As we approach the mid-way point of the year, our expert in-house test team has already reviewed more than 100 hi-fi, AV and headphones products in 2025 – and we're not stopping!
In our dedicated facilities throughout June will be 15+ new products, including the six we have highlighted below that we are most excited to unbox and get hands-on with.
We’ll be putting each through its paces, and once we are done, you will be able to see their star ratings and read all about them in our comprehensive reviews.
Lined up this month, among other products, is Samsung’s highly anticipated flagship OLED TV; Q Acoustics stereo speakers from a series that has already garnered multiple five-star reviews; a pair of projectors promising high-end home cinema performance from their respective 4K laser sources; PMC’s new premium Prophecy floorstanders; and Audio-Technica’s latest reference record spinner.
If you have any questions about these products before we get started on our reviews, drop a comment at the bottom of this page, head to our forums or social media channels, or email us at whathifi@futurenet.com – we’ll do our best to find the answer to your query during our testing process and get back to you.
Q Acoustics 5010 bookshelf speakers
Both floorstanding models from Q Acoustics’ 2023-released 5000 Series, the 5040 and larger 5050, have won back-to-back What Hi-Fi? Awards for delivering best-in-class performances at their respective prices. Now it’s the turn of the range’s smallest standmounts to see if they can garner similar acclaim.
The 5010 sit below the 5020 bookshelf model, costing £499 / $749 / AU$1099. They share many of their siblings’ technologies, including the C3 (‘C-cubed’) Continuous Curved Cone mid/bass driver, so that certainly bodes well.
We have generally found the British company’s standmounts to be even more compelling value than its floorstanders, so we will soon find out whether the 5010 swims with or against that particular stream.
Samsung S95F QD-OLED TV
“A brighter, more impactful image appears to be what Samsung is serving up with its latest QD-OLED TV,” concluded our hands-on Samsung S95F review. Since we formed those first impressions back in January when we saw the TV at its launch at CES, we have been dying to get a sample into our test rooms to see how it performs properly – and against the competition.
We have already been super impressed in 2025 by the LG G5, and have had very positive first impressions of the Sony Bravia 8 II too. Samsung will of course want to repeat its blockbuster success of 2024, a highlight of which was its S95D TV, which this S95F replaces.
Will it trump the competition to claim a spot in our best TV buying guide?
Our wait to find out is very nearly over, as the S95F is winging its way to What Hi-Fi? towers to go 12 rounds with our in-house TV & AV test team. We can’t wait to tell you all about it.
Audio-Technica AT-LP8X premium turntable
The five-star Audio-Technica AT-LP5X has been one of our most consistent affordable turntable recommendations in recent years for those looking for their first spinner or an upgrade on a more budget model.
And now Audio-Technica is providing a more premium option with its new range-topper, the AT-LP8X. The £849 deck is a direct-drive design that not only comes with a J-shaped tonearm and AT-VM95e cartridge but also offers semi-automatic operation by way of automatic tonearm-lifting when the motor stops, so as to prevent damage.
If Audio-Technica can nail high-value performance here, as it has done so many times in the past, the AT-LP8X will be an interesting, easy-to-use and solid offering at this higher price point.
PMC Prophecy 7 floorstanders
“Never has so big a sound been possible from cabinets so compact,” reads PMC’s literature about its latest speaker range, Prophecy. That will be music to the ears of fans of floorstanding speaker sound and discreet, accommodating cabinets. Our first taste of the series is coming via the smaller of its two three-way floorstanders, the Prophecy 7, which, like every model in the company’s catalogue, is a transmission-line design.
PMC claims to have made significant improvements to the way the sound from the transmission line feeds into the room, while other notable design elements are refined Laminair vent technology and brand-new drive units, including a 55cm dome midrange surrounded by an unusually complex flower-shaped waveguide for improved dispersion.
Consider us intrigued!
A pair of 4K laser projectors: Nebula X1 & Optoma UHZ68LV
We knew as soon as we saw the Nebula X1’s “bright and vibrant picture quality” and “pleasingly sharp, detailed image” at a hands-on demo session in April that we wanted to get the projector in for review. Less than a month later, here it comes.
The X1 is a 4K laser ‘portable’ (it has a bucket-like handle) projector from the popular Anker-owned brand that integrates the Google TV smart platform and Netflix and supports next-gen picture technologies such as 4K/120Hz or Dolby Vision.
It seems to be a pretty mature setup for such a proposition, then – although only a week or two in our test room will prove whether it can deliver on its promise as a “cinema-grade outdoor entertainment system”.
Optoma’s latest flagship beamer is also, naturally, a 4K laser design, although this is your more typical-looking home cinema projector – you won’t be carrying this one to your garden.
Matching its sophisticated build is a sophisticated specification sheet that includes 5000 lumens of brightness, a contrast ratio of 3,200,000:1, and both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, not to mention a claimed 90 per cent DCI-P3 cinema-grade colour accuracy and a host of HDMI 2.1 connectivity.
If it can tick the all-important ‘sophisticated picture’ box too, job done…
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