2025's What Hi-Fi? Awards winners have been revealed and it has been an explosive year with multiple new entries in most of our home cinema categories.
There are 17 new Award-winners across the TV, soundbar, speaker package, and projector categories (I've counted them myself), and they are all very well-deserved.
KEF has scored big with the exceptional XIO Dolby Atmos soundbar and the fantastic Q Concerto Meta 5.1 Speaker System, while Hisense snags another projector Award with the M2 Pro. A surprisingly potent budget wireless Dolby Atmos system, the AX5125H, also scores Hisense its first-ever win in the soundbar category.
Other big winners include Sony, Panasonic, LG and TCL, all of which scooped up Awards in the TV category. So there's cause for celebration all around, right?
Generally yes, but two major home cinema categories haven't had anywhere near the same amount of love – and they happen to be two that I care about a lot.
2025 has been something of a drought for new AV receivers and Blu-ray players. In fact, we reviewed only one new AVR this year, that being the three-star JBL MA7100HP. And that, unfortunately, could not rival the likes of the Award-winning Sony TA-AN1000 or any of the currently available Denon amplifiers – all of which are a few years old now.
Denon and Marantz didn't really announce much in the way of new home cinema amplifiers. Though, being fair, this is understandable considering they have both been scooped up by Harman International, so they are probably letting the dust settle before launching anything new.
Elsewhere, Arcam has been focusing on its hi-fi components, Yamaha has retained its existing lineup for at least another year, and Pioneer hasn't made a return to our AV testing room since we reviewed the VSA-LX805 towards the beginning of last year.
That has left the AVR Awards category with the same two winners as last year: the Sony TA-AN1000 and the Marantz Cinema 30. Both are excellent in their own ways, but I wouldn't have been opposed to a new contender this year.
In the world of physical media, alas, things are equally grim. Our Blu-ray player category features a singular winner that has held its spot for seven years in a row. And, while the DP-UB820EB is a superb 4K disc player which delivers a crisp picture and dynamic sound at a reasonable price, there's hardly any competition for it out there.
Sony did launch a new version of its previously Award-winning UBP-X700 Blu-ray player; however, it appears to be the same as its predecessor, just without any of the network functionality, such as screen mirroring or streaming apps.
When asked, the company confirmed that the performance was the same as the existing model – not exactly the grand return to 4K Blu-ray players we were hoping for.
Panasonic hasn't budged on its lineup either. The only major updates we saw this year came from Magnetar, which announced MKII variants of its two 4K players. Both of those are currently only up for pre-order; perhaps we have some contenders for the 2026 What Hi-Fi? Awards.
So, with 2025 coming to a close, my biggest wish for 2026 is to see these two categories bounce back – wishful thinking perhaps, but I hold out hope.
MORE:
Read our full Marantz Cinema 30 review
Check out our picks for the best 4K Blu-ray players
As well as the best AV receivers
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