Innholdsfortegnelse for Awards 2019 i What Hi-Fi?

Streaming system | £999 | View offers whf.cm/PM7000N The world is now accustomed to the hi-fi equivalent of Mary Poppins’ magic carpet bag; components that miraculously (and conveniently) pack everything into one box. The PM7000N may not house a hatstand or a lamp within its chassis, but it does pack in 60W per channel of amplification, a DAC, network module and access to a host of music-streaming services. Pair some decent standmounts or floorstanders with this just-add-speakers system and, as the no-nonsense nanny might say, “there’s the whole world at your feet”. Given the familiar full-width design Marantz has persisted with for decades, you might question how new the PM7000N actually is – especially since the brand has adopted a more contemporary look for similarly specified systems, such as the…

Music streamer | £1499 | View offers whf.cm/C658 You have to feel for whoever is in charge of box-ticking in the product-design chain of a music streamer. The range of desirable features available to a network streamer gets ever wider as more services, codecs and technologies continue to burst their way into the vast and volatile world of streaming. With the NAD C 658 priced at the more premium end of the market, you’d expect it to tick off in most of them, which it does. A streamer, DAC and preamplifier combination, this NAD is a Swiss Army knife of a component. Shared platform The C 658 uses the BluOS streaming platform, which was developed for Bluesound kit and has since expanded to other brands within the Lenbrook parent company,…

View offers: whf.cm/BestWirelessHeadphones2019 ▪ Sony WH-1000XM3 £272 Sony has been flying high in the premium Bluetooth and noise-cancelling headphone market for the past couple of years, as this repeat Product of the Year Award clearly demonstrates. Comfort levels are high and, thanks to the thick, soft cushion, it feels as though there’s almost no weight resting on the top of your head. The headband fits snug against the top of your head, promoting a cleaner, less balloon-like appearance than some rivals. The finishes are smart too: Black with copper accents and Platinum Silver with brass highlights. The right earcup features a smooth touch-sensitive panel rather than physical buttons. Double-tap the cup for play/pause or to answer a call, swipe up or down to change volume, and forward or back to…

View offers: whf.cm/BestPMPs2019 ▪ Astell & Kern A&norma SR15 £549 With its quirky design and even quirkier name, the Astell & Kern A&norma SR15 has dual-DACs, 3.5mm and balanced 2.5mm headphone jacks, 64GB of storage, and built-in Bluetooth, wi-fi and Tidal. Now it also has two consecutive Product of the Year Awards. The A&norma shares many of the features of its predecessor, the AK70 MKII, but also sports an improved interface and support for native DSD playback (to DSD64) in addition to PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz. A 32-bit file with a 384kHz or 352kHz sampling rate is downsampled to 24-bit/192 kHz or 24-bit/176 kHz respectively for playback, and DSD128 is also playable through conversion to PCM 24-bit/176kHz. It also has an alter-ego as a preamp/source component, meaning it can…

View offers: whf.cm/BestVideoStreamers2019 ▪ Apple TV 4K £179 It’s the introduction of 4K and HDR, along with a number of other improvements – not least the inclusion of Amazon Prime TV (alongside ITV Player and My5) – that steer Product of the Year honours to Apple TV. There’s 32GB storage in the standard model, and 64GB in the £199 version. That may seem pretty small but, as a streaming-only device, the only storage it needs is for the streaming apps themselves, which tend to be fairly small. The menu system is nicely designed and easy to use, and the voice control is genuinely useful. You can even ask Siri to clarify some dialogue that you’ve missed, or supply information on actors. But hands-down, the Apple TV 4K’s biggest selling point…

View offers: whf.cm/BestWirelessSpeakers2019 ▪ Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation £749 We know full well the value of revisions. Yet it was still quite the surprise when first we heard those made by Naim with its second generation of the Mu-so Qb wireless speaker. The previous iteration was great, but this version is phenomenal. It still has that gorgeous rotary volume dial with touch-screen controls in the centre and there are physical connections for USB, optical S/PDIF, aux-in and wired internet. But it’s what happens inside that leads to this wireless speaker becoming so exceptional. Remove the grille and you’ll find a three-way stereo speaker combination with upgraded midrange and bass drive units, all powered by 300W of amplification. The single bass driver fires directly forwards, while a pair of tweeters…

View offers: whf.cm/BestMusicStreamers2019 ▪ Audiolab 6000N Play £449 The Audiolab 6000N Play is as unassuming as hi-fi streamers come, with a screen-less, largely unadorned chassis that gives nothing of its vast network talents away. But, behind that modest façade, it has every right to exude an air of quiet confidence. The Play uses the same ES9018 Sabre32 Reference DAC chip found in the company’s 6000A amplifier and Award-winning M-DAC, and features ESS Technology’s Time Domain Jitter Eliminator, which works to analyse and algorithmically correct the input signal to improve timing. The foundation of the unit’s streaming experience, meanwhile, is based on DTS’s Play-Fi hi-res, multi-room platform. Having Play-Fi at its software core means that, when connected to a network through ethernet or its dual-band wi-fi, the 6000N Play can access…

View offers: whf.cm/BestTurntables2019 ▪ Rega Planar 3/Elys2 £649 Rega’s Planar 3/Elys 2 combination wins our Product of the Year title yet again. (We said just the same thing last year.) Once again, no rival we tested this year even came close to knocking this excellent package off the top spot. The current Planar doesn’t look terribly different from the original (from the late ’70s), and yet every part of this deck has been carefully developed leading to regular hikes in performance. More than a facelift The changes between this generation and the last have been significant. It starts with the glossy plinth; it’s far smarter and more rigid than before, with a pair of phenolic braces on the top and bottom surfaces that strengthen the area between the tonearm and…

View offers: whf.cm/BestAccessories2019 ▪ Audioquest Rocket 11 £12.50/m AudioQuest here picks up its second Product of the Year Award for accessories with its Rocket 11 speaker cable. What appeals to us is how flexible it is. It’s easy to bend the cable around those tricky tight corners to reach your kit, without worrying you’ll break or damage the cabling. It uses semi-solid true-concentric conductors and long-grain copper to improve performance and reduce any interference that might degrade the sound. Easy to use Thoughtful touches such as marking the left and right cables, labelling which end goes into the amplifier and which end plugs into the speaker, and designing it so that you can use them in a single-wired or bi-wired configuration if your system demands it, make the Rocket 11…

Blade Runner Vangelis Few scores are so entwined with their film as Vangelis’s accompaniment for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Largely improvised and recorded while the composer was watching the film, the music’s warmth is somewhat at odds with the narrative, yet takes in its sweeping landscapes and darkly romantic ambiance with every sustained note. Ascenseur Pour L’échafaud Miles Davis There’s something decidedly eerie yet darkly romantic about Miles Davis’s muted trumpet lines laced throughout this 1950s French crime story. The score walks alone beneath heavy air, moving skittishly when tempos increase but always echoing the solitude of its dusky cinematic bedfellow. La Planète Sauvage Alain Goraguer Alain Goraguer was at a creative peak when scored this 1970s animation, in which giant blue Draags enslave human-like Oms on their planet Ygam.…

▪ Dolby Cinema Ever since its noise reduction processing technology made its film industry debut in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in 1971, Dolby Laboratories has never strayed far from cinema sound innovation. Dolby Stereo followed a few years later, with Star Wars (1977) among the first to feature a four-channel analogue format – comprising stereo left and right channels, plus an encoded centre and surround channel. And Dolby Digital ushered in a digitally defining era of 5.1-channel audio tracks, premiering in Batman Returns (1992). Fast-forward to the present day and we have Dolby Cinema, a state-of-the-art cinema experience that showcases the pinnacle of the company’s audio-visual technologies – and arguably those of the home entertainment industry too. Dolby Cinema features immersive, 128-channel-capable Dolby Atmos audio and eye-popping Dolby Vision…

View offers: whf.cm/BestSetTopBoxes2019 ▪ Sky Q £199 The Sky Q box may now be the standard set-top box on offer to new Sky subscribers, but there’s nothing standard about the experience. But to get the most out of Sky Q, you will need to fork out for for the pleasure. For starters, you should choose the 2TB box as this brings access to 4K Ultra HD content and allows you to go multi-room with the addition of Sky Q Mini boxes. You also need to factor in paying for the content you want to watch. There are all sorts of bundles on offer, led by the flagship Sky Sports and Sky Cinema packages, but now also bolstered by the inclusion of Netflix and Spotify. All of this costs a significant…

HALL OF FAME ▪ B&W 606 If we were to have a Hall of Fame for brands, Bowers & Wilkins would certainly be somewhere near the very top of the list. The British hi-fi specialist has been making superlative speakers since 1966, while spreading its wings into new areas. Despite this innovation, the company’s delivery of class-leading stereo speakers remains its raison d’être. The company’s 600 Series speakers, and specifically, the B&W 606s typify this. B&W’s entry-level speaker range hits a sweet spot, with its standmount speakers picking up multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards over two decades. The 600 Series, introduced in 1995 and now in its sixth iteration, continues its long tradition of technology trickled down from its top ranges at sensible prices. The 600 Series uses technology seen in…

EXPERIENCE. HERITAGE. We’ve been helping the world discover the best in hi-fi and home entertainment for more than 40 years, and have more than 100 years of reviewing experience under our collective belts – so you can count on our expert opinion. DEDICATED TEST FACILITIES We test every product against its peers in our brand-new, bespoke reviewing facilities in London and Bath. We conduct all our tests as a team – our opinions and conclusions are always the result of collaboration. HOW WE SCORE All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole – not an individual reviewer. Each product will be listened to and/or viewed by several members of the test team, who will then discuss the final verdict before it appears in the magazine or…

Soundbar | £649 | View offers whf.cm/KatchOne Dali is not one to rest on its laurels, it seems. Despite Award-winning success with the Kubik One in the TV sound category at last year’s What Hi-Fi? Awards, it has served up a second soundbar just in time for our 2019 talent show. The Dali Katch One is a little less expensive than the Kubik One. It’s equally stylish, in a rather different way, and is intended to be a hub for all your living room audio needs. With five different possible audio inputs, three ways to mount it and 10 drivers all pulling together to fill your space with sound, we’re rather dying to see what Dali has learned from its first home cinema adventure. Standing tall But the first thing…

Projector | £2549 | View offers whf.cm/EH-TW9400 The Epson EH-TW9400 is a projector on the edge of greatness. At £2549, it belongs in a category just before the step up in price to native 4K projection. But this one uses Epson’s 4K Enhancement pixel-shifting technology to display that higher resolution. It’s not a native 4K chip, of course, but you’d be looking at about twice this price to get that. The LCD-based EH-TW9400 is a pretty big machine, weighing in at a hefty 11kg, so you’ll need space on your rack to accommodate it. Fortunately, it’s flexible enough for a range of positioning options, including ceiling mounting via a dedicated bracket from Epson (£158). Motorised zoom lens The adaptable lens is a real bonus here. Not only is it motorised…

NTS If you can’t find a show for you on the NTS schedule or in its archives, you really haven’t looked hard enough. Founded by Femi Adeyemi in 2011, NTS now broadcasts from cities around the globe on its two main channels – though the main studio is based in Hackney, London – playing all from disco to classical, techno to experimental and field recordings. Dublab Eclecticism is not purely the preserve of London, as proven by Los Angeles-based station Dublab. Funded by member donations, its five-day-a-week broadcasts allow DJs to play the music they’re passionate about, with special focus on supporting emerging creative artists, especially those testing the boundaries in more obscure and micro-genres. Worldwide FM Set up by famed crate digger and sonic explorer Giles Peterson alongside Boiler…

View offers: whf.cm/BestRadios2019 ▪ Roberts Stream 94i £170 This radio’s predecessor, the Stream 93i, won a What Hi-Fi? Award for three years running, which should give you an idea of the quality of the 94i. That, along with the fact that, with this Award, this version has now taken our Product of the Year gong twice… Roberts made only a few small changes for the 94i, including the addition of Bluetooth – the only thing we felt was missing from its predecessor. With that and a snappier new design, this radio sets the bar even higher. It has access to FM, DAB and internet stations, so you should never be lacking for sounds – whether from your local radio or connected to the internet via the built-in wifi or ethernet…

Orphée Jóhann Jóhannsson Jóhann Jóhannsson is a composer who almost alone could prove the necessity of hearing recorded music at master quality. Orphée is the final solo album released before the Icelandic musician’s sudden death last year; at times hauntingly melancholic, its marriage of orchestral movements and light-handed electronics is permanently beautiful. Power, Corruption And Lies New Order Power, Corruption and Lies was arguably the record that defined New Order as being a band apart from Joy Division. Its use of synthesizers is far broader than on Movement, its predecessor, but still intelligently intertwined with guitars and acoustic percussion for a sound that is at once texturally dense and refreshingly spacious. To Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick Lamar Few hip-hop albums have influences so sprawling as To Pimp A Butterfly. From…

Music For Films Brian Eno Miles Showell has produced a number of half-speed masters of Brian Eno’s work at Abbey Road Studios, but Music For Films makes this list because we weren’t totally enamoured with it before we heard Showell’s half-speed version. The sonic upturn in everything from detail to dynamics gives the music a whole new dimension. Director’s Cut Chapter 1 Jeff Mills Jeff Mills’ Director’s Cut project forms part of the Axis Audiophile Series, four tracks of reissues and rarities given the level of attention you’d expect from a meticulous master of his craft. Gamma Player from the classic Humana EP is the dreamy highlight, blending tight, deep bass notes with crisp, hypnotic melodies. Kid A Radiohead Whether this double 10-inch record was made for aesthetic or due…

View offers: whf.cm/BestStereoAmps2019 ▪ Cambridge Audio CXA81 £999 Cambridge Audio didn’t necessarily need a complete overhaul of its CXA series, but the results of doing so have been quite phenomenal. The Lunar Grey chassis and removal of balance and tone controls from the front panel are the only tweaks that are immediately obvious in the CXA81. But though this new integrated amplifier’s basic analogue circuit layout remains unchanged, Cambridge’s engineers have upgraded most of the op-amps in the signal path, as well as the capacitors in both the pre and power sections. The CXA81 also houses a superior ESS Sabre ES9016K2M DAC and improved USB input that supports audio of up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256 quality, while an aptX HD Bluetooth receiver allows direct streaming at up to 24-bit/384kHz. On…

View offers: whf.cm/BestSystems2019 ▪ KEF LSX £999 With the LSX, KEF has shrunk its multi-Award-winning LS50 Wireless streaming system to make a smaller, half-price version while maintaining those rare sonic qualities that made the original so special. The LSX shares its successful sibling’s blueprint as an all-in-one hi-fi system: a network streamer, Bluetooth receiver and amplification within a pair of compact stereo speakers. Those speakers offer 200W of Class D amplification and see the return of KEF’s distinctive Uni-Q driver array, in which a 19mm aluminium-dome tweeter sits in the centre of a 10cm magnesium/aluminium mid/bass cone. The LSX can play hi-res files all the way up to 24-bit/192kHz, though it will downsample to either 48kHz or 96kHz, depending on whether you pair the speakers to each other wirelessly or…

View offers: whf.cm/BestTelevisions2019 ▪ LG OLED55C9PLA £1499 With its incredible colours, intense blacks and razor-thin panel, this is not only just another in a long line of totally brilliant OLEDs from LG: we think it’s the best-value set currently on the market. Around half the height of the TV is just razor-thin panel. It’s only the lower section containing the 40W speaker array and the brains of the set that broadens to 4.7cm in profile before it meets the attractive brushed-metal stand. You’ll find all the ports round the back, including four HDMI, three USB and an optical audio output. Once it’s powered up, we find the TV replete with LG’s trusty webOS, which is up there with the best. The gesture control is handy and the interface is well…

View offers: whf.cm/BestHomeCinemaAmps2019 ▪ Denon AVR-X3600H £999 Sometimes the differences between generations of Denon’s home cinema amps can appear minor. But that’s not the case with the AVR-X3600H. There are now four extra channels at your disposal, up from seven to 11. Those are driven by nine power amplifiers, generating a claimed 180W of power per channel. In practice, that means you can set this new Denon up in a 5.2.4 or 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos configuration. Lift the lid and you will see the same extruded aluminium heat sink as in the AVR-X4500H, while the company has also built in a stronger power supply. Denon has maintained its eight HDMI inputs. All feature HDCP 2.3 support and accompany a further three HDMI outputs. You also get a USB input, two…

View offers: whf.cm/BestBlurayPlayers2019 ▪ Panasonic DP-UB820EB £290 The Panasonic DP-UB820EB borrows much of the picture-processing technology you’ll find in the company’s flagship 4K machine, the DP-UB9000, but costs less than half the price. In terms of connections, there’s ethernet for a wired internet connection (recommended if you’re streaming via the player’s built-in apps), two USB inputs, and twin HDMI outputs affording added flexibility for owners who prefer to split the picture and sound for their display and amp. There’s also a set of 7.1-channel analogue outputs for added flexibility should your system need it. The DP-UB820 handles the full range of surround-sound codecs on 4K Blu-ray and streaming services, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. It also covers all the bases for HDR, with HDR10, HDR 10+ and Dolby Vision support.…

▪ Bowers & Wilkins 607 £399 We had thousands of votes for our Readers’ Award again this year and these excellent speakers topped the poll. The 607s had some tough competition to beat, with all 10 shortlisted products each receiving hundreds of votes. Cambridge Audio’s Melomania 1 true-wireless in-ear headphones came second, less than 200 votes behind the champion, with the Naim Mu-so 2 wireless speaker completing the podium. The rest of the runners, in no particular order, were Sony’s WF-1000XM3 wireless earbuds; the LG OLED65C9 and Panasonic GZ2000 representing TVs; the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar and Denon’s AVRX4500H home cinema amp. Then there was the Technics SL-1210 MK7 turntable and more speakers in the form of Elac’s Debut B5.2 and the JBL L100 Classic. The 600 Series is the most…

Turntables might not be cutting-edge tech, but for their look and feel – not to mention thrillingly articulate analogue sound – you can’t beat them. The only thing your record collection lacks is portability, but there is a way to take those LPs with you wherever you go… What do you need? The basic building blocks are: a turntable, a phono stage, an analogue-to-digital converter with USB output, and a computer with suitable recording software. There are turntables that come with a phono stage, analogue-to-digital converter and USB output built in. However, most are at the budget end and focus on getting the job done rather than doing it particularly well. Your recordings won’t necessarily reflect the quality of sound possible from your records, though Audio Technica’s AT-LP5 and Sony…

Whether you’re a Prime professional or just thinking of signing up, you’ll want to get the most out of the service. Here are a few tips and tricks on how to do exactly that. Setting up a ‘Household’ account Amazon Prime Video will recommend content based on your viewing history - but what if you’re really into crime thrillers, your other half loves romantic comedies and the kids love cartoons? The answer is by linking together two Amazon accounts that will both have access to Prime Video. Go to Your Account > Shopping Programmes > Amazon Household. There you can add another adult or profiles for children, and then click ‘Create Household’. Parental Controls You can set up a four-digit PIN on the web by going into the ‘Settings’ of…

4K television | £429 | View offers whf.cm/UE43RU7470 The Samsung UE43RU7470 seems like impossibly good value. It ticks all the right tech boxes – HDR, 4K, an excellent smart platform and arguably the best TV user interface around – and all for just £429. At 43 inches, the UE43RU7470 is also a sensible size, making it, potentially, the kind of all-rounder that could be equally at home in the bedroom or living room. It’s worth noting that the Samsung UE43RU7470 is a Currys exclusive. Samsung says it is technically identical to the other TVs in the range, including the UE43RU7400 and UE43RU7410. While this is likely to be true, we cannot confirm that the performance will be identical. So – just to be clear – this review refers specifically to…

Smartphone | From £1049 | View offers whf.cm/iPhone11Pro We all know the drill – every September, there’s a new iPhone. This year is no exception, although there are, in fact, three new iPhones. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro, available in standard and ‘Max’ sizes, is designed to be the ultimate iPhone – until next September, of course. This year, as has been the recent trend across flagship phones, the big focus is the camera. But there are also some interesting updates to the screen, video and audio specifications. So, are these updates enough for non-snappers to justify the expense, or are they better served by the more reasonably priced iPhone 11? Family resemblance The iPhone 11 Pro design is instantly familiar, looking very similar to the iPhone XS and iPhone…

View offers: whf.cm/BestInEars2019 ▪ Klipsch T5M Wired £70 It’s two consecutive Product of the Year gongs in this category now for Klipsch, with the T5M Wired taking over from the R6i IIs that won top prize 12 months ago. They’re simply the most comfortable, detailed and dynamic in-ear headphones we’ve heard at this price. Comfort is subjective, of course, but we find the Klipsch earpieces aren’t too bulky, nor too fiddly to get in place. Each one houses a 5mm dynamic driver and features a 5.6mm nozzle, on to which you can pop Klipsch’s oval earbuds. We’ve always been big fans of these particular tips and find them to be among the most comfortable on the market. The silicone used is soft and offers not just comfort but also a…

View offers: whf.cm/BestOnEars2019 ▪ AKG Y50 £69 Well we can’t help but feel that this is getting a little predictable. The AKG Y50 headphones have now made it a remarkable six years on the bounce as What Hi-Fi? Award-winners and, just like last year (and the year before that…), they are also our overall on-ear headphone Product of the Year. So next time you see a pair of these being worn on the train, you’ll know that the wearer has made just about the best choice for reasonably priced commuter-listening. There’s no denying AKG’s handiwork, which is so good that the company prominently displays its name on the headphones’ housing. But don’t mistake a possible perception of rather shouty attention-seeking for misplaced confidence – these are exceptionally well made headphones.…

View offers: whf.cm/BestCDplayers2019 ▪ Marantz CD6006 UK £315 Continual, clever tweaks from Marantz have not only kept this remarkable generation of CD players relevant, they’ve kept it top of the class too. The CD6006 UK first bagged our Product of the Year Award a couple of years ago and a price drop meant that it retained its crown last year; a similar fall in price has meant the same in 2019. The original, standard CD6006 was also an Award-winner, and we have long praised its solid build and smart finish. The controls work with precision and the transport is impressively quiet. There are machines that cost hundreds of pounds more that don’t feel this good to use. Over the years, there have been improvements to the digital-to-analogue circuitry’s power supply…

View offers: whf.cm/BestStreamingServices2019 ▪ Tidal £10-£20/month Tidal comfortably retains its crown as our music-streaming service of choice. It was the first to offer hi-res audio streaming, and now presents millions of hi-res tracks covering a range of tastes which it calls Tidal Masters. The Masters offering – which is based on MQA technology – barely scratches the surface of Tidal’s overall catalogue of more than 60 million lossless tracks. And in addition to music, Tidal also offers up thousands of Full HD videos, including music videos, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Whether you’re listening to 320kbps, CD-quality or hi-res streams, Tidal sounds great compared with its rivals. While the 320kbps streams just pip their Spotify and Deezer equivalents with a slightly richer, fuller-bodied sound, tracks streamed in lossless offer much more…

View offers: whf.cm/BestDACs2019 ▪ Chord Qutest £1195 Chord claims that its latest and most affordable powered DAC is the ‘world’s most advanced’. As it’s our Product of the Year for the second year running, it’s hard to argue with that statement. To Chord’s credit, a superlative was really the only way it could go when naming a successor to the three-time Award-winning 2Qute, and the Qutest justifies it. It’s not wholly surprising, considering it’s largely based on another Award winner, the Hugo 2. It uses the same DAC architecture, software coding and frequency-shaping filters, but ditches the headphone amplifier and rechargeable Li-on batteries that make the Hugo 2 portable. The journey from the 2Qute to Qutest hasn’t altered the overall sonic character, which is crisp, clean and explicitly detailed. The…

View offers: whf.cm/BestStereoSpeakers2019 ▪ B&W 606 £549 Featuring a typically smart design, the perfect medium-sized speaker form and delivering an exciting, engaging and perfectly poised sound, the Bowers & Wilkins 606s are the best-value stereo speakers we’ve tested this year. The 600 series is the most affordable range in B&W’s exalted hi-fi family and the 606s are the larger of the two standmount models. The iconic yellow Kevlar of previous generations is replaced by B&W’s latest Continuum cone technology, as seen on the company’s more expensive models. A silver 16.5cm bass/midrange driver is joined by a 25mm decoupled double-dome aluminium tweeter. Decoupling the tweeter from the front panel reduces the degrading effects of vibrations generated by the mid/bass unit. At the back of the speaker you’ll see B&W’s Flowport bass…

View offers: whf.cm/BestMultiroomSystems2019 ▪ Audio Pro £350 Audio Pro has an nine-strong line-up of multi-room speakers (with a handful of Bluetooth products that can also be incorporated), but this Award-winning system comprises the Addon C3 speaker, its larger (and more sonically talented) sibling, the Addon C10 and the Link 1 – a hub that connects hi-fi components or wireless speakers into the chain. The C3 and C10 create a pair of smart, appealing boom-box-style speakers with a ‘koala bear’ driver configuration that is these speakers’ distinguishing feature. The difference in cabinet size is reflected in the Addon C10’s larger mid/bass driver – 13cm in diameter, compared with the Addon C3’s 9cm. The C10 also has a larger reflex port and an 80W digital class D amplifier, so it can delve…

View offers: whf.cm/BestSoundbars2019 ▪ Sonos Beam £389 It’s a second year in a row for the magnificent Sonos Beam – and not only as a Best Buy; it romps away with our coveted Product of the Year gong once again as well. Having made a name for itself with its wireless and multi-room speakers, Sonos soon pressed on into soundbar territory with its critically acclaimed Playbar. Four years later, in 2018, the Beam was introduced, and once again upped the ante for Sonos rivals. The Beam is smaller and cheaper than the Playbar, with a few additions to its spec sheet. Those include an HDMI connection and voice-control assistants Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri. Touch controls on the top allow you to change the volume, play/pause and mute…

View offers: whf.cm/BestSpeakerPackages2019 ▪ Dali Oberon 5 5.1 system £1699 It takes a special product for us to create a new What Hi-Fi? Award, and the Dali Oberon 5 5.1 surround speaker package is certainly one such product. It plugs a gap between £1500 and £2000, comfortably beating every rival around it for clarity, detail and expression. It comprises the twice Award-winning Oberon 5 floorstanding speakers as right and left channels, sandwiching an Oberon Vokal centre, and a pair of five-star Oberon 1 standmounters delivering surround effects. Providing the low end is a 170W Sub E9-F. The Oberon 5s have a fairly large and lightweight 29mm soft-dome tweeter, which can dip into lower frequencies to help integrate with the two 13cm mid/bass drivers, made from Dali’s wood fibre/fine grain paper…

View offers: whf.cm/BestProjectors2019 PROJECTORS Sony VPL-VW270ES £5000 It may be expensive, but the Sony VPL-VW270ES is a ‘true’ 4K projector, using 4K-resolution chips rather than ‘faux-4K’ methods of pixel-shifting and enhancement technology. Take it for a spin, and you’ll find it is stunning value. It has a 4K SXRD panel projection system, with native 4K (4096 x 2160) resolution and support for HDR10 and HLG. The picture’s stark crispness is the first sign of the Sony’s superiority over more affordable faux-4K rivals. We play Life Of Pi on 4K Blu-ray and the VPL-VW270ES offers the kind of sharpness we haven’t witnessed on our projector screen since its predecessor. Improvements have been made to the panel’s reflective silicon layer for better reproduction of shadows and blacks. Sony has evolved its ‘Motionflow’…

▪ SME Synergy £14,950 We’ve reviewed some great Temptation products this year. Highlights have included the mighty SL-1000R from Technics, Plinius’s range-topping M10/Reference A-300 pre/power combination and JBL’s odd, but lovable, L100 Classic speakers. These are all great products, but it’s SME’s Synergy turntable package that stands out the most in our minds. The Synergy package is made up of SME’s new 12 turntable with a dedicated arm that’s essentially the highly regarded SME IV (but internally rewired with leads from Crystal Cables) and an Ortofon MC Windfeld Ti cartridge. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the inclusion of a built-in phono stage from Swiss high-end hi-fi royalty, Nagra. Considering many of Nagra’s products tend to cost way more than the complete Synergy package, that’s quite some coup. The Synergy is…

As ever in consumer electronics, there is always something new on the horizon and that new thing is 8K. So here’s what we know about the latest format to trouble the TV market. What is 8K? 8K refers to resolution – the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in an image. Pixels equals information, so more pixels should, in theory, make for a better quality image. 8K, has a horizontal resolution of 7680 pixels and a vertical resolution of 4320 pixels. 4K has half the number of horizontal and vertical lines (3840 x 2160) and Full HD is 1920 x 1080. Count the pixels up and 8K has four times as many as 4K and 16 times more than Full HD. Who is making 8K content? Filmmakers use cameras with…