October is upon us, which not only means the imminent arrival of Amazon’s Big Deal Days sale event, but also a fresh entry into our Pick of the Month column.
With testing for the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024 in full swing and our first raft of winners set to be announced on 9th October, it was a particularly busy month for our team of testers. It also means this is one of the longest Pick of the Month columns to date, with a staggering eight products earning perfect marks from our reviewers.
Every one was tested by our team in one of our dedicated viewing or listening rooms, where it was put through its paces in a series of comparative tests, directly against its closest rivals, so you know they’re good if they made the list!
Pro-Ject Debut Evo 2
The Pro-Ject Debut Evo 2 is an updated version of the five-star Debut Carbon Evo. It's a bit pricier than its outgoing predecessor, but the £599 / $699 / AU$1299 deck comes with a few key upgrades. These include a new heavy aluminium platter, as well as a new precision-milled aluminium block with a low-friction bearings mount for its tonearm. As a cherry on top, it also comes with a new Pick-It MM Evo cartridge.
Putting it through its paces paired with a variety of reference equipment, including Epos ES14N speakers and a PMC Cor amplifier with a Vertere Phono-1 MkII L phono preamp, the results were excellent. Across every track, be it bopping pop or thrashing 70s rock, the turntable delivered a lively, detailed and fluid sound. Hence our reviewers’ conclusion:
“Pro-Ject has taken a friendly, capable deck and furnished it with significant upgrades to make it a more sleek and engaging performer. There are those who will prefer Rega’s more mature and precise presentation at this level, but the Evo 2 is a capable and likeable alternative whose lively, fluid delivery and lovely way with voices might just win you over.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth Pro-Ject Debut Evo 2 review
Rega Planar 2/Nd3
The Planar 2/Nd3 is the latest package from Rega that pairs its mid-range turntable with its new moving magnet cartridge.
The upgraded cartridge raises the turntable’s price up to £599 / $795 / AU$1299, a slight premium on the £499 / $775 / AU$999 you’ll have to pay to get the Planar 2 with the company’s standard factory-fitted Carbon MM cartridge. But based on our testing, it’s well worth considering the upgrade.
Paired with our reference system of the PMC Cor amplifier and Epos ES14N speakers, with a Vertere Phono-1 MkII L phono stage, the cartridge yielded solid sonic improvements. Whether it was Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 or Slipknot’s Wait And Bleed, the package delivered an authoritative and engaging sound that was wonderfully dynamic, rhythmically precise and agile. Hence our conclusion:
“An assured, subtle and rhythmically exciting deck with high build quality and fuss-free set-up – the Planar 2/Nd3 package is a strong performer at this level.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth Rega Planar 2/Nd3 review
Sony WF-C510
The WF-C510 are the latest affordable wireless earbuds from audio heavyweight Sony. While many people’s attention may firmly be on the AirPods 4 with ANC, you’d be foolish to ignore the Sony WF-C510, based on our testing.
Putting them up against their five-star, Award-winning predecessors the Sony WFC500, we found they’re an incredibly accomplished set of earbuds considering their low £55 / $60 / AU$110 price tag.
For the money you’ll be treated to a stellar value pair of earbuds that deliver a wonderfully comfortable fit and solid, musical sound that you won’t get on anything else at this price. Hence our reviewers’ conclusion:
“At this level, it’s hard to pile on too much expectation, but Sony’s previous track record has us doing just that. And the WF-C510 don’t disappoint. They might look and feel cheaper than what has gone before them but we can’t really argue with the comfort, sense of fun and musicality that they convey. They’re brilliant buds with a bargain price tag.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth Sony WF-C510 review
LG C4 (OLED42C4)
The OLED42C4 is the smallest option in LG’s middle-child C-series of OLED TVs. For the money you get the same core formula that made the larger 48-inch LG C4 and 65-inch LG C4 great, but in a smaller package. These include flawless gaming specs with four full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs, with eARC, that will let you take full advantage of a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S's graphical grunt.
But, most importantly it also delivers an excellent movie watching experience. While we found the smallest model doesn’t offer quite as warm colours as its siblings, it’s still capable of delivering a wonderfully punchy but authentic picture. That’s why you’ll currently see the 42-inch LG C4 front and centre in both our best gaming TV and best OLED TV buying guides. As we said in our 42-inch LG C4 review:
“The 42-inch LG C4 is the best small OLED TV money can buy right now. Though its audio isn't the best, it delivers a wonderfully punchy, immersive viewing experience despite its small form factor, with noticeably higher peak brightness than its older rivals.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth LG C4 (OLED42C4) review
Qobuz
When we first tested it we initially weren’t sold on hi-res service Qobuz. But after a wealth of improvements since we last fully reviewed it, we can confirm it has evolved into the best music streaming service for audiophiles.
The biggest and most appealing of those improvements are its stellar hi-res streaming powers, which now include a much wider range of tracks and artists. Add to this its clever pricing changes, which now put it roughly in line with direct rival Tidal, and it quickly became an easy recommendation among our experts during our joint testing sessions. Hence our updated conclusion:
“It’s clear Qobuz has really worked hard in recent years to bring its pricing, catalogue and user experience in line with the competition, while also keeping its niche for the audiophile user. Yes, other services offer high-res music, but Qobuz feels like it lives and breathes it.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth Qobuz review
Audiovector Trapeze Reimagined
The Audiovector Trapeze Reimagined are a squat pair of floorstanding speakers that have been 45 years in the making. Having finally gotten them into our listening rooms our team of reviewers can thankfully confirm they are worth the wait. The speakers may have a wonderfully eye-catching, retro design, but under the hood they’re a modern marvel full of clever engineering.
Every one of the four drivers has been bespoke-crafted with painstaking attention to detail that takes inspiration from and improves on the designs of the original Trapeze speakers. The end result is a wonderfully unfussy pair of floorstanding speakers that delivered stellar results paired with our reference system. This includes a Naim ND555/555 PS DR music streamer, Technics SL-1000R/Kiseki Purpleheart MC and Burmester 088/911MkIII amplifier.
Whether it was Mahler’s 8th Symphony or Massive Attack’s Angel, the Trapeze Reimagined delivered a performance full of clarity, excellent dynamics and impressive bass power, agility and grip.
This makes them an easy recommendation and led our testers to conclude:
“There is always a danger with retro-inspired speakers that the sound quality takes a back seat to the nostalgia value. That isn’t the case here. The Trapeze Ri may resemble their famed ancestors, but in every other respect are thoroughly modern speakers that, at their considerable best, deliver a wonderfully spellbinding sound.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth Audiovector Trapeze Reimagined review
Sony Bravia 8 (K65XR80)
The Sony Bravia 8 is the only new OLED TV from Sony this year. If that wasn’t enough pressure to put on the unit, it’s also the direct successor to the Sony A80L – a Product of the Year winner at last year’s What Hi-Fi? Awards.
Putting it through its paces directly against its predecessor in our viewing rooms last month, we can now confirm it is a stellar OLED TV that delivers a wealth of small but important improvements on last year’s model.
Highlights include a slightly higher maximum brightness, which makes bright scenes a smidgen more detailed and immersive than the outgoing, and still excellent, A80L, plus refinements to its colours. The latter adds a layer of warmth that makes skin tones in particular look more authentic and true to life.
Add to this its best in class motion handling and good, by TV standards, audio (though you’ll still want a soundbar for truly immersive viewing), and it easily earned a five-star rating. As we said in our review:
“The Bravia 8 is a refinement rather than a big step forward for Sony’s OLED TV offering – but it's still a great TV.”
Score: 5/5
Read our in-depth Sony Bravia 8 review
Dali Rubikore 2
The Rubikore 2 are our first taste of hi-fi house Dali’s new Kore-era speakers. This means they come with a number of engineering features we’ve not had in our listening rooms before.
Highlights include a brand-new hybrid tweeter design and a a 16.5cm mid/bass driver complete with Dali’s custom paper and wood-fibre ‘Clarity Cone’ and patented SMC (Soft Magnetic Compound) magnet material technology.
Pairing the standmount speakers with our reference hardware, while we found you will want to match them with a smoother-sounding amplifier, in our case the Arcam A15 and Naim Nait XS 3, they are capable of fantastic audio.
Once matched well, the Rubikore 2 delivered great audio full of class-leading levels of insight and rhythmic precision. Hence our conclusion:
“As entertaining as they are informative, the formidable Rubikore 2 deliver a good time, and then some.”
Score 5/5
Read our in-depth Dali Rubikore 2 review
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