Welcome to the first entry into our weekly Rewind news digest for February 2025, where we once again detail the top hi-fi and home cinema news to break over the past seven days.
January ended as it began with a flurry of activity in the worlds of home cinema and hi-fi, with everything from new Philips OLED TVs to premium amps from Musical Fidelity breaking ground.
Here’s what you need to know.
Music Fidelity has a new integrated amp
Kicking off this week’s list is the new Music Fidelity Nu-Vista 600.2 integrated amp. We first saw this beast of an amp at High End Munich last year. But last week the hi-fi brand finally confirmed its UK arrival. Specifically, you can get it now in black or silver for £7999 in the UK and €8999 in Europe.
For those that missed the original announcement, the 600.2 is designed to offer “reference level” performance and comes with some serious hardware to help deliver on this goal. The Class A tube amp packs four Nu-Vista valves and four output transistors per channel. It can also deliver 160 watts per channel into 8 ohms, which is rather impressive and left our reviewers keen to get it in for testing.
Read the full story: Musical Fidelity's integrated amp strives for a sweet, powerful sound thanks to its "reference-level" tech
We reviewed a really big TCL TV
100-inch TVs are the hot ticket item every home cinema brand seems to be pushing at the moment, and last week our reviewers got in on the action. Specifically, we delivered our final verdict on TCL’s giant, 98-inch Q9BK Mini LED TV.
Thankfully, during testing we found the set’s giant dimensions aren’t the only interesting thing about it. During our checks the set impressed, offering incredible max brightness levels, good contrast and solid colours. Add to this its stellar gaming specifications and it became an easy four star recommendation. The only slight niggle stopping it securing that final star, is a slight issue with its black level, which is a little grey for our liking.
Read our full TCL 98Q9BK review
Philips launched some new OLEDs
Philips unveiled its 2025 range of TVs last week, which is headlined by a nifty new OLED950. As the name would suggest, this is an OLED set designed to go head-to-head with the LG G5 and Panasonic Z95B, which launched earlier in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2025) in Las Vegas. The TV comes with completely new hardware, including a 4th Generation OLED panel. This looks like the same tech used on its rivals and promises to let the set offer much higher peak brightness levels and better colour volume than its predecessor.
Read the full story: Philips unveils its 2025 Ambilight OLED TVs with substantial brightness upgrades and AI aplenty
We reviewed Dali’s standmount speakers
Finally, our reviewers finished testing the Dali Epikore 3 standmount speakers last week. These are an interesting, premium-looking set of stereo speakers built on the same foundation as the brand’s other Kore speakers – which first started appearing in 2022.
During testing we found there’s plenty to like. Paired with our standard reference set-up, the Epikore 3 delivered a cohesive, authoritative performance with excellent levels of detail and expansive, accurate stereo imaging. We just wish their low end was a little more articulate and better defined, which is why they couldn’t quite nab that final star from our reviewers.
Read our full Dali Epikore 3 review
MORE:
These are the best OLED TVs we’ve reviewed
Our experts rate the best bookshelf speakers
Check out our picks of the best stereo amps
