As Alice Cooper once growled, school’s out for summer. And while many of the What Hi-Fi? team would welcome the chance to join the youngsters on an extended break full of sunshine and self discovery, the realities of adulthood mean we must continue our toil.
Which, in this instance, means a fresh entry into our weekly Rewind news digest, where we detail the biggest developments in the world of hi-fi and home cinema you need to know about. And what a week it was.
Over the past seven days we’ve seen everything from new on-ear wireless headphones from an audio heavyweight, to fresh electronics from a turntable master appear.
Here is what you need to know.
1. LG’s actually pretty good at Mini LED TVs
LG is a TV giant and brand that nearly every home cinema fan recognises. But, in recent years that’s usually because of its strong track record championing OLED, of which it is the chief manufacturer.
Which is why this week we were surprised when its LG QNED93 (65QNED93) Mini LED proved to be one of the best we’ve tested in recent memory – so much so that we added it to our best Mini LED TV guide.
The set shares a lot of the core DNA that makes LG’s C-line of OLEDs great, including excellent app support and the inclusion of four full fat HDMI 2.1 inputs.
It also manages to mitigate a lot of the regular issues we have with Mini LED panels around black level and light control. But despite these perks it still fell just shy of earning our final fiftht star due to a couple of niggling flaws, especially around audio quality.
Read our full LG QNED93 (65QNED93) review
2. Beyerdynamic has new on-ears
Last week Beyerdynamic lifted the lid on its latest wireless headphones, the Aventho 100. Featuring a distinctly 70s design, the on-ear set sits below the over-ear Aventho 300 we reviewed earlier this year.
Set to retail for £169 / €199 / AU$349, the on-ear headphones feature some impressive specifications. These include 45mm dynamic drivers as well as a lengthy 60-hour battery life with ANC off and 40 hours with ANC on.
Add to this quality of life additions including Google Fast Pair for connecting to Android devices Qualcomm’s ‘Clear Voice Cancellation’ and they become a fairly enticing looking package – though as always, we’ll wait until we’ve had a chance to properly review them before making any final judgments.
Read the full story: Beyerdynamic brings vintage ’70s style to its mid-range noise-cancelling headphones
3. Pro-Ject unveiled a new, affordable headphone amp
Pro-Ject launched its new affordable Head Box E amp last week, continuing its recent rush of new electronics.
The £89 (around $120 / AU$180) amp sits in the same affordable line as the firm’s Stereo Box E stereo amp and System E hi-fi system and is designed to be a quick and easy way for music fans to level-up their wired headphones’ audio quality.
Offering 665 milliwatts (0.665 watts) into 32 ohms it should be powerful enough to drive most wired cans. Pro-Ject has also designed it with discrete electronics, rather than a more standard integrated chip design, in a bid to give its engineers greater control over the signal path.
Connectivity also looks solid for such an affordable unit, with Pro-Ject loading the Head Box E with a pair of RCA sockets for inputs, along with a bypass RCA loop and 3.5m 6.3mm headphone outputs.
Read the full story: Pro-Ject’s pocket-sized Head Box E headphone amp costs just £89
4. Our senior staff writer had a Dolby Atmos surprise
If you’re like most of the What Hi-Fi? staff, the first thing you think of when someone says Dolby Atmos is likely movies, followed by music. But this week our senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, encountered and fell in love with the “dome of sound” audio technology in a very different place – gaming.
Specifically, his PS5, which was recently upgraded to support the technology. Doing a test playing Cyberpunk 2077 on his PS5 with a Philips OLED907 handling the picture and a Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus driving the audio, the results were so impressive, he felt the need to write an article detailing the experience.
Read the full story: I finally tried Dolby Atmos on my PS5 – and it’s so immersive that I don’t think I can go back
We ran two uber-premium soundbars head-to-head
If you want to invest close to two grand in a soundbar, there are currently two options we’ve tested and given five-stars to.
First, is the older incumbent recommendation, the giant, but awesome, Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max. The second is a new plucky upstart, the recently reviewed KEF XIO.
Eager to help you find out which is best and worth your hard earned money, last week our home cinema team sat down and ran the two head-to-head, creating a handy versus guide detailing our experience, and advice on which you should get.
Read our full KEF XIO vs Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max guide
MORE:
These are the best headphone amplifiers we’ve tested
We rate the best Dolby Atmos soundbars
Our picks of the best wireless headphones