Rewind: Record Store Day treats, five-star record players, new Sony TVs and more

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

Happy Monday, and welcome to the latest entry into our weekly Rewind column. In it we detail the top stories to break in the world of hi-fi and home cinema over the past seven days.

Once again it was a busy week, with the What Hi-Fi? team running a Vinyl Week special event in the run-up to Record Store Day and Sony unveiling a swathe of new home cinema treats.

Here’s everything you need to know.

We celebrated vinyl

Vinyl Week 2024 graphic — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

Last week we ran a special Vinyl Week event where we celebrated everything we love about one of music’s most iconic formats. Highlights included exclusive interviews with record store owners, a breakdown of how records are made and a detailed summary from our hi-fi editor on the two biggest roadblocks she’s facing building a turntable system.

Check out all our Vinyl Week 2024 coverage

A turntable and cartridge got perfect marks

Vertere Dark Sabre MM cartridge — (Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

On top of vinyl-focussed news and features last week we also published our definitive verdict on the Vertere Dark Sabre moving magnetic cartridge and great value Rekkord Audio F110 automatic record player. Spoiler: they’re both great. Find out why using the links below.

Read our Vertere Dark Sabre and Rekkord Audio F110 reviews

Sony unveiled a fresh batch of home cinema treats

Sony Bravia 9 mounted on a wall in a modern living room with marble features — (Image credit: Sony)

Sony lifted the lid on a fresh batch of home cinema treats last week. Highlights included its latest Bravia 8 and Bravia 9 TVs – which we managed to get an early hands-on look at – as well as a new HT-A7000 Dolby Atmos soundabar and Bravia Theatre Quad wireless speaker system.

Check out our hands-on first impressions of the Bravia 8 and Bravia 9

Spotify hiked its prices

Sadly it wasn’t all good news for music fans last week, as Spotify confirmed it will be hiking its prices. This is the second price hike Spotify’s rolled out in the past 12 months and means its standard subscription now costs the same as Tidal’s – the latter of which offers higher quality hi-res streaming.

Read the full story: Spotify's latest price hike has been confirmed – and it's bad news for subscribers

MORE:

These are the best music streaming services

We rate the best TVs

Check out our picks of the best record players

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.