There are three catchphrases you’ll often hear echoing out of the home cinema test room at What Hi-Fi? towers.
First, “good sound is good sound, regardless of whether it’s home cinema or hi-fi”.
Second, “audio quality is equally as important as picture quality for home cinema”.
Third, “blasted box! To hell with you! Why won’t you fit!?”
OK you can probably ignore the final one – that's just our standard war cry when trying to repackage a product we’ve finished reviewing.
Editor’s note: it’s a very specific problem but most packaging isn’t designed to be used twice and is made of easily breakable, oddly shaped blocks of polystyrene that don’t follow a logical pattern. This is a key reason why, in my humble opinion, whoever invented the specific version of polystyrene every AV firm seems to use deserves to go to the same special hell as Astroturf's creator and people who play music through their phone's speakers on public transport.
But the first two are important, and all too easy to forget, especially if you’re yet to experience proper home cinema sound and have become used to your TV or projector’s built-in speakers.
I was reminded of this last week by an unexpected product: a UST projector.
It happened while I was running a group test of the category for the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026. This process sees us run the units head-to-head to find out which is the best performer ahead of announcing our Best Buy winners later in the year.
Towards the end of this long process, I admit I had become shamefully jaded, and all too used to the mediocre audio most of the units provided. Check our reviews, and you’ll struggle to find a UST projector with a five-star score for audio.
For the sake of not spoiling our Awards reveal, I’m not going to tell you the UST's name – good things come to those who wait and all that – but I will confirm that everything changed when I plugged in the last unit and began playing the Sinners 4K Blu-ray.
Specifically, the demanding musical medley scene, which sees Sammy perform the blues in the dingy speakeasy. The moment Sammy plucked his first guitar string, my ears pricked up.
Then, as the scene developed and Sammy’s performance morphed into a musical medley exploring the multiple genres of black music across the decades, we suddenly found ourselves unexpectedly nodding our heads to the beat.
The reason why was simple: unlike the other projectors' sound systems, there was a hint of musicality to the audio.
Did it come close to matching a moderately capable soundbar or full-fat 5.1 multi-speaker system? Of course not. But, unlike many of the units we tested, it handled music with some finesse.
A hint of rhythmic drive, pushing us forward through the genre-crossing rooms, bringing the interlinking beats to life; a pleasing, but controlled, swell in volume as the screaming psychedelic guitar arrived, wailing over the other frequencies; just enough bass extension to make the breakdown land with some impact.
Sure, it wasn't perfect, but unlike the other UST projectors, it did just enough right to remind me what a difference good sound, with a sense of musicality, can make to the home cinema experience. Too many integrated speaker systems seem to focus their efforts on dialogue and covering up for an underpowered low end, to the detriment of everything else.
I’ve said as much before. Just a few months ago, when I had the joy of helping test the five-star KEF R Meta 5.1 Speaker System, I felt the need to remind readers why system matching is just as important in home cinema as it is in hi-fi.
Hopefully, I’m teaching you all to suck eggs. But on the off chance I’m not, heed my warning and make sure to give audio quality the importance it deserves when building your home cinema. If you don’t, you’re not going to get the full “as the director intended” experience we all yearn for, no matter how good the picture is.
Do you agree with our audio quality mantra? Let us know in the comments below.
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Our picks of the best surround sound systems
