We are fully into Awards season. That means a bunch of testing to find which new hi-fi and home cinema products will dethrone our current What Hi-Fi? Award winners to reign supreme, and which current trophy holders will carry on leading the field in their respective categories and price points.
This does mean our test rooms are heaving with new products, from feature-packed DACs to new floorstanding speakers and the latest TVs and more.
We won’t list them all here (that’s in a super-secret spreadsheet for our eyes only), but below we’ve highlighted a handful of the key products that we can’t wait to put through the testing process.
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Sonos Beam Ultra
(Image credit: Future)
It has just been announced, but we are expecting the arrival of the new Sonos Beam Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar in our test rooms any day now. Costing £699 / $699 / AU$1099, the new model sits above the five-star, Award-winning Beam (Gen 2), and brings plenty of upgrades in its compact form.
The step-up Beam Ultra has nine drivers in total – four more than the Beam Gen 2 – which includes dedicated up-firing drivers for proper Dolby Atmos sound, for up to a 7.1.2-channel configuration.
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The Beam Ultra will work with the updated Sonos 27 app, and will link with the new Sonos Ace Ultra wireless headphones to transfer sound between the two products. You’ll also be able to use the portable Sonos Play and Move 2 as rear surround speakers with the Ultra.
Will Sonos be able to deliver a winning formula yet again? We shall see.
Rega Planar 6 RS Edition
(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)
At long last, we have Rega’s Planar 6 RS Edition in our test rooms, which takes the standard, Award-winning Planar 6 turntable as a base and adds elements from the more premium Planar 8 (also five stars) into quite an attractive package.
The 6 RS features a foam core plinth sandwiched between two layers of high-pressure laminate that is coated in the same lovely brushed aluminium finish we’ve seen on the superb Planar 3 RS Edition. This adds rigidity while keeping things light – a key Rega engineering principle.
The top-of-the-line Nd9 moving magnet cartridge comes fitted as standard, and other elements taken from the P8 include the RB880 tonearm, an outboard power supply with electronic speed switching, and a double belt drive. Costing £2000, could this deliver the mid-way magic between the Planar 6 and Planar 8? We can’t wait to take it for a spin.
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Arcam A50 Signature
(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)
We’re not the only ones celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. Arcam has also joined us in turning the big 5-0 and has launched the A50 Signature integrated amplifier to celebrate the milestone.
Billed as the “best-sounding integrated amplifier Arcam has ever produced”, the A50 is the new flagship of the successful Radia line, which includes the Award-winning A5+ and A15+ stereo amplifiers.
It boasts 150W per channel into 8 ohms, with a fully dual-mono Class G architecture that aims to deliver purer audio. The specs list is exhaustive – analogue RCA and XLR, digital inputs including HDMI eARC and USB, MM/MC phono stage, and more.
Costing £2499 / $3000, the A50 Signature amp is also joined by a new CD25 CD player, that sits above the Award-winning CD5 – we have high hopes for both.
Ruark Talisman-R
(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)
We had an early listen to the Talisman-R speakers at the High End Vienna show in June, and now these premium floorstanders are waiting in the wings in our test room.
With a distinctive sloped baffle that harks back to the 1990 original, the new Talisman-R costs £1499 per pair and features a 27mm silk dome tweeter alongside a 16.5cm long-throw fibre woofer, updated cabinetry with internal bracing and real wood details.
We very much liked the previous-gen Talisman-R III’s fast, dynamic and exciting performance, but that was a good 20 years ago. We’re keen to find out if Ruark has held on to that same magic when we hear the new towers against their contemporary rivals.
TCL X11L
(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)
Despite also having an RGB Mini LED model (the TCL RM9L), TCL has banked on Quantum Dot tech for its flagship TVs. The £3999, 75-inch TCL X11L is the very TV with the tech we’ve had in our test room.
TCL’s ‘Super’ QLED flagship TV features next-generation Quantum Dots along with a new super-high ‘Ultra’ colour filter, which put together should deliver a wider colour gamut, better brightness, more local dimming zones, slimmer designs and no colour crosstalk issues. The final point being a repeat issue we’ve seen crop up in some RGB Mini LED displays. It also comes with an integrated B&O sound system.
In our demo earlier this year, we were impressed with the X11L’s “raw brightness”, high contrast and wide colour range, so we are excited to see how it fares under our full review treatment.
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