Entering a new market is never easy. Entering a market where a number of your rivals are already doing an absolutely stellar job must be a truly daunting proposition – especially when some of those rivals are called Sony, Bose, Apple, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins. Fair play, then, to multi-room speaker and soundbar specialist Sonos for taking the headphone bull by the horns. It has named its premium noise-cancellers Ace; so has it played its trump card? Our Sonos Ace First Test will reveal all.
Also in this issue we have a round-up of our favourite floorstanding speakers costing £1000-£2000. They are joined by some wireless speakers for the home which will provide excellent sound with minimal fuss and footprint.
To round things off, many of What Hi-Fi?’s review team spent a number of days visting High End Munich, Europe’s premier hi-fi expo. We bring you extended highlights of the show, and are really excited about what the future is bringing to the wonderful home entertainment and hi-fi industry.
Towers of power
The average floorstanding loudspeaker is a very grown-up specimen indeed. The very nature of their large-cabinet design means that, regardless of their driver arrangement, they already have an advantage over their smaller, standmounted cousins when it comes to delivering great sound.
The big plus here is weightier bass reproduction – something that standmounts, with their smaller internal volume, find much more of a challenge. In addition, floorstanders are able to produce a sound of greater power and scale, and are therefore well suited to larger rooms, which most can comfortably fill – even at higher volumes.
For this round-up, we have entered premium floorstander territory, where prices fall between £1000 and £2000. In this price bracket, the hardware offers a big step up in quality and performance from the sub-£1000 arena. That is because manufacturers have that crucial amount more cash in their budgets to spend on high-quality drive units, crossovers and other components. They can also pay more attention to the cabinet materials and all-round quality of build – all of which pays significant dividends for the buyer. In fact, this is arguably the sector that offers the best balance between performance and price.
The four speakers we have chosen to feature on the following pages are all from very ‘grown-up’ brands with decades of experience in loudspeaker manufacture. Three of the four particularly excel in those areas of scale and bass reproduction mentioned above, while the fourth – the PMC Prodigy 5 – winningly plays its own trump cards in other areas.
Bargainous 24-inch TVs
Regular What Hi-Fi? readers will have noticed that TVs tested within the magazine's pages are becoming ever bigger, driven by the idea of a lovely 4K or even 8K TV that will fully immerse you in movie nights, or provide the kind of big-screen gaming experience that feels truly next-level. Screens at up to a projector-bothering 75in or even 115in seem to be where the big brands are putting their time and tech – yet, as the models on test here prove, there is clearly still a market for a TV at the relatively diminutive size of 24in.
The trio of 24in TVs we’ve rounded up this month have been picked for their impressive picture quality at their size and useful feature-set. While a panel at this size will likely struggle to produce enough brightness to really do HDR justice, high dynamic range in its most basic form is nonetheless on the menu for two of the sets here, while the other, though only ‘HD-ready’, will still provide a bright, rich and detailed picture for the money.
Maybe it’s for a bedroom, desktop, kitchen, or even as a portable option you can move from room to room; whatever you have in mind, a TV at the size we’re focusing on here may be just the thing.
System of the Month
For this month's system, we've built a superb set-up that will bring you equal joy whether playing games or watching movies. Centred on LG's fantastic, games-friendly C4, we've added the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 home cinema package, Sony TA-AN1000 AV amp, Panasonic BDP UB450 and Xbox Series X games console.
The best new hi-fi from High End Munich
Europe's biggest hi-fi show, High End Munich, once again delighted our eyes and ears in May, with an onslaught of new product announcements. The What Hi-Fi? team were on the ground in Germany, and got hands-on impressions of all the latest hi-fi products.
With 1000 brands exhibiting and even more visitors than ever estimated to have strolled through the halls and atriums looking in awe at the latest designs and technological marvels from the world’s finest hi-fi brands, the High End Society smashed it once again. This month we bring you our pick of the best products to have featured at the Munich show.
First with reviews
This month, as always, our First Tests section is packed to the gills with in-depth, impartial and expert verdicts on the very latest hi-fi and AV gear.
The biggest news this month is the release of Sonos's much-anticipated first ever pair of wireless earphones, the Sonos Ace. Can the multi-room and speaker specialist ace it in a crowded market packed with top-drawer rivals? Read our in-depth review of the Ace headphones in this month's mag!
Sony's HT-AX7 is something of a unique proposition; the company describes it as a 'portable theatre system'; turns out it's a wireless speaker, that also separates into three parts to provide surround sound. Intrigued? Find out what we thought of its performance in this month's mag!
Elsewhere we have reviews of Final's ZE8000 MK2 earbuds, a gaming-focussed projector from BenQ, the X3100i, and Philips' Fidelio L4 wireless headphones. But that's not all; we also tested the Roberts Revival Petite 2 dinky radio, and the strong-performing Samsung QE65QN95D Mini LED TV.
Find out what our review team thought of all these products in August's What Hi-Fi?
Top products, top prices
Our Temptations section of the magazine is all about the best. And, sometimes, the best doesn't come cheap.
This month our expert reviewers were mightily impressed by Luxman's L-509Z integrated amplifier. With its appealing retro looks, we found plenty to like in its design and build, and, crucially, it sounds great too. And the price? Well, you'll have to dig deep – but if you can, you won't be disappointed.
Vertere's Dark Sabre moving magnet cartridge isn't the cheapest option out there, but, as we found, "just about every aspect of the sound improves" when upgrading from a standard MM cartridge to the Dark Sabre. Find out more about both these top-class products in August's What Hi-Fi?
Finally, don't forget to check out our Buyer’s Guide, featuring a definitive list of all the best home entertainment kit you can buy – including winners of 2023's What Hi-Fi? Awards. If you’re looking to purchase anything from a pair of wireless headphones to a home cinema speaker system, this section will tell you where to spend your money wisely.
Whatever you do, don't miss the August 2024 issue of What Hi-Fi?. Grab a copy today, or simply download it onto your tablet or smartphone. Enjoy!
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