The weather may be turning, making Monday a particularly chilling prospect this week, but as a silver lining it does mean a fresh entry into the What Hi-Fi? team’s Rewind news digest.
In it we detail the top hi-fi and home cinema developments you should be aware of to break over the past seven days.
It was a particularly hectic week for the team of experts at What Hi-Fi? towers with Apple unveiling a wealth of new AirPods headphones and earbuds at a special “Glowtime” event last Monday.
But, while that may have dominated the headlines at the start of the week, there were a number of big hi-fi and home cinema announcements after it.
Here’s what you need to know.
Apple unveiled new AirPods
Apple unveiled a wealth of new hardware on Monday. But while many sites focussed on its new line of iPhone 16 smartphones, it was the new AirPods at the event that caught our eye.
The AirPods 4 are the most interesting, with Apple offering an ANC variant of the tipless design earbuds and promising a wealth of sonic improvements on the older model. We haven’t had them in for testing, so can’t give our final verdict, but after a very early listen at the event, they did leave a positive impression. The firm also unveiled an updated version of the AirPods Max, which adds three new colour options and USB-C charging. Otherwise, though, the Max remain largely unchanged, with Apple making no claims about audio quality improvements during the event.
Read our Apple AirPods 4 hands-on
Marantz unveiled more new hi-fi
Last week Marantz unveiled its new Model 60n, 'Swiss Army knife', just-add-speakers streaming amp. The amp is available now for £1300 / $1500 / €1500 and enters an already fairly well served market with numerous other streaming amps including Marantz's own Model 1, the Nad M10 V3 and the four-star Roksan Attessa having launched this year. Still, given Marantz's pedigree in this area, we’re excited to see how it performs once we get it in for proper testing.
Read the full story: Marantz's versatile, powerful streaming amplifier boasts ample hi-fi heritage at a reasonable price
LG C4 prices continued to surprise us
We’ve chronicled the oddly early discounts hitting new OLED TVs this year many times before. But last week LG OLED TV prices truly jumped the shark with the price of the smallest 42-inch LG C4 OLED dropping to just £870, making it just £20 more expensive than last year’s 42-inch LG C3. Having reviewed the unit and directly compared it to its outgoing sibling, we can confirm the picture improvements you get on the newer C4 are well with the extra £20 – making the discount one of the best OLED TV deals we’ve seen this year.
Read the full story: OLED TV prices make no sense right now – and that's great if you're after an LG C4
The first soundbar with Dirac tech appeared
Last week US audio brand Klipsch unveiled its new Flexus Core 300 Dolby Atmos soundbar. The Core 300 is particularly interesting as it is set to be the first soundbar featuring Dirac technology. This is a new room correction solution designed to let the soundbar optimise and deliver “peerless” audio regardless of its placement and the dimensions and set-up of the room it's in.
Read the full story: Klipsch's new Dolby Atmos soundbar is the first in the world with Dirac technology
We built an awesome home movie theatre
With our latest system, our team of home cinema experts decided to go big and create one of the most premium, and awesome, home theatre set-ups we’ve done in quite some time. The system is built around the five-star JVC DLA-NZ800, and will set you back a hefty £48,996 / $50,878 / AU$91,988. But, having used it in our viewing rooms, we can safely confirm that if you have the money it’s worth it!
Read the full story: We built an incredible high-end home cinema experience, at a price
MORE:
These are the best wireless earbuds we've reviewed
We rate the best OLED TVs
Our picks of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars
