Sony WH-1000XM2 Review

Sony is flying high with this superb pair of noise-cancelling headphones… Tested at £330 Our Verdict: 5 Stars Sony’s on a roll with its premium noise-cancelling headphones. This is another pair that’s going to be tough to beat For Excellent timing Loads of detail Refined, smooth highs Punchy, confident lows Impressive noise-cancelling Against Touchpad controls take a little bit of getting used to With The Great British Bake Off returning to our screens, it only seems apt to start with a hi-fi based baking analogy. Sony had all the right ingredients in place with its MDR-1000X headphones. They mixed excellent audio quality over Bluetooth with...

Klipsch The Sixes Speaker Review

  Mid-Fi at its finest. The last time I reviewed an audio HiFi product was a few months back when I wrote about my love for the Devialet Phantom Gold system I purchased. That system is amazing, and rocks the house down. It can do so with grace, ease or all out grunt and force and remain composed while doing so. Many nights…yes, many nights I had a concert in my home thanks to those Gold Phantoms. Incredible. For many though, those are overkill and too expensive. What about if you just want a nice set of stereo speakers that do not...

Yamaha MusicCast YAS-306 Review: No subwoofer? No problem

Excellent sound quality from a standalone soundbar, just don’t expect the full surround effect Pros Decent bass without a subwoofer Highly flexible wireless connectivity Infrared passthrough Cons No HDMI connectivity Sound sometimes lacks subtlety A touch pricey The Yamaha YAS-306 is a standalone soundbar with an unusual twist. It comes without a subwoofer, normally a signal for below-par audio performance, yet it manages to pack a sonic punch far above its station. Packed into its chunky, understated case is not only a pair of 2.13in drivers and two 0.75in tweeters aimed at producing virtual surround sound, but also a pair...

KEF Muo Review

Pros  Class-leading mid-range and treble detail  Small  Good top volume Cons  Expensive  Sound lacks a little bulk in some areas Key Features Review Price: £299.00 2x 50mm UniQ drivers Aux input Bluetooth with aptX What is the KEF Muo? The KEF Muo is a high-end Bluetooth speaker of tiny proportions. It’s dinky enough to slip into a handbag, or a small pocket inside a rucksack. But at £299, the price is anything but small. For those raising an eyebrow, I’m not surprised – for this money you could easily get your hands on a seriously good wireless home-bound speaker. But...

Fiio A5 Review

FiiO started with amplifiers, that is how they made their name and the $129.99 A5 could be considered the 3rd generation of the original E12 which came out in 2013 and was then an answer to the crazy power output quest we all had when planars made a big comeback. The E12 DIY was a refinement of the E12 born out of positive feedback on the MUSES02 opamp which was one of the rollable opamps FiiO offered with the E12 DIY Limited Edition in 2014. In came the E12a in late 2014 with that MUSES02 opamp at the heart of...

Wharfedale Diamond A1 Review

Score: 4.5 Stars Pros  Superb scale and decent detail  Classy looks and build  Great value Cons  Too many cables and plugs Key Features Review Price: £599.95 130mm mid-bass driver, 25mm fabric dome tweeter 1x coaxial digital, 1x optical, 1x RCA stereo phono inputs Bluetooth aptX 2x 50W amplification Remote control What is the Wharfedale Diamond A1? The Diamond A1 is a relatively high-end pair of Bluetooth speakers, and the active, more attractive version of the Wharfedale Diamond 220. If you’re after something more room-filling and high-fidelity than the army of one-box wireless speakers out there, these are a truly impressive...

Kef Egg review: Cracking sound quality that’s worth shelling out for

Earth-shaking bass isn’t on the menu, but Kef’s Egg speakers serve up crystal clarity from both wired and wireless connections Pros  Crisp, expansive sound quality Great looks Lots of connection options Cons  Maximum volume is limited Bass doesn’t go that deep Kef is synonymous with eggs. Not because the company has a particular penchant for high-protein foodstuffs, but rather because Kef’s up-market surround sound systems were famed for their egg-shaped satellite speakers. Now, Kef has adapted the design for this equally upmarket set of desktop speakers. Design and features Measuring just 27cm off the desk, the Eggs are not a...

Yamaha RX-V683 Review

‘ The Verdict Yamaha consistently pumps out good sounding AV equipment and this year’s Yamaha RX-V683 easily makes the cut. This amp has the finesse and brawn needed to breath new life into most home theaters. Design: 8.5 Features: 8.5 Value: 8.5 Ease of Use: 8.0 Sound Quality: 8.5 Overall Score: 8.5 The Good The Yamaha RX-V683 offers good sound quality and an enviable set of features at a competitive price. Its substantial HDR video support is a big plus for 4K TV owners. The Bad The 683’s connection choices are a little sparse. It has a solid amount of...

Review: B&W’s Z2 is an impressive AirPlay speaker and iPhone dock

Bowers & Wilkins’s $400 Z2 is the apparent successor to the company’s Zeppelin Mini, but instead of a 30-pin dock connector, the Z2 features a Lightning-connector dock and AirPlay wireless streaming. Supporting the latest iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod nano models, the Z2 is available in black or white glass-filled ABS. (The black model is available now; the white model won’t ship until June.) Like the earlier Zeppelin mini, the Z2 measures 7.1 inches tall, 12.6 inches wide, and 3.9 inches deep; it weighs 5.7 pounds. The speaker looks cool, with a distinctively angled round top, and a pleasantly curved recessed area surrounding the Lightning dock itself. On the bottom...

Audio-Technica ATH-R70x review

OUR VERDICT – 5 Stars A lovely balance of comfort and sound quality creates headphones that can help craft great mixes. PROS Comfort and performance.   CONS None.   The open back ATH-R70x has a unique design feature: a pair of sprung wing supports instead of a continuous padded headband. This has two advantages. First they cover less of the head and, if you run a little hot like us, this is a good thing. Second, coupling between sides is minimised, which is key to good stereo separation. The R70x are so light it is easy to forget you have...