What Hi-Fi? Awards: 26 Product of the Year winners announced for 2022!

By Andy Madden
published

Our five special annual awards have also been revealed…

What Hi-Fi? Awards 2022 logo
(Image credit: Future)
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Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come! 

A month after revealing the 109 Best Buy winners of the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2022, in association with Sevenoaks Sound and Vision, we have today decorated 26 of them – one from each product category – with the even more prestigious Product of the Year accolade at our annual awards ceremony in London.

Product of the Year winners represent the very best products across all the review categories we cover, from TVs to turntables, speakers to streamers, and everything in between.

The full list of 26 Product of the Year winners can be found below, as can the winners of our five special awards: the Readers' Award, Temptation Award, Innovation of the Year Award, Outstanding Contribution Award and the 2022 addition to the What Hi-Fi? Hall of Fame. And remember, the special Awards issue of the magazine will be on sale from tomorrow (Thursday 10th November), both in shops and online.

Sony

The Sony WH-1000XM5 are at the top of their game in the wireless headphones category. (Image credit: Sony)

The Sound United representative for Denon and Marantz got their steps in this evening as he walked on stage multiple times to collect multiple awards. The Marantz CD6007 once again wins the Product of the Year gong in the CD player category, while the Denon AVR-X2800H is a new POY winner for 2022. Denon continues to produce some of the most compelling buys in the home cinema amplifier market.

Sony is another brand that picked up multiple Products of the Year. Firstly for the outstanding Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless ANC headphones that have set a new benchmark for audio quality at the money, then the Sony HT-A7000 Dolby Atmos soundbar and lastly its stunning premium 4K projector, the Sony VPL-XW5000ES.

Sonus Faber might have missed out in our speaker categories, but it walked away with one of the most prestigious Awards of the night. The What Hi-Fi? Readers' Award went to its excellent all-in-one Sonus Faber Omnia system, which obviously struck a chord having been voted for by the What Hi-Fi?-reading public.

Apple wins three Awards in 2022. It picked up a Product of the Year in the smartphone category thanks to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but it didn't stop there. The Apple 4K TV did enough to keep it at the top of the video streamer game, while the Apple iPad Air (5th Generation), meanwhile, is, to quote our review, "supremely talented... and more or less untouchable by other tablets in its price range" and thus wins the Product of the Year in the tablet category.

Wharfedale Diamond 12.3

The Wharfedale Diamond 12.3 once again win Product of the Year in the Floorstanding Speakers category. (Image credit: Wharfedale)

Several of last year's POY winners have batted away new competition in the past 12 months to keep their titles this year; the Wharfedale Diamond 12.3 in the floorstanding equivalent, and the wonderful Grado SR325x in the wired headphones category, to name just two.

The superb KEF LS50 Meta win again in the standmounts speaker category but 2022 marks a double for the British brand as it picks up Innovation of the Year for its clever Uni-Core technology which brings large amounts of bass to small spaces, something that we heard executed to perfection in its LS60 Wireless speakers earlier this year.

We'd now like to call out a few more brand-spanking-new Product of the Year winners for 2022, if we may.

One of the big new winners was Pro-Ject who knocked Rega off its perch with a Product of the Year win in the turntables category. The Pro-Ject Debut Pro hasn't long been on the scene and has already wowed us with its sound quality and sophistication.

LG has had a blinder in the TV category this year, with a Product of the Year Award to add to its numerous Best Buy wins. Its C2 range of OLED TVs has set the benchmark for performance per pound this year and the LG OLED65C2 is a deserving winner.

Some might be surprised to see Technics pick up a Product of the Year Award for something other than a turntable, but here we are. Its smart SA-C600 all-in-one pips Best Buy winners from the likes of Denon and KEF to the top spot in our systems category.

Chord wins again in the DACs category, but it isn't the 2021 winner, the Qutest, that wins up the spoils this year. The company has actually managed to beat itself with the brilliant Chord Mojo 2 portable DAC/headphone amp.

LG OLED65C2

The LG OLED65C2 is our 2022 TV Product of the Year (Image credit: Future / Jurassic World Evolution 2, Frontier)

In the world of music streamers, the Bluesound Node (2021) claims the accolade for the second time in as many years, while Tivoli also returns to the What Hi-Fi? Awards to pick up a Product of the Year gong for its multi-talented, radio-redefining Model One Digital Generation 2 in the radio category.

Disney+ outshines Netflix for the second year in a row by offering an ever-increasing catalogue of child- and adult-friendly content in a polished, comprehensive and tech-savvy service.

We'd like to end with our Outstanding Contribution special award, which this year goes to Karl-Heinz Fink. He isn't a household name exactly, but his company, Fink Audio, certainly is. The current award-winning Wharfedale Diamond 12 range is the company's work, as are various models from the likes of Mission, Denon, Tannoy and Castle over the years. Karl-Heinz is arguably the most influential speaker engineer working in the industry today and a worthy recipient of this Award and recognition.

And that's all, folks – well, nearly. You can see all 26 Product of the Year winners and those who took home our five special awards below. Congratulations to all the winning brands of both Best Buy and Product of the Year trophies, and happy browsing (and, let's face it, shopping), dear readers!

All 26 What Hi-Fi? 2022 Product of the Year winners

Best TV
LG OLED65C2

Best soundbar
Sony HT-A7000

Best standmount speaker
KEF LS50 Meta

Best floorstanding speaker
Wharfedale Diamond 12.3

Best turntable
Pro-Ject Debut Pro

Best wireless speaker
Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation

Best wired headphones
Grado SR325x

Best wireless headphones
Sony WH-1000XM5

Best Blu-ray player
Panasonic DP-UB820EB

Best projector
Sony VPL-XW5000ES

Best music streamer
Bluesound Node (2021)

Best CD player
Marantz CD6007

Best radio
Tivoli Model One Digital Generation 2

Best speaker package
Wharfedale Evo 4.4 5.1 pack

Best tablet
Apple iPad Air (5th Generation)

Best video streamer
Apple TV 4K (2021)

Best stereo amplifier
Cambridge Audio CXA81

Best home cinema amplifier
Denon AVR-X2800H

Best accessory
Chord Company Rumour X

Best set-top box
Sky Q

Best DAC
Chord Mojo 2

Best multi-room system
Sonos

Best smartphone
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max

Best portable music player
Astell & Kern A&norma SR25 MKII

Best system
Technics SA-C600

Best streaming service
Disney+

The five What Hi-Fi? 2022 special awards

Readers Award
Sonus Faber Omnia

Hall of Fame
Sonos Arc

Innovation of the Year
KEF Uni-Core

Temptation
PMC Fact Fenestria

Outstanding Contribution
Karl-Heinz Fink

Andy Madden
Andy Madden

Andy is Deputy Editor of What Hi-Fi? and a consumer electronics journalist with nearly 20 years of experience writing news, reviews and features. Over the years he's also contributed to a number of other outlets, including The Sunday Times, the BBC, Stuff, and BA High Life Magazine. Premium wireless earbuds are his passion but he's also keen on car tech and in-car audio systems and can often be found cruising the countryside testing the latest set-ups. In his spare time Andy is a keen golfer and gamer.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • JR75
    I guess your definition of "Best" is not the same as the dictionary. So many crappy choices for Best. Disney+ as best streaming service? You gotta be kidding. Maybe if you are 8 years old. Best music streamer - you pick a low-end streamer from over a year ago? And so on...
    I demand a re-do.
    Reply
  • 12th Monkey
    JR75 said:
    I guess your definition of "Best" is not the same as the dictionary. So many crappy choices for Best. Disney+ as best streaming service? You gotta be kidding. Maybe if you are 8 years old. Best music streamer - you pick a low-end streamer from over a year ago? And so on...
    I demand a re-do.
    You can make your views known without being abusive. Please amend your tone in future posts.
    Reply