The Titan is a clear sign of how ambitious Xgimi is now getting with its projection range, despite the company still being a relative newcomer.

It combines the brand’s established taste for innovation and pushing projector boundaries with features clearly aimed at serious home cinema fans – a combination neatly summed up by Xgimi itself, variously describing the Titan as "Commercial Grade" and capable of delivering “true home theatre in any living room”.

Headline features such as a 5000-Lumen 4K laser optical system, unusually large 0.78 DLP imaging device and proprietary brightness-enhancing lens are certainly promising, but can the Titan really live up to the hype?

Price

The Xgimi Titan costs £3499 in the UK and $3999 in the US at the time of writing. That’s certainly not shockingly expensive for a projector apparently targeted at serious home cinema enthusiasts that boasts, as we’ll see, a pretty extreme set of features and specifications. But it is quite expensive by Xgimi standards, raising a high level of expectation for its performance given how well some more affordable Xgimi projectors have performed in recent years.

In Australia, meanwhile, the Titan costs an even more serious AU$9999.

Rivals in the same price ballpark include the excellent recently reviewed AWOL Vision Aetherion Max UST projector, and the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning, dedicated home theatre Epson EH-LS9000 model.

Design

The Titan is a robustly built and striking-looking projector. Its basic rectangular shape isn’t particularly out there, but it’s reasonably compact for such a highly specified model; boasts an unusual but effective mixture of a slightly rubbery top edge, smooth plastic grilled sides and front felt finishes; and the lens features a striking red highlight running around its outer edge.

Most eye-catchingly of all, the projector ships with four elongated mounting legs that attach diagonally out from each underside corner, making the projector look like it’s sitting in some kind of cradle. We’re a bit torn on both the usefulness and aesthetic appeal of these feet, honestly, but they’re well made and certainly help the Titan stand out from the crowd.

High wall/ceiling and floor mount options (the latter of which essentially adds a long pole to the stand) are also available for an extra £350 each.

The remote control shipped with the Titan combines sleek silver metallic and smooth black plastic design elements with elegant button backlighting and a logical layout to attractive and ergonomic effect.

Features

While the Titan’s design does a good job of establishing it as a premium model, it’s the features that really set our hopes high. Particularly striking are its high claimed peak brightness of 5000 lumens, delivered by a dual laser light engine; a monster claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1; claimed coverage of a seriously high 150 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum used in most of today’s HDR mastering; and support for all of the main four HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

As a logo under the lens confirms, the Titan has also earned IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning its picture quality has been deemed capable of doing justice to the special IMAX Enhanced video mastering system.

The projector is also sold as 4K capable. As ever with domestic DLP projectors, this 4K resolution isn’t truly native, depending on Texas Instruments’ XPR system of pixel shifting and ‘double flashing’ to achieve a 4K effect. This 4K effect has been deemed a true 4K experience by the independent Consumer Technology Association, however, and we’ve seen many 4K DLP projectors now deliver pictures that really do appear dense and crisp enough to feel like 4K.

The Titan actually claims an extra 4K advantage over other consumer DLP projectors, too, by using a 0.78-inch imaging chip rather than the 0.47- or 0.66-inch chips commonly used in DLP projectors. This should greatly improve the light efficiency and controllability of all the tiny mirrors mounted onto the DLP DMD device, as well as enhance pixel separation, resulting in potentially more native contrast and a generally more stable, detailed and consistent image.

Xgimi has introduced a couple of promising new proprietary features for the Titan, too. First, its complex multi-element lens design has been specially created by Xgimi to enable more of the light the projector is capable of producing to actually arrive on your screen. Second, the Titan carries Xgimi’s first self-developed 4K-grade AI image processor, the Xgimi X1.

The Titan supports full HD 3D playback if you pair it with optional active shutter 3D glasses, while among its picture presets is a Filmmaker Mode to provide a one-button way of getting the projector to produce pictures designed to get as close as the projector can to the image standards and values typically used in the content creation world.

When it comes to gaming, our resident Xbox Series X confirms that the Titan’s HDMI ports can’t handle frame rates higher than 60Hz at 4K resolution, even with the HDMIs set to Enhanced mode. It does at least hold on to HDR in 4K/60Hz mode, though, and can be set to handle 120Hz at 1080p resolution if you activate the high frame rate feature in the projector’s dedicated Game onscreen menus. Choosing this higher frame rate seems to come at the expense of HDR, though, and there’s no support at any frame rate for VRR.

There is support for ALLM, though, where the projector can automatically switch into its best game settings when a game source is detected. This best game set-up reduces input lag to 32.3ms.

While the Titan doesn’t feature one of the sophisticated fully automated picture set-up systems that increasingly many living room projectors do, it does feature auto focus and auto keystone correction, and the motorised lens system features both more extensive and more finely tuned adjustments than most. Optical zoom is available across a 1.2-1.8x range, and the image can be shifted left, right, up or down over a +/- 100 per cent vertical range and +/- 40 per cent horizontal range.

Xgimi claims the Titan’s 5000 lumens of brightness can drive a screen as large as 250 inches, and it has an integrated 2 x 12W sound system. The projector also supports playback of DTS-HD, DTS Virtual X and Dolby Atmos in the Dolby Digital+ format.

The Titan’s connections are decent for a premium projector. It might have been nice if there were more than two HDMI ports, and if those supported HDMI 2.1 bandwidths, but these are backed up by two USB ports (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0), analogue and optical digital audio outputs, plus Ethernet and RS-232C ports for integrating the projector into a wider home control network.

When it comes to integrated smart TV features, finally, the Titan leans towards the dedicated home theatre room projector market by not actually having any. The only thing it offers that’s remotely along those lines is a built-in media player that can handle AV files played from USB drives.

Picture quality

First impressions of the Xgimi Titan are really spectacular. With native 4K HDR content, you instantly feel the impact of both its extreme 5000 lumens of brightness and the extra detail and clarity that we assume is down to the projector’s use of the new 0.78-inch DLP DMD chip.

The brightness is particularly useful to the side of the Titan’s personality focused on living room use, helping it punch its images through even summertime levels of ambient light with enough colour saturation and contrast to leave them not just watchable but actually enjoyable.

The Titan’s colours don’t push into levels of saturation, vibrancy and volumes that some other recent premium projectors we’ve tested have achieved, but we rarely feel as if the colour on offer is struggling to reach the levels required by even the most vibrant content we feed it.

The Titan’s image really does look 4K. There’s a purity and naturalism to its reproduction of fine details and textures as well as a general sense of immediacy and real-life density to its images that’s a notch above anything we’ve seen from the vast majority of other DLP projectors.

This helps to create a strong sense of depth, and the clarity is delivered so effortlessly that the viewing experience feels incredibly natural and immersive. At least when the source content is playing to the projector’s strengths with images that are bright, colour-rich, clean and detailed.

The naturalism extends to superbly natural management of grain and appealingly natural-looking judder with 24p movies if you call in the lowest setting of the projector’s motion processing options. Perhaps because of the image’s high brightness, judder feels slightly too pronounced in its ‘native’ form with no processing applied.

The Titan adapts itself to HD SDR content very nicely, too, retaining good shading and colour balance/naturalism despite evidently being designed with HDR in mind.

The Titan also adapts its images well in many ways between its key Standard and Filmmaker Mode presets. The Standard mode is your go-to for bright rooms, but is also mostly a solid option for a dark-room film night if you prefer punchier images to the more accurate ones delivered by the Filmmaker Mode.

The Filmmaker Mode, though, while significantly dimmer, flatter and actually quite a bit softer than the Standard mode, does deliver that creative intent ‘feel’ that home cinema fans will be familiar with.

There are a trio of areas, though, where the Titan’s pictures fall short of the generally high standards it sets elsewhere.

First and worst, its black levels are underwhelming for a projector that sells itself as delivering home theatre in all room conditions. This isn’t a big problem in relatively bright rooms, but home cinema fans who like to really black out their rooms for serious movie nights will at least sometimes be distracted by the greyness that creeps into dark scenes. Especially as the greyness is actually most noticeable in the projector’s most ‘cinematic’ picture presets due to these not aggressively using the projector’s Dynamic Black Level feature.

This feature auto-adjusts the projector’s light output based on constant analysis of the source image, and it really can substantially enhance black reproduction. Unfortunately, though, the Low setting for the Dynamic Black Feature causes lots of subtle image detail to disappear into the darkness, leaving the picture looking hollow and flat, while its medium and high settings can cause the image to look a bit unstable during high contrast shots as the projector becomes a bit hyperactive with its workings.

For us, the Titan’s Dolby Vision Dark mode delivers the best out-of-the-box option for dark room viewing – though this still isn’t as perfect for black levels as we’d have hoped. Plus it relies on the projector receiving a Dolby Vision source, of course.

You could improve the black levels by using a low-gain (0.5 or so) screen, and reducing the projector’s brightness setting also helps a bit – though this obviously reduces the impact of the potent HDR effect that’s arguably the Titan’s biggest selling point.

The Titan’s DLP images also reveal a little rainbow effect during shots that contain stand-out bright objects. This issue is, to be fair, less aggressive than we might have expected with such a bright projector, but it’s definitely there – even to people like us who only consider ourselves to be moderately susceptible to seeing it (sensitivity to the rainbow effect varies from person to person).

The third picture issue is that the so-called Performance mode, where performance appears to mean driving every aspect of the picture to the outer extremes of the projector’s capabilities, is one of the weirdest and most unwatchable picture presets we’ve ever seen.

Yes, it’s bright. Arguably the brightest picture we’ve seen from any projector costing under five figures, in fact. But colours look absolutely bizarre in this mode – about as far from natural and balanced as you could imagine in your wildest AV fever dream – while the projector’s Dynamic Tone Mapping seems to lose the plot pretty much entirely, delivering picture extremes with so little thought for balance and consistency that you’d swear different elements of each frame must have been mastered at different times by different people on different mastering monitors.

The Performance mode also suddenly escalates the Titan’s running noise from practically (and brilliantly) non-existent to a level that’ll have you thinking you must have left the fan oven in the kitchen on.

Of course, you don’t have to choose the Performance mode, thankfully. And in its key Standard, Dolby Vision Dark, IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker Mode modes, the Titan is capable of delivering generally very enjoyable pictures – especially if, contrary to typical ‘home theatre projector’ practice, you leave a little light in your room.

Sound quality

The Titan’s built-in speakers give good TV sound systems a run for their money. The projector can go as loud as a good-sounding TV, for instance, without starting to sound strained. The speakers project their sound well, too, including towards the distant screen, substantially reducing that eternal projector audio problem where the sound doesn’t seem to be attached to the pictures.

The midrange is rich and full, and the speakers are sensitive enough even under quite heavy pressure to retain great levels of detail and clarity. Even when they’re dealing with shrill treble or heavy beats. The midrange is also able to expand very effectively as escalating action or horror scenes grow in density, layering and volume, avoiding that common integrated TV/projector audio system issue of the sound falling away just when it should be entering full-throated mode.

However, while bass is typically convincing, Hollywood’s deepest bass moments can catch the Titan out a little, with prolonged rumbles sometimes sounding rather coarse against the quite hi-fi feel of the rest of the sound. A faint crackling effect can creep into the most extreme bass sounds, too.

More broadly, while the Titan sounds good overall by projector standards, its audio is a long way from a suitable match for the epic scale of the pictures it produces. A dedicated home cinema system really is the only way to go here.

Verdict

The Titan has enough swagger in both its hardware and software to compellingly back up Xgimi’s latest bid to be taken seriously as a potential home theatre rather than simply ‘living room’ projector brand. Much of the DNA required to get home cinephile hearts thumping is present and correct, and its pictures can look incredible at times.

In the end, though, the Titan perhaps pushes its ‘True Home Cinema anywhere’ bid a bit too far, leaning slightly too hard into the sort of picture abilities required for the ‘storefront displays or digital signage’ applications Xgimi also claims the Titan can support, rather than dedicating itself hook, line and sinker to the home cinema world.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max

Also consider the Epson EH-LS9000

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Bose has released the most premium addition to its home cinema roster – the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar – and it is aiming to take on all-comers at this elevated price. The US brand claims that it can offer “a listening experience that shatters any perceived limits of a soundbar-only set-up”.

Those are some big expectations to meet, but can it outperform the Award-winning Sonos Arc Ultra? Let’s just say that our current front-runner has been left untroubled by its latest competitor.

Price

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is priced at £1000 / $1099 / AU$1800, which places it firmly against the Sonos Arc Ultra (£999 / $999 / AU$1799).

The Sonos rival is not only a five-star product, but it’s also the current class-leader, having picked up a What Hi-Fi? Award in 2025 for its troubles. If you want the best Dolby Atmos soundbar we’ve tested at this level, the Sonos is the one to beat.

Another close rival is the Sony Theatre Bar 9, which started life more expensive than the Bose when it launched a couple of years ago, but has dropped from £1399 / $1400 / AU$1795 to around the £999 mark if you shop around.

There is the option to upgrade the Bose soundbar to a 7.1.4-channel system by adding a pair of wireless speakers (£300 / $299 / AU$545 each) and one subwoofer (£900 / $899 / AU$1295). We reviewed the former (the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker) in July this year as a standalone wireless speaker, where it received a three-star rating.

Here, though, we are looking at the bar on its own.

Design

The Bose bar has a premium-feeling design befitting its price thanks to a stylish glass top and textured-knit fabric (available in either a black or white smoke finish).

Built into the glass top is a dial to adjust volume, which allows you to control music playback and volume via a combination of tapping and sliding your finger around the inner edge clockwise (volume up) or anti-clockwise (volume down).

That all makes it stand out from the crowd, as we have seen our fair share of non-descript black plastic rectangles pass through the test room.

As you would hope from a premium soundbar, there are a variety of drive units packed into the body. The nine drive units include one full-range 6cm up-firing driver at either end of the bar, which fires sound up at 90 degrees to add height and immersion to movie soundtracks. Note that this means the bar isn’t suited to being under a shelf with a TV above, as this will block the sound.

Across the front of the bar are four full-range ‘racetrack’ drivers that measure around 75mm wide, and two of Bose’s 20cm PhaseGuide drivers, which use special processing to fill in any gaps in the soundfield. There’s also a 25mm centre tweeter for dialogue.

On the rear, you’ll find two of Bose’s QuietPorts, which work with the company’s CleanBass technology and internal digital signal processing (DSP). The brand claims this can deliver low frequencies in a deep, controlled way with minimal distortion.

The bar looks at home next to our 55-inch screen, although it would fit equally as well with a 65- or 75-inch model.

Features

There’s no remote control in the box, so you will find yourself relying on the Bose app a fair bit. It offers an intuitive and simple overall experience, letting us set up the bar without much of a fuss.

From here, you can adjust the volume, input, and you can calibrate the soundbar to your space. This is done via the built-in microphones in the bar, and takes just a few minutes. During the process, the soundbar outputs a few test tones to adjust to the space. The soundbar’s presentation improves in scale and clarity once we go through the calibration process, so this is something well worth doing.

In terms of physical connectivity, you are limited to an Ethernet and a single, eARC-compatible HDMI socket. It’s a shame Bose hasn’t seen fit to include any additional HDMI inputs, as it limits the flexibility of your set-up, but this criticism can (and is) also aimed at the Sonos Arc Ultra.

Wi-fi is onboard, and streaming comes via Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 or Spotify Connect. The soundbar also supports Bluetooth 5.3. Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect are not supported by the soundbar (or Lifestyle Ultra Speaker) yet, but we have been assured that these are in the pipeline.

There are no preset modes for movies or music, but you can manually adjust the centre, surround and height channels on the app.

Sound

Let’s start with the positives. The Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar offers a nicely balanced sound that makes for easy listening.

When watching F1: The Movie, the bassy revving of engines as cars zoom around the race track does not stand out from the rest of the frequencies and blends seamlessly. There is a decent amount of weight and power in the Ultra’s bass performance, and it gives the soundtrack a firm foundation.

Dialogue is clean and relatively clear, as we can hear every word during the tense racing scene at the start of the film, even through the crackling headsets of the pit crew.

There is a fairly good sense of detail as we continue with the scene, as the beeping of the vehicle tracker and the scuffle of the pit crew are clear without being distracting. It’s certainly an improvement on the vast majority of TV speakers, and longer listening periods do not make for a fatiguing experience.

However, the Bose soundbar is not without its flaws. The synth-heavy soundtrack and revving engine should grow into an exciting crescendo. But the Bose bar’s timid handling of dynamics results in a flat performance that doesn’t create a sense of anticipation.

Given that this is a Dolby Atmos soundbar, there is not a great sense of scale, either. Watching Blade Runner 2049 when Joi experiences rain for the first time, the width of the sound does not extend much further than the length of our 55-inch Samsung S90H TV screen. The limited sense of height doesn’t make for an immersive experience, either: the rain should be heard overhead, but instead the drops are locked to the screen.

In an attempt to fix this, we go into the app’s audio settings and turn the height and surround channels to their maximum levels. This helps to create a wider sense of space, but the increase in scale information isn’t as obvious as it should be.

Later, as the holographic adverts pop up on the street, the Bose fails to locate individual sounds with any great focus compared with a class-leading rival such as the Sonos Arc Ultra.

We switch to Tidal via Bluetooth to test the Bose’s musical chops. Compared with the Arc Ultra, there isn't a great deal of detail with Yiso Horikawa’s Bubbles. This track starts with a series of bouncing balls of all types, resulting in a cacophony of textures that make for a stern audio test. The Bose struggles here, lacking the insight and precision to differentiate the range of sounds.

Verdict

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar offers a premium-looking design that stands out from the crowd. Its audio performance may be undemanding to listen to, but at such a premium price, that is not enough to earn our recommendation. We also demand punch, dynamism and immersion, and in these regards the Bose is sadly lacking.

When a rival such as the Sonos Arc Ultra achieves so much more for the same price, it’s clear that the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is no more than an also-ran in this particular race.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Design 4
• Features 3

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

Also consider the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9

Read our Samsung HW-Q990F

Best soundbars: options for every need, recommended by our experts

iFi knows its way around a digital-to-analogue converter. From the pocket-sized, pocket-change-costing Go Link through to its mid-range Zen DAC line, all the way up to the flagship iDSD Phantom, the British brand has established itself as a solid option for buyers seeking a capable DAC/headphone amp that performs well for the money.

iFi has billed its latest creation, the premium iDSD GR 2 DAC, as “a legend perfected”. Acting as the de facto successor to the company’s xDSD Gryphon from 2021, the new model promises wholesale changes from its predecessor, including redesigned balanced circuitry, a new Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC chip, and a touchscreen display.

A lot of promise on paper; time to find out how the iFi iDSD GR 2 performs in practice.

Build & design

iFi’s premium DAC/headphone amplifier feels like a quality item. Constructed using a ridged aluminium chassis adorned with an OLED touchscreen and topped with a metal control knob, the iDSD GR 2 does a fine job of making you feel as though you’re getting your money’s worth.

If out-and-out portability is your primary concern, iFi offers smaller, cheaper alternatives in its arsenal of DAC/ headphone amplifiers, including the iFi hip-dac 3 (£199 / $199 / AU$449) and Zen DAC 3 (£229 / $229 / AU$399), with the iDSD GR 2 designed to straddle that tricky hinterland between desktop use and on-the-go listening.

Viewed from above, it’s about the size of an iPhone, but the DAC’s metal chassis and chunky profile mean you might struggle to get it in your pocket comfortably. 268g isn’t exactly heavy, but when you consider that an iPhone 15 weighs about 170g, you’ll realise that it isn’t feather-light, either.

Battery life clocks in at around seven hours, and there are plenty of ways to connect your headphones and music sources to the premium DAC. It features balanced 4.4mm and single-ended 3.5mm inputs and outputs, as well as a USB-C input alongside a combination optical/coaxial input. You can also accept a signal from a Bluetooth (5.4) source, with codec support coming in aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive and LDAC flavours.

The iDSD GR 2 features a narrow OLED colour touchscreen, from which you can access volume adjustment, input selection, choose your desired digital filter and see your music’s file rate.

A display is nice to have, and the touchscreen itself is responsive and precise in its operation. Some aspects of operation take a bit of practice, such as holding certain icons down and then swiping across in the same motion to switch the desired gain mode, but we imagine those are things we’d grow accustomed to with time.

Away from the display, a few little usability quirks are worth flagging. The inputs and outputs at either end of the unit aren’t labelled particularly clearly, meaning that we sometimes had to bust out our phone’s flashlight to find our desired connection. Labelling each port with clearly contrasting white text would make legibility a little easier.

The volume control operation also seems counterintuitive – moving the dial forwards with the DAC lying flat turns the volume down a notch, while moving it backwards raises it up. That feels like the mirror image of what we’d expect, but again, we’d likely get used to it over time.

If you’re planning on taking the DAC out and about and want to keep it safe from knocks and scrapes, iFi offers a faux suede protective case, sold separately for around £50 / $50 / AU$79. The case comes with a cut-out so that you can still operate the touchscreen, though we do find that it can make tapping icons near the edge of the screen a bit trickier due to the cut-out being a little too small.

Internally, the iDSD GR 2 employs Class A amplification, in service of iFi’s pursuit of what it describes as a “natural analogue character”. The brand has also refined its new DAC’s circuitry – which is fully balanced from end to end – to reduce noise within the signal path.

The iDSD GR 2 delivers up to a claimed output of 1513m/W RMS – an increase of 50 per cent over the outgoing xDSD Gryphon – to grant more headroom to handle more demanding loads. That matches up with our testing, as from the premium Beyerdynamic T1 (£899 / $999 / AU$1599) to the high-end Sony MDR-Z1R (£1700 / $2100) headphones, we find that there isn’t much that the iFi can’t handle.

Features

The iDSD GR 2 supports DSD512 files and PCM playback up to a sky-high resolution of 32-bit/768kHz, though the chances of any layperson having such ultra-high-resolution recordings are slim. Still, it’s nice to know that, whatever music file you feed the iDSD GR 2, you’ve got a near-cast-iron guarantee it can handle it.

Doing said handling is a new Burr-Brown PCM1795 DAC chip sitting at the heart of the circuitry, which is claimed to produce a "warm, analogue character" with "lower distortion and greater dynamic range". That DAC chip is supported by 'K2HD' technology, a harmonic restoration algorithm built to bring recordings closer to their original character by "reintroducing subtle detail" and restoring musical tone.

iFi’s usual parade of digital filters is on hand for tweaking your sound to your own tastes, with four options consisting of ‘Standard’, ‘Bit-Perfect’, ‘Minimum Phase’ and ‘GTO’. Each will impart a slightly different flavour on your tunes – ‘Standard’ makes music crisper and more sharply defined; ‘GTO’ widens the soundstage a little – but for most of our testing, we stick with the smooth, pleasingly fluid balance of ‘Minimum Phase’.

iFi’s complementary ‘XBass’ and ‘XSpace’ analogue processing features have a more perceptible effect. ‘Xbass’ is useful for adding a good deal more lower-end muscle, even if it sacrifices precision and subtlety in the process, while ‘XSpace’ widens out the soundstage for an airier, less ‘on-head’ experience.

Both are fun to play around with – and potentially useful if you’re seeking to make up for a pair of cans with, say, not much oomph in the bass – but we perform the bulk of our testing with them switched off, as this grants the resultant sound a more natural, balanced character.

Away from filters, iFi’s latest DAC offers a hybrid power mode, meaning that the unit will prioritise mains power when connected to an external supply. If extra power is required, the iDSD GR 2 will utilise its internal battery and then switch to the external supply when the demand drops.

While you’ll likely spend a good deal of your time controlling the DAC using its on-unit touch controls, Android users can connect to iFi’s Nexis app. From here, you can access digital filters, fine-tune your listening profile, select your desired input and reap the rewards of any handy over-the-air updates.

It’s not the most stylish control app you’ll ever find, and most of the functionality can be adjusted via the DAC itself, but the Nexis platform is clear and easily navigable. Just be aware that, to get the most out of the app, you’ll need your source device to be connected physically, rather than via Bluetooth. iPhone users can still use the app via Bluetooth, but it’s a far sparser, more limited affair.

Sound

We use a range of premium and high-end wired headphones to test the iDSD GR 2’s capabilities, including not only the Sony MDR-Z1R, but also the budget-friendly Røde NTH-100 (£149 / $149 / AU$249) and premium Austrian Audio The Composer (£2249 / $2699 / AU$3999). We also make sure to test the full range of connections on offer, although we prefer using the punchier, crisper-sounding 4.4mm balanced output over its 3.5mm counterpart when possible.

With the iFi connected via USB-C to our laptop at one end and a pair of the high-end Sony MDR-Z1R connected to the 4.4mm balanced headphone output at the other, we reach for a 24-bit/96kHz rendition of Muse’s Panic Station. The iDSD GR 2 will give any music you play from a laptop a boost, no matter the quality of the files you use, but there’s no question you’ll really notice its full arsenal of capabilities with suitably high-resolution recordings.

Those abilities include impressive sonic clarity wedded to an ear for detail, all painted across a broad, big-picture soundscape. Panic Station is as crisp and funky as John Travolta’s iconic Saturday Night Fever suit, yet the iDSD GR 2 has the poise and restraint to prevent things from sounding sloppy or ill-ordered. Top-end notes are sharp but rarely bright or overdone, whereas low-end bass tones resonate deeply without sacrificing punch or precision.

A 24-bit/48kHz recording of Fleet Foxes’ Wading In Waist High Water further highlights the iFi’s uncluttered, detail-rich presentation. Tremulous vocals shine brightly as the DAC spotlights Robin Pecknold’s featherlight tenor, all while delicate guitar strums and hazy blasts of brass lull us into a relaxed repose.

We can’t stay basking in the glow of blissed-out indie beats forever, and so it’s time to put out the Bat-Signal and recruit the services of Hans Zimmer to see how the iDSD GR 2 can convey the drama and intensity of The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack (24-bit/192kHz).

iFi’s premium DAC has the poise and refinement to keep the many layers of the epic Rise just where they should be, even if we’re left yearning for a touch more dynamic drama as the music builds to its heroic denouement.

This is where the Award-winning Chord Mojo 2 reminds us why it’s one of the best DACs we’ve tested at this kind of level. At £395 / $725 / AU$899, it’s a good deal cheaper than its iFi rival, yet the bite and drama it brings to these big orchestral numbers are beyond anything the iDSD GR 2 can muster.

To see how both DACs perform in a hi-fi separates set-up, we plug each into our reference system. From our network server, we play Michael Jackson’s Burn This Disco Out (in 16-bit/44.1kHz and 24-bit/176.4kHz) via 4.4mm balanced to XLR feeding into our reference Burmester 088 preamplifier, and the subsequent rendition sounds sparkier and more rhythmically capable via the Chord Mojo 2 than it does through the premium iFi.

The Mojo 2 is already a certified legend in its field, and as we switch back to a DSD recording of Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space, we find ourselves continuing to appreciate the GR 2’s strengths rather than bemoaning its relative shortcomings. Mann’s voice is packed full of personality, and the iFi’s loose, relaxed presentation plays into the tune’s hands to create a pleasingly easy-going rendition.

What about Bluetooth? The iDSD GR 2’s wire-free performance is perfectly capable, as evidenced by its sure-footed handling of a 16-bit/44.1kHz rendition of Goose’s Dripfield. But if you want to make the most out of your DAC – and indeed, the premium headphones you’ll be partnering it with – Bluetooth should be seen as a nice bonus rather than a primary means of listening.

Verdict

The iDSD GR 2 is a fine addition to iFi’s considerable stable of DACs. It’s not as entertaining or dynamically expressive as the benchmark-setting Chord Mojo 2, but its clear, detailed sound and extensive feature set, not to mention sturdy build and strong arsenal of physical connections, make it a fine alternative.

Review published: 24th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Chord Mojo 2

Also consider the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M

Best DACs: USB, desktop and portable digital-to-analogue converters

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has dimensions that fly in the face of portability.

With a screen that measures in at 14.6 inches, it’s massive – bigger than a lot of laptops, and about as powerful as one too. If you’re looking for an Android tablet built for performance, on specs alone this has got to be a strong contender.

For movies on the go though, there’s a lot to love here too – and of course that large AMOLED 2X screen is a considerable part of that.

For people who don’t mind the extra heft in their backpack, and who can justify its equally hefty price, this could be one of the most cinematic ways to watch movies on the move.

Price

The Samsung Tab S11 Ultra is available in a number of configurations. There is a choice of either 256GB or 512GB of storage with 12GB RAM, or a 1TB storage option with 16GB RAM – plus you can also add up to 2TB of storage via microSD card.

In the UK, Europe and Australia, there’s also the choice of going for wi-fi only or opting for 5G cellular support across any of those configurations. However, the 5G version is not currently available in the US.

The wi-fi-only 256GB version costs £1089 / $1300 / AU$1799, with 512GB costing £1239 / $1500 / AU$1999 and the 1TB costing £1569 / $1900 / AU$2499.

For 5G, you will need to pay £1239 / AU$2049 for 256GB, £1389 / AU£2249 for 512GB, and £1719 / AU$2749 for 1TB.

There’s only one other tablet that’s sitting around these kinds of prices, and that’s the iPad Pro – though that is even more expensive still, in every configuration.

Considering the fact you’re likely Team Android if you’re considering the Tab S11 Ultra, how much the iPad Pro costs is probably of no concern to you – but it gives you an idea of where the Tab S11 Ultra sits in the overall tablet hierarchy.

To help turn this into the laptop replacement it wants to be, and to make its size feel less – well – sizeable, Samsung’s Slim Keyboard Cover is available as an add-on for £199 / $210 / AU$399, though it’s often offered for free on bundle promotions.

It’s a nice case with a decent keyboard for typing (but no trackpad), and it helps take the weight of the tablet out of your hands when watching movies. It thankfully doesn’t add too much extra bulk either, and also doubles up as protection for the tablet.

The new simplified S Pen stylus, also found with the S25 Ultra phone, is included with the Tab S11 Ultra for free.

Design

If you’re already familiar with Samsung’s Ultra line of tablets, you’ll notice that the S11 Ultra doesn’t break the mould of the last few years in terms of design. That’s no bad thing; it’s a smart-enough-looking tablet, with curved corners and flat, angled sides, available in a choice of grey or silver.

However, Samsung has managed to shave a few millimetres of depth compared with the Tab S10 Ultra, meaning it’s now slimmer than ever, measuring just 5.1mm thick – the same thickness as the iPad Pro, in fact. It’s lighter than its predecessor too, at 692g (wi-fi only), down from 723g.

Even with that weight off, it still feels quite heavy to hold one-handed for any extended amount of time, and its sheer size and 16:10 aspect ratio also make it a little unwieldy to use in portrait orientation – this is definitely a tablet that’s meant to be used primarily in landscape.

Considering what we look for in tablets, that certainly doesn’t bother us, but we can certainly feel the difference in our hands between this and the iPad Pro (579g).

For a pricey tablet, the S11 Ultra feels premium, but it’s reassuring to know that it’s pretty hardy too, using Samsung’s Enhanced Armor Aluminium (the same material used in the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus) for its back panel, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for its display. It’s also officially IP68 rated, which is more than the iPad Pro, meaning it’ll be safe if it gets wet.

Elsewhere, the S11 Ultra keeps things pretty simple, with just the power button and volume rocker on the top left edge (if held in landscape), a USB-C charging port to the right, along with an under-screen fingerprint scanner for unlocking on the right side too. This can be a bit tricky to find initially but works just fine once you have, though face recognition feels like the better, more consistent bet for unlocking on first try.

The included S Pen stylus snaps magnetically along the top edge, and comes with an updated hexagonal design to mimic real pencils. It’s also simpler this time round, requiring no charging whatsoever. That means it drops its Bluetooth capability, and Samsung’s Air Actions along with it (that offered shortcuts and remote functions based on gestures and button clicks with the S Pen), but the benefit of the pen not needing charging far outweighs that to our way of thinking.

Features

The Tab S11 Ultra is Samsung’s flagship tablet, and it has a spec list to match. First up, a suitably beefy chipset, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400+, ensures the Samsung moves seamlessly between apps, quickly loads and buffers streams, and has no problem with multitasking – even when using Samsung’s window-based desktop system, DeX.

We won’t dig too much into this, but if you’re buying a tablet for movies and hoping to also use it as something of a laptop replacement, Samsung’s Tab S11 Ultra is probably the experience to beat on Android.

It’s still a stretch to suggest it could match the productivity of a proper laptop – the experience is just not as slick and the app selection not as extensive – but the desktop view is easy to access, and you can quickly flip between that and a more standard tablet experience, with DeX launching automatically whenever you shrink down an app to multi-task.

There are three cameras on the Tab S11 Ultra, one selfie camera and two on the rear. If you’re using the main cameras – a 13MP main and 8MP ultrawide – to take anything other than the quick snapshot in a pinch, you may need to have a word with yourself. Your phone will be easier to use and will undoubtedly do a better job, but in good lighting conditions you’ll get a sharp, passable shot from the S11 Ultra, with decent colours and a good amount of detail.

The 12MP front-facing camera is arguably more important on a tablet, and the S11 Ultra’s does a pretty good job with that, offering an ultrawide lens for getting all of the family in on video calls and managing variable lighting pretty well too.

Video quality tops out at 4K 30fps no matter what camera you’re using. Once again, it’s fine, but it’s probably not going to launch any YouTube careers.

With an 11,600mAh battery, battery life is decent, and while Samsung’s stated 23 hours of playback is ambitious for real-world use (this is apparently based on playing a 720p video saved on the device, rather than being streamed), you can get well into a second day with medium to heavy use – as long as you keep an eye on your screen brightness.

The Tab S11 Ultra runs on Android 16, with Samsung’s One UI 8 running over the top. Samsung offers an impressive seven years of OS and security updates, meaning that your investment should be sound for at least that long.

Picture quality

The Tab S11 Ultra’s whopping 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display is really the biggest talking point of this tablet, and perhaps its biggest selling point too – particularly if you want big-screen movies on the go.

The resolution remains unchanged here from its predecessor, at 1848 x 2690 and 239ppi, and with its 16:10 aspect ratio, you get much slimmer black bars than you do on the iPad Pro when watching most movies. That means the size of this screen really does have an impact on your experience, making it all the more immersive. Movies look considerably bigger on this screen than on the iPad Pro.

There’s been a peak brightness boost to 1600 nits too, which matches that of the iPad Pro, and that really comes into its own in HDR scenes. We’re comparing it against the iPad Pro 13-inch M4, but HDR highlights certainly have a bit of extra punch on the S11 Ultra, and overall brightness levels are also slightly higher too.

In the fight between K and Sapper in Blade Runner 2049, the bright windows pierce into the gloomy room with noticeably more intensity on the S11 Ultra, and there’s also a touch more subtlety in the light reflected onto their faces.

However, at the other end of the scale, it’s a different story. Blacks are deeper on the S11 Ultra than those on the iPad Pro M4, but the iPad retains more shadow detail, meaning this dingy scene has more dimension to it on Apple’s slate.

Colours are generally well handled across the board and, once you’ve turned the default screen mode from Vivid to Natural, it skews a lot closer to the tone of the iPad Pro, which we have long praised for its colour balance. The S11 Ultra is still richer though, with punchier handling of colours and warmer skin tones, but not in a way that looks misplaced or unnatural – particularly when viewed in isolation. In fact, sometimes it works in its favour, creating a lively image that doesn’t look out of place.

However, it’s not just in the shadows where the iPad pips the S11 Ultra for fine detail; it does so in brighter scenes too. There’s a greater sense of depth in landscape shots, and more natural insight into the textures of skin, hair and fabrics. The S11 Ultra struggles to find quite the same nuance, and so we sometimes notice some oversharpening as it tries a bit too hard.

The S11 Ultra’s screen is anti-reflective, and while it doesn’t kill all reflections, it actually does a pretty good job of dulling them down – better than the iPad Pro M4 does, though we are yet to test the nano-texture glass on the M5.

While not perfect, there’s a lot to love about the way movies look on the S11 Ultra – and how immersive it feels remains a big part of that. The iPad Pro still takes it for the most natural and insightful images, but if you’re looking for the closest equivalent on Android, this has got to be it.

Sound quality

If you’re not using headphones, the S11 Ultra leans on four external speakers for its sound, one at each corner. Those on the bottom edges aren’t placed brilliantly though, as they sit very close to where your hands would generally hold the tablet, and it can muffle them.

Be careful with where you place your hands, though, and they go really loud, and because the screen is so wide, they sound big too, with audio that fills the screen and the space around it. There’s support for virtualised Dolby Atmos for content that contains it too, which only widens this further, though any expectations for a real sense of height should be managed appropriately.

Pull up the first ten minutes of 6 Underground, and there’s a soundtrack full of car chases, crashes and gunfire to contend with. The sense of immersion remains, and the S11 Ultra has more scale and presence than the iPad Pro. However, Apple’s slate has a richer and more solid tonal balance compared with the S11 Ultra, which can veer into sounding a touch fragile and sharp at volume.

Listening via USB-C audio to Go by The Chemical Brothers streamed on Apple Music, and the age-old story goes on. The S11 Ultra sounds just fine – it’s much more assured when listening via headphones, with a much better tonal balance than its speakers. It’s a punchy, clean and upfront sound that’s plenty entertaining.

However, the iPad just sounds warmer and fuller-bodied, with more fine detail retrieval that helps tie all the elements of a song together more cohesively.

Verdict

There’s no doubt that the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is one of the most capable Android tablets you can buy, with a bright, sharp screen that makes watching movies on the go more immersive than you can find on just about any other tablet.

It is enormous though, which means it takes up a fair bit of space in a backpack. It’s expensive too, so you’re going to want to make use of at least some of its broader performance features for that price to make sense. But if you’ve got the budget and the space, this is the Android tablet to beat for movies and music on the go.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Also consider the iPad Pro 13-in M4

These are the best tablets for movies and music

Powered by its excellent StreamMagic streaming platform, Cambridge Audio has done a fine job with its Evo range of just-add-speakers streaming amplifiers in recent years.

They’ve delivered convenience and quality in pretty much equal measure, which isn’t always a given when you’re asking a single product to perform multiple functions.

The Evo 300 is the brand’s fourth such system and sits above the Evo 150 SE in Cambridge Audio’s current line-up.

The new model boasts double the power of the 150 SE (300W vs 150W), and the company has gone to great lengths to highlight the fact that it is its most powerful streaming amplifier ever.

But this increase in power comes with an increase in price, which not only makes it Cambridge Audio’s most expensive streaming amplifier ever, but also moves the Evo into new territory, and into the sights of new rivals.

Cambridge Audio has cooked up a solid recipe for its streaming systems so far, but does the Evo 300 have the ingredients needed to impress?

Price

The Evo 300 costs £3499 / $3999 / AU$6399, which places it slightly above our current favourite around that price, the Award-winning Arcam SA35. The Arcam costs £2999 / $3300 / AU$6495 and launched back in May 2024. Despite its comparative age, we haven’t seen much in the way of online discounts on the Arcam.

To give you some extra context, the Cambridge Audio Evo 75 and Evo 150 launched in 2021 for £1799 / $2250 / AU$3299 and £2249 / $3000 / AU$4299, respectively, while the current Evo 150 SE arrived in 2025 with a price tag of £1999 / $3299 / AU$5795. As you can see, that’s quite a jump in price to the new model.

Design & build

If you’re familiar with any previous Evo models, you’ll know what to expect from the Evo 300 on the design front. And it’s overwhelmingly positive.

Cambridge Audio has really nailed the design language – the Evo 300 is a good-looking unit, with styling that should look at home in a wide range of listening environments.

It has a premium-looking and feeling black aluminium cabinet which boasts the Evo’s party piece – interchangeable, magnetic side panels. You get two options in the box: a real wood veneer or a black slatted option, should you want a traditional or more modern aesthetic.

On the front of the amp is a large 7.8-inch display, which is the biggest Cambridge Audio has used to date. It’s an inch bigger than the screen on the Evo 150 SE, and it really helps the system stand out.

It’s bright, crisp and punchy when it comes to showing album artwork and track information. The way it makes use of that real estate means you shouldn’t have any problems reading it from your sofa.

You have several display options to cycle through, whether you want one packed with track information or simple album artwork – there’s even a VU meter for those wanting something a little different. Whichever you pick, it’s always legible. The fonts used are clean and crisp and the sizes well-judged.

A small strip of control buttons runs down the right side of the screen – these relate to system set-up, playback and power. At the far right of the screen is Cambridge Audio’s trademark volume dial/control wheel combination.

The outer wheel has a knurled pattern running around it, which makes it relatively easy to grip, although some members of the team thought the edge could be a touch wider. As it turns, the Evo 300 responds with a confident click. The volume dial turns smoothly.

Bonus points, too, for the supplied remote. The neat design makes a refreshing change from some of the dull, generic-looking wands we’ve come across at this and even higher levels. The shape and positioning of the buttons make it simple to grip and easy to navigate.

But it's Cambridge Audio’s StreamMagic app which will be your main point of interaction with the Evo 300. And it's as intuitive and impressive as ever.

The way it integrates all the various features of the system with a plethora of streaming services, and presents them all in a way which is satisfying to navigate, means it’s ideal for beginners and more advanced streamers alike.

Features

Besides 300 watts per channel (into 8 ohms) courtesy of Hypex NCOREx power modules, the Evo 300 has a broad range of features at its disposal.

On the rear of the streaming amp are two sets of speaker terminals should you want to power an extra pair in a different room.

Want to add a subwoofer to your hi-fi set-up? An adjustable sub output is included and, using the StreamMagic app, you can control crossover, level and phase to make integration as smooth as possible.

In the Evo’s audio settings, you have a seven-band equaliser to play with, plus a number of EQ presets for shifting the sonic balance.

We’d also suggest you experiment with the product’s room compensation feature, which allows you to tweak the sound to match the “reflectiveness” of your room. Move the slider across the screen to the corresponding image, and you’ll hear the Evo 300 change its tonal balance to suit either a damped room or a minimalist one full of glass and hard surfaces..

Beneath the unit’s aluminium chassis you’ll find a dual-mono layout, a balanced pre-amplifier stage and an ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC which supports up to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD 512 files, plus the likes of ALAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, WMA, MP3, AAC and OGG Vorbis.

As has been the case with previous Evo models, Cambridge Audio has been more than generous on the connectivity front. You have a choice between balanced XLR inputs and the standard RCA line-level variety. There are optical and coaxial digital inputs and a USB-Type B socket for connecting external digital sources.

HDMI connectivity is all the rage on products like this, and the Evo 300 duly obliges with an eARC-compatible socket. You also have a moving magnet phono stage for connecting a turntable.

As we’ve mentioned, Cambridge Audio’s excellent StreamMagic platform caters for all your streaming wants, with support for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Amazon Music, Deezer and Qobuz Connect, UPnP and Internet Radio. The amp also supports Bluetooth 5.4 (including aptX HD), AirPlay 2 and is Roon Ready.

Last, but by no means least, anyone after a more private listening experience can plug a pair of headphones into the 6.35mm headphone input on the front of the unit.

Sound

It really is a case of so far, so good for the Cambridge Audio Evo 300.

During testing, we use the streaming amp with our reference ATC SMC50 speakers, the five-star Epos ES14N and multi-Award-winning KEF LS50 Meta to get a feel for the breadth of the Cambridge Audio’s abilities.

And in isolation, the Evo 300 is a confident, capable performer. We start with a blast of Starstruck by Lady Gaga and the Evo 300 dispatches several meaty, solid-sounding bass notes and crisp-sounding claps before it opens up a spacious, welcoming stereo image.

There's real power and weight behind the streaming amp’s delivery – you’re left in no doubt that the Cambridge has big muscles, and it’s not afraid to flex them given half an opportunity.

There’s good depth and height to the image too, with a decent amount of space around her vocal and the electropoppy, synthy highs that prod around at the top of the frequency range.

Similarly, the switch to Jupiter from Holst's The Planets shows the regimented delivery of the Evo 300. The tightly controlled string sections are neatly arranged alongside percussion and wind, and it’s a pleasant, straightforward enough listen with no hidden surprises.

Highs and lows are nicely balanced – the strings don’t exhibit any uncomfortable, harsh edges and low frequencies don’t overplay their hand and remain well controlled at all times even when pushed to antisocial levels.

But there’s something missing. The track lacks energy. The strings lack sparkle. The Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal sounds like it’s slumped in its chairs instead of standing to attention.

Dynamically, the whole ensemble just struggles to connect with us. Yes, it’s a powerful, robust sound, but the Evo 300 struggles to convey the sense of life with each instrument. Instead of sounding energetic and rising and falling as the orchestra stretches itself across the frequency range, it just sounds a little flat and lacks drama.

We unbox the Arcam SA35, the Evo 300’s closest rival (it’s actually £500 cheaper) and try the same track. Immediately there's a different feel.

The Arcam breathes instant life into the music, aided by a wonderfully quiet background which allows more detail to shine through, more texture for your ears to unravel and, most importantly, it turns the song into a proper orchestral performance with feeling.

Switching back to the Lady Gaga track, the Arcam’s dynamism hits you as soon as that first bass note kicks in. Set against a super-quiet background, the track’s energy and drive shine through.

Not only does the SA35 reveal more detail and texture in the bass notes and synthy highs, but the whole presentation is more infectious, encouraging you to tap along in time. It communicates with you much more clearly than the Cambridge Audio; Gaga’s vocal sounds more expressive and emotive.

The Evo 300 struggles to strike up a real connection across its other inputs too. We reach for a pair of Austrian Audio The Composer over-ears and the headphone output mirrors that of the speaker terminals. It’s a solid enough performance, but we are looking for more at this level.

The Cambridge’s moving magnet phono stage isn’t at the same level as the SA35, either – plugged into our reference Technics SL-1000R/Nagaoka MP-200 record deck, the Arcam produces a more balanced and more convincing sound.

Verdict

As a proposition, the Cambridge Audio Evo 300 ticks several boxes. It’s a smart-looking, well-built, feature-packed unit that comes with a streaming platform and control app which many brands could only dream about creating.

It also produces a weighty, powerful sound with a decent amount of detail. However, in our opinion, despite all that power, the sound it produces falls flat.

Music should take you on an emotional journey where you feel it just as much as you can hear it, but the Evo 300's lack of dynamism and expression leaves you feeling distant. By contrast, Arcam SA35 draws you into the music and keeps you there, and it’s quite a bit cheaper, too.

We had big hopes for the Evo 300, but in that search for more power it feels like something has been lost along the way.

Review published: 20th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Also consider the Arcam SA35

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While Yamaha’s history with high-end headphones dates back to the 1970s-released HP-1, a subsequent five-decade dormancy in that market implied that the Japanese company’s head-fi journey might well be destined to both begin and end with that iconic model. Fortunately, that hasn’t played out.

The AV legend crawled out of that particular woodwork in 2023 to introduce its first audiophile headphones in decades, launching its ‘special edition’ open-back YH-5000SE (and a partnering HA-L7A headphone DAC/amplifier) to industry-wide acclaim, and putting itself back on the personal listening map.

The following YH-4000 were more affordable, mass-production revisions with a tweaked design and fewer bundled accessories, released to appeal to a wider audience. And, with Yamaha clearly reluctant to take its foot off the gas, we now have a closed-back pair that is even more affordable still. Meet the Yamaha YH-C3000, the ‘C’ denoting their closed-back design.

Design & build

Unlike the two open-back models, which use Yamaha’s sophisticated orthodynamic (planar magnetic) driver, the YH-C3000 are built around a dynamic driver that was newly developed specially for them over the course of a decade.

This ‘armodynamic’ driver – named after the Italian noun ‘armonia’, which refers to musical ‘harmony’ – has a unique three-layer diaphragm design that combines Zylon (also used in the drivers of Yamaha’s flagship loudspeakers) with composite materials such as paper and resin.

Completing the driver design is a clever ventilation system at the rear and a patented Y-shaped reinforced mesh damper for promoting clarity and reducing distortion, plus a pure iron pole designed to enhance speed and punch.

Being closed-back in design and thus having sealed enclosures behind their drivers, the YH-C3000 naturally look pretty different to their open-back siblings, which have perforated ear cups that ‘leak’ the sound that their drivers inherently fire away from the ears.

While the YH-4000’s magnesium ear cups comprise an intricate spider-pattern structure, the YH-C3000’s beech wood housings are ‘marble-like’: round, solid, shiny and smooth.

It’s a comparatively ‘safer’ look – more polished, less industrial-looking – and in tune with the company’s signature glossy black aesthetic, as adopted by its iconic pianos and motorbikes.

The only slight repercussion of this hallmark mirrored finish on such a tactile product is that it is unavoidably a fingerprint magnet.

Thankfully, Yamaha bundles a microfibre wipe cloth into the semi-hard fabric carry case, and giving them a quick polish after each use doesn’t feel taxing when you consider that the same skilled hands that handle Yamaha’s flagship grand pianos and audio components in the company’s Kakegawa factory in Japan have spent hours carefully sanding, painting and polishing multiple layers to achieve the desired finish.

We also like how you can make out the natural beech wood grain beneath it when you hold the headphones up to the light.

Considering the YH-C3000’s dynamic, closed-back nature, it’s also impressive that they weigh only 10g more than the planar-magnetic, open-back YH-4000.

Their 330g structure tips the scales slightly less than the rival closed-back Sennheiser HD 820 and Sony MDR-Z1R headphones, and doesn’t feel like a burden on the top of the head thanks to how effectively the soft pleather head pad spreads the pressure evenly across it.

The stainless steel band hovering above it connects to smooth stepless sliders for easy fit adjustment, although it’s a pity the plastic outer piece somewhat compromises an otherwise luxurious, premium build.

Yamaha has ensured there’s plenty of vertical movement in the ear cups’ swivel rotation axis so that the earpads sit snugly against your head, preventing sound leakage.

The clamp of the silk protein leather-coated memory foam earpads is indeed firm, but not so much that it causes discomfort. During a heatwave, they feel sticky in a way that suede-like alternatives on other headphones don’t, but in normal, cooler conditions they are exceptionally comfortable to wear for our two-hour listening sessions.

Sound

Supplied is a two-metre 3.5mm cable that connects to each ear cup, plus a 6.3mm adaptor, although Yamaha offers a range of balanced cables and a headphone stand as optional extras.

More important for your YH-C3000 setup than those accessories, however, is a quality DAC/headphone amplifier that can reveal the extent of the headphones’ talents – something a laptop, for example, isn’t capable of.

We drive the YH-C3000 using a Chord Hugo 2, and from the very first song we are smitten.

Deep Blue by BrhyM, the joint project of Bruce Hornsby and contemporary chamber ensemble yMusic, is a jazzy, groove-laden flurry of energetic, experimental sound, and the Yamahas do the esoteric collaboration justice.

There’s plenty in the mix to wrap your ears around, from piano and clarinet melodies and Hornsby’s lead vocal to a percussive beat and an array of strings including electric sitar, some of which are woven together in rhythmic patterns while others are more disparate. Everything has room in the soundstage to perform and flaunt its musical purpose.

The YH-C3000 have the top-to-bottom clarity and resolution to grasp instrumental textures and bring minute details and dynamic subtleties to the fore, as well as the precision and organisation to ensure music remains well imaged and coherent no matter how dense.

They’re clean and perceptive, and while leading edges of notes are crisply defined, that always stays within the confines of naturalness, never crossing into hardness. That said, some may find the Yamaha’s directness and top-end bite fatiguing compared to richer, smoother alternatives.

Despite their impressive insight, the YH-C3000 don’t feel in any way systematic. They know how to have a good time. With Eminem’s The Way I Am, the rhythmic interplay between the piano and beat pattern is tight and propelling, while his iconic rapid-fire rapping packs all the attack and conviction we know it to have.

A pleasing combination of low-end weight and agility can meet the challenge of upbeat, bassy bravado like Jamie xx’s It’s So Good, too. They sink to the depths demanded by the club-ready bassline, while affording plenty of headroom and dynamic attention to the rattling percussion, glitchy beats and squeaking synths that dance above it.

We finish with Oneohtrix Point Never and Iggy Pop’s The Pure And The Damned, a piano ballad with a dystopian undertow, and the Yamaha headphones convey the track’s gravitas and the sense of longing that it – and the film it scores – bathes in.

The tectonic droning backdrop anchors the recording, while the piano notes drip through with harmonics intact and can be easily tracked as they move and fade throughout the soundstage. Iggy’s raspy, spoken-word vocals pack an emotional punch, and the celestial synths emerge with a spot-on balance of warmth and sizzle.

Such is the YH-C3000’s completeness that our comparative testing with the veteran Sony MDR-Z1R is rather short-lived. While the recently discontinued Sonys offer a pleasing depth and richness and a nice flow to music, they come second best in clarity, detail and punch, ultimately sounding comparatively muffled, flat and laid-back.

Verdict

So that’s three for three for Yamaha. Rather than rush out a line of models off the back of the inaugural YH-5000SE’s success, the company has taken time to consider and engineer an attractively priced closed-back companion.

Understandably, the YH-C3000 don’t possess the clarity, airiness and transparency of their higher-end open-back siblings, but by setting new standards in their own price and design class, they continue one of head-fi’s greatest modern comebacks.

Review published: 19th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Comfort 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sennheiser HD 820

Also consider the Sony MDR-Z1R

Best over-ear headphones: wired and wireless pairs tested by our in-house experts

Samsung has long championed its Fold series of phones to AV aficionados looking for an all-in-one entertainment device that can function as a flagship smartphone and small tablet, thanks to its clever bendy screen tech.

At first glance, that pitch continues with the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which offers a refined take on its Z Fold 7 predecessor – including a huge boost to both its screens' peak brightness levels and upscaling powers.

And were it not for one key issue, we would wholeheartedly be praising it as the best foldable for our discerning readers. But sadly, thanks to the appearance of a wildcard from Samsung, the Ultra is, ironically, not the ultimate option for Android AV enthusiasts; its cheaper sibling, the Samsung Z Fold 8, is.

Price

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is undeniably a premium product. The cheapest 256GB model we have in for review costs £1899 ( $2099 / AU$2999). The 512GB model will set you back £2069, while the top-of-the-line 1TB model sells for £2049. The extra increase for the 1TB model is also due to it having more RAM.

To put that in context, you could easily pick up enough entry-level Android phones and tablets to equip a family of three, or 2.4 Award-winning iPhone 17s, for the same price.

That also makes it over £100 / $100 more expensive than the older Z Fold 7 was at launch, £200 more expensive than the entertainment-focused Z Fold 8 and £620 more than Samsung’s flagship non-folding phone, the five-star Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Build

The price will be a hard pill to swallow for some, but there is no denying the Z Fold 8 Ultra feels premium and, dare we say, rugged (at least compared with past foldables we’ve tested).

The final point is a particular surprise for the team, one of whom had the joy of watching his first-generation Z Fold handset break in his hand when he first tested the folding mechanism many moons ago.

This is mainly thanks to Samsung’s Flex Titanium Technology display tech. The tech places a thin alloy mesh and flexible titanium plate under the AMOLED screens, which lets the firm reduce the phone’s size while improving its folding mechanism’s usability and durability.

Gone are the days when you would wince and pray to the tech gods whenever you opened it up. Now the Z Fold’s mechanism feels solid and suitably easy to use without requiring uncomfortable levels of force.

Uniformity is also improved, and unlike past Samsung Fold phones, the inner display’s crease is close to unnoticeable, resulting in a more immersive experience, especially when playing media.

The rigidity, smaller dimensions and generally polished design make the Ultra feel premium – though be warned, its IP45 rating means it's still not beach or pool-ready, and won’t survive most aquatic adventures.

The only other downside is that it retains the Fold’s atypical form factor, which, while having benefits for movie fans, is still firmly focused on 'power users' who want to have multiple apps open at the same time.

The 21:9 aspect ratio 6.5-inch outer display is thinner than most normal phones and has intuitively placed power and volume controls on its side, and also houses its fingerprint scanner.

But its 8-inch inner screen is still decidedly square-shaped, and the two side-facing speakers are pretty easy to block if you turn it on its side to make the most of the extra real estate. Doing so will also force the internal hole-punch-design selfie camera to block part of the screen, even when watching 21:9 content.

This makes the smaller Z Fold 8 feel fresher and more attuned to media consumption, thanks to its new passport-sized 10:16 aspect ratio outer screen and 7.6-inch 4:3 landscape interior display.

Features

Despite the power-user focus, the Fold 8 Ultra still houses several treats for movie and TV fans in particular.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset and 12GB of RAM ensure our review unit never stutters and is a speed demon with most processes – you’ll be able to game, edit spreadsheets and reels with zero issue. This is further aided by both screens’ variable refresh rate (VRR) 120Hz support.

For media, the phone doesn’t have the same Samsung ProScaler tech that wowed us on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Instead, it relies on Samsung’s mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe) hardware. Rather than upscaling content, as ProScaler does, mDNIe uses advanced image processing to help the Ultra deliver more subtle and lifelike colours. Samsung specifically claims it’s “four times more accurate” than the older Z Fold 7.

Outside of this, both the Fold 8 Ultra’s screens support Samsung’s HDR10+ standard. The internal screen also has a staggering 3000 nits peak brightness. That’s 400 nits more than the older Fold 7. Combined with the handset’s Vision Booster feature, which adjusts contrast and the screen’s settings based on ambient light conditions, we never struggle to see what is onscreen, even in direct outdoor sunlight.

Dolby Atmos support is also included, both for the inbuilt speakers and connected headphones – though you have to activate it in the Ultra’s settings.

Despite its 4.1mm slimness when unfolded, the phone’s battery is also reasonably sized. The 5000mAh cell is quoted as offering 27 hours of video playback from a single charge. That figure requires some sacrifices to the display’s brightness, but we still find ourselves only losing an average of four-to-seven per cent of the phone’s charge watching Netflix on our hour-long commute home each day, which is solid by mobile standards.

Samsung’s One UI software sits over its base Android 17 OS. The skin brings some useful features, but they’re mostly to do with AI and making the most of the second screen. These include the ability to have multiple apps open on the inner display, which can be a boon.

Whether it’s chatting on Slack with the spreadsheet you’re discussing open on the other side of the screen, or WhatsApping your friends with Google Maps open as you try to navigate your way to the pub you’re meeting at, there are plenty of moments it's useful – though we do occasionally find ourselves hankering for a stylus like the one seen on the S26 Ultra, especially when working with spreadsheets.

Outside of the split-screen functionality, Now Brief and Now Nudge are probably the most used features. The first feature pushes contextual information throughout your day, while Now Nudge, rather creepily, raids data from all the apps on your device and the cloud to offer contextual replies.

Finally, the Ultra comes with a competent camera set-up. On its back you’ll find a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide (up from 12 megapixels on the Fold 7) and a 10-megapixel telephoto. It also features the same ProVisual Engine with advanced AP processing for Nightography video.

The Fold 8 has a downgraded set-up, featuring a basic 50MP main and secondary 50MP ultrawide lens. Both feature 10MP selfie cameras with a hole-punch design embedded in each screen.

Given our AV focus, we won’t delve into too much detail here, but the cameras are good, though not the best you’ll find at this end of the market. The Ultra can take captivating shots and is more than good enough for shooting video for social media – as evidenced by a number of Reels we've posted on our channels using it.

Stabilisation is solid, and low-light photography looks good and is generally noise-free. But Samsung’s processing is still a smidgeon aggressive for those who value realism. Unless you go full manual, it still can oversharpen slightly, especially compared with a modern iPhone or Pixel, and colours occasionally look a tad overbaked.

Picture

The big question is, how does the Ultra perform as a home cinema in your hand? And here the answer is interesting. Our reviewers tested both of this year’s Fold phones and, despite the phones having the same nit count and upscaling powers, ended up using them fairly differently.

Side by side, playing Crime 101 in HDR10+ on Amazon Prime Video on the unfolded screens, it is immediately clear both are cut from the same cloth. Colours are nicely rich, despite the low-light scene’s tricky nature, and there’s a pleasing level of dark detail throughout the cityscape.

But interestingly, the basic Z Fold 8 goes a smidgeon brighter in certain parts, with the night-time sky initially offering a tad more contrast than the Ultra.

We make next to no adjustments to the screen settings, outside of turning off the ambient light and colour temperature controls, to ensure uniformity, as Samsung has refreshingly set the screen to its natural, not vivid mode, out of the box.

Moving to Ready Or Not 2 on Disney+, the phone’s AMOLED screen does a stellar job, delivering dark details that are lost on cheaper handsets, but it's the Fold 8 Ultra’s ability to retain colour volume, even in low light, that steals the show.

Avoiding spoilers, the viscera during a heated scene, mixing intense sections of light and dark elements, retains a pleasing level of realness, without ever being oversaturated. Skin tones as characters creep through the shadows retain a realistic warmth, never looking jaundiced or flat as they often can on phone screens.

Masters Of The Universe, on Prime Video, continues the strong performance, with the intentionally bright, almost cartoony, colours of Eternia popping, but never veering too far toward becoming oversaturated.

If anything, the screen feels like it could go harder, especially when pushing the numerous explosions billowing around He-Man. Here, interestingly, the base Fold 8 appears to be willing to push the brightest part of the picture a little harder than the Ultra. But, as always, we’ll take finesse over bombastic artificiality any day of the week.

The upscaling is also solid. Switching to Batman Begins, the phone admirably sharpens the Caped Crusader, giving the film a wonderfully three-dimensional but never artificial feel. Movements in particular retain their weight, as we feel every one of Batman’s precise but heavy blows. It’s only when he switches to the Batmobile and begins racing across Gotham that we detect a hint of oversmoothing.

With episodes of One Tree Hill on Netflix, the upscaling can’t completely remove the fuzzy grain from the ageing millennial melodrama, and some black crush does creep into certain scenes. But the show looks leagues sharper, more three-dimensional and ultimately immersive than that which we find on most rivals.

Were it not for one big elephant in the room, we would wholeheartedly say that, for the most part, it feels like we’re watching a shrunk-down Samsung OLED. That elephant in the room is the aspect ratio. The tablet screen only offers a smidgeon more real estate than its smaller sibling. And taking advantage of it means putting up with giant black bars on the upper and lower edges, with the hole-punch camera intruding on what you’re watching.

Before, this was easier to put up with. But with the standard Fold 8 being cheaper and having a more entertainment-focused aspect ratio, for people who just want to watch media, it makes the more expensive Ultra a harder sell.

In fact, the lack of extra real estate garnered from unfolding the handset means that at times, especially when commuting (unless, say, we are reading a comic or book on Kindle), we regularly just use the front screen, with its much more movie-friendly 21:9 aspect ratio.

Sound

Audio performance is an area where Samsung phones have proven to be good, but not best in class for a while – hence the four-star (and below) 'Sound' ratings on every handset we’ve reviewed since the Galaxy S23.

And this is largely because, outside Atmos and Spatial Audio, the firm doesn’t seem too bothered about improving its phones' musicality. This is a key reason Apple iPhones have dominated our Awards recently.

Does the Fold 8 Ultra reverse this trend?

Testing the audio with a pair of wired headphones using a USB-C to 3.5mm converter, the handset leaves a positive opening impression playing Philip Glass’s Floe on Apple Music.

There is a pleasing separation to every instrument as the demanding, rhythmically driven, harmonic progression strides forward. And the sound never feels out of control – an impressive feat considering how easy it is for the low-end, heavy bass synthesiser to overpower the more subtle string and flute sections.

As we move to 16 Horse Power’s Sinnerman, the phone’s focus on control continues. The handset accurately articulates the mid-heavy nature of the piece, retaining the track's intentionally swampy, raw, gritty Gothic Americana tone without pushing its own sonic signature on it.

But switching gears to the more energetic Good To Your Earhole (the all-analogue remaster, of course) by Funkadelic, the performance is a bit too tame. The attacking funk guitar doesn’t land with the intended scooped tone or have the rhythmic drive and precision we want. Our reviewers' feet remain firmly on the floor, rather than tapping along as they normally would, as a result.

Shifting to Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, the phone once again plays it a little too safe; the crash of John Bonham’s drums entering the composition doesn’t have the weight and impact it should, showing the phone’s middling handling of dynamics and, dare we say, a lack of fun in the sound.

There’s nothing disastrously wrong with the audio. We just wish the Fold 8 Ultra was a bit braver, a bit more confident and ultimately a bit more exciting to listen to.

Switching to the handset’s speakers, the Fold 8 Ultra offers a nicely wide soundstage by phone standards.

The cars in F1: The Movie feel like they’re zig-zagging left to right with a precision and speed lacking on many phones. But the speakers are underpowered, lacking the low-end heft required to do the rumbling engines justice.

Musically, the sound is also too thin for enjoyable listening. Nine Inch Nails’ The Day The World Went Away sounds hollow and lacks its intended lumbering menace – though this is the case on nearly all the phone speakers we review.

The combination of factors makes the Z Fold 8 Ultra a reliable, albeit unremarkable, phone for audio.

Verdict

The Galaxy Fold 8 Ultra is a competent phone that’s ideal for its target market: power users and ’80s-style business folk who need to edit spreadsheets on the go. It’s also a competent mobile entertainment device for people who like to watch films and TV while out and about.

But thanks to its productivity-focused form factor, the benefits to AV fans of the second, foldable screen aren’t as pronounced as they are on its cheaper sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Its safe but unremarkable audio also puts it behind modern iPhones for anyone on the hunt for a phone that can double as a portable music player. This all adds up to make it a good, but not perfect option for AV fans.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Z Fold 8

Also consider the iPhone 17

Read our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

These are the best smartphones for music and movies

Foldable phones have intrigued us for many years now, but they’ve rarely nailed the AV experience in the way we'd hoped.

Having an expanding, tablet-style display that can neatly fold away and slip into a pocket should be a sure-fire hit for us; the concept lends itself well to taking movies on the go, in theory. But there’s been one sticking point that stops us from going all-in on ditching our “slab” phones in favour of these foldables: the aspect ratio.

That all changes with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which has gone more movie-focused with its screen dimensions.

That’s not to say we haven’t enjoyed previous Samsung foldable phones – the Z Fold 6 and Z Fold 7 were both impressive handsets for movies – but this totally redesigned smartphone takes Samsung’s Galaxy Z series in a whole new AV-focused direction, and it’s all the better for it.

Price

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold smartphones have always been expensive, and the Fold 8 is no exception. At £1699 / $1899 / AU$2699 for the starting 256GB configuration, this phone is best avoided if you’re looking to stick to a strict budget.

Samsung also offers the handset in a 512GB storage option for £2069 / $2100 / AU$3299, and a 1TB option for £2239 / $2700 / AU$3599. It’s worth noting that the 1TB model is the only one to feature 16GB of RAM, while the others sport 12GB of RAM.

Interestingly, the Z Fold 8 launches at a slightly lower price than the Z Fold 7 (£1799 / $1700 / AU$2899); however, that is because the Z Fold 8 isn’t technically this year’s equivalent of the Z Fold 7. That honour goes to the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which starts at £1899 / $2099 / AU$2999.

Looking at the wider smartphone market, we reviewed the five-star Galaxy S26 Ultra at £1279 / $1300 / AU$1799, and the iPhone 17 Pro (review incoming) can be found for £1099 / $1099 / AU$1199. For a more like-for-like foldable comparison, Google’s new Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at £1799 / $1899 / AU$2799.

Design

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the biggest departure from Samsung’s foldable formula to date. The slender folded and square(ish) tablet-style unfolded form factor is traded for a stockier, more compact design this year.

When folded, the Z Fold 8 takes on a passport-like shape, which is surprisingly charming and satisfying to use. The 5.5-inch cover display is ideal for brief tasks – think quickly typing out a text or finding a track on your streaming service of choice – whereas the internal 7.6-inch screen is best suited for entertainment and web browsing.

We’ll dig further into the displays shortly, but for now we have to marvel at how thin the phone is. At 9.7mm when folded, the Z Fold 8 is only slightly thicker than the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and at just 4.7mm unfolded, the phone is barely thicker than the USB-C socket on the bottom of the device.

On the other edges you’ll find a combination power/lock button with an integrated fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker.

Samsung is also challenging the notion that foldable phones are fragile, as it's clad the Fold 8 in tough materials that should ward off dings and scratches. The cover display features a Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 3 coating, whereas the back glass is covered in Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

The metal frame is constructed from Samsung’s upgraded Armour Aluminium material, so the phone should resist the odd drop, but we won’t be throwing our review unit on the floor any time soon.

Samsung has drastically reduced the crease that runs down the centre of the display. This is thanks to the new Flex Titanium Technology display structure, which now incorporates a thin titanium mesh layer and flexible titanium plates below the AMOLED panel.

This has been implemented to improve display uniformity, enhance structural rigidity, and reduce air pockets beneath the display. While it’s difficult to say in the short term, this should ensure that the display isn’t compromised by a deep crease the more it's used.

Here is where we should also mention that the Z Fold 8’s new hinge feels much smoother and slicker to operate than the Z Fold 7’s. Less force is required to pry the two halves apart, and the folding mechanism feels buttery smooth.

The Z Fold 8 comes in four finishes; ours is the calming Lavender shade, though you’ll also find the Graphite and Cream finishes widely available. Samsung also sells a Pistachio version through its official channels.

Features

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but this is yet another feature-packed handset from Samsung.

We’ll begin with the AV-focused specs, starting with the displays. The Z Fold 8’s 5.5-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X cover screen sports a 1248 x 1972 resolution with a pixel density of 428ppi and a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate.

The more compelling of the two displays, however, is the interior one. It’s a 7.6-inch Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display, with a 1848 x 2448 resolution and a 404ppi pixel density. Samsung claims that it can reach an impressive peak brightness of 3000 nits, and its 1-120Hz variable refresh rate makes for smooth scrolling and gaming.

However, the new aspect ratio is what truly makes this a killer portable AV machine. Samsung has switched to a 4:3 aspect ratio on the Z Fold 8, which means that the letterboxing bars above and below most content have been significantly shrunken down compared with the previous generation of Z Fold devices.

While the size of the content on screen isn’t drastically different to the Z Fold 7, the smaller bars mean that content fills more of the screen, resulting in a more immersive experience, and it generally means that more of that big internal screen is put to use.

And while it may not be the most common use for this phone, older 4:3 content (think TV shows from the early 2000s and before) looks absolutely fantastic, as it fills the entire display with no black bars at all.

HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos – the latter supported via headphones and the stereo speakers – flesh out the AV features, and while we don’t have Dolby Vision support here, that’s to be expected given Samsung prefers to push its HDR10+ rival.

The Z Fold 8 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor, backed by either 12GB or 16GB of RAM depending on your storage configuration. This underpins the Android 17 software experience, which is delivered via Samsung’s One UI 9 software platform. It’s worth noting here that Samsung is promising up to seven years of software updates.

In practice, the Z Fold 8 is very responsive and slick to use. Apps load quickly, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling and app animations buttery smooth.

One area in which the Z Fold 8 lags slightly behind the other Samsung smartphones we’ve tested recently is in the number of cameras. It features just four cameras: two rear cameras and two selfie cameras.

The duo of rear cameras includes a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP ultrawide camera, while the main display’s selfie camera is a 10MP ultrawide camera. The cover display features a 10MP wide camera, although we found very little use for it when the main cameras are on hand for selfie duties.

Unfolding the phone and flipping it around allows us to use the cover screen as a viewfinder, which has been a godsend for selfies with friends, and even for shooting videos for our social channels.

As this is a modern Samsung smartphone, you can expect a raft of Galaxy AI features. This includes the expected suite of auto translation, writing prompts and photo editing tools, as well as Samsung’s Now Brief app, which can deliver contextual information based on your routines and information from throughout your calendars, texts, email inboxes and more.

There's an exhaustive list of features, and they can sound overwhelming, but Samsung has done a good job of integrating them into the operating system fairly naturally.

However, there’s one AI-backed feature that seems to have been removed this year, and unfortunately it was the best aspect of recent Samsung smartphones. ProScaler – the video upscaling feature we’ve raved about on other Samsung handsets – hasn’t been mentioned in the same breath as the Z Fold 8 by Samsung, and while we’ve quizzed the brand a couple of times to check if it’s been quietly included on the Fold 8, we’re yet to get an answer.

Finally, we should mention battery life and charging. Samsung has implemented a new 4800mAh silicon carbon battery, which is split across the two halves of the Fold 8, and it can be charged quickly with 45W wired USB-C charging or 20W wireless charging.

Battery life has been incredibly solid throughout our testing, with the phone lasting well over a day even under our video-heavy testing procedures.

Picture

This is a phone that’s been designed for content consumption, which has naturally inspired us to put it through its paces to ensure its picture performance is worthy of its considerable price tag.

The good news is that watching movies on that expansive foldable screen really is a joy; however, we need to make a few tweaks from the default settings to ensure that it performs at its best. We switch to the natural colour profile for our testing, and turn off auto brightness in favour of the extra brightness.

With these settings dialled in, the Z Fold 8 delivers a sharp, colourful and solid image that is impressively impactful considering it can easily fit into your pocket. Streaming Superman on HBO Max reveals a bright, punchy image that suits the exciting content well; the blues, reds and yellows of Superman’s suit are especially eye-catching.

These colours can sometimes be a touch too excitable, especially when it comes to the slightly rosy skin tones of some characters. That said, the Samsung’s natural colour preset is definitely more balanced than the vivid alternative.

As Superman zips around the air above Metropolis, we find that motion – a noted shortcoming of the Z Fold 7 – is handled very well. We don’t find judder noticeable throughout any of our testing, and we could even accuse the Fold 8 of being a little too slick at times, though that doesn’t break our immersion.

Switching to the dark and gritty Crime 101 on Amazon Prime Video in HDR10+, the Fold 8’s contrast capabilities become quickly apparent. The shimmering lights of Los Angeles offer punchy bursts of brightness against the night sky, and there is a tangible sense of depth and solidity to the city skyline that makes it all feel impressively immersive.

Much like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Z Fold 8 feels like a little Samsung OLED TV here, as it shares some characteristics with the brand’s five-star S99H TV.

Interestingly, the Z Fold 8 handles dark detail like a Samsung TV too. That’s to say that some detail is sacrificed to maintain the solidity of shadows and general black depths.

While a touch more dark detail would be nice, it does mean that the moody shadows present throughout the opening sequence of this film are conveyed with integrity.

Overall, the Z Fold 8 serves up a very enjoyable cinematic experience that almost makes us forget that we can snap the screen closed at any moment.

Sound

As is the case with many recent Samsung smartphones, the sound performance isn’t quite on par with the picture. That’s not to say that the Z Fold 8 gets things explicitly wrong, but it doesn’t go above and beyond in the same way that Apple and Sony smartphones do.

Plugging a pair of wired headphones into the Fold 8 via our trusty USB-C to 3.5mm adapter – unsurprisingly there’s no headphone jack built in here – and streaming from Apple Music, we find that this Samsung phone really doesn’t put a foot wrong.

Detail levels and the clarity of vocals and instruments alike are all very impressive, and the placement of sounds is also handled well. There’s generally a good sense of space and openness to the sound; however, switching on Dolby Atmos makes this even more evident. You do sacrifice some focus with this setting applied, but it’s not a detrimental tradeoff by any means.

Timing is solid, and dynamics are good too. Even so, the Samsung doesn’t feel like it's trying all that hard to impress.

Swapping to an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max or the Sony Xperia 1 VIII (review coming soon) reveals a warmer, richer and more textured sound, with a particular focus on dynamics that Samsung seems to neglect in its smartphones.

Swapping to the speakers, and the Z Fold 8 does have a smattering of positive attributes worth celebrating. The sheer size of the device means that the stereo speakers are separated to an extent that sound has a surprising sense of scale and punch, and the speakers can also go quite loud.

Switching Dolby Atmos on once again, we find that the Z Fold 8’s positioning of sounds is really quite impressive

At their maximum volume, a little bit of fuzz and distortion can creep in, but this is only really evident with the volume cranked all the way up.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the most compelling foldable phone we’ve tested to date. The fun and functional new form factor is a pleasure to use, and the enhanced screen uniformity and durability should soothe the nerves of those reluctant to embrace the folding format.

It also happens to be a stellar portable movie-watching device. That bright, colourful and contrast-rich OLED display makes up for a few audio-related shortcomings, although it’s hard to ignore that substantial price tag.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Also consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Read our Apple iPhone 17 review

Thes are the best smartphones for music and movies

We recently tested Dali’s Sonik 5 floorstanding speakers, which so impressed us that we awarded them a five-star review. So, when the opportunity arose to test the entry-level standmounter speakers from the same range, the Dali Sonik 1, we jumped at the chance.

Sonik is Dali’s newest entry-level speaker range. The series also includes a larger standmounter, the Sonik 3 (£599 / $1200 / AU$1199) as well as wall-mounted, home-cinema and floorstander options, which top out at the Sonik 9 floorstanders, costing £2199 / $4500 / AU$4099.

Dali says the Sonik series has been designed to replace the discontinued Oberon range. In practice, this makes the Sonik 1 the successor to the five-star Oberon 1. Not insignificant shoes to fill. Notably, although they are currently in the process of being replaced, the Oberon 1 are still available for a price of around £400 / $550 from certain retailers.

But, returning to the present, the crucial question is, will the baby of the bunch uphold the Sonik family name, or see to their fall from grace?

Price

The Dali Sonik 1 are currently priced at £449 / $900 / AU$849, which places them among the cheaper speakers that Dali makes.

At this price, their main rival is the former Award-winning B&W 607 S3, which cost £599 / $1000 / AU$1149, although we have seen these available for as low as £449 in the UK during sales events. We also have the older Oberon 1 and the smaller, even more affordable Dali Kupid (£299 / $599/ AU$599) in our test rooms, so we used all three speakers for sound comparisons during testing.

Build

The Dali Sonik 1 are the smallest standmounters in the Sonik range, measuring just 27.4 x 16.2 x 23.1cm (hwd), meaning they will have no trouble looking at home, even in smaller rooms.

While the Sonik 1 are small and will fit on a bookshelf, we suggest placing them on dedicated speaker stands to make the most of their sonic capabilities. Dali has tried to make these speakers as flexible as possible by also including rear brackets for wall mounting, which will be a welcome addition for anyone running low on floor space.

The MDF cabinets are clad in a smooth laminate and are available in four finishes: natural oak, white, walnut and black ash. Our test pair’s walnut finish looks classy for laminate, lending an air of aesthetic finesse when paired with the tweeter’s aluminium surround and clean front panel.

The speakers feature a 13cm mid/bass driver, tuned with a rear port, and the same 29mm lightweight woven fabric soft dome tweeter as featured on the Sonik 5 floorstanders. The mid/bass diaphragms use Dali’s proprietary mix of fine-grain paper pulp reinforced with wood fibres, which the company says provides rigidity, improved damping and light weight.

The mid/bass drivers across the Sonik range use Dali’s patented SMC (Soft Magnetic Composite) technology in the motor system to reduce distortion, optimising detail and dynamic performance. Both drivers are connected through a single-wired crossover.

The Sonik 1 have a sensitivity of 86dB/w/m and a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. These figures are fairly conventional for a pair of standmounters at this level, so these speakers are unlikely to present any system-matching problems when paired with price-compatible amplifiers.

Compatibility

Ideally, speakers of this price should be fairly unfussy, and could see themselves partnered with a budget streaming amplifier such as the WiiM Amp Ultra (£499/ $529/ AU$899). They can also be used in an affordable separates system, featuring the Rotel A8 amplifier (£399 / $449 / AU$649) paired with a Cambridge Audio MXN10 network player (£399 / $499 / AU$799), Marantz CD 70 CD player (£499 / $750 / AU$1000), or a Rega Planar 2 turntable (£525 / $895 / AU$1149).

During our testing, we tried the speakers with both the Rotel A8 and the step-up Arcam A5+ amplifiers (£749 / $1200 / AU$1595), and we are pleased to confirm that they work well in both cases, providing more than enough punch and expression. Notably, however, the Soniks are talented enough to really come to life when paired with even more expensive amplifiers, such as the Arcam A15+ (£1199 / $1099 / AU$2295), which provides an extra portion of textural detail and dynamic nuance.

For our music sources, we stream hi-res music from our reference Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition music streamer and play CDs from our Cyrus CDi player. Both of these are more capable than the sources that would typically be used with these entry-level speakers, but we have chosen them in order to really put a spotlight on the Dali speakers’ performance.

Falling in line with Dali’s suggestion, we find that the Sonik 1 sound most well-balanced when facing straight ahead with a gap of around 20cm between the back of the speakers and our testing room’s rear wall. When angling the speakers in towards the listening position, as might conventionally be expected, we found that the stereo image narrowed and high frequencies became too prominent.

Bring the Sonik 1 further into the room, and we find they begin to lose out in terms of bass authority, which is what we would expect for such a small speaker. Up against our test room’s wall, bass increases and the speakers stay nicely controlled, but we prefer the more articulate balance that leaving a little space provides.

Sound

We had every hope that these standmounters would echo the performance of the five-star Sonik 5 floorstanders, and that certainly appears to be the case. Much like the Sonik 5, these standmounters impress us immediately with their intricate and expressive sound.

Their capacity for scale, both sonic and emotional, comes as a welcome surprise given their dainty stature.

Beginning with Norah Jones’ Don’t Know Why, acoustic guitar and piano are delivered with a shimmer that complements the speakers' full-bodied presentation.

The same is true of Jones’ vocals, and we can’t help but appreciate how well-integrated the speakers’ drivers sound, boasting eloquent expression across the frequency range.

Thanks to their lush midrange, Jones’ voice has real body, evoking a palpable sense of presence in our test room.

In treble-heavy recordings such as This Charming Man by The Smiths, the Sonik 1 keep a firm handle on the high-frequencies, delivering guitars with an appropriately jangling sheen without becoming fatiguing.

For a more rhythmically driven track, we play A Tribe Called Quest’s Show Business, and the Dalis have no trouble providing the kind of low-end kick that hip-hop thrives on – for their size, at least. Kick drums and basslines hit hard, but never obscure the vocals or percussion, even when we crank the music up to almost uncomfortably loud volumes.

At low volume, too, these speakers hang on to a sense of musical momentum and clarity, so it doesn’t all have to be windowsill-rattling beats. Most alternatives sound a little lifeless when listened to at such levels, but the Sonik 1 retain an impressive amount of character.

In terms of textural detail, there’s no doubt that the Sonik 1 outperform their predecessor, the Oberon 1. Whether it’s the subtle passing of fingers across guitar strings, or an inward breath before a vocal line, we notice details through these speakers that we miss on the outgoing Oberons.

The Sonik 1 have a strong sense of rhythmic drive and are highly responsive to transients. While rivals like the B&W 607 S3 sound snappier overall, they are somewhat more tonally uneven and, in relative terms, coarser in the treble region.

Dynamically, the Sonik 1 handle intricate shifts, such as the decay of vocal reverb in You Sun Nah’s Kangwondo Arirang, with sensitivity and grace, bringing the track’s most delicate minutiae to the surface with an immersive, intricate sound.

On classical recordings, such as Minnesota Orchestra’s rendition of Infernal Dance Of King Kashchey from Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, orchestral stabs and sweeping ebbs in the dense arrangement are conveyed with equal amounts of refinement and gusto.

Classical music provides a great test of the speakers’ stereo image, too, which retains focus and clarity throughout testing. Notably, the Sonik 1 have a satisfying sense of depth, and during Infernal Dance Of King Kashchey, the relative positioning of the orchestra’s sections is blatantly apparent, with the woodwind section sitting comfortably behind the grand, dramatic strings.

Verdict

We are pleased to say that the smallest speakers from Dali’s new Sonik range walk firmly in the footsteps of their floorstanding sibling, the Sonik 5.

With an expressive, well-balanced sound, these standmount speakers are an excellent pick for anyone seeking serious sonic performance in a compact package at this price.

The Sonik 1 will also forgive less than ideal placement, making them a strong choice for music lovers without a dedicated listening space. All things considered, we highly recommend these talented and adaptable speakers.

Review published: 17th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Compatibility 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the B&W 607 S3

Also consider the Dali Kupid

Read our Dali Oberon 1 review

Best bookshelf speakers: top standmounts for every budget tested

The rise of China’s hi-fi industry has been meteoric over the last decade or so. The likes of WiiM and Eversolo are now firmly part of the hi-fi mainstream thanks to their aggressively priced but technically accomplished products. It wouldn’t be a surprise to find Topping Audio joining them in short order.

Topping Audio is based in Guangzhou and was founded in 2008, so it is hardly a start-up. Take a look at the company’s website, and you will find that it makes a bewildering range of hi-fi electronics. We counted more than 20 models of digital-to-analogue converters alone, alongside an extensive range of amplifiers, be they headphone, integrated, pre or power.

The Topping Audio D900 on test here represents the pinnacle of the brand’s DAC technology. Along with its junior sibling, the D90MKIII, this converter uses a proprietary, discrete 1-bit DAC design called PSRM (Precision Stream Reconstruction Matrix).

This works by converting the original digital audio stream into a sequence of 1-bit pulses. The density of these pulses, whether weighted towards 0 or 1, represents the waveform level. In contrast, other models in the company’s range employ standard off-the-shelf DAC chip solutions, as does much of the competition.

Features

The D900’s digital design is fully balanced, with 32 discrete high-speed switching voltage references for each channel. The cheaper D90MKIII makes do with half that amount. In principle, PSRM reminds us of the high-end Ring DAC technology developed by dCS.

Given that this Topping DAC sells for a fraction of the price of one of dCS’s converters, the use of such a design is impressive.

File compatibility is excellent, with the D900 happy to accommodate hi-res PCM datastreams up to 32-bit/768kHz and DSD512. We can’t imagine this DAC falling short of anyone’s requirements, at least not for the foreseeable future.

The D900 is well-equipped. It has a wide range of connectivity, including two coaxial, two optical and USB in both Type B and C varieties. The D900 also has AES/EBU and I2S digital inputs, which may prove useful for some. Bluetooth 5.1 is included and is compatible with high-quality LDAC and aptX HD codecs.

On the output side, Topping has gone all in with balanced XLR connections for both its variable and fixed outputs. Those whose systems lack balanced connectivity will have to use appropriate adaptors. Such adaptors aren’t particularly hard to source, but it is still a shame that Topping didn’t find a way to include a pair of standard RCA connectors on the back panel.

Build

This DAC is nicely made and reassuringly solid. We have no complaints about the fit or finish of the metal casework. The multi-function rotary dial on the front feels positive and precise, while the 2in display is crisp, but on the small side for reading at any significant distance.

It is good for adding visual excitement to the front of the DAC, though, and can be made to show an analogue VU meter or frequency spectrum bar graph. The display also makes it easier to work through the set-up menus and the built-in equaliser function. There are numerous parametric equaliser settings, but in our system at least, none is quite as satisfying as the default neutral option.

Take a look inside the D900, and it’s clear that the engineers have taken a great deal of care with the circuit layout and appearance.

Our digital sources for the Topping are Naim’s ND555/ 555 PS DR music streamer, a Cyrus CDi CD player and a MacBook Pro running Audirvana music-playing software and loaded with plenty of hi-res files.

The rest of our reference system is Burmester’s 088/911 MKIII pre/power driving a pair of ATC SCM50 speakers. We also use a PMC Cor integrated and Epos ES-14N combination to hear how the Topping performs in a more price-appropriate set-up.

Our DAC comparisons are Chord’s Qutest (£1249 / £1795 / $2400) and Hugo 2 (£1795 / $2595 / AU$3800) along with recent experience of the Rotel DX-3 (£1399 /$1699 / AU$2199).

Sound

Does the D900’s clever DAC circuitry give it any advantage over those that use more conventional off-the-shelf chip solutions? In truth, we can’t be sure. It is impossible to separate the contribution of the conversion technology from everything else inside. Analogue output stages, power supplies, component quality and signal paths all have a huge impact on the final result.

What we can say is that the D900 sounds unusually talented in some regards.

Regardless of input, with the exception of Bluetooth, of course, the Topping D900 resolves an impressive amount of detail. Give it a complex recording such as Mahler’s 4th Symphony, and it delivers a sound full of texture and subtlety.

We love the sense of space this DAC imparts, even when the music becomes dense, and the delicate way it renders low-level dynamic shifts.

The music comes through with an appealing fluidity that puts us in mind of a good analogue source rather than the usual digital stereotypes. The D900 sounds neutral and unforced; qualities that may not impress on a short demo at a dealer, but we think hold plenty of appeal in the long run.

This Topping DAC is flexible in its approach to music replay. Its insight allows us to dig deep into the fabric of the recordings if we want to; alternatively, we can just sit back and relax, letting the music’s emotional impact wash over us. The D900’s ability to resolve plenty of detail without sounding overly analytical is unusual and welcome.

Stereo imaging is expansive and airy, the Topping layering the soundstage convincingly while delivering a fine sense of scale. There is a good degree of stability too, so that the D900’s focus doesn’t waver as the music becomes more demanding.

Tonally, it is as neutral as they come, with no part of the frequency range dominating. Highs are smooth yet don’t lack in bite while the midrange is as clear and articulate as you like. Bass could be better, though. It digs deep but doesn’t have the tautness or muscularity of rivals.

As we try more upbeat music such as Raye’s Click Clack Symphony, Chicago by Michael Jackson and Zion by Soul II Soul, we can’t help but want a bit more energy and drive in the presentation, too.

This Topping sounds restrained and slightly lacking in authority compared to either of the two Chord DACs. We miss their sense of musical cohesion and ability to deliver dynamic contrasts with conviction.

That said, we are still able to enjoy the D900’s clarity and finesse, particularly through the midrange and upwards.

Verdict

There is no denying that the Topping D900 is a talented DAC. Its detail resolution and fluid delivery are right up there with the best at the price, as is its file compatibility and build quality.

While we think this Topping falls short of being a complete all-rounder, it remains a viable and appealing alternative to the established benchmarks.

Review published: 14th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Chord Hugo 2

Also consider the Rotel DX-3

Read our Chord Qutest review

Best DACs: USB, desktop and portable digital-to-analogue converters

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We had been anticipating this Music Studio 7 since last year, when we had reviewed a Samsung soundbar which turned out to be one of the last products to emerge from the company’s California Audio Lab under Allan Devantier. The Lab continues; Mr Devantier has moved on to a company intending to revolutionise magnets in loudspeakers by avoiding rare-earth metals and other cunning stuff.

It was Devantier who almost singlehandedly revolutionised Samsung’s soundbar performance after creating the Audio Lab in 2014. For its test facilities he incorporated ideas from the legendary National Research Council of Canada audio rooms created by his guru and collaborator Floyd Toole at Harman, from where Devantier had been headhunted not long prior to Samsung’s purchase of the entire company and all its audio brands.

We had exchanged a few questions with Mr Devantier for the soundbar review, but we had not known he was shortly to leave Samsung; we found out only after publication, when he linked to our review on his LinkedIn account.

“The last interview with me as the Audio R&D Leader at Samsung is part of the review of the HW-QS700F SoundBar that the Audio Lab in Valencia California and I were heavily involved in,” he wrote. “Fitting that they decided to mention my decades-long collaboration with Floyd Toole.”

And then he added: “Be on the look-out for reviews of the Music Studio 7 which features 2 technologies invented at the Audio Lab in Valencia California. I first proposed the concept to management a L O N G time ago. I am so happy we were finally able to bring it to the market. It’s a fitting swan song. Thanks to the entire team at the Valencia [California] Audio lab and especially Felix Kochendörfer, Matthew McDuffee and Yuan Li.”

So we made an early request, and finally we have the Music Studio 7 in for review. Samsung’s publicity for the speaker doesn’t clarify which are the two new invented technologies mentioned by Devantier, though the heavily plugged “patented Immersive Waveguide technology” might be a frontrunner for one of them.

Nor is there any mention in despatches of those three names from Devantier’s Audio Lab. Samsung’s press releases instead emphasise “renowned industrial design studio Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec” from Paris, and indeed we were asked if we would like to interview Erwan Bouroullec.

Not really, we replied; while we're sure M. Bouroullec is très magnifique et accompli and all that, the industrial designers oversee the outside of products, by and large, while we’re far more interested in the inside. They also speak nebulous design language (“I consider sound to be like air and light: fundamental elements of a room's atmosphere”, says Erwan), and several of our previous interviews with industrial designers have been, well, disastrous; we recall a slightly furious debate with a pair working for Bang & Olufsen who had decorated a waterproof loudspeaker with materials that weren’t waterproof, so you couldn’t then get it wet. They thought this very cool; we thought it idiotic, and the antithesis of good design.

But we digress. Mr Devantier whetted our appetite for the Music Studio 7. What has Samsung delivered here?

Build & drivers

In brief, this is a wireless streaming speaker. It has only two physical inputs (optical and HDMI eARC; the USB-A slot is for service only), plus a variety of streaming options. At the price (currently RRP A$749 each in Australia, though we've seen it at A$599 during promotional periods), it might be considered Samsung’s equivalent of Apple’s HomePod, or the Sonos Era 300.

You can buy just one, which might well be enough for a bedroom or study scenario with streaming. But we found that the HDMI input proves essential to their best performance, and if you’re using them for TV sound, we’re not sure how you’d put just one of these chunky speakers in front of your TV.

So this points towards their use as a stereo pair; they link wirelessly, so you can pop them either side of your TV, making a full music and movie system.

It is an unusual streaming speaker in a number of ways, and we certainly won’t diss the quality of work by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec (fraternal designers who over nearly 30 years have designed everything from jewellery to architecture), because we like the exterior very much, including the way that a small light behind the front ‘Dot’ moves clockwise as you increase volume and anticlockwise when you reduce it.

“Their goal was to move away from the traditional, aggressive look of high-tech audio gear (which usually features exposed black cones and foam surrounds) and instead turn acoustic physics into modern art,” says Samsung. Job done.

The Bouroullec design input is perhaps more obvious on the smaller Music Studio 5, with its almost triangular base and curious stand-up circular frontage rather like a ‘Napoleon's hat’ tambour mantle clock (so suitably French-influenced!).

The Studio 7, however, is a far more conventional speaker shape, but again with no drivers visible at all. It presents as a minimalist rectangular box with nicely-radiused corners; the height-to-width measurements are 268 x 184mm, a pleasing 16:11 ratio though rather lower than the golden one, so that they appear slightly squat.

We were shocked at the packaging in which they arrived. There almost wasn’t any; the cardboard box was only slightly larger than the speaker, leaving the front baffle protected by a mere centimetre of sculptured cardboard padding, covered by a thin sheet of cardboard.

No damage? No damage, indeed nothing that can be damaged, because that larger circle on the front is not an exposed driver: it’s solid as a rock, a flush-mounted waveguide, presumably, moulded directly into the front matte-finished baffle. The baffle looks impervious but is actually a tightly punched grille that is both audibly transparent and visually so, if you hold a torch up to it. We tried breathing through it; no problem.

Our torch revealed a tweeter at the bottom behind the flat section; indeed this is described elsewhere as a Super Tweeter which “can capture ultra-high frequencies up to 35kHz” (though we assume it’s actually delivering rather than ‘capturing’, unless it’s listening for bats).

Also at the front, behind that Dot, our torch revealed a deeply-coned woofer, about four inches in diameter when measured across its wide roll surrounds; these and the cone profile indicate this is a long-throw design designed to move a lot of air for its size.

The centre of this driver lies directly behind the ‘Dot’, though what you actually see through the ‘Dot’ seems as solid to an inquiring tap as is the depression around it; we could not ascertain how it integrates directly into the baffle structure.

We think it fires from a tuned acoustic chamber, projecting sound forward. But it was confirmed by Samsung that the ‘Dot’ structure in front of this driver is NOT the aforementioned “patented Immersive Waveguide technology”. That is actually used on the supertweeter below: “Samsung's proprietary 'Immersive Waveguide (Patented)' delivers uniform directivity, spanning from 1kHz up to an ultra high-frequency of 35kHz,” they confirmed. The waveguide shapes and directs the sound waves – like a lens on a camera, but for sound instead of focusing light, as Samsung neatly puts it. One of its key goals is the delivery of a wide sweet spot for listening.

But the ‘Dot’ above is not mere industrial design. Samsung adds that the ‘Dot’ is meant to “visually represent the physical ‘origin of sound’ while quietly doing the heavy lifting of audio dispersion behind a calm, minimal facade.”

It is also apparently signature stuff from Erwan Bouroullec: “From the Pico and Punto coverings for Mutina to Cappellini's Cloud bookcase and the Maap lamp for Flos, he has explored the expressive potential of the dot and its repetition for years,” reported Archiproducts when the Music Studios were announced.

All this from a little circle; oh, the brilliance of industrial design.

But what we really wanted to know was where all the rest of the drivers are, and what they’re doing.

The Music Studio 7 is advertised as a Dolby Atmos-compatible speaker, and a graphic on Samsung’s product page shows sound emerging not only from the speaker frontage but also flooding sideways from each side, and upwards from the top. In one of the graphics, these sound beams then magically veer towards the listening position, though we presume they are really intended to bounce off ceilings and possibly side-walls (Samsung’s images are marked as AI and for illustrative purposes only).

Such side-bouncing can be a problem in Australian architecture because often the listening rooms are wide and simply don’t have side walls, being either open-plan or open to outdoor spaces. But as we’ll find, the Music 7 did manage this task well.

They can receive Dolby Atmos signals via Tidal Connect or Amazon's top music tier, or via any number of sources piped via HDMI.

The Music Studio 7s are also marked as able to play Eclipsa Audio, an open-source spatial audio format developed by Google and Samsung; this ability has also been integrated into some recent Samsung TVs. There seem no movies or commercial video yet available in Eclipsa, though there is some YouTube content and "select Samsung TV Plus content", and we note that Miami’s Classic Master USA mastering facility is also doing Eclipsa music masters. It’s early days, but if Eclipsa does eventually take off properly, the Music Studio 7 is ready to handle it.

As for the rest of the drivers, Samsung’s literature talks about “five advanced speakers delivering true surround sound”, stating that each Studio 7 alone delivers 3.1.1-channel sound.

Yet there are clearly seven drivers here. Using our torch-technique we peered beneath the side and top surfaces, seemingly aluminium, again punctured through with a fine grille pattern.

On top there is a single driver angled slightly forward, presumably bouncing off the ceiling; the angle looks like it would bounce off a normal ceiling height to serve a listening position some three metres distant. The driver is a little 40mm diameter cone with a large and prominent 20mm dustcap; we considered whether this might actually be a coaxially-situated tweeter dome, but Samsung confirms it as a single driver.

On each side of the Studio 7 there is a similar 40mm driver in the bottom section of each side, apparently firing directly sideways rather than angled to attempt the side bounce.

So that’s five drivers already, yet the top section of each side hosts a large curved-rectangle (racetrack) driver, some 95mm x 60mm, which must therefore be passive.

The centre driver behind the Dot seems to be considered the ‘subwoofer’ (it fired when we sent through an LFE signal only), augmented by the passive racetracks.

So there’s genuine LCR plus height plus bass, and the 3.1.1 claim is justified, though it’s not a direct signal they’re playing. Samsung shared with us engineers’ comments explaining that phase control signals based on the left, right and top channels are added to the front channel, to prevent the directivity of each channel from spreading unnecessarily.

We have no idea about either the amplification type, the DACs used or the materials from which the drivers are made.

Streaming and other tricks

Streaming is supported in a number of ways. With Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, you simply use those native apps and select the Studio 7 as the output, sending music direct from the internet to the speakers at the best quality for which you are paying.

Other music can be streamed via AirPlay 2 or Google Cast; Apple currently throttles AirPlay 2 to a fairly meagre 256k AAC (despite endless ongoing rumours this may soon be raised), whereas Google Cast can go to CD quality and above, generally to 24-bit/96kHz depending on implementation, making it the preferable system here.

There is also Roon, the paid music organisational software which supposedly delivers best possible quality from a file-based music collection and from some streaming services to devices around the home. (Samsung benefits here by owning Harman, which now owns Roon!)

If you use a Samsung smartphone, DLNA casting is also integrated directly into the Samsung Music app, and should yield full-quality file replay, depending on your settings.

And there’s Bluetooth, version 6.0, but including only the basic SBC codec plus Samsung's own Galaxy-ecosystem SSC codec. So Bluetooth might be best kept for occasional convenience only, rather than regular use. There's no provision here for the new Bluetooth LE using the LC3 codec or Auracast broadcasting.

With the rear USB-A slot turning out to be for service only, the only physical inputs are the optical digital and HDMI eARC; both are likely considered as inputs for your TV audio, though only the HDMI connection will bring Dolby Atmos across from your TV.

The TV connection can do rather more if you’re pairing the Studio 7, or preferably two of them, with an actual Samsung TV – though we would say, after testing, that they’re good to go with any TV brand/model that offers HDMI ARC or eARC; don’t reject them just because you don’t have a Samsung TV.

But if you do have a suitably recent and compatible Samsung TV, then you can connect that wirelessly to the Studio 7s using Samsung’s Q-Symphony technology, which then integrates the TV’s own speakers into the overall sound, for better or for worse; it wasn’t something we could check. Indeed you can apparently connect four (or five?) speakers and the TV using Q-Symphony, Samsung then claiming a 15.0.5-channel layout (which we’re not going to begin trying to work out!).

There’s also talk of wireless Dolby Atmos being possible from a compatible TV, but there’s enough compression on Atmos signals already; we’d very much recommend using a cable.

Pairing two Studio 7s without Q-Symphony was our main listening configuration, and we think it probably a purer path than adding in the TV drivers. Allan Devantier once confirmed to us that audio purists (“like us”, he said, including himself) should not consider using Q-Symphony with its soundbars, advice surely doubly true here with the even more hi-fi Studio 7s.

With the speakers linked together and set up either side of our TV, how did this affect their driver use? It seemed, with both stereo and Atmos material, that both Studio 7s then shut down their inner facing side tweeter, though the passive side radiator kept pumping. This makes sense; in our scenario the inner tweeters were now firing uselessly behind the screen of the 75-inch Samsung TV, so turning them off and rebalancing the output is an excellent idea.

Both outer drivers, both top drivers and both forward tweeters continue firing with both stereo and Atmos material. From playing Atmos test channels through them, the front Super Tweeters, once the speakers were paired, seemed to take on both a share of the centre signal and their respective left or right signal as well, while the side speakers were also taking a share of left and right signals while handling all surround information. So clearly some cunning algorithms are overseeing job-sharing for the drivers to achieve the best effect.

There are a few technologies on top of this. Samsung’s ‘Sound’ app has a slider to invoke ‘SpaceFit Sound Pro’, which it says adapts the sound to the room, though at first we couldn’t imagine how, as there are no test tones, no microphone waving process involved, and Samsung has no mike position out in the room. But after reading up we gather it uses far-field microphone arrays within the speakers to measure (continuously) how the audio bounces off your walls, ceiling, and furniture, then using EQ to compensate accordingly. We try it out below.

There’s also Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) Pro, which adjusts voices to overcome specific background noises, and ‘Auto Volume’ which both keeps different sources at similar levels, and works within sources to avoid spikes. The first is useful input matching; the second likely involves dynamic range compression, so is again ‘not for the purist’.

Plus there are a few listening modes and on-the-fly EQ adjustments available, which we’ll encounter during our listening.

The speakers are listed as allowing Alexa control, but we think the day for Alexa control of audio gear has passed, at least in Australia. More interestingly when we opened Samsung’s SmartThings app (we were looking for a way to DLNA-cast to the speakers), it immediately found and registered the speakers within SmartThings in addition to the ‘Sound’ app we’d used to set them up, yet SmartThings seemed to maintain our ‘Sound’ settings, even clearly pointing us back to that app as a more convenient and dedicated method of control. Good work.

Listening sessions

Set-up was as simple as any wireless speaker we’ve reviewed, and easier than many of them. Although weighty enough at 5.6kg each, the composite back panel includes a handgrip which makes them easy to carry around, and little possibility of damage given all the drivers are hidden away.

The power cord plugs upward underneath from the back, and in nice attention to detail, the black speaker has a black mains cable and the white speaker a white one! Samsung had sent us two Music 7s – one black (LS70H), one white (LS71H).

Getting the first unit online required no hunting for pairing buttons on the back: the speaker was instantly visible in Samsung’s Sound app as soon as we powered it up. There was even a sticker on the top telling us to hold down two buttons for a built-in demo – it sounded great, and should impress people in-store!

There are five rectangular press buttons on top: + and – for volume, then a music note in the middle (play/pause/next track, but also can be set to Spotify Tap, launching Spotify Connect without need for the app), and finally a circle on the left (multifunction) and a circle with a line through it on the right (mic on/off).

Hang on, what microphone? Turns out this is the one used for ‘SpaceFit Sound Pro’ and AVA Pro. These are continuous functions, requiring continuous microphone monitoring of the room. If you’re nervous about privacy, this button allows you to turn the mike off. We see this more often on products where there’s a voice assistant, and we often do turn it off, since this doesn’t much affect other functionality. But as we’ll see, we ended up very much wanting the SpaceFit on, and mike muting would disable this useful function.

Once we’d got the first speaker online, we whipped out a phone and started throwing tunes, initially via AirPlay. Out flowed Olivia Dean sounding lively, friendly and punchy, good bass support. But we were later to hear this playing through the same speaker, transformed. How? Read on.

Paired up

We really wanted to use these speakers as a stereo pair. It’s easy, almost encouraged indeed, to link them together within the Samsung Sound app (above). Once done you can access their settings together in the app, including a ‘Device Control’ option which we set to be our left speaker, as that would receive the HDMI cable.

We then opened up Spotify and later Deezer to throw some tunes to the paired stereo set. We expected to find them offered as a pair, and under the ‘Connect’ list it listed the left speaker, showing an icon of two linked speakers.

But it also listed each individual speaker alone as a Google Cast option (third screengrab above), which is a bit confusing.

We chose the two speaker option and started to play. It didn’t begin well. Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious emerged just all broken apart, bass faux, horns thin like sandpaper at short range, softening only as we sat back further away.

Carpenters, it’s hard to go wrong with Carpenters, but here there was no depth to it, no silence behind the soundstaging, and none of your classic warmth. Judy Blue Eyes from CS&N: soft and dull, though with a full bass.

We punched the sound mode to ‘AI Adaptive Sound’, tried ‘Standard’, preferred being back on ‘Music’. ‘Standard’ is in fact the purer choice, playing the stereo through left, right and centre direct, while ‘Music’ additionally fed the sound to the height driver. But this extra spread seemed non-destructive in sonic terms, and we preferred it, though things were still often sounding thin.

We experimented with speaker positioning, not forgetting that there’s that ‘Space Fit Pro’ option still to try. Pushing the speakers back to within 20cm of the wall certainly strengthened the bass, and things picked up with Long Train Runnin’ from The Doobie Brothers, supercrunchy guitar opening, now a fuller bass, but still becoming sufficiently unpleasant to play much higher than the lower side of enjoyable critical listening. We wondered if there might even be a timing mismatch between the speakers.

But we thought – perhaps we’re feeding it less than optimal source material. The casting, the streaming, the network: too many variables, even if Spotify Connect or Deezer via Google Cast should play well enough.

So we took it straight to the good stuff, supplied via the HDMI cable. Since these are Dolby Atmos speakers, we loaded Dolby Atmos music discs into a Blu-ray player, which was attached via HDMI to a Samsung TV which was attached via HDMI to the black Studio 7, so that it emerged playing across them both.

The first disc in the tray was the recently-released Atmos mix of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’. And this was immediately magnificent. No longer any need to restrain volume levels: we could nudge it stop after stop using the TV remote, and what a wide and wonderful world of sound opened up. Buckley’s vocal was held completely pure and isolated at the front, with swirling perfection all around, the bass now entirely unfettered in its ability to dive deeper towards what we might consider subwoofer territory for any other speaker this size.

The stereo combination had an unerring ability to handle the highest dynamic peaks at the end of Grace without any hint of congestion, banging out the climax like a well-resourced power amp and speaker combination, yet also having the low-level detail to allow a thrillingly delicate handling of the quick-silver sliding guitar that opens Last Goodbye, and to overlay upon that an astoundingly weighty and real kick drum. Judging as a fine hi-fi system, we might have said the bass could perhaps have a tad more definition, but heck, these are AU$749 speakers.

Leaning back in the chair, allowing the mind to wander and accept the cues being thrown out by the Music 7s, we had a genuinely immersive experience, even hearing stuff from behind, when there was nothing there. If they’re doing sidebouncing stuff, they’re lucky it was winter so there was a side wall at all. But the effect was not only effective, but unobtrusive, non-artificial. And normally we have to work with a system like this to get the effect happening: here it just happened.

They were equally hi-fi if a little less successful in the room-spreading stuff with the Atmos mix of Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Then we loaded the ultimate Dolby Atmos music disc: The Flaming Lips’ ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’. Track 10, All We Have Is Now, starts in the surround channels: Wayne’s vocal back right, electric piano back left. And Wayne really did come from a semi-rear right position, and elements panned wide on both sides, even if most of the rest was still coming from the front. The Lip’s effusive bass content poured out, and the full picture was musically enjoyable, very impressive from two speakers at this price, if not as magnificently open and wide as a full Atmos system can deliver. Very impressive stuff.

And of course this bodes well for movie Atmos soundtracks. From Blu-ray we played ‘A Star is Born’, which we’ve heard many times on large systems. The Atmos soundtrack did seem to genuinely push crowd sound around us in the opening live number Black Eyes, which emerged absolutely massive, the guitar solo clearly panned left, and bass content rather too much, even if loaded up for effect on this opening. We were encouraged to try the AI Adaptive mode again: it may be the go for movies, adding enthusiasm and size.

We also looked to notch back the bass delivery: there are two options: straight bass and treble EQ sliders, or a separate control for woofer. Taking either bass slider down to -3 sorted out the excess, and it’s easy to tweak on the fly since these controls are available reasonably easily within the Sound app – just three taps from the home screen to get to the Woofer slider, once you’ve learnt the way. Having to drop the bass on speakers this size is remarkable, and shows how effective Samsung’s team has made the combination of solid and effective speaker design in concert with algorithmic control of driver travel and the like, something which played a key part in the success of those first Californian-designed soundbars. Something similar is surely again in evidence here.

Back then, in 2017, we had interviewed Mr Devantier and he told us about “distortion-cancelling technology” developed by the team's Pascal Brunet, a software-based amplifier-distortion cancellation. And later, when we thought to Google those names which Mr Devantier had thrown out on his LinkedIn post, we found that two of them, Yuan Li and Felix Kochendörfer, had co-authored with Pascal Brunet in 2022 a paper revealing results of using trained time-delayed neural networks to create an AI control algorithm for driver behaviour, instead of the previous model-based control. There was also consideration of Long Short-term Memory and a fascinating Nonlinear Autoregressive Network with exogenous inputs (‘NARX’), but the neural networks won out in the end.

Presumably something similar is used here, an AI-style feedback system inverting errant loudspeaker driver behaviour at higher volumes; indeed this is most likely what Samsung calls 'AI Dynamic Bass Control'. This is not an effect to switch on and off with a slider in the app; it’s the inherent control system behind at least that big Dot-fronted woofer. The effect is a bit like Bjørn Erik Edvardsen’s soft clipping used in NAD amps in the 1980s: you can push beyond the natural limits, pulling back just before distortion occurs, thereby achieving maximum air-shifting and a remarkable sense of power even from relatively small enclosures and drivers. Remember that all the active bass here is coming from a single driver in each Studio 7, the driver behind that Dot, with only passive radiators in support. It’s an amazing result.

If the driver tech/bass control is the speciality of Ms Li and Mr Kochendörfer at the Samsung Audio Lab in California, what of the other name, Matthew McDuffee, the Lab’s Principal Audio Engineer? We find him coauthoring papers on implementation of simultaneous deconvolution, which relates to in-room speaker system equalisation. That fits in with the goals of 'SpaceFit Sound Pro', which we are about to encounter below.

Putting all this together, we might place our bet that the two new technologies from the Lab, which Allan Devantier mentioned in concert with those three names, are AI Dynamic Bass Control, and SpaceFit Sound Pro. So perhaps not that ‘Immersive Waveguide’ acoustic lens after all, given that waveguides have been around since the 1990s since Geddes differentiated them from horns in 1989 (and they’re all ‘immersive’, really, by dint of operating in a 3D world).

So, technical discussion aside, we were loving everything coming through HDMI. But was all the streaming stereo stuff still sounding not so impressive? The relative quantities of the two media types would not weigh well for the Studio 7 in that case.

We played from other sources, including stereo from the Blu-ray player (Atmos discs have high-res stereo too), and this maintained the quality, at the expense of course of much of the immersion. Back on streaming, we played from Apple Music and our own phone collection via AirPlay 2 (the Apple app usefully provided a volume control, see below); it was OK, but male vocals seemed a bit thin, lacking in mid-bass, and the bass itself less rounded than we’d hope for the material playing.

On a whim, we unpaired the two speakers and sent the same tunes to a single Studio 7. Smaller, similar. When we went back to pair the speakers again, we found we could ‘group’ them, rather than ‘pair’ them, so that both speakers played in stereo. This actually gave a rather nicer bass response, though it caused some issues with stereo staging, since the inward speakers were now firing sound behind the television and creating all kinds of slightly phasey interactions as the left moved right and the right moved left. Having said that, for a real party, this is how we’d run them.

Through all this, we had been trying all the sonic tweaks available – happily not a crazy number of them compared with some competitors, which is a credit to Samsung.

We kept on with 'Music' mode for music, sometimes AI mode for movies. Initially we didn’t get any useful result from ‘Space Fit Pro’, and we had left it off.

Later, however, we realised that its effects take a while to appear: it’s not a simple switch flick to hear the difference. Once it had taken a minute to adjust, flicking the switch to remove it most certainly revealed the difference. It had filled in exactly the midbass we had been missing from vocals and presented all that material with a warmer heart. We are impressed, then; well done Mr McDuffee! We recommend you at least try this.

There are also Channel Level adjustments to push the side and top channels higher (or lower) as you might like. This option is also handy for hearing exactly what is going on from the various drivers.

Advanced Sound Settings include bass enhancement (not generally required), and ‘virtual’ on top of AI (not generally pleasant).

We moved our streaming sessions to using music apps playing on an AppleTV media player through the TV, and comparing them with streaming from the phone. Spotify: not much difference, since Connect was already playing direct; it was just slightly smoother via the AppleTV. Deezer seemed clearer this way, perhaps higher-res or less squeezed coming from the media player through HDMI that it had been from the phone, even though we had thought that was via data-friendly Google Cast.

We then rather tardily realised that the Samsung TV itself can host these apps, removing a link in the chain. We loaded Deezer as an app on the TV, and just played from there. Just as good! It’s a reminder that our televisions can now be used as hubs for music playback via their digital outputs, as well as for mere TV and movie fare (and here also extended smart-home operations via Samsung’s SmartThings).

While the better paths for playback certainly edged up the streaming quality, the main thing which overcame our initial uncertainty with the sound was that ‘Space Fit Pro’ correction; we are much impressed with that, especially with on-the-fly adjustments for bass easily to hand. But the ultimate playback experience came with high-quality files and very particularly with real Atmos material, whether music or movies. For the money, this is an astounding big and relatively hi-fi sound compared with the normal compressed sound of most rivals. It’s well superior, in some cases.

Right at the end, we went back to one speaker, and plonked it right in front of the TV, part blocking the screen. We re-ran Black Eyes from 'A Star Is Born', and its single-box drivers still managed to spread the crowd into an almost immersive presentation, although the left-right cues were inevitably reduced; the guitar solo, for example, panned less left than with speakers either side of the TV.

But we also played Olivia Dean again, and instead of AirPlaying from our phone, we ran it in Atmos from Apple Music on our AppleTV 4K through the TV into the Music 7 by HDMI. And this was the transformation we mentioned earlier: from friendly and punchy to clear, wide and wonderfully hi-fi – the lesson being that while the Music Studio 7 (or two of them) can do great things with compressed streaming signals, the better the source signal you give them, the better they sound. Which sounds like a ‘duh’, yet we fear very few people do take the trouble.

General issues

Problems? We’d really like a remote control; it would much improve the music listening experience when streaming from the phone. If you’re Google-Casting your music across from your phone, as we were from Deezer, then the TV remote no longer controls the Samsung volume; indeed if you try to use it, it may instantly return you to the HDMI input and cut off your music.

While Spotify and Apple include volume sliders in their apps, these can be quite coarse, and the volume buttons on the side of the phone (an iPhone, sorry Samsung) were extremely coarse: each tap jumped 10 full steps of the resolution available within the Samsung Sound app’s slider. And of course most of the time we were choosing music in the Deezer app, with no volume control at all, so we had to keep popping back to the Samsung Sound app, or else make do with the coarse control via our phone buttons. Or, of course, walk over and press the buttons on the speakers themselves.

We’d suggest investing in a programmable remote to overcome this, but does the Studio 7 even have an IR receiver built in? We think not.

Oh, and by default the speakers talk to you, in a synthesised female voice which interrupts every time you change a sound mode, talking over your music, and sometimes quite loud. Awful. Can you turn this off? Yes, thank heavens, under the ‘Voice Guide’ option in the Sound app.

As a final thought, we’d love to hear how the Studio 7 would sound without all the grilles. Grilles like this are not 100% audibly transparent, and very solid grilles cover every driver here. Without these things, might sound be more open and airy? (Though the speaker would then also fall into pieces and probably destroy its acoustic design.) We just wonder.

Verdict

Returning to the industrial designers Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec, Ronan was once quoted in an Institut Français Exhibition feature saying: “I find perfection extremely boring… The charm is the balance between the perfect and the imperfect.”

He should mention this to his brother Erwan, because the industrial design work on the Music Studio 7 has no imperfections we can see to weigh against its apparent perfection. The Samsung Audio Lab team has taken everything they’ve learned about soundbars since 2014 – rigid grille construction, speaker distortion cancelling, room acoustics – and applied it to a pair of rock-solid streaming speakers which we suspect that few companies other than Samsung could bring to market at such a low price. They’re a tribute to the Lab, to Devantier and his team.

No doubt they’ll find some way to tweak them up for a Mk.2 in a year or two, just as they’ll upgrade those neural networks controlling the big woofer and improve the sound processing. But aside from wanting a remote control, we wouldn’t change a thing here: the Music Studio 7 is a near-perfect product in a perhaps perfect form.

Devantier says he proposed this concept to management “a L O N G time ago”. Hopefully they’re quicker to recognise its success and will commission more along the same principles. This could be Year Dot for a new breed of Samsung hi-fi.

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines

For a consumer audio brand, trying to stand out in the ever-crowded portable Bluetooth speaker market must be as gruelling as it is for a rookie influencer to gain flocks of TikTok followers in the fashion and beauty space.

After all, it’s a lucrative pie that every speaker manufacturer, new and old, seemingly wants a slice of. Harman Kardon has been munching on it for longer than most, and yet it clearly feels it still needs to offer something extra to attract the attention of music lovers.

Build & design

Experts in etymology may well guess that, for the Luna 2 Bluetooth speaker, that ‘extra something’ relates to the Latin root of ‘Luna’ – ‘to shine’. Specifically, this Harman Kardon model offers a light show alongside an audio one, via an ambient light ring at its base.

We’ve previously encountered such approaches to catch the eye, primarily through speakers with bold, multicoloured ‘party’ lights that can turn living rooms into miniature discotheques. But Harman Kardon’s is a classier affair.

Rather than streams of garishly bright light pumping out of LEDs with the intensity of a ‘cocktail bar’ neon sign, the Luna 2’s ring light serves as a subtler, elegant enhancement to its already aesthetically pleasing design. It moves in accordance with the music and also visualises volume adjustments, though the effect is rather muted in bright daylight, and you can turn it off altogether if you prefer.

Even with the light ring deactivated, the pill-shaped, pencil case-sized Luna 2 is one of the more stylish speakers in its category, available in Classic Black, Warm Sand or, as pictured, a cool Ice Mint.

Thoughtful design elements include shiny accents around the anodised aluminium grille; a sloped, grippy rubber enclosure that keeps the profile compact and makes it easy to hold. The positioning of the USB-C charging socket on the side of the speaker, as opposed to the customary rear placement, makes it easy to plug in a cable if your speaker is placed near a back wall.

A USB-C cable isn’t supplied with the Luna 2 – an eco-conscious decision by Harman Kardon – but you’ll likely have one in your household already.

Despite not appearing as rugged as some portable speakers, like those from JBL and Bose, its IP67 dust/water-resistance rating means it can weather the elements – reassuring if your Sunday afternoon picnic or weekend camping trip turns soggy. Uncharacteristically, the British weather behaved itself during our testing period, but the speaker did survive us briefly running it under the tap.

Features

Completing the design are six soft-press buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing (two devices can connect simultaneously), volume up/down, light on/off, and Auracast.

Auracast is an increasingly prevalent feature of wireless speakers nowadays, allowing compatible speakers to synchronise their playback. You can even sync the Luna 2’s lighting with that of multiple light-enhanced Auracast-enabled speakers, though we didn’t have another to hand to test this feature.

AirTouch is the name Harman Kardon has given to its stereo pairing functionality, where two Luna 2s will automatically configure for true stereo sound when moved within close proximity of each other.

This can also be managed in the Harman Kardon One app, where you can also change the speed, colour theme and brightness of the light ring; select one of four audio EQ modes (the default Signature Sound is the clear winner) or create your own; and see battery status.

The claimed 12-hour battery life holds up well in real-world use, with five straight hours of playback on mid-to-high volume draining the battery by just less than 40 per cent. That spec is rather miserly in today’s market, though; the JBL Charge 6 offers double that playtime from a single charge.

Sound

That What Hi-Fi? Award winner from JBL is the Luna 2’s natural rival, and performance-wise sets a high bar for portable Bluetooth speakers under £200.

The Luna 2 makes a solid first impression as we get our testing underway with Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club, which plays to the Luna 2’s biggest talent – midrange insight.

Roan’s strong pop soprano is faithfully delivered, well projected, and soars through the soundstage with plenty of space around it. It isn’t every day we come across such an expressive and articulate vocal delivery from a speaker of the Luna 2’s size and price.

There’s weight and dynamic variation to the piano underneath, and a sense of musical flow as the keys act as the track’s melodic backbone. And thanks to a well-tuned 62mm x 82mm woofer and passive radiator, which sit beside a 20mm tweeter, the Luna 2 produces a tight, prominent bass that allows the synth beat to make itself duly known.

That the open, spacious soundstage has clear instrument separation and precise imaging helps the presentation sound more lucid than most at this level, too.

Unfortunately, the Luna 2 conforms to its name where higher frequencies are concerned. Its treble is a little bright and edgy, even after tens of hours of use.

We play Wet Leg’s catch these fists, and while the intense shimmering cymbals aren’t really a fair fight for any budget Bluetooth speaker, they are more listenable through the Charge 6, which offers greater treble subtlety and refinement.

The JBL rival is bigger sounding and fuller in the bass, too, but what makes it the more enticing speaker is its greater dynamic punch and rhythmic cohesion. The Harman Kardon isn’t flat or ponderous sounding by any means, it just doesn’t pin down a rhythm with the adept timing and effortless flow of the benchmark-setting Charge 6.

Verdict

Harman Kardon’s latest effort may not shine above the best-in-class competition, then. But the Luna 2 does produce one of the most articulate and vocally impressive performers this sort of money can buy, and does so from a portable design that isn’t just necessarily practical but also promises to soundtrack your al fresco adventures in elegant style.

Review published: 13th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the JBL Charge 6

Also consider the JBL FLip 7

Best Bluetooth speakers tried and tested for every budget

Valerion is a brand best known for its projector offerings, but a problem that projector owners must wrestle with is how to get the best sound to accompany that big picture.

The company has launched its own answer to the issue – a five-piece Dolby Atmos system in a box that connects to your projector via a single dongle. And, while this wireless solution is primarily designed to hook up to a projector, it can also be used with your TV.

So, can the Thunderbeat live up to its name and deliver a room-filling, emotion-inducing audio performance?

Price

The Valerion Thunderbeat 4.1.2 is available for £639 / $799 / AU$1799, placing it around the mid-range in the sound system category. For that price, you get four satellite speakers (two fronts and two rears) and a subwoofer.

There is also the option to add a wireless central speaker, taking the whole package up to £899 / $1098 / AU$1949. For reasons that will become clear soon, we recommend sticking to the cheaper option and leaving out the central speaker.

At this price, the system is up against soundbar-based Atmos systems such as the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 (£499 / $798 / AU$1199) and last year’s Samsung HW-Q990F (which you can consistently find for around £749 / $873 / AU$1395).

Design

As mentioned, the system is all connected via a compact dongle that fits into the palm of your hand. You can plug it into your TV or projector via HDMI eARC, making for an easy-to-connect system that doesn’t require a confusing jumble of wires to snake around your home. All you need to worry about is the power supply for each speaker.

The design of the speakers doesn’t feel particularly premium, instead taking a more basic approach. The black plastic boxes don’t feel as well-made as those of the Sony Theatre System 6, nor do they sport the more interesting angular build of the Samsung Q990F.

Inside each surround speaker is one 10cm full-range front-firing driver, an upfiring 50mm full-range driver, and a 38mm tweeter. Each speaker measures a reasonably large 23 x 14 x 13cm (hwd), and weighs 2kg.

The speakers can be wall-mounted or placed on floor stands, and we opt for the latter. The front speakers are best positioned either side of the TV, and we find that putting them as close to our TV screen as possible achieves the best combination of focus and openness.

The surrounds sit behind or to the sides of the listener, and angling them slightly towards us in our test room delivers the best performance.

Also included in the package is the subwoofer, which is relatively small and narrow. That means it can be placed fairly discreetly next to a wall if you are short on space. There is a single 16.5cm woofer inside, and it’s powered by 120W of amplification. As a package, Valerion claims the system delivers a total power output of 840W.

Features

The speakers are designed to automatically pair with the dongle, but we needed to manually pair one of the speakers to get the system working smoothly. Doing this is a fairly simple matter of temporarily connecting the speaker to the dongle via the USB cable.

Each piece of kit has a light to indicate if the system is fully connected. If you don’t want said lights to bother you while you’re watching movies, there is the option to dim them via the remote.

The system doesn’t feature wi-fi streaming, but you can connect to it via Bluetooth, which of course allows you to send any music you fancy from your phone and hear it through the Valerion speakers.

There is no companion app to control the system, so you must rely on the physical remote control, but this features a useful built-in screen on top to show your current selections. From here, you can control power and volume, EQ modes, and input.

There's no automatic, mic-based calibration, and manual adjustments are limited. You can adjust the system's bass and treble, and the volume of the surrounds in comparison with the fronts, but you can't adjust each speaker individually, and there’s no test tone for accurate manual calibration.

When most rivals offer generally pretty precise, automatic calibration, the lack of it here feels like an oversight.

In terms of surround sound support, the Valerion offers both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Sound

Once we start listening to the Valerion Thunderbeat 4.1.2 system, we are met with a pleasant movie experience. There is a selection of sound modes to choose from, but after a good amount of testing, we opt for Movie mode, which delivers the best balance between openness and precision.

The sound is big and meaty. In Blade Runner 2049, as Officer K drives through the dystopian cityscape, the Valerion delivers the weight of the epic soundtrack, and there’s good tonal balance and integration.

But there’s not the big punch at the start of each note that we hear with rival systems, and the intricate details in the score are missing. The broad strokes are there, but the subtleties are not.

Later in the film when Ryan Gosling’s protagonist is interrogated, there is enough distinctive character to differentiate Officer K and the interviewer, but we have heard these voices delivered with greater subtlety by rival systems.

Other systems in the category such as the Bravia System 6 and the Q990F use their speakers to create a seamless, enveloping dome of sound around the listener. The Valerion system, on the other hand, feels more like four speakers that produce a much more localised performance.

When watching Top Gun: Maverick, as the titular pilot’s jet zooms from one side of the screen to the other, the sound fails to pan seamlessly. Surround effects aren't passed smoothly from one speaker to the next, and it does not deliver the immersive experience we are hoping for.

The speakers do render height effects fairly well when the plane heads to higher ground, but each channel produces something more akin to a pillar of sound than a section of a dome that fully encompasses the listener, which is what the best in this class can achieve.

We test out the system’s Mapping setting. This spreads the sound across the four speakers more evenly, delivering a wider soundfield but also sacrificing too much of the system’s sonic precision for our tastes.

When watching the genre-melding medley in Sinners, for example, the Mapping feature delivers a greater sense of scale as the camera swoops around the room, but the exactness of individual voices and instruments is less clear compared to when the feature is switched off.

The best rivals are able to combine scale and accuracy, but the Valerion forces you to choose one or the other, and we ultimately choose the latter and switch Mapping off. It’s simply too vague.

Big leaps in dynamics are handled well, though. Continuing with Sinners, as a snake appears suddenly in front of the Smoke and Stack twins, the jump from ominously quiet to a loud screech is portrayed effectively.

But more subtle or gradual dynamic changes are handled with less skill. When the villainous vampire Remmick sings Rocky Road To Dublin with his new troupe, the build-up in dynamics is not delivered with much tension and so does not feel as exciting as it should.

When playing music, we recommend, perhaps predictably, the Valerion’s Music preset. This narrows the sound and makes it more direct, and the mix shifts to all-channel stereo.

The bass is not as prevalent here as it is with movies, but it remains well balanced with the rest of the frequencies. There still isn't enough punchiness with each beat, though, and it is not the most rhythmic system we have heard.

When playing Sign Of The Times by Harry Styles, the start of the track is portrayed with a pleasing delicacy, but the build to the chorus does not have the soft subtlety we are listening for. Styles’ vocals are clear in the mix, but there’s also a bit of sibilance that makes for a slightly distracting performance.

It’s worth noting that there is the option to upgrade the Valerion system to a 5.1.2-channel configuration with a centre speaker. This seems appealing on paper, but this centre speaker is a significant sonic mismatch with the system’s other speakers. There’s a noticeable shift in both character and quality as audio moves from one of the front satellites to the centre, which is harsher, less dynamic and less detailed.

Considering how much of a movie’s sound is mixed for the centre channel, including most of the all-important dialogue, it’s clear that adding this extra speaker is a net negative. We therefore chose to review the centre-less 4.1.2-channel system. It may not be perfect, but it is the Valerion at its best.

Verdict

The Valerion Thunderbeat 4.1.2 is an improvement on the majority of TV speakers and a pleasant performer overall. But there are more immersive, integrated Dolby Atmos sound systems on the market that you can get for the same (if not less) money.

In 2026, this ultimately feels like quite a basic solution in terms of both features and sound quality. It’s decent, but you can do better if you spend your money elsewhere.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 4
• Design 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

Also consider the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6

Read our Samsung HW-Q990F review

Best surround sound systems: home cinema speakers and soundbars put to the test

What do you miss most about the 1980s?

You don’t have to have actually been around during that heady period to know just what the decade gave us, from classic action cinema to New Wave tunes and the rise of hip-hop. Maybe you miss the Yuppies, the shoulder pads and the big hair, or maybe the cosy family sitcoms accompanied by a piping hot chicken Kiev.

Or maybe you miss the tech. More specifically, you miss the audio trends of the decade, from stacked hi-fi systems to portable cassette players, boomboxes and foam-capped on-ear headphones. Those were the days.

If you do find yourself hankering for that bygone era, Philips might have just the thing. To mark its centenary last year, the Dutch manufacturer announced it would be reviving its classic Moving Sound range of products from the 1980s, with the new ‘The Roller’ emulating the radio-and-cassette design of the original model, now repurposed as a Bluetooth speaker.

Modern streaming and sleek, feature-laden designs are all well and good, but Philips is looking to put the fun back into audio – and what’s so wrong with that?

Price

The Roller (MS60) will set you back £169 in the UK and $229 when it launches in the USA later this year. This, for UK buyers, is the same launch price as the five-star JBL Charge 6 (£170 / $199 / AU$200). The Charge 6 has seen a few price drops in the intervening months, however, and at the time of writing you can pick one up for £129 in the UK and $160 in the US.

If you want something that’s about the same size but costs a good deal more and comes with our firm recommendation, the JBL Xtreme 5 can currently be yours for £300 / $300.

Build

The 1980s never really went away, at least not for Philips.

The Roller’s design takes direct influence from Philips’ combined radio and cassette player of the same name (the D8007 and its D8008 sequel to be specific), whereby a central body is flanked by integrated circular speakers built into the casework, topped by a rigid carry handle.

Naturally, changes have been made to see The Roller keep up with the demands of the 21st century. The cassette deck and radio display housed at the centre of the original have been replaced by a crisp, clear LCD colour screen, while an array of control buttons is found directly above. Around the back, charging and physical audio playback are handled by a USB-C port, and we’re pretty sure they didn’t have those in 1987.

Despite its relative portability, The Roller is not a particularly small speaker – it’s about the size of an elongated shoebox. While its price puts it in more direct competition with the JBL Charge 6, Philips’ colourful throwback is closer to JBL’s burly Xtreme 5 in terms of its size. In essence, it’s a Bluetooth boombox with a retro design and a modern feature set.

It is, however, a little lighter, weighing in at a more reasonable 2.3kg when compared with the 2.9kg of the current-gen Xtreme, and while it isn’t lightweight, it’s not a chore to lug from place to place if you’ve been to the gym a few times this year.

It’s well-made, too. While some may baulk at its novel aesthetics, The Roller feels far more substantial and robust than a mere toy. The speaker’s IP67 rating will keep it properly protected from dust ingress, water splashes and even some light liquid submersion, and as we run our hands across its exterior, tapping and probing as we go, we’re struck by how substantial and well-made everything feels.

There are no rubberised bumpers or shock absorbers to speak of, so we wouldn’t feel confident dropping our test speaker from any great height, but the overall quality of construction is impressive given The Roller’s fun-focused aesthetic and reasonable price. The plastic body and metal speaker grilles are of an admirably weighty standard, while a quick spray with a garden hose proves that those waterproofing credentials check out.

Whether we’re actively using it or just admiring its show-off retro aesthetics, we very much enjoy our time with The Roller. It looks particularly fresh and funky when sporting its bright yellow finish (you can go for black if you’re more conservative), and while there’s a touch of the Fisher-Price here, we don’t mind. The Roller is supposed to be fun, and that’s just what it is.

The various controls are chunky and respond with a satisfying click, and we particularly enjoy the customisation options available for the colour display. It’s not often that a Bluetooth speaker comes with an actual display screen, but with Philips’ retro offering, your display will show the song you’re playing and the speaker’s current battery life. You can even add novel animated widgets – like a spinning virtual cassette deck – in a nod to The Roller’s heritage.

The good times don’t stop there. The Roller comes with customisable lighting effects which can be cycled through or switched on/off either via the app or using the on-unit buttons. Are they strictly necessary? No. Are they a nice touch that adds a dollop of fun to an already exciting recipe, like a few colourful sprinkles dusted over an already-eye-catching sundae? We think so.

Features

Despite its retro appearance, Philips’ The Roller has been kitted out with a number of modern-day features.

The Roller boasts Bluetooth 6.0, and while there isn’t any hi-res codec support to speak of – you’ll have to make do with standard SBC – Auracast is available, meaning you can connect it to any number of Auracast-enabled speakers at once. That includes most of JBL’s current-gen offerings and other members of Philips’ Moving Sound range.

Thanks to its rear-mounted USB-C port, The Roller can double as a portable power bank for charging your phone or similar portable device. You can also use the USB-C port for direct listening, but only via USB-A to USB-C rather than USB-C to USB-C, which seems odd considering we can’t imagine many listeners using their laptop, say, as a source for a portable speaker. No matter how you listen, audio processing is capped at 16-bit/48kHz.

Battery life is decent for a speaker of this size and type. The Roller will grant you around 24 hours of playtime from a single charge, which is the same as the standard runtime offered by the rival JBL Charge 6 and the larger Xtreme 5.

Glance at the array of rectangular controls at the top of Philips’ 1980s-inspired speaker and you’ll notice a bright pink button etched with the letters ‘M/S’. Give it a press and you’ll activate The Roller’s ‘Moving Sound’ mode, which adjusts the digital signal processing by shifting the bass to a higher frequency and reducing its deepest low-end output, increasing the resultant dynamic headroom and allowing sound to travel more convincingly in outdoor environments.

In our experience, activating the mode has its trade-offs. It’s undoubtedly better for outdoor listening by granting a more forward, muscular and entertaining presentation, but you do lose a little clarity and refinement as part of the deal. A matter of taste and context, then.

Beyond the physical buttons, controlling your speaker is performed via the Philips app. It’s a useful platform for making certain tweaks to your experience, such as selecting the widget you want displayed on the display screen or adjusting the pattern of the speaker’s light modes, but we’re disappointed to see that no customisable equaliser, or indeed any sound profile presets, are included.

Sound

With our mature adult hat on, we’ll get our po-faced caveat out of the way and reveal that, perhaps unsurprisingly, you can buy more sonically sophisticated Bluetooth speakers at this level.

The five-star Charge 6 doesn’t go as loud as The Roller, but the JBL class-leader puts music together in a more convincing manner. It’s clearer, more detailed and far more musically nuanced, with a layered, cohesive performance that can make The Philips speaker seem somewhat unrefined by comparison. For outright sound quality, the Charge 6 remains the one to pick.

When we remove our businessman’s bowler and don the backwards baseball cap of youth, however, we’re far more inclined to take The Roller for what it is: a brash, bold–looking speaker that makes a similarly brash, bold sound. Thanks to its 60 watts of RMS power feeding a pair of 25mm tweeters alongside twin 9cm woofers, Philips’ substantial Roller really is capable of putting the “boom” into boombox.

With the volume dialled up towards the higher reaches of social acceptability (sorry, neighbours), the opening bars of System Of A Down’s Highway Song nearly take our ears off. Power and punch are not in short supply, and while that extends across the entire frequency range, there’s a particularly large helping of muscular bass to really give the tune some kick.

Hard rock and hip-hop appear to be where The Roller is the most comfortable, and again, that isn’t much of a surprise given its fun-focused, boombox-esque nature. Turnstile’s SLOWDIVE sounds big, bold and suitably crunchy – enough to get heads banging – while Black Veil Brides’ epic Saviour II and Eminem’s hard-edged The Way I Am are given similarly powerful treatment.

Those qualities remain no matter how or where we use our bright yellow test speaker. Thanks to its assertive presentation – and that handy ‘Moving Sound’ mode – The Roller’s rich, full-bodied reproduction carries confidently when we take the speaker outside for some fun in the sun.

Big dynamic swings are generally communicated with the appropriate heft, as evidenced by the crashing thumps peppered across Rosalía’s ever-dramatic Berghain, even if The Roller can struggle fully to tease out the subtler shifts bubbling away in the background.

On the subject of The Roller’s blind spots, detail levels are adequate but not outstanding, with subtler nuances generally lost at the expense of that irrepressibly ‘have at ’em’ approach. Listen to subtler fare, such as alt-J’s Every Other Freckle or Agnes Obel’s The Curse, and the JBL Charge 6 will handle such delicate tunes with a lighter, more skilful touch.

Such relative weaknesses aren’t quite enough to temper our affections for Philips’ fun-focused ‘80s-inspired Bluetooth boombox. Subtlety and nuance may tend to fall somewhat by the wayside, but in terms of pure fun factor, The Roller really knocks it out of the park.

Verdict

If you’re serious about getting the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker at this price, buy the JBL Charge 6. It’s smaller and not as enjoyable to look at, but musically, it’s in a league of its own.

If you want something that’s a bit off the beaten track, though, The Roller is a cheerful charmer. Its funky design will likely appeal to younger listeners who want something quirky and unique, as well as audio veterans who still hanker to have their '80s boombox held proudly upon their shoulders.

All told, Philips has done a marvellous job in putting the fun back into portable audio.

Review published: 11th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the JBL Charge 6

Also consider the JBL Xtreme 5

Read our Bose SoundLink Plus review

Best Bluetooth speakers tried and tested for every budget

TAD was originally founded in 1975 as a premium sub-brand to help Pioneer sell high-end speakers to the professional market. The brand’s name is an acronym for Technical Audio Devices – not a particularly poetic name, but that hasn’t stopped the company from developing into a standalone high-end manufacturer of considerable repute. Currently, its product range includes pretty much every part of the audio chain from digital electronics to stereo speakers.

The original Micro Evolution One speaker first hit the market in late 2016. The new TX version on test here was introduced last year, and features many detail improvements without changing the basic formula. The TAD ME1TX remains a beautifully made, immaculately engineered standmount that puts detail resolution, sonic precision and transparency at the top of its priorities.

It may come as a surprise to many that a speaker costing this much is only the entry model in TAD’s speaker range, though that fact does provide a good indication of the brand’s positioning in the hi-fi hierarchy.

Build & design

Standing just over 41cm high, the ME1TX speakers are relatively compact, but unusually for such small speakers, they are a proper three-way design.

The midrange and higher frequencies are handled by TAD’s CST (Coherent Source Transducer) driver array that positions a 25mm beryllium dome tweeter in the throat of the 9cm magnesium cone midrange. It is a similar arrangement to KEF’s Uni-Q technology and offers plenty of advantages on paper.

Aligning the acoustic centres of the two drivers improves overall dispersion characteristics and benefits integration.

In practical terms, this means the ME1TX should deliver a wide listening sweetspot and maintain its sonic characteristics more consistently as the listener moves around the room.

A 9cm driver is too small to deliver much in the way of bass, so TAD’s engineers have chosen to partner its CST array with a 16cm woofer.

This woofer uses a multi-layer aramid composite cone with a corrugated surround made of foamed polycarbonate, and vents through the enclosure’s sides behind the 5mm-thick steel plates mounted on either side. Having the vents on either side is said to cancel out any vibrations generated by them.

The ME1TX’s cabinet is a substantial affair and weighs in at a hefty 21kg each. Be careful when you lift them out of their packaging, as that weight can catch you by surprise. The impressively rigid construction consists of MDF panels braced internally by birch plywood.

The addition of those steel plates on the sides adds mass and rigidity, while also giving the engineers a fixed boundary for the air coming out of the vents to interact with.

This TAD speaker’s build quality is exquisite, just as the price demands. The monitor’s fit and finish is flawless, as is the attention to detail, right down to the quality of the biwire speaker terminals and shorting wires used between them to allow single-wiring.

There are two finish options for the ME1TX: the deep gloss black of our review sample and a silver-white combination that looks just as smart.

Compatibility

At this level, careful system matching is a must. The ME1TX has a lowish claimed sensitivity at 85dB/W/m coupled to a demanding 4-ohm nominal impedance, so in electrical terms, it makes sense to go for an amplifier with plenty of drive.

The bulk of our testing is done with Burmester’s 088/911 MkIII pre/power (180 watts per channel), though even PMC’s 95 watts per channel Cor integrated also drives these speakers well. Our main sources are Naim’s ND555/555 PS DR music streamer and a Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart MC record player.

The performance of any standmount speaker is highly dependent on the quality of the partnering support. TAD makes dedicated metal column stands for the ME1TX, and they work well in visual and sonic terms.

Given the price of the speakers, it will come as no surprise that these chunky stands are pretty premium too, selling for £2995 (around $2900 / AU$3599) for the pair.

While it is tempting to position relatively small speakers right up against a wall, we would avoid doing that in this case. In our 3 x 7 x 5m (hwd) test room, these speakers sound best around 50cm into the room and angled in towards the listening position. Such a placement retains a convincing tonal balance but also gives us a focused soundstage.

Sound

If you are expecting sonic fireworks, then these TAD speakers will leave you disappointed. These monitors are as understated as they come, preferring to allow the music and recording to take the limelight.

Their presentation sounds pure and unvarnished to our ears, almost a blank canvas that leaves any energy and drama to come from the music itself.

If the source material doesn’t bring the fun, the ME1TX won’t help out. Equally, that applies to the partnering system. If there are any shortcomings anywhere in the system chain, then these speakers won’t hide that fact. That just isn’t their purpose. We would avoid bright or lean electronics in general, as such a balance just doesn’t work with these speakers.

However, given that these are impressively transparent and highly revealing monitors, they will also allow the listener to dig deep into the production of a piece of music and analyse every aspect for good or bad.

It wasn’t long before we started to think of these TAD speakers as an audio microscope, something that allows us to hear low-level details with a class-leading clarity most alternatives just don’t have.

Time after time, we hear a small piece of detail, a subtle reverb or an extra sense of space between notes that other speakers simply ignore. It is the TAD’s superpower, and goes some way to justifying this speaker's high price.

We also appreciate the ME1TX’s tonal neutrality. They sound wonderfully even-handed throughout their operating range, giving them the ability to render voices and instruments in a convincingly balanced way.

As we work our way through Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the live recording of Keith Jarrett’s Köln concert, and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft set, we marvel at the effortless way these speakers bring instruments and voices to life.

Their exceptional composure leaves the listener confident that the speaker won’t fudge any aspect of the sound, even when the music becomes demanding. When it comes to control and sonic stability, we have heard little that betters these standmounts.

We are big fans of coincident driver arrays, and our time with these TAD monitors just reinforces that view. Once optimised, these speakers deliver excellent stereo imaging and a wide listening sweetspot.

Their soundstage even stays stable when we move around the room, and the tonal character doesn’t shift notably. Image focus is terrific, as is the way the ME1TX layer their expansive presentation to create a proper three-dimensional soundfield.

These are relatively small speakers, but unlike many rivals, they don’t exceed the expectations set by their size by producing a generous dose of bass. The laws of physics aren’t bent, and you certainly won’t be looking around for an additional bass driver or subwoofer hidden in the room’s corner.

However, the bass they do produce is proportionate, articulate and beautifully integrated. If you have a larger room, we would suggest adding a subwoofer or, preferably, going for one of TAD’s bigger models.

The modest amount of bass also limits the sonic authority on offer, and to a certain extent, contributes to the speaker’s slight restraint with large-scale dynamics.

The JBL Summit Ama and the Fyne Audio F1-8 are similarly sized to the ME1TX, but both convey the dynamic contrasts of the Beethoven symphony with greater conviction and muscle. Billie Eilish’s thumping basslines come through with greater heft, too, through these alternatives.

Rhythmic drive is surefooted rather than enthusiastic, though these TAD speakers still do a good job of conveying the musical momentum and bristling energy of a song like Michael Jackson’s Jam. We can’t recall an alternative that does better when it comes to outright clarity and the ability to unravel this song’s dense production. Every crash and bang on this track hits the mark, without a hint of exaggeration.

Even so, it is hard to escape the feeling that these speakers prefer to deliver the music in a slightly aloof, dispassionate way rather than to get on the dance floor, metaphorically speaking. The ME1TX are about control, precision and organisation more than they are about verve or drama.

Verdict

There is no denying that these TAD ME1TX standmount speakers are beautifully engineered and offer more insight into the production of a recording than pretty much any standmount we have heard. Given a carefully chosen partnering system and recording, they can certainly deliver moments of musical magic.

However, their measured approach won’t appeal to all, so take a good, long listen before you consider buying.

Review published: 6th August

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 5
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Read our review of the JBL Summit Ama

Also consider the Wilson Benesch Discovery 3Zero

Read our Fyne Audio F1-8 review

Best bookshelf speakers: top standmounts for every budget tested

Roksan’s new Caspian 4G range has some big shoes to fill. The previous generation was a firm favourite of ours, winning multiple Awards and gaining plenty of five-star reviews over the best part of a decade and a half.

It is fair to say that Roksan isn’t the same company it was when the previous generation of Caspian products was launched. The brand was bought by Monitor Audio back in 2016, and now no longer makes any of the turntables it was so famous for, most notably the Xerxes.

While we wouldn’t be surprised to see new record players at some point in the future, for now the company’s priority is to re-establish Caspian in the premium sector, and (belatedly) build on the foundations laid by the more affordable Attessa range introduced back in 2021.

Currently, the Caspian 4G series consists of four products: the streaming preamplifier (£3500 / $4500 / AU$7199) and power amplifier (£3000 / $3750 / AU$5999) pairing on test here, alongside an integrated amplifier that’s available with or without a streaming module, retailing for £4000 / $5000 / AU$7499 and £3000 / $3750 / AU$5999 respectively.

Given the excellence of the previous generation Caspian CD player, we have hope that the company will eventually release one to match the amplifiers. Until then, there is no stand-alone disc or streaming source in the range.

Design & features

So, to the products at hand. The Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier is in most ways a very well-equipped unit. As the name indicates, a streaming module is included, but this unit also has a phono stage and a good range of digital and line-level analogue inputs.

The streaming module is from BluOS, and will play music stored on any device connected to it or your home network, up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM files. If you have DSD music, then you are out of luck, as the Caspian 4G streamer can’t play it. Other products that use the BluOS module have DSD ability – the Bluesound Node Icon and Cyrus 40 ST come to mind – so we can only hope that Roksan follows suit at some point.

But let us keep things in proportion. While most premium streamers have better file compatibility than this Roksan, it is fair to say that hi-res music files above 192kHz are something of a niche interest; much the same can be said of DSD. We suggest letting your music library dictate whether the Caspian 4G will work for you. In the vast majority of cases, we suspect it will.

The BluOS platform gives access to a range of streaming services, most notably Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz (in Connect form), as well as Internet radio. Apple AirPlay 2, MQA and Roon compatibility are also on the menu. As is usual, the Roksan will connect to your home network via an Ethernet lead or wirelessly. We tend to stick with wired for the extra stability it offers.

We have few complaints about connectivity. On the digital side, there are two optical inputs, a pair of coax, and an HDMI eARC input to make integrating this Roksan into an AV set-up easier. You can play music files from storage thanks to a USB-A socket.

Bluetooth is included too, though given it is limited to the aptX codec, it should be considered a convenience option rather than something intended for serious listening. Connection to our iPhone 14 Pro Max is swift, and the performance is more than good enough for the job.

On the analogue side, there is a trio of line-level inputs that includes a balanced XLR, and dedicated sockets for both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. The gain levels chosen for both phono inputs (MM is 53dB and MC 73dB) are sensible and will work well with most cartridges. It is possible to adjust those settings by + or - 6dB, just to fine-tune the results.

The phono stage’s electrical loading isn’t adjustable, but the values chosen strike a good middle ground at 47kOhms/100pF for MM and 100 Ohms/470pF for MC. In addition, there is an option of a rumble filter to reduce any unwanted low-frequency noise generated by the record player.

As for the preamp’s outputs, the user can choose between three options: balanced XLR or a pair of single-ended stereo RCA outputs. One of these single-ended outputs can even be configured with a low-pass filter and used for driving a subwoofer.

Take a look inside these Caspian 4G products, and it is hard not to be impressed by the care Roksan has taken with the layout and production engineering; they really are nicely turned-out components. The preamp’s analogue section is fully balanced to keep noise levels low, and the power supply arrangement is generous to ensure a clean, low-noise power feed to the circuitry.

On the digital side, Roksan has used its bespoke ‘Rapture’ DAC circuit; a discrete, dual-mono design that the company claims is capable of high levels of resolution and precise stereo imaging.

The Caspian 4G Power Amplifier is a simpler unit than the streaming preamp. It features a rather generous trio of inputs, mirroring the preamp’s single-ended and balanced XLR connectivity, and, in a nod to tradition, has the same distinctive design of speaker terminal as used on the previous generation of Caspian amplifiers.

It uses a Class A/B circuit and is something of a powerhouse, delivering a claimed 105 watts per channel into an 8-ohm load and almost doubling that to 200 watts as the impedance halves. In bridged mono form, that increases to 420 watts into 8 ohms and 630 watts into 4 ohms. We don’t see this power amplifier having difficulty driving any price-compatible speaker.

Build & set-up

The build quality of both the streaming preamp and power is excellent. Their casework is beautifully machined and elegantly engineered. There are two finish options: black and silver. It is easy to think that Roksan hasn’t been particularly bold with its choice of colours, but that’s what most people buy, even when more adventurous options are offered.

To our eyes, the styling of these products looks understated yet modern. We like the clean detailing and the design language that honours the previous range but moves things on too. That clarity of thought extends to the remote handset, which is a small, solid-feeling unit that is nicely laid out and easy to use.

Nowhere is the evolution of the Caspian range as obvious as it is during installation. Gone are the days when all it took was a couple of pairs of interconnects, some speaker cable and plugging the units into a wall socket. Now, you also need to use an app (available for iOS and Android). Purists may roll their eyes, but it is hard to argue with the degree of flexibility and control this approach offers.

The company’s MaestroUnite set-up app is nicely laid out and intuitive to use. Both the pre and power connect to your device through Bluetooth – the antennas are neatly hidden in the respective caseworks – and then the products can be configured.

The app makes setting up a product as complicated as the streaming preamp pretty straightforward. Inputs can be hidden (if not used), and parameters such as the sensitivity of the MM and MC modules can be fine-tuned to taste. MaestroUnite even includes useful diagrams to help with connections.

There are various DSP modes, including a ‘Tilt’ tone adjustment that pivots the frequency extremes around the midrange, a room boundary adjustment that cuts bass output if your speakers need to be used closer to a back wall than ideal, and the aforementioned rumble filters for the phono stage.

What does the app offer for the Caspian 4G Power Amplifier? It allows you to switch the power from stereo to mono mode, as well as deciding which of its three inputs is selected. It also handles any software updates for the Caspian 4G range as a whole.

In principle, we have no complaints about using an app to set up equipment. Using MaestroUnite on a phone or tablet to set all those parameters is so much easier than trying to do it on the product itself using a (usually small and low resolution) front panel display.

However, early on we did have issues with the app proving slightly buggy in use. Roksan proved quick to react, issuing a software update to fix the problems we had identified, and supplying a replacement Streaming Pre-Amplifier in short order just to make sure.

Once that was done, things worked as well as we had hoped for. There are times when MaestroUnite doesn’t connect to the products as quickly as we would like, but on the whole, using it proves a painless experience.

The well-established BluOS app controls the streaming module, and it works well. In our experience, this is one of the more stable streaming platforms and is relatively easy to use. The layout is fairly intuitive, and the feature set covers the essentials.

Products at this level demand a talented partnering system. Our sources are the Technics SL-1000R record player fitted with either the Kiseki Purpleheart MC cartridge or the Nagaoka MP-200 moving magnet, and the Naim ND555/ 555 PS DR music streamer. The Naim performs as our analogue line-level and digital source along with a Cyrus 40 CD CD player.

As for speakers, our usual ATC SCM50 are pressed into service for much of the testing, but we also use the Epos ES14N and Fyne F1-8 standmounters to see how the Roksan pairing copes.

Sound

In the event, it copes rather well. The Caspian 4G’s streaming section seems a logical place to start, and our impressions are positive. There is a good balance to the sound. It is tonally neutral but avoids the sterility that many similarly tuned products suffer from. The natural warmth of Curtis Mayfield shines through on the hauntingly sad Here But I’m Gone; his voice sounds thoughtful and fragile, yet is as clear and palpable as we have heard at this level.

The backing instrumentation is laid out with care. It is easy to follow individual instrumental strands or just sit back and enjoy the whole. We like the Roksan’s surefooted approach to timing. The song’s steady rhythm track is secure and is delivered with a good measure of drive, letting the music’s easy-going feeling of forward momentum shine through.

We switch to the bass heavy charms of Billie Eilish’s bad guy and enjoy the Roksan pairing’s powerful and articulate bass. Lows hit hard and true as the power amplifier takes a firm grip of our ATC speakers.

The Caspian combo sounds big and powerful, showing plenty of composure even when pushed to high volume levels. However, we notice a touch of reticence with dynamic expression, which robs the music of a bit of drama and involvement.

The sound through the digital inputs retains much the same characteristics. The built-in DAC is a good one, broadly on a par with the better outboard offerings around the £500 / $700 mark. It is an even-handed and textured performer that delivers a good sense of clarity and articulation. Could it be more expressive and exciting? We think it can.

Good as the Caspian 4G combo has been, things get notably better when we switch to analogue. The line level inputs sound great when fed with either our reference Naim streamer or the Cyrus CD player. The level of clarity improves over the built-in streaming module and dynamics gain in verve.

As we work through De La Soul’s Cabin In the Sky, Lux by Rosalía and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, we are surprised at just how good this Roksan combo sounds. It bristles with energy, balancing excitement with control superbly. The level of organisation is impressive, as is the way the Caspian 4G duo still sounds stable and composed when the music becomes difficult.

Despite the high level of insight, these are not fussy performers. Their transparency means that any shortcomings in the source or source material are easy to hear, but such is the level of refinement that the Roksan duo never makes a meal of things. They prefer to highlight the quality of the music rather than focus on how well the recording engineer did their job.

Stereo imaging is impressive. These units render an expansive soundstage that is populated by nicely focused instrumentation and voices. Sounds are nicely layered, and on suitable recordings, we hear a convincing sense of depth.

The good news doesn’t stop there. The built-in phono stage is excellent, retaining all the positives of the line stages. The level of clarity is impressive while noise and hum levels are pleasingly low. It works equally well for moving coils as it does with moving magnets, which isn’t always the case.

A word of warning, though: while the rumble filter does a job, we found it degrades the sound quality a little too much for our tastes, robbing it of dynamics and transparency. We switched it off pretty quickly.

Verdict

The Roksan Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier/Power Amplifier pairing is well made and packed with useful features. It can be a thrilling listen with the right recordings and has a nature that is forgiving enough to keep poorer recordings enjoyable.

The preamp’s analogue stages are excellent, as is the phono module. The latter is good enough that we doubt many owners would be tempted to opt for a dedicated outboard phono stage when the time for upgrading arrives. The streaming and DAC capabilities aren’t quite as impressive, but they are still competitive for the class.

This well-thought-out package suggests that the future is bright for the Roksan brand. We can’t wait to see what it comes up with next.

Review published: 4th August 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Also consider the Naim Uniti Nova

Best stereo amplifiers: 8 class leaders chosen by our review experts

Technics’ latest turntable, Bose’s new Dolby Atmos soundbar, and Cambridge's most powerful streaming amp are all in for review this month

In a world where tech only seems to be getting more expensive, it’s refreshing to see a product that refuses to follow suit.

Now entering its 15th year, Amazon’s Fire Tablet range remains not only one of the most affordable tablets you can buy, but often tips the scales into unbelievably cheap – particularly during one of Amazon’s regular sales events.

We’ve highlighted just what great value these tablets are for years, and so it’s high time we caught up with the most recent version of the tablet family’s middle child, the Amazon Fire HD 8.

While still officially a part of the tablet’s 12th generation, it received a mild spec bump on the 2022 version – absorbing the benefits of the Fire HD 8 Plus and re-released in 2024 as the baseline tablet. But as so often is the case, there are more unwritten improvements here than meets the eye.

Price

While there was a 32GB version of the HD 8 (2024) available at launch with 3GB RAM, at the time of writing you can currently also pick it up in its 64GB variety.

The extra storage is welcome – as is the bump to 4GB RAM – particularly when it currently costs about the same as the 32GB version when you find it in stock. That’s £100 / $130 with ads, or £110 / $145 without ads (it’s currently not available in Australia).

As we mentioned though, it’s well worth keeping your eye out for sales, such as Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, as well as flash sales that happen throughout the year, for even better prices. The 64GB HD 8 (2024) came down to around £85 / $90 during Amazon’s last Prime Day, and the 32GB was available for less than £60 / $55.

Those prices are just not what you see on any other branded tablet, and although the Fire Tablet HD 8 requires some managing of expectations, it’s really quite hard to grumble at this price.

Design

Nothing much has changed from a design perspective – there is as much plastic here as ever. That means the HD 8 is incredibly lightweight, which isn’t the best at giving an impression of quality.

Still, it somehow manages to avoid feeling fragile; you have the feeling you could chuck this in your bag without a lot of worry. Its new textured back panel also feels nice and grippy.

There’s a pretty sizeable black bezel – remember those? – around the screen, a single 5MP camera lens on the top right corner of the back panel, a centrally mounted 2MP selfie camera and buttons for power and volume on the right-hand side.

There’s also a 3.5mm jack – remember those? – on the bottom right, a microSD card for expanding the storage along the bottom edge, plus a USB-C for charging. You get a cable in the box, but as is the norm now, you’ll need your own plug.

Features

The power at the heart of the current HD 8 (2024) comes from the same 2.0 hexa-core processor as before. However, the biggest upgrade here this time around is the bump up from 2GB to 3GB of RAM for the 32GB version, and 4GB of RAM for the 64GB version.

Having tested Fire tablets for years, we know that the extra RAM is needed, and will help the HD 8 run smoother for longer. Getting 4GB RAM is a good reason to go for the 64GB version, though we’re actually testing the 32GB/3GB version here.

The performance differences between the HD 8 (2022) and HD 8 (2024) are arguably minimal initially – the load times are similar, and you can move around apps relatively smoothly on both. There’s the odd stutter on the older version that we don’t notice on the newer one when playing games through Amazon’s Luna gaming service, but it’s largely negligible.

However, it’ll be as you make this tablet your own, and add more apps that run in the background, that the extra RAM is really going to come into its own.

Cameras are about as good as they sound on paper, which isn’t particularly great considering the quality of camera you probably have on your phone. From the 5MP main camera, there’s not a lot of detail, and pictures look a bit smudgy when you zoom in on anything. Colours are a bit washed out too, and you’ll need good light to get anything passable.

Similarly, the 2MP selfie camera will do its job for video calls, but it’s very soft on detail. Ultimately, these cameras are very much built for function. They’ll do the job well enough to be usable if you need them, and for a tablet at this price, that feels fair.

If this is your first time considering a Fire tablet, it’s worth noting that it runs on Amazon’s own operating system – and it doesn’t support Google’s Play Store. That means the app selection is a little narrower than mainstream app stores, and though it has got much better over the years, there are still gaps. A big sticking point is it still pushes native Amazon productivity apps and doesn’t have access to Google apps such as Gmail or Google Docs, which you may find annoying.

The good news for anyone picking this up for movies and music is that most of the main streaming platforms are there, including Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, HBO Max and, of course, Amazon Prime Video. There’s sadly no Apple TV though.

Apple Music is missing from the audio side, too, as is Qobuz, but Tidal, Spotify, and Amazon Music are all on board.

Battery life is quoted at the same 13 hours of mixed use as the 2022 version, but at full brightness (which we tend to have this tablet on most of the time unless in a dark room), you’re going to shave a few hours off that.

Streaming from Netflix at full brightness for an hour, the HD 8 drops 11 per cent, which roughly suggests it’ll manage just under 10 hours of movies before it needs a charge.

Charging it back up is slow though – expect it to take as long as five hours to go from empty to full.

Picture

The Fire HD 8 wears its screen specs proudly in its name, serving up an 8-inch screen with a 1280 x 800 HD resolution. That gives the tablet a pixel density of 189ppi, which puts it significantly below the likes of the 8.3-inch iPad Mini at 326ppi. That tablet starts at £599, so it’s not really a fair comparison, but it gives you an idea of some of the compromises you’re making here.

The screen is also significantly less bright than something like the iPad Mini, and far more reflective too. This makes it hard to use in any kind of bright light – inside or outside. To get the best from it, you’ll want to be using it somewhere a little darker.

Considering there have been no claimed changes to the display, you might be surprised to hear that there are improvements to the way the HD 8 handles video. It’s subtle, but it is better.

For a start, the colour tone is different. Where the older tablet skews slightly green, the new one skews a little more blue. That doesn’t make it cooler though – if anything it’s the opposite. Skin tones have a touch more warmth and life to them, there’s a subtler handling of colour across the board, and there’s a squidge more fine detail in there too.

That added detail helps landscape scenes to have a more believable sense of depth and texture, and while the older tablet arguably packs a little extra punch in bright highlights, there’s more detail in those highlights in the new version.

Stepping away from the comparison and simply looking at it on its own, it’s really hard to grumble at what the Fire HD 8 does with video for the price. It’s a clean picture with minimal noise, decent colour handling and detail levels that are perfectly acceptable.

On a pricier tablet you might be hoping for colours with a bit more depth, deeper blacks and better contrast. The Fire HD 8 doesn’t have any HDR support either, which doesn’t help. But considering the fact you can save £500 on this versus the cheapest, most recent iPad Mini, there’s plenty to enjoy – just as long as you can handle the reflections.

Sound

The Fire HD 8 (2024) packs stereo speakers on the top edge (when you’re holding the tablet in landscape orientation). They sound almost identical to those on its predecessor, so they go pretty loud and are plenty clear enough, and since they’re at the top, they don’t get blocked by your hands when you’re watching movies and TV shows. Not all tablet manufacturers think that through.

Unsurprisingly, they’re not the bassiest speakers, so they can sound a bit thin when you push the volume in big action scenes. We would like a bit more forward projection too, though you can help create this yourself by positioning your hands behind the speakers when you’re supporting it. It makes a considerable difference.

Still, the likelihood is that you’re going to use headphones with the Fire HD 8, and there’s the option of the 3.5mm jack for wired headphones, or of course there’s Bluetooth for wireless headphones.

The audio performance with headphones remained pretty consistent from its predecessor, and we’re happy with that – it’s a decent listen. It’s not completely neutral in its presentation – there’s a solid handling of bass that makes the sound a little warmer than that – but it’s never bloated or overpowering. It helps give the sound some body to ensure sharp edges are kept at bay, too, along with a fairly chunky rolling off of the treble.

If you’re listening with a critical ear, then perhaps that can make it sound a bit flat – but this is preferable to a sharp sound that’s hard to listen to.

But since we’re getting into it, yes, dynamic handling could be a little more explicit here too, and yes we’d take more fine detail retrieval. But overall there’s a good degree of clarity, drive and musicality, and it gets enough of the basics right for us to be fairly satisfied.

With movies, that slightly weightier bass helps give the sound some presence during action scenes, with dialogue remaining clean, composed and well projected against the wider soundtrack.

Verdict

If you don’t have £500+ to spend on an iPad, your choice of other good, affordable tablets is getting smaller and smaller. We can’t help but wonder if that’s because other manufacturers simply can’t match what Amazon’s Fire HD tablet line-up can offer.

For £100 (and often much less), the Fire HD 8 absolutely nails the basics when it comes to movies and music – and regularly surpasses them. This is not just a passable performance, but genuinely impressive at times, and all wrapped up in a size that’s perfect for travel.

Sure, we’d love a screen that was a bit less reflective, but when it comes to delivering great value, on a performance-per-pound basis, this tablet is bit of a no brainer.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the iPad Mini 6

Also consider the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2022)

Read our Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) review

These are the best tablets for movies and music

Picking a pair of floorstanding speakers is quite the challenge. We have rated the latest efforts from PMC, Fyne Audio, and ProAc all rather highly as of late, and there are some impressive options from Q Acoustics and Acoustic Energy to be mindful of, too.

With an overwhelming influence of British audio brands present on our list of the best floorstanding speakers, I have been searching further afield to scope out some alternative options. And one of my most recent voyages took me all the way to Mississauga, Canada.

This city, 28km southwest of Toronto, is home to speaker manufacturer Paradigm, as well as its sister brands Martin Logan and Anthem. Paradigm's latest speaker release is its Premier v2 range, and as the name may suggest, it’s a successor to the brand's original Premier speaker range.

Along with a fascinating factory tour and some interesting discussions with key members of the Paradigm team, I had a chance to listen to the top-of-the-range floorstanding speakers from this newly updated series.

The Premier 820F v2, as you’re about to find out, made a strong first impression, but with this much competition in the market, can it displace some of the British stalwarts on our list?

Price

Paradigm has shared pricing for its Premier V2 range in the US, but UK pricing is currently unconfirmed. What I can say, though, is that the Premier 820F floorstanders I heard cost $1300 per speaker, so that's around £980 based on current currency conversion, or $2600 (around £1960) for a pair.

That puts these speakers in the mid-range of the hi-fi speaker market and in direct competition with the Award-winning Fyne Audio F502S (£2300 / $2800 / AU$3000) floorstanding speakers.

The PMC Prodigy 5 also loom large as 2024 Award-winners, priced at £1995 / $2510 / AU$3399.

Paradigm also sells another, slightly smaller, set of floorstanders in this range – the Premier 720F v2 – as well as two pairs of standmount speakers (the 120B v2 and 220B v2), alongside two centre channel options: the 520LCR (which can be used as either a centre, left or right channel) and the dedicated 620C v2 centre channel speaker.

With Premier in the name, it should come as no surprise that this series is destined for use in home theatre rooms in a 5.1 surround sound (or larger) arrangement.

Build quality

The Premier 820F v2 are a sensibly styled pair of speakers and, in many ways, they look and feel a touch more premium than their price tag may suggest.

At the core of the design is the vortex-like spiral waveguide, which has become a staple on the company’s other, more premium speaker ranges. It looks good, and it serves a purpose, which we’ll divulge shortly.

These speakers sport clean, sharp lines with prominent, protruding metal-spiked feet on the bottom edge of each speaker, which look pleasingly industrial and help to reduce unwanted vibrations.

I saw these speakers in both walnut and black-walnut finishes, and found them eye-catching yet not too distracting for those who want speakers to blend into their listening space. Paradigm will also offer these speakers in a piano-black option for fans of high-gloss finishes (and dusting).

Features

Paradigm has loaded the Premier 820F v2 speakers with a helping of trickle-down speaker technology from its more premium ranges.

These include combined aluminium, magnesium and ceramic (‘AL-MAC’) tweeters, alongside an aluminium and magnesium (‘AL-MAC’) midrange driver, which are designed to produce lifelike and natural-sounding vocals and instruments.

The phase-aligning waveguide (the vortex-style one that I mentioned above) plays a key role in focusing sound towards the listener without having to worry about awkward room layouts.

Paradigm has also outfitted these three-way floorstanders with its 7-inch Carbon X bass drivers, which, alongside the high-volume enclosure, move a considerable amount of air to produce “visceral, controlled bass and expansive soundstaging”.

The inclusion of a rear-facing port also aids bass. These speakers weren't placed too far into the room, and as you can see from the photographs I took in Paradigm's home theatre room, they're not all that far from the corner of the room.

Despite this, the bass doesn't feel boomy or overblown, as we'll continue to find out in the sound section below.

Finally, the industrial-styled feet I touched on earlier also have a special role. They are officially called "Outrigger Shock-Mount Isolation Feet", and they work by physically decoupling the speaker from the floor to control vibrations and resonance.

Inside each foot is a system of springs and an isolation layer, which Paradigm says will achieve “cleaner, more detailed soundstage and tighter bass across any surface”.

Sound

Paradigm’s goal here was to produce speakers that prioritise the original artist’s intent, and that became quickly evident during my demo session.

I must reiterate that this hands-on review doesn’t reflect our final judgement. We’ll need to test these speakers in our dedicated listening room with our reference amplifier and the appropriate comparisons as we do with all What Hi-Fi? reviews, to attach a final star rating.

Paradigm paired these speakers with an amplifier from its sister company, Anthem, for this testing, with music being streamed on Tidal via the Control4 wireless home automation system.

With that in mind, these speakers ticked a plethora of boxes during my listening session, which took place in Paradigm’s sound-treated home theatre space. Aside from a few specially selected tracks, I was also given free rein to stream tracks to the speakers for quite some time.

Paradigm suggested a live rendition of Trouble's What You're In by Fink, which exposed the 820F v2’s strengths immediately. The sense of space revealed here was superb; this recording takes place in the Union Chapel, London, before a live audience, and the Paradigm speakers did a stellar job of recreating the ambience of the venue with this track.

I also felt that the speakers balanced warmth and crispness nicely, with a full-bodied and textured approach to vocalist Fin Greenall's lyrics.

Despite sounding crisp and detailed, the speakers didn’t verge into sounding too revealing or analytical, which also meant that they really drew me in – especially during this track.

I then switched to Taylor Swift’s The 1 (I know; I couldn’t help myself). This is still a fairly slow and stripped-back track, all things considered, but it certainly has more elements compared with the previous track.

The track is underpinned by a melodic piano and simplistic looping percussion, both of which had plenty of texture and depth when being played through the Premier 820F v2.

Swift’s vocals were equally textured, especially during the harmonised sections of the track, and without sounding reductive, these speakers just sounded very listenable and enjoyable. The comforting, warm sound and oodles of detail certainly helped, as I'm sure did the comfy leather recliner I was sitting in.

Finally, I tried Alaska by Maggie Rogers on these speakers, which once again adds more elements compared with the previous track. Here, I got a sense of how the speakers handle the low end – and Paradigm’s mission statement seems to ring true.

The size of these cabinets and the larger bass drivers did their job in delivering a controlled and punchy dose of low end, which juxtaposed Rogers’ sweet and crisp vocals that lean towards the higher frequencies on this track.

Early verdict

We’ll need to properly test these speakers on our side of the pond to draw up any sort of final verdict, but my initial run-in with the Premier 820F v2 left me feeling quite positive.

While I am most interested in trying them in a surround-sound arrangement alongside some cinematic content, this musical demonstration of the stereo pair proved to me that these floorstanders are worth keeping an eye on.

MORE:

Read our full Fyne Audio F502S review

As well as our PMC Prodigy 5 review

And check out our picks for the best floorstanding speakers

KEF is to active speaker systems what Spain is to international football at the moment.

From the Award-winning LSX II active wireless stereo system to the Bluetooth-ready Coda W active standmounts, the brand’s blending of features and performance is where KEF has really shone over the past few years.

Acting as a step-up from the fiercely talented (and multiple Award-winning) LS50 Wireless II, the new KEF LS Luxe once again integrates amplification and streaming into a compact stereo system, incorporating all of KEF’s know-how into what is a decidedly more premium standmount package than the company has made before.

At £3500 / $4000 / AU$6375, we’re moving into more high-end territory compared with the £2199 / $2999 / AU$4295 LS50 Wireless II, with KEF claiming that the LS Luxe is the result of six years of research and development. Given how well the product performs, that time has been extremely well spent.

Build & design

“A presence designed to hold the room before a single note is played.”

That’s how KEF has described the LS Luxe’s looks, and while subjective tastes are likely to dictate exactly how you feel about the cabinets’ distinctive styling, there’s no question that the speakers themselves are capable of drawing the eye before they even have a chance to grab you by the ears.

The cabinet exteriors have been designed in collaboration with Ross Lovegrove, the Welsh designer with whom KEF previously joined forces when crafting the mighty Muon floorstanders, the portable Muo Bluetooth speaker, and the distinctive Mu headphones/earbuds range.

The LS Luxe very much continues the distinctive design language of Lovegrove’s previous collaborations, typified by their rounded, edgeless cabinets which, when sporting their ‘Dusk Titanium’ finish, positively gleam thanks to their luxuriously polished exteriors. That pebble-like speaker design will not be for everyone, and it may depend on which of the three finishes – Eclipse Black, Dusk Titanium or Mineral White – you choose.

What’s less up for debate is the tangible high quality of the speakers’ construction.

Pick up each speaker and you’ll feel how weighty and substantial they are, with everything about the LS Luxe – from the finish of their curved shells to the seamless integration of the driver array and front baffle – speaking of a product constructed with genuine care.

That design isn’t just for show, either. That curved form aims to improve performance by reducing the build-up of internal standing waves within the cabinet, whereas the use of durable ‘Bulk Moulding Compound’ (BMC) composite material reduces the need for excessive internal bracing, allowing for greater internal volume within the speakers to aid their low-frequency performance.

Turn the speakers around and you’ll see an equally distinctively designed aluminium heatsink, which is crafted to provide a greater surface area to more efficiently dissipate heat generated by the active electronics within. A flared reflex port also sits at the rear of each unit, designed using KEF’s ‘Flexible Port Technology’ where the port’s walls use a flexible material to reduce internal resonances.

At the heart of each speaker is KEF’s 12th-generation Uni-Q driver array, where the tweeter sits in the middle of the mid/bass unit in pursuit of more even sonic dispersion, better integration and improved time alignment. KEF’s now-familiar Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT), which absorbs rearward sound from the back of the tweeter dome, is also incorporated in pursuit of a cleaner, purer sound.

In terms of power, 280 watts of Class D amplification are directed to powering the mid/bass unit, while 100 watts of Class A/B amplification drives the tweeter.

That Uni-Q driver assembly is mechanically decoupled from the cabinet to reduce panel vibrations. Incorporated within the driver assembly is a decoupling chassis that damps the vibrations of the motor system, preventing them from feeding into the cabinet panels. The aim is to improve clarity and reduce distortion.

KEF has included a suitably premium-feeling remote control with the LS Luxe, as well as a speaker interconnect cable to optimise performance and an HDMI cable for use with your TV or home cinema set-up. Two power cables are also included, with both speakers requiring mains power – something to bear in mind when setting up your system.

What you don’t get included in the LS Luxe’s standard sale price are dedicated stands. If you want to get hold of a pair, KEF sells a set of S-Luxe stands for £800 / $800 / AU$1230 which you’ll have to put together yourself and screw into the base of each speaker.

That’s a considerable outlay on top of an already premium purchase, but our testing found that these stands help to optimise performance, secure the speakers in place and, thanks to their complementary aesthetic, and help them look their best. In other words, we feel that these stands would be money well spent.

Features

The KEF LS Luxe offers a suitably well-stocked connectivity suite to go with the system’s premium outlay.

KEF has been generous with the array of physical connectivity options on offer. Around the back of the primary speaker unit, you’ll find HDMI eARC, 3.5mm analogue, optical and coaxial inputs, while each of the two speakers has a dedicated output for adding a single subwoofer or a pair if necessary.

On the streaming side, the system uses KEF’s W2 Wireless Platform, which we’ve already experienced in the brand’s established LS wireless range. This grants access to popular streaming services such as Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect and Deezer, along with internet radio.

There’s also the further convenience of AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast and Bluetooth 5.3, while UPnP compatibility means you can stream hi-res music from a connected external NAS drive. Roon Ready support is slated to arrive in 2027.

Hi-res file support depends on how you choose to set up and listen, with KEF’s new system capable of handling PCM files up to 24-bit/384kHz alongside DSD128. If you’re using a wireless connection between your speakers, those higher resolution files are internally downsampled to 24-bit/96kHz, whereas connecting the master and slave speakers using the included interconnect cable pushes playback up to 24-bit/192kHz.

Further technologies seek to enhance the LS Luxe’s performance beyond mere hardware. This is the first speaker product to feature KEF’s ‘Velocity Control Technology’, as seen in the brand’s five-star XIO soundbar, where the speed of cone movement is measured, and any differences between that and the expected value are compensated for in real time. The result is lower distortion levels.

Additionally, a proprietary ‘Music Integrity Engine’ tech uses digital signal processing algorithms to maintain accuracy and tonality no matter the volume at which the LS Luxe is played.

For getting the most out of your shiny new set-up, you’ll want to download the comprehensive and easy-to-use KEF Connect app, from which you’ll be able to control and set up your speakers. You can tweak the sound yourself using a customisable equaliser, while KEF’s ‘Room EQ’ digital signal processing helps you fine-tune your sound to your listening space.

It’s worth spending a bit of time with the app’s calibration settings, as, while the LS Luxe isn’t a prima donna in terms of positioning, you’ll certainly notice a difference when you tinker with the app’s various parameters, such as room size, the distance you’ve placed your speakers from your wall, and how damped your listening space is.

Sound

We decide to give our review sample the best chance possible to showcase its talents by screwing each speaker tightly to their dedicated S-Luxe stands, using the provided inter-speaker cable for the highest transmission rate possible (24-bit/192kHz), and kicking off with some hi-res wireless streaming via Tidal.

Naturally, we experiment with positioning, and find that they perform best with the speakers firing straight ahead and sitting roughly 30cm from the back wall of our 3m x 4m x 7m listening room.

Thanks in part to that updated Uni-Q driver array, the LS Luxe is gratifyingly unfussy about placement, producing a supremely well-integrated sound that remains consistent no matter our listening position.

What we discover is a wireless system with poise, control and, dare we say it, genuine grace. Like a fine wine or one of those acclaimed French arthouse movies, the KEF LS Luxe needs a little time for its true spectrum of talents to be appreciated.

The LS Luxe does not reach out and grab us by our lapels; instead, it reproduces our music with an even-handed, mature yet authoritative nature that slowly but inevitably places us under its bewitching spell.

This is a sonic signature we’ve heard before, from the more affordable LSX II and LSX II LT stereo systems and the established LS50 Wireless II. But the Luxe piles on extra helpings of detail and precision to that confident, articulate presentation we’ve experienced from KEF in recent years.

Listen to Massive Attack’s Atlas Air, and you’ll get a clear indication that for clarity, textural detail and overall scale, the LS Luxe is considerably ahead of the LS50 Wireless II, anchored by a taut, authoritative bass reproduction that sinks low without sagging like a bulldog’s floppy jowls.

While what we’re dealing with is a standmount speaker system, the scale and authority showcased belie the Luxe’s compact form. We load up Hans Zimmer’s Why Do We Fall? from the Dark Knight Rises soundtrack, and our reward is a rendition that soars with so much power, scope and grandeur that it’s hard to resist the urge to don our cape and cowl and go out looking for bad guys to bring to justice.

Punch and panache live side by side, with the LS Luxe knitting music together so expertly that even truly demanding tracks can’t catch it napping. Whether it's the gale-force hurricane of Slipknot’s Before I Forget, the magisterial grandeur of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture or the carefully curated strangeness of Yosi Horiko’s Bubbles, the Luxe barely breaks a sweat.

Interlocking rhythms are expressive and nimble, while dynamic ebbs and flows are communicated confidently without sounding artificial or overdone.

We use our Cyrus CDi player connected to the optical input to test the internal DAC, and again, that core character is firmly intact as we spin Jeff Buckley’s Grace, and the LS Luxe excels at revealing the intimacy, delicacy and emotion of the seminal record. We also connect the Luxe to the Cyrus using a 3.5mm to RCA adapter cable, and we continue to receive a high standard of performance.

While most of our listening is done using the S-Luxe stands, we also place the speakers on our tried-and-tested FS104 Signature plinths, and while the performance remains impressive, it isn’t as crisp and dynamic. The speakers themselves are just about compact enough to be placed on a desk, but at this premium price, they’re best suited to being listened to on stands.

Switching to Bluetooth will also result in an inevitable drop-off in clarity and precision, but the LS Luxe still retains its even, mature nature when playing through this less-than-ideal streaming medium. They do their best to shine, but it’s clear that we’re placing a limit on the system’s considerable abilities.

Verdict

The LS Luxe feels like another milestone in KEF’s recent history of providing outstanding wireless stereo speaker systems.

Yes, it’s a good deal more expensive than the LS50 Wireless II, and no, that distinctive curved design won’t be for everyone – but in terms of performance, this is a mightily impressive addition to KEF’s catalogue.

If you’re willing to pay that premium price – and fork out a bit extra for some dedicated stands to get the best out of them – then slick performance and outstanding sound will be your reward.

Review published: 30th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our review of the KEF LS50 Wireless II

KEF LS Luxe versus KEF LS50 Wireless II: which five-star wireless speaker system is better?

Also consider the KEF LSX II

Best active speakers: our experts pick the top pairs with integrated amplifiers

A good, cheap OLED TV has been top of many cinephiles' wish list for over a decade. This makes the S85H a big-ticket item despite it sitting at the bottom of Samsung’s new OLED TV range.

It’s looking set to be one of the cheapest options for serious movie fans who want a new OLED that sits in the same family as the S99H, a set we recently declared to be the finest Samsung OLED we’d ever tested. Big shoes to fill, then.

Price

The Samsung S85H is available in sizes from 48 to 83 inches. The cheapest 48-inch size launched carrying a £1199 ($1199) price tag, while the giant 83-inch model retails for £3699 ($4499).

We have the middle-child 55-inch model in our review rooms, which launched at £1499 ($1499 / AU$2499).

Initially, that meant it cost slightly less than its closest rival, the LG B6, which cost £1599 (AU$2500) when it first came out.

However, rapid price drops mean it’s now more expensive than its LG rival. The 55-inch B6 is now available for as little as £899 in some places.

However, the S85H puts is still cheaper than most of this year’s mid-tier OLEDs, including its big brother, the 55-inch S90H, which now floats around the £1699 mark.

Design

You won’t find any flourishes like the fancy metal bezel sported by the flagship S99H; instead the S85H has a rather utilitarian look, with a basic, plastic design that is nevertheless mostly solid.

The TV has feet, rather than a pedestal stand design and includes two placement options, central and wide, which puts them on the furthest right and left edges. This is a nice touch that lets you adjust the position to fit on your cabinet and place a soundbar underneath it as required.

Our only minor quibble with the design is that, as well as feeling distinctly plasticy, the feet wobble. Not so much that we’re worried it will break, but enough that you’ll want to place it with care.

The SolarCell remote seen on Samsung’s previous step-down and entry-level OLEDs also makes a return. It is pleasingly compact and intuitive, and features solar and USB-C charging, something that isn’t guaranteed at this price. The only real negative is the ongoing lack of a backlight, which makes using it in the dark a bit tricky.

Features

The set's specifications sheet is nearly identical to the outgoing S85F, with only three big upgrades to mention.

It has been upgraded to Wi-Fi 6E, which will improve connectivity if you have a compatible router using the standard. It also has a new AI football mode, which Samsung claims will “make you feel like you’re in the stadium” using the set’s processing smarts.

Finally, there is a smattering of what Samsung claims to be "performance improvements" – the biggest, apparently, is to its peak and operating brightness. Samsung hasn’t given a definite nit count, however, so we can't be sure how big the alleged brightness upgrades are.

Samsung also hasn’t specified what panel is being used, but the fact that the S85H is powered by the same NQ4 AI Gen2 processor as its predecessor suggests it may be using one of the new OLED SE panels LG Display unveiled at CES in January, which aim to boost brightness while simultaneously bringing prices down.

We had hoped the Q85H would get the newer Gen3 silicon, which brings more accurate tone mapping and better upscaling, among other things, but that remains reserved for the more expensive S99H and S90H models.

The same is true for Samsung’s vibrancy-boosting Quantum Dot tech, which once again is reserved for its flagship offering. A shame, yes, but unsurprising given the S85H’s price. You also, once again, won’t find the firm’s Glare Free screen coating included, which will be an annoyance if you use the TV in a room with lots of ambient light.

Despite the lack of big changes, the S85’s specifications remain very competitive at this price.

The set offers four full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs, capable of carrying a 4K/120Hz signal for next-generation gamers. ALLM and VRR are also on board, so gamers are fully covered.

The only big omission is the set’s lack of support for Dolby Vision Gaming, or any version of Dolby’s HDR standard, for that matter. The S85H continues Samsung’s HDR grudge match, with it only supporting the HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG standards.

The set also doesn’t support FlexConnect, a bit of audio tech that the LG B6 does. This is a clever technology designed to let you create surround sound systems using compatible speakers on the fly. It includes the power to use the TV’s speakers as the central channel. Samsung, instead, pushes its own Q-Symphony solution, which aims to make the TV’s sound system work with compatible soundbars to improve audio quality and create a wider soundstage.

The latest-gen version of Tizen featured on the S85H is easy to navigate and includes a content bar at the top that splits your apps into categories, curated and arranged to automatically match your usage habits. All the major apps and services are present and running correctly, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV and more.

Picture

In its out-of-the-box Eco mode, the S85H comes off a little strong. Playing our F1: The Movie 4K Blu-ray, the picture is a little sharp, oversmoothed and colours, particularly reds, are overcooked.

Switching to Filmmaker mode, things rapidly improve. Now, the cars’ movements become precise and rapid, losing the artificial floaty feel of its default setting.

Colours are also much more reined in, but reds still look a little overcooked, which leads to a series of quick tweaks before we finally settle on Filmmaker Mode, with the Warm 1 colour profile and Active Dynamic Tone Mapping on for the best results.

The TV’s colours are still a little bombastic compared to the more subdued B6, but the picture’s solidity and three-dimensionality ensure our eyes still favour the Samsung during the heated F1 race.

Switching to Pan, our standard peak brightness stress test due to its atypical 4000 nits mastering, it’s immediately clear that the S85H burns brighter than previous entry-level OLEDs we’ve tested and its main rival, the LG B6. The setting sun offers a wider range of reds and oranges that show up as pure white on its rival.

The only slight issue is that, once again, colours are pushed a touch too hard, with blues looking a smidge too vibrant and the picture a little too warm in general.

(Editor’s note – for our sanity, if a filmmaker is reading this, please master your next film in 4000 nits and shoot an incredibly bright scene we can use for testing. If our reviewers are forced to hear Pan’s butchered version of Smells Like Teen Spirit for much longer, there may be a mutiny.)

Switching to our 4K Blu-ray Sinners test disc, minor black crush creeps in. Although the scene oozes menace and has a wonderful sense of dread, thanks to the perfect blacks, parts of the gangsters’ faces lose definition and fade into the black background.

The S85H also has a tendency to try too hard. In a bid to show how bright it can go, the set artificially raises the brightest sections of the picture, but doesn’t always have the finesse to do it naturally.

Highlights on characters’ skin come up as pure white, losing some detail and adding a distracting artificiality, making it look like they’re in the spotlight on a Broadway stage, rather than drinking and dancing in a dingy Prohibition-era speakeasy.

The aggressive push then flattens faces completely by overbrightening them, losing shadow detail and some of the picture’s otherwise impressive three-dimensionality. The flaw isn’t uniform either, rearing its head at specific moments, which is distracting and breaks our immersion in its otherwise solid performance.

Switching gears to our 4K Blu-ray of Civil War and tagging in step-up OLEDs, including its big brother/sister the S90H, the S85H puts up an admirable fight, but there are obvious benefits if you can afford to go up a price tier.

The S90H delivers a series of modest improvements that add up to make a big difference. On the S85H, greens in a military camp’s grass fields look a little too vibrant, taking on an almost cartoony look. Skin tones lose their warmth and colour volume, coming across as slightly jaundiced during low-light scenes compared to the more lifelike, immersive S90H.

The flames in a burning forest flicker a little brighter on the step-up model, offering more detail, with a wider range of reds and oranges dancing in the brightest parts of the flames. Overall, we get a little more nuance, a sprinkle more finesse, and a generally more natural picture with the S90H.

The S85H does a decent, but not front-of-the-pack, job of upscaling our SDR True Grit Blu-ray. The picture retains the grainy, spaghetti western feel, but the picture is dimmer and a bit flatter than those we've seen on rival sets. Though it retains the intentional grain, some sharpness and detail are lost. The stitches in the characters’ woollen clothes look a bit softer than we’d like, too.

Sound

“Where’s the bass?” is the immediate question we ask, testing the S85H’s 2.0 channel, 20W, Dolby Atmos system with our F1: The Movie test disc.

Engine noise, the sound of the crowd, the boom of cars crashing and skidding across the track; all of it lacks the bite and impact needed to do justice to the scene. The entire sound feels weak, even by TV speaker standards, sounding more like a Scalextric race than a deafening, international F1 event.

And this issue is the sound system’s undoing. Moving to a night-time battle scene in Civil War, explosions are occasionally entirely lost as vocals and the higher-frequency sound of gunfire, bizarrely, overpowers them.

This is a particular shame as, while the speakers never come close to matching a moderately capable soundbar, such as the entry-level Sonos Beam (Gen 2), they do get some things right.

During the musical medley in Sinners, Sammie’s blues vocals don’t have the power or vibrato required to do them justice, but they’re suitably separated from the guitar part.

As the scene develops, adding more and more layers and modern music genres to the song, that decent separation continues, with each part remaining distinct, albeit underpowered. And the set does a reasonable job of offering a sense of direction as the camera swoops through the barn.

The S85H’s speakers are ultimately fine for watching the news or a casual series, but not quite good enough for even basic movie watching. You will need to invest in a soundbar or speaker system for that.

Verdict

If you want an OLED TV but can’t afford to step up into the mid-tier, it’s one of the top options currently available, the Samsung S85H is a very competent option at the price.

Its punchy, immersive and nicely three-dimensional picture is a cut above most of its entry-level rivals. There are undoubtedly palpable gains to be had in paying more for a mid-range OLED, however – ones we think are worth paying for.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony Bravia 7 II

Also consider the LG C6

Read our Samsung S90F review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and budget Mini LED sets tried and tested

While there still seems to be a modicum of choice when it comes to buying a new pair of entry-level stereo speakers, when it comes to budget hi-fi electronics, your options have shrunk considerably over the years.

This is especially the case when it comes to CD players. More and more people have moved to streaming as their source of music, with others opting to spin vinyl records instead of CDs. Not that we are complaining about any of these forms, of course.

Thankfully, Marantz is one brand that continues to fly the flag for that shiny silver disc. Over the years, it has produced some hugely respected budget CD players, so its latest machine, the CD 70, comes with plenty of attention and a huge dollop of expectation.

It replaces Marantz’s own CD6007, a six-time What Hi-Fi? Award winner, so it has some huge shoes to fill, to put it lightly. Can it keep Marantz’s enviable track record going at this level?

Price

The CD 70 is Marantz’s entry-level CD player now and costs £499 / $750 / AU$1000 (excl. VAT). Given the state of the market, there aren’t many rivals, but the model it’s succeeding is the CD6007, which is still available at the time of writing for £399 / $650 / AU$999, and you can find it regularly discounted too. It won’t be around forever, though.

The only other five-star CD player we’ve tested remotely anywhere near the Marantz is the Award-winning Arcam CD5, but at £699 / $699 / AUS$1495 it’s a significant step above (both in terms of price and performance), and we haven’t seen much in the way of discounts, and don’t really expect to.

Design & build

The CD 70 is the first entry-level Marantz CD player to feature the company’s newer design language.

Gone is the purposeful, industrial look of the CD6007; in its place is a more modern aesthetic with added elements of texture on the fascia, either side of the unit’s chunky mid-section of the front panel.

When the light catches the pattern (the closest thing we can equate it to is the dimples on a golf ball, but much shallower), it’s an attractive look, especially in the silver and gold finish of our review sample, although we still think there’s a certain charm to the way the older model looks.

Build quality feels solid enough for the money. And, although its dimensions are a fraction larger than the CD6007 you’d be hard-pressed to tell from a distance – you certainly don’t need to measure for a new hi-fi rack.

Beneath the CD 70’s lid are a number of new components which Marantz has introduced to improve sound quality. These include an updated power supply, which claims help to reduce noise, and an upgraded digital clock to reduce jitter (digital timing errors).

The big news, though, is that the CD 70 uses a new ES9020Q DAC chip to do all the number-crunching, which is an upgrade over the older ES9010K2M chip used in the CD6007.

You also get a remote control which looks pretty similar to the one that came with the CD6007, but its colour is slightly different, as is the labelling and positioning of some of the buttons. You’re not going to get lost navigating your way around, though.

Features

The back of the CD 70 shows an identical feature set to the outgoing model, with the same sockets in roughly the same positions. There’s an analogue output plus optical and coaxial digital outputs. There aren’t any digital inputs, but that’s hardly unexpected at this level.

Around the front of the unit, you’ve got a horizontal row of controls either side of the dot-matrix display, which, once again, appears virtually identical to the display used in its predecessor.

It can show CD text and track information, and you can also use it to navigate the player’s settings when you bring them up using the remote control. The player supports normal CDs, and can handle CD-R and CD-RW discs too, but not SACDs.

You’ll find skip controls, and one button combining play/pause on the right of the display, with input selection (CD/USB), stop and eject buttons on the left.

To the bottom left of the display is the USB-Type A input, which supports WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF and DSD files should you have them stored on an external hard drive. Resolution compatibility is up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM and DSD 5.6 (DSD128).

To the bottom right is a volume control for the built-in headphone amplifier section – scan a bit further right, and you’ll see the relevant 6.3mm headphone socket. The volume control is noticeably chunkier than that on the older model, which does make it easier to get to grips with.

The Marantz also gives you the option to adjust gain to increase compatibility with different pairs of headphones, which is handy.

Sound

Before we give you the complete picture of how the CD 70 sounds, you should be aware of a couple of things.

As was the case with CD6007, the display can be turned off on the CD 70. Marantz recommends you do this in the manual and claims it improves sound quality… and we have to concur.

The most noticeable effect we find during testing is that it reduces background noise ever so slightly, allowing for a clearer presentation.

You also get a choice of two digital filters to play with (Filter 1 and Filter 2). We found that using Filter 1 delivered the best sound quality – we felt the general rhythm and timing of the music sounded a little off when using the second filter.

We find that the improvement gained from turning off the display is the most immediate and obvious, though; the filter effect is a bit more subtle.

Even without those tweaks, the Marantz CD 70 is an impressive performer for the money. It sounds clear, and punchy, and produces a focused, precise sound.

It’s a slight change in character compared with the CD6007. We find the older model sounds a touch more relaxed, while the newcomer favours a slightly more upfront and forward approach. It’s not shouty or distracting by any means, but it is a noticeable shift in balance.

Play Lupe Fiasco’s Superstar and there’s plenty of sparkle up at the top end; there’s an impressive amount of detail extracted from the screams of the crowd before they fade out of shot, and it has no problem highlighting subtle details either, such as the camera flashes going off in the background. The different layers are picked out and placed on a quiet background where they are given room to shine.

Piano and percussion work harmoniously together as the CD player uncovers an impressive amount of texture.

Lupe’s vocals are solid and expressive and sit over the top of simple, yet taut and hefty bass notes. It’s a nicely controlled bottom end that displays the Marantz’s ability to deliver both quantity and quality.

Switch over to the London Regency Orchestra’s take on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and the wonderfully quiet background once again comes to the fore. The track's slow build-up, first with strings, then with woodwind, as the percussion rings in the background, is organised accurately with tightly defined borders throughout.

The track takes its time to stretch out dynamically, but the Marantz builds up nicely to deliver a fine crescendo of strings before fading away. The older CD6007 might paint the dynamic shifts with a bit more delicacy, but you can’t argue with the CD 70’s newfound sense of precision and power.

Verdict

The lack of any real competition at this level really leaves the Marantz CD 70 in a class of one.

Well, we can call it a class of two until the stock of the CD6007 runs out. But that time will come, and the CD 70 delivers a clear step up in terms of clarity, punch and solidity.

It might not be the most relaxed-sounding player Marantz has ever built, but it’s still a serious performer for the money, and if you’ve got a stack of CDs that need playing, you can be confident the CD 70 will be more than up to the task.

Review published: 28th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

Also consider the Marantz CD6007

Read our Arcam CD5 review

Best CD players: budget to premium options tested by expert reviewers

Marantz has long been a dominant force in the affordable stereo amplifier market, so when it replaces the long-running, five-star PM6007, we can’t wait to have a listen.

After generations of budget 6000-series amplifiers differentiated only by small tweaks, the Marantz Model 70 marks a notable shift in styling and price, if not content.

Where PM6007 originally launched at £499 / $599 and has been available for around £349-£399 in the past couple of years, the new Model 70 has launched at £749 / AU$1600 (exc VAT) – moving it out of the 'budget' bracket. It's also worth noting that this new amplifier won't be available to buy in the US initially, with Marantz stating it is focusing on the "markets where consumer demand can be more effectively met."

Build & design

While the new Model 70 integrated is clearly based on the former Award-winning PM6007, just compare their back panel layout; it is obvious that the company’s engineers haven’t just been twiddling their collective thumbs for the last half a decade.

The big change is the appearance, of course. This now mirrors the aesthetics of the company’s more premium stereo products (such as the Model 40n), and we like it. To our eyes, it looks classier and more elegant than the more function-first approach of the previous budget model.

The symmetry of the front panel is appealing, as is the trademark Marantz ‘porthole’ display. We are pleased to report that the front panel dials for the volume, balance, tone controls and inputs all feel solid and precise in use, while that small display is crisp, though admittedly not particularly easy to read from a distance.

This stereo amplifier, and partnering CD 70 CD player (£499/ $750), are both available in black and silver finishes. The Model 70’s build feels broadly on a par with the outgoing PM6007, which cost £499 / $599 when launched in 2020, but is now available for notably less.

It is nicely finished, though, and reasonably solid, bar the flex we notice in the back panel when plugging in the speaker cables. Arcam’s similarly-priced A5+ (£749 / $1199) feels more substantial in terms of casework panel thickness and overall solidity.

The Model 70 is supplied with a system remote that also controls the partnering CD player. It looks like a tweaked version of the older amp’s handset, and works well on the whole, being nicely laid-out and easy to use.

There is a bit of give and take when it comes to features compared to the PM6007. The Model 70 gains an HDMI ARC input, Bluetooth (aptX HD) capability and a preamp output over its predecessor. However, it loses one of the two optical inputs, the second set of speaker outputs and the fixed line output.

In general, we have no complaints about the new amplifier’s connectivity. It has three line-level inputs, a moving magnet phono stage, as well as coaxial and optical digital ins.

The addition of HDMI and Bluetooth is a definite step in the right direction, making the amplifier more versatile than before. As with the older amp, there is a 6.3mm headphone output on the front panel.

Inside, you will find that the changes over the PM6007 continue with a different DAC chip (ESS Sabre’s ES9020Q rather than the ES9010K2M), electric rather than potentiometer-based volume control and higher-capacity power supply capacitors (15,000uF vs 12,000uF). Those smoothing capacitors have been moved closer to the power amplifier to reduce resistance. Together, all these changes aim to improve transparency, bass performance and sonic stability.

The use of Marantz’s discrete HDAM amplifier modules, in this case the SA3 version, continues, and power has risen slightly to 50 watts per channel, up from the PM6007’s 45 watts.

A stereo amplifier at this price has to be flexible enough to work in a wide range of systems. It should be forgiving and balanced enough to make the most of budget sources and speakers, while having the sonic stretch to shine with more capable components. The Model 70 certainly meets that challenge well.

We use a range of sources from the Marantz CD 70 and Cyrus CDi CD players right through to our Naim ND555/555 PS DR music streamer. Record playing duties are carried out with a Technics SL-1000R turntable fitted with a Nagaoka MP-200 moving magnet cartridge. As for speakers, we use our reference ATC SCM50 along with the KEF LS50 Meta and Acoustic Energy AE300 Mk2.

Sound

Our first port of call is a comparison of the Model 70 with its predecessor. The PM6007 remains a fine performer for the money, delivering a smooth and fluid presentation that still holds our attention well. However, the new model is clearly better despite sharing a similarly refined tonal balance.

As we listen to Hans Zimmer's The Battle from the Gladiator OST unfurl, it is the Model 70 that sounds clearer and more composed. As the piece builds, the amplifier remains impressively stable, tracking low-level instrumental strands with ease while allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the whole, if they desire.

In comparison, the PM6007 sounds a little soft and muddled. It manages to reveal the energy and feel but isn’t as tidy in the way the music is presented. Low notes lack impact and definition, while dynamic shifts are more muted.

The Model 70 rams home its advantage when we play the Back On The Block album by Quincy Jones. Here it comes across as the more insightful and revealing performer, beautifully highlighting the wonderful vocal talents of Chaka Khan and Siedah Garrett on The Places You Find Love. We hear more in the way of vocal and instrumental textures, and greater finesse across the board.

The Model 70 retains its predecessor’s forgiving nature thanks to its innate refinement and smoothness, but adds more authority when delivering hard-hitting basslines and challenging dynamic contrasts.

You can add the moving magnet phono stage and digital inputs as additional plus points. With records, the Model 70 retains a good degree of clarity. It delivers Mary J Blige’s No More Drama set with verve and detail, while tonality is nicely judged. It helps that the phono stage’s noise levels are relatively low, too.

The digital inputs are equally capable. The Model 70 is compatible with PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz and shifts between file resolutions seamlessly. There are two filter options – Slow Roll-off and Fast Roll-off – and while the sonic difference between the two is subtle, we consistently prefer the Slow option as we work our way through a variety of tracks. It just sounds more fluid and natural to our ears. As always, try it for yourself, as much depends on taste and system matching.

The positives continue with the new amplifier’s Bluetooth performance. While this input doesn’t rival any of the physical connections for outright quality, it still produces musically enjoyable results when we feed in music from Tidal and Qobuz using our iPhone 14 Pro Max.

So, it should be clear by now that the Model 70 is a talented performer. Its superiority over the PM6007 is obvious; however, it also costs a lot more than its predecessor. That move up in price puts it into a different performance ballpark and up against some remarkably capable opposition, most notably the Award-winning Arcam A5+.

Comparison to the Arcam proves a stiffer test, one that shows that the Marantz doesn’t hold all the cards. Up against the A5+, we find that the Model 70 falls just a step behind in most areas, regardless of input. With the Quincy Jones album, it isn’t quite as rhythmic with the title track, diluting the music’s sense of momentum a little.

Dynamic nuances aren’t communicated so convincingly, leaving the emotional impact of great vocalists like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles slightly diluted. Outright clarity and insight, particularly the interplay between instruments, isn’t as easily followed either.

However, the Marantz is the more neutral of the two, sounding less rich through the midrange and bass, while its lows are just a touch firmer. Absolute detail levels are broadly on a par, and we can still enjoy the Marantz’s lovely top-to-bottom consistency.

Verdict

The Marantz Model 70 amplifier has plenty of appeal. It is well-specified, decently made and works with a wide range of music. Had it been priced closer to the PM6007, we would undoubtedly be proclaiming it a class leader.

However, the move up in price level puts it up against tougher competition and, in that context, it earns a more cautious recommendation.

Review published: 27th July 2026

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Arcam A5+

Arcam A5+ vs Marantz Model 70: which stereo amplifier is best for you?

Also consider the Rega Brio Mk7

Best stereo amplifiers: 8 class leaders chosen by our review experts

Anyone can put together an expensive surround sound system. Buy five great speakers, add a capable subwoofer and a suitably muscular AV amplifier, and you're well on your way.

Building a genuinely cohesive home cinema system, though, is much harder.

The best packages don't constantly remind you which speaker is producing which effect or draw attention to individual sonic fireworks. Instead, they disappear entirely, transporting you into the world of the movie with such convincing scale and cohesion that you stop thinking about the equipment and simply enjoy what you're watching.

On paper, KEF's R Meta 5.1 speaker system certainly has all the ingredients required to achieve that lofty goal. The question is whether, together, they amount to something even greater than the sum of their already rather impressive parts.

Price

Those ‘ingredients’ are a pair of R7 Meta floorstanders on front left and right duties, two (five-star) R3 Meta standmounters as surrounds, an R6 centre speaker, and the unusually compact KC92 subwoofer.

At the time of writing, these speakers aren’t available as a pre-packaged system, though that may soon change. In the meantime, the cost of building the system with the separate speakers is £10,499 / $13,200 / AU$19,400.

That’s a hefty chunk of change, no doubt, and you can take things further by adding R8 Meta Dolby Atmos ‘toppers’, should you so wish, at £1500 / $1800 / AU$2800 per pair.

Design

This is an unapologetically substantial package. Even before you've wrestled the hefty R7 Meta floorstanders into position, it's clear that this isn't a surround system designed to disappear into your living room.

The R3 Meta are generously proportioned by standmounter standards, too, while the R6 Meta is a particularly large centre speaker – one clearly designed to prioritise acoustic performance over blending discreetly beneath your TV.

Despite the varying sizes, there's an aesthetically pleasing sense of consistency across the range. The speakers all share the same understated, clean-lined design language, with KEF's distinctive Uni-Q driver array taking pride of place on each model.

Rather than feeling like a collection of separate products assembled into a surround package, the R Meta speakers immediately look like members of the same family, giving the impression of a system that has been designed as a whole rather than assembled from individual parts.

The KC92 subwoofer, though, initially looks like the odd one out. It's a surprisingly compact cube sitting alongside such substantial floorstanders, and its neatly integrated side-firing drivers make it appear smaller than a high-end subwoofer has any right to.

That compactness is entirely deliberate, however. The force-cancelling driver arrangement allows KEF to keep the cabinet remarkably small while apparently reducing unwanted vibrations, and those wanting even greater low-frequency output can simply add more KC92s. KEF will even sell you a bracket that lets you stack them into a rather awesome-looking tower of bass.

Our review package arrived in a high-gloss black finish that looks suitably Darth Vader-like but quickly attracts fingerprints. The speakers are also available in white and walnut, but the KC92 doesn’t get the walnut finish. Slightly disappointingly, the gorgeous indigo gloss in which you can buy the R3 Meta standmounters isn’t available for the rest of the system.

Whichever finish you choose, though, build quality throughout is excellent. From the reassuring solidity of the cabinets to the immaculate fit and finish, every component feels worthy of a package costing comfortably north of £10,000.

Features

Much of the technology underpinning the R Meta series has trickled down from KEF's flagship Reference range, but perhaps the cleverest aspect of KEF's R Meta package is that, despite the differing sizes and roles of the individual speakers, the R7 Meta floorstanders, R3 Meta surrounds and R6 Meta centre all share exactly the same drive units.

Each speaker features KEF's 12th-generation Uni-Q array, combining a 25mm aluminium dome tweeter and 125mm midrange driver into a single point-source unit, alongside identical 165mm hybrid aluminium bass drivers. The only real difference is how many bass drivers each speaker employs – two in the centre and each of the floorstanders, and one in each of the standmounters.

The Uni-Q array has long been one of KEF's defining technologies. By placing the tweeter at the acoustic centre of the midrange driver, the company aims to create more even sound dispersion and improve the integration between frequencies.

It's also impossible to ignore the distinctive Tangerine waveguide sitting proudly in front of the tweeter. While it gives KEF’s speakers their instantly recognisable appearance, it's there for more than cosmetic reasons, helping to control the tweeter's dispersion for a more consistent high-frequency response across a wider listening area.

Backing up the Uni-Q array is KEF's Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT). Mounted behind the tweeter, this maze-like absorber is designed to eliminate almost all of the unwanted sound radiating from the rear of the driver before it has a chance to colour the performance, helping to produce cleaner, more natural treble.

The KC92 subwoofer, meanwhile, takes a similarly clever approach to solving a different problem.

Rather than relying on a large cabinet to produce serious low-frequency output, it packs two opposing 9-inch drivers into a remarkably compact enclosure, with each driven by its own 500W Class D amplifier. The force-cancelling arrangement is designed to reduce unwanted cabinet vibrations while allowing the subwoofer to remain unusually discreet.

Practicality has clearly been a consideration, too. All three main speakers feature twin sets of binding posts for those wanting to bi-wire or bi-amp, but KEF has dispensed with the fiddly metal bridging plates traditionally used to connect terminals for single-wire use. Instead, a pair of rotary links simply twists to join the terminals inside the speakers. Neat.

The R7 Meta and R3 Meta also feature rear-firing bass reflex ports, with KEF supplying foam bungs should you need to position them close to a rear wall. It’s still worth avoiding the bungs and giving the speakers a bit of breathing space away from walls if you can, but they’re otherwise very forgiving over placement, not least thanks to the Uni-Q driver array’s dispersion characteristics.

Sound

We already know what accomplished musical performers the R3 Meta standmounters are, but how do the fronts of this system, the R7 Meta floorstanders, handle hi-fi duties? With effortless sophistication, that’s how.

Fed track after track, they sound clean, composed and wonderfully controlled, with an expansive soundstage and an ability to unpick complex recordings without ever becoming analytical. Tori Amos' Cornflake Girl for example, is reproduced with impressive subtlety, her voice locked firmly between the speakers while the piano, percussion and bass each occupy their own clearly defined space.

It is possible for that polished presentation to become almost too civilised, though. During our initial listening with our Marantz Cinema 30, Tool's The Pot lacks a little of the visceral snap and attack we'd hoped for, while John Williams' Jurassic Park theme feels fractionally more restrained than it should.

However, swapping to the Denon AVC-A1H transforms matters, bringing greater drive and energy without sacrificing the refinement that makes these speakers so easy to listen to. Prospective buyers would do well to partner them with an amplifier that shares their considerable talents without doubling down on their composure.

Once we turn our attention to movies, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't merely an excellent collection of speakers; it's a genuinely cohesive surround package. As effects move around the room, you're rarely conscious of which individual speaker is producing them. Instead, sounds travel with remarkable continuity, each cabinet handing seamlessly to the next until the speakers themselves almost disappear from the experience.

That cohesion is accompanied by an immense sense of scale. The opening race sequence in F1: The Movie fills our listening room with the deafening roar of engines and screeching tyres, yet never descends into chaos. The R6 Meta centre anchors dialogue securely amid the mayhem, while the front soundstage stretches confidently beyond the physical positions of the speakers.

Ambient effects spread throughout the room with such conviction that, despite this being a conventional 5.1 package, we rarely find ourselves wishing for dedicated height channels. It can't produce truly discrete overhead effects in the manner of a Dolby Atmos system, of course, but it creates such an enveloping, three-dimensional soundfield that the absence of ceiling or up-firing speakers rarely feels like a compromise.

That ability to immerse without drawing attention to itself proves equally captivating in Blade Runner 2049. The haunting ambience of the abandoned Las Vegas sequences extends effortlessly into every corner of the room, while the thunderous score is delivered with breathtaking scale and authority.

Despite the sheer size of the presentation, however, subtle details are never drowned out. The package remains wonderfully composed, allowing tiny atmospheric cues to coexist naturally alongside seismic low-frequency effects.

The KC92 deserves special praise. If your priority is sheer low frequency extension, there are physically larger subwoofers that will dig deeper, but what the compact KEF lacks in outright depth, it more than compensates for with speed, precision and tonal sophistication.

Bass notes start and stop with remarkable precision, textures remain easy to discern and, perhaps most importantly, the KC92 never sounds like a separate component. Whether underpinning the rumble of an F1 car, the immense organ notes of Interstellar or the ominous low-frequency pulses of Blade Runner 2049, it simply feels like an extension of the main speakers.

Compared with our reference PMC Twenty5.23 speaker package, the KEFs make for a fascinating contrast.

The PMCs remain the more energetic and revealing performers, extracting the finest details from recordings and delivering dynamic shifts with greater urgency and attack, but the KEFs counter with a presentation that's more effortless, more spacious and ultimately more cohesive. They don't simply place effects accurately around the room; they create an enormous, unified soundstage that encourages you to forget about the individual speakers altogether and become absorbed in the performance.

And that's ultimately this package's greatest achievement. Plenty of surround systems impress by throwing effects around the room or bombarding you with bass, but the KEFs never feel as though they're trying to show off.

Instead, they rather dissolve into the background, leaving only the sonic world of the movie you’re watching. That’s why we find ourselves still watching films long after our official testing is complete.

Verdict

The R Meta 5.1 package is beautifully engineered, immaculately built and packed with clever technology, but it's the effortless cohesion with which those individual elements come together that makes it so special.

Whether it's the seamless handover of effects between speakers, the KC92's astonishingly well-integrated bass or the vast, enveloping soundstage, every aspect of the system works towards a single goal: drawing you deeper into whatever you’re watching.

It's not entirely perfect. The R7 Meta floorstanders reward careful amplifier matching if you don't want them to sound a little too easy-going, and there are larger subwoofers capable of plumbing even greater depths. Neither ‘flaw’ significantly detracts from the overall experience, though.

Instead, the KEFs deliver one of the most immersive, refined and convincing surround performances we've heard at this level. This is a package that consistently prioritises the film over the fireworks, and that's precisely why it succeeds so brilliantly.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Design 5
• Compatibility 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Fyne Audio F8SP AV

Also consider the PMC Twenty5.23 5.1

Read our KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 Speaker System review

Best surround sound systems: home cinema speakers and soundbars put to the test

There was once a time when legendary Japanese AV manufacturer Denon would update its home cinema amplifier range every year. Those days are now long behind us, which is why we’ve waited almost four years for the AVR-X2900H.

In that time, the shoes that this highly anticipated mid-range AV amp has to fill have only grown larger and larger. Most notably, Sony swanned onto the scene with the serial Award-winning TA-AN1000, which knocked Denon off the top spot.

There has also been a fair amount of stagnation in the AVR market lately, which makes every new release all the more important.

So, saying that the AVR-X2900H has landed in our testing room in a particularly high-pressure environment is quite the understatement. With it replacing the AVR-X2800H – a staple of our AV testing room and best AV receivers list alike – the X2900H has to impress. So does it?

Price

The X2900H is officially priced at £899 / $1349 / AU$1799, making it more expensive than its predecessor in the UK and US, but more affordable in Australia. The X2800H launched at £869 / $1200 / AU$2399, for reference.

It’s worth noting here that the version of this AVR sold in the USA is slightly different to the one we’re testing. It adds some key custom installation features including front left and right speaker pre-outs, a 12V trigger and an RS-232C port.

Furthermore, the UK version of the X2900H is the only model to feature a DAB tuner, with all other regions dropping this radio standard.

That said, this AV receiver still sits within the mid-range sector of the market, and specifically in Denon’s lineup it sits between the X1800H and the X3900H, the latter of which is expected to launch soon.

At this level, Denon is facing a rematch with the AV amplifier that ejected its previous amplifiers from our Awards list. Yes, the TA-AN1000 trudges on for yet another year as the sole AV amplifier in Sony’s lineup, but with a couple of years now under its belt, it can be found for £899 here in the UK. Discounts are also frequent, and we’ve seen it drop to as low as £699.

Design

Denon hasn’t been particularly daring with its AVR design in recent years. Much like the Targaryans in Game Of Thrones, or the Weasleys in Harry Potter, some strong genetic characteristics immediately identify this black box as a Denon amplifier.

The X2900H is another angular, brushed metal box sporting a rectangular display flanked by volume and source selection knobs, and a neatly organised row of buttons below it. Denon has made some appreciated updates here by angling the buttons upwards, making them easier to press if your AVR sits on a low shelf in your TV cabinet.

Subtle upgrades aside, this AVR remains functional-looking rather than particularly eye-catching, which is no great shame to us. That said, Denon’s sister company, Marantz, wins the AVR beauty contest – just look at the (admittedly much more expensive) Cinema 30 and tell us you disagree.

Speaking of which, the Denon has taken some inspiration from the Marantz when it comes to the remote. This simple-to-use handset now sports a side-mounted button that activates a backlight, making it much easier to use in a dark home cinema room.

Features

Much like its predecessor, the AVR-X2900H offers seven channels of amplification, supporting up to a 5.1.2 or 7.1 surround sound system.

Denon claims that this amp can output 95W per channel into 8 ohms, or 125W into 6 ohms, although that’s with only two of the seven available channels driven. It hasn’t given an exact figure regarding what the power output is with all channels driven, but Denon reportedly guarantees at least 70 per cent of that power with five channels driven.

It’s worth noting that Denon has its fellow Japanese competitor beaten when it comes to power output (albeit not by much), as the Sony TA-AN1000 offers 120W into 6 ohms with two channels driven.

Internally, Denon has implemented an upgraded 32-bit eight-channel DAC architecture for “improved imaging, clearer high-frequency detail and more confident low-frequency energy across every channel”.

The X2900H has also inherited a set of redesigned power capacitors from the company’s higher-end models, while Denon claims that the addition of silicon steel plates aids more powerful low-end frequencies. It also reports that unwanted vibrations have been reduced thanks to a new transformer plate.

Audyssey MultEQ XT makes a return for straightforward room correction, including automated speaker level and distance settings. Denon has also added support for the basic version of Dirac Live Room Correction this year, although it’s an optional extra that requires additional equipment to set up.

Accessing the MultEQ XT calibration system is a breeze thanks to the intuitive high-definition on-screen interface. Being able to confidently adjust settings without having to peer at the modest onboard display makes things much easier, and this will be a godsend to home cinema novices who might be setting up an AVR for the first time.

In terms of connectivity, the AVR-X2900H sports six HDMI inputs, three of which support signals up to 8K resolution, and Denon has added 1440p video pass-through and AMD FreeSync this year for better PC gaming support. There are also dual HDMI outputs, one of which is HDMI eARC, while the other supports Zone 2 functionality.

Gaming is capped at 4K/120Hz, however, which will be frustrating for PC gamers with more capable rigs, and possibly those with modern OLED TVs that can reach 165Hz. Denon makes up for this by including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), which the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S both support, and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Quick Frame Transport (QFT) are both on board to reduce latency.

There’s also support for both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, alongside HDR10 and HLG, meaning the X2900H should pass video through to your TV or projector nicely regardless of the make or model.

Wired connectivity extends beyond your TV or projector too, as there is a moving magnet phono input included for hooking up a turntable; ideal for those who are looking for an all-in-one AV and hi-fi amplifier.

Wireless connectivity is also solid, with streaming supported over wi-fi, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth. Denon’s HEOS platform is also on board, which grants access to countless music streaming apps, including Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music HD, TuneIn and Deezer.

HEOS also supports multi-room playback, meaning you can tie this AVR into a wider Denon speaker set-up if you have the brand’s wireless speakers dotted around your house. Interestingly, Denon also plans to release a software update that will allow users to use said wireless speakers as wireless surround channels for extra functionality.

Sound

Actually, Denon has two sets of oversized shoes to fill. The Denon AVR-X2800H has just ended an impressive run as both a previous What Hi-Fi? Award-winner, and as a longstanding entry on our best AV receivers list, while the Sony TA-AN1000’s reputation speaks for itself.

We’ve hooked the Denon AVR-X2900H up to our reference PMC speaker package, trying it in both a 5.1.2 and a 7.1 configuration, and we’ve raided our 4K reference library

The Denon DNA is immediately apparent when we fire up Civil War. The military base sequence in Charlottesville is a perfect exhibition of the X2900H’s strengths; this amplifier can provide a broad, bold and weighty cinematic audio experience with ease.

The general bustle of the military camp is presented with a broad, spacious sound, while the grumbling engines of trucks and the meaty rhythmic chopping of helicopter blades are realised with an appreciated sense of heft.

Sonic subtleties aren’t sacrificed entirely for brawn here, though. There is still plenty of detail to be gleaned from the X2900H, such as rippling water and the faint chirping of birds during the conversation between Lee and Jessie.

Its warmth and richness leave the Sony feeling slightly thin in comparison, and that’s paired with a sense of space and openness that ensures the Denon presents a cinematic sound that truly envelops us.

This becomes more apparent when we switch to Marvel’s Thunderbolts, as the surround sound effect feels more cohesive compared with the Award-winning Sony.

Sound travels more fluidly between the front and surround channels; a particularly striking example of this is when a smoke grenade deploys, and the sound of smoke filling the room flows to reach all channels in our surround sound system.

The Denon also proves to be a dab hand at music. That rich, warm and smooth nature that we’ve already pointed out is well-suited to stereo content in Pure Direct.

Kacey Musgraves’ Butterflies features a superbly textured guitar melody and sweet-sounding vocals, while Bad Bunny’s NUEVAYoL takes advantage of the amplifier’s excellent sense of space to balance the rhythmic drumming, brass elements, electronic instrumentation, and range of vocal effects. In many ways, the Denon does more to draw us into the music than its Sony competitor.

However, it’s not all perfect. The Denon can lean into what we’d call over-indulgence at times. The immediacy and agility of the Sony result in a much more exciting presentation during tense moments such as the Thunderbolts sequence mentioned above. Its snappier, crisper and more direct sound also makes everything – especially dialogue – sound more natural.

Those warm, smooth and rich characteristics of the Denon that we’ve praised are sometimes taken a touch too far, resulting in somewhat dull-sounding vocals, and sudden dynamic shifts (think gunshots or explosions) don’t hit quite as hard as we’d like them to.

This takes us neatly onto the bass performance. Denon has clearly tried to one-up its competitor by raising the bass performance on the X2900H, and we certainly can’t deny that there is more low-end this time around.

Playing the famously challenging Blade Runner 2049 chapter two sequence, the X2900H digs deep and throws out swathes of bold bass. In many ways, Denon should be commended for how it's squeezed this much low-end power out of such a modest amplifier, but it also seems to have missed the point in doing so.

While there is more bass than we know what to do with, and it’s also polite enough to avoid distortion, it unfortunately also lacks definition, tonal variation, and dynamic expression. The rumbling drums in the soundtrack's Flight To The LAPD don’t build here in the way we expect, and it all feels one-note and ill-defined.

This ultimately impacts the steady building of tension in this sequence, and while the Sony doesn’t offer quite the same level of deep bass, its more deliberate handling of lower frequencies makes it the clear winner in this instance.

Verdict

The Denon AVR-X2900H is a feature-packed and, broadly speaking, very good-sounding home cinema amplifier.

It fills in a few sonic shortcomings of its Sony competitor, though in doing so it also makes some of its own flaws more apparent. While we approve of its warm, encompassing sound, it is also lacking some agility, and Denon’s approach to bass has missed the mark.

Nevertheless, this is a genuinely likeable and user-friendly amplifier, so is well worth serious consideration.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 5
• Design 4

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