A celebration of vinyl, a fix for a key OLED TV, a surprise HDMI rival and more

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

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

If you struggled to keep up with all the news last week, there is a good reason for that.

As well as our team running a special Vinyl Week event in the run up to Record Store Day 2025, big name brands including Sony and LG had hardware and software launches.

To apprise you of all the important facts, we’ve collated all the most pressing information into this handy guide detailing the top hi-fi and home cinema headlines to break over the past seven days.

We ran a Vinyl Week special event

WHF Viny Week sponsored by Technics promotional image with orange record — (Image credit: ChakisAtelier, Getty Images and Future)

Last week, to celebrate one of music fans' favourite physical media formats we ran a special Vinyl Week event in the run up to Record Store Day (RSD) 2025.

The event was full of cool news and features. These included interviews with record store owners, a list of the coolest RSD releases, recommendations from our colleagues on the music desk and numerous reviews – the two biggies being our final verdict on the Pro-Ject T1 Evo BT and Vertere SG-1/Xtrax.

Check out our Vinyl Week coverage

Sony has new Bluetooth speakers

Sony ULT Field 3 next to a skateboard — (Image credit: Sony)

Sony unveiled its new ULT Field 3 and Field 5 speakers last week. What does ULT stand for? Sony still hasn’t told us. But, we do know the ULT line targets younger listeners who, according to Sony, want “bigger bass” than the rest of us.

The Sony ULT Field 3 is set to retail for £180 / $200 / €200 while the larger Field 5 will cost £260 / $330 / €300. The price and their size means the Field 3 and Field 5 are in direct competition with the five-star JBL Flip 7 and Charge 6 we reviewed at the start of April.

Will they succeed where the four-star Sony ULT Field 1 failed in their endeavour to break into our best Bluetooth speaker buying guide? It’s too early to tell, but we’ll hopefully find out when we get them in for testing and run them head-to-head with their American rivals.

Read the full story: Sony's new Bluetooth speakers go big on battery life and even bigger on bass

LG’s releasing a fix for our big gripe with the G5

The 65-inch LG G5 OLED TV pictured on a wooden rack. On the screen is a still from Netflix F1 series Drive to Survive. — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi? / Netflix (Drive to Survive))

The LG G5 is one of 2025’s most interesting OLED TVs for a couple of reasons. First, because it is TV powerhouse LG’s current flagship, succeeding the five-star LG G4 we reviewed last year and continue to recommend in our best OLED TV guide.

Second, because it is the first TV we’ve tested with a new fourth generation OLED panel, which promises significantly improved peak brightness and colour volume levels.

And while it delivered in these areas, we noticed a critical Dolby Vision bug while streaming on Disney Plus during testing that made the G5 impossible to fully recommend.

Thankfully, one week on, not only did LG send us a pre-release fix for the bug to try, after re-testing the G5 our editor Tom Parsons’ confirmed that it actually works!

Read the full story: A fix is on the way for our big problem with the LG G5 OLED TV

HDMI has a new rival

HDMI is pretty much the universal standard for AV connectivity right now. With the specifications for the latest HDMI 2.2 standard confirmed in January, we expected this trend to continue for a least a few more years.

But, last week a new standard made in China appeared to rival HDMI’s latest version. Specifically, we saw the General Purpose Media Interface (GPMI) launch.

The standard is currently split into two types. The first Type-C version is set to support up to 96Gbps speeds. That’s the same figure as HDMI 2.2. The second Type-B variant is being quoted as offering a mind-boggling 192Gbps.

The bandwidth on offer, plus backing from 50 companies including the Shenzhen International 8K Ultra HD Video Industry Collaboration Alliance, means GPMI already has a lot going for it.

We’ll be curious to see if it gains any momentum and whether any devices launch with it in the near future.

Read the full story: HDMI gets a new Chinese competitor – and it could be 8K's saviour

MORE:

These are the best OLED TVs we’ve tested

Our reviewers rate the best record players

Our picks of the best wireless speakers

TOPICS

Alastair is What Hi-Fi?’s editor in chief. He has well over a decade’s experience as a journalist working in both B2C and B2B press. During this time he’s covered everything from the launch of the first Amazon Echo to government cyber security policy. Prior to joining What Hi-Fi? he served as Trusted Reviews’ editor-in-chief. Outside of tech, he has a Masters from King’s College London in Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion, is an enthusiastic, but untalented, guitar player and runs a webcomic in his spare time.

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