that even if you’re not into vinyl, you would probably recognise at least one version of it. Which is why it’s no surprise the Japanese brand has decided to celebrate the iconic record spinner turning 55 by launching a nifty new SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition model.

Designed to “pay tribute to a turntable lineage that has helped define DJ culture”, the unit comes with a golden design and a wealth of premium parts. The only downside is that you’ll have to act fast to get one, as Technics is only making 12,000 units globally. Pricing is yet to be revealed…

Read the full story: Technics is celebrating 55 years of its legendary SL-1200 turntable with a limited-edition design

A word of warning about dodgy new vinyl

There are a lot of misconceptions about vinyl. One of the biggest we hear, especially from people new to the format, is that a vinyl record will automatically be better than what you get on streaming services.

Sadly, that’s not always the case. We've talked a lot about the importance of which specific pressing you get, especially with older albums. But recently we’ve seen a new wave of first-time pressings arrive that are, frankly, not good enough.

These include releases from Raye, Charli xcx, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd and more that are full of glaring omissions, ranging from unfinished mixes being used instead of the final cut to entire songs missing.

You've been warned.

Read the full story: Beware: these vinyl albums are actually worse than their streaming versions

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These days, I very rarely get to go to football matches.

I'm an avid Spurs fan (yes, still), but between the costs involved and family life obligations, I make it to the glorious Tottenham Hotspur Stadium just once or twice a season at best.

I therefore do the vast majority of my football watching at home, and I'm lucky enough to do so with a system capable of taking advantage of the excellent picture and sound formats now available.

Pretty much every match that Sky broadcasts is available in 4K with HDR, and the crispness and vibrancy are generally lovely to behold. But while 4K and HDR undoubtedly make a match look better, they don't fundamentally change the feeling of watching one. No degree of sharpness or punch gets around the fact that you're still viewing the game through a screen.

The accompanying Dolby Atmos sound, though, is a different story.

With Dolby Atmos, I can turn the volume up and be transported to the stadium. I can hear the crowd all around me, audibly pick out individuals yelling abuse at the ref, and the theatrical yells of pain as yet another player takes a dive come through with a realistic sense of distance.

If I could turn off the commentary (something Sky doesn't currently offer) and find a candle with a stale beer and body odour scent, I could well forget I was in my living room.

The impact of Atmos is far more pronounced with football than with my other sporting passion, Formula 1.

Don't get me wrong, noise is a big part of the F1 experience, from the neeeeeee-OW of the cars racing down the straight to the fizzing whirr of the wheel guns. But F1 broadcasts aren't designed to put you in the stands in the way that football broadcasts are, so the addition of Atmos adds relatively little compared with the 5.1 and even stereo delivery.

For me, with F1, the joy of the UHD broadcast comes in the form of the extra definition and detail in the cars, the gorgeous vibrancy of the gleaming paintwork and the searing brightness of the sunlight sparkling off the surface of the yacht-packed Monaco marina. It's a real feast for the eyes and ears, but I never feel like I'm there.

With football, though, Atmos can make me feel like I'm in the crowd at the stadium, and that's a far bigger change to the viewing experience than simply making the picture sharper or brighter.

Now, if only Sky would let us turn off the commentary. Especially when Spurs are playing badly.

Not that that's going to happen so often this season, you understand...

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The heatwaves here in the UK have finally subsided, and we've been enjoying our first smattering of *gasp* actual rain.

Not to worry, though – there are deals on two great waterproof speakers that will be sure to survive a downpour if you still have outdoor plans, as well as plenty to keep you occupied inside should a thunderstorm emerge.

As always, our recommendations are all based on first-hand testing. All the below products have received at least four stars, the minimum required to get the What Hi-Fi? deals thumbs up.

So take a look below – you can finally stop thinking about buying more fans and air conditioning units...

If you're a regular What Hi-Fi? reader, you've likely heard us praise the JBL Xtreme speaker line numerous times. The robust speakers have no problem with water and dust, and the Xtreme 4 model offers clear, detailed sound, tight, weighty bass and a straightforward user experience. Now nearly half price.

The Sonos Era 100 SL doesn't have the microphone of the Sonos Era 100, but otherwise it's identical, with the same big, open sound, crisp, clear detail and pleasing way with rhythm. Add in a ton of streaming features and a lower price than the original model, and you've got yourself quite the bargain.

The Grado SR325x have won five What Hi-Fi? Awards in a row thanks to their excellent detail and dynamics, hugely entertaining performance and a rugged build. Now under £200, an excellent price for one of the best headphones we've tested in the last 20 years.

The 43-inch Samsung U8000F is a good all-rounder for both gaming and video, with impressive motion handling in particular. It's a fine pick if you're heading to university next month, but also a great value budget TV if your student days are behind you.

The Sony Bravia Projector 8 (VPL-XW6100ES) is definitely pricey even with a £4,500 discount, but its What Hi-Fi? Award proves it's worth the money. With excellent contrast and detail, stunning black depth and two HDMI 2.1 sockets, it's a top pick for anyone with deep enough pockets.

The Bose SoundLink Max combines a rugged, ergonomic design, a lively, energetic sound and powerful, tight bass. Its IP67 dust- and water-proof rating will also protect you from rain, shine or whatever else the weather has in store for us this year.

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Quiz! Take on our turntable-themed crossword for a spin and see how quickly you can solve the clues