The What Hi-Fi? audio team are used to jetting out each year in June to the High End show, to see what fresh new products we might expect to see and hear in our test rooms in the near future.
This year, though, rather than heading off to Munich, where the show had been held for many years, they turned their attention a touch further east to its new host, Austria’s capital city Vienna.
This year’s festival of hi-fi proved to be exciting and worthwhile for more than just the new location, however. There were a remarkable amount of product launches to attend, which meant our intrepid crew could bring a number of hands-on reviews highlighting some of the delights to come.
If you’re in the market for some premium headphones, you won’t want to miss our round-up of the very best examples available. And, talking of premium, we spoke to the designer of Audio-Technica’s new £10,000 cartridge about his thought processes in creating such a top-level component.
Happiness is a High End show
The High End hi-fi showcase is one of the year’s highlights for hi-fi fans and audiophiles, with the European show perennially revealing new top-end kit from the world’s biggest and most lauded manufacturers.
This year, the action moved from the show’s previous home of Munich to Vienna, and we were on the ground to identify the best of this year’s new high-end product launches.
The Austrian capital hosted the show very nicely indeed, with the massive, sprawling halls of the Austria Center Vienna chock full of the best new high-end hi-fi, including speakers, streaming amplifiers, turntables and more from the cream of the hi-fi industry.
This issue you’ll find our hands-on impressions of a handful of the most exciting products unveiled at the show, from JBL, Bowers & Wilkins, Dali, Cambridge Audio, Ruark and Moon.
Headphones that are ahead of the noise-cancelling pack
Back in 2020, paying over £500 for a pair of over-ear headphones raised quite a few eyebrows. But that year, Apple launched its AirPods Max at £549 – at that time, a price tag massively elevated above the majority of wireless noise-cancelling headphones from the likes of Sony, Bose and Sennheiser. But those questioning their price were quickly silenced as the AirPods Max crossed the line from wireless audio into wireless hi-fi, and consequently kickstarted a whole market sector of decidedly premium over-ears.
Six years on, brands such as the aforementioned Bose, Sony and Sennheiser, as well as the likes of Bowers & Wilkins, Dali and Focal, now have their own takes on premium, noise-cancelling cans – and this month we’ve rounded up ten such Apple-rivalling models for your consideration.
Battle for the Atmos
If you are looking for a way to upgrade your TV’s subpar audio without taking up a lot of space in your home, a soundbar is a great way to go.
There are a range of options on the market, from budget bars to more premium models. The Sonos Arc Ultra is an example of the latter, and it has snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award for its excellent performance.
Since its release in 2024, the Arc Ultra has been relatively unchallenged. But the new Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 7 + S has stepped into the ring. Boasting both a subwoofer and a soundbar as opposed to the Arc Ultra’s all-in-one design, the Sony is a slightly different beast. But which will come out on top?
Meet the man behind a £10K turntable cartridge
Yosuke Koizumi is Audio-Technica’s Cartridge Global Product Manager, and the man responsible for the new range-topping £1K AT-MCD1 moving-coil cartridge.
We sat down with Koizumi at the High End Vienna show to find out more about the technology behind the AT-MCD1, and just what goes into designing a top-end MC cartridge.
First with reviews
As always, our First Tests section is where you'll find What Hi-Fi?'s considered verdicts on the very latest hi-fi and AV gear.
A collaboration between lauded high-end manufacturers Focal and Naim was always going to turn our heads, and the Mu-so Hekla is a soundbar with both pedigree, style and a degree of uniqueness in its proposition. But how does it sound? Check out our review in this month's What Hi-Fi?
Elsewhere this issue we have expert, in-depth reviews of the Sony Bravia 7 II RGB Mini LED TV, Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro projector, Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 active speakers and a new soundbar system from Sony, the Bravia Theatre Trio.
And that's not all, we also had the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, Roberts Stream 219, JBL Live 780NC headphones and Audio-Technica AT-VM740xML moving magnet cartridge under the microscope.
Find all these reviews in September's What Hi-Fi? – out now!
More high-end hi-fi heaven
Our Temptations section of the magazine is where you'll find the highest of the high-end of hi-fi and AV products.
Gryphon's beast of a CD player, the Ethos, ticks all the boxes when it comes to impressing us. It looks great, in a groovy sci-fi kind of way, and most importantly sounds brilliant. At a cool £37,500, it's not just the price that's remarkable.
TAD's ME1TX are standmount speakers that we found impressively detailed. "We think of these speakers as an audio microscope," reads our review. "They allow us to hear low-level detail with class leading clarity."
Find out more in this month's What Hi-Fi?
Finally, don't forget to check out our Buyer’s Guide, featuring a definitive and freshly updated list of all the best home entertainment kit you can buy – including winners of 2025's What Hi-Fi? Awards. If you’re looking to purchase anything from a pair of the best wireless headphones to a home cinema speaker system, this section will tell you where to spend your money wisely.
Whatever you do, don't miss the September 2026 issue of What Hi-Fi?. Grab a copy today, or simply download it onto your tablet or smartphone. Enjoy!
You can subscribe or buy the latest issue here, or buy the digital edition on iPhone, iPad, Android devices or Kindle edition
