Another week, another sea of hi-fi and home cinema announcements. If, like many of us, you have struggled to stay on top of all of them, don’t worry, as our team of experts has come up with a fresh entry to our weekly Rewind news digest!

Once again, we detail all the top stories and developments every AV fan should be aware of in a handy summary, making it quick and easy to stay on top of all the latest news.

We finished reviewing Sonos’s new hardware

The Sonos Beam Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar and Ace Ultra wireless headphones are two of September’s hottest releases, coming from the audio firm behind multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winners. Last week, our reviewers published their full reviews of both products.

The Beam Ultra proved to be the more impressive of the two, with its new driver arrangement delivering a better sense of height and much improved, tighter low end than its step-down sibling, the Beam 2. So much so that we gave it a five-star rating and reported: “Sonos has struck Dolby Atmos gold yet again.”

The Ace Ultra proved to be a solid step in the right direction for Sonos’s wireless headphone offering, delivering a more powerful, rich and weighty sound than the three-star original Sonos Ace. But a slight lack of finesse stopped them from troubling the best of the best in their category, hence their four-star rating and our verdict:

“While they’re still not quite on the level of the class leaders, Sonos’s sophomore wireless headphones are a marked improvement in sound quality, along with their comfortable design and healthy features set.”

Read our full Sonos Beam Ultra review

Read our full Sonos Ace Ultra review

Fiio launched a new CD player

Last week, FiiO launched its new DP11 CD digital transport. In true FiiO style, the product is crammed to the brink with hardware, offering a kitchen-sink solution to people who want an affordable CD player that can double as a ripper, DAC and pre-amplifier.

Built around a Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chip, the unit shares a common circuit design with Fiio’s S15 streamer, and is being pitched as an affordable, flexible solution for CD collectors who are short on space. The unit is set to launch in the US and EU, costing $189 / €185. We still await UK pricing.

Read the full story: FiiO’s new CD player wants to do it all – with a DAC, pre-amplifier and more

Qualcomm unveiled its next-gen wireless headphone chip

Qualcomm (the company that builds the wireless chips used in numerous big-name wireless headphones, from the likes of Bose, Cambridge Audio, Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkins and more) last week unveiled its next-gen Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform.

Smaller, more power-efficient, and packed with AI features, the firm made a lot of noise about the chipsets’ technical upgrades. But for us here at What Hi-Fi? it was the firm’s audio claims that caught our attention. Qualcomm claims the reduced size will give headphone makers more freedom when it comes to driver size and, thanks to their advanced AI processing, better ANC and improved sound.

We’ll have to wait for headphones with the new chips to start appearing before we can confirm any of these claims, but if even a few of them ring true, we could be in for an audio treat.

Read the full story: Wireless headphones are about to get even more advanced with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Sound tech

MORE:

These are the best wireless headphones we have reviewed

We rank the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Our picks of the best CD players

Here at What Hi-Fi? we've spent the week testing for the 2026 Awards, pitting the best of the best against each other in a battle royale free-for-all.

It's a very exciting, but busy, time for the team, but we've still managed to find a few delectable deals.

On offer this week is a half-price(!) RGB Mini LED TV, a five-star OLED that comes with a soundbar completely free of charge and a new low for Bose's flagship headphones.

These are all products we've tried and tested ourselves, and we only recommend those that our expert reviewers grant four stars or above.

So the below are all great products, as well as being at an excellent price – let's take a look:

The LG G5 may be last year's flagship, but it's still an exceedingly bright five-star OLED and well worth buying now that there are some heavy discounts. This isn't quite the lowest price we've seen, but this offer does come with the four-star LG S70TY soundbar system included – absolutely free.

For those who want to block out the outside world on planes, trains or just at work, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd gen) are the king of noise-cancelling headphones. The price has been fluctuating somewhat, but at the time of writing, the cans are at the lowest price we've seen of £280 at Amazon thanks to a £39.60 reduction at checkout.

The JBL Xtreme 4 is a current Award-winner, and while it's at risk of being supplanted by its successor later this year, it's still highly recommended for its durable exterior and refined sound. Now at its lowest price, with a whopping 49 per cent discount.

Hisense has dominated the UST projector scene for some time now, and the newly-reviewed Hisense PX4 Pro has made several worthy improvements, offering deeper blacks, more colour volume and a holistically improved, more three-dimensional-looking image. Get a free Xbox controller, a month of Game Pass and £100 cashback too – full cashback details are here.

The Hisense UR9 was the first RGB Mini LED we reviewed, and we praised the technology for its controlled backlight performance and rich cinematic HDR picture. We did find it expensive, but now you can pick it up for half price – use the code GDTV300, and then claim £200 cashback from Hisense. Full Ts and Cs can be found here.

The Q Acoustics 5050 are some of the finest mid-price floorstanders you're likely to find. When properly partnered, they are pleasingly mature-sounding speakers that deliver impressive clarity and scale, now at their lowest price.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

For most of What Hi-Fi?'s 50 years, speakers, headphones and other audio equipment have primarily been for music playback.

And while that's still very much our main focus, there's no denying that the rise of the podcast from the mid 2000s has changed the audio landscape. There's a good chance that a lot of the commuters on your morning train are listening to breakdowns on politics, entertainment and sport rather than the latest chart releases.

This does require slightly different strengths in your equipment, however, with vocal clarity, clear mid-range frequencies, and comfortable wear far more important than bass and other music-focused features.

So with International Podcast Day (yes, that's a thing) arriving on 30th September, we've rounded up a few of our favourite smart speakers and headphones that excel at the spoken word, but are also great for music too. They're all products we've tried and tested ourselves, and we'll only recommend them if they earned at least four stars in their reviews.

Let's take a look:

The Sonos Era 100 is our favourite smart speaker overall thanks to its impressive performance at a rather competitive price. There's a vast catalogue of streaming features on board and a spacious, open sound that will bring both your podcasts and your music to life.

If you listen to podcasts on the go, then the Sony WH-1000XM6 are our top choice. They're sensational all-rounders with great comfort levels, excellent ANC and exceptional levels of detail.

If you're on more of a budget, then the HomePod Mini is the smart speaker we'd recommend. It will slot in perfectly to an iOS-oriented ecosystem, and outperforms its size and price with a mature, bold, assertive sound. A no-brainer for Apple fans.

Apple fans will also love the AirPods Pro 3, the brand's best AirPods to date. There have been tweaks and improvements to the design, active noise-cancelling and, most importantly, sound quality, all of which should make listening to podcasts on the move a joy, especially if you have an iOS device.

The speaker range that started the smart home revolution, Amazon Echo, is now in its fifth iteration and better than ever. Alexa is synonymous with virtual assistants and stuffed with features, but we're more impressed with the sound quality, which has come a long way over the last decade.

For style as well as smarts, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd gen) is well worth considering. It's a tad expensive and a little long in the tooth now, but it's also a rather remarkable all-rounder with a classy design, expansive sound and the bonus of Alexa.

If you're recording podcasts as well as listening to them, you may want to consider the Røde NTH-100. The company is a big deal in the world of pro audio, and this first attempt to engage with the consumer audio market is eloquent and revealing, whether you're after a critical or casual listen.

If you've got the budget, then the Apple HomePod 2 is a multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winner. It's the best option for Apple acolytes, with a natural, solid and energetic sound and impressive Siri functionality.

MORE:

Check out our list of the best music streaming services

17 of the best podcasts for music lovers

Tidal vs Spotify: which streaming service is best for you?

Got the Monday blues? There’s not a lot we can do about that; a few of us may even be right there with you.

But we can offer a minor silver lining: while Monday does mean a return to work for most of us, it also brings with it a fresh entry to our weekly Rewind news digest.

Here, once again, we sum up all the latest developments in the world of hi-fi and home cinema that you need to know about.

What Hi-Fi? Readers’ Award voting is open!

First up, we have two bits of good news. To start, voting for this year’s Readers’ Award is open, so you can tell us what you think this year's best piece of hi-fi or home cinema hardware is, irrespective of our reviewers' ranking.

Second, to celebrate our 50th birthday, we’re also running a Golden Anniversary Readers’ Award alongside it. This will let you pick the best Readers’ Award winner of all time! Just make sure to get your votes in fast, as the polls close on the 28th September.

Read the full story: Vote now for the What Hi-Fi? Readers' Award 2026 – and for your Golden Anniversary winner!

Rotel’s new Michi amp is a delight

Rotel’s Michi range has a strong track record in our review rooms, and that trend continues with the new Prestige X430 integrated amplifier, which we finished reviewing last week.

Unveiled alongside the firm’s Q430 CD player, the amp is the cheapest option in Rotel’s Michi range, retailing for a still-not-quite pocket change £4499 / $4999 / AU$6499. While that’s certainly not “cheap”, the amp does undeniably represent good value for money, offering specifications we’d normally expect from an amp a good grand more expensive.

But, more importantly, when matched with appropriate hardware, it sounds great. As we said in our review:

“This Rotel Michi Prestige X430 amplifier is, in most ways, a superb all-rounder. We can’t think of a rival that is as uniformly capable across its inputs as this one. It will drive any price-compatible speaker with ease and has a wonderfully unfussy nature. If you are looking for an integrated amplifier at this premium level, the X430 has to be top of your shortlist.”

Read our full Rotel Michi Prestige X430 review

Sony acknowledged it has a problem

Many of you may have missed it, but there have been widespread reports of an annoying bug afflicting certain Sony TV models recently. The reports focus on the sets’ eARC, which has apparently been on the fritz for many owners, refusing to deliver Dolby Vision signals correctly and occasionally desyncing or outright losing audio. Our TV and AV editor, Tom Parsons, has managed to replicate the audio issue on our Bravia 8 II sample. Thankfully, last week Sony Japan finally confirmed it is aware of the issue and will release a software update to fix it later this month.

Read the full story: There's been a big problem with some Sony TVs – but a fix might finally be here

A new tiny phono stage is coming

Last week ClearAudio launched its new Compact Phono, a phono stage that does exactly what it says on the tin: offer vinyl fans a dinky, discrete amplification solution that won’t take up oodles of space, measuring in at a box of chocolates-sized 2.6 x 11.5 x 8cm (hwd).

Despite its size, the firm claims it will still deliver a premium sound that will delight even the most discerning of LP spinners – which is good news as its £490 / €490 / $639 price sandwiches it between the five-star Cambridge Audio Duo MC/MM and Award-winning Graham Slee Reflex M.

Read the full story: Clearaudio’s new phono stage is designed to “tuck discreetly alongside any turntable”

MORE:

These are the best phono pre-amps we’ve tested

We rank the best stereo amplifiers money can buy

Our picks of the best TVs

Take a step into our home cinema test room right now and you will be met with the controlled chaos that comes with our annual Awards testing. From Dolby Atmos soundbars to premium UST projectors, there's been a huge range of products coming in and out of our doors.

Those home cinema products need to be challenged by the best films out there for picture and sound. We make sure to keep different movies and TV shows in rotation, but there are always a few classic discs that we turn to.

In our monthly Now Showing column, members of the What Hi-Fi? team select their top watches for testing, and you will find this month's choices below. What do you think we should add to our watchlist? Drop your recommendations in the comments.

The Last Duel (2021)

Words by Harry McKerrell

Ridley Scott has to be one of the most maddeningly unpredictable directors of his age. Over the past 40 or so years, he’s given us the greatest sci-fi horror movie ever in the shape of Alien, the increasingly relevant masterpiece Blade Runner, and the ever-quotable historical epic that is Gladiator.

He’s also no stranger to a dud, as confirmed by the baffling Exodus: Gods And Kings, the laughably erratic Napoleon, and his lukewarmly received recent effort, The Dog Stars. Worse still, every time Scott has a property of which he can be rightfully proud, he fouls the proverbial by adding an unnecessary sequel – or sequels – that no one asked for.

Amid the ever-fluctuating peaks and troughs of Ridley’s varied filmography, The Last Duel stands out proudly as a modest, if not sky-scraping, peak. Returning Scott to his historical roots, The Last Duel uses a triple-perspective narrative to tell the story of Marguerite de Carrouges and her alleged assault at the hands of knight Jacques le Gris in 14th-century France.

Handling of medieval gender politics aside, The Last Duel makes for a handy test disc if you’re keen to see how your TV or projector conveys colours and contrast. Where Gladiator chooses a palette of warm oranges contrasting with imperial greys and silvers, The Last Duel seems to be almost perpetually bathed in a frosty blue-grey filter, giving the entire production – through a competent screen – a chilly, unforgiving bleakness.

That’s the Middle Ages for you.

Buy The Last Duel on 4K Blu-ray at Amazon

Stream The Last Duel on Disney Plus

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Words by Daniel Furn

Fresh off starring in the other record-breaking smash of summer 2026, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal reteam for the similarly successful Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Successful is putting it mildly, however – at the time of writing, Brand New Day is sitting on a whopping $2.45 billion worldwide, going so far as to become the highest-grossing film domestically in the US, where it has even surpassed heavyweights such as Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

All of which may seem a bit over-the-top, but it helps that this is arguably the strongest Marvel offering in years. Finally stepping out of the shadows of Iron Man and the Avengers, Brand New Day strips back the high-tech suit and multiverse shenanigans for a broke, overworked and isolated Spider-Man that harks back to the character’s street-level roots. Spider-Man is always at its best when Peter Parker is struggling to balance his two lives, and here we see the consequences when Peter prioritises his superhero identity in an exploration of loneliness, grief and sacrifice.

There’s still plenty of fan service and cameos for Marvel buffs – Spider-Man’s chemistry with the Punisher is a highlight, and honestly, seeing the two together in a movie (alongside the Hulk and Sadie Sink’s mystery character) is rather mind-blowing and seemed an impossible pipe dream just a few years ago.

A new director, Destin Daniel Cretton, also brings a grittier visual palette as well as his combat expertise after previously helming Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. I’m excited to see how the film’s many set pieces look on 4K Blu-ray, as well as to hear the film’s great soundtrack through a good Atmos system – Loser by Tame Impala and Oh Yeah? by Steve Lacy have been doing the rounds on social media since the film’s release, while Michael Giacchino’s understated score is surprisingly catchy.

Bumblebee (2018)

Words by Robyn Quick

While not all of the Transformers films have been met with critical and audience acclaim, Bumblebee is argued by many to be the best in the franchise. I'm not a huge fan of the sentient robots, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 2018 entry is a thoroughly charming and entertaining watch.

Set in the 1980s, the film follows the titular Transformer Bumblebee as he lands on Earth and promptly gets his voice box ripped out. In his disguise as a Volkswagen Beetle, he befriends Hailee Steinfeld's plucky teen.

You only need to watch the turbulent opening scene to understand why this film is a go-to for sound testing in our room. When an army training exercise is interrupted by Bumblebee arriving as a fiery comet, it's a great test of your system's bass.

Explosions should be well-placed around the soundfield, and the planes flying overhead will go above the TV screen or projector with the right audio set-up. If you want to test your sound system while watching a teen make friends with a sentient car, then this is the film for you.

Buy Bumblebee on 4K Blu-ray at HMV

Stream Bumblebee on Apple TV

Metal Lords (2022)

Words by Alastair Stevenson

I’ll admit, I am a little late to this one, as it came out all the way back in 2022. But this month, one of the standout films that’s stuck with me long after the credits rolled was Metal Lords, by Peter Sollett.

Telling the story of school kids Hunter and Kevin as they try to recruit classical cellist Emily to the dark side (specifically, to play in their heavy metal band), it’s one of the most heartfelt and funny films I’ve seen in quite some time.

Whether it's Hunter’s perfect on-the-nose portrayal of that kid in every school who makes metal their whole identity, or its classic battle of the bands ending – which will give you Bill and Ted-level goosebumps – any music fan will find something to enjoy.

It's far from a technical masterpiece but, as a hi-fi nerd, I love how it conveys the passion people feel for music, and the steps they take during their formative years finding their groove.

So if you love music, it’s still well worth giving it a watch – especially if you’re a metalhead, as you’ll spot more than a few cameos from the likes of Tom Morello, Scott Ian, Kirk Hammett and Rob Halford.

Slow Horses, Season 6 (2026)

Words by Lewis Empson

“Circle of Life” is a particularly gloomy episode, even by Slow Horses standards. Yes, the Emmy-winning spy drama/comedy series has returned for a sixth season, and its first episode is about as edgy, dry and grey as you’d expect; and if you’ve seen any of the previous seasons, then you’ll know this isn’t a bad thing.

The Apple TV series stars Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and What Hi-Fi? Team AV’s favourite new Bond frontrunner, Jack Lowden, alongside an ensemble of complex and, quite frankly, barely functioning MI5 rejects that operate out of a safehouse above a Chinese takeaway.

They’ve tackled international terrorist threats and assassination plots, but the motive for this season seems more personal – this time there’s a hit out on all of the Slow Horses, so expect tension, action and some particularly dry humour.

I’ve already mentioned that this episode is especially gloomy; however, I mean that in both a narrative and physical sense. Most of this episode takes place on an overcast and rainy day (standard UK weather, essentially), and colour seems intentionally washed out here to emphasise that drab, drizzly setting.

Furthermore, the spies spend a fair amount of this episode literally sneaking around in the shadows. Therefore, a TV that can handle black depths without crushing shadow detail is essential for this episode, or else you’ll be spending a fair amount of time squinting to figure out who is talking.

And as this is an Apple TV show, you can expect Dolby Atmos; now, this isn’t the cinematic showcase we’d usually highlight to demonstrate these features, but the bustle of London streets feels even more immersive with the 3D sound format enabled.

Stream Slow Horses on Apple TV

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Check out the best TVs

And here are the best streaming devices

This week was notable, at least in the AV tech world, for the announcement that the next Amazon Prime Day sale is less than a month away.

Yes, another one! But if you just can't wait, there have been plenty of surprisingly good deals this week.

First up is our exclusive saving on a top five-star JBL AVR at Richer Sounds. Signing up for the free VIP programme and using our code WHFJBL500 will get you a massive £3801 in total, so it's not an offer to miss.

Elsewhere, we've seen some rock-bottom prices for several five-star Sony headphones, as well as a new low for LG's OLED flagship with a free soundbar to boot.

The bar has been set for Amazon Prime Day then!

As always, we only recommend products that we've actually tried and tested ourselves. Everything below has actually earned five stars, with several even getting a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award too.

Take a look for yourself:

For those who take home cinema seriously, the JBL Synthesis SDR-38 offers an outstanding sonic performance, a stylish build and an extensive feature set. To get this price, you'll have to sign up for the (free) Richer Sounds VIP club, and then use our exclusive WHFJBL500 to save a whopping £3801 in total.

If you'd rather opt for a more straightforward soundbar, then this LG G6 deal includes one absolutely free. LG's latest flagship boasts fantastic picture quality, excellent app support and flawless gaming specifications, and can be picked up for its lowest price with the code TRADE250. The four-star LG S70TY comes bundled in too.

The Sony WH-CH520 are comfortable, built to last, offer a generous battery life, support Bluetooth Multipoint, and sound great for the price. Their successor, the WH-CH530, is now on the market, but they currently cost double this £25 price.

Award-winning earbuds for £28. The Sony WF-C510 lack some of the more advanced features of pricier models, but they do offer a compact, comfortable design, solid, musical sound and impressive features, now at a new lowest price.

The Hisense AX5125H soundbar system is amazing value for money even at full price, with exceptional weight, scale and spaciousness. The Award-winner offers a lot of kit with great specs for a rather low price, making it one of the biggest Dolby Atmos bargains around.

The Cyrus 40 CD is no doubt a premium CD player, but it has the performance to match. Offering subtle detail, rhythmic precision, punch and power but also superb control, the 40 CD is a brilliantly engaging premium player for anyone with the budget.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Editor's Note: Voting has closed for this year's Readers' Award and our special Golden Anniversary Award. We'll announce the winners during our black-tie What Hi-Fi? Awards ceremony on 12th November!

Eager to have your say on which product deserves to win a hallowed What Hi-Fi? Readers' Award this year?

And – new for this year – is there a hi-fi or home cinema product from days of yore that you feel deserves a fresh shoutout?

If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then we have two bits of good news.

Firstly, we’ve just opened voting for the 2026 What Hi-Fi? Readers’ Award.

And secondly, as part of our 50th birthday celebrations, we’re running a second reader-voted award. Specifically, and for one year only, our Golden Anniversary Readers' Award.

What Hi-Fi? Readers’ Award 2026

Voting is live now and will run until the 28th September. All you have to do is tell us which product in the poll below is most worthy of a What Hi-Fi? Award.

The top-voted product will then be crowned this year’s Readers’ Award winner at the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2026 ceremony on 12th November, and join an elite pantheon of past winners.

Over the past three years, these have been the 2025's reader favourite, the Ruark Audio R610, 2024’s winner, the Q Acoustics 5050 and 2023’s top dog, the Cambridge Audio MXN10.

This year’s shortlist is populated by the most popular reviews we’ve published over the past year and includes everything from cutting-edge new RGB Mini LED TVs to stereo amplifiers from hi-fi heavyweights.

Golden Anniversary Readers' Award

Next up is our, sponsored by Richer Sounds, Golden Anniversary Readers' Award.

As the name suggests, this is a special Award we’re only running this year that lets you vote on your favourite product from all of our Readers' Award winners.

The list includes every product that’s won the trophy, all the way back to our first winner in 2008, which, believe it or not, was the Sony PlayStation 3 games console.

To vote, all you have to do is pick your favourite in the poll.

If you’re feeling particularly passionate, drop a comment on this page and let us know your choice and why you think it deserves to win. We're eager to hear your rationale!

MORE:

Check out the What Hi-Fi? Hall of Fame

These are the best speakers we’ve reviewed

We rank the best TVs for serious movie fans

Autumn is here, which means lots of things are changing. The days are getting darker and we won’t get another Bank Holiday until December. But it’s not all bad news.

In fact, over the past seven days, there have been plenty of great product launches and reasons to celebrate if you’re a hi-fi and home cinema fan.

And to help you shake off the autumnal blues, we’ve even penned a fresh entry to our Rewind news digest, detailing them, in case you missed the news the first time round.

Technics' new direct-drive turntable impressed

The Technics SL-1500CS turned heads when it was first unveiled earlier this year. The latest iteration of the firm’s iconic line of direct-drive turntables, it’s a successor to numerous legendary record spinners, including the five-star, multi-Award-winning SL-1500C.

Initially, our reviewers were a little nervous when the SL-1500CS arrived in our listening rooms, with it looking all but identical to its older step-down sibling, despite costing £300 / $300 more.

But thankfully, the moment we connected it to our reference system, we found plenty to like, with the changes Technics has made to its direct-drive motor control circuit, which features the firm’s Delta-Sigma (ΔΣ) Drive technology, having paid off in spades.

As we said in our Technics SL-1500CS review: “Under-the-skin upgrades take the direct-drive SL-1500 design to new sonic heights.”

The only slight issue is that, while it’s easier to tinker with the Technics, the Rega Planar 3 RS Edition remains the class leader at this level for pure audio quality, based on our testing.

Read our full Technics SL-1500CS review

Audio-Technica is taking on Grado in an unexpected area

Wireless open-back headphones are a rare sight, even in our listening rooms. Not because we think they’re a bad idea, but because there aren’t that many of them out in the wild!

In fact, until last week, the only pair we’ve recently reviewed and recommend that are still on sale were the Grado GW100x. That’s why we were equal parts curious and excited when Audio-Technica unveiled its first-ever pair of wireless open-backs, the ATH-AL5NC mere days ago.

Built around a set of 53mm dynamic drivers and offering 75 hours of music playback (50 if you turn on their “noise reduction” tech), the cans look impressive and, as an added perk, cost £30 less than their Grado rivals, being set to retail for £219 / $279 / AU$499.

Read the full story: Audio-Technica's first wireless open-backs seek to bring audiophile quality to the convenience of a wire-free design

Sony unveiled new affordable headphones

Sony also unveiled new wireless headphones last week. Specifically, the affordable WH-CH530 and WH-CH730N.

The WH-CH530 are the successor to the five-star WH-CH520, while the WH-CH730N replace the Award-winning WH-CH720N. So big shoes to fill for both.

The WH-CH730N has had the biggest refresh, with a new Sonos Ace-like redesign which adds a new look and folding mechanism. The latter is a key feature we wished the old CH720N had that will hopefully improve portability.

Outside of this, both feature the same drivers and core tech as the older models, but Sony is still quoting “palpable” audio quality improvements thanks to tweaks it has made to its digital signal processing and algorithms. Fingers crossed they ring true when we get the new Sony wireless over-ears in for testing.

Read the full story: Sony has finally upgraded its budget five-star wireless headphones range – and it's promising a major sonic boost on both sets

New Apple iPhones launched

Like clockwork, Apple ran its September iPhone launch event last week. Though we’d have liked to have seen a bit more AV hardware on show, it brought a few treats that are of interest.

For music fans, the big-ticket item is the new AirPods 5. Available in two options, the earbuds feature a wealth of upgrades designed to improve ANC and audio performance.

It also showed off three new iPhones: the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the foldable it’s been rumoured to be working on for many moons, which we now know is called the iPhone Duo.

Read the full story: Apple’s foldable iPhone Duo is here – and it's immediately eyeing up the Samsung Z Fold series

Read the full story: Apple AirPods 5 boast improved ANC and updated acoustic architecture for a "richer, more detailed sound"

MORE:

These are the best wireless headphones we’ve reviewed

Our experts rank the best turntables for music fans

Our picks of the best cheap headphones

It may have been a week of looking forward to new tech, notably the long-rumoured foldable iPhone Duo and the very welcome surprise of the AirPods 5.

But if you're willing to consider some tech that's a little bit older, there are some absolute bargains available this week.

Bluetooth headphone fans especially are in for a treat, with new lowest prices on everything from budget earbuds to high-end over-ears.

The long-running Hisense HS214 has also somehow got even cheaper, while there are also savings on newer recommendations such as Sony's RGB Mini LED offering.

But it's not just the prices we're excited about – these are all high-quality products that we've tried and tested ourselves. We only recommend the best, and all the devices below earned at least four stars from our expert reviewers.

So take a look at this week's selection...

The fine Focal Bathys were five-star stunners even at their hefty £699 launch price, so with £300 off, they are now rather good value. For your money, you'll get two different levels of ANC, a transparency mode, aptX Adaptive support, a USB-DAC mode that supports 24-bit/192kHz and a compellingly big, spacious and clear sound.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd gen) have rather stubbornly stuck around the £400 mark, but are now suddenly seeing some generous drops. If you're after noise-cancelling, the QC Ultra 2 are class leaders and come with a wealth of functionality in a smart, nicely fitting design. £39.96 is removed at checkout to get this new lowest price.

The Sony WF-C710N not only received five stars, but are Award winners and our recommendation in this price range. They offer a great sense of musicality, fulsome, controlled bass and 30 hours of battery life. Save £10.28 at checkout for the lowest price we've seen.

If you want to upgrade your TV audio for the lowest possible price, we recommend the Hisense HS214 2.1. It's a truly rare breed of a soundbar that delivers a truly likeable home cinema sound at a bargain price, which is now the lowest we've seen. Save £20 with the code CLEAR20.

The Sony Bravia 7 II employs the new RGB Mini LED technology, and the result is one of the best backlit TVs we've tested. Sony's ever-reliable processing adds excellent picture depth and detail too. Get £200 off the listed price with the code TRADE200.

We only reviewed the Xgimi Titan a few weeks ago, and found it to be a highly ambitious offering with an extremely bright, detailed image. The built-in sound is good too, giving decent TV sound systems a run for their money.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Ah, September. A turning point for many as children head back to school, summer turns to autumn and, inevitably, people look towards the end of the year.

That's no bad thing, however – there's plenty to look forward to in the rest of 2026, especially in the dynamic worlds of hi-fi and home cinema.

With IFA and the Apple September event now concluded, we have plenty of new product releases to look forward to, including offerings from heavyweights such as Apple, Sonos and Sony.

That's not all, though! An HDR war is on the horizon as Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced start rolling out across consumer TVs, and RGB Mini LED is now out on the market and facing its first sales season.

So don't start planning Christmas just yet – we've got all this to come...

The HDR format war heats up

It's been a long time in the making, but the next generation of HDR formats is finally here.

Dolby Vision 2 launched on select Hisense TVs on 6th August, with more models set to receive the firmware update over time.

Not to be outdone, HDR10+ Advanced also launched on select Samsung TVs last month, setting the stage for a good old-fashioned format war that the AV industry can't help but love.

Supported TVs are still rather limited, as are compatible streaming services – Dolby Vision 2 has only been confirmed for Peacock, CANAL+ and iQIYI so far, whereas HDR10+ Advanced is currently only on Prime Video.

However, support is only set to grow, so it will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold – we're looking forward to having a closer look in our test room as well...

A Sonos double bill

IFA saw the launch of not one, but two key Sonos products – the long-awaited Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar and Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones.

The Beam Ultra is not a replacement for the beloved five-star Sonos Beam (Gen 2), but instead a step-up model with up-firing Atmos drivers as the big selling point. We'll be sure to test it as soon as possible, but we were very impressed when we heard a demo session.

The Sonos Ace Ultra are a more interesting proposition, as they are only the American brand's second wireless headphones. We were left underwhelmed by the three-star Sonos Ace, but the new drivers, refined tuning and upgraded ANC of the Ultra model look to rectify many of our misgivings.

The Sonos Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra both release on 29th September.

Good things come in threes for Sony

When it rains, it pours. The release of new Sony wireless headphones is always a cause for celebration, but three have come along at once.

Granted, one of them is an update of an old favourite: the Sony WH-1000XM4C is a redesign of the five-star WH-1000XM4, now with EU-compliant batteries and a tweaked sound more akin to the WH-1000XM6. Battery life has dropped from 30 hours to 27 hours, but luckily so has the price tag: the WH-1000XM4C retails for £219 / $300 / AU$449.95.

The other two are newer proposals, even if they are budget offerings. The Sony WH-CH530 and WH-CH730N replace two of the cheapest five-star headphones we recommend, with several upgrades and tweaks to the already great-value cans.

The WH-CH730N have had a notable redesign from the WH-CH720N they replace, with a smoother, more premium look similar to the Sonos Ace. They also fold away and boast a titanic 75-hour battery life.

The Sony WH-CH530 are very similar to the WH-CH520 aesthetically, but have a longer 55-hour battery life. Both models also claim to have a sonic boost thanks to improved digital signal processing and algorithms, as well as upgraded noise-cancelling thanks to Sony's 'Dual Noise Sensor' technology and beamforming microphones.

All three Sony headphones are available now. We look forward to welcoming them to our test room very soon!

Apple joins the folding craze

We're sure you've seen that slick folding animation all over social media by now, but yes, Apple has announced the long-rumoured foldable iPhone. The iPhone Duo has an outer display measuring 5.4 inches and an inner display coming in at 7.6 inches, with speakers at the top and bottom of the screen for spatial audio.

We awarded five stars to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 only a few weeks ago, so the Duo is up against some tough competition. However, we're excited about what the Duo's aspect ratio and wide-angle OLEDs could mean for movie and TV watching.

More of a surprise, however, was the AirPods 5. ANC is now available even on the base model, as well as several AirPods Pro 3 features such as a new multi-port acoustic architecture, transparency mode and live translation.

Two models were announced, with the more expensive version coming with a wireless charging case, volume swipe controls and an extra hour of battery life. We're excited about the AirPods 5, but the four hours of battery life on the base model has left us scratching our heads.

The iPhone 18 range also launched with two new Pro models, with a heavy emphasis on AI and camera upgrades.

The AirPods 5 and iPhone 18 range will be released on 18th September, with the iPhone Duo following on 23rd September.

RGB Mini LED faces its first big sales test

The other big display technology of 2026, RGB Mini LED finally entered our test rooms this spring after months of anticipation.

It's fair to say that while we were impressed with sets such as the Sony Bravia 9 II, the backlit technology was not about to eclipse the impressive contrast, perfect blacks and wide viewing angles of OLED in our eyes.

However, with Black Friday and the biggest TV sales event of the year on the horizon, consumers may well think otherwise. One of our biggest gripes with RGB Mini LED was the OLED-level price, so a healthy discount in the sales week could do wonders – we've already seen huge drops on the Hisense UR9 and Sony Bravia 7 II. Only time will tell...

MORE:

These are the best phones for serious music and movie fans

Our picks of the best wireless headphones

We rank the best soundbars money can buy

University is, of course, a time to prioritise study and hard work.

But it’s also the first experience of living away from home for many, and a chance to make a dorm room or shared house that is truly your space.

To do that, you’ll need the essentials. And that, in our eyes anyway, includes a TV setup, noise-cancelling headphones and at least one way to blast out music at the weekend.

Luckily, we have you covered. It may have been a little while since our dorm-room days, but we do rate and review hundreds of AV products every year and know good quality when we see it.

We have rounded up a few of our favourite products below, all of which we’ve tried and tested. They are all within reach of a student budget, but still highly recommended for freshers and students of life alike.

So if you or a loved one has an imminent first week, here are some AV products sure to liven up even the most bare-bones student accommodation:

A What Hi-Fi? Award winner, the Sony WF-C710N are the cheapest noise-cancelling headphones we recommend and brilliant budget earbuds all round. For the new low price of £62, you’ll enjoy fulsome, controlled bass, a great sense of musicality and a cool design. Perfect for studying without breaking the bank.

Good news: you don’t need to pay through the roof for high-resolution music. Tidal has long been the music-streaming service of choice for audiophiles thanks to its 24-bit/192kHz streams, and students can get a £5.99 student plan that is better than half price.

To take full advantage of those hi-res Tidal streams, though, you’ll want a good portable DAC for the best possible sound quality. iFi has been producing affordable five-star models for years, and its latest, the iFi Go Link 2, comes highly recommended.

For the full budget audiophile experience, a Tidal subscription, portable DAC and decent wired headphones will set you up perfectly for three years of studying. The Røde NTH-100 are Award winners and one of our top picks at this price, thanks to its eloquent, revealing sound and well-made design that’s comfortable for hours at a time.

Dinky, portable and highly stylish, the Roberts Revival Petite 2 may look like a humble radio but is so much more. With Bluetooth, a 20-hour battery life, a 3.5mm headphone port and a clearer, richer and more dynamic sound than you might expect, the Revival Petite 2 will bring retro flair to your dorm parties.

They may be a bit costlier than some of the other items in this article, but if you’re looking for desktop speakers on a budget, then the Ruark MR1 MK3 is what we recommend. They are compact enough to lug to student accommodation and back, but most importantly they sound powerful, punchy and dynamic with excellent rhythmic drive.

If you’re on a student budget, the Pro-Ject Primary E is a great choice as an entry-level turntable. It lacks fancy features such as USB ripping, Bluetooth and automatic operation, but if you’re looking for a purist design and great quality sound, the Primary E comes recommended. It’s easy to set up for beginners too.

We’re sure AirPods need no introduction. But the Apple AirPods Pro 3 are the tech giant’s best headphones yet, with spacious, powerful and dynamic sound as well as impressive active noise cancelling. If you already have an iPhone, you can also enjoy snappy user-friendliness and exclusive features.

The Sony WH-CH720N may be getting an upgrade soon, but they still come highly recommended, with a forceful, robust sound and decent ANC for the price. A What Hi-Fi? Awards winner for the best wireless headphones under £100, they are absolutely our top choice at this price range.

The Echo Dot has undergone several generations by now and hasn’t always hit the audio sweet spot, but the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) punches above its weight with an impressively expansive sound. Alexa, now synonymous with audio assistants, is as helpful as ever, particularly if you have other Amazon smart devices such as a Fire TV.

For a TV that is big enough for a flat move night, small enough to fit in the car and cheap enough for a student budget, the 43-inch Samsung U8000F is more than up to the job. Great value at £229, it’s a solid all-rounder for both movies and gaming, and it has all the main streaming and catch-up apps built in.

If you’re moving away from home for the first time, there’s a good chance you’ll need your own games console if you can’t wrestle the family unit away. If you’re getting a PS5, we recommend the disc-based version, as it can double-up as a 4K Blu-ray player.

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Best cheap TVs: affordable 4K televisions for under £500

Best cheap wireless headphones: tried and tested by our experts

Looking for a bargain? Here are the best budget soundbars

Apple’s events have never been known for their music. Outside of a 2014 snafu when it forced a U2 album on its customers, regardless of whether they wanted it, the firm likes to play it safe.

Muzak and the occasional foray into popular, mainstream acts are generally the official soundtracks of its launch events.

You know, the stuff you could play in front of your grandparents and at worst, they’d just look slightly confused, but probably find a way to happily tap along nonetheless.

But during this year’s iPhone launch, rather than the dulcet tones of Bono or whelps of Chris Martin, as the event trundled on, it was Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke’s voice that was ringing loud and clear – at least in my head.

Specifically, the iconic lyric “no alarms and no surprises” from the band’s 1997 banger of a single, No Surprises, was playing on repeat as the firm rattled off this year’s offerings.

Why? I’m not smart enough to pretend there’s any deep or philosophical meaning behind the thought.

It’s just that, as a serious music and movie nerd, that’s precisely what Apple delivered: no alarms and no surprises. Which made it a far better soundtrack than the official one – which I’ve already forgotten – and the reason I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Unlike days of yesteryear, when founder and former CEO Steve Jobs would famously always have “one more thing” to surprise fans, the pre-event rumours proved to be bang on the money.

New iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max handsets, with the standard smattering of tech upgrades, headlined by a new A20 Pro chipset and an assortment of AI upgrades. And then the new folding iPhone Duo handset people have been harping on about for just shy of half a decade.

Then the new AirPods 5 with ANC, as rumoured by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman before the event, which look like a nice refinement on the AirPods 4 with ANC – though I wish Apple had spent more time talking about the audio quality upgrades rather than all the clever AI gubbins, and had managed to deliver more than five hours of playback with ANC on.

Finally, the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 wearables, which come with yet more AI-powered health features and an Audio Intelligence live transcription service that lets you record, transcribe and check conversations in realtime – but sadly not the hi-res local music playback I’ve long asked for.

Yes, I like some of the stuff on offer, especially the 18 Pro’s new burgundy (Apple missed a trick not calling it Ron) colour and the in-frame camera mode for audio, which lets you cut out background noise when capturing a live performance.

And yes, technically Apple did say "and one more thing" before unveiling the Duo, despite every man/woman and their dog already knowing about it.

And, finally, yes, the two AirPods 5 models look decent, though I’m not impressed with either pair's quoted battery life with ANC on.

But that was it. There was nothing else on show to give us the old Apple “and one more thing” experience where we saw something we really were not expecting, and that, for me, is a crying shame.

Remember when Jobs' “one more thing” unveiled the Apple Cinema Display (a monitor with an atypical, at the time, 16:9 aspect ratio that was ideal for watching films)?

Or 2005, when he surprised us with the iPod Shuffle, and then, one year later, the first Apple TV?

Heck, he may not be as much of a showman as Jobs, but I can still hear the collective “ooh” from the team after Tim Cook’s “one more thing” unveiling of Apple Music in 2015.

To be clear (before I get hunted with torches and pitchforks by the Apple fans among our readers), that’s not a dig at the new hardware from the event – the new iPhones are as interesting as mobile devices can be for AV aficionados.

The firm has a strong record of delivering decent audio and picture quality on its iPhones, after all. That’s why, if you look at our list of Award-winners over the past decade, you’ll tend to see an iPhone on top as our recommended handset for serious music fans. So even a minor spruce-up to its offering is at least partially of interest.

And its foldable iPhone Duo has piqued my interest more than usual, as it has a similar movie-friendly aspect ratio to the five-star Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

If either AirPods 5 manages to fix our minor issues with the previous generation's lack of punch and dynamism, they could be great. So again, it's not about the tech it unveiled being particularly bad. We need to review it before we make any judgements like that.

I just wish it had something more meaty to show serious AV fans. Forget the Apple OLED TV or Dolby Atmos soundbar the team and I have been asking for; at this point, like our senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, I’d settle for a new Apple TV 4K.

Truthfully, I just want new stuff that hasn’t already been fully revealed in the sea of pre-event rumours to start appearing at Apple’s events again, as right now it all feels a bit stagnant.

MORE:

These are the best phones for serious music and movie fans

Our picks of the best wireless headphones

We rank the best wireless speakers money can buy

We are fully into Awards season. That means a bunch of testing to find which new hi-fi and home cinema products will dethrone our current What Hi-Fi? Award winners to reign supreme, and which current trophy holders will carry on leading the field in their respective categories and price points.

This does mean our test rooms are heaving with new products, from feature-packed DACs to new floorstanding speakers and the latest TVs and more.

We won't list them all here (that's in a super-secret spreadsheet for our eyes only), but below we've highlighted a handful of the key products that we can't wait to put through the testing process.

Sonos Beam Ultra

It has just been announced, but we are expecting the arrival of the new Sonos Beam Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar in our test rooms any day now. Costing £699 / $699 / AU$1099, the new model sits above the five-star, Award-winning Beam (Gen 2), and brings plenty of upgrades in its compact form.

The step-up Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam Gen 2 – which includes dedicated up-firing drivers for proper Dolby Atmos sound, for up to a 7.1.2-channel configuration.

The Beam Ultra will work with the updated Sonos 27 app, and will link with the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones to transfer sound between the two products. You'll also be able to use the portable Sonos Play and Move 2 as rear surround speakers with the Ultra.

Will Sonos be able to deliver a winning formula yet again? We shall see.

Rega Planar 6 RS Edition

At long last, we have Rega's Planar 6 RS Edition in our test rooms, which takes the standard, Award-winning Planar 6 turntable as a base and adds elements from the more premium Planar 8 (also five stars) into quite an attractive package.

The 6 RS features a foam core plinth sandwiched between two layers of high-pressure laminate that is coated in the same lovely brushed aluminium finish we've seen on the superb Planar 3 RS Edition. This adds rigidity while keeping things light – a key Rega engineering principle.

The top-of-the-line Nd9 moving magnet cartridge comes fitted as standard, and other elements taken from the P8 include the RB880 tonearm, an outboard power supply with electronic speed switching, and a double belt drive. Costing £2000, could this deliver the mid-way magic between the Planar 6 and Planar 8? We can't wait to take it for a spin.

Arcam A50 Signature

We're not the only ones celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. Arcam has also joined us in turning the big 5-0 and has launched the A50 Signature integrated amplifier to celebrate the milestone.

Billed as the "best-sounding integrated amplifier Arcam has ever produced", the A50 is the new flagship of the successful Radia line, which includes the Award-winning A5+ and A15+ stereo amplifiers.

It boasts 150W per channel into 8 ohms, with a fully dual-mono Class G architecture that aims to deliver purer audio. The specs list is exhaustive – analogue RCA and XLR, digital inputs including HDMI eARC and USB, MM/MC phono stage, and more.

Costing £2499 / $3000, the A50 Signature amp is also joined by a new CD25 CD player, that sits above the Award-winning CD5 – we have high hopes for both.

Ruark Talisman-R

We had an early listen to the Talisman-R speakers at the High End Vienna show in June, and now these premium floorstanders are waiting in the wings in our test room.

With a distinctive sloped baffle that harks back to the 1990 original, the new Talisman-R costs £1499 per pair and features a 27mm silk dome tweeter alongside a 16.5cm long-throw fibre woofer, updated cabinetry with internal bracing and real wood details.

We very much liked the previous-gen Talisman-R III's fast, dynamic and exciting performance, but that was a good 20 years ago. We're keen to find out if Ruark has held on to that same magic when we hear the new towers against their contemporary rivals.

TCL X11L

Despite also having an RGB Mini LED model (the TCL RM9L), TCL has banked on Quantum Dot tech for its flagship TVs. The £3999, 75-inch TCL X11L is the very TV with the tech we've had in our test room.

TCL's 'Super' QLED flagship TV features next-generation Quantum Dots along with a new super-high ‘Ultra’ colour filter, which put together should deliver a wider colour gamut, better brightness, more local dimming zones, slimmer designs and no colour crosstalk issues. The final point being a repeat issue we've seen crop up in some RGB Mini LED displays. It also comes with an integrated B&O sound system.

In our demo earlier this year, we were impressed with the X11L's "raw brightness", high contrast and wide colour range, so we are excited to see how it fares under our full review treatment.

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Read our Technics SL-1500CS review

The Linn LP12, Mission Cyrus One or a humble WiiM Pro Plus: what product got you into hi-fi?

Back with a bang! Sony has resurrected a classic pair of wireless headphones by launching the WH-1000XM4C

The summer holidays have ended, and we are all well and truly back in work mode as a result. At least that’s what it felt like for our team of hi-fi and home cinema experts last week, who were outright bombarded with hardware launches.

These included everything from multiple new Sonos products launching to the arrival of Yamaha’s new active speakers in our review rooms. So if you struggled to keep up with all the news, don’t worry.

As always, we’re here to help keep you apprised of all the most important AV developments with our latest Rewind column.

Sonos unveiled two new products

The biggest news of the week came from Sonos, which unveiled not one, but two, new pieces of hardware. First up are the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones. These are the second wireless headphones from the brand, following on from the three-star Sonos Ace we reviewed two years ago. Loaded with new drivers, refined tuning and upgraded ANC, Sonos made big claims about their improved audio quality at the event. Fingers crossed they ring true when we get the Ace Ultra in for testing.

Second, there was also a new Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar. Despite the naming, this isn’t a replacement for the long-lived, five-star Sonos Beam (Gen 2). Instead, the Ultra sits between the entry-level Beam (Gen 2) and Sonos Arc Ultra in the firm’s lineup. The biggest upgrade is the Beam Ultra’s new driver arrangement, which includes up-firing Atmos speakers. We haven’t reviewed it yet, but our staff writer, Robyn Quick, walked away from the demo session very impressed. We’re excited to get one into our viewing rooms for the full What Hi-Fi? review treatment, as a result.

Read the full story: Sonos Ace Ultra feature all-new drivers, updated ANC, and a "direct connection" to the current Sonos ecosystem

Read the full story: Sonos' new Beam soundbar is finally here with a big Dolby Atmos upgrade – but there’s still something missing

We reviewed Yamaha’s active speakers

Active speaker systems are a vogue category in the world of hi-fi right now, with the Cambridge Audio L/R series speakers, KEF LS Luxe and more already having passed through our review rooms this year. Last week, we had the Yamaha NX-70A wireless speaker system in our test rooms, continuing this trend.

Sandwiched between the five-star LS Luxe (£3500 / $4000 / AU$6375) and LS50 Wireless II systems (£2199 / $3000 / AU$4000) on price, they have stiff competition. But during testing we found plenty to like, with the units delivering a mature, spacious sound with a nicely extended, well-controlled bass. Add to this their stellar, high-quality build, and there’s a lot to like about them. Were it not for their strong rivals, which offer slightly more rhythmic drive, they’d be a class leader, rather than merely a valid alternative to the KEFs.

As we said in our review: “The Yamaha NX-70A is a sonically talented and highly adaptable wireless all-in-one speaker system. While it might not be an outright class leader, this system is nonetheless worthy of serious attention for its expansive feature set, heaps of aesthetic panache and mature, expressive sound.”

Read our full Yamaha NX-70A review

What Hi-Fi? readers unite behind Blu-ray

We always love it when we get to chat with you, our ever-opinionated readers – especially when the stars align and you agree with us. That’s exactly what happened last week when we collated your responses to our last Ask The Reader question: are we living in a golden age of home cinema?

You were all united in your response of no, we are not. But it was the reason for your rejection of said 'golden age' that caught our eye, with nearly all of you flagging the prevalence of streaming as a key reason, arguing that the technical and cultural benefits of physical media, especially Blu-ray, mean the days of yore were superior. We can’t help but agree.

Read the full story: The What Hi-Fi? readers have spoken and the age of streaming is not a golden one for home cinema – all hail the Blu-ray

A new premium Dolby Atmos system caught our eye

Samsung has long dominated the premium Dolby Atmos soundbar system space. That’s undeniable if you look at recent years’ What Hi-Fi? Award winners and our latest five-star review of the flagship Samsung HW-Q990H system.

But walking around the IFA tradeshow, our eagle-eyed (and eared) senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, spotted a potential rival with the technical chops to challenge for the crown this year. Specifically, the Hisense UX1.

Featuring satellite wireless surrounds and a subwoofer, complementing the central soundbar, the UX1 impressed him for three key reasons, which you can find out by clicking the article below.

Read the full story: Hisense is taking on the mighty Samsung HW-Q990H with a new Dolby Atmos soundbar system – here are 3 reasons I think it could be great

New Michi amps

Finally, last week Japanese brand Rotel unveiled two new additions to its premium line of separates: the Michi Prestige P430 preamplifier and Michi Prestige S430 stereo amplifier.

Offering music fans 230 watts per channel into 8 ohms worth of muscle, Rotel claims the S430 is designed for people who want to graduate from single box systems into the world of separates. Packed with custom hardware, Rotel claims it will deliver a sound full of dynamic impact and a firm but controlled low end.

Alongside it, Rotel is pitching its P430 preamplifier as an ideal purchase for music fans looking for modern connectivity alongside premium separates performance. Loaded with all the outputs you most people will ever need and built around an ESS SABRE ES9028PRO 8-channel DAC, Rotel claims the preamplifier will deliver audio with “pristine clarity, natural detail, and an open, precisely focused soundstage".

Both units are set to go on sale this month. The S430 will retail for £3599 / $3999 / €3999, while the P430 will cost £3599 / $3999 / €3999.

Read the full story: Double drop! Rotel expands its premium Michi portfolio with a new stereo amplifier and preamplifier

MORE:

Our reviewers rank the best stereo amps

These are the best hi-fi systems we’ve tested

Our picks of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

In the immortal words of Green Day, it might be tempting to skip this month and be woken up when September ends.

But then you'd miss the pretty great deals, especially if you or a loved one are heading to university in the coming weeks.

Whether you're into hi-fi or home cinema, there's a little something for everyone this week, all the way from mid-range Bluetooth speakers to premium AV receivers.

These are all products our expert reviewers have tried and tested, some as recently as last week. And all of the below have earned at least five stars to get the What Hi-Fi? recommended thumbs-up.

Curious? Take a look for yourself...

The Harman Kardon Luna 2 has a classy design with a ring light that is far more elegant than the garish party lights of other Bluetooth speakers. Sonically, it doesn't quite topple the class leaders, but it has an articulate, clear and spacious presentation with a particularly excellent midrange presence.

The iPhone 17 Pro may be superseded in a matter of weeks, but that just means there's some great discounts available now. At the time of writing, at least, the 17 Pro is the best iPhone yet for movies and music, with a gorgeous but balanced picture and superb sound.

The Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X may be studio headphones marketed at content creators, but there's plenty to offer consumers with excellent detail and a musical but articulate sound. If you’ve got a desktop hi-fi system in need of new headphones, these are one of our top recommendations, now at a new lowest price.

The Arcam AVR31 may be getting on a bit, but it's still one of the best AV receivers we've ever tested. It's a sophisticated, premium amplifier that offers both high-class sound and impressive connectivity features, with a healthy seven HDMI 2.1 inputs and three outputs. Now a whopping 57 per cent off.

A former What Hi-Fi? Award winner, the Sonos Era 300 is a wireless smart speaker that comes packing all the goodness and seamlessness of a Sonos system, with a key stand-out feature: spatial audio. However, it performs admirably with any format of music you throw at it, and the vast array of features go a long way toward justifying the price tag.

We've only just reviewed the Hisense PT1, but we were very impressed with the inclusion of a full tri-chroma (RGB) laser projection, built-in Vidaa smarts, a premium design and a potent integrated sound system for a very reasonable price. That price is now a whole lot more reasonable – pay only £1199 with the code RSTV400.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

It's *gasp* September. But before we start an existential crisis about how the year is moving too fast, the evenings are getting darker and it will be Christmas before we know it, it's time for our Pick of the Month column.

Here, our reviewers once again look back at all the great products that passed through our test rooms this month.

As you'd expect, these products have all been put through the proverbial wringer by our dedicated testing teams. Only devices that earned five stars are included here, with a whopping seven joining the club this month.

So luckily, we've done the hard work of sorting the wheat from the chaff – so take a look, and we'll explain why we rate them so highly below.

• Quiz! I made a TV tech crossword to test your knowledge - can you get 100%?

The Apple iPhone 17 Pro may have a successor in only a matter of days, but we still highly recommend it, especially now that it's available discounted. It's the best iPhone yet for movies and music, with a gorgeous but balanced picture and superb sound.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a pricey but brilliant portable movie machine with a bright, punchy and detailed picture and a new content-friendly aspect ratio. If you've been considering a folding phone, this is the most compelling option we've reviewed so far.

The smallest speakers in Dali’s new Sonik range follow in the footsteps of their floorstanding sibling, the five-star Sonik 5, with expressive, well-balanced sound and solid build quality. The Dali Sonik 1 will also forgive less than ideal placement, making them a strong choice for music lovers without a dedicated listening space.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is as close to cinematic as a tablet can get, with a huge Dynamic AMOLED 2X display screen and a peak brightness of 1600 nits. You'll want to make use of broader performance features and beefy specs for this price, but this is the Android tablet to beat for movies and music on the go.

Amazon's Fire Tablet range has long been incredibly good value, and the Amazon Fire HD 8 is no different. Available for well under £100 when on sale, the Fire HD 8 absolutely nails the basics when it comes to movies and music – and regularly surpasses them.

Yamaha continues one of head-fi's greatest comebacks. The Yamaha YH-C3000 sets a new standard in their high-end class, with a fast, clear, natural sound and fluid, expressive dynamics.

The Roksan Caspian 4G Streaming Pre-Amplifier/Caspian 4G Power Amplifier has some big shoes to fill, but does so effortlessly. The pairing is a refreshingly forward-looking combination with the sonic talent to worry the class leaders, and makes us highly excited for what Roksan does next. You'll have to purchase them separately – the Caspian 4G Power Amplifier is at Richer Sounds for £2999.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Looking to get the inside scoop on all the latest hi-fi news and reviews, with some added insights from our editor-in-chief (me)?

Keen to get a sneak peek at what our team of experts are working on, including which review units we’re testing, companies we’re visiting and events we’re attending?

Got an opinion to share that you’d like immortalised on What Hi-Fi?, in a new Quote of the Week section?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then we have some good news: we’re launching a new Editor’s Cut newsletter that will give you all three.

Editor’s Cut is part of a fresh push on What Hi-Fi? to make it easier for you, our lovely readers, to get to know and interact with our team of experts.

The newsletter will be sent every Saturday and will include a bespoke letter from our editor, plus his musings on the two biggest stories and reviews from the week.

On top of that, subscribers will be treated to a new What’s Next? summary detailing some of the big things coming the week after – including launch events we’re covering, products we’re testing and people we’re interviewing.

As is always the case with the likes of our regular Ask The Reader and Sound Advice columns and our new Substack, we’re open to feedback!

Whether it’s a new section you want added, or a question about one of the items in What’s Next?, or something you want us to raise with a manufacturer we're talking to, we want to hear from you!

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Happy Monday and welcome to another retrospective on all the big news over the past seven days in the worlds of hi-fi, TV and home cinema, plus our pick of the review headlines from our test team.

We’ve had a bit of everything this week, from Apple’s big annual announcement to a talented tablet from Samsung.

Here’s everything you need to know…

Naim launched Uniti Star Lite

We’ve been huge fans of Naim’s Uniti Star streaming system since it launched way back in 2016. And Naim took the wraps off a new version last week, but with one major change.

The new Lite model doesn’t have the built-in CD player and ripper of the original. Unfortunately, this is due to supply issues, but Naim does claim to have upped the audio performance from the machine. Even with the lack of CD-spinner, we can’t wait to get it in our test rooms.

“Uniti Star Lite is not simply the original Uniti Star without a CD drive” – Naim says its new streaming amp sounds better, too

Apple confirms September event

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Everyone in the world of tech has been waiting for that one email to go around announcing Apple’s intention to unleash its latest generation iPhone on the buying public.

But will it just be iPhones that we see this year? Rumour has it a new pair of AirPods could be on the way together with refreshed tablets and, if we’re lucky, maybe even a new Apple TV 4K. All will hopefully be revealed on the big date…

Apple’s September event has a date, which means the first foldable iPhone looks imminent – but what else is expected?

Xbox’s lifeline for physical media

Both cinephiles and gamers were disappointed when Sony announced that its next-generation PlayStation console was going to ditch physical discs, so imagine our surprise (and glee) when Xbox announced a new initiative which looks like it could keep the disc format ticking over for a little while yet.

"It's really a breakthrough in how we think about physical and digital media" – Xbox's latest announcement is a lifeline for physical media and a direct response to Sony's huge Blu-ray disc fumble

Samsung’s talented big-screen tablet

Our test team had a great time getting to grips with Samsung’s huge Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra tablet this week.

Okay, so we realise a 14.6in tablet isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you’re a movie fan who can’t live without their fix of the big screen on the move, we think the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has iPad Pro-rivalling credentials that need to be taken seriously.

Get the full lowdown in our Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review

Bose’s flagship soundbar falls short

Our experts were also excited to get Bose’s new Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar into our test rooms, but we weren’t exactly blown away by what this flagship Dolby Atmos ‘bar has to offer.

We felt it was a good-looking unit boasting premium build quality and an intuitive control app, but it was ultimately an unsatisfying and undynamic listen, and the Sonos Arc Ultra continues to be our recommendation at this premium level.

Read our full Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar review

FiiO reveals more retro-inspired hi-fi

FiiO loves retro-looking hi-fi components, and this week, it announced a product which “takes inspiration from the 'golden era of 1950s tube amplifiers". At £769 / $769 / €665 the EA13 is a relatively affordable full-size vacuum tube amplifier, but with a solid feature set and design.

FiiO's retro-modern amp takes inspiration from the "golden era of 1950s tube amplifiers"

McIntosh revealed a new streaming preamp

This week we got a glimpse of the wonderful blue lights of McIntosh’s VU meters, this time sat on the front of the company’s new CS7500 streaming preamplifier.

Dressed in McIntosh’s trademark black, green and blue colours, the CS7500 promises a wide assortment of connectivity options and all the streaming smarts you’d expect from a product costing over $12,000.

McIntosh’s new high-performance preamplifier combines classic looks with streaming smarts and a premium price tag

The rest of the week's news in brief:

Castle launches four new speakers that offer "a new level of performance" while retaining the brand's "natural warmth" and handcrafted cabinets

Yamaha bolsters its streaming arsenal with a feature-laden streaming amplifier and network music player

Apple might be about to launch new AirPods 5, but will they feature substantial improvements?

Eversolo brings streaming, downloads and physical CD playback together in one multitasking product

Porsche and Burmester have a new secret weapon for their car hi-fi systems, and it sounds like sci-fi

Another month, another set of home cinema products to review. We have been treated to a variety of models, from 4K projectors to Dolby Atmos soundbars.

But all of that needs to be tested with the very best movies and TV shows. We've got quite the range in our monthly Now Showing column for you, including old-school horror and one major new release that we can't wait to get into the test room.

Without further ado, here are our current top picks for testing.

X the Unknown (1956)

Words by Robyn Quick

If you’re a horror fan, then the cult classic X the Unknown is certainly one to add to your list. Released way back in 1956, it uncovers the cause of a string of mysterious deaths on a military base in rural Scotland. The culprit? A sentient blob simply called 'X'.

Its oozing presence is surprisingly disturbing as it terrorises the nearby sleepy town. The blob’s powers extend to burning and melting skin, which makes for unsettling viewing via the movie's tangible practical effects.

Hammer has just released a 70th anniversary collector's edition of the film in 4K, and it's a brilliant restoration. The crisp and detailed picture looks like it could have been shot yesterday, even in black and white.

There’s no Dolby Atmos, but the 5.1 mix is still a good test of your sound system to hear how it handles the dramatic soundtrack filled with brassy stings.

Buy X the Unknown on 4K Blu-ray from Hammer

The Odyssey (2026)

Words by Harry McKerrell

I might be the last person in the country to do so, but I finally made my own personal pilgrimage to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Honestly, Odysseus got home quicker than I managed to pop down to my local cinema to see 2026’s biggest release.

Well, second biggest, but I wasn’t in the mood for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

What else is there to say about one of the most discussed films in recent memory? The first feature-length movie ever to be shot exclusively using IMAX cameras, Nolan’s epic has all of the sweeping scope and fantastical spectacle you’d hope for from an adaptation of what is arguably Western literature’s most definitive tale, all while keeping the narrative grounded in its very human roots.

Ok, you won’t get the full benefit of IMAX if you’re just watching at your local picture house, but there’s still so much to be said for immersing yourself in that half-mythical world with a decent-sized screen and a full-blooded surround sound system, if only to enjoy Ludwig Göransson’s enchanting, earthy and often eerie masterwork of a score.

Odysseus took a total of 20 years to get back from the Trojan War. The least you can do is drive 15 minutes to the cinema to watch The Odyssey.

Like seeing craggy Ithaca once again, it’s totally worth it.

Buy The Odyssey soundtrack on Amazon

The Bear – Season 5

Words by Daniel Furn

Once a surprise breakout and now a critical darling and recipient of more than a few controversial Emmys in the comedy category, the stress-inducing culinary show The Bear struggled after its first two stellar seasons, with the third and fourth helpings suffering from meandering plotlines, distracting celebrity cameos and a lack of focus.

There’s clearly been a conscious decision to change things for this fifth and final serving, however. The first change is visual, with the show shifting to a widescreen look shot with anamorphic lenses. There’s a plot reason, however – gone are the tight, claustrophobic close-ups of Carmy’s chaotic reign, and in is a wider, more teamwork-oriented framing as the kitchen staff start to bond under Sydney’s more measured leadership.

Hans Zimmer is yet another welcome addition, making a rare crossover to the world of television with a jittery, peppery score that is perfect for the stressful goings-on of a high-end Chicago kitchen on a spectacularly busy night. And while there’s still no Atmos support, the clinking of cutlery and a season-long rainstorm give the surrounds a surprising amount of work this time around.

The third big change? The Bear’s final season all takes place over one particularly dramatic and stormy day. It may be better off binged as, in true The Bear fashion, we have a few aimless early episodes.

However, it all builds to one truly captivating, satisfying and occasionally nail-biting final service, as pretty much every character gets to wrap up their character arc and showcase five seasons of growth. Chef’s kiss.

Stream The Bear on Disney Plus

MORE:

Check out our list of the best 4K Blu-ray players

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

And these are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, too

On sale now, #368 of Sound+Image delivers our regular 100 pages of news, reviews and views - packed with reviews, and loaded this issue with all the AV winners of the EISA Awards!

EISA Awards 2026-2027
Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines are EISA’s exclusive representatives for Home Theatre and Hi-Fi here in Australia voting together with a community of 50+ technology magazines, websites and social media commentators from 27 countries, to reward the best products in each class of each sector with a coveted EISA Award.

All the AV winners are fully featured in the new Sound+Image; you can also find details on our microsite here.

VALVES vs SOLID-STATE
Join the classic debate!

- Musical Fidelity M6xi integrated amplifier
First, a solid-state design from no lesser an amplification master than Musical Fidelity: the solid-state contender is the new update of the company's best-selling integrated amp, bearing massive solid-state power provision.

- Fezz Audio Titania MK2 integrated amplifier
Now the valves: this Polish design aims to simplify the valve amp, improving ease of use and reliability while retaining the joys of seven glowing valves, not to mention three enormous toroids.

REVIEWS GALORE!
Independent, in-depth reviews of the latest, greatest kits and potentially some duffers – we'll let you know...

- Yamaha NX-70A wireless streaming hi-fi speakers
A big secret at the Australian Hi-Fi Show in Sydney, then revealed at Vienna, and now shortly to be released to the world: meet Yamaha’s active streaming NX-70A standmount speakers.

- LeIca Cine Compact 1 smart mini projector
Leica has released a third projector leveraging the camera-maker’s special abilities in glass and lens manufacture; it marks a new affordable entry point to the luxury line.

- Primare Allt-i-Ett all-in-one audio system
The modern breed of large console-style all-in-ones gain from streaming abilities, app control, all manner of cunning tech, and this one even comes with extra added Scandi hygge.

- Richter Dragon Series 7SE floorstanding speakers
Richter rocks the room with the re-imagined return of the Aussie company’s famous Dragon floorstander, resplendent in an all-new Series 7 Special Edition.

- Denon Home 200, 400, 600 wireless smart speakers
Three new wireless smart speakers provide the first options for standalone sound, here built for streaming with HEOS multiroom on board.

- JBL Xtreme 5 Bluetooth speaker
It’s a long-running favourite model with us for its bottle-opener and remarkably unboxy sound, and JBL’s latest Xtreme 5 has bulked things up still more.

- Sennheiser RS 275 TV headphones package
Sennheiser’s classic ‘RS’ series of TV headphones is here reborn using the new Auracast standard to send your TV sound to these lightweight headphones.

- ASUS ROG Kithara hi-fi gaming headset
The planar-magnetic ASUS ROG Kithara is designed for a double life: microphone attached to keep gamers alert and alive, or hi-fi cables for music listening.

Happy Bank Holiday weekend!

While Bank Holidays are best known for long weekends away, late evening plans and general relaxation, they're also a great time for deals.

We've seen plenty pop up already, from last year's Product of the Year TV to 2026 contenders, to cinematic tablets and projectors. You can see them all below.

These are all products we've tried, tested and reviewed ourselves – regardless of the discount, we'll only recommend a product if it has earned four stars or more.

So sit back, relax and browse some deals as the weekend begins...

Even if you're not an audiophile, there's a good chance you've heard of the Sony 1000X series before. As a tenth anniversary present, the Japanese tech giant released Sony 1000X The Collexion, which combines the line's technology with a sonic signature that prioritises scale, detail and clarity.

If your budget only stretches to an entry-level OLED, then the Samsung S85H is an excellent contender. It features good peak brightness at this price level, as well as a punchy, three-dimensional picture and solid feature support. Use the code RED20 at checkout to get this deal price.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has a huge, bright 14.6-inch screen that's ridiculously immersive for a tablet. It also boasts enough power to function as a laptop replacement. Use the code BH15 to save an extra 15 per cent this Bank Holiday weekend.

The Sony Bravia 8 II is our TV product of the year at its lowest price yet. Need we say more? We'd currently recommend not updating the system software due to current issues, but otherwise this is an exceptionally bright, vibrant and three-dimensional TV. Save £250 with the code TRADE250.

Finally, the Hisense C2 Ultra is designed with convenience in mind, but we still found the pictures to be bright and punchy and the sound often outstanding for a projector. We only reviewed the 4K projector this week, but there's already a £200 discount.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Happy Monday and welcome to the latest entry in our regular hi-fi and home cinema news digest, Rewind.

The heatwave may be over in our native Blighty, but that hasn’t stopped a wealth of hot new hardware from flooding our review rooms, including a particularly capable set of affordable standmounts from Dali.

Here are all the facts on the top stories from last week.

Dali’s affordable standmounts are great

Dali is now officially one five-star review away from being on a hot streak. Following our five-star review of the firm’s Sonik 5 floorstanders, lightning struck again last week, with the smaller, more affordable Sonik 1 also earning top marks from our testers.

Designed to work in even the smallest spaces, while retaining Dali’s “iconic” sound, the Sonik 1 is one of the most affordable options you will find in the Danish brand’s current range. As we said in our review:

“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.”

Read our full Dali Sonik 1 review

Monitor Audio updated its Silver range of speakers

Monitor Audio last week unveiled its new Silver Series 8G range of speakers. Designed for stereo and surround sound arrangements, the range includes seven models.

If you want floorstanders, there are two options: the top-end Silver 500 8G and the step-down Silver 300 8G. Below them, you then get the Silver 100 8G and Silver 50 8G standmounters.

For home cinema systems, it then features the Silver Centre 8G central channel and Silver AMS 8G Dolby Atmos-enabled height speakers. Finally, the range also includes a wall-mountable model, the Silver On-Wall 8G.

Specifications and pricing differ among each model, but every 8G speaker features Monitor Audio’s proprietary Ceramic-Coated Aluminium / Magnesium (C-CAM) driver material, which the firm claims will let them “set a new benchmark for high-fidelity performance”.

We’ll hopefully be able to check this claim if and when we get the new speakers into our listening rooms.

Read the full story: Monitor Audio updates its popular Silver range of speakers to “set a new benchmark for high-fidelity performance at its price”

Technics launched a limited edition turntable

The Technics SL-1200 is an iconic turntable, especially in DJ circles, thanks to its durable direct drive design. So much so that even if you’re not into vinyl, you would probably recognise at least one version of it. Which is why it’s no surprise the Japanese brand has decided to celebrate the iconic record spinner turning 55 by launching a nifty new SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition model.

Designed to “pay tribute to a turntable lineage that has helped define DJ culture”, the unit comes with a golden design and a wealth of premium parts. The only downside is that you’ll have to act fast to get one, as Technics is only making 12,000 units globally. Pricing is yet to be revealed…

Read the full story: Technics is celebrating 55 years of its legendary SL-1200 turntable with a limited-edition design

A word of warning about dodgy new vinyl

There are a lot of misconceptions about vinyl. One of the biggest we hear, especially from people new to the format, is that a vinyl record will automatically be better than what you get on streaming services.

Sadly, that’s not always the case. We've talked a lot about the importance of which specific pressing you get, especially with older albums. But recently we’ve seen a new wave of first-time pressings arrive that are, frankly, not good enough.

These include releases from Raye, Charli xcx, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd and more that are full of glaring omissions, ranging from unfinished mixes being used instead of the final cut to entire songs missing.

You've been warned.

Read the full story: Beware: these vinyl albums are actually worse than their streaming versions

MORE:

These are the best turntables we’ve tested

We rank the best bookshelf speakers

Our picks of the best surround sound systems

The heatwaves here in the UK have finally subsided, and we've been enjoying our first smattering of *gasp* actual rain.

Not to worry, though – there are deals on two great waterproof speakers that will be sure to survive a downpour if you still have outdoor plans, as well as plenty to keep you occupied inside should a thunderstorm emerge.

As always, our recommendations are all based on first-hand testing. All the below products have received at least four stars, the minimum required to get the What Hi-Fi? deals thumbs up.

So take a look below – you can finally stop thinking about buying more fans and air conditioning units...

If you're a regular What Hi-Fi? reader, you've likely heard us praise the JBL Xtreme speaker line numerous times. The robust speakers have no problem with water and dust, and the Xtreme 4 model offers clear, detailed sound, tight, weighty bass and a straightforward user experience. Now nearly half price.

The Sonos Era 100 SL doesn't have the microphone of the Sonos Era 100, but otherwise it's identical, with the same big, open sound, crisp, clear detail and pleasing way with rhythm. Add in a ton of streaming features and a lower price than the original model, and you've got yourself quite the bargain.

The Grado SR325x have won five What Hi-Fi? Awards in a row thanks to their excellent detail and dynamics, hugely entertaining performance and a rugged build. Now under £200, an excellent price for one of the best headphones we've tested in the last 20 years.

The 43-inch Samsung U8000F is a good all-rounder for both gaming and video, with impressive motion handling in particular. It's a fine pick if you're heading to university next month, but also a great value budget TV if your student days are behind you.

The Sony Bravia Projector 8 (VPL-XW6100ES) is definitely pricey even with a £4,500 discount, but its What Hi-Fi? Award proves it's worth the money. With excellent contrast and detail, stunning black depth and two HDMI 2.1 sockets, it's a top pick for anyone with deep enough pockets.

The Bose SoundLink Max combines a rugged, ergonomic design, a lively, energetic sound and powerful, tight bass. Its IP67 dust- and water-proof rating will also protect you from rain, shine or whatever else the weather has in store for us this year.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Quiz! Take on our turntable-themed crossword for a spin and see how quickly you can solve the clues

Struggled to stay on top of all the latest hi-fi and home cinema news during last week’s heatwave?

Don’t sweat it, as our experts have penned a fresh entry in our weekly hi-fi and home cinema news digest, Rewind, summing up all the salient points of which serious music and movie fans should be apprised.

Goldmund unveiled its “most advanced amplifier yet”

Last week, high-end hi-fi specialist Goldmund unveiled its new Telos 9800 stereo amplifier, openly describing it as the most advanced it has ever made.

We haven’t had a chance to listen to it, so we can’t verify those claims. But there’s no denying it has some impressive hardware.

The unit delivers 1560 watts of power into 8 ohms and is built around an entirely new amplification platform that physically separates the power supply and amplification stages – a first for Goldmund.

This apparently lets the two operate under more optimal conditions, thus preserving the powerhouse amp’s mechanical and electrical integrity.

The unit is set to retail for £370,000 / €430,000 / $500,000, so we’re hoping the company’s bold performance claims ring true. There’s no room for anything less at this end of the market, after all.

Read the full story: Goldmund's "most advanced amplifier ever" is packed with cutting-edge tech and costs more than a Ferrari

Are listening bars forgetting their purpose?

Regular readers will know that our intrepid staff writer, Robyn Quick, has been covering the invasion of Japanese-style Kissa bars into our native London for the past few months – and for the most part, has been incredibly positive about the experience.

After all, what’s not to like about a bar dedicated to listening to music on a decent sound system, with like-minded aficionados? But after continuing her quest to find the ultimate Kissa bar in which to enjoy listening to music, she noticed a disturbing trend last week – people seem to have forgotten it's the music, not their latest gossip, we’re interested in hearing when visiting a Kissa bar.

Read the full story: This listening bar experience made me question whether the trend has gone too far

We reviewed Philips' new boombox

Wired headphones, CDs, tape players and, of course, vinyl; lots of retro audio tech is in vogue with young people right now. Which is why we weren’t at all surprised when Philips decided to give the iconic boombox a Gen-Z-focused revival.

The new Philips Roller is a Bluetooth speaker designed to look like the firm’s iconic portable boombox of yesteryear. And while our testers found there are more sonically sophisticated alternatives on the market, it was hard not to fall in love with its quirky retro design when they reviewed it last week.

Read our full Philips The Roller review

It looks like new Sonos headphones are on the horizon

It’s no secret that Sonos’ first headphones, the Ace, didn’t wow our reviewers. While there was a lot going for the Sonos Ace, ultimately middling audio quality was their undoing, leading to a mediocre three-star rating.

Which is why we were surprised to see reports break, suggesting the firm is on the verge of releasing another pair of wearable noise-makers last week. The reports stemmed from an FCC filing first spotted by Lowpass. The filing includes diagrams of the alleged new unit, which most believe is the Ace Ultra people have been speculating about for the past year.

All of this is unofficial at the moment, but if true, the IFA tech tradeshow, where the firm has unveiled hardware in the past, is just around the corner. Watch this space…

Read the full story: Sonos will launch new wireless headphones next month, official filing suggests

MORE:

These are the best stereo amps we’ve reviewed

We rate the best Bluetooth speakers for music fans

The best wireless headphones ranked by our reviewers

If you're reading this in the UK, there's a good chance you're rather hot right now.

Luckily, we have some good news for you – firstly, it's the weekend, and secondly, temperatures are set to drop next week.

So there's no better way to celebrate than to check out some of the top hi-fi and home cinema deals of the week.

This includes record lows on some of the biggest new products of the year so far – the Sony Bravia Trio, the Sony Bravia 7 II and the JBL Xtreme 5 – as well as some savings on some older favourites.

As always, these are all products that our expert testers have reviewed and rated themselves. They've all earned at least four stars, the requirements for a What Hi-Fi? recommendation.

So why not have a browse...

With a main soundbar and two front-facing satellites, the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio is an unusual design that essentially splits a soundbar into three separate speakers. The result, however, is a much bigger and more immersive soundstage than a regular soundbar, and one of the finest Dolby Atmos systems you can buy today.

The Arcam AVR31 might be a few years old now, but the imminent arrival of Arcam's new AV receivers means there's now a phenomenal £3300 off. Despite its age, the AVR31 is a sophisticated, premium amplifier that offers both high-class sound and impressive connectivity features, with seven HDMI 2.1 inputs and three outputs.

The Triangle AIO Twin can play just about anything thanks to its myriad connectivity options. But most importantly, the sound is enthusiastic and capable despite fitting wi-fi streaming, Bluetooth and built-in amplification into one affordable, compact speaker system.

The Sony Bravia 7 II is one of the more affordable ways to get hold of the new RGB Mini LED technology, especially when you use the code SONYRGB15 to get 15 per cent off. It's one of the best backlit TVs we have ever tested, with its RGB Mini LED panel producing vibrant, natural and balanced colours while also boasting excellent depth and solidity.

The JBL Xtreme 5 is one of our favourite products of the year so far, offering the usual impressive build quality but also an impressive sense of scale and excellent clarity. Ideal for tunes outside in the garden when temperatures are more sensible.

For only £69, the Award-winning Sony WF-C710N offer a great sense of musicality as well as fulsome, controlled bass, 30 hours of battery life and capable noise cancelling. Glass blue, pink and white are all available at this discounted price.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Quiz! How fast can you solve our turntable challenge? Test your wordsearch skills now

Time really is flying by — Father's Day in Australia is now just days away, landing this Sunday, September 6 meaning your time really is running out to secure your father, or father figure, a gift to show him how much he means to you.

We're not the first, and we won't be the last, to say point out socks, a mug or a foolproof skincare set simply won't cut it in 2026, so we've put together a comprehensive list of expert- and dad-approved AV gifts covering everything from hi-fi to home cinema.

Many of our picks are certified What Hi-Fi? Award winners, so you can rest assured that your dad will be beaming like a cheshire cat when he opens it. We’ve also deliberately turned to Amazon for many of our choices, primarily for the super-speedy delivery via Prime. Read on for our selection of the best Father's Day gifts for Aussie audiophile dads.

Father's Day hi-fi gift ideas

Father's Day home cinema gift ideas

Father's Day headphone gift ideas

Father's Day portable speaker gift ideas

It’s been a great year for tech so far.

As you can tell from our round-up of the best hi-fi and home cinema products of 2026, there has been something for everyone, including some rather excellent soundbars, wireless earbuds and OLED TVs.

But these new releases very much have the prices of 2026 products too – while we have seen some discounts trickle in, particularly over Prime Day, most have not dipped their toes too far below full price.

And that’s where the previous-generation models come in. They may lack some of the newer features and innovations of this year’s releases, but they can also offer much better value due to their reduced price.

So we have rounded up a few of our favourite five-star products that, while they may have been superseded, are still excellent purchases in our eyes. We’ll list their current prices, and it’s well worth keeping an eye on them in case they drop further, especially since some may be discontinued soon.

We will caveat all this by saying that some of these prices may fall even further on Black Friday – and their 2026 counterparts may well get discounts that make them a more viable purchase – but if you just can’t wait or need a replacement right now, then it is an excellent time to look at buying one of the below:

TCL’s 2025 TV Range

The TCL C7K and TCL Q6C are two of the best budget TVs we have tested in the past 18 months. The C7K in particular won a 2025 What Hi-Fi? Award, and sits on our best TV buying guide as our best budget large TV option.

The only problem? The two TVs are not available any more, at least not in the 65-inch sizes we reviewed. With TCL’s 2026 range now out in the wild, it seems that last year’s models are starting to be phased out already, despite still holding up well a year later.

The C7K and Q6C are still available in other sizes, while the five-star TCL C8K is still available in 65 inches. We recommend keeping an eye on these models if you’re after a big-screen budget bargain – they may well start disappearing, and there could be some last-minute savings beforehand.

JBL Xtreme 4 & Go 4

With the excellent JBL Go 5 and Xtreme 5 now out in the wild and in our best Bluetooth speakers buying guide, the previous models will inevitably start winding down.

The JBL Xtreme 4 has already seen some significant discounts – the rugged Award winner can quite often be found at £179 now, a whopping 46 per cent saving and the lowest price we saw the Xtreme 3 drop to.

It is possible that the Xtreme 4 may go even lower come Black Friday, but it’s a product worth keeping an eye on. The Xtreme 5 is still hanging around the £279 mark at the time of writing, so £179 is a very reasonable price.

The JBL Go 4 is also available at a rock-bottom £27 at Amazon. It was already cheap as chips to begin with, but if you’re determined to get the best price possible, there still might be a few more pounds shaved off – we saw the Go 3 hit £25.

Samsung HW-Q990F

The Samsung HW-Q990F has already hit an incredible low of £695 over Prime Day. That’s a whopping 59 per cent discount.

Its successor, the Samsung HW-Q990H, is currently hovering around the £1200 mark. We anticipate a healthy discount on Black Friday, however, as the Q990F hit £819 during the sales event last year.

If you’re determined to make the biggest saving right now, and don’t mind missing out on the touch more nuance, detail and scale that the Q990H offers, the Q990F is well worth snapping up if you spot it around the £700 mark.

The Q990F offers a crisp, engaging and dynamic sound, with an especially impressive bass performance courtesy of the compact cube subwoofer. We gave it five stars at full price; now it’s more than 50 per cent off that, it’s an absolute bargain.

LG C5

Once we hit Black Friday, the discounts are quite likely to come in hard for the LG C6 and it may well be worth the extra cost over the C5.

If you absolutely can’t wait until November, then the LG C5 is available with some excellent discounts right now. It hit some rock-bottom prices over Prime Day, and it’s not too far off now – the 55-inch model can be picked up for just under a grand, an awesome price for an accomplished, multi-Award-winning OLED.

Whatever size you go for, however, the C5 offers some of the best value in the OLED market, and indeed the TV market as a whole, right now. With a rich, solid and engaging picture, excellent contrast, and an excellent feature set that gamers especially will love, the C5 won’t feel outdated for quite some time.

Sony WF-1000XM5

The wireless earbuds market has moved on quite a bit since the Sony WF-1000XM5 made an Award-winning splash in 2023. These buds, though, are no slouch in the audio department – especially if you can grab them at a good discount.

With top-notch musicality and timing, and a comfortable, discreet design, the Sony WF-1000XM5 are fantastic all-rounders. It’s hard to go wrong with the Sony WF-1000XM series, even if it is an older model.

We saw the WF-1000XM5 drop to a low of £160 in April this year, and they are still a great buy at this price – though it’s worth keeping an eye on the Sony WF-1000XM6 also, which offer improvements to sound and noise cancelling and hit an only slightly more expensive £199 over Prime Day.

Marantz CD6007

The Marantz CD6007 is a bit of a legend in What Hi-Fi?'s hallowed halls, having won a coveted What Hi-Fi? Award every year for the past five years thanks to its clear, insightful sound, tight bass and solid build.

However, its status as our go-to recommendation at this level has just been reduced by the newly arrived Marantz CD 70, which offers a step up in terms of clarity, punch and solidity.

Still, the CD6007 is currently available for a good £150 cheaper, and may well drop further once the CD 70 has had a bit of time in the sun. Worth considering before stock inevitably dries up!

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And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested

Just like What Hi-Fi?, the worlds of TV and home cinema have managed to cram in a huge amount over the past 50 years.

TV technology and picture quality have changed dramatically: we have moved from small colour CRT (cathode-ray tube) sets, to huge high-tech flatscreens capable of showing millions of pixels and amazing 4K images.

On the home cinema side, we’ve seen format wars, and a move from stereo to surround sound with newfound levels of immersion; while the age of streaming has introduced a dizzying amount of content for us all to experience.

As part of our own 50th Anniversary celebrations, we reached out to some of the industry’s veterans for their perspectives on how the TV and home cinema markets have changed over the past five decades. Has it all been positive and plain sailing, or have there been challenges along the way?

This is what they had to say.

TV’s transformation

You can’t get away from the fact that the good ol’ TV has changed dramatically since 1976. It’s something that isn’t lost on John Archer, a hugely experienced freelance TV reviewer with more than 30 years of box-watching and box-moving under his belt…

“Everything about them has changed radically over the past 50 years, from their basic shape and size to the types of technology making their pictures, the resolutions and vividness of the pictures they show, the immersiveness of the sound accompanying their pictures, and their profound shift from being totally passive entertainment devices to becoming the smartest product in the room.

Not that this rate of TV change was particularly obvious in 1976. We were in the midst of a Cathode Ray Tube TV run then, that stretched all the way from the 1930s through to the early 2000s - a length of reign that is hard to imagine in today’s ever-changing TV market.

As someone who found himself, early on in his TV reviewing career, having to get a massive Sony Trinitron CRT TV weighing 90kg up two flights of stairs to a flat that felt smaller than the TV, the shift to much slimmer LCD TVs in the late 1990s has to stand out as one of the TV world’s most welcome watershed moments - even though the picture quality of those early ‘flat’ TVs actually left a lot to be desired compared with the best CRTs they superseded.

These early flat TV performance-concerns meant that, even though reviewing TVs had become much less wearing on my back, it wasn’t until plasma screens started to hit their stride in the early 2000s that the flat TV generation really came of age. Using self-emissive pixels enabled these TVs to deliver the sort of contrast, at last, that home cinema fans had craved since CRT left the scene.

The significance of plasma screens grew significantly - literally - as brands found ways of making them at screen sizes that would have been unthinkable in CRT’s day.

I had enjoyed hanging out with rear-projection TVs for a while as brands looked for ways to turn living rooms into home cinemas, but big-screen plasma TVs were just so much more generally manageable than any rear-projection option. Though, having said that, it did take four men and a crane to get a 103-inch Panasonic plasma TV into my test room back in the day…

Ironically, one of the biggest reasons for plasma’s ultimate demise came from the final TV innovation that stands out to me as genuinely revolutionary: High Dynamic Range.

Plasma TVs just couldn’t deliver the sort of brightness and colour intensity the colossally expanded light ranges and colour gamuts associated with HDR without using huge amounts of power or suffering from the dreaded screen burn effect.

OLED TVs came along to pick up the self-emissive TV baton - though it has actually really been only over the past four or five years that OLED TVs have really got to grips with what HDR can truly bring to the picture quality table.

HDR hasn’t been without its problems. It’s still challenging for budget TVs to deliver HDR effectively, for instance, and content creators have been frustratingly slow to truly embrace it. But once you have experienced HDR delivered well, going back to SDR feels like going back to the dark ages.”

Arcam co-founder John Dawson agrees and also notes that changes to TV technology have been mirrored in improvements to the methods and techniques actually employed to help production: “The picture quality of TV has improved beyond the wildest dreams of the 1976 consumer.

Back then, colour TV broadcasting in the UK was less than 10 years old. We only had the cathode ray tube in diagonal sizes of up to about 26 inches, using the shadow mask and, later, Sony's Trinitron technology, to generate a colour image in our living rooms.

Professional archiving was possible only on film or on videotape; the home versions of the latter (VCRs) had picture noise and very poor resolution, about 200 lines compared with the theoretical 576 active lines of standard broadcast TV.

Since then, the advances in TV cameras in resolution, geometry, colour depth and accuracy have been profound, largely driven by the revolution in computing and microelectronics fabrication. This has been mirrored in display performance (think 4K, 10-bit flat panels of all sizes), delivery (over the air, satellite and streaming video) and storage options (DVD, Blu-ray, hard drives etc).”

Dawson also makes the point that there hasn’t been a huge increase in cost for the consumer: “When colour TVs were first sold in the UK in 1968, the average price of a 20 inch set was about £300.

That would also have bought you more than half of an Austin/Morris Mini! Prices remained comparable in 1976, but with larger tube sizes and improved reliability. Interestingly, most sets were rented rather than purchased outright. Miraculously, one can still buy a reasonable flatscreen TV today for the same amount of money!”

Bringing the cinema home

Obviously, picture is only one half of the TV/AV equation. Where does sound fit in? And how has the journey brought us to the immersive formats we have now?

Roger Batchelor is a freelance consultant who has worked with Denon for the best part of 35 years.

“1976 was early days for colour TV in the UK, and for high-quality audio from TV for most people. It always fascinated me, though, that Saul Marantz included a “TV” input on his original Audio Consolette pre-amplifier in 1952!

During the 1980’s, I was branch manager for a UK Hi-Fi/TV retailer. In those days our TV showroom was at the front of the store with a separate Hi-Fi demo room at the rear. Not until the BBC “NICAM” stereo TV sound test broadcasts in the mid-’80s did we consider putting a TV and VCR in the Hi-Fi demo room.

By the early 1990s, AV amplifiers were gaining ground in the UK, and this was the first opportunity for people to experience just how good TV sound could be. These were exciting times and, by 1995, the first Laser Discs with Dolby AC-3 encoded soundtracks were released, providing AV companies with a significant uplift in sound quality for their demonstrations at shows and in retailer demo rooms.

When the DVD format arrived a couple of years later, “Home Cinema” really took off, helped by the rapid development of TVs, from rear-projection sets to plasma screens and eventually LCD and beyond. In addition, front projectors were becoming more affordable for those prepared to dedicate the space to accommodate a large screen.

Around the same time, Lucasfilm THX certification provided a boost to AV products at the high-end for both electronics and loudspeakers. THX also started to provide training courses for AV industry personnel, swiftly followed by associations such as the Home Acoustics Alliance (HAA) and the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). Along with training from AV manufacturers and distributors, these helped considerably to drive the industry forward in terms of knowledge and expertise.

This period also saw the rapid growth in custom installation, which had a profound effect on the industry with new companies being established to specialise in this market. More training courses and seminars became available from CEDIA and the UK’s Clarity Alliance, and all these organisations continue to offer education for professionals.

On the other hand, AV amplifiers and processors were becoming too complex for customers who wanted a straightforward set-up that they could install themselves.

Manufacturers began to realise this and eventually made it much easier to install an AV amplifier by developing a concise on-screen setup guide to talk the user through each stage of installing an amplifier and multi-channel speaker system.

As TV streaming has become dominant due to its convenience there is the downside of the reduction in sound quality compared to that available from Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray discs.

For the very best sound, you can’t beat a disc with a Dolby True HD or DTS-HD Master Audio encoded soundtrack playing through an AV amplifier connected to a dedicated speaker package. Furthermore, Dolby Atmos is even more effective from a disc than it is from streaming, provided suitable speakers are installed.”

Eric Kingdon, is a technical marketing consultant for Sony and has had a hand in a number of the brand’s Award-winning AV (and hi-fi) products over the years. He thinks a combination of factors have helped get us to where we are today…

“I guess the biggest benefit is the shift to a greater cinematic experience, particularly in terms of quality and sheer size, which applies to both displays and delivery systems. Thanks to 4K, improved internet, superior compression and lossless coding systems, it’s a far cry from a simple Dolby surround add-on processor, with a matrixed mono rear sound.

In a way the industry worked together from recording to delivery, apart from the inevitable competing formats along the way. It’s also interesting how different aspects of technology fed off each other – hi-fi sound on analogue video recorders made people realise the possibilities for home theatre.

Even with optical discs, initially LP-sized, it began with analogue, then digital when more discrete channels brought the experience home. Digital technology has been responsible for the proliferation of content and devices.

The consumer has gained from systems that can integrate into almost any space, both personal and in the home.

DSP with greater power and computation has enabled virtual processing for height and additional channels simply not possible before – technology like 360 Spatial Sound Mapping has added more speakers without the need for further enclosures.

Manufacturers like Sony and stalwarts such as Dolby have all played their part. We’ve gained choice through quality streaming services and fuss-free connection thanks to the use of wireless systems. I also believe the media helped in highlighting the need to bring high-quality music and AV reproduction to a similar level of quality.

The past 50 years have been an exciting story, and we have gained so much – this whole area of entertainment drove innovation.”

The technology has improved, but it’s not perfect

As always seems to be the case with the evolution of technology, it hasn’t been a completely smooth ride. Rob Hay, Director of Marketing at AudioQuest, notes how important it has been to understand the shifts from a technical point of view, so the end user can enjoy the claimed benefits to their fullest.

“Every advance in cameras, microphones, production formats and content delivery has placed greater demands on the connections carrying the signal. From AudioQuest’s perspective, our role has remained remarkably consistent: to understand the technical requirements of each connection and do everything possible to avoid introducing distortion, corruption or disruption.

Even a seemingly simple aerial or coaxial cable deserves attention to its impedance, dielectric and termination. In the analogue era, shortcomings might have produced a slightly fuzzy picture; with digital, they are more likely to cause pixelation, dropouts or no picture at all.

HDMI promised to be the single cable that did everything, but its evolution has not always made life easier for consumers. Successive specifications, confusing “speed” claims, EDID communication problems and HDCP have all added complexity.

Gaming, meanwhile, has progressed from the simple electronic tennis of the Magnavox Odyssey to a vast range of consoles and games with their own demanding video and audio requirements; technology such as Unreal Engine now even helps to create some of our favourite films and television programmes.

Yet confusion is hardly new. From Betamax versus VHS and HD DVD versus Blu-ray to Dolby Digital, DTS and today’s Dolby Atmos systems, we have sometimes made progress feel more bewildering than exciting – and kept consumers reliant on specialist retailers and press to make sense of it all.”

As someone who has seen it change during my near two decades at What Hi-Fi?, these words from Rob ring especially true:

“The experience is unquestionably better than it was in 1976. But as an industry we should remember that innovation only really succeeds when it is reliable, understandable and practical in a family living room.”

MORE:

1976 vs today: veteran audio experts discuss the biggest shifts in music and hi-fi during What Hi-Fi?'s 50-year lifetime

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Our pick of the best TVs and best projectors for all budgets

August is here, and while many of us may be focused on the imminent Bank Holiday weekend or the family summer vacation we’ve been planning all year, that hasn’t stopped the hi-fi and home cinema news from flooding in.

So we’ve once again penned a fresh entry to our weekly hi-fi and home cinema news digest, Rewind, breaking down all the key announcements every discerning film or music fan should be aware of.

A new player from Astell & Kern

Astell & Kern is the first brand most of us think of when talking about premium portable music players, which is why when it launched its spiffy new PD5 last week, we stood up and took notice.

The PD5 is the successor to the Astell & Kern SR35, which launched back in 2023 and won back-to-back What Hi-Fi? Awards all the way up to last year.

The new player features a similar design, but thoroughly reworked internals. These include eight Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs, a new EnviroTune feature designed to let the player optimise its settings to ambient conditions and a more efficient circuit that adds eight hours of extra battery life, bringing it up to 28 hours of listening from a single charge.

Read the full story: The Astell & Kern PD5 digital audio player follows the Award-winning SR35 with a 28-hour battery life and eight DAC

We asked engineers to break down the difference between hi-fi speakers and studio monitors

One of the big questions we always get from hi-fi newbies is, what’s the difference between normal and studio monitor speakers? And when we explain, they usually then follow up with, “So shouldn’t I get the ones the pros use?”

Last week, we decided to get answers to both questions directly from the horse’s (engineer’s) mouth. Ever-curious staff writer Ioan Hazell chatted to industry heavyweights from big-name brands, getting their hot takes on the strengths and weaknesses of hi-fi speakers and studio monitors.

Read the full story: “What are the real differences between studio monitors and hi-fi speakers? We asked the professionals”

Marantz launched new AV receivers

It was another busy week for hi-fi and home cinema powerhouse Marantz. Fresh off the back of our experts publishing their Marantz CD 70 and Model 70 reviews, the firm unveiled not one but four new AV receivers last week.

Specifically, the brand lifted the lid on its new Cinema 50 Series 2, Cinema 60 Series 2, Cinema 60 DAB Series 2 and Cinema 70s Series 2 AVRs.

The 50 Series 2 is the brand’s new flagship (apparently the naming follows golf scoring conventions, so lower is better), but every model is built around a 32-bit, eight-channel DAC which, according to Marantz, will let them deliver “ground-breaking advancements in sound quality”.

Read the full story: Marantz adds four new AV receivers to its home cinema line-up with "ground-breaking" feature sets

Dolby Vision 2 is launching

Dolby Vision 2 is a big bit of new tech, with audio-visual giant Dolby promising the new standard will deliver palpable picture quality improvements. But, to date, we’ve not seen much content mastered in it, or reviewed any TVs actively supporting it.

That’s now set to change with Hisense and Dolby confirming the first TVs to get the standard. Specifically, we now know the format will make its debut on the Hisense UX, UR9, UR8 and U7 TVs.

Read the full story: Hisense TV owners, listen up! You're about to get a major Dolby Vision upgrade

You can now get your AI-made music pressed onto vinyl

Everyone loves AI music. Said no one… well, until last week, when music generator platform Suno announced a new service that will let its users press their AI-prompted tracks onto 12-inch records. And the AI treats don’t end there; if you’re not a dab hand with a pencil, the platform will even use its robot smarts to create the artwork for you.

Read the full story: Now not even vinyl records are free from AI slop

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We're already into August! Which means that most of 2026's hi-fi and home cinema launches are now out in the wild.

This includes the new Samsung S85H, which we only reviewed last week and is already in our deals coverage thanks to a tasty £241 discount.

That's not all, however, as the deals continue to be as scorching as the weather outside – there's a new lowest price (just about) on What Hi-Fi?'s favourite AirPods, as well as a truly unique Dolby Atmos soundbar from JBL.

Whatever the product is, you can be sure we've tried and tested it if it appears on this page. We review before we recommend, and every product here has earned at least four stars from our expert testing team.

So without further ado, here are this week's deals...

If you're after an entry-level OLED TV, then the Samsung S85H is one of the best we've tested. We anticipate it will go down further for Black Friday, but if you want to buy some of the latest 2026 tech now, the S85H offers a punchy, three-dimensional picture and impressive brightness for an OLED at this level. Use code SAMS10PERCENT to get this deal price.

The Focal Aria Evo X No3 have plenty of appeal, especially now they're cheaper than on Prime Day. The tall towers offer a refined, full-bodied sound, a classy, stylish appearance, and a price that has collapsed to its lowest-ever level.

The five-star Apple AirPods Pro 3 are our favourite AirPods, improving on the already impressive Pro 2 when it comes to sound quality and ANC especially. There are plenty of intuitive features too, including a built-in heartbeat monitor, live translation and the usual snappy connectivity with iOS devices.

Not sure if you want surround speakers taking up your living room space? The JBL Bar 1000MK2 comes with detachable surrounds that can snap back onto the soundbar if you'd prefer, or can even be taken into other rooms to act as a wireless speaker. Now at a new lowest price.

New to vinyl? Or just want an affordable Bluetooth turntable? Either way, we highly recommend the Sony PS-LX3BT. It's effortlessly easy to use, supremely affordable and produces an accomplished, enjoyable sound.

As the first TV with Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel technology, the LG G5 boasts a generational leap in performance. It's also a great choice for gamers thanks to four full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs. Use the code LG200JL to save £200 on the price shown, and you can also claim back an extra 10% (£179) from LG after purchase. Ts&Cs here.

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If you enter our AV test room, you will find a vast selection of 4K Blu-rays lining the shelves. That includes many new discs, but there is also a healthy collection of older movies that have had a 4K restoration. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, for instance, has quickly become a go-to for testing both sound and picture quality.

But how do these 4K restorations actually happen? To answer that question, I headed to Silver Salt Restoration, which has restored countless titles. These range from Hammer Horror films, including The Curse of Frankenstein, to the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Preparing the film

The journey starts with me making my way to the studio's headquarters, which are hidden along a side street in West London, nestled between a row of offices. This is where the restoration magic happens, and I took a tour of the studio to see how a reel of old film becomes a gloriously bright 4K movie.

I'm greeted by Marie, who works with the original negative of the film being restored. She gets the reel onto a specialised bench for inspection (pictured, above), where she carefully examines it frame by frame to find any damage.

There are a whole host of ways the film can be damaged, and Marie shows me just a few. These include custom stamps at the top of frames, missing sprockets, or scratches and rips across the film. Not to mention the fact that the reels have been sat in an archive for decades, so they can also be damaged by mould.

To my untrained eye, it seemed like a lost cause. But Marie and the team managed to restore the film so thoroughly that you would never guess it was found in such a sorry state.

After the damage is noted, Marie puts the reel through a special cleaning machine which winds the film around a series of little buffers to remove the surface dirt. If the film is particularly damaged by mould, she will hand-clean the reel to destroy the spores as best she can.

A Scanner Darkly

Next, I meet Silver Salt MD, Mark, who is clearly very proud of the two scanning machines next to us, which he shows off with a smile.

One includes a wet-gate, which is a particularly impressive piece of kit. If there’s a scratch on the base of the film, it can fill the hole with fluid to remove the imperfections.

The films are scanned in 6K, then downscaled to 4K. That turns the negatives into a raw DPX file, a digital format commonly used to transfer film images.

The artists at work

We move to a dimly lit office, with every screen displaying a frame of film that is at least 40 years old. Head of Restoration, Anthony, demonstrates how the scanned film gets divided among different members of the team, who remove more imperfections.

There are countless different computer software programs involved. He shows us one that highlights flecks of dirt in the image, and another that highlights tiny scratches. But the entire process calls for the human eye to painstakingly remove them piece by piece.

After all, the software cannot always tell the difference between the texture of a white sequined dress and snow, and might pick out the edge of a trouser leg as a stray bit of dust.

“Despite what people may think, we spend most of our time putting back in rather than removing dirt”, notes Anthony.

Processing damage is one of the most difficult things to remove, Anthony tells me. He shows one film that previously had a yellow staining for about 15 frames but, after the team got their hands on it, it's now imperceptible.

As the rest of the team gather around the screen to admire the work, they joke, “Whenever you have worked on something, you’re always looking at the frame like this,” before leaning in closer to the screen with a grin.

They must also stabilise the image, then carefully watch each frame in quarters to make sure nothing has been missed. Once this part of the process is complete, they are left with an image that is incredibly detailed and clean.

Adding some colour

The final part of the process is colour grading, handled by Ray. He’s worked on all the Hammer Horror films handled by Silver Salt so far, and that’s just to name a few. He tells me he is retiring this year so his current project, a 4K restoration of the 1958 Dracula, is his "swansong”.

“I think people are really going to like it,” he smiles.

Over time, colours often fade in the original film, so it’s Ray’s job to restore films to their full potential. We get a glimpse of Dracula, which was originally made in Technicolor. The raw footage is somewhat muted and grey, and it doesn’t immediately draw the eye.

But Ray gives the footage a beautifully rich look, breathing new life into each frame. Part of his process is considering what the sets would have looked like at the time. In Dracula, for instance, he brings out the opulent reds in the velvet curtains and the crisp detail of a leafy bush that had fallen victim to black crush.

After playing around with different colours and bringing out the contrast, highlights and shadow, the grading is complete.

The final result feels like magic. What came into the studio as a worn film reel, left forgotten for decades, is now set to delight a new generation of audiences with its beautifully restored colours and crisp detail.

The newly restored Dracula is coming to cinemas and 4K Blu-ray in October. After getting a glimpse into the work that goes on behind the scenes, I'm excited to see the final result on the big screen.

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Heatwaves, the World Cup, a new Prime Minister (and Larry the cat’s subsequent reaction to his new housemate): a lot happened in July this year.

And while many of our eyes may have, justifiably, been focused elsewhere, that didn’t stop our reviewers from continuing their Sisyphean task testing a never-ending stream of new hi-fi and home cinema hardware in our dedicated viewing and listening rooms.

And while the heat may have made it slightly more challenging (and sticky) than normal, the effort was worth it as they found a staggering 10 hot-ticket items worthy of our hallowed five-star rating.

Here’s what you need to know about them.

Vertere Phono-1 LX

The Phono-1 LX is a new premium phono stage from Vertere, a firm with a proven track record in the space. It also is a successor to the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Phono-1 MkII.

Initially, our reviewers were a little concerned about the lack of changes made for the new model, with it featuring the basic circuit design and the firm being oddly reserved with its performance claims.

But our scepticism vanished the moment we plugged it into our reference system. Matched with price-appropriate hardware, the LX delivered a brilliant performance with improved dynamics, punch and bass authority over its still impressive predecessor.

As we said in our review: “The Phono-1 LX sets new standards for the price, delivering a class-leading combination of insight, dynamic punch and finesse.”

Five stars

Read our full Vertere Phono-1 LX review

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Regular readers will know that if you want your phone to work as a portable music player or mobile movie station, you’re usually better off going with an iPhone – such as the Award-winning iPhone 17.

But last month, Samsung delivered a handset that gave the Apple handset a good run for its money, especially for movie and TV watching, with its latest Galaxy S26 Ultra handset.

During testing, we discovered the firm clearly has taken learnings from its stellar five-star OLEDs and applied them to the Ultra’s display, which delivered the best picture quality we’ve experienced on a handset.

Hence, our glowing verdict: “Samsung has clearly made some under-the-hood improvements with the S26 Ultra’s picture processing capabilities, which makes it an even better handset for watching movies and TV shows.”

Five stars

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

Dali Sonik 5

The Sonik 5 are the successors to the Dali Oberon 5. That automatically means they have some pretty big shoes to fill.

As a standalone pair of stereo speakers and the beating heart of a 5.1 surround sound package too, the Oberon 5 were multi-Award winners and a constant recommendation until they went to the audio farm earlier this year.

Having put them through their paces in our listening rooms, we’re pleased to confirm the Sonik 5 live up to the Oberon 5’s legacy. Featuring a similar driver configuration to their predecessors, the Sonik offer a refined version of the Oberon’s sound; one that’s full of expressive dynamics and generally fun to listen to.

Add to this their compact size and unfussy nature when it comes to partnering and they become an easy recommendation. As we said in our review: “With a pleasingly compact size and excellent sound, we think the Dali Sonik 5 will make a superb addition to any home set-up, especially if you’re working with small spaces.”

Five stars

Read our full Dali Sonik 5 review

Acoustic Energy AE Active

The AE Active continue Acoustic Energy’s hot streak, being the third set of stereo speakers in a row from the brand to earn a five-star rating, following our glowing reviews of the AE300 Mk2 and AE309 Mk2.

The AE Active are interesting as, despite being active speakers, in the sense they have built-in amplification, unlike rivals they’re otherwise fully analogue – you won’t find a DAC, streaming options, Bluetooth or digital inputs on them.

While this makes them a bit niche, if you’re one of their target market, a person who has separates to cover the above, they’re very competent performers, capable of delivering a powerful, dynamic and detailed sound.

As we said in our review: “The Acoustic Energy AE Active are a niche product in today’s audio landscape, but they are a tremendously talented and capable pair of active speakers. They are a viable alternative to a traditional separates pairing at this price, and could well be the last chain in your hi-fi system you’ll have to update. Highly recommended.”

Five stars

Read our full Acoustic Energy AE Active review

LG G6 (OLED65G6)

If you’re getting a sense of deja vu, don’t worry; there is a good reason for it. We actually reviewed the LG G6 earlier this year and gave it a four-star rating after experiencing several dark-detail performance issues. But last month, after LG promised us the issues were due to a software bug that has now been fixed, we re-reviewed it.

And thankfully, the flagship OLED TV’s performance has been much improved, with it delivering a punchy but never over-baked picture during all our checks. Hence its new five-star rating and our verdict: “The LG G6 offers minor but welcome improvements to the firm’s iconic line of premium OLED TVs.”

Five stars

Read our full LG G6 (OLED65G6) review

Hisense XR10

The XR10 is Hisense's latest flagship projector. Like the firm’s other offerings, it’s not a traditional long-throw projector, instead sitting in the fast-growing “home-cinema-in-a-box” category.

Featuring the firm’s proprietary triple laser lighting system, liquid cooling, a built-in Devialet sound system and Hisense’s Vidaa operating system, it has everything you need to power a big-screen movie night, neatly contained in one box.

It costs a lot, especially by 'casual' home cinema standards, but during testing it proved to be one of the most accomplished performers in its class. Well built and capable of the best picture quality we’ve experienced in its category, while its sound isn’t anywhere close to a replacement for a proper 5.1 system, the XR10 is an easy five-star recommendation.

As we said in our review: “The XR10 looks great and performs even better, setting new standards in the fast-changing projector world.”

Five stars

Read our full Hisense XR10 review

Denon AVC-A1H

The AVC-A1H is the latest flagship AV receiver from home cinema heavyweight Denon. Expensive? Yes. But for the money, this tank of a unit comes packed with tall the hardware you’ll need to power a proper home cinema, with it supporting speaker configurations up to 9.4.6.

But most importantly, it’s the best-sounding AVR we’ve experienced in quite some time. As we said in our review: “Denon’s flagship AVR ticks every box we can think of – feature-packed and offering up exceptional cinematic sound, it’s a mighty fine AVR if your budget allows.”

Five stars

Read our full Denon AVC-A1H review

KEF R Meta 5.1 Speaker System

“Huge, refined and exceptionally cohesive, KEF's R Meta package delivers an effortlessly immersive home cinema experience.”

We don’t give praise like that often, so it should be a clear indication of how impressed our reviewers are with the new KEF R Meta 5.1 surround sound package, which we reviewed in July.

The package uses a pair of R7 Meta floorstanders as the right and left channels, two (five-star) R3 Meta standmounters as surrounds, an R6 centre speaker, and the KEF’s unusually compact KC92 subwoofer for the low end.

Matched with the Denon AVR further up this list, and then our normal reference AVR, the Marantz Cinema 30, the speakers wowed the team, delivering a huge, spacious soundstage and wonderfully refined sound.

Hence our 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.”

Five stars

Read our full KEF R Meta 5.1 Speaker System review

Marantz CD 70

CDs are back in vogue, according to most reports. Which is why you may be one of a multitude of people considering picking up a CD player. If you are, we have good news. We have a new recommended entry-level model: the Marantz CD 70.

Sure, to more casual music fans calling a £499 disc spinner “entry level” may sound a little weird. But for hi-fi fans it's the best player we’ve tested that affordable in quite some time.

The unit replaces the Marantz CD6007, which won six What Hi-Fi? Awards in its lifetime. The player has been completely redesigned, featuring new components, an updated power supply and spiffy new chassis. Testing the unit, we found the changes have paid off, with the CD 70 delivering a wonderfully clear and insightful sound, with a solid, tight bass and focused stereo image.

As we said in our CD 70 review: “The entry-level hi-fi market isn’t what it used to be, but it’s great to see Marantz deliver another excellent attainable CD player. The CD 70 is undoubtedly the new go-to recommendation at this level.”

Five stars

Read our full Marantz CD 70 review

KEF LS Luxe

KEF is one of the first names that comes to mind when you talk about speaker systems.

And with so many five-star, Award-winning products in its history, the association’s more than fair. It’s also why we were excited to get its LS Luxe active speakers into our test room, which aim to deliver an even more premium option for hi-fi fans looking to eschew separates.

Built in partnership with Welsh designer Ross Lovegrove, they may have a Marmite aesthetic, but sonically we’re pleased to report they live up to the brand’s strong legacy in the space.

Across every track we threw at the LS Luxe, the speakers delivered a wonderfully mature, balanced performance, with oodles of detail and nuance, making them a delight to listen to. Hence their five-star rating and our verdict:

“The KEF LS Luxe is a great all-round performer. Thanks to its mature, deeply satisfying sound, impressive feature suite and high-quality construction, this wireless active stereo system is crying out for a place on your shortlist.”

Five stars

Read our full KEF LS Luxe review

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