If you're putting together a hi-fi system but space or budget are an issue, you may want to consider an active speaker, i.e. speakers with amplification built in.

That's where the Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 comes in. While it may appear to be a typical passive speaker from the outside, don't be deceived – inside those cabinets lies impressive amplification power and sophisticated processing.

Not to mention the ability to produce great sound. Sound so good, in fact, that we recently gave the Cubitt 5 a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award.

And the icing on the cake? It's currently the only Award-winning hi-fi speaker with a good discount: the Cubitt 5 can be picked up for £399 at Peter Tyson, a nice saving of £150.

The Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 are fully active, with 120W of Class D amplification per channel. The Cubitt 5 also feature Fyne's proprietary IsoFlare driver array, with a 19mm titanium-dome tweeter mounted at the centre of a 12.5cm multi-fibre mid/bass unit, which improves sound dispersion and integration between drivers.

There's a good spread of connectivity options on offer too, with RCA line level, optical and HDMI eARC inputs available on the wired front. There's an integrated moving magnet phono stage for use with a record player too, as well as a subwoofer output if you wish to improve on the already punchy bass.

There's no network streaming available if you're looking for a true all-in-one system, but there is Bluetooth support for streaming over smartphones.

The Cubitt 5 does not offer any tonal equalisation, like many of its rivals, though we found the speakers are sufficiently well balanced that these omissions don’t feel like a major issue.

"Across every input, the speakers deliver an impressively taut sound, with a vibrant, airy top end," our Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review reads. "Bass performance is at once impactful and satisfyingly neat, considering the constraints of their size.

"We are immediately impressed by their textural fidelity, with the acoustic guitars of Adrienne Lenker’s Sadness As A Gift showcasing their animated and vivid presentation."

The Cubitt 5’s MM phono stage sounds pleasantly detailed and energetic, and will be more than enough for most people. However, die-hard vinyl listeners may want to invest in a standalone phono stage for an extra touch of dynamic sensitivity.

We would have loved to see some on-board controls and a visual volume display, but nevertheless, these speakers make up for it with an enjoyable and immersive listening experience.

If you have limited space, the Cubitt 5's compact proportions, ease of use and feature set make them an ideal choice for your home audio set-up. And with £150 off at Peter Tyson, this is a rare chance to get a saving on an Award winner.

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It will come as no surprise that speakers are one of our biggest Award categories.

They are, of course, a core part of hi-fi, and we have been testing speakers for more than 50 years now and have no intention of stopping.

We are pleased to report that even after all these years, competition in the speaker market is still as hot as ever, making choosing the What Hi-Fi? Awards this year particularly tricky for our audio experts.

Nevertheless, they managed to reach a consensus. Here, then, are all the hi-fi speakers that won an Award on this very special 50th anniversary year…

The best entry-level standmount speakers out there, the pint-sized Dali Kupid punch well above their weight. Ideal for small, modern systems, the entertaining standmounters are lively, entertaining and rhythmically agile, with a compact and appealing design.

The punchy and energetic Wharfedale Diamond 12.3i follow their predecessors in winning a What Hi-Fi? Award. They’re a little fussier than before, but they are still clear class leaders with an exciting and dramatic presentation.

The Dali Sonik 1, on the other hand, are blissfully unfussy and pack oodles of expression into their compact design. These first-time Award winners offer good build quality also.

If you’re after top-quality standmounts that don’t break the £1000 barrier, the Acoustic Energy AE300 Mk2 are your top choice. Understated and unfussy, the talented standmounters offer a good level of detail and controlled bass.

Great value for money, the PMC Prodigy 5’s cohesive sound is the best in their class. Natural vocals, refined bass and a snappy sense of rhythm are all deftly balanced.

Moving onto PMC’s standmounts, the PMC Prodigy 1 sound superb despite their modest size and price. Their impressive clarity and punchy bass in particular have helped them nab their first What Hi-Fi? Award.

Living up to their brand name, the Fyne Audio F520S take home a gong again thanks to their blend of superb sonic integration with class-leading authority and musicality. There’s a pleasing build and finish on offer too.

Adding a splash of colour to proceedings, the Epos ES-7N are small, immensely capable and easy to accommodate. The diminutive speakers have huge talent, boasting clear, forthright and expressive sound.

A must-listen proposition at this level, the Pro-Ac D20R are high-quality, compact floorstanders. If your budget can reach this high, you’ll be rewarded with an expressive, articulate and energetic presentation as well as pleasing insight and dynamic punch.

Another win for PMC, the PMC Prophecy 1 offer class-leading clarity and precision. Don’t be fooled by their small size – there’s strong dynamics and fine rhythmic drive on offer here.

If it’s a desktop setup you’re putting together, look no further than the Ruark MR1 MK3. The stylish, versatile and robust-sounding MR1 Mk3 fought off strong competition to retain their desktop crown.

Fyne’s first active speakers pick up their first What Hi-Fi? Award thanks to their excellent connectivity and an insightful, balanced sound. Comfortable in a range of listening environments, the Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 set the bar high.

KEF’s vinyl-focused Coda W take home the upper-tier active speaker Award thanks to their wonderfully dynamic but controlled sound. With a clear, detailed presentation, the KEF Coda W are a joy to listen to.

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The What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 winners have been revealed!

Best speakers: budget to premium models tested by our expert reviewers

What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026: Dali and Wharfedale shake things up in this year’s floorstanders face-off

Some years bring more change than others at the What Hi-Fi? Awards. While this year hasn't seen a total overhaul of our floorstander speakers category, with many familiar faces holding on to their titles, there have been some notable shifts.

Among the exciting updates, Dali's new floorstanders have ousted a previous Product of the Year, while Wharfedale has seen yet another win for its budget speakers from the long-running Diamond Series.

Wharfedale has a long winning streak associated with the Diamond name, so we aren't entirely surprised to see this esteemed series producing yet another winner.

For anyone searching for a new pair of floorstanders that won't cost an arm and a leg, the Wharfedale Diamond 12.3i (£499 / $1198 / AU$1699) are hard to beat.

Given that these "i" speakers were launched as an updated replacement for the previous, also Award-winning, Diamond 12.3 model, we were intrigued to find out how they would compare. In this sense, the new Diamond 12.3i had little to worry about, with a more exciting and dramatic sound than their predecessors, which snagged them the 'Best floorstanding speaker under £500' win.

Dali aren't dallying

Next up the price ladder are the Dali Sonik 5 (£899 / $1800 / AU$1749), which overthrow the Fyne Audio F501E in the 'Best floorstanding speaker £500-£1000' category. The Dali speakers' compact proportions belie their mature, detailed and powerful sound.

But while they might stand out for their sonic performance, the tastefully subtle design of these floorstanders is unlikely to draw any unwelcome attention, and makes them ideal for those with smaller rooms.

Compared to price rivals, these speakers are a touch more tolerant of imperfect placement, so you won't be constricted when it comes to positioning. You might want to tilt them back, however, as they aren't the tallest floorstanders around.

Once placed, you can expect an expressive, dynamic performance, with well-managed bass and a pleasing dose of textural detail across frequencies. At this price, they're a strong recommendation.

A prodigy from PMC

If it ain't broke, as the saying goes, don't fix it!

PMC's Prodigy 5 (£1995 / $2999 / AU$3899) stay true to that idea, holding on to their title as the 'Best floorstanding speaker £1000-£2000' for a fourth consecutive year.

Although these speakers are on their way out of 'affordable' territory, we think that their rich and refined sonic performance makes them excellent value for money, nonetheless.

What's more, in classic PMC fashion, they are unfussy and transparent when it comes to pairing equipment. They will highlight the charms of a better amplifier, while revealing, rather than exaggerating, flaws in recordings or accompanying kit.

In terms of their visual design, the Prodigy lack any extraneous aesthetic add-ons, but their simple design is far from unsightly and will integrate nicely into most spaces.

A fine pair of Fynes

Also retaining their What Hi-Fi? Award (for the second year in a row) are the mighty Fyne Audio F502S (£2300 / $2800 / AU$3000), offering the best performance for price in the £2000-£3000 bracket.

These aren't a small pair of speakers, but for those with a capacious listening space, they will do much to justify the room they take up. Additionally, these towers aren't too fussy about placement, thanks in part to their 'Isoflare' coaxial driver design.

That arrangement, which places the tweeter at the centre of the mid/bass driver, works exceptionally well, delivering a cohesive and entertaining presentation that stays consistent, no matter where you are in the room.

Professional ProACs

Our most premium floorstanders Award category, which covers pairs costing more than £3000, also sees a two-consecutive-year Award winner, the ProAC D20R (£4100 / $5800 / AU$10,800).

These are far from a fresh face, having been released over a decade ago, which makes this year's win all the more impressive.

These speakers use a ribbon tweeter, alongside a woven glass fibre mid/bass cone to deliver an expressive, articulate and energetic sound. Dynamics are muscular and punchy, and these floorstanders are capable of a greater impact than we would conventionally expect from models of their reasonable proportions.

The ProACs' build quality is also excellent, with a meticulous, veneer-matched finish and high-quality speaker terminals. If you are spending this much on a pair of speakers, those small touches of finesse really matter.

All of these speakers are 2026 winners in their own right, but one of them will be taking home the overall Product of the Year trophy in the floorstanders category. We'll be announcing the final winners at our What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 ceremony on the night of 12th November, so stay tuned!

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Update: An earlier version of this story mistakenly claimed that Presets would not launch in the UK until 2027, when in fact it's available now. The amended story follows.

Two big features from the new Sonos 27 operating system are rolling out this week, but only one is available now in the UK.

Presets is available now in the UK, while Sonos 27voice [sic] will land in the US on Friday and on these shores in early 2027.

Presets gives you the ability to set an entire mood with one press. You can save which music plays in each room, at what volume and on which Sonos speakers. Select that preset, and it will load your settings – so you can set one for a party, one for your morning routine, one for a lazy Sunday, and so on.

Sonos 27voice promises to understand you better, letting you be more conversational so it will know “what song you mean from the vaguest description”. You don’t even have to mention the artist or title, which is handy if you don’t know them.

You can also describe a mood and it will create a playlist to suit it.

But you don’t have to rely on Sonos’s voice assistant. As part of Sonos 27, you can use others, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Siri.

These features are part of the Sonos 27 operating system that launched a few weeks ago. Like iOS, it will update every year, so next year’s will be Sonos 28.

It’s part of Sonos’s push to listen to customers more and deliver on what they want, following the self-immolation that was its 2024 app update.

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At What Hi-Fi? we feel very few mainstream speaker manufacturers can hold a candle to Sonus Faber when it comes to visual flair. Luxury detail, unusual natural materials and innate appreciation of fine aesthetics have been baked into the Italian brand’s DNA from the very beginning in 1983.

These Olympica G3 III floorstanders are a great example of the company’s wares. They are part of the Italian brand’s new high-end Olympica range that sits around halfway up the company’s speaker hierarchy.

This third-generation range consists of five models, with the Olympica III on test here being the smaller of two floorstanding choices. They are complemented by a standmount, a dedicated centre speaker and an on-wall model that’s ideal for surround duties. It can be used as an unobtrusive option where space is tight too.

While their sophisticated aesthetics grab our attention first, these Olympica towers also feature an impressive amount of technology and clever engineering.

Build

In basic terms, they are relatively compact three-way floorstanders for the money. Their 110.4cm height is pretty modest by class standards, and their slim proportions mean that they are unlikely to dominate in all but the smallest of rooms. Not all high-end customers are blessed with huge listening spaces, after all.

Sonus Faber are past masters at integrating a range of materials to produce a cohesive and stylish whole, and that is the case here. We love the Olympica G3’s mix of wood, aluminium and leather. The III’s appearance is classy and elegant, yet refreshingly understated.

Their curved cabinet feels immensely rigid and is covered in a nicely matched high-quality walnut veneer. Its shape not only looks elegant, but it reduces the build-up of internal standing waves. There is also a darker wenge finish option for those who prefer a less traditional look.

Neat details abound, from the inlaid metal branding on the top panel to the neat, leather-covered baffle around the tweeter and midrange. Lovely.

Design

The Olympica G3 III’s drive units, particularly the midrange and tweeter, deserve a careful look. The ‘Camelia’ midrange design was originally developed for the brand’s flagship speaker system, the Suprema, which retailed for £695,000 / $750,000 on launch back in 2024.

If you are a keen gardener, you will know that Camelia (often spelt with a double l) is a rather pretty flower. The Olympica G3 III’s unpainted, white paper pulp midrange cone is shaped like its namesake. Its distinctive geometry is claimed to avoid the resonances of a conventional circular cone and so produces cleaner, less distorted results. This 16.5cm driver has a solid aluminium phase plug at the centre to help improve dispersion at the top end of its operating range.

If you were to remove the drive unit from the cabinet, you would find it and the tweeter have a dedicated closed enclosure, which is damped by a specially developed cork structure. The cork’s curved shape and innate properties reduce standing waves and minimise structural resonances.

The midrange crosses over to a 28mm silk dome tweeter at around 2.5kHz. This tweeter uses Sonus Faber’s unusual Damped Apex Dome (DAD) technology, where the movement of the dome centre – the part that is least well controlled – is restricted by a small damping cone that’s supported by the metal band that sits vertically over the driver. The advantages of DAD are claimed to be reduced distortion and greater clarity.

Those twin 16.5cm paper cone bass drivers take over below 365Hz. These are tuned by a rear-firing port that is mounted asymmetrically on the back of the speaker. This arrangement opens up interesting possibilities as far as positioning is concerned.

The Olympica G3 III isn’t an unusually difficult speaker load for an amplifier to drive. Its sensitivity is a healthy 90dB/W/m, and while the nominal impedance is a lowish 4ohms, most price-compatible amplifiers will be fine with it.

In our 3 x 7 x 5m test room, these floorstanders sound best with a bit of space to breathe. We have them around 70cm out from the wall and well away from the room corners. At first we tried them with the rear ports pointing inwards, but this results in a congested and ponderous low-end that doesn’t integrate well with the midrange.

Switching the speakers around so that the ports fire outwards fixes those issues, giving more balanced and agile results. Regardless, these floorstanders still need a notable amount of toe-in towards the listening position to render a solid and focused soundstage.

Given the price point, it doesn’t make any sense to short-change these speakers. They deserve top-class partnering equipment, even if their relatively unfussy nature means that they will produce decent results with more modest partners.

Our system is Naim’s ND 555/ 555 PS DR music streamer and a Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart record player feeding a Burmester 088/911MKIII amplifier. We also try an Audio Research LS-2/S-200 pre/power and a PMC Cor integrated to hear how the Sonus Faber handles more modest electronics.

Sound

The first word that comes to mind is balance. The sound of these speakers is defined by a broad range of strengths rather than a specific superpower. Despite their relatively modest dimensions (by class standards), these towers produce a large-scale sound with plenty of authority. They go loud when the music demands and do it with suitable grace, holding off hardness and unwanted aggression well, even at higher volumes.

The quartet of drivers are seamlessly integrated, gelling to an extent where it becomes genuinely hard to pinpoint where one hands over to the other. That sense of balance extends to the frequency range. While we wouldn’t describe these speakers as wholly neutral, their character is likeable, blending solidity with plenty of refinement and bite. Indeed, be warned that the tweeter can be provoked into sounding a little spiky with poor recordings or aggressive partnering equipment.

The Olympica III’s low-end is taut and tuneful, tracking the undulating bassline of Michael Jackson’s Who Is It well. It is true that alternatives like Audiovector’s larger R6 Arreté dig deeper and truer, but the Sonus Faber still satisfies on its own terms.

In absolute terms, these speakers don’t quite convey rhythms with as much drive as some rivals, but they remain an entertaining listen regardless.

We have no issue with the way the bass is integrated into the rest of the frequency range, but it is also fair to say that the innovative Camelia midrange unit is unusually crisp, clear and agile. There is an obvious improvement in these respects as the frequency of the sound rises through the lows and into the midrange. The result is that vocal-based material shines.

We can’t help but admire the way these floorstanders handle the beautifully recorded Mount The Air from The Unthanks or the more stark debut set from Tracy Chapman. Voices come through with impressive clarity and nuance, capturing the emotional message of the music well.

The top-end is almost as good. That unusual DAD tweeter is responsive and detailed, and on the whole goes about its job without drawing too much attention. That’s just the way it should be.

As we move to larger-scale works, such Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Mahler’s 10th, the Olympica III continues to do well. Without challenging bigger alternatives, it sounds powerful and authoritative. There is a good sense of scale, and we appreciate the ability to swing large-scale dynamic shifts without too much stress. Composure levels are pleasing, as is the speaker’s ability to remain organised when things become busy.

Stereo imaging is suitably out-of-the-box, once the positioning is optimised. The soundstaging is stable and nicely layered, with instrument locations rendered with precision. There is a good sense of depth too on suitable recordings.

Verdict

Sonus Faber’s Olympica G3 III are easy floorstanding speakers to like. They are beautifully made and styled with uncommon flair. Factor in the well-balanced sound and generally unfussy nature, and we think that they will appeal to a wide range of people.

At the very least, they deserve to be seriously considered if you are lucky enough to shop at this level.

Review published: 2nd November 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Compatibility 5

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JBL's Classic Series has long paid homage to the brand's speakers from the 1970s, and now it has a new flagship.

The L150 Classic is a three-way floorstanding design that combines classic styling with modern acoustics to deliver "the scale, dynamics, and realism sought by serious music listeners," according to JBL.

With its walnut veneer, the design might be as 70s as a kipper tie and flared trousers, but inside we're promised modern drivers, crossover design and acoustic tuning.

Key to the design is a large 15-inch Pure Pulp Differential Drive woofer, which JBL claims allows for plenty of dynamic headroom and bass authority.

The woofer is joined by a 6.5-inch polymer-coated Pure Pulp midrange driver and a 1-inch titanium dome tweeter that's mated to an advanced waveguide and acoustic lens to produce "an enhanced soundstage". Crossover points of 310Hz and 1.8kHz have been chosen to bring the three drivers together to create a coherent sound.

But it's not just the drivers that have been designed for optimum sound quality.

The angled profile and sloped front baffle of each cabinet direct sound towards the listener, while the vented, bass-reflex enclosure with dual front ports extends low-frequency response to 33Hz.

You can also customise the sound to your room setup using the front panel high- and low-frequency attenuators.

Aesthetically, they're very much in keeping with the Classic Series, with the foam grilles sporting the same Quadrex design as other models in the range like the L100 and L82.

The JBL L150 Classic will go on sale in 2027 for $9999 (around £7500 / AU$14,000) per pair.

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Amazon has announced the latest generations of two of its most popular smart speakers: the Echo Dot and the Echo Studio.

The new Dot has the same design and 44mm full-range driver as the five-star Echo Dot (5th Generation), but claims to offer "50 per cent more bass than the last generation" thanks to enhanced audio signal processing technology.

Most of the upgrades, however, come in the shape of the Echo Dot's smart capabilities. The new speaker is powered by 'AZ3', Amazon's custom-designed silicon chip, which teases enhanced processing and faster, more natural conversations with Alexa Plus.

The sixth-generation Dot also adds a fourth microphone, allowing Alexa to hear you more clearly as you move around your room. The Dot packs Amazon's 'Omnisense' sensor tech, whereby the speaker senses its environment to adjust aspects such as room temperature or lighting.

Amazon has also unveiled an updated Echo Studio, and it comes with a twist. Dubbed the 'Echo Studio with Home Camera', the new premium model is touted as Amazon's "best-sounding speaker", boasting a high-excursion 9.5cm woofer for "deep, immersive bass" alongside a trio of 5.7cm full-range drivers.

Dolby Atmos support is onboard for a more immersive audio experience, while 'Advanced Room Adaptation' tech continuously adapts the speaker's tuning to fit your listening space.

As you might have guessed, the latest Echo Studio comes equipped with a built-in camera, designed to work with Alexa Plus, with Amazon's AI assistant now able to respond to visual inputs as opposed to simply hearing spoken commands.

Following an impending update, users will be able to pair the new Echo Studio with a compatible Fire TV device to conduct video calls on the big screen.

The sixth-generation Echo Dot is available now in Graphite, Glacier White, Agave Green, and Coral Pink finishes, priced at £75 / $100. The Echo Studio with Home Camera is also available in a Graphite finish, priced at £240 / $250.

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A big sound demands a big speaker, right? Not according to Steinway Lyngdorf. Its new Steinway & Sons Model O promises room-filling sound from a slim design.

Steinway says this is achieved through a combination of sound technologies, the firm's Integrated Systems Approach and RoomPerfect calibration.

This is the new version of the original Model O, which was introduced in 2018. Both are named after Steinway's Model O piano, which was dubbed "The Living Room Grand Piano" when it launched 120 years ago. Its aim was to bring the musical experience of a Steinway concert piano into the living room.

Despite a relatively small footprint, the new Model O speaker claims to deliver "full-bodied, detailed and clear sound". A passive bass unit concealed on the back works with the wall against which it's placed, giving you more floorspace – the speaker was tuned specifically for such placement.

For the high frequencies, Steinway's Air Motion Transformer tweeter provides "exceptional clarity and detail, reproducing the music's finest nuances."

This model has two front-mounted midrange bass drivers (the original Model O only had one), a cabinet with 80 per cent more internal volume and a 50 per cent larger passive radiator. This should mean better bass performance, more dynamic range and a more room-filling sound.

It has Steinway's trademark look too, with a gold-coated tweeter eye with a matte or polished surface and high-quality lacquer. The 26 black strings on the front are a nod to the brand's heritage in musical instruments, and there are plenty of customisation options, including gold-coated rings around the two front-mounted midrange drivers, individual lacquers and wood veneers.

Each Model O is assembled and finished by hand in Skive, Denmark, and boasts RoomPerfect calibration technology to optimise the sound to the room in which it's placed.

The Model O is out at the end of November, with the price on application.

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I remember when Apple announced the HomePod back in 2018, and cards on the table, my first reaction wasn't positive.

Upon seeing the pricey smart speaker, my first thought was, "Who the hell is buying this?"

Admittedly, this was long before I was deeply submerged in the world of AV and hi-fi, reviewing. But I like to think I've always been careful about selecting headphones, and I was urging my parents to invest in 4K TVs as early as I can remember.

But this month, after finally properly using one, I'm prepared to eat humble pie and admit I was wrong.

While I know a HomePod isn't the pinnacle of hi-fi audio engineering, I've been auditioning smart speakers for a very particular task: I want a speaker that I can have in my kitchen to play tunes while I cook, and occasionally yell commands at to set timers and skip tracks.

While an Amazon Echo Dot would suffice for most, I've become accustomed to a certain standard of sound, hence why that option was quickly dismissed.

I traded up to an Echo Show 11, which was definitely an audio upgrade, but the screen felt unnecessary, the interface was laggy, and the recommended recipes it was showing me were nothing short of nonsensical (something about a soup with a savoury marshmallow on top really sent me over the edge).

This led me to the HomePod, not the current HomePod 2, might I add, but the original model, which is now sitting proudly on my kitchen worktop.

Booting the HomePod up for the first time revealed that I could update it to the latest version of audioOS; not a bad start for an eight-year-old product.

Sure, it's unlikely the recently announced Siri AI and Sound Glow features for the HomePod Mini 2 (which are also slated to come to the full-sized HomePod 2) will be added, but I can live without them for what I'm using the speaker for.

What is most important is sound quality, and that's what has really sold me on the HomePod. We raved about its "weighty, authoritative sound" back in our original review, and its deep, tuneful and energetic bass performance sticks out as a particular highlight.

Based on my experience, I can certainly vouch for our original review, as I love how rich, punchy and exciting the HomePod sounds, especially compared to my two previous Amazon speakers.

Midrange and treble are equally well balanced, with a richness and warmth that is indicative of Apple's overall approach to sound tuning, which I can instantly recognise from listening to iPhones, iPads and even the Apple TV 4K. The HomePod also distributes sound very well throughout my kitchen, making it sound much larger than it looks.

Now, it hasn't been 100 per cent smooth sailing. The experience with Spotify hasn't been the smoothest thanks to some occasional dropouts over AirPlay, but I plan on switching back to Apple Music once my last month of Spotify Premium has concluded, which I presume will only improve the HomePod experience.

And outside of that, I can only think of one serious downside, and it's not an issue in the traditional sense. Essentially, I am now a fan of Apple's most neglected product line, which means I have a long line of disappointing Apple Events waiting for me.

That might sound contradictory given I've just referenced the newly announced HomePod Mini 2, but need I remind you that Apple took six years to release this sequel.

The HomePod 2, which I admit I have been eyeing up on Apple's website, is over three years old now, and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a successor for another few years.

I've been in this position before with the Apple TV 4K, and I suppose there is a hard truth I need to accept: Apple's AV products will never be in the same spotlight as its darling iPhones, Macs and AirPods.

Maybe with the HomePod Mini 2 being fresh on the market – and coming in a dashing green finish, no less – it's the perfect time to indulge my new HomePod obsession; though I might need to take the first-generation Mini for a spin first to be thorough.

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A floorstanding speaker is no small investment even in the mid-range market, so you'll want to make sure you get a good pair.

We can help you there. The Q Acoustics 5050 are a pair of mature-sounding speakers with impressive clarity and scale that will delight most music fans.

And as a bonus, they're currently discounted. The 5050 are available at their lowest price of £999 at Peter Tyson, a nice £300 discount from their launch price – and there's a free Fell Audio speaker cable included for good measure.

The Q Acoustics 5050 face some stiff competition, particularly from the Dali Sonik 5, but they're still an excellent option, as evidenced by their ongoing place in our best floorstanding speakers guide.

The 5050 shares a lot in common with its junior siblings, the five-star 5040, but with a bigger cabinet to accommodate larger twin mid/bass drivers (15cm vs. 12.5cm).

In scaling up, we were concerned that maybe Q Acoustics would overreach – but one listen and our fears were assuaged.

"Get the positioning right and you will be greeted by some of the most controlled and articulate bass that we have heard from a tower at this level," our Q Acoustics 5050 review reads.

"As we listen to Time from Hans Zimmer’s Inception OST it is hard not to be impressed by the depth and definition of the music’s complex and oh-so-powerful lows. The 5050 sound composed and unstressed even as volume levels rise."

The sound they produce is superbly insightful, engaging and entertaining, with excellent clarity. So much so that we gave the pair a What Hi-Fi? Award when we first reviewed them in 2024.

The 5050 do need some care with partnering, though, especially as their presentation can be a touch forward.

They do produce a decent sound with budget amplifiers, but we think they deserve more talented options such as Arcam’s A5 and A5+ or the Cambridge Audio XA81.

So long as you have a decent source hooked up too (perhaps the Arcam CD5 CD player or Rega Planar 3 record player), you'll get one heck of a performance.

Smartly finished and a delightful listen when partnered properly, the Q Acoustics 5050 offer grace and power at what was a competitive price even before the discount. The mid-range just got a bit more affordable with £300 off at Peter Tyson.

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VAF Research has been designing and hand-building loudspeakers in Adelaide since 1978, giving the company a long and continuous history in Australian hi-fi. Its range spans everything from accessible standmounts to serious high-end floorstanders, and the Signature i91 has held a particularly enduring place within it.

First introduced around 1999, this large standmount has been tinkered with over the years, benefitting from iterative upgrades all in the pursuit of the best-possible sound.

I certainly went into this review with high expectations as my previous experience with VAF’s more affordable DC-2S standmounts (AHF #543) revealed the company is capable of delivering impressive imaging and musical engagement. Given the Signature i91 MkIII on review here is a far more substantial proposition in both price and size, I was already filled with excitement before I’d even unboxed them.

EQUIPMENT

This MkIII version was introduced around 2021. VAF doesn’t necessarily market it as an entirely new speaker, but rather a refined continuation of a well-established formula.

It’s certainly retained its physical presence. This is a substantial standmount speaker in every sense. Standing 440mm tall, 220mm wide and 360mm deep, and weighing 15kg apiece, the Signature i91 MkIII is considerably larger and more solidly built than the average bookshelf design. As a result, each speaker arrives in its own carton, and getting the 15kg cabinets safely onto suitably heavy-duty stands is best treated as a two-person task.

The weight is not solely the result of MDF panels measuring up to 36mm thick, but also VAF’s substantial internal bracing. VAF adds the Signature i91 MkIII uses precisely mitred joints, substantial internal cross-bracing and its own Hypersoft damping material, all intended to suppress internal reflections and standing waves. The combination, says the company, “ensures maximum attenuation of any internal standing waves”.

The pair supplied for review wear VAF’s handsome Feature Eucaplypt timber veneer, priced at $5,158. I cannot say for certain whether it was the finish itself, but unboxing them produced an unexpected first: I noticed the smell of a pair of speakers! It was a pleasant, warm timber aroma — an oddly specific detail, perhaps, but one that immediately reinforced the sense that these were carefully finished objects rather than boxes from a production line.

The surfaces are equally enjoyable to touch, smooth as anything, with an attractive sheen that brings the grain to life. Alternative finishes include Black Oak, American Cherry, Tasmanian Blackwood and Australian Jarrah; having experienced the Feature Eucaplypt, I am now rather curious how those smell, too!

Once they were out of their individual boxes and on some stands, it was pleasing to see the i91 MkIII marry a good aroma with stunning looks. They adopt a similar visual aesthetic as the more cost-friendly DC-2S, which in turn proves they are unmistakably a VAF design. And if you weren’t too sure on first look, just take a glance at the bottom-right corner and you’ll see the company’s logo taking pride of place.

At the centre of the i91 MkIII is a 170mm coaxial driver, manufactured especially for VAF by SEAS in Norway. SEAS — short for Scandinavian Electro Acoustic Systems — has been producing loudspeaker drive units since 1950, and its engineers developed one of the earliest soft-dome tweeters in 1968. The company was also heavily involved in the production of the Dynaco A-25, released in 1969 and which went on to become one of the best-selling loudspeakers in history.

The driver in the Signature i91 MkIII combines a polypropylene woofer with a Sonomex soft-dome tweeter mounted at the cone’s centre — the same coaxial driver features in the smaller, more affordable Signature i90 too — while the crossover uses hand-wound copper inductors.

Such a configuration allows VAF to achieve its goal of time alignment, since the tweeter and woofer share the same acoustic centre, meaning their output arrives together more consistently than in a conventional multi-driver array. VAF says this has further benefits, including broadening the general listening area, as opposed to delivering sound to a ‘sweet spot’. Indeed, VAF’s Head of Sales, Mike Ziersch says “With coaxial drivers, pretty much everywhere is the sweet spot!”

The i91 MkIII uses dual front-firing bass-reflex ports, positioned above and below the coaxial driver, meaning they’re a little more forgiving when it comes to placement than rear-ported designs. It doesn’t mean you can or should immediately place them up against a wall of course, as the cabinet’s proximity to room boundaries will still have an effect on bass and tonal balance, but you at least get a little more wriggle room.

Around the back, a substantial full-height terminal plate projects from the cabinet rather than sitting flush with it. It accommodates two pairs of gold-plated binding posts for bi-wiring or bi-amping; the review pair arrived bi-wired. Conventional single-wire connection remains possible — the terminals accept bare wire, spade, and banana plugs — but the arrangement gives owners scope to experiment with cable routing or separate amplification for the tweeter and woofer sections.

VAF quotes a 45Hz–18kHz frequency range for the i91 MkIII, that low-end figure no doubt being a byproduct of the generous cabinet volume and twin ports. It suggests the i91 MkIII can cover most music with convincing bass weight without immediately requiring a subwoofer, although listeners wanting the lowest rumbles or home-cinema ambitions may still want a dedicated sub.

It is worth distinguishing the standard i91 MkIII from the externally similar i91 MkIII SE. Both share the same cabinet and coaxial layout, but the SE is effectively a more comprehensively upgraded variant. It employs VAF’s newer high-excursion magnesium-alloy woofer and magnesium-alloy tweeter. Its crossover is necessarily redesigned around those different driver materials and also uses higher-specification Solen and SCR capacitors in critical signal paths. Internally, the SE receives van den Hul 12AWG silver-coated copper cable — the same wiring used in VAF’s flagship Signature Series floorstanders — whereas the standard i91 uses high-quality 12AWG OFC copper.

On paper, the SE promises greater bass impact and more midrange and treble detail, while the company describes the regular model as the more delicate and relaxed of the two, with excellent imaging and soundstaging. In fact, VAF goes as far to say the regular Signature i91 provides a “level of accuracy and performance not seen in any other loudspeaker at their size or price”.

The i91 MkIII is rated at a relatively accommodating 90dB sensitivity and a nominal 6-ohm impedance, making the process of selecting partnering equipment relatively simple. For this review, it was partnered with Marantz’s Model 50 integrated amplifier, with 70W-per-channel output into 8 ohms, rising to 100W into 4 ohms.

LISTENING SESSIONS

For my listening, I placed the VAF Signature i91 MkIII approximately 25cm from the wall behind them (measured to the rear terminal plate). And, since the company’s coaxial-driver arrangement is intended to maintain time alignment across a broad listening area rather than concentrate performance into a narrower sweet spot, I left them firing straight into the room, rather than being toed in towards a listening position.

I had an absolute blast spending time with the VAF Signature i91 MKIII. Alongside familiar favourites, the speakers had me flicking through old playlists and uncovering forgotten classics — always a good sign. Rather than feeling like they demanded “audiophile” recordings to impress, the i91 MkIII made me want to keep listening to anything and everything, from high-energy dance tracks to slow and sultry ballads. Fortunately they lapped everything up that I could throw at them.

One such rediscovery was Alt-J’s debut album An Awesome Wave. I admit I was never completely sold on the group when they hit the scene way back in 2012, which was a little annoying at first because my friends could not get enough of them. Whenever one of them was the designated driver for a day out, Alt-J was almost inevitably playing. The band eventually did grow on me however, and ‘Taro’ is now one of my favourite tracks.

When played through the VAF i91 MKIIIs, ‘Taro’ was delivered with exceptional cleanliness and organisation. The track’s shifting, irregular rhythmic patterns remained easy to follow, with each instrumental element afforded enough space to make sense of the arrangement as a whole.

The speakers had no trouble separating the higher frequencies from the low bass line, preventing a tangled mess, which gave the song a controlled and open presentation.

Music was streamed from Tidal Connect to Marantz’s CD 50n network CD player, before being passed to the Model 50 integrated amplifier. However, most of my song choices came from my expansive Apple Music playlists (I’m still holding out hope for an Apple Music Connect feature one day). The main one I used for this review comprised thousands of songs that were once on my Spotify account but that were eventually migrated over to Apple’s service some 10 years ago. After I left Alt-J, I came to the Cs and Chris Rea — on went ‘The Road to Hell Pt. 2’.

Rea’s crooning vocals and instantly recognisable melody allowed the i91 MKIII to show off its more restrained strengths. The opening melody carried a lovely warmth, while the overall presentation was detailed, clean and natural. What impressed me most however was the fact the speakers never once seemed to overdo it. They didn’t once feel as though they were trying a “hey, look at me” performance, rather they simply revealed the track with relaxed confidence.

While it may be that, on paper at least, the standard i91 MKIII is less bass-capable than its SE counterpart, I nevertheless wanted to really test the low-end capabilities because, with my initial playthroughs, it seemed plausible that the speakers might benefit from a subwoofer to add more low-end authority.

Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’ quickly challenged that assumption. The i91 MKIII immediately used the large enclosure and ability to get down towards 45 Hz extension to its advantage, delivering the track’s pulsating bass line with depth and energy. There was ample drive and punch for a properly zealous listen, yet Billie Eilish’s vocal remained crystal clear and precisely placed above the heavy bass foundation.

Fat Freddy’s Drop’s ‘Shiverman’ took the VAF Signature i91 MKIII further still, revealing another level of low-end capability. The speakers were able to dig deep into the track’s dub-influenced bass without losing their sense of control or cohesion. Rather than merely producing more bass, they retained the separation and rhythmic poise that made earlier tracks so convincing, allowing the groove to feel weighty, immersive and genuinely physical.

The i91 MkIII’s strengths were not confined to close, focused listening at enthusiastic volume either. I moved my seating position back to around five metres, and even when reducing the Marantz Model 50’s output, London Grammar remained strikingly clear and communicative. On ‘Stay Awake’, in particular, the speakers preserved the delicate texture of Hannah Reid’s voice, while the track’s dynamic shifts retained their impact without requiring high playback levels. Of course, increasing the volume only had a positive effect, but I was pleased to find the Signature i91 MkIII had little trouble firing into a large space.

CONCLUSION

For all their talents, what I ultimately took away from this review was the knowledge that the i91 MkIII has an uncanny ability to make music feel inviting. The speakers keep every element of a track easy to follow without stripping away its warmth, character or sense of fun. They can deliver proper low-end impact, too, without allowing bass to obscure everything above it. They are truly wonderful speakers to listen to, to look at — and, apparently, to smell. I can also readily imagine them being a pleasure to live with.

LABORATORY TEST REPORT

Readers interested in a full technical appraisal of the performance of the VAF Signature I-91 Mk III Loudspeakers should continue on and read the LABORATORY TEST REPORT published on this page. Readers should note that the results mentioned in the report, tabulated in performance charts and/or displayed using graphs and/or photographs should be construed as applying only to the specific sample tested.

Newport Test Labs measured the in-room frequency response of VAF Signature I-91 Mk III Loudspeakers using wideband pink noise as the test stimulus, with the measuring microphone at a distance of one metre from the tweeter, on the tweeter axis.

The result of this test is shown in Graph 1 (above), and you can see that the response extends from 44Hz to 20kHz ±3.5dB. This is an excellent result under any circumstances, but made even more impressive because the speaker was tested on a stand, remote from all wall boundaries. If the speakers are positioned on a bookshelf or on stands close to a wall, the already impressively extended (for the driver diameter and cabinet size) bass response would be extended downwards even further.

The low-frequency performance of the single co-axial driver in the VAF Signature I-91 MkIII is shown in Graph 2 (below), where Newport Test Labs has used a well-known nearfield measurement technique that replicates the response that would be obtained if the driver were to be measured in an anechoic chamber.

You can see that the response of the bass/midrange cone starts rolling off at 70Hz, but is extraordinarily flat above this frequency, right out to the graphing limit of 500Hz, essentially being within ±1.5dB between these two frequencies.

Although the output of the cone starts rolling off at 70Hz, you can see the outputs from the two front-firing bass reflex ports (the red and blue traces on the graph) both peak at 58Hz and provide appreciable energy from 35Hz to 90Hz, essentially extending response downwards and reinforcing the bass response.

It’s notable that despite being located at opposite ends of the front baffle, the outputs from the ports are almost completely identical, so VAF has obviously taken considerable care with the internal design of the enclosure to deliver this result. There is evidence of a slight port resonance at around 260Hz, but it’s very slight and has minimal effect on the overall frequency response of the system.

The overall impedance of the VAF Signature I-91 MkIII is comfortably in ‘nominally 8-ohm’ territory, with Graph 3 (below) showing that the impedance (red trace) drops below 8-ohms only between 120Hz and 500Hz, and then only to a minima of 6.9-ohms at 200Hz.

The slight glitch on the impedance trace at around 260Hz is additional evidence of the slight resonance mentioned previously. The phase angle (orange trace) is very well controlled to within ±30-degrees right across the audio band, which is excellent. Newport Test Labs’ individual measurements of the low- and high-frequency sections of the crossover (the blue and green traces) show that the electrical crossover point is at 2.4kHz.

The efficiency of the VAF Signature I-91 MkIII, as measured by Newport Test Labs, was rather lower than average for all hi-fi loudspeakers (which is 87dBSPL), but about spot-on for the average of two-way designs in small-to-medium sized cabinets, with the lab reporting sensitivity of 85.5dBSPL at one metre, for an input of 2.83Veq.

Jamo’s HYG Series just got a new flagship. The HYG 5 is a wireless speaker that looks a bit like a portlier, friendlier HomePod, but with one added skill: motion controls.

A wave of your palm wakes the HYG 5 and resumes playback from the last source. In standby, the touch interface dims so as not to distract you from the speaker’s sleek aesthetic, while the warm ambient light ring adjusts depending on the room’s brightness.

All well and good. But what’s under the hood?

There are two 2.5-inch full-range drivers angled upwards and outwards to spread the stereo image as wide as possible. On bass duties is a 4-inch down-firing woofer, with two symmetrical flared ports beneath the cabinet and ribbed port walls to limit unwanted vibrations.

The speaker is compatible with Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect and Qobuz Connect, as well as TuneIn and QPlay II, while AirPlay 2 and Google Cast allow for simple casting and multi-room playback.

You can also beam audio to it via Bluetooth 5.0 (though sadly not the newer Bluetooth 6 standard), while those of a wired bent can hook up a turntable or CD player via a stereo RCA line input. The HYG 5 also supports hi-res audio up to 24-bit/96kHz.

You can control the HYG 5 from the Jamo Play app for iOS and Android, and also adjust the EQ to suit your taste and surroundings.

The HYG range takes its name from the Danish word ‘hygge’, which, as anyone who read a Sunday supplement 10 years ago will tell you, means cosiness and comfort, especially in the cold winter months.

Jamo previously announced the HYG Reflect bedside speaker, HYG Flow for outdoors and HYG Flex for taking from room to room.

It has been a busy few months for Jamo. After being sold off in 2024, the brand made a return earlier this year under new ownership, and promptly announced two premium ranges of Concert passive speakers followed by the HYG range. In 2028, it will celebrate 60 years in the hi-fi industry – a milestone that not many brands have reached.

The HYG 5 is out now for £349 / $399 (around AU$670).

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French audio firm Triangle has expanded its Borea Series with a new large-format standmount speaker, the BR05.

The company says that the BR05 combines “retro-chic styling with contemporary acoustic design”.

At the heart of the new speaker is a 21cm mid/bass driver made from natural cellulose pulp.

Triangle says that the driver’s material “gives voices and instruments a sense of texture and presence, while the cone profile and dust cap are tuned to balance scale with finesse”.

The mid/bass motor system features a 120mm ferrite magnet and a 40mm voice coil, while a “rigid, open basket promotes airflow and heat dissipation to help the BR05 stay composed during dynamic passages”.

To handle high frequencies, the BR05 uses the Borea Series’ signature 25mm silk dome tweeter with a phase plug. Triangle claims this lets the speakers deliver a more precise soundstage.

The bi-wirable speaker’s internally braced cabinet is made from high-density MDF. Triangle claims that its proprietary driver vibration absorption system “[dissipates] mechanical energy before it reaches the cabinet”, using a high-density foam gasket to connect the rear of the motor to an internal brace.

Two forward-facing bass-reflex ports have also been included to make the speaker “less sensitive to distance from the rear wall and easier to position in a real room”.

A supplied base tilts the speaker back by eight degrees to “improve soundstage coherence, while maintaining a discreet visual footprint”.

For those looking to raise the speakers to listening height, optional S03 stands are available for £225 / $299 per pair. According to Triangle, the eight-degree tilt is maintained in both positions

The Borea BR05 are available to order now for £729 / $999 in five finishes: Light Oak, Black Ash, Chestnut, Green and Frosted White.

This makes them the most expensive standmounter speakers in the Borea range but still cheaper than the firm's premium Borea BR10 floorstanders (priced at £1379 / $1149).

The speakers' main rivals at this price are the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Acoustic Energy AE3000 Mk2. Here's hoping they're up to the challenge when we get them in for testing.

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Imagine the premium wireless multi-room speaker market is a saloon from one of those classic spaghetti westerns. You’ve got Denon’s revamped Home 2 series leaning on the bar, Apple’s HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini playing a round of Three Card Monte, while Sonos’ Era 100 and Era 300 supremos menacingly spin their pistols as they eyeball prospective newcomers with a steely gaze.

Then, the wooden saloon doors swing open, and into the smoky scene steps JBL, armed to the teeth with its new three-strong Cove range. The talented titan has been the fastest gun in the West when it comes to its Award-winning range of portable Bluetooth speakers, but now it wants a slice of the multi-room treasure, starting with the flagship Cove X1 wireless speaker we have on test here.

Given its impressive portable pedigree and former multi-room experience with the now-defunct Link series and stylish Authentics range, JBL seemingly has what it takes to be the quickest draw in this particular shootout. On paper, at least.

Price

The JBL Cove X1 is priced at £430 / $450 / AU$650, making it the most premium member of the Cove range, eclipsing the £200 / $230 / AU$300 RRP of the Cove M1 and £400 / $400 / AU$600 tag of the Cove P1.

At this sort of money, you can scoop up the five-star Sonos Era 300 for £449 / $499 / AU$749 at the time of writing – though discounts will often drop this to around £349 / $399 / AU$649 – or get yourself the excellent HomePod 2 for £349 / $349 / AU$549 if you want a simple smart speaker and remain devoted to all things Apple.

Build & design

If you are familiar with JBL’s extensive portfolio of portable Bluetooth speakers, you’ll know that eye-grabbing colourways and funky style quirks are very much par for the course. Camo finishes, rubberised bumpers, even on-unit lighting for some newer-gen models – these are speakers designed to look as fun as they sound.

The Cove range does things differently. JBL says the new lineup is conceived to slot far more subtly into a domestic setting, hence the more utilitarian styling showcased by the X1 and its companions. Forget bright pinks and bold reds – black or white are the only finish options here.

The Cove X1, then, is not a particularly fun thing to look at, but considering that this is a speaker around the size of a small bread bin, it just about achieves its aim of fading into the background rather than drawing your attention like a fizzing sparkler atop a small cupcake.

At the top of the unit you’ll find a series of touch-capacitive controls, including volume, play/pause and Bluetooth pairing options, as well as a heart-shaped favourites icon for giving you quick access to a preferred playlist or range of soothing ambient sounds.

The small, subtle symbols do help to complement the deliberately understated aesthetic, but the lack of physical feedback does make for a less satisfying experience. Our test unit also lacks an auditory response straight out of the box, but you can adjust this by toggling on ‘Feedback Tone’ via the JBL One app.

Inside, the flagship Cove X1 houses a six-driver array, with 200 watts powering four 30mm tweeters – including one upfiring unit – alongside a pair of 9 x 12cm woofers to produce what JBL describes as an “ultra-wide sound with incredible detail” that, with the help of Constant Sound Field technology, “remains clear across the room”.

Encircling the entire speaker is a wraparound grille to facilitate that more omnidirectional sound, complemented by a smaller top-mounted grille under which sits one of the up-firing tweeters.

Features

The Cove range has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, especially with regard to its multi-room capabilities, touting a flexible and expandable whole-home audio ecosystem powered by JBL's in-house platform and managed through the JBL One app.

In this regard, the X1 is a success. Our two review samples are easy to set up and get working, with both speakers requiring barely more than the push of a button to get hooked up to the wi-fi and grouped together in a stereo pair. Given how temperamental some wireless speakers (even five-star models from Sonos and Audio Pro) can be when it comes to connecting to the network and forming a cohesive pair or grouping, this is already a big plus.

You're not short on wireless streaming options. As well as being Roon Ready and offering Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity with standard SBC and AAC codecs, the Cove X1 grants support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect. Dolby Atmos spatial audio is also on the menu. Wired listening via USB, meanwhile, is only available to US buyers.

For hands-free voice control, Alexa Plus is baked into the X1 and, once you’ve linked the speaker to your Amazon account, ready and willing to do your bidding. Just be aware that Alexa is tied into its own limited ecosystem, so while you can request playback from services such as Amazon Music and Spotify – and ask the usual questions about the weather and the meaning of life – there’s no voice control for Tidal and Qobuz.

To help you get the most out of your multi-room system, JBL’s own 'Constant Sound Field' automatically tunes the speakers to their given environment, while 'AI Sound Boost' further aims to optimise performance based on where and how you listen.

Sound

Just as the Cove X1’s mature aesthetic is at odds with the usually-funky JBL recipe, so too does the new model’s sonic presentation deviate from the one with which we’ve become so accustomed from the likes of the Award-winning Xtreme 5, Charge 6 and Flip 7 Bluetooth portables.

Instead of trading on that musical, fun and expressive nature that has earned JBL a small truckload of Awards for its portable roster, the Cove X1 favours a more subdued sonic presentation, one that leans further into weighty robustness rather than fleet-footed joie de vie.

To an extent, such a presentation plays into the JBL’s hands, and thanks to its considerable power and its omnidirectional driver array, the Cove X1 has no problems filling our test rooms with its big, weighty sound. If you’ve got a reasonably large listening space and need something that will fill it without much fuss, the X1 could be a suitable candidate.

That room-filling sound is reasonably detailed, evidenced by the fullness it brings to the opening cascade of drums on Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter or the soft, rasping vocals of Lana Del Rey’s delivery on Born To Die. The levels of clarity we hear are equally acceptable, with few hints of cloudiness or muddiness acting as an impediment to our musical catalogue.

Sadly, the Cove X1’s surprisingly unexpressive personality robs our tracks of any attention-grabbing spark. The Cove X1 has a direct and upfront presentation, but so much of JBL’s signature punch and dynamism has been replaced by a sound that lacks the potency to set pulses racing or hearts aflame. Hans Zimmer’s Dune soundtrack has a weighty presence, yet the music’s soul sounds subdued by this oddly flat approach.

Dynamic swings don’t land with the intent that we crave, in part owing to the lack of precision that the Cove X1 exhibits whenever things get too technical. Rhythms don’t have the brisk agility that we seek, either, a deficiency that’s made all too clear when we find ourselves desperately willing Eminem’s propulsive The Way I Am to kick into gear.

What really surprises us is how unbalanced the Cove X1 can sound. Top-end notes often exhibit a hardness that distracts us from the rest of the frequencies, while complex arrangements don’t tie together as convincingly as they do when we switch to the Award-winning Sonos Era 300. The Era 300 may have a smaller sound, but there’s no question that it sounds more agile, cohesive and satisfying than its JBL contemporary.

We tinker with the in-app sound settings to see if we can inject more life into our sample speaker, but we realise that this is far more a quality issue than one stemming from unbalanced tonality.

The Era 300 completely outguns the Cove X1’s attempts at spatial audio, too. Ludwig Göransson’s Sirens from The Odyssey soundtrack soars when played through the Sonos, benefitting from an airy and atmospheric presentation that bewitches us as a Siren song should. The Cove X1, by contrast, falls flat, failing to grant the track the enthralling feeling of space and scale as conjured by the superb Sonos.

Verdict

It’s hard not to be disappointed by the JBL Cove X1. Given JBL’s success in the portable Bluetooth market and its propensity to produce products that are both fun to listen to and own, we thought that the X1 had everything it would take to make the likes of Sonos and Denon quake in their respective boots.

Sadly, the Cove X1 misses the mark. Its seamless ease of use and heavy feature set lay some very decent groundwork, but the speaker’s unconvincing sound means it fails to capitalise on what is a very solid foundation. For us, this feels like a major missed opportunity.

Review published: 16th October 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 4
• Features 5

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Scottish hi-fi manufacturer Linn has announced the 343, its latest high-end four-way active floorstanders.

Available in two distinct flavours, the new compact floorstanders harness Linn’s proprietary technologies to project an “unshakeable illusion of reality”.

Each new speaker packs a woven carbon 19mm tweeter and a 6.4cm midrange driver, as well as a 22cm bass unit alongside a 19cm upper bass driver. Both lower-end drivers harness the brand’s Pistonik motor system inherited from Linn’s flagship 360 speakers introduced in 2026.

That Pistonik motor system promises “flawless linear force” over its entire wide range of in-and-out travel thanks to its long-stroke motor topology and extended magnet gap.

The result, says Linn, is “bass performance with the depth and authority to give 343 its remarkable sense of scale, and the precision to preserve its composure”.

Each speaker’s continuous cabinet is free from hard edges, designed to let sound leave the loudspeaker more consistently and reduce diffraction effects that reveal the position of each box within the room.

Central to realising this effect is the cabinet material, made using a glass-fibre-reinforced moulding compound which allows for the enclosures to boast thinner walls while preserving structural integrity and performance.

The 343 is available in two variants. The Exakt Integrated version comes fitted with a power supply, digital crossover, DAC architecture, and amplification housed within its integrated module. As its name suggests, it also harnesses Linn’s Exakt technology, which adjusts your speaker’s output to a given space in pursuit of better harmonics and time alignment.

The Passive with Active Bass (PWAB) variant shares the same drive units, this time boasting a Utopik and Power DAC for the bass system, with the 343 array comprising upper bass, midrange and tweeter units driven instead by external amplification.

Both versions are available now in a choice of Triton Black, Single Malt, Clyde Built, Linn Heritage, Piano Black, or Alpine White finishes. The Exakt edition is on sale for £65,000 / $97,500 / AU$139,995 while the PWAB version will set you back £45,000 / $67,500 / AU$99,995.

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It's officially official: Apple has finally announced the HomePod Mini 2.

We've had so many letdowns with regard to the new Mini, with Apple's recent September launch event omitting the brand's compact smart speaker from its rundown of high-profile announcements, but this time, the news is truly set in stone.

Perhaps the biggest change beneath the surface is the jump from the original model's S5 chip to a new S10 chip which, alongside "advanced computational audio", helps to "analyse music in real time to optimise dynamic range, loudness, and acoustic performance". Theoretically then, the second-gen model should sound better than its predecessor.

The new model should also be smarter than its predecessor thanks to that new chip and updated support for Apple Intelligence, allowing the Mini 2 to be integrated within Apple's 'Home' ecosystem and giving Siri AI voice assistant a smarter, more personable upgrade.

There's a small catch, however. Siri AI will be available via a future software update in major territories such as the US, Australia, Canada and the UK, so you're not getting the speaker's full capabilities straight out of the box. When it does arrive, you can opt in to a more bespoke Siri experience via the Apple Home app.

The Mini 2 can be used as a single speaker, in a stereo pair, or as part of a multi-room set-up. Users can even create a four-speaker surround sound system with Apple TV 4K (4th generation), wherein four HomePod Mini 2 speakers and the new Apple TV 4K recognise one another's position in the room and automatically calibrate to the resultant output to fit the given listening space.

The external form is much the same as before, with a design that's akin to a hockey ball with the upper section cut off and a touch panel placed on top. The difference this time around is 'Sound Glow', whereby the top of the Mini glows and pulses in sync with the music, while the song’s album artwork generates a "colour-matched light experience that’s unique to every song".

According to Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Home Product Marketing: “HomePod Mini 2 brings together Siri AI, gorgeous new colours, and incredible audio. With Siri AI, it understands you better than ever, drawing on personal context and broad world knowledge to make music discovery even richer."

The HomePod Mini 2 is available for pre-order in green, pink, blue, white or black finishes, priced at £149 / $149 / AU$229. That's a considerable price hike from the £99 / $99 / AU$149 RRP of the original Mini, so it's up to Apple to prove that its next-gen sequel is worth the extra cash.

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Scottish loudspeaker manufacturer, Fyne Audio, has launched a limited-edition version of its first ever loudspeaker, the F1-10, in celebration of the company’s 10-year anniversary.

The F1-10 Anniversary speakers are limited to 30 individually numbered pairs worldwide and feature an updated ‘IsoFlare’ driver design, a newly developed ultra-high-frequency tweeter system and Fyne’s “most ambitious crossover to date”.

The new ‘IsoFlare’ driver features a 7.5cm aluminosilicate glass compression tweeter mounted at the acoustic centre of a 25cm multi-fibre mid/bass driver.

The company claims that the new tweeter material offers “extremely low mass, exceptional strength” and improved internal damping. The glass diaphragm also uses a powerful neodymium magnet and a vented rear chamber to deliver “outstanding transient response, low distortion and high power handling without thermal compression”.

A computer-optimised waveguide is used to control the tweeter’s dispersion, which the company says allows the ‘IsoFlare’ driver to deliver “consistent directivity, exceptional stereo imaging and a stable, immersive soundstage”.

The new ultra-high-frequency ‘SuperTrax’ system sees a 2.5cm thin-ply carbon tweeter mounted horizontally in the enclosure’s top panel. This additional tweeter fires onto a diffuser, which, Fyne claims, distributes its output “evenly throughout the listening environment rather than projecting it narrowly towards the listener”.

In a rather sci-fi touch, each unit’s crossover undergoes a “super-deep freezing and controlled thawing process”, which Fyne says “[optimises] electrical conductivity and signal transparency”.

The new speaker has bi-wire terminals, alongside a fifth grounding terminal, which allows the driver chassis to be grounded to source and amplifier equipment, to minimise radio-frequency interference.

Following in the footsteps of the original F1-10, the Anniversary edition includes ±3 dB controls for high frequencies above 750Hz and “presence” between 2.5kHz and 5kHz.

That’s a lot of talk about high frequencies, but Fyne has also taken bass into account, using a ‘BassTrax’ diffuser to distribute the output of a downward firing bass-port “uniformly into the room”. The company claims that the diffusion system makes the speakers less fussy about placement than rear or forward ported alternatives.

Low frequencies are also looked after by an internal twin-cavity tuning system for “tight, articulate and naturally integrated bass”.

Fyne says that the F1-10 Anniversary’s cabinet design “celebrates the unique original F1-10”, with a curved cabinet and a luxury gloss veneer finish.

Each “extensively braced” cabinet is made from high density birch and plywood, and finished in an American walnut veneer with contrasting high-gloss burr walnut, a solid walnut trim, and champagne gold accents.

For 30 lucky owners, every pair of F1-10 Anniversary speakers will also include floor-protection cups, a precision adjustment tool, Neotech single-wire jumper leads, an individually signed anniversary booklet and certificates of approval. Limited-edition etched Glencairn whisky glasses and an optional black driver trim kit “complete the ownership package”.

According to Andrzej Sosna, managing director of Fyne Audio, “The F1-10 Anniversary is a truly landmark product for the brand. Each pair is not only a celebration of Fyne Audio’s first decade, but a lasting demonstration of the knowledge, skill and passion of the people who have shaped that journey. While the Anniversary is a limited-edition loudspeaker, the design philosophy, technologies, and engineering behind it form the foundation of the next decade of Fyne Audio loudspeaker ranges.”

The Fyne Audio F1-10 Anniversary speakers are available now for £37,000 / $50,000.

MORE

Read our full Fyne Audio F1-8 review

Then, check out our Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review

Plus, stay up to date with our pick of the best floorstanding speakers tested by our expert reviewers

No thanks, I'm cutting down on dairy. Oh, these are speakers are they? Shaped like milk cartons? Go on then.

These are the first Bluetooth speakers from Nothing's budget sub-brand CMF, and as you would expect, they are very affordable indeed. But we'll get to that in a minute.

They're certainly eye catching. The Speaker M (the larger one) and Speaker S (seen below) both come in white, dark grey, orange and turquoise, with swappable front panels and knobs. Both support standardised, 3D-printable custom designs, if you want to add a personal touch.

Both are built to be taken with you – the Speaker S has an "attachment point" for hooking on a strap or carabiner, while the M has a built-in handle.

The M is the more powerful of the two, boasting a 25W woofer and 10W tweeter with an output of 35W RMS across 60Hz-20kHz. This should mean "deeper bass, clearer highs and more separation for vocals and instruments" than the Speaker S's 45mm full-range driver and dual passive radiators, which deliver up to 10W RMS across 70Hz-20kHz.

Both speakers feature an Adaptive Tuning algorithm that continuously analyses playback and optimises the output and EQ in real time to make sure the sound remains balanced.

Or you can dive into the Nothing X app to pick from four equaliser presets (Balanced, More Bass, More Treble and Voice).

Ultra Bass mode adds even more low-end weight (though it's "controlled", CMF insists), while Wide Soundstage makes for a more open sonic landscape.

You can control Ultra Bass from a knob on the device itself, which also handles playback, track navigation and volume. There are also dedicated buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing and Auracast.

You can pair two of the same model to create a stereo sound, or use the Auracast-based Party Mode to sync up to 10 speakers, including those from other brands. (Portable speaker bigwig JBL uses the same tech.)

Both speakers have Bluetooth 6.0, and can pair quickly using NFC, Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair. They can connect to two devices at once so you don't need to re-pair every time you switch between them, and they can also connect over USB-C.

Speaker charging? It can wake automatically when a paired device reconnects to it, thanks to Auto Wake.

Battery life for both is a healthy 18 hours, which is two hours shy of the JBL Charge 6, our pick as best overall in our best Bluetooth speakers guide. And both CMF speakers are IP68 dust- and water-resistant, so will survive a dunk in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes.

They're both out today. The Speaker S is just £49 / $59 / €59 / AU$119 and the Speaker M £99 / $109 / €99 / AU$199. Which is very cheap indeed, though it all comes down to how they perform.

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Do you have a Sonos soundbar? Or are you looking to buy one this Prime Day?

While they are all good stand-alone options, it’s possible you will want to add a touch more low end to your music and film soundtracks – and that’s where the Sonos Sub Mini comes in.

This capable, snappy subwoofer is currently on offer for £327 at Amazon, and has been highlighted on the site as a best seller.

Clearly, the public knows a good deal when they see one, as we gave the Sonos Sub Mini a positive four-star review at its £429 launch price, and praised its discreet build and lack of distracting vibrations. If you’re after a soundbar as well, we found it pairs best with the Sonos Beam Ultra and Sonos Beam (Gen 2) – the latter of which is also on sale, for £338 at Amazon.

The Sonos Sub Mini’s performance will depend on your soundbar of choice, but we found several promising, consistent characteristics throughout.

“The Sub Mini has a quick, responsive sound that sets it apart from the loose, bland vagueness of many other soundbar subs,” our Sonos Sub Mini review reads. “And indeed, throughout our testing, the Sub Mini always maintains prudent control, and we don’t hear any unwanted rattles or buzzes.”

The Sub Mini kicks out an impressive amount of volume for its size, and reveals low-frequency elements underpinning scores that most soundbars alone can’t touch with a barge pole.

However, we recommend pairing the Sub Mini only with the mid-range options from Sonos, namely the Beam Ultra and Beam (Gen 2). It’s overkill with the entry-level Sonos Ray, and Sonos Arc Ultra owners would benefit far more from the fully fledged Sonos Sub.

For those with the right soundbar, though, the Sub Mini has plenty to offer. While there is an ethernet port, most will connect the Sub Mini over wi-fi, meaning it requires only a single cable for power.

Adding the Sub Mini to your system is simple thanks to the Sonos app, which also includes options for bass level, EQ and phase.

At just 31 x 23 x 23cm (hwd), the Sub Mini is ideal for small and medium-sized rooms, while the matte monochrome cabinet offers an appealing, understated aesthetic and is entirely sealed to reduce distortion.

If you have one of the Sonos Beam models and want to add a powerful punch, the Sub Mini is one of your top options at this price of £327 at Amazon. And it seems the public has caught on, making this the top subwoofer deal of this Prime Day.

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Also consider our Samsung HW-Q800A review

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These are the best soundbars: excellent TV speakers at budget to premium prices

Do you know the best thing about sales events such as Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day? Hitherto unseen deals.

We tested the JBL Xtreme 5 around its release date in May of this year, and we've barely seen a drop since that time. Then, Prime Day came along and, as we might have expected, gave us the first significant discount on a speaker we lauded as elevating the established Xtreme range to a whole new level.

Now the Xtreme 5 can be picked up for £279 at Amazon, a £50 discount on a speaker that launched at £330 in the summer. This deal won't last, though, so get a move on if you don't want to miss out.

Best Prime Day JBL Bluetooth speaker deal

It's still only been around for around six months, but Xtreme 5 has already gained a stellar reputation as a robust, rugged speaker with a clear, detailed and musical sound, all housed in a durable package and backed by more features than you can shake a sausage at.

An increase in power from its predecessor – the Xtreme 5 offers a claimed 130W when mains-powered and 90W when running off the built-in battery – is immediately obvious, bringing a greater sense of scale and size compared with the Xtreme 4.

Bass weight is impressive without overpowering the rest of the track, and JBL's speaker is so clear it makes the Xtreme 4 sound slightly hazy and cluttered in comparison.

As we wrote in our review: "Play Run by Stephen Fretwell, and there’s more separation around the individual elements, so you can hear what each one brings to the music.

"You can inspect around the edges of that crisply defined percussion and piano, but the whole presentation remains cohesive, and the track remains confidently knitted together with the lead vocal at the centre. It’s still a hugely musical listen and captures the slow, gentle rhythmic flow and rise and fall of the track."

The Xtreme 5 is a tad chunkier than the fourth-gen model, but it comes with a carry strap that easily attaches to the floating loops. There are also light strips on the front that are perfect for parties, as is the built-in bottle opener.

Features-wise, you get Bluetooth 6 and Auracast, the latter of which allows you to connect multiple compatible speakers together. There's also lossless audio up to 24-bit/48kHz through a wired connection and Playtime Boost, which extends the battery life from 24 hours to 28 hours, albeit with a rather drastic impact on sound quality.

If you want one of the most powerful and best-sounding Bluetooth speakers around, the JBL Xtreme 5 is the speaker for you. It'll handle any outdoor gathering you throw at it, and a £51 saving at Amazon will almost certainly help you beat the impending winter blues.

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Discover our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers for every budget

Note: Magico has pointed out that due to inflation, the original A3's price rose to just shy of £22,000 this year – almost £10,000 more than its launch price. The original story follows.

When it launched in 2017, the original A3 was Magico's most affordable speaker ever (though at £12,000 per pair, it wasn't exactly pocket money). Now the A3 has been reborn as the A3 2027, with a new cabinet, new drivers and new crossover.

Oh, and a new price that's over twice as much as the original A3 at launch.

The new model is again a three-way, four-driver floorstander, but it was developed with the same advanced measurement instruments that produced the ultra-high-end M9 (which cost a staggering £840,000 per pair at launch, but are probably closer to £1 million now).

Californian firm Magico claims that no part of the original A3 speaker was kept just because it worked before – rather every element was reconsidered and reevaluated.

The midrange and woofer cones are built around aluminium-honeycomb cores, which have "ideal thickness, light weight, and the ability to be formed into custom shapes", Magico says. Once sandwiched between carbon fibre skins, they produce "groundbreaking performance" with ultra-low distortion.

Each drive unit was designed especially for the A3 2027. The tweeter's pure-beryllium 28mm diameter diaphragm has a new neodymium-based motor to deliver low distortion with greater power handling, while the 5-inch midrange uses a new long-life foam surround to achieve "excellent cone-to-surround integration, fast settling time, and ultra-low distortion figures," according to Magico.

The midrange also has a super-stabilised magnetic field, pure titanium voice coil and pure copper shorting rings courtesy of a new motor system to minimise eddy currents.

The two 7-inch bass units use the same new cone geometry as the midrange, with the same motor system and all its benefits. These units were optimised for minimal distortion using FEA simulation.

So that's the actual sound-producing parts covered. But the rest of the speaker received just as much attention to detail.

The new crossover is implemented as an acoustical-target 24dB Linkwitz-Riley slope, "delivering maximum frequency and phase linearity while keeping intermodulation distortion minimal." Magico's Elliptical Symmetry Crossover techniques control driver resonances, while Mundorf EB GmbH components promise greater power handling, transparency and liquidity.

Bracing and damping were targeted precisely where needed, thanks to the use of a Laser Vibrometer measuring the vibrations in the cabinet panels. A Near-Field Scanner (NFS) robot measured the 3D sphere surrounding the speaker to optimise the A3 2027's acoustic output, while constrained layer damping means less noise radiating from the parts of the cabinet featuring bracing and bolts.

The visual design has been overhauled, too, with radiused vertical edges and no hard corners visible when viewed in profile. There's no visible fastener either, so it looks like one uninterrupted surface only broken by the drivers. The base is precision-machined and mirrors the speakers' radiused geometry, with custom footers that help reduce diffraction.

The cabinet has had a glow up as well, with the panels now bead blasted and anodised, resulting in a satin texture. And it now comes in four finishes – black, silver, red, and blue – to the original A3's two.

All of these improvements come at a price, and that price is £28,998 per pair (around $38,000 / AU$55,000). That's more than twice the launch price of the original A3.

Look out for it in the first part of 2027 from UK distributor Absolute Sounds.

MORE:

Read about the original Magico A3

And the insane M9 flagship

Best floorstanding speakers: budget to premium models tested by our experts

After serious home cinema sound?

Then you want a serious subwoofer. The KEF Kube 12 MIE requires ample space, but it rewards you with a truly cinematic performance.

And the best part? The Kube 12 MIE is currently on sale. The superb sub can now be picked up for £599 at Peter Tyson – that's a 25 per cent discount.

You also get a Fell Audio 3-metre subwoofer cable included absolutely free!

We've not reviewed the KEF Kube 12 MIE independently, but we have tested it as part of the Award-winning KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 speaker system.

In case you couldn't tell from the five-star rating and Award, we are big fans of that system, including how it handles bass.

"The explosion towards the start of this sequence is delivered with a hefty dose of low-end punch, and the subwoofer delivers its gut-punch of low end while remaining in total control," our KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 speaker system review reads.

"There’s no flabby or waffly bass here, and while the Bowers & Wilkins 606/607 S3’s subwoofer is a touch more tuneful, the KEF Kube 12 MIE delivers a powerful and dynamic low-end kick."

It's hardly surprising – this is a 12-inch front-firing subwoofer powered by 300W of Class D amplification.

It's housed in a sealed cabinet design, which offers greater placement flexibility. It even has a room-position EQ switch on the rear to adjust the sound depending on whether you place the subwoofer in a corner, out in the room, or in a wall alcove or cabinet.

As we've alluded to above, the Kube 12 MIE's size is a tad unwieldy at 41 x 39 x 41cm (hwd) and with a weight of 18.6kg. This won't suit all setups, but the talented sub is well worth it if you have the space.

The KEF Kube 12 MIE is controlled, dynamic and punchy. If you need a subwoofer to underpin your system with a dose of weighty bass, the Kube 12 MIE is an excellent choice with 25 per cent off at Peter Tyson.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best surround sound systems

As well as the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

And read our full Bowers & Wilkins 606 & 607 S3 speaker package review

Studio monitoring speakers sit at the very core of PMC’s DNA. The letters PMC are an initialism for Professional Monitoring Company, after all. The brand’s earliest products were aimed at the pro world, with the original MB1 monitor being introduced in 1993, just a couple of years after the company was founded.

More than three decades on, the current PMC MB2 SE mirrors that early monitor’s formula right down to its brutal appearance, formidable cabinet size and drive unit array. Of course, PMC hasn’t been idle over those decades, with the current design featuring improved ingredients across the board that take in everything the brand has learnt over the years.

Design & build

Technically, the PMC MB2 SE is a standmount design, but at 87cm tall it is not that much shorter than many of the floorstanders that pass through our test room. Make no mistake, this is a huge speaker, measuring 38cm wide and over half a metre deep.

A single MB2 SE is as visually obtrusive as a washing machine, and you need two of them for stereo, of course. Those with modestly-sized listening rooms need not apply.

The MB2 SE is a three-way design. It combines a 27mm Sonolex soft-dome tweeter, a 75mm doped-linen dome midrange, and a rather distinctive 31cm Radial doped-paper bass driver, with crossover points set at 3.8kHz and 380Hz. Connection is made via three sets of chunky binding posts.

Those spokes in front of the bass cone aren’t just there to look impressive. They serve to dissipate heat generated in the motor system when working at high volume levels with bass-heavy source material.

We suspect such considerations are unnecessary for normal domestic use. But it is nice to know the speakers can cope if you go nuts with the volume level during a spirited listening session.

The use of transmission-line bass loading has been baked into PMC’s products from the beginning, so it is no surprise to see the technique used here. The company has long promoted this configuration to be the most effective way to achieve clean, low-distortion bass output from a box speaker.

The rear-firing output from the MB2 SE’s bass unit travels down a folded, carefully damped path inside the cabinet. As this signal passes through, most of the sound gets absorbed, leaving only the lowest frequencies to emerge from the substantial vent at the top of the front baffle.

Importantly, this low-frequency sound is in phase with the bass unit’s forward output, and if properly tuned, fills in below the point where the woofer starts to tail off. The transmission line inside the MB2 SE has an effective length of 3m.

A further advantage of such a design is that it adds internal bracing inside the enclosure, making the structure impressively rigid. The MB2 SE is beautifully made and finished to a high standard, just as its hefty price tag demands.

It is available in four lovely real wood finishes: the Grand Walnut of our review samples, Amarone, Natural Oak and Jet Black. But rather like a gorilla dressed in a tuxedo, none of these come close to hiding the design’s studio heritage. We can’t imagine anyone calling it a stylish design, but we still warm to the MB2 SE’s brutal yet entirely functional appearance.

Any speaker at this level positively demands top-class partnering equipment. Our sources are Naim’s ND 555/555 PS DR music streamer and Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart MC record player feeding a Burmester 088/911 Mk III pre/power amplifier.

We also try PMC’s Cor integrated amplifier to see how the speakers cope with more modest but still capable amplification. Our speaker benchmarks are ATC’s SCM50 speakers and a pair of Marten Audio Parker Duo Diamond standmounts.

It will come as no surprise to find that such a big speaker shines brightest when given plenty of space to breathe. Our main test room is 3 x 7 x 5m (hwd) in size, which is reasonable by general standards but probably at the lower end of acceptability for these monitors.

We end up with them around a metre into the room, and slightly angled in so that the tweeter axis crosses a little behind us when we are seated in the main listening position.

Sound

Set up in this way, these PMC speakers deliver an expansive soundstage with instruments and environmental acoustic clues nicely focused. There is a pleasing resolution of depth information and an impressive degree of image stability when the music gains in complexity, or the volume level rises.

It is fair to say that the soundstage doesn’t quite float free of those substantial cabinets in the manner that smaller alternatives such as the Marten speakers manage, but it is still good enough to avoid complaint.

Given their size, it is fair to expect that these PMC speakers can go loud and deliver deep bass, and they do. We play an old favourite, Setting Sun by the Chemical Brothers, and the MB2 SE have a ball. They play loud, way louder than we would ever need, yet remain wonderfully refined and composed when doing so. They don’t harden up or become edgy when pushed.

It all adds up to a lovely sense of ease, where the listener can relax knowing that the speakers can cope with whatever is thrown at them.

Then there is the bass. The MB2 SE are a great advert for transmission lines. If engineered poorly, such designs can sound uneven and ponderous, but PMC’s experience has delivered a performance that ticks all the boxes as far as low-end performance is concerned.

As we run through our array of bass-torture tracks from Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks for Interstellar, The Dark Knight and Inception to Massive Attack’s Mezzanine and Soul II Soul’s Club Classics Vol.1, we can’t help but sit back in awe at what these speakers can do.

They dig impressively deep, yet combine that with a blend of power, finesse and tunefulness that is rare. There is a degree of authority on offer that is a match for anything we have had in our test rooms.

The speakers’ excellent bass gives a firm foundation for the rest of the frequency range. Voices come through with impressive clarity and definition. These PMC speakers are as insightful as they come through the midrange, but unlike many such high-resolution designs, they don’t filter out the natural warmth and body of voices. As we listen to Sade’s Diamond Life, we can’t help but admire the speakers’ skill in resolving vocal textures and the dynamic nuances that communicate emotion.

Orchestral crescendos and other larger-scale dynamic shifts are handled with equal finesse. Once again, we note the speakers’ composure and the apparent ease with which they go from loud to quiet and back again.

As a bonus, we are happy to note that the MB2 SE sound good at quiet volumes too, with the bass staying present and balanced with the rest of the frequency range to a surprising degree. If you are looking for ideal late-night speakers, consider these.

Verdict

The PMC MB2 SE are surprisingly capable all-rounders. Their size and driver array correctly foreshadow their sonic muscularity, whether we are talking about loudness capability or bass extension.

However, we weren’t expecting them to be so refined and insightful. Sure, they are hugely transparent and will uncover shortcomings in both the partnering electronics and source material with ease. However, they never forget to put the music first.

If you have the space and system to do them justice, these are speakers you really have to hear. We are utterly charmed by them.

Review published: 1st October 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Read our review of the ATC SCM 100A

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Best bookshelf speakers: top standmounts for every budget tested

German tech brand Loewe has launched its latest Bluetooth speaker, the Leo, billed as a way of getting outstanding sonic performance in a premium portable design.

The Leo delivers 50 watts of total power and dual passive bass radiators, helping to ensure, says Loewe, that “compromising on acoustic fidelity is never a consequence of mobility”.

Adding to those mobile credentials are an IP67 water- and dust-proof certification, 12 hours of battery life, as well as a detachable leather carry-strap and a premium felt case. Auracast is on board, meaning you can connect the Neo to any number of other speakers capable of supporting the increasingly popular wireless sharing technology.

Externally, Loewe’s latest features built-in ambient lighting that can be adjusted manually using the on-unit light strip. The speaker uses a premium aluminium housing with interchangeable speaker grilles, meaning you can switch up your speaker’s look depending on your mood and desired aesthetic.

The speaker also houses top-mounted controls, including a power button, bass and treble boosters, and a light toggle.

The Neo is controllable via Loewe’s accompanying app, from which you can personalise the speaker’s on-unit lighting and tweak your sound via three sonic presets alongside individual bass and treble adjustments.

According to Aslan Khabliev, CEO of Loewe: “For decades, Loewe has been synonymous with design, innovation and individuality. Neo implements that philosophy out into the world, combining exceptional acoustic power, intelligent lighting, and unprecedented customisation in one beautifully crafted product.”

The Loewe Neo will be available for preorder from 20th November in Alu Silver, Alu Black or Champagne finishes, priced at £400 / €400, making it more expensive than the five-star JBL Xtreme 5 (£330 / €350). Note that the Champagne finish will run as a limited edition colourway.

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New issue of What Hi-Fi? out now: it’s a bumper 50th Anniversary special!

Best Bluetooth speakers tried and tested for every budget

British audio brand Marshall has launched its latest party-ready Bluetooth speaker, the Bromley 150.

Acting as the newest and most portable addition to the brand’s party-focused speaker line-up, the new unit packs 200 watts of Class D amplification driving a four-driver array to produce “rich mids, detailed highs, and deep bass”.

Those drivers are backed by Marshall’s ‘Stereophonic 360 sound’ technology, which seeks to emulate the immersive feel of a live performance by creating a more omnidirectional sound that remains consistent at any angle.

The Bromley 150 carries the same design language as its 750 and Bromley 450 stablemates, with a mounted control panel accompanied by integrated stage lights which sit behind the grille and move in sync with your music.

The new speaker boasts more than 40 hours of playtime on a single charge, with a 20-minute charge granting 5 hours of playtime. An IP55 certification and a silicone cover offer protection against water and dust ingress, while a retractable carry handle further adds to the (reasonably) compact Bromley 150’s portable credentials.

Like its bigger brothers, the new speaker offers microphone and instrument inputs via its combined XLR/6.3mm jack, so you can use it for impromptu karaoke and jamming sessions alongside day-to-day listening. For pure audio inputs, a 3.5mm auxiliary port is available alongside USB-C.

According to Emma Rydahl, Marshall’s Senior Industrial Designer: “Bromley 150 delivers the same exceptional performance and craftsmanship as the Bromley 450 and 750 in a more compact form. By repositioning the control panel to the side while retaining the tactile controls users love, we’ve freed up the entire front panel for what matters most: powerful sound and immersive stage lighting.”

The Marshall Bromely 150 will be available for general sale on 13th of October in its ‘Black and Brass’ colourway, priced at £400. That’s a good chunk more than the Award-winning JBL Xtreme 5 (£330 / $400).

MORE:

Love Marshall? Read our recent Marshall Kilburn III review

New issue of What Hi-Fi? out now: it’s a bumper 50th Anniversary special!

Best Bluetooth speakers tried and tested for every budget

What was the moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Keep telling the same old tale and, eventually, people will stop believing you.

We've had so many false dawns with regard to the new HomePod Mini 2 that we were genuinely starting to believe that a sequel would never come. Apple's recent September launch event seemed like the perfect time for some new HomePods, but we had to settle for a folding iPhone and the AirPods 5 with ANC.

We know we've said it before, but this time it really does appear to be the case: Apple looks set to launch the HomePod Mini 2 at some point before the end of 2026. According to MacRumours, Apple has indeed been working on a new HomePod for several years, hence previous reports of iOS software updates including codenames referencing a number of unreleased products.

One of those codenames was 'B525', and as the current HomePod Mini has the code 'B520', that had strongly implied that a second-gen sequel was forthcoming. We all thought that Apple's recent launch event would be the time to do it, but a no-show on the HomePod front now appears to be a minor hiccup rather than a definitive sign that no new models would ever be forthcoming.

Now, the evidence is far more concrete than codes and call signs. According to MacRumours, Apple's own code shows clear product images of the new models in all of their colours, specifically referring to a "‌HomePod Mini‌ 2".

The new ‌HomePod Mini‌ will come in green, pink, blue, white and black finishes, a switch up from the current model's yellow, orange, blue, white and midnight offerings. Apple added a few colourways post-launch to the HomePod Mini, so it could expand the palette of the second-gen speaker later down the line.

Elsewhere, we're still at the point of broad speculation regarding upgrades, but we remain steadfast in our conviction that, thanks to a new chip, upgraded Apple Intelligence and improved Siri performance will be locked and loaded. We might potentially see improved microphones, enhanced audio, better codec support and, as pictures now showcase, those flashy new colourways.

Prices are yet to be leaked, but we're still hoping that Apple doesn't hike the price of the Mini's original £99 / $99 / AU$149 RRP for the sequel. Sadly, chip shortages are hitting audio manufacturers hard, so don't be too shocked if prices rise when the Mini 2 arrives.

We know we've said it before, but this time it really might be true: a HomePod Mini 2 could be just months, maybe weeks, away. Now, where's that HomePod 3 got to?

MORE:

Apple HomePod 2 vs HomePod Mini: what are the differences?

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Tribit has announced the launch of a new portable Bluetooth speaker, the StormBox Max, which the company says has been “designed to to deliver bigger, richer sound at home or on the go”.

The speaker packs 60W of total output power into its portable design, which measures 20.3 x 10.9 x 10.9 cm (hwd) and weighs 1.2kg.

Sound is delivered by a 30W woofer and four 7.5W silk-dome tweeters, which Tribit says create “powerful, room-filling audio”.

The StormBox Max supports Bluetooth 6.0 with a range of up to 45 metres for AAC and SBC codecs, as well as A2DP, AVRCP, HFP and HSP protocols.

Two speakers can be connected using TWS pairing for separate left and right stereo channels, while those looking to party can turn to the speaker’s Auracast function, which enables 100+ compatible speakers to be connected for synchronised audio on larger scales.

For “everyday versatility”, the speaker also supports hands-free calling.

Users seeking a more personalised listening experience have the option to “take control of sound”, using Tribit’s XBass 2.0, which features a ±5-step knob for adjustable bass. An additional EQ button makes switching between the company’s ‘Signature’ and ‘Outdoor’ sound modes simple, while further customisation is available through the Tribit App.

Battery life shouldn’t cut your listening short – the StormBox Max can provide up to 20 hours of playback, while using default EQ settings at 50 per cent volume.

The speaker charges via USB-C, with a full charge taking four hours. An automatic power-off function switches the speaker off after 15 minutes without an audio input.

The USB-C connection can also be used as a 5V/1A charging output, so you can refuel your devices on the go.

Tribit has taken outdoor listening into consideration, too, with an IP68 dust ingress and waterproof rating, which “makes [the speaker] ideally suited to outdoor adventures”.

The StormBox Max is now available for £100 / $130.

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The most famous BBC-designed speaker is undoubtedly the little LS3/5A. Arguably the first proper high-quality mini-monitor, this little box design from 1975 has long achieved legend status among a section of the hi-fi community.

It is a two-way design, barely bigger than a typical shoebox. Given the tiny 5-litre internal volume and modest 11cm mid/bass unit, don’t expect much in the way of bass extension or ultimate loudness capability.

Yet, listen to the LS3/5A with vocal-based recordings or small-scale classical, and they can still sound magical. They render voices and acoustic instruments with the kind of palpability, warmth and body most modern alternatives barely hint at.

True, the best of the current breed, KEF’s own LS50 Meta or PMC’s Prodigy 1, are notably more revealing and dynamic. However, there is no denying that the LS3/5A’s music-making abilities remain captivating.

The BBC is a broadcaster rather than a manufacturer, so its speakers were made under licence by outside suppliers. A range of companies, including Rogers, Spendor, Harbeth and KEF, signed the dotted line.

Our limited edition mid-90s KEF LS3/5A samples come straight from the company’s museum. They are specified as having a miserly 82.5 dB/W/m sensitivity and power handling of just 30 watts.

That gives a maximum output level in the mid-90dB range, which is fair – but hardly party levels. This is a low-sensitivity speaker that can’t be driven hard to compensate.

But that didn’t matter to the BBC, as the LS3/5A was intended to work in nearfield conditions, in cramped studios and outside broadcast vans. It was designated a ‘Grade II’ design, used to monitor general speech and overall balance, rather than for critical evaluation.

To do that job, the BBC ended up designing something bigger and more ambitious. Enter the LS5/9.

The 28-litre LS5/9 was introduced in 1983, eight years after its more famous sibling. Its job was to let sound engineers optimise every aspect of the broadcast/recording, from microphone placement to overall sonic balance.

The LS5/9’s home was any studio where the company’s huge full-range monitor speakers wouldn’t fit. Graham Audio is responsible for our beautifully built samples.

Both the LS3/5A and LS5/9 designs were based on decades of research done by the BBC’s engineering department. That research covered every aspect of speaker design, from cabinet construction to drive-unit materials, and was far better resourced than anything a commercial speaker manufacturer would or could ever do.

The research led to some unusual conclusions. Thin, heavily damped cabinet panels were considered a better option than the thick-walled, ultra-rigid approach so favoured today.

The slight ‘give’ thin panels provide pushes any resonances away from the midrange, where our ears are so sensitive, into the bass region, where they are not. The LS3/5A’s enclosure panels use 12mm birch ply, while the LS5/9’s are thinner at 9mm.

Most speakers of the day used paper diaphragms in their drive units, which were prone to unwanted colourations and distortions. The BBC's solution was to use new-fangled plastics instead.

The LS3/5A's KEF-sourced B110 mid/bass featured a Bextrene cone to avoid any such issues. This was partnered with a 19mm Mylar-dome tweeter, linked, as in the LS5/9, with a complex crossover that prioritised tonal evenness, seamless integration and consistent dispersion characteristics.

The LS5/9 is a front-ported design rather than a sealed box. Its more modern 20cm mid/bass switches to polypropylene on performance grounds, and is mated to an unusually large Audax 34mm soft-dome tweeter.

The large dome size helps with power handling and integration but restricts treble extension to just 16kHz (+/- 3dB), whereas the LS3/5A is claimed to reach closer to 20kHz (+/-3dB).

Both speakers have protective metal grilles fixed in front of their tweeters to avoid accidental damage.

The LS5/9 is a more electrically sensitive design than its older sibling. It has a quoted sensitivity of 87dB/W/m, so it is notably louder for any given input signal. Maximum loudness capability is up too, at more than 100dB, a big gain over its relative.

Given the shared engineering foundations of these two speakers, I thought it would be interesting to compare their sound. Before we start, you should know that our samples differ greatly in age.

The KEF LS3/5A is around 30 years old. While it is in great working order, those years are likely to have taken some toll on its drivers, crossover components and enclosure. On the other hand, the Graham Audio LS5/9 is the company’s current demo pair.

It is easy to understand why so many people still love what the LS3/5A does. It offers a smooth, easy-going listen. The midrange sounds surprisingly full-bodied, giving voices and acoustic instruments a natural warmth and fluidity that is hugely appealing.

Position the speakers on solid stands, close to a rear wall, and they deliver a decent impression of bass weight for their size. This is down to a low-frequency hump deliberately introduced to highlight any hum or buzz in the original signal.

Remember, the BBC designed this for monitoring broadcasts and recordings, and such unwanted noises would be common issues.

The relatively smooth higher frequencies aren’t particularly insightful by current standards, though the integration with the midrange is seamless. There is no doubt that the better current £1000-£1500 standmounters deliver greater dynamic reach, stronger rhythmic drive and better overall transparency.

That’s 50 years of engineering progress. Still, there remains something quite wonderful about the way these BBC monitors make small-scale and intimate music sound.

In contrast, the LS5/9 are much more like a modern speaker. Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring holds no fear, even at high volume levels. These are detailed and articulate performers that can challenge the best at their price (£3839 / $5999 / AU$9749).

They are notably more transparent than the LS3/5A, revealing flaws in recordings and partnering equipment far more readily. That Audax tweeter isn’t shy about sounding harsh or edgy, if provoked.

Tonally, the LS5/9 sound more neutral, trading the smooth, slightly rich balance of their older siblings for a more upfront and direct approach. Their midrange still has a lovely sense of naturalness, delivered with a fluidity that most equivalent designs would struggle to better.

Both BBC monitors image superbly. The LS3/5A disappears more successfully into the soundstage, but even the bigger speakers render impressively stable and focused results.

The LS5/9 age starts to show only when it comes to delivering large-scale dynamic shifts and rhythmic drive. Current class leaders communicate the energy and authority of a recording better.

Even so, I’m astonished by just how appealing both these speakers sound. The LS3/5A is the more forgiving choice. It has a smoother balance, a truly lovely midrange and superb stereo imaging. However, it excels at being soothing rather than exciting.

The LS5/9 is the better all-rounder, though fussier about the partnering system and recording quality. It was designed as a critical monitor, and that shows. Ultimately, it is the one I would like to live with, even though the LS3/5A manages to sound more magical with certain recordings.

Whichever one you lean towards, both designs are solid testaments to the excellence of the BBC’s engineering department all those years ago.

MORE:

Read our Graham Audio LS5/9 review

The BBC’s 50-year-old LS3/5A mini monitor shows the uneven progress of modern speaker design

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REL Acoustics, a brand dedicated to solely producing subwoofers, has just released its latest flagship entries. Meet the No. 35 and No. 36 models, which make up the company’s Reference Series.

While they may sound like the codenames for anonymous spies, the two new subwoofers are “built around the most significant advances to its amplifier and driver technologies in years”, according to the brand.

One of the most notable upgrades from the previous generation comes with the new Class AB/D hybrid amplifier, which means the No. 36 is powered by 1000 watts and No. 35 by 900 watts. Each amplifier is additionally built around a weighty 17-pound (around 8kg) ring-shaped transformer.

Under the hood, both models also feature a carbon fibre driver. No. 35’s 12-inch driver has been upgraded from the last flagship sub to feature more flexible suspension and a better-controlled cone so it can supposedly play louder than its predecessor. The No. 36 model boasts a 15-inch driver, with REL claiming it is made for the “most ambitious music and theatre systems”.

Like their predecessors, the new models feature a curved wooden exterior which calls for 12 coats of hand-rubbed lacquer. They measure the same as the previous models too ( 74cm wide for No. 36 and 64cm for No. 35), so you can stack them on top of your existing Reference subwoofers if you have them.

As with all of the brand’s offerings, however, you will need to have deep pockets to add one of these subs to your system. The Reference No.36 subwoofer will set you back £11,000 / $12,000, while the slightly cheaper model will cost £9000 / $10,000. That’s still an incredibly eye-watering price, especially if you are looking to get a pair.

We haven't heard the subwoofers in our dedicated test room yet, but stay tuned to see whether the staggering price tag is worth it.

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Always charging your Bluetooth speaker?

Whether you're a party animal, BBQ enthusiast, or regular host, nothing's worse than the speaker dying just as things get going.

And that's where the JBL Xtreme 4 comes in. As well as being an Award winner for its engaging and entertaining sound, it also packs in a whole 24 hours of battery life.

Oh, and did we mention? The Xtreme 4 is currently only £169 at Richer Sounds, a whopping 49 per cent off from the price we tested at.

You just have to sign up for the free Richer Sounds VIP club to get this discount, but luckily that doesn't cost a penny.

With some September sunshine still seeping through the clouds, the JBL Xtreme 4 is perfect for any outdoor gatherings you still have planned.

With a tough, wraparound grille made from a combination of recycled plastic and fabric, the Xtreme 4 is waterproof and dustproof, perfect if the heavens do decide to open.

And the Xtreme 4 can survive long trips as well as wet ones – the already impressive 24 hour battery can stretch to 30 with the Playtime Boost feature turned on. This does suck the weight and solidity out of the bass, however, so we'd save this for emergencies.

With Playtime Boost turned off, however, we're pleased to report a fantastically refined sound.

"It produces a wonderfully clear and consistent sound across tracks," our JBL Xtreme 4 review reads. "Low frequencies are poised and punchy but don’t lack weight. Highs are crisp enough so they don’t feel rolled off.

"Detail levels are excellent for the money and it's still exciting and fun to listen to, which is exactly what you want from a product like this."

There are plenty of features on board too – Bluetooth 5.3 and Auracast are both on offer, while the Xtreme 4 can also niftily function as a power bank if required.

The Xtreme 4 has since been replaced by, you guessed it, the JBL Xtreme 5. It adds drop resistance and a greater sonic presence to its list of credentials, but it's also currently over £100 more with a £279 price tag.

Unless you're after the very latest and greatest in Bluetooth audio, however, the JBL Xtreme 4 should be more than enough to cover your speaker needs both indoors and outside. For an entertaining and refined sound that can last all day, consider the JBL Xtreme 4 for £169 at Richer Sounds.

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Check out our best Bluetooth speakers 2026: tried and tested for every budget

Too often, companies pursue low-end depth at the expense of all else. Call it the passing-car-on-the-high-road approach. Or Beats before Apple. But Wharfedale’s new subwoofers don’t fall into that trap; instead, the Nova Series is focused on “balance, texture and precision”, says the manufacturer, from the smallest 8-inch model right up to the 15-incher.

The aim is for bass that is deep and authoritative, but that complements rather than overwhelms the movies and music it’s conveying.

There are four models in the range: the Nova 8, Nova 10, Nova 12 and Nova 15. The numbers indicate the respective main driver’s diameter in inches. So whatever your system – whether it’s a home cinema behemoth, hi-fi leviathan, or diddy micro system – there should be one to fit the bill.

Bass depth and output levels vary according to the sub’s size, of course, but they all share the same approach thanks to the inclusion of new long-throw drivers, passive Auxiliary Bass Radiators (ABRs) and Wharfedale’s tried and tested cabinet architecture.

Let’s start with those drivers.

These feature rigid, lightweight paper cones with a proprietary coating to increase stiffness and self-damping without increasing mass. Thanks to the other components inside the Nova subwoofers, they should maintain stability at high output while allowing substantial linear movements, which should mean “exceptional extension” without sacrificing transient accuracy and composure, says Wharfedale.

Thermal efficiency and power handling are enhanced by a large-diameter voice coil, while the aluminium shorting ring in the motor structure improves linearity and transient response and lowers distortion.

The result? Bass with “greater definition and natural rhythmic timing”, according to Wharfedale.

Each sub in the range has a downward-firing, mass-loaded ABR with a dual-suspension design to extend low-frequency output without a conventional reflex port. Wharfedale claims this avoids issues such as chuffing, compression and unwanted resonance.

Wharfedale also claims a balance of depth and control thanks to each model’s optimised acoustic loading.

The Class D amplifier platform delivers nominal power ratings between 200W and 360W (depending on the model of subwoofer), up to 80V peak output and “substantial” dynamic headroom. The platform is optimised for efficiency, speed and sustained low-frequency control.

Wharfedale also stresses that the amplifier, driver, cabinet loading and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) have all been developed as an integrated system for a controlled, responsive performance free of strain and compression.

Some subs struggle with convincing bass at lower volumes; Wharfedale claims this won’t be a problem thanks to its DSP-controlled dynamic EQ. At lower levels, this should preserve weight and extension – crank the volume up, and it manages driver excursion to maintain clean output. Which should result in a larger, more authoritative performance than the unit’s physical size might suggest.

Wharfedale has tuned the woofers to integrate the bass seamlessly with a range of system configurations and environments. And if you want to fine-tune it yourself, you can, with adjustable crossover, phase alignment and level calibration tools.

The Nova 8 costs £799 / $999 / AU$1299, which is the same as the B&W ASW610, our pick as best overall in our list of best subwoofers. Pricing goes up to £899 / $1199 / AU$1699 for the Nova 10, £1099 / $1499 / AU$2199 for the Nova 12 and £1299 / $1999 / AU$2899 for the Nova 15.

All models launch in late September, and come in any colour as long as it’s black.

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Hisense has entered the competitive world of Bluetooth speakers with its new 'Boom' range of portable models.

Not to be confused with LG's Xboom line-up or Ultimate Ears' various portable speakers also suffixed by the word "Boom", Hisense's new line-up consists of three models – the FlexBoom, the WeBoom and the VoyageBoom – pitched across a range of sizes and use cases.

First up is the FlexBoom, conceived as a 'grab and go' speaker that packs 40 watts of power to deliver "crisp highs and punchy bass wherever you go".

If you want something bigger, the WeBoom is the step-up model, promising a "rich and powerful sound" from its 70 watts of power driving a pair of built-in dual subwoofers. Rounding off the trio is the VoyageBoom, a 180-watt speaker which packs twin tweeters, dual woofers and a subwoofer.

In terms of battery life, the portable FlexBoom delivers around 20 hours of playback at a time, with a 10-minute quick charge providing up to two hours of listening. The WeBoom and VoyageBoom each grant up to 24 hours of listening on a single charge, with both able to squeeze out an extra two hours of playtime via a 10-minute boost.

Users can connect two FlexBooms or VoyageBooms together to form a stereo pair, or broadcast any member of Hisense's new range to unlimited compatible speakers thanks to Auracast technology.

The WeBoom and VoyageBoom can also be used as a powerbank to charge your phone or tablet on the go, a feature we've seen used to great effect with the likes of the class-leading JBL Charge 6 and Xtreme 5 rivals.

All three members of the new Boom range are IP67 rated, meaning they should be resistant to dust ingress and submersion in water for around 30 minutes at a time. The WeBoom and VoyageBoom also feature on-unit lights which can be controlled via Hisense's ConnectLife app.

According to David Gold, Hisense's Chief Commercial Officer: “We've spent years building products that make movies, music, and shared moments better. With our new speakers, we're extending that experience with options designed for everything from everyday listening and weekends outside to hosting a house of friends."

The Hisense FlexBoom, WeBoom, and VoyageBoom are available now in the US, with UK availability expected soon. Current prices are as follows:

- FlexBoom: $120
- WeBoom: $200
- VoyageBoom: $300

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If you were to conjure up images that define rock’n’roll, then Marshall’s iconic amplifiers are right up there with Jack Daniels whiskey and Slash’s top hat.

The Marshall Kilburn III Bluetooth speaker straddles the line between the brand’s home and portable ranges: not too small, not too big; burly enough to look like one of its signature amps, yet portable enough to be moved around the house with its guitar-inspired carry strap.

Build & design

The Kilburn III’s retro styling has major shelf appeal. The textured vegan leather finish is tactile and feels robust, while the brass top panel with the dials, button controls and knurled power toggle is eye-catching.

The physical dials and red LEDs invite you to get up close and personal with the Kilburn III; you get instant gratification from seeing the volume and bass/treble levels when twiddling the dials, while pausing and skipping tracks using the ‘media jog’ is responsive in use.

We like how the battery bar is clear to see at a quick glance, and we have to stop ourselves from constantly toggling the power switch on and off as it’s so satisfyingly made. For build quality alone, the Kilburn III gets top marks, and we can see many being won over by its attractive design.

Next to its main rival in this field, the five-star burly JBL Xtreme 5 (£330 / $400), the Marshall does look smarter, if less rugged. The JBL’s IP68 rating points to its more outdoorsy nature, while the Marshall’s still-decent IP54 rating means it can withstand splashes of drinks and general dust and dirt – just don’t leave it out in a downpour.

The Kilburn III’s size means it will likely be used as a home speaker most of the time, but you can carry it from room to room and to the garden thanks to the red velvet-lined carry strap. It’s useful, although we wish it was just a little thicker and sturdier in hand to better accommodate the hefty weight of the speaker.

Features

Connecting to Bluetooth is swift and stable, and the accompanying Marshall app gives you access to a five-band EQ, with presets that you can customise. You can even save your favourite EQ profile to the ‘M’ button on the top panel, so you can access it with a single tap.

Bluetooth is restricted to the standard AAC and SBC codecs here, while Auracast sharing is supported. You can plug in a source such as an MP3 player into the speaker’s 3.5mm aux input, but that USB-C port is for charging only, not wired audio playback.

The Kilburn’s battery life is a whopping 50-plus hours (double that of its Xtreme 5 rival), and we barely made a dent in that during our two weeks of testing. You can also use the speaker’s bountiful reserves and USB-C port to charge up your smartphone, which is handy. Marshall even includes a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box, which is becoming increasingly rare in some major brands.

Operating the Marshall speaker is simple – it’s just Bluetooth, after all; no wi-fi or hi-res features to play with here – and the physical controls make it even more straightforward in use. One of the most useful things it has is the placement compensation feature in the app: it adjusts the sound balance depending on where you place the speaker, and there are multiple variables to choose from.

You can tell the app whether the speaker is placed up against the wall, in a corner, free-standing away from a wall, or if the front of the speaker is near the edge – all this is in service of compensating for any unruly boominess in the bass and how the sound reflects against its surrounding surface. This works well in every position we try in our test room, so it’s worth playing with the settings to get the best out of the Kilburn III in your home.

Sound

Inside the Kilburn III are two 5cm full-range speakers – one in the front and one in the back – and one 10cm woofer, along with a rear-firing bass reflex port. Altogether there’s 50W of Class D power on tap, and Marshall promises to deliver “true stereophonic” 360 sound with this stereo arrangement, with no “blind spots”.

And it does so rather well. While you will get the most direct sound from the front of the speaker, the tonal balance remains consistent as we move around it and listen off-axis – even from behind the speaker – with no discernible drop-off in the wide soundstage.

Marshall’s ‘dynamic loudness’ DSP also aims to keep the frequencies in check even when turning the volume up to 10 (sadly, the Kilburn III doesn’t go up to 11), and the speaker easily fills our test room with a bold, energetic sound.

The Kilburn III’s full-bodied presentation doesn’t ever try to be flat or neutral in any way; Marshall’s ‘signature’ sound veers towards the warmer and richer side of the sonic fence, and it’s a sound that is pleasingly easy to listen to. There’s a smoothness to the edges that means things don’t get wince-inducing at the top end when you inevitably turn it up to party levels.

It’s also quite a substantial, meaty sound across the frequencies. This lends satisfying muscle and slam to the distorted guitar riffs in Deftones’ Change (In The House Of Flies), while the dynamic swings and grand, sweeping movements of a Hans Zimmer soundtrack have a good sense of physicality to them.

On the flip side, it means that the leading edges of notes aren’t as crisply drawn as we’d like. There’s a good amount of detail to sink your teeth into, but we wouldn’t mind if the richness was dialled down a little here.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the Kilburn III’s bass-prominent, hard-charging character suits certain genres more than others, with more delicate fare such as The Unthanks’ traditional folk songs or sparse piano pieces needing greater nuance and refinement.

But the Marshall isn’t so blunt an instrument that you can’t listen to some Joni Mitchell through it. Voices can be a little recessed when in the mix with other instruments, but they sound solid and are projected well enough when listening to solo tracks. Joni’s voice on the Blue album comes through with a sweetness and fluidity that’s appealing to listen to, even if the Kilburn III adds some extra fat to the bones.

Feed it the iconic riffs of AC/DC, the obnoxious nu-metal of Limp Bizkit, or the raucous tones of Fontaines DC, and the Marshall speaker is at its happiest. We tone down the bass level a touch and push the mids up in the EQ settings to get the voices more prominent in the mix – just be careful not to upset the rest of the balance too much – but the personality of each distinct band comes through with plenty of punch.

The JBL Xtreme 5 rival remains the one to beat here, and it delivers a clearer, more rhythmically organised sound, with crisper edges and that bit more subtlety. But there’s enough pep, snap and dynamic punch in the Marshall’s lively sound that keeps us listening. Yes, it’s a chunky, flavoured sound, but it doesn’t stop our foot from tapping along to the music whether we play James Blake, Lambrini Girls or Metallica.

Verdict

Like an enthusiastic puppy with a mohawk, the Marshall Kilburn III is an eager, attention-grabbing performer, and while we imagine its sonic flavour won’t be for everyone, a more poised sound would perhaps be out of character with its rock’n’roll heritage.

JBL’s capable rival offers a more balanced and precise sound while still retaining high energy, but we can imagine many being swayed by the Marshall Kilburn III’s visual charms, its tactile physical controls and that rich, room-filling sound.

Review published: 16th September 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 4

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IKEA makes quite a few of its own Bluetooth speakers, and it has just launched another in the shape of the distinctively named Badkruka.

The famed Swedish furniture manufacturer already boasts a host of Bluetooth models in its current speaker arsenal, with the super-cheap ‘Kallsup’ model setting you back a paltry £5. You could buy a plate of meatballs for less than that.

The new Badkruka is larger and a little more premium than the dinky Kallsup, sporting a rather no-frills cuboid form made from plastic and polycarbonate.

Designed for home rather than portable use, the new speaker houses a range of top-mounted physical control buttons, including a Spotify Tap toggle for faster access to your Spotify streaming library. As well as standard Bluetooth, you also get an optical input alongside a 3.5mm auxiliary port. Nice.

Inside, the Badkruka packs 25 watts of total power feeding a single tweeter alongside a complementary woofer to produce what IKEA describes as a “clear, powerful sound” that “meets everyday needs at home”.

You can connect two speakers together to create a stereo pair, or use multi-speaker mode if you want to have a string of Badkrukas tethered together for a more immersive, room-filling audio experience.

The word ‘Badkruka’ in Swedish means someone averse to bathing outdoors (literally a “bath-coward”), so we’re assuming that IKEA’s speaker of the same name doesn’t particularly enjoy being taken for a dip. Best to keep it inside, then.

The IKEA Badkruka Bluetooth speaker is available now in pink or black finishes, priced at €50 / $60. We haven’t seen the Badkruka listed on IKEA’s UK site yet, but we imagine that it will sit at around the £40-50 mark when the time comes.

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At the Sydney Hi-fi Show back in May 2026, Richter was rocking its demo room with two pairs of ‘Series 7 Special Edition’ speakers.

The smaller pair were substantial standmounters, the new Aurora S7SE, while the larger pair were beautifully-proportioned floorstanders, bringing back a classic Richter name from the past: the Dragon.

Over the decades some Richter model names, which favour legendary creatures and such like mysticism, have become legends in their own right, perhaps most famously the Wizard, which has a nebulous claim to have sold more units Down Under than any other speaker designed here.

But also the Dragon, which qualifies as perhaps Australia’s cult‑classic floorstander par excellence, the step-up model engineered with unusually serious cabinet design and driver tech for its price class.

Build & design

It’s a timely arrival, this being an anniversary for Richter: 2026 marks 40 years since the original founder Ralph Waters launched the company with three pairs of home-made speakers while battling to overcome the Aussie ‘cultural cringe’ that kept many stores stocking only English, Japanese and American brands. Fortunately the press were impressed, and Waters’ designs found favour with the Australian public, Richter going from strength to strength ever since.

This new Series includes S7SE versions of the Wizard, Dragon and Excalibur floorstanders, along with the Aurora bookshelves, and they share revised design elements which CEO Brian Rodgers says were conceived “to bridge aesthetic sophistication and acoustic performance... Our brief was clear – to design a speaker you’re as proud to look at as you are to listen to, speakers that feel at home in today’s modern living spaces, yet deliver the power, precision, and emotional engagement Richter is known for.”

The development saw Richter’s long-time acoustic engineer Dr Martin Gosnell working closely with industrial designer Adam Hobbs to create a softer, more contemporary form, reducing the visual dominance of traditional large black boxes, while maintaining the integrity of Richter’s sound. Their solutions include newly-curved cabinet designs, with real natural walnut veneers and matching anthracite-grey baffles, optional mottled-grey cloth grilles, and “just enough shiny bling to draw your attention”, says Rodgers.

There are several notable updates with the S7SE range over the previous Series 6 – but there never was a Dragon S6, so the changes are even more significant if you compare the new Dragon to the previous Dragon V, which was in production from around 2010 to 2015.

In driver terms the mid-bass drivers are new and improved, with ultra-rigid, lightweight cones in precision-engineered cast-alloy baskets. The bass drivers gain larger voice coils, but the biggest change is the arrival of a new high/mid module, the ‘SE Teardrop’, housing not one but two domes — a 25mm high-output neodymium-backed HF dome and a new 70mm soft-dome midrange. The module is vertical in the floorstanders but pivots sideways to fit the baffle height of the Aurora standmount design.

In the larger Dragon and Excalibur models, Richter uses the teardrop module D’Appolito-style, flanked by the two 6.5-inch mid-bass drivers, also new and improved, arriving with ultra-rigid lightweight cones in precision-engineered cast alloy baskets. This all creates a symmetrical “wall of sound” that should disperse widely into the room while retaining the precision of the double domes.

The teardrop shape also minimises sharp baffle edges around the tweeter, which helps to cut down on diffraction that can cause high-frequency ripples and uneven response.

The final driver for the new Dragon is a 165mm high-excursion composite paper cone bass unit that also gains a larger voice coil.

Further improvements include a newly developed 4-way, bi-wire-ready crossover network, with dedicated circuits feeding specific driver groups. One for the SE tweeter and mid-dome, one for the twin 6.5-inch mid-bass drivers and a bass-shelf extension circuit (a dual-chamber tuning system) for the bass driver.

Critical to both the new aesthetic and performance upgrade is the move to newly-curved dual-chamber vented bass reflex enclosures, with real Natural Walnut veneers and matching anthracite-grey baffles. The 285mm quoted figure for width refers to the total width including the stabilising feet; the cabinets themselves measure 230mm at their widest point, tapering elegantly down to 140mm at the rear. This curved design reduces resonances, in addition to allowing improved forms of internal bracing.

On the rear of the 109cm-high cabinets are two bass reflex ports of differing depths. The top one is 15cm long, while the one at the bottom is 24cm. Both are just under 7.5cm wide, with shiny, black plastic extrusions that flare at the exits. If you prefer the sound of fully sealed enclosures, Richter supplies two foam bungs for each, which can be used to block the ports and convert the naturally vented enclosure to a sealed one. All four foam bungs measure 7cm × 7cm, so you needn’t worry about wondering if a specific bung should be used for the deeper reflex port.

If you’re perusing the dimensions of the Dragon S7SE, wondering if you can fit them in your home (perhaps subject to other half approval) you’ll want to know the 109cm quoted height of the Dragon S7SE cabinet is correct, as is the 419mm quoted depth — including speaker terminals and with magnetic grilles attached; each pair of Dragon S7SE comes supplied with mottled-grey cloth grilles.

A newly designed set of terminal plates complete the look, including high-quality nickel-plated binding posts which accept bare wire, pin/spade connectors and banana plugs.

As far as numbers go, Richter claims an in-room frequency response of 25Hz-30kHz at -6dB, a sensitivity rating of 90dB (2.83V/1m), and a nominal impedance of 4 ohms (minimum 3.5 ohms).

They will perform to their best with stable high-current amplification to unlock their full potential; Richter says that Dragon S7SEs will benefit from 100-300W RMS amps rated for 4-ohm loads, though our testing included the more modestly specced Marantz Model 50n (~100W/4 ohm), which still yielded impressive results.

Overall build quality is top tier, and with each speaker coming in at 29.1kg on the scales, they feel utterly solid. Each pair of Dragons comes supplied with spikes and discs for hard floors.

Listening sessions

First up was Lady Gaga’s smash hit Abracadabra, an upbeat techno anthem which immediately showcased the Dragon S7SE’s low-end credentials – tight, controlled, and impactful from the opening beat. Dynamic shifts landed spot-on, and their lively rhythmic presentation filled the room.

The SE Teardrop module excelled in projecting Gaga’s vocals wide across the soundstage while slicing cleanly through the bassline. We experimented with the bottom-port foam bungs, having settled on having the Dragons some 30cm from the rear wall. To our ears, the port-filling made vocals shine brighter, drum hits feel more solid through being a tad tighter – a subtle but meaningful refinement. To be honest, the speakers impressed with either configuration, but the easy tunability is a bonus to get things just right in different circumstances or tastes.

Jessie Ware’s Ride proved a fine Dragon demo tune: each frequency band clear and present within a composed and coherent overall performance. Her soft, sultry vocal emerged from the SE Teardrop module floating high up in the mix with ethereal presence and pinpoint imaging. With the foam inserts out of the rear ports, we could enjoy the extra low-end output afforded by this configuration to lend the track some real toe-tapping drive and rhythmic propulsion.

For a proper workout, we loaded Björk’s Bachelorette from her 1997 album ‘Homogenic’, a serious test for any set of speakers as it surges from delicate rising classical strings to a genuine onslaught, comprising dense orchestration, eccentric rhythms, and vocal acrobatics.

The Richter Dragon S7SE never once baulked at this organised chaos. These floorstanders portrayed all the layers with absolute authority, keeping harp twinkles crystal-clear from the SE Teardrop tweeter, while Björk’s shape-shifting vocals – from throaty sweeps to sibilant whispers – remained textured and planted dead centre. The pounding percussion was delivered with control and impact, all while maintaining a vast, three-dimensional soundstage. Even with ports open and walls close, bass stayed articulate without masking mids. It was clear we were in the presence of a remarkably talented pair of speakers.

Verdict

The Richter Dragon S7SE are, in every conceivable way, a stellar set of speakers,
and they arrive at an impressive price, given their ability to dig deep while unearthing the detail, to deliver scale and presence, while also being room-friendly through
their cabinet curves and the level of finish.

Add in the suite of driver upgrades, and especially the fact that mid-domes are more expensive to engineer than an equivalent mid-range cone, and Richter’s AU$7999 pricing looks and sounds exceptional value, winning themselves a recent Sound+Image Award, and maintaining Richter’s reputation for delivering the combination of outstanding performance at a high-value price.

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines!

"Abbey Road Studios is the home of music,” says Andy Kerr from Bowers & Wilkins. “It's the heartland. It's the place where it all begins.”

There’s a very good reason that this humble studio in a leafy enclave of north west London is mentioned in the same breath as such legendary music venues as the Royal Albert Hall and New York's Apollo Theatre: its history.

Everyone knows of the studio’s legendary recording sessions by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder and many more. But fewer people know that this is where the concept of stereo sound was born (it was patented here by engineer Alan Blumlein in 1931, though back then it was known as ‘Binaural Sound’). As Kerr says, this was the “beginning of the whole concept of what we call high fidelity stereo sound reproduction.”

Without Abbey Road, the music industry as we know it wouldn’t exist.

So it’s difficult to overstate Abbey Road’s importance in shaping the modern music world. But perhaps more important than that are the experiences the studio has created, and the emotions these have given rise to.

Listening to music recorded here, “it's soulful, it's emotional,” Kerr says. They’re “recordings that change the way you feel that day when you listen to them – and we're very proud to be involved in it.”

Connecting to the music

Bowers & Wilkins speakers have been at the heart of Abbey Road for over 45 years. Founder John Bowers demoed the first model – the original 801 – himself in 1980. So enraptured were the engineers that the speaker stayed, only being replaced as newer 800 Series models improved on the original.

Pleasing Abbey Road's notoriously particular engineers is no mean feat – these people are at the very top of their game – so to do so consistently for nearly half a decade takes some doing.

Models earning pride of place in Abbey Road over the years include the original 801, the 801 Matrix in 1987, followed by the Nautilus 801, 801 D3, and currently the 801 D4 – last year, Bowers & Wilkins released a limited edition Abbey Road Edition 801 D4, celebrating a longstanding partnership spanning over 45 years.

These are speakers that don’t just play the music, they reveal it as closely to the artist’s vision as it’s possible to be. “Listening to the speaker, it’s everything that the recording is,” says Kerr. “It’s rewarding, or engaging, or uplifting, or maybe even depressing, if that's the recording. It makes you feel emotive. It just absolutely connects.”

Or as one recent visitor to the studio puts it more simply: "You can hear so much... It's just unbelievable."

So it’s hardly surprising that Bowers & Wilkins' speakers have been a fixture of Abbey Road for so long. Here’s to the next half century of great music!

From the studio to home

Seeing behind the scenes at Abbey Road is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of us – Abbey Road is still a working studio and so isn’t open to the general public. But with a Bowers & Wilkins speaker, discerning listeners can bring home that spine-tingling studio-quality sound.

The flagship 801 D5 loudspeaker costs £43,000 per pair, and brings a range of enhancements over the previous model: the design has been refined, it has a stiffer enclosure to reduce the unwanted impact of vibrations and resonances, and a new plinth design. It also comes in a range of new finishes with more durable paint, including Dark Walnut (inspired by the limited production 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition), Stealth Black, Warm White and Light Walnut.

Don’t forget to pair them with an amp that’s up to the job (like the Marantz Model 10).

Those on a more modest budget (or with less space to spare) will be well served by the 702 S3 loudspeakers. While these are a lighter-touch alternative to the 800 Series Diamond, they benefit from Bowers & Wilkins’ ‘cascading technology’ – the principle of taking technology from flagship models and applying learning and design advancement to other form factors. Hence the 702 S3 are able to offer many of the same core technologies as the 800 Series Diamond, but at £5750 they’re a fraction of the price.

Available in Gloss Black, Mocha and White, or signature options Datuk Gloss and Midnight Blue Metallic, the 702 S3 make Bowers & Wilkins’ world-class sound technology and renowned craftsmanship more accessible but without compromise.

LG has announced UK availability and pricing for its 2026 xboom speaker range, which was first unveiled at CES 2026.

The xboom Series takes aim at competitors like JBL, Bose and Sony, with an expansive selection of Bluetooth speakers, spanning from compact outdoor portables to room-filling “party speakers”. LG says that all speakers in the series have been tuned by former Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am.

UK availability and pricing is as follows:

LG xboom Mini: a compact, ultra-portable speaker with an IP67 water and dust resistance rating. Available now for £40 / $70.

LG xboom Rock: an ultra durable, pocket-sized speaker encased in a shock-resistant, IP67 water-and-dust-proof chassis. Available now for £60 / $80.

LG xboom Blast: a plus-sized speaker which LG claims is “built for long adventures”. With 35 hours of playback, 220 watts of power, four drive units and three passive radiators, LG promises that the xboom Blast will deliver an "expansive soundscape” in any environment. Available now for £450 / $500.

LG xboom Stage 501: a “party ready” speaker, offering up to 25 hours of playback and 220 watts of power for “a bold, room-filling sound” from a five-sided cabinet. Available now for £500 / $500.

Aside from the speakers already released, LG says that the range-topping LG xboom Power 5000 and LG xboom Power 9000 speakers are also set to become available at the start of October, with pricing to be confirmed ahead of release.

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Tom Petty once sang that “the waiting is the hardest part”, and we happen to agree, having waited a long time for Yamaha to release a new active wireless speaker system. As such, when we heard about the release of the NX-70A, we were keen to get them into our test rooms for a listen.

But we’ve had plenty of talented wireless systems to keep us occupied in the meantime. Among those producing wireless all-in-one systems, KEF has become something of a trailblazer, earning five-star reviews from the What Hi-Fi? review team for its premium LS Luxe (£3500 / $4000 / AU$6375) and LS50 Wireless II systems (£2199 / $3000 / AU$4000), the latter of which is a multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winner.

Falling between these two five-star options, at a price of £2590 / $3000 / AU$4799, the Yamaha NX-70A system is entering a highly competitive price bracket. The speakers’ dedicated SPS-70A stands cost an extra £517 / $500 / AU$799. While this isn’t an inconsiderable sum, it falls in line with the price of stands for their closest rivals.

The question on all of our minds: will this speaker system prove itself worth the wait?

Build & design

We are immediately struck by how smart and well-built the Yamaha NX-70A speakers are. The sleek, rounded rear of the cabinets kills two birds with one stone by looking suave while suppressing internal standing waves. A 5mm-thick, copper-accented aluminium top plate provides a robust feel with the added bonus of extra cabinet rigidity.

Our test pair arrives in a black finish, but a white option is also available.

The NX-70A measure a fairly conventional 33.3 x 18.9 x 23.4cm (hwd). The primary speaker (which houses all the physical inputs) weighs 5.7kg, while the secondary speaker weighs 5.4kg. So, these Yamaha speakers are not particularly heavy, even for their reasonable size.

We are pleased to find that the NX-70A screw into their SPS-70A stands, which are 66cm tall, for an even more integrated appearance. The speakers fit precisely, with no overflow from the stands, which we think is a satisfying touch. It is worth noting that you will have to assemble the stands yourself, but with the help of included instructions, the construction is straightforward.

A small display screen runs along the bottom of the speakers, showing the currently selected source, volume or connection status. The crisp, clean display is a welcome addition that most rivals don’t feature, but we would have liked it to be bigger, as the small text is hard to read from a comfortable listening distance.

As for the drivers, both use Yamaha’s ‘Harmonious Diaphragm’ material, which is a blend of Zylon (a strong, lightweight synthetic polymer) and the same spruce wood as used in the soundboards of the company’s grand pianos.

The 30mm dome tweeter and 13cm ported mid/bass unit are both driven by dedicated amplifiers providing 60W and 100W of Class D amplification, respectively. Despite their output rating, the active speakers run surprisingly cool and don’t heat up significantly during testing.

Features

The NX-70A's internal DAC supports music files up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256, which should please anyone with a huge and varied digital music library.

However, the link between the speakers does limit the final resolution you hear. The two speakers can be connected to each other wirelessly, or with an included 3m cable. While the wireless connection offers more flexibility in terms of placement, its resolution limit is reportedly 24-bit/48kHz, while using the physical connection ups the limit to 24-bit/96kHz.

A host of wireless streaming options are accessible from Yamaha’s dedicated MusicCast platform, including Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect, alongside access to internet radio and UPnP servers.

In terms of physical connections, Yamaha has included a 3.5mm stereo mini jack, optical, HDMI (eARC), USB-A (for firmware updates as well as music playback) and a microphone input for the brand’s built-in YPAO room equalisation system.

Outputs on the primary speaker include a subwoofer out, alongside the connection to the secondary speaker.

When setting up the speakers, we find the MusicCast control app works well, allowing source selection, playback controls, playlist creation and access to speaker settings, such as tonal and balance controls. The YPAO set-up is also done via the app (more on this later).

Searching through songs stored on our Naim Core server is simple and intuitive, and sound modification features, such as tonal controls, are sensitive enough to be useful, allowing for fine adjustments.

Notably, MusicCast doesn’t include the native search options that are available in native control apps, but offers to open the Tidal, Spotify or Qobuz apps when they are selected. Nonetheless, we encounter no difficulties streaming when we switch to Tidal Connect. If you are using other streaming services, worry not, because music can be sent via AirPlay 2 or Google Cast. The NX-70A system is also Roon Ready.

The NX-70A also has Bluetooth 5.3, but only supports the standard SBC and AAC codecs. Given the price of this system, it’s a shame that Yamaha hasn’t included higher-quality aptX support, but we note that the KEF rival doesn’t include it either. At this level, some manufacturers view Bluetooth as a fallback, and, indeed, with the breadth of listening options available, we don’t find ourselves using the feature often.

YPAO is Yamaha’s Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer, which uses an included microphone to measure the room’s sonic characteristics and counteract any unwanted effects. The process is simple, guided by step-by-step instructions in the app, and involves plugging in an included microphone and running test tones. The entire process only takes a few minutes.

In our acoustically treated test room, engaging the YPAO setting makes for a more controlled and precise bass, effectively countering low-frequency dominance when placing the speakers close to a rear wall. These gains come at the cost of midrange detail and an overall sense of high-frequency refinement, however, so we ultimately opt to leave the setting off.

Sound

While these speakers are small enough to be used on a desk, they don’t shine brightest when used there, losing a degree of balance and dynamic expression. For the best results, we recommend sticking to their dedicated SPS-70A stands.

Experimenting with positioning, we find that the speaker system can sound perfectly comfortable close to a rear wall, with plenty of tonal adjustment available via the app to balance things out should bass dominate. We also angle the speakers in a little towards the listening position, where we find they provide the best stereo image.

We listen to the NX-70A system wired and wirelessly, and find it has a greater sense of air and clarity with a wired connection. As such, we used the physical connection throughout testing, kicking off with some hi-res wireless streaming via Tidal Connect.

Our immediate impression of this Yamaha speaker system is one of composure and poise. Music feels pleasantly balanced, with a healthy portion of low-end that provides punch when it is needed, without becoming overwhelming.

Listening to The First Disciple by Tamino, guitar parts are delivered with warmth and clarity. The leading edge of plucked strings is pleasingly rendered and gives way to the full-bodied, hearty resonance of each note. Later in the song, when bass and percussion come in, the NX-70A has no trouble providing the low-frequency depth and textural clarity necessary to bring the woozy, swirling arrangement to life.

This speaker system reaches somewhat deeper and is more authoritative in the bass than rivals such as the KEF LS50 Wireless II. Low frequencies are substantial and punchy, while remaining nicely defined and seamlessly blended into the overall sonic balance.

Switching up the tempo, we stream YHWH Nailgun’s Ballerina from our Naim server. Again, the NX-70A provides all the clarity and power we were hoping for. Compared with the steady rhythmic grip of the LS50 Wireless II, however, we find the Yamaha leaves us feeling a little lost in the song’s chaotic momentum, with a weaker sense of drive.

To hear how the Yamaha fares with classical music, we listen to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5 in E Minor, Op. 64, TH. 29: II. Andante cantabile con alcuna licenza - Moderato con anima. Here, the NX-70A offers striking impact and weight to the strings, alongside pillowy, yet well-contoured brass. Dynamically, the system keeps pace with the undulating banks of strings, conveying the piece’s most ferocious and delicate moments with equal maturity and grace.

We are particularly pleased with the way the NX-70A communicates spatial qualities, and truly get a sense of the acoustic environment the piece was recorded in. Closing our eyes, the listening experience feels quite transportative. We also notice just how fluidly the Yamaha system transitions between quiet and loud sections.

Across genres, the NX-70A puts in a commanding, full-bodied performance. While it isn’t quite up to the standards of the Award-winning LS50 Wireless II in terms of subtlety and fine-grained nuance, the Yamaha speaker system is, nonetheless, a highly engaging and enjoyable listen.

We work through the range of physical inputs on the NX-70A, using our reference Cyrus CDi player as a source. Using the optical input, we were pleased with the way the system retains its positive sonic characteristics, but we find there is a slight loss in clarity and dynamic distinction while using the 3.5mm stereo aux connection.

Generally speaking, Bluetooth wouldn’t be our chosen connection when sound quality is paramount. This rings true here, as we found that using the Bluetooth connection results in decreased rhythmic drive and textual detail, but we do appreciate the added convenience that the feature offers.

Verdict

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.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 5

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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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Onkyo has announced a trio of new wireless speakers: the GX-AiO 50, the GX-AiO 100, and the GX-AiO 150.

An expansion of Onyko's desktop-friendly 'Creator' range, the three one-box speakers are designed to bring extensive connectivity and versatility to three varying sizes and form factors.

The GX-AiO 50 is the smallest in the range, the GX-AiO 100 sits in the middle, while the GX-AiO 150 is the largest, most premium option.

All three boast a 2.1-channel acoustic architecture which combines dual main drivers with a built-in, independently amplified subwoofer. All three use Class D amplification and Onkyo's own digital signal processing to minimise noise and distortion, resulting in "clear detail" and "deep, dynamic bass".

Physical connections include HDMI ARC alongside a USB-C and optical input, plus a switchable phono input if you want to hook up a turntable. For wireless listening, Bluetooth 5.3 is also available.

Three listening modes are accessible across the range. Eco Mode provides more precise low-volume control for nighttime listening and smaller spaces, whereas Standard Mode is designed for everyday listening. Max Mode, meanwhile, puts each system at its highest output for when you want to get the party started.

Plus, if you want to go even louder, you can connect any GX-AiO system into a stereo pair.

While they come in different sizes and clock in at different price points, all three systems follow a similar design language whereby a central control dial is flanked by two main drive units.

Integrated LED lighting around the control dial and the subwoofer slits has also been added "to create a warm ambient glow without overwhelming the room".

According to Vinny Bonacorsi, Onkyo's Chief Operating Officer: "The new Creator AiO series delivers what today’s younger music lovers want: compact size, simplicity, connectivity and affordability, paired with timeless industrial design. This series represents another bold step forward in Onkyo’s evolution, bringing our passion for music to a new generation.”

The Onkyo Creator GX-AiO series will be available this autumn in a choice of black or white finishes. Prices are as follows:

- GX-AiO 50: $399
- GX-AiO 100: $499
- GX-AiO 150: $599

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Our guide to the best desktop speakers for every budget and needs

Some people will never be able to get past the cost of these Marten speakers, and we can understand why. Standing just 42cm tall, the two-way Parker Duo Diamond Edition look under-equipped to survive in a high-end sector dominated by sonically talented and intimidatingly muscular floorstanders.

Given the significantly larger internal volumes and formidable driver arrays featured on those towering rivals, the Parker Duo Diamond Edition’s chances don’t look good. In the event, it turns out that these modestly-proportioned Swedish boxes can look after themselves.

Any company that names its product ranges after Jazz greats shows, at the very least, a good amount of musical appreciation. Marten invokes the likes of Coltrane, Mingus and Oscar, among others, and uses the Parker name for its step-up series.

It may be shocking for some to discover that the Parker Duo on test here is merely one of the early steps on the Marten ladder. Unusually, it is available in two forms: the standard version of the Duo (£11,995 / $19,000 / AU$18,500) and the Diamond Edition on test here.

Design & build

The standard Parker Duo uses ceramic diaphragms in both its 25mm tweeter and 19cm mid/bass unit. Its crossover point is set at a fairly typical 2200Hz, and the network design is a mixture of first and second-order filters. A rear-firing 23cm aluminium passive radiator is used to tune the bass.

Sensitivity is claimed to be 88dB/W/m and nominal impedance is rated at 6 ohms. Note, the minimum impedance is just 3.1 ohms, which suggests these speakers will perform best with a muscular amplifier.

The Diamond Edition adds more spice to the formula by swapping the standard model’s ceramic tweeter for a diamond dome, and upgrading the crossover’s polypropylene capacitors for more exotic copper-foil types. The internal wiring is upgraded too. Everything else, including the electrical specifications, remains the same.

See the Diamond Edition in real life, and it gets off to a good start. Build quality is as immaculate as the price demands. The gloss black finish of our review samples is wonderfully deep and mirror-like.

Not all our team like the unusual styling of this product, or the fixed metal grilles over the drive units, but we have no complaints about fit and finish.

The Parker Duo’s front panel is 6cm narrower than the rear, which looks a bit odd at first. This unusual shape reduces the build up of internal standing waves, while the use of 35mm-thick M-Board (a proprietary laminated material) for the enclosure’s panels is claimed to produce a more rigid and inert structure than more conventional alternatives.

The performance of any standmounter is massively dependent on the quality of its support. Marten makes dedicated stands for the Duo, and they are impressively weighty and rigid. Their construction is based around three rigid pillars and a thick steel base, fitted with four isolator feet co-developed with IsoAcoustic. These stands cost a chunky £3295 / $5000 / AU$5750 per pair, but are good enough for us to consider them an essential part of the deal.

Any product at this level positively demands a top-class system. Our reference set-up consists of Naim’s ND555 / 555 PS DR music streamer and the Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart record player feeding a Burmester 088/911 MkIII pre/power amplifier combination.

The cables are a mix of premium offerings from Chord Company and Vertere Acoustics. For benchmarking purposes, we have the ATC SCM50 and the PMC MB2 SE speakers.

These Marten speakers perform best when given plenty of space to breathe. In our 3 x 7 x 5m test room, they sound most at home with the front panel around 90cm from the back wall and angled in slightly towards the listening position so that the tweeter axis crosses a little behind our heads.

Given such a placement, these speakers produce a lovely, consistent tonal balance combined with the kind of three-dimensional stereo imaging that almost feels physical.

Sound

That huge price tag may lead many to expect sonic fireworks every time these speakers play music. That’s not how it works.

The Parker Duo Diamond Edition does exactly what every truly great speaker should, and that’s reproduce the source material with the minimum of alteration. So, if you have a poor compressed recording, or less than capable electronics in your system, these standmounts will merely reflect that, imperfections and all.

Unusually for such revealing and analytical performers, these Marten speakers won’t go out of their way to highlight those flaws. You can hear the shortcomings easily, of course, but they remain in proportion, and the good parts of the recording will still shine.

However, feed these speakers a diet of great recordings – classics such as Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue or Take Five by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, for example – and they will turn in a performance full of subtlety, dynamics and cohesion that’s almost eerily convincing.

That the Marten Parker Duo Diamond Edition are capable of a high level of resolution should not be a surprise. Such qualities should be a given at this level. However, what sets them apart from most rivals is the degree to which they step beyond the mechanics of hi-fi – you know, a cone moving backs and forward, crossover components and enclosure resonances – to put the music front and centre.

These speakers sound impressively natural regardless of whether we are talking about rendering instrumental textures in classic jazz recordings or the nuances of Billie Eilish and Khalid’s vocals on the wonderful song, Lovely.

When we play Tchaikovsky’s Marché Slave Op.31, these Marten standmounts stay controlled even when pushed hard to high levels. Just as pleasingly, they refuse to harden up and compress to any significant degree under such circumstances.

There are certain boxes that need to be ticked for a speaker to succeed at this level. Tonality has to be spot on, and it is. These standmounts sound neutral while still displaying natural warmth and richness; this is a rare combination that few rivals manage.

Next, dynamic expression should be top class. That’s another tick here, whether we are talking about the wide-ranging sweeps of Tchaikovsky’s symphony or the finesse needed to get the most from the Billie Eilish/Khalid track, the Duo Diamond Edition manages it.

Then we come to rhythmic drive, a quality many hi-fi products struggle with. A quick spin of Michael Jackson’s Who Is It? reveals that these Marten speakers excel in this area too, communicating the song’s momentum and energy beautifully.

We haven’t even got to the icing on the cake yet. These relatively small speakers do bass, proper deep bass, way beyond that we would expect for this size of standmounter. As we listen to the Jackson track we are floored by the power and authority of the lows. The Parker Duo Diamond Edition hit hard and true, delivering the lows with enviable articulation and precision.

Compared to the cheaper but appreciably larger ATC SCM50 speakers, the Martens deliver richer, punchier bass with broadly comparable extension. The company claims low-frequency extension down to an impressive 36Hz ±2 dB. That sounds believable.

Verdict

The real shame of a product like this is that very few people will actually be able to hear and enjoy it, given its price and restricted exposure.

However, if you are one of the lucky few with the budget and system to do a speaker like this justice, we recommend a serious audition; the Marten Parker Duo Diamond Edition is a true endgame speaker.

Review published: 2nd September 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Compatibility 4

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Also consider the TAD ME1TX

Read our ATC SCM50 review

Best bookshelf speakers: top standmounts for every budget tested

Well this is something we haven’t seen from a Bluetooth speaker before: a design that mimics a kettlebell. And from turntable brand Lenco, too. Quite a departure.

The Orbita-360 isn’t aimed specifically at fitness fans, and it doesn’t weigh too much, so we wouldn’t start using it for kettlebell swings. But it is waterproof, so can be used outside, and it fires out sound in 360 degrees.

Inside is a 2.1-channel audio system comprising a 4-inch subwoofer, four full-range drivers and dual passive radiators, delivering 60W RMS (120W maximum). It promises “rich, room-filling audio with impressive bass and clarity.” And because its sound is projected evenly in 360 degrees, everyone in the surroundings should enjoy the same listening experience, no sweet spot required.

It supports Auracast, and so can pair with other compatible speakers to create more immersive wireless sound. And it’s rated IPX6 waterproof, so is protected against “strong water jets” – in other words, it’s safe to use by pools or fountains, and will happily withstand the inevitable downpour during your picnic.

The battery is good for 13 hours of use (that’s one hour less than the Award-winning JBL Flip 7). And it has nine lighting effects (including continuous and beat-synchronised modes) from its built-in LEDs, for adding a bit of razzle-dazzle to your gatherings.

But really it’s the design that sets it apart, of course. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, though the materials are more traditional – there’s an aluminium carry handle and a fabric finish (similar to those seen on the Amazon Echo range). The colour choices are also quite vanilla: Diamond Black or Lunar Grey.

Lenco is better known for its affordable turntables, such as the L-85. It has made speakers before, though its current range consists of the kind of hideous karaoke speakers that usually signal that a night out has gone awry.

The Orbita-360 is out now for £230 (around $300 / AU$440).

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JBL has dominated the portable Bluetooth speaker market with its Go, Flip, Charge and Xtreme models, and now it is turning its attention to the wireless multi-room speaker category with the new JBL Cove range.

The Cove range is designed to bring "superior JBL sound to every room", touting a flexible and expandable whole-home audio ecosystem powered by JBL's in-house platform and managed via the JBL One app.

The new series consists of three models available at launch: the compact Cove M1, the battery-powered Cove P1, and the flagship, six-driver-toting Cove X1. Each speaker can be used in its own right, as a stereo pair, or as part of a multi-room setup.

The smaller Cove M1 houses a trio of tweeters alongside a single woofer, while the Cove P1 packs four tweeters and a single woofer. The flagship Cove X1, meanwhile, also houses a quad tweeter array, complemented by a pair of woofers.

Both the Cove X1 and Cove P1 support Dolby Atmos, with the battery-powered Cove P1 boasting 14 hours of playtime on a single charge and an IP56 certification for protection against dust and water.

To help you get the most out of your multi-room system, JBL’s own 'Constant Sound Field' automatically tunes the speakers to their given environment, while 'AI Sound Boost' further aims to optimise performance based on where and how you listen.

You're not short on wireless connectivity, either. Alongside standard Bluetooth, wi-fi access grants support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Qobuz Connect, and all members of the new Cove family are Roon Ready. Spotify Tap provides quick access to Spotify, while built-in Alexa Plus voice control is also available.

The Cove M1 and P1 will also connect with JBL's Bar Series MK2 soundbars (which include the Bar 300MK2 and Bar 1000MK2), and you can use a pair of these Cove speakers as rear surrounds for a home cinema setup. This feature isn't available for the larger Cove X1 model.

According to Carsten Olesen, President of Consumer Audio at Harman: "JBL Cove marks an important step in our ambition to become a leading force in home audio, combining powerful JBL Legendary Sound with the simplicity, flexibility and outstanding value that will help even more people discover how simple it is to have great sound throughout the home.”

Each member of the JBL Cove range will be available in white or black finishes from October 2026. The JBL Cove M1 is priced at £200 / €230 / $230 / AU$299.95, the Cove P1 at £400 / €450 / $400 / AU$599.95, and the Cove X1 at £430 / €500 / $450 / AU$649.95.

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Best wireless speakers: tried and tested by our expert team

Dali has announced the release of a new subwoofer, the Basik Sub, which the company says is “a natural partner” to its Kupid and Sonik 1 standmounters.

The Basik Sub uses a 20cm downward-firing woofer made from paper pulp, which Dali claims combines “low mass with rigidity to provide detailed low-frequency performance”.

According to the company, the Basik Sub’s downward-firing configuration allows more even bass distribution and improves flexibility when it comes to positioning.

It's powered by Class D amplification, delivering 170W RMS and a peak of 220W. And the subwoofer's reasonable dimensions of 31.9 x 29.5 x 31 cm (hwd) should also make it easy to integrate into smaller listening spaces.

The subwoofer includes a stereo line-in and a mono LFE input to cater for hi-fi and home cinema applications. The speaker also features built-in controls, such as a gain, crossover adjustment (40–120Hz) and phase controls (0–180°), which Dali says “make it straightforward to integrate Basik Sub into a wide range of systems”. A dual-stage limiter has been included to protect the drivers from overloading.

A vented voice-coil helps to maintain cooling and minimises air compression at high listening levels, while a switch-mode power supply regulates power consumption and heat generation.

According to Krestian Pedersen, head of product management at Dali: "We've seen a rise in popularity of bookshelf speakers with our own award-winning KUPID and SONIK 1 speakers over the last year. This has been fuelled by small, affordable streaming amplifiers and turntables which allow consumers to create a custom hi-fi system for the price of a smartphone.

"BASIK SUB is designed as a natural enhancement for these systems as almost all affordable streaming amplifiers and speakers feature a dedicated subwoofer output and bass management features, making it possible to get the full scale and bandwidth from a compact and interior-friendly package"

The Dali Basik Sub is set to go on sale in October for £429 / $800 / €500 and will be available in six finishes: Solid Black, Solid White, Caramel White, Golden Yellow and Chilly Blue.

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Read our full Dali Sonik 1 review

And our Dali Kupid review

Plus, take a look at our pick of the best subwoofers for all budgets, tested by our expert reviewers

Stereo wireless streaming speakers from Yamaha: two boxes, but the simplicity of an all-in-one system. There's no extended system required, because the speakers contain both amplification and a streaming system (here Yamaha’s MusicCast), so that as a minimum you could just place the speakers, cable them up and start enjoying your hi-fi – with high‑fidelity streaming on offer, an HDMI TV connection, and control from a well-established multiroom-capable app.

And these are most definitely hi-fi, with several of the compromises more generally involved with all-in-one systems going out of the window. There's no lack of stereo separation here, nor any questions over whether a particular manufacturer is able to excel across the hi-fi chain: Yamaha’s MusicCast streaming is well-established, the company makes award-winning amplifiers and AV receivers, and it also has a strong record in loudspeakers going back to the 1950s.

And as musical instrument makers, the Japanese company might even claim a unique insight into the sounds which form our music in the first place.

We were delighted to have the new NX-70A speakers in for review in Sydney, as they were first revealed to the world here in Australia, at the Sydney Hi-Fi Show back in May. Euro-Yamaha had hoped to hold their reveal for the recent High End Vienna, so in Sydney they were slightly anonymised, their product cards redacted, our reportage restricted!

Now at last we can tell all, and listen in earnest, to see how these streaming active speakers neatly straddle the convenience of an all-in-one system with the sonic strengths of genuine stereo hi-fi.

Build & drivers

The Yamaha NX-70A speakers are substantial standmounters, available in black or white, and unusually shaped, with fairly subtle rounded curves and a top plate which rises to be higher at the back (335mm) than the front (315mm). Either side of the rear back spine, a selection of inputs sits among a back plate of lovely shining copper-coloured metal.

The speakers port fairly traditionally to the rear but the cabinets also have grille openings to the rear with more copper-accenting, and most unusually in a curved strip on the top. These we presume to be for passive cooling of the internal electronics: thermal management rather than acoustic design.

Perhaps unusually, that top plate doesn’t have any control buttons, such as a local volume control; it’s clean aside from the grilles at the back, Yamaha’s ‘tuning fork’ logo at the front, and four structural fasteners which secure the top plate to the main cabinet of MDF, enhanced to mitigate vibration, with the front baffle reinforced with a 25mm panel (designed, we’re told, using a laser Doppler Vibrometer). The very front panel layer is an ABS plate, shaped to incorporate a new tweeter waveguide. All this is beautifully integrated, kept clean and attractive up front, with the cool tech stuff going on mainly at the back.

One feature easily overlooked is a small white light and a text display in the black section at the bottom of the left speaker; the display shows the input or song information and other messages. The right speaker has just the white light. The text display might be useful if you’re up close in a desktop situation, but it’s too small (for our old eyes) at a normal listening distance. If you find it intrusive you can set the dimming options to zero, though even this is not quite ‘off’, but then this text panel sometimes shows error messages (e.g. ‘Version Error’ during a firmware update), which might be useful to see.

You get a rather nice half-size remote control included, with a copper-ringed central circle. A set of optional stands is available (A$799.99 in Australia), in the same black and white colour choices as the speakers.

The pricing of the NX-70A ranges them as obvious competitors to, among others, KEF’s established wireless speaker range, and specifically the KEF LS50 Wireless II. But the Yamaha aesthetic is very different, partly by virtue of using separate 30mm tweeters and 13cm woofers (compared with KEF’s single coaxial driver) and also by going for a taller, more conventional if quirky look, compared with the fat curves of the KEFs, which look rather as if inflated to the point of bursting.

Both drivers in the NX-70A use the same material blend, described by Yamaha as their ‘Harmonious Diaphragm’, as used also in the company’s highest hi-fi speakers. This combines wood fibre from spruce (which Yamaha notes is used in its grand piano soundboards) with the synthetic polymer Zylon, a material to which Yamaha switched after its period favouring beryllium, which is an excellent lightweight alkaline earth metal, but sadly a highly toxic one to work with.

By contrast Zylon is more easily manipulated, yet an extremely strong polymer claimed to have an acoustic velocity comparable to beryllium and a tensile strength 1.6 times higher than Kevlar. Its versatility for use in tweeters as well as woofers provides the possibility of a tonally-matched sound across the full frequency range.

Each driver has its own dedicated amplification module (so an active system, rather than merely powered). Yamaha claims to have taken great efforts to optimise these relationships, announcing a new arrangement called Synergistic Drive: “an innovative unified circuit design,” says the literature.

“By connecting the speaker unit directly to the amplifier circuit, the system precisely manages electric current flow, minimising distortion that is fundamentally rooted in conventional amplifier and speaker interactions.”

You might this would be something which could apply to any active design, yet it implies a technology “unique to Yamaha”. Further investigation reveals the use of current feedback around individual drivers, detecting distortion as variations in electrical current and aiming to reduce it in real time. This reduces the negative effects of distortion caused by Eddy currents, says Yamaha, and specifically addresses third harmonic distortion. It reminds us of the feedback in Yamaha’s YST subwoofers.

So Synergistic Drive is Yamaha’s particular take on active speaker design, raised to higher hi-fi levels of priority than on Yamaha’s smaller active speakers and soundbars.

Room correction is another thing possible by having processing, amps and speakers all in one package. Yamaha not only here includes its YPAO (Yamaha Parametric room Acoustic Optimiser) straight out of its AV receivers of renown, but also provides a bundled microphone for the purpose, rather than the common practice of leaving such crucial measurements instead to the vagaries of a smartphone microphone.

Ins, outs, and apps

Physical inputs are fairly limited, which is typical of the smart speaker breed: that back panel hosts one minijack analogue input, one optical digital input, a USB-A slot, and one HDMI eARC/ARC input with CEC.

This last plays back audio from whichever HDMI socket on your TV is marked for HDMI ARC, and makes these speakers ideal for flanking your TV to provide sound for all your entertainment, not merely music. We have no hesitation in recommending the solution of stereo speakers either side of your TV rather than a soundbar in front of it.

Additional socketry provides a subwoofer output, so you can add depth if you need it (only in a larger room, we’d say), and an Ethernet socket if you can give the NX-70A a wired network connection; otherwise MusicCast will help make the Wi-Fi link to your network. This MusicCast app controls everything from input selection to streaming and even multiroom sharing between rooms.

The left and right speakers can connect to each other wirelessly, so there’s no need to run a cable between them. But you can choose to do so using the very coily Ethernet-style cable provided, length three metres, so still allowing good separation between the two boxes. Using the cable provides stability in a busy Wi-Fi environment, and also allows a higher digital connection rate which actually doubles the highest frequencies these speakers can deliver: they go up to 35kHz (-10dB) when using a wired connection, only 21kHz (-10dB) when using Wi-Fi. From this we assumed (and Yamaha confirmed) the wireless connection to use a 48kHz sampling rate with the cable raising this to 96kHz, both at 24-bit.

There is Bluetooth available for direct streaming, but we note its codecs are limited to the lower SBC and AAC codecs, so MusicCast here can provide preferable and higher-quality ways to stream. This is also true of AirPlay 2 streaming, currently limited (by Apple, not Yamaha) to the AAC codec at 256k, even though it’s capable of far more.

You can get higher quality using Tidal or Spotify via their Connect versions, which means just using the service’s native app as the controller, and directing the music to flow straight from the internet to the speakers at whatever quality you’re paying for.

There’s also Google Cast here, good from Android phones and devices.

But if you store music actually on your device, the most reliable way to play is the tab for ‘This iPhone’ (or whatever) at the top of the MusicCast app’s interface. This seems to send the file at full quality, most likely via some UPnP/DLNA in the background. We hear the difference in our listening notes.

Yamaha MusicCast also allows multi-room playback, combining ‘rooms’ within the app so that any MusicCast device can share its inputs with any other MusicCast devices in the home. Given Yamaha’s MusicCast ecosystem of products runs from small wireless speakers to hulking AV receivers, this is potentially a powerful method of home unification.

The NX-70A speakers are also Roon Ready, if you have invested in this music organisation software.

Also under fingertip control in the MusicCast app there is internet radio, a Podcast section, and ‘Server’ access, which instantly found various file shares on our home network, through which we could then navigate through folder structure or artist/album lists slightly laboriously (no permanent library is created). Files loaded via USB are accessed in a similar way.

All these will benefit from the DAC implementation here, using an 8-channel 32-bit ESS DAC, the ES9017S. We were told that “3× channels of differential output are combined and then sent to the tweeter and another 3× to the woofer, creating a more precise representation of the original signal with wider dynamic range and lower noise levels as it’s combining 3× versions of the conversion to capture more detail.” (We’re just gagging to ask ‘so why not 4×?’ but we’ll let it lie.)

Many ways to play, then: let’s fire them up.

Listening sessions

Set-up proved fairly simple whether or not the stands were attached for use in the music room, or simply sat on a firm surface either side of the TV as we used them later with HDMI; for such surfaces they have pre-attached silicone feet. We gave them the Ethernet-style cable connection between the speakers to ensure we heard them at their best.

We also gave them a wired Ethernet connection to our network, and this cable was coming from the right, a bit strained to reach the left speaker which has all the inputs. The speakers are very clearly labelled as to left and right, arriving with huge cardboard covers telling you so, but the first thing we did once inside the MusicCast app was to check if we could switch left speaker with right. And yes we could, so we were able to restore cable neatness, hoorah. (We later found a button on the back which can do the same thing.)

Since our environment already has MusicCast elements in residence, adding the NX-70A was just a case of selecting ‘add device’ then scrolling down a very long list, which shows how many MusicCast-enabled products Yamaha has released. When you get all the way to the NX-70A, it’s not there! An enquiry to the local Yamaha team revealed that Yamaha puts new products at the top, above ‘A’, but doesn’t think also to include them in the right place. This oversight aside, we had the NX-70A connected pretty much instantly, and checked for a firmware update.

We ran background internet radio and AirPlay 2 streams from an iPhone for a good week just to have the speakers soaking through, as it were. This was when we discovered that playing music stored on our phone via AirPlay 2 sounded radically different to playing the same files via the ‘My iPhone’ tab of MusicCast. It’s a great demonstration of what such transmission does to your files. Playing the beginning of Kate Bush’s Aerial Tal via ‘My iPhone’ at 16/44.1, the vocal had a quicksilver edge while the gentle piano beneath was richly toned across the soundstage from left to right; we could hear the pedal being lifted. All that was just gone when playing via AirPlay: softer, blander, less in the way of life and dynamics.

Spotify and Tidal users can do better; selecting these services within MusicCast simply opens the native app and you choose the Yamahas as the target. Because MusicCast has already allocated these to become a ‘Room’, it is this ‘Room’ you’ll see as the target, rather than the Yamahas themselves. This can be confusing, especially if you have two streaming devices in the same room. If you want to see ‘Yamaha NX-70A’ as the target for streaming services, then just name the MusicCast room as ‘Yamaha NX-70A’.

If you want Apple Music at better quality, currently we could only suggest the extended workaround of having an AppleTV 4K playing Apple Music into your TV, and then out via HDMI into the Yamahas.

The ‘Server’ option within the MusicCast app looks for files on your network. We have assorted old NAS drives humming away around the home and MusicCast found them all. Not all such platforms do so.

Even more conveniently we attached an old WD powered hard drive to the USB-A slot, and could thereby play our collection of high-res albums through the Yamahas.

And playing from this USB drive we really found what a high level of hi-fi performance the NX-70As could achieve. The guitar on Audio Alchemy’s Marrakesh at 24-bit/96kHz sounded delightfully clear and clicky-edged, while the bass sounded not so much as if it was emanating from the two speakers but more as if a small bass guitar cabinet was somewhere in the middle of them, so like the real thing was the bass fullness and tone. There’s a double-time section in the middle of this track which showed also the system’s speed, keeping up with the gaps in the machine-gun bass notes: individually punchy, no blur. We used this section to find our ideal speaker positioning, which in our room locked the bass into the best combo of tightness and depth with the ports 22cm out from the rear wall, close enough to suit general use with TVs as well as making stereo lounge use convenient. Nor does their treble fade excessively off-axis, though keep the tweeters at ear height to enjoy best imaging.

There was an almost alarmingly real delivery of the percussion that somehow sits in 3D among Chick Corea’s piano and ensemble on his Australia Concerto No. 2; this wildly dynamic piece burst unrestrained from the Yamahas with all its impressive imaging and ping-pong bursts of sound intact – exactly the kind of spread that would be lost on a smaller all-in-one system or speaker. The Yamahas bring all the hi-fi qualities of proper speakers, without compromise from stuffing electronics inside, we’d say, and quite possibly benefitting from all that Synergistic Drive! With the Chick Corea they sounded simultaneously musical and clinical, laying out the soundstage with both width and depth, everything in its place to make this whole popping piece stand forth in a three-dimensional presentation, among which we could still hear the wide ringing roll-off of a China boy cymbal, or the gaps between separate rolls of the brushes on the snare, the richness of orchestration around Corea’s marvellously close-miked piano (home territory for the Yamahas) which brought this piece to life. They did the same with a super-crisp delivery of Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island and its still more extreme ping-pong elements; during the piano solo the left channel was silent like a hole in the Matrix.

They can certainly rock, as proven by their smashing out of Yes’ studio version of Heart Of The Sunrise (24/96) with thrillingly tight and real drums to the fore. Alan Parsons came through as DSD 2.8MHz files no problem (it’s good to quad-DSD), all our FLAC and WAV tests played fine (up to 384kHz), and the speakers absolutely excelled when blasting out The Eagles’ Life In The Fast Line at 24-bit/192kHz, again spreading the panned guitars wide while pumping out a bass that was tight and full. They go loud with glee.

YPAO Volume & YPAO Room Calibration

We were by now preferring not to engage the YPAO Volume option (as opposed to the room calibration, see below). This YPAO Volume slider (under the MusicCast app’s sound settings) had been on by default as a kind of loudness EQ “to hear balanced low, mid and high frequencies clearly at all levels”. It may be useful at lower levels, but for anything higher it often seemed to have a mildly deleterious effect when playing at a decent volume; on the Eagles specifically it had softened the bass pedal, taking realism out of the rhythm section, while mildly veiling the wonderful airiness up top that the Yamahas were otherwise delivering.

Happily you can toggle this YPAO Volume on and off easily at the top of the sound settings panels, so it’s easy to try for yourself, and develop a preference.

YPAO room calibration, though, is a different thing, combining a parametric EQ with what Yamaha calls RSC (Reflected Sound Control). Kudos to Yamaha for including a proper puck microphone with the NX-70As, rather than relying on phone speakers to achieve what is an extremely complicated job, attempting to measure room characteristics and then adjust the speaker EQ accordingly.

To do this, you construct the little cardboard stand for the puck, then attempt to balance it where your head might be for listening; you certainly won’t be limited by the length of the cable attached to the puck microphone, as this is long enough to wrap twice around the Moon and back. (Recoiling the YPAO microphone cable to fit back in the plastic bag is the key challenge facing reviewers when returning any so-equipped Yamaha review item.)

With the puck in place, you set the measurements off, and it’s very quick – slightly longer if you’ve attached a subwoofer. Two hisses, two whoops and it’s over. Accept the scan, and you can then toggle YPAO on and off to see if you like the results.

It seemed accurate, identifying and correcting a bass dip which we know to exist in our lounge room, pleasingly less critical of our music room’s response. We tried using the correction in the lounge: sometimes it seemed to clarify the upper bass, sometimes it seemed to mask the clarity of things, like Diana Krall’s vocal on Here Lies Love, softened back significantly, the spread and openness of the mids and highs also crushed, and everything slightly monofied. Of course that’s just us, in our room. Again it’s free to try, so try it.

Meanwhile there are plenty of other tone controls inside the MusicCast settings (with sophisticated Finite Impulse Response EQ filtering, we gather), so plenty more to play with. The app also links to a separate IP browser interface for network tweaks.

They worked well as HDMI TV speakers (or optical if no HDMI ARC); indeed the speakers proved ideal for movie sound, with dynamics and spread and especially dialogue clarity all in a league which no soundbar would match. (Yamaha also kindly adds a dialogue enhancer slider in the app settings, should it be required.) There’s apparently no attempt to respond to Atmos soundtracks with virtual processing; thank heavens for that. Stereo clarity is invariably to be preferred.

We almost forgot to mention the remote control. We had quickly became accustomed to using the MusicCast app for everything, especially as this app is not like some others which disappear or disconnect when momentarily not in use; the MusicCast app returns to being fully active as soon as selected. However, the physical remote can be very handy for quick actions, especially when the phone rings, and feels just that bit more sophisticated in the hand, especially when enjoying just a music session, screen off.

Verdict

Any final issues, however minor? We have to say no. The NX-70A speakers were easy to set-up, easy to address using an established and powerful app, and they sounded great. We even liked the clever packaging.

For their best sonic results just find the purest path to playback (keep Bluetooth and AirPlay for convenience use only), and get banging out your tunes. The Yamahas do not sound in the least bit processed or woofed up in the bass like so very many all-in-one systems, and especially the smaller wireless speakers. These are genuine hi-fi speakers, made active, wireless, and streaming.

Yes, at the price, you might attempt to build a separates system which combines a great streamer with a great amp and great speakers; you would potentially gain flexibility of replacement and repair/replacement. But you would lose all the convenience, the minimising of component count, and we don’t think you’d get a much better sound either. Yamaha is experienced in streaming, in amplification, and in loudspeakers. They’ve done top work in bringing all that together so effectively, so synergistically, in the NX-70A.

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines

British loudspeaker manufacturer, Castle, has announced two new series of speakers, Tintagel and Walmer, each featuring one standmounter and one floorstanding model.

According to Castle, the Tintagel Series is “the accessible bedrock of Castle’s new line-up”, while the Walmer Series is positioned further upmarket, “utilising sophisticated material and technologies” for “a new level of performance”.

The four new models are the first loudspeakers from Castle since the Windsor Series released in 2023. Like the Windsor Series, all of the new speakers will be designed and manufactured in the UK.

The new Tintagel series aims to bring Castle's "typical warmth, craft and musicality" in hand-crafted cabinets that use real-wood veneers.

The Tintagel 1 is a two-way standmounter, with 13cm mid/bass advanced fibre driver and a 28mm silk dome tweeter. The speaker uses a large, rear-firing bass port for low frequency extension.

The Tintagel 2 floorstanders use a twin 15cm advanced fibre drivers alongside the same 28mm silk dome tweeter as the Tintagel 1. A downward-firing port runs through the speaker’s plinth, which Castle says makes the Tintagel 2 “easier to position” in your listening room.

The speakers’ 'advanced fibre' cones are made from a fibre blend designed to provide light weight and diaphragm damping. Castle says that the cones’ material qualities “avoid the hard, exposed character that can come from less controlled diaphragm materials”.

The silk dome tweeters use a large dome and shallow waveguide to control high-frequency dispersion for “a stable tonal balance, both on and off axis”.

The more expensive Walmer Series features two speakers, the Walmer 1 and Walmer 2, which are designed for listeners who want more "technical refinement" and greater speed, openness and scale above the Tintagel models.

The Walmer 1 is a two-way standmount speaker, featuring a 13cm woven carbon fibre mid/bass driver and a 12x45mm ribbon tweeter. The three-way Walmer 2 floorstanders, on the other hand, use the same ribbon tweeter and twin 15cm bass drivers and a 11.5cm midrange unit, both made from woven carbon fibre.

Ribbon tweeters were chosen for the Walmer Series speakers due to their lightweight diaphragms, which can “respond quickly to resolve fine detail with delicacy and natural extension", while it also offers a wider horizontal dispersion of sound.

The drivers' carbon fibre material has a high stiffness-to-weight ratio, which Castle says delivers “bass notes [with] cleaner leading edges, reduces low-level colouration and allows the midrange to retain fine detail without becoming brittle”.

The Walmer 2’s midrange unit is also housed in its own enclosure, which isolates the driver from low frequency pressure changes inside the cabinet, “elevating clarity through the most critical part of the audio band”.

Additionally, the Walmer 2 featues a mass loaded transmission line system for controlled bass extension. Castle says the objective was to retain the brand's "natural warmth and musical ease" while also adding precision and transparency without sounding overly analytical.

The Castle Tintagel and Walmer Series are available from September, in finishes of Walnut and Black Oak. Prices are as follows:

Tintagel 1: £1999 / $2749 / AU$3749 per pair

Tintagel 2: £2999 / $3999 / AU$5499 per pair

Walmer 1: £2499 / $3499 / AU$4748 per pair

Walmer 2: £4999 / $7499 / AU$10,499 per pair

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It's official: Sonos is having a sale!

We're big fans of several of the premium audio brand's products, many of which are now seeing discounts – including the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra at £849, the five-star Sonos Era 300 down to £359 and the petite powerhouse Sonos Ray at £179.

All great products that we felt were worth the money even at full price. The only issue? We've seen all these products cheaper before, and with Black Friday on the horizon, it may only be a couple of months before they crash to these prices once again.

The one exception? The Sonos Era 100 SL, the one product we recommend that has returned to its former low of £149 at Amazon.

While this particular model lacks a microphone for voice control, it still packs a big, open sound and a vast amount of streaming and playback features.

The Sonos Era 100 SL is part of a range that includes the Era 300 mentioned above. The Era 300 is more room-filling and might be a better choice for a larger space, but the 100 SL packs a whole host of streaming features into one compact, easy-to-use model – and is currently more than £200 cheaper.

We haven't tested the SL model, but Sonos assures us it's identical to the five-star Sonos Era 100, except for the lack of a microphone. The majority of our review still applies, therefore, including our glowing findings on the Era 100's crisp, winning sound.

"The Era 100 takes everything we liked about the Sonos One – crisp and detailed, spacious sound, deep bass – and cranks it up a dozen notches," our Sonos Era 100 review reads. "It sounds so much bigger, more spacious, more detailed and deeper in the bass, while still retaining a great handle on timing, dynamics and its even tonal balance.

"The spread of sound you get from what is still a fairly compact speaker is really impressive. The delivery is powerful, with voices projected out into our listening room with confidence."

Even without voice control, the Era 100 SL is still stacked with features. You can stream wirelessly to the Era 100 SL via the Sonos S2 app, Apple AirPlay 2, or Spotify Connect, with Bluetooth 5.0 also available. We've used and reviewed plenty of Bluetooth speakers over the years, and we found pairing with our smartphones to be particularly fuss-free in this case.

It also helps that the app is rather easy to use, simple to navigate for tech pros and novices alike.

If you're already in the Sonos ecosystem, then an Era 100 SL will be particularly appealing. Two Era 100 SLs can be used as a stereo pair, or they can be used as rear speakers if you have the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), Arc, or Ray soundbar or plan to purchase one in the sale.

If you can live without voice control, the Sonos Era 100 SL is an excellent, affordable entry point to a Sonos set-up, with versatility and an array of features that few rivals can match. A charming, capable and feature-rich wireless speaker experience, which can be all yours for £149 at Amazon.

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