Indholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2024 i Home Cinema Choice

In this 'Best of the Year' issue of Home Cinema Choice, we return to our favourite AV hardware from the last 12 months – the TVs, loudspeakers, AV receivers, soundbars, subwoofers and more from UK, European and global brands that really caught our eye (and ears). Ticket prices range from £90 (p81) to a cool £19,300 (p39), so hopefully we have your budget covered. Film fanatics can also check out our Movie Awards (p21), where we celebrate the best software of the year across Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and streaming, from mega-budget Hollywood epics to meticulously restored vintage classics. And for those whose plans for 2024 include a cinema room upgrade or makeover, turn to p28 to drool over a high-grade custom install, then p106 to be inspired by a quartet…

When Sony’s PlayStation Store issued a brief 'legal update' in early December the company might not have imagined the uproar it would cause. Yet by announcing that 1000s of hours of video content PS users had paid to 'own' would be removed from their libraries on December 31, it reignited the digital vs physical media debate. The content in question hails from Discovery, the factual entertainment behemoth that merged with Warner Media in 2022 to form Warner Bros. Discovery. The list of shows being removed includes plenty you've likely never heard of (Style By Jury, anyone?), but also well-known Discovery staples including Deadliest Catch, Who Do You Think You Are? and Gold Rush. Sony’s statement said the purge was due 'to our content licensing arrangements with content providers,' suggesting Warner/Discovery…

Night Swim January 5: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… After moving into a new home, a family learn that their swimming pool is haunted in this feature-length update of director Bryce McGuire’s 2014 short film. The Beekeeper January 12: Jason Statham teams up with Training Day helmer David Ayer for this action-thriller about an ex-secret agent out for revenge on the company behind a phishing scam. The Colour Purple January 26: A bigscreen version of the award-winning Broadway musical take on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel (previously adapted 'straight' for the screen by Steven Spielberg in 1985). Oscar buzz is already starting to hum……

Audio corp Rotel has introduced a new two-channel integrated amplifier, but is taking aim at more than just music lovers by adding an HDMI ARC input to its connections count. The RAS-5000 is based around a 2x220W Class A/B amp stage. Rotel says components, including the unit’s 'over-sized' toroidal transformer, have been cherry-picked to deliver 'controlled bass energy with exceptional fidelity'. As well as hooking up to a TV via its HDMI port, the amp can be fed hi-res audio to 384kHz/24-bit, including MQA, over USB-B. Optical, coaxial, Bluetooth and analogue inputs are also offered, while the RAS-5000’s network skills mean Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay 2 and Chromecast are all on the menu. The amp launched at the end of November, priced £2,799, and is available in silver or…

A ROOM WITH some innovative storage, this project from Yorkshire-based company Yorkshire AV was its first to feature loudspeakers and subwoofers from Perlisten Audio, the American manufacturer that entered the home cinema arena in 2021. Flagship S Series models, all Certified THX Dominus, were chosen for the job of delivering a 9.3.6-channel Dolby Atmos system. The rest of the specified hardware is equally high-end, with amplification and processing/room correction coming from Trinnov Audio separates, and sources being a Kaleidescape movie server system, Oppo Ultra HD Blu-ray player, Apple TV 4K streaming box, and Sky Q. The cinema’s front wall hides the L/C/R speaker stage, and houses a 16:9 ratio Reference screen from Screen Excellence. 4K HDR images are delivered by a Sony VPL-XW7000ES projector [see p63], mounted in a purpose-built…

ALTHOUGH B&W’S NEW S3 lineup is the brand’s mid-range proposition, with the 600 Series below it, price points reach to £5,500 for the largest 702 S3 floorstander. Also on offer are the 703 S3 and 704 S3 (£4,200 and £3,000 respectively); the 705 S3, 706 S3 and 707 S3 standmount/bookshelf models (£2,600, £1,650 and £1,300 respectively); and the HTM71 S3 (£1,700) and HTM72 S3 (£1,000) centre channels. Sold separately (or in pairs), buyers are free to mix and match. The look of the range will be familiar to watchers of the British brand, with the same driver layouts and general dimensions of the 700 S2 models of yesteryear [HCC #285]. Yet an aesthetic refresh includes curved rather than flat front baffles, drivers mounted in chrome-coloured 'pods', upgraded plinth stands, and…

SOMEONE ONCE SAID the only things we can be certain of are 'death and taxes'. To that I might venture you can add 'kick-ass compact speakers from Wharfedale', because the UK-born marque, when getting down to the business of delivering fine sounds from small boxes, never seems to put a foot wrong. On test here is its new DX-3 HCP ('Home Cinema Package), and it is both in name and general appearance a descendant of the DX-2 system [HCC #283]. That was an absolute bargain 5.1 bundle, as was the DX-1 before it. The four DX-3 Satellite speakers, which handle front and surround L/R channels, are as diminutive as ever – just 12cm wide and 19cm high. But their ultra-compact nature is a feature, not a bug. The DX-3 HCP,…

IT TURNS OUT last year’s launch of Quantum Dot OLED technology was more significant than we thought. Mixing self-emissive OLED panels with a QD colour layer not only gave us a new flatscreen option to consider, but ushered in a period of competition that’s already yielding remarkable results. The premium TV market has been turbo-charged. The traditional WRGB OLED approach has responded to the QD OLED challenge by introducing new Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology that ups brightness 30-40 per cent beyond [see p50]. And it’s a good job it has, for Samsung’s second-gen 65in QD OLED flagship, the QE65S95C, has achieved almost exactly the same sort of brightness increase – and the outcome is as spectacular as you might hope. Follow-up technology Samsung Display, which produces the panels that…

PHILIPS' 65OLED808 SERIES occupies the middle slot in the brand’s range, below the recently announced OLED908 flagship and above the – you guessed it – OLED708 entry-level sets. The ticket on this 65-incher is £1,799, which makes it a tempting buy if your wallet can't stretch to more premium rivals. The TV’s super-slim design (at the edges, anyway) is enhanced by a three-sided version of Philips' Ambilight system, where rear-mounted LEDs can immersively track the colour content of the pictures you're watching. Ambilight is the kind of tech that you might think gimmicky until you actually experience it… Beavering away behind the scenes is a new (seventh-gen) version of Philips' AI-bolstered P5 processor, which adds two features to its already ultra-powerful image processing: an improved Ambient Intelligence system for automatically adapting…

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LG Display OLED screen I've seen in over a decade of scrutiny, the 65G3 is everything I want from an OLED TV: perfect black, sublime near shadow detail, rich colour performance and future-proofed connectivity for gaming. The story is that the G3 is the first LG TV to utilise a Micro Lens Array panel. This new iteration of OLED, created by panel-beater LG Display, features a sheet of tiny lenses to better focus its light output, and thereby reduce previously wasted illumination. On the G3, this is augmented by some fascinating extra tech, marketed as Brightness Booster Max. A combination of advanced brightness-boosting algorithms, made possible by the set’s all-powerful a9 AI Processor Gen6, plus 'Light Control Architecture', which is effectively a hardware heatsink, creates more headroom…

ANTHEM’S LATEST POWER amplifiers have been designed to complement its range of AVM processors, with matching livery and enough onboard grunt to fill an enormo-dome. The MCA Gen 2 catalogue offers the two-channel 225 (£2,295), three-channel 325 (£2,795), and five-channel 525 (£3,895) reviewed here. This Class A/B trio share the same design and build, with the only difference being the number of channels. All three are also pricey considering the channel count, but that will be less of an issue if they deliver in terms of overall performance. The Canadian brand certainly knows its bacon when it comes to building amps, and the MCA Gen 2 represents a ground-up redesign over the previous generation, with reduced cabling for a smoother circuit path, and new 'low noise high-power' toroidal transformers for greater…

EMOTIVA’S BASX MC1 processor decodes surround sound audio, passes through/switches video signals, and pretty much nothing else. That it can do this so ably from a thin chassis and for under £1,300 makes for a refreshing cocktail. You'll need to buy power amps, and forego some of the features of the integrated competition, but this could be just what you're looking for. For those building an AV setup around the MC1 (the C stands for 'controller', by the way) Emotiva has done some of the grunt work for you, with a line of power amps to complement it. The BasX A3, A4, A5, A6 and A7 (priced from £650 to £800), with their respective channel counts, make obvious bedfellows. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you using whatever power amps…

BENQ HAS TAKEN four years to replace its highly regarded W2700i home cinema PJ, so it’s no surprise that the new W2710i tested here is not simply a minor upgrade – improvements include an increase in brightness from 2,000 to 2,200 Lumens, compatibility with the dynamic HDR10+ format, and new Local Contrast Enhancer processing. Furthermore, BenQ has added a third HDMI input to the connections suite, and now provides a True Cinema 24p option designed to improve playback of 24fps sources. That 'i' lurking at the end of the PJ’s name is BenQ’s way of indicating it carries a built-in smart system. Or, at least, it becomes built-in once you've fitted the provided Android TV dongle into a special bay on the W2710i’s top edge (a version, sans dongle, is…

SOUNDBARS DON'T COME any more premium than this 18kg whopper from Danish design honcho Bang & Olufsen. Rather than shoot for the mainstream, the brand has gone seriously upmarket with a component that’s as uncompromising as it is exhilarating – the Beosound Theatre looks like no other soundbar on the market right now, and it doesn't really sound like anything else either. Design is obviously a talking point. Available in a variety of finishes, the most 'affordable' iteration features a smart fabric grille. Our sample had a more expensive slatted oak wood grille, which channels Scandi furniture design. This cosmetic uplift comes at a price though, because while the fabric edition sells for £5,590, three oak variants with wooden grilles sell for £6,390. Regardless, there’s a phalanx of speaker drivers…

PREVIOUSLY, THE BEST Atmos configuration one could create around a Sonos Arc and rears was a 5.0.2-channel effort. But partner the Arc with the new ERA 300s (wireless stereo speakers, designed from the get-go to excel with spatial audio/Dolby Atmos), and you can now step up to 7.0.4 – with no speaker cables anywhere. Excited? You should be… I'll get the bad news out of the way first: you're going to need deep pockets. Mariana Trench deep. The 'Premium Surround' set tested here – comprising the Sonos Arc and a pair of Era 300s – comes in at £1,797. But let’s be honest, you're never forking out for 'just' hardware with Sonos. You're also buying access to a well-honed audio ecosystem. Completely app-based, it delivers pain-free access to a wide…

THE XR 13 is the larger of two new subwoofers from Paradigm, wilfully skipping standard 10in or 12in driver sizes for fully bespoke units of 11in and the bigger 13in auditioned here. Selling for £4,999 approx, it’s dripping with tech and cosmetic cues from the Founder Series speakers [HCC #325], and is available in piano black, black walnut, walnut [pictured] and midnight cherry finishes. Like the speakers, the XR subs are relatively svelte considering their driver complement, with even the XR 13 coming in at a 'sensible-for-UK-rooms' size of under 50cm in all three dimensions. It weighs 47kg, however, thanks to a ferrite motor not much smaller in diameter than the driver cone itself, plus its heavily braced, sealed cabinet. The driver is an upscale edition of the Founder Series' bass…

AS NAMING PROTOCOLS go, a Reference product designation based on the number of years you have been in business has limitations. Yet there is very little else limited about REL’s No.31, which hit drawing boards 31 years after founder Richard Lord created his first sub with a high-level input for stereo systems. Fast-forward through testing and development, and the No.31 is a fully-fledged £7,000 beast of a sub. Its cabinet is only 435mm tall but 638mm wide and 720mm front to back, and constructed of MDF up to 60mm thick. There’s a reason for the No.31’s vertically challenged dimensions too. REL’s Line Array concept suggests three stacked on top of each other – often in a stereo pair… String theory This subwoofer’s finish and build is stunning. The deep-gloss black…

FOR THE THIRD generation of its Fire TV Cube, Amazon has given its premium media player a Borg-worthy update, improving both HDMI and wireless connectivity. If you're in the market for a top-notch streamer, resistance may well be futile. This is the first Fire TV device to offer an HDMI 2.1 input, alongside its ARC connection, to accommodate a set-top box or webcam. When I connected a Virgin Media V6 cable box, the Cube immediately recognised it and integrated remote and voice control. Additional connections include an IR extender, Ethernet port and USB. The top of the unit offers familiar Alexa mic and volume keys. Wireless connectivity gets a boost with support for Wi-Fi 6E. The solid Cube case favoured by previous generations has also been replaced by a fabric…

I'VE JUST WAVED a pair of Triangle Magellan Cello 40th Anniversary speakers off from my hallway and while it’s a great deal easier to get in and out of the house, I am rather sad to see them go. Obviously, as socking great three-way floorstanders that cost £11,000, the audio performance was deeply impressive – but I really miss how the speakers sat in my listening space and made me feel. Encasing their carefully engineered drivers and crossovers were cabinets covered in a wood veneer that Triangle calls 'shadow zebrano.' Each cabinet is jet-black at the rear but lightens to an almost tiger stripe effect at the front. It’s a tad on the showy side but truly lovely with it. Add the high-gloss lacquer and, even if the summation of…

➜ OPPENHEIMER 'It’s paradoxical – and yet it works,' says J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) as he attempts to explain how light can be both a wave and a particle. It’s a phrase that could equally be applied to Oppenheimer the film. After all, what we have here is a three-hour biopic of the brilliant physicist known as 'the father of the atomic bomb'; a character study threaded through with scientific and political discussion, ending with a sobering warning about the horror of nuclear war. And despite all that, director Christopher Nolan still manages to fashion it into the most unlikely summer blockbuster of all time. Oppenheimer is a film that just works – brilliantly. Not a moment of the three-hour runtime is wasted thanks to a combination of Nolan’s…

Peeping Tom ➜ Ultra HD Blu-ray, BFI WHAT DO THE films The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948) have in common? They were, of course, all made by the partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Throughout the 1940s and into the following decade, the duo’s production company The Archers established itself as a cornerstone of the British film industry, producing a run of acclaimed Technicolour classics. By the end of 1960, however, Powell had essentially become a persona non grata in the UK film industry, eventually making a new home for himself on the other side of the world in order to keep working. So what caused such a radical – and sudden –…

Welcome to the AV-Holic Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! I'm Steve George, a solicitor, aged 48. How long have you been into home cinema? My parents had a corner shop in the mid '80s and converted part of it into a video shop. They had around 3,000 tapes and that meant an endless supply of films for an impressionable teenager (me). I then became interested in home cinema in the mid-'90s. A friend invited me to his place one evening to see his new 29in TV with 'surround sound.' He put on Goldeneye and the helicopter hijack sequence at the harbour. I recall him excitedly telling me to listen out for the seagulls in the rears… Not long thereafter I bought a similarly giant 29in Sony TV, then a…

2023 MIGHT RIGHTFULLY be remembered for a number of things. The 70th anniversary of Marantz, 30 years of The Nightmare Before Christmas, or the year that no one watched superhero movies anymore. Equally, it could be remembered as the year the wheel fell off the digital bandwagon leading to a resurgence of physical media. A wise man once said 'if you can't hold it you don't own it' and that certainly seemed to be the mantra for 2023. Even as the 4K Blu-ray of Oppenheimer sold out across the US as fans clamoured to own the Christopher Nolan approved physical disc, Disney+ was purging Willow from existence. And ending the year with a particularly controversial flourish, Sony informed PlayStation owners that titles they'd 'purchased' from the Discovery Channel on PlayStation…

Loewe multi.room amp ➜ www.loewe.tv Loewe has entered the streaming amplifier arena with the £999 multi.room amp. Claiming 'up to 600W' from its Class D power plant, and styled to match the German company’s range of multiroom speakers, the unit supports Apple AirPlay, Chromecast and DTS Play-Fi for wireless streaming, and accommodates wired sources over analogue phono and HDMI eARC. Partner with passive speakers, and maybe a subwoofer via its pre-out connection, and away you go. ONLINE… For breaking AV news, blogs, features and reviews visit www.homecinemachoice.com Follow us on Twitter @hccmag Like us on Facebook facebook.com/homecinemachoice…

Dark Winds: S1 A swift BD turnaround for the gripping Robert Redford-produced crime series following Navajo police officers investigating a vicious murder on tribal land. Scrooged Bill Murray is at his cranky best in this 1988 update of A Christmas Carol, now on a terrific 4K BD. Loki: Season Two This Disney+ series delivers a stunning and unexpectedly moving bookend to the MCU’s most fully developed character. A glorious purpose indeed. Strange Way of Life Pedro Almodóvar’s bite-sized Western short comes to (HMV-exclusive) Blu-ray alongside a fascinating chat with the director. Leave The World Behind Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali headliine Netflix’s classy, pre-apocalyptic thriller.…

1 It’s a kind of Magico Got a spare half-a-million quid kicking around? Why not treat yourself to some ultra-high-end speakers from California’s Magico? Due to arrive at retailers – presumably not Currys/PC World – in 2024, the brand’s new M7 floorstanders will set you back £450,000 a pair. Each four-way, six-driver cabinet weighs nearly 239kg, so you can spend the remaining £50,000 on reinforcing your floor. 2 Multi-platform playlists Qobuz is aiming to make switching to its music streaming platform easier than ever thanks to Soundiiz, a tool allowing users to seamlessly transfer playlists and libraries from one service to another. Soundiiz usually charges a fee, but is being offered free to Qobuz subscribers. 3 Year of the doll Barbie has ended 2023 as the year’s big box office…

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Q ACOUSTICS' 5000 Series comprises six speakers that pilfer some of the technological developments of the company’s flagship Concept models. Among these are internal Helmholtz Pressure Equaliser (HPE) tubes in the floorstanding 5040 (£999) and 5050 (£TBC), which help tune the bass output, and the 'Point-2-Point' internal cabinet bracing across all the models. The 1in fabric dome tweeters are also 'a design taken' from the Concept models, says Q Acoustics, once again hermetically sealed and mechanically isolated from the speaker baffle, albeit here in a revised housing that’s presumably less costly to manufacture. A vented rear chamber works to reduce distortion around the crossover point. What’s totally fresh are the bass/mid drivers, which debut a 'C3 Continuous Curved Cone' design. This, we're told, is the result of a 'multi-disciplinary team…

TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES and the rise of aggressive new competitors over the past decade have been hard on European TV brands. Philips all but disappeared at one point before rising again with new ownership under TP Vision, while luxury German brand Loewe was forced into insolvency back in 2019. Happily, though, the 100-year-old company is now on the comeback trail. Starting in 2022, Loewe launched a new, more diverse range of TVs, soundbars and speakers. And it seems to have lost none of its flair for customisable luxury designs and high performance standards – its new 'Iconic' range of ultra high-end statement tellies builds OLED screens into floor-standing sculptures made from 'Syno-Stone'. The mid-range Bild i – also available in 48in, 65in and 77in sizes – is more conventional, and feels…

AS PART OF a strategy of trying to offer something for everyone, Sony’s lineup includes traditional LED, Mini LED, and OLED TVs. Flagship status, however, is reserved for its Quantum Dot OLED line… Compared to last year’s A95K [HCC #336], Sony’s second-gen QD OLED TV uses an improved panel that claims to bring increased brightness, more colour volume, and reduced susceptibility to permanent image retention (screen burn). Sony has additionally introduced improvements to its Cognitive XR video processing system to deliver better 4K upscaling, a new QD OLED-specific contrast enhancer, and refinements to its highly effective Triluminos wide colour system. As a high-end model, it shouldn't surprise that the A95L is pitched as a gamer’s paradise. Key here, though, is that the TV carries new HDMI hardware and software that…

THE TX-55MZ980 IS Panasonic’s mid-range OLED TV proposition – which means you have to accept a couple of limitations right off the bat. First, it doesn't sport the brightness-boosting Micro Lens Array (MLA) tech found inside Panasonic’s flagship MZ2000 series, or the premium Master OLED Pro panels of the step-down MZ1500s. Nor does it use the Quantum Dot take on OLED. What it does have going for it, though, is its price. At £1,399 it’s not only substantially more affordable than its step-up siblings, but goes toe-to-toe with rivals including LG’s C3 series or Sony’s A80L models [both HCC #342]. This appealing price doesn't mean it’s devoid of features, either. The MZ980’s pictures are driven by Panasonic’s HCX Pro AI processor – the latest evolution of a picture engine that’s…

WHAT BETTER WAY to put this Marantz high-end home cinema amplifier through its paces than with some high-brow music. Specifically, Winter, from Vivaldi’s 'The Four Seasons'. The trilling of violins, beautifully elucidated by this amplifier’s melodious HDAM amplification, is sublime, and I just love the way the strings are dramatically engulfed by a full orchestral storm… and heavy weapons fire. John Wick is on the hunt (…Chapter 3 – Parabellum, 4K BD). The aforementioned needle drop is glorious accompaniment to the symphony of violence about to unfold, and any preconceived notion that a Marantz AV amp is too refined to do justice to cinematic mayhem is quickly dispelled. Automatic weapons discharge all around me, and the transients are fast and fabulous. This is Dolby Atmos audio writ large, yet the amp,…

SONY’S PROJECTOR LINEUP is now an all-laser affair, and the two most recent additions are the entry-level VPL-XW5000ES [HCC #335] and mid-range VPL-XW7000ES tested here. The former set a new price point for laser-powered native 4K projection at £5,999, but the better specified XW7000ES is more than double (£14,999). So what does it have that you won’t find on its cheaper sibling? The first major difference is the XW7000ES is significantly brighter, with a whopping 3,200 Lumens compared to the XW5000ES’s 2,000. – if you’re struggling to light control your room, or have a really big screen to fill, this step-up model should be your first choice. The other big change is the addition of Sony’s Advanced Crisp Focus lens, which is not only superior in terms of its ability to…

STARSHIPS HAVE NEVER sounded quite so solid. Thudding in and out of warp, which happens a lot in season three of Star Trek: Picard, I feel as if my room is being dragged along in their wake. The Sennheiser Ambeo Plus system before me is to blame. This soundbar/sub combi doesn't just drop deep, it slams so hard and fast bass becomes tangible. I sit on my sofa, like a Starfleet Captain commanding from the bridge, feeling suitably buffeted. Fears that the new, slimmer Ambeo Soundbar Plus would be a pale imitation of its bigger brother, now known as the Soundbar Max, are quickly dispelled. The original Ambeo Soundbar [HCC #302] still sets a high benchmark when it comes to replicating the home theatre experience from an all-in-one system, but…

WITH TRUE X, Yamaha confounds expectations and delivers a truly immersive Dolby Atmos system that’s a doddle to use. It features a slender soundbar and subwoofer combo able to orchestrate soundtracks high and wide, plus small wireless rears that pound like a howitzer. Yamaha actually offers several different configurations for its new True X range, so you can buy the entire system as a package, or piecemeal. The full-fat iteration, reviewed here, consists of the SR-X40A soundbar, SW-X100A subwoofer and two WS-X1A portable rears, priced together at £999. The soundbar’s configuration comprises two front-facing drivers left and right, a pair of angled height drivers, and two bass units. 180W of claimed amp power is split between them, with an additional 100W allocated to the partnering subwoofer, which places its single…

ONE OF TWO new subwoofers launched by American manufacturer GoldenEar, the Forcefield 30 slots into its lineup to replace the venerable Forcefield 3 and is aimed at buyers seeking a compact bassmaker that’s a cut above the budget competition – although its price tag of £799 still puts it on the right side of affordable. Measuring just 29x32x40cm (whd), it certainly hits the brief of being small and easy to accommodate (its also-new sister model, the £999 Forcefield 40, is somewhat larger). It looks cute too. Sure, the aesthetic is a little unusual, with a curve to the top of the cabinet – and a perforated grille – borrowed from the design of GoldenEar’s BRX bookshelf loudspeakers [HCC #336], but I've grown accustomed to the brand’s designs coming from somewhere…

WE'RE OFTEN TOLD physical media is dead, so when a manufacturer launches a £2,699 universal disc spinner – one that’s also a streamer for the media on your server and a high-end DAC – I'm both somewhat surprised and excited. Enter Magnetar’s UDP900. Since the demise of Oppo and its UDP-205, there’s been a lack of a genuine premium BD player. Pioneer once filled the gap with the UDP-LX800, while others – including Reavon, Panasonic and Magnetar with its own UDP800 [HCC #340] – have all released 4K decks that are beyond 'entry-level'. Yet this new player from the Chinese brand is something else. The weight gives you a bit of a clue. At 15.5kg, the UDP900 is the heaviest 4K disc spinner I can recall, due in part to…

WIIM AUDIO IS a new arrival to the network streaming arena and the Mini is its most affordable offering. This puck-shaped device supports PCM to 192kHz/24-bit and can additionally unpack MQA (as used by Tidal) should you need to. It can also access content from a NAS drive in the classic UPnP manner, but can also play music from – deep breath – Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music, Spotify, Napster, TuneIn, Calm, VTuner, Soundcloud and Pandora. Oh, and there’s also AirPlay. An app ties all this together (including multiroom) in a way that feels logical. To add the Mini to your setup you have a choice of 3.5mm analogue and optical outputs, plus a 3.5mm input. Power is supplied over USB. There’s no Ethernet socket so you'll have to use…

IF YOUR AV receiver’s onboard streaming capabilities are a little lacklustre, with key streaming services ignored and high-spec file formats off the menu, then Cambridge Audio’s MXN10 could be just the ticket. The company has been making network audio players for a comparatively long time, and the £449 MXN10 uses the fourth generation of its StreamMagic platform. This can handle material to 32-bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512, and supports Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer and Spotify along with AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Roon compatibility and Bluetooth (v5.0), with decoding done via an ESS ES9033Q DAC. It’s a simple-looking device, available in just the one finish ('Lunar Grey'). The aluminium front panel has a power button and four preset keys for quick internet radio or playlist selection. Rear connectivity consists of RCA analogue outputs, accompanied…

➜ TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM The 'heroes in a half-shell' are back with an anarchic and enjoyable new adventure that owes more than a little to Spider-Man’s latest animated outings. Going back to basics, the film follows mutant turtle brothers Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown, Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu) and Raphael (Brady Noon) as they venture onto the streets of New York, only to discover that they aren't the only mutant animals in town. The same 'mutagenic' ooze that created them is also responsible for a bunch of other critters under the control of the human-hating Superfly (Ice Cube). An area where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem really succeeds is in remembering the whole 'Teenage' part of the title. Thanks to some smart writing and the…

Bigscreen home entertainment isn't just about movies anymore. Rik Henderson checks out a videogame vying for time on your home cinema system… Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Ubisoft, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC ➜ £60 James Cameron’s first Avatar movie had about as much wow factor as you can get. Indeed, the story feels a little vacuous and secondary to the majesty of Pandora and Cameron’s visionary creations. And that, in many ways, describes Frontiers of Pandora too. Ubisoft’s new game is an open-world adventure allowing you to explore a huge slice of the eponymous planet. It is hugely impressive in a graphical sense, with explosion of colours and dazzling levels of detail. But it also suffers from a fairly hackneyed plotline and an adherence to the standard gameplay of which the…

➜THE CRIMINAL ACTS OF TOD SLAUGHTER… 1935-1940 - LE A long-overdue celebration of the first real icon of British horror cinema, this four-disc boxset collects eight films starring Norman Carter 'Tod' Slaughter, made in collaboration with producer-director George King during the late 1930s. Having risen to fame playing villainous squires, landowners, etc, in Victorian 'blood-and-thunder' melodramas in theatres, Slaughter subsequently brought his moustache-twirling brand of evil to the big screen in a series of 'quota quickies', many of which were direct adaptations of stories he'd already found success with on the stage. Featured here are Maria Marten, or the Murder in the Red Barn (1935), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936), The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936), It’s Never too Late to Mend (1937), The Ticket of…

Welcome to the AV-Holic Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! Hi there, my name is Byron Goddard. I'm 51 and a builder from Cornwall. How long have you been into home cinema? I have been into home cinema for as long as I can remember. It started when I first connected some JVC hi-fi speakers to my TV and got the bug for big sound. My first full setup was a Yamaha Dolby Pro Logic amplifier with a Polk Audio centre speaker, Canon corner surround speakers, some JVC hi-fi fronts and a REL Q50 subwoofer. When did you decide to set up your cinema room? I brought my current house about two years ago knowing that I was going to use the third bedroom from the start for a home…

Welcome to the AV-Holic Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! Hi, I'm Alistair Armstrong, age 43, a civil engineer from Cornwall. How long have you been into home cinema? I've been into home cinema for as long as I can remember. I started with a Sony all-in-one DVD speaker system and an LCD TV. Through the years since I've had many different setups, progressing through larger and larger screens and more sophisticated sound systems. What inspired you to make the garage cinema? We moved into this house around six years ago and the garage had already been part converted into a very small 2.5m x 3m room. Having always wanted a dedicated space for my hobby it didn't take long to start setting up the cinema. The room has evolved…

Having already made waves with its affordable range of music streamers [see p81], Wiim Audio has taken the next logical step and built its networking platform into a compact amplifier. The simply named Wiim Amp now headlines its product catalogue, above the entry-level Wiim Mini and souped-up Wiim Pro and Wiim Pro Plus streamers. Says company CEO Dr Lifeng Zhao: 'We've dedicated ourselves to designing products that elevate the music streaming experience, and the Wiim Amp is the first step in our expanded line-up'. All bases covered Again sporting a diminutive aluminium chassis suited to slotting away on an AV shelf, the £299 Wiim Amp packs 2x60W/8ohm Class D amplification from Texas Instruments. Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections support streaming music over Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Alexa Music Cast, Qobuz, Spotify…

January 8 The Exorcist: Believer 4K The Jester The Laughing Woman Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Planet Earth III 4K January 15 Andy Warhol Presents: Blood for Dracula & Flesh for Frankenstein Bluelock: Season 1 Part 1 The Creator 4K I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe: LE The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season 4K Steelbook Mean Streets 4K NieA_7: The Complete Series Stranger in My Own Skin January 22 Carrie: 4K Limited Edition The Eternal Daughter Impossible Object: Limited Edition Samurai Wolf I & II Scala!!! When Taekwondo Strikes January 29 The Blackening Assassin’s Pride: Complete Col. Battle Over Britain Death Occurred Last Night The Great Escaper I, The Executioner Kung Fu Cult Master The Lesson [2023] Loch Ness [1996] Lone Wolf McQuade…

Olyphant vs Aliens Timothy Olyphant (Justified, The Mandalorian) has joined the cast of Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien TV series. It’s believed that actor will play the part of a synthetic who acts as mentor to Sydney Chandler’s lead character, Wendy. Avengers assemble! Loki creator Michael Waldron has replaced Jeff Loveness as the writer of 2026’s Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Not a huge surprise, as Waldron had already been announced by Marvel Studios as the writer of 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. Hello Sidney? Scream VII, supposedly set for a release in 2024, is undergoing a major overhaul following the sudden departures of lead actors Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera. Rumours indicate Paramount is keen to bring back original franchise star Neve Campbell, who sat out the last film due to a pay…

Label of the year ARROW VIDEO Fan-favourite independent distributor Arrow Video enjoyed something of a banner year in 2023, enough to see it edge what must surely be the most closely contested category since the HCC Movie Awards began many moons ago. Every month the UK label greeted film connoisseurs with a selection of superb disc releases, each beautifully restored and encoded, and loaded with bonus features. Arrow’s 4K Blu-ray line-up was particularly impressive, taking in both UHD upgrades for the likes of Waterworld, Weird Science and Blood and Black Lace, alongside label newcomers such as Naked Lunch, Carlito’s Way and Blackhat. And a run of spectacular boxsets across both the Full HD and Ultra HD formats, including The Psycho Collection, Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment and – of course –…

ANNOUNCE YOUR INTENTION to build a home cinema in the US and you could be met with a chorus of 'buy Klipsch!'. The brand is a household name across the Pond, where its varied range of loudspeakers and subwoofers often appears tailored to suit large North American living spaces. Think Klipsch, think big. The upgraded Reference Premiere line, which represents Klipsch’s top-of-the-range loudspeakers in its 'Home Theater' category, doesn't dispel that notion. Leading the charge in the 5.1.2 array reviewed here is its RP-8000F II, a hefty floorstander catching the eye with its pair of bronze-coloured drivers and horn-loaded tweeter. It’s certainly not a speaker that will disappear into any space. The array here is not sold as a set so doesn't have a package price: the total (£5,195) is…

SYSTEM AUDIO, SELF-PROCLAIMED maker of 'cool Scandinavian loudspeakers', isn't one for gigantic cabinets and ostentatious designs. Even its flagship model, the Silverback Legend 60.2 floorstander, is a slender thing, and its entry-level Saxo series is similarly petite. Particularly the on-wall models. There are various reasons why you might opt for an on-wall loudspeaker installation. Most obviously, it saves you carpet space, which could be vital in a compact room. It might be the only way you can get the loudspeakers in their optimal positions. And you might just prefer the discreet style of on-wall speakers, and the idea of adding a system by stealth. The Saxo range has eight models. Five of these use conventional cabinets, while one is a compact subwoofer. That leaves a pair of on-wall options, both of…

THE FEATURES AND price of TCL’s 65C845K don't seem compatible with each other. Here we have a 65in TV that boasts more than 2,000 nits of brightness, uses Mini LED lighting and 576 separately controlled local dimming zones, yet sells for £1,049. If that is still beyond your budget, TCL offers the C745K lineup, which ditches Mini LED but retains direct LED lighting and local dimming [see p49]. Step down even further and you reach the C64 models, which lose local dimming and use a 60Hz panel, meaning there’s no native 4K/120Hz support. Taking it to the IMAX In addition to multi-HDR support including Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, the 65C845K is one of the most affordable TVs we've seen to be awarded IMAX Enhanced status, meaning it’s been…

AROUND FIVE YEARS ago, TCL began making a push into the UK. Some early niggles (UK models missing key features offered elsewhere in Europe) have been ironed out, and it’s dramatically widened its distribution, to include retailers including Curry’s and the Euronics network of independents. TCL’s ambition is not just to be a purveyor of well-priced mass-market tellies. This year it’s been keen to promote its range of mega-sized (up to 98in) sets, and – as the first brand to ever bring a mini LED model to market – it’s focusing a lot on that technology too [see p45]. But the 55C745 is one of its more bread-and-butter options, being a QLED TV with a £649 asking price. That figure puts this set above the various bargain 4K TVs now…

DENON HAS A history of wheeling out reference-class AV amplifiers and, spoiler alert, it has done it again. The AVC-A1H is its latest performance-heavy flagship multichannel machine that can trace its heritage back to the likes of the 2007 AVC-A1HD, 2004’s epic AVC-A1XV and even the DSP AV granddaddy, the 1996 ACP-A1. While there has been something of a hiatus in the true A1 dynasty for some 16 years, the AVC-A1H celebrates all the heritage and craftsmanship of the lineage. Like its forefathers, it mixes cutting-edge processing and electronics with the sort of attention to sonic refinement that even the hardest of hardcore audiophiles would appreciate. Cast iron feet, an 11.5kg power transformer and non-magnetic speaker terminals? Oh yes – and more. The headline billing and red-carpet credentials are stupendous. This…

THE TX-NR6100 HAS a feature list intended to cover every base anyone buying an affordable AV receiver could wish for, from Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding through to an MM phono input and DAB. But, really, I wouldn't expect anything less from Onkyo. AV fans of a certain vintage will have fond memories of the Japanese marque, as it really seemed to grab hold of the AV receiver market in the 1990s and 2000s courtesy of a series of models that introduced ideas and formats – such as THX certification and Dolby TrueHD decoding – before you knew you even wanted them. Added to this, the prices of its AVRs, from budget to flagship, were always attractive. Priced £799, this seven-channel receiver is THX Select certified for mid-sized rooms, and…

THE DAYS WHEN Chinese projector brand XGIMI was associated with great value but not much else are well and truly behind us. Last year it racked up plaudits for its Aura ultra-short-throw model [HCC #333] and now its Horizon Ultra breaks new home cinema ground in not one but two directions. For starters, it’s the world’s first long-throw 4K PJ to support Dolby Vision HDR – complete with screen size and gain refinements. We've seen one or two BenQ models take on HDR10+, but for many AV fans Dolby Vision remains the 'premium' HDR format of choice. The Horizon Ultra’s other big innovation is Dual Light technology, where XGIMI combines laser and LED lighting in one optical engine for, it’s claimed, a more accurate image free of the 'hot spots'…

JBL ALMOST HAS a very handy model name/pricing thing going on with its soundbars this season, as the top-of-the-pile Bar 1300 [see p70] sells for approximately £1,300, the step-down Bar 1000 is £1,000, and so on. Admittedly, the Bar 300 reviewed here is actually £349, and the Bar 2.0 Mk2 doesn't sell for two quid, but at least it helps you navigate through what is an extensive soundbar range. As the price tag implies, the Bar 300 is towards the bottom of the JBL ladder, although it shares many similarities with higher-priced models, not least the overall styling. This new model riffs on the brand’s soundbar designs of yore, with a tidy but slightly non-descript dark-grey enclosure topped by a logo and smattering of control buttons. Parked under a 55in TV,…

LET’S BE HONEST, we often don't use our surround systems. If you're watching Bake Off or the news, it’s unlikely you'll want to wrap yourself in spatial audio. Of course, with other content the ability to enjoy immersive sonics completely changes your viewing experience. JBL’s Bar 1300 might be the best of both worlds, thanks to ingenious detachable/rechargeable rear speakers. When you're just looking for cake recipes or catching up on PMQs, simply leave the surrounds attached. Then, when you fancy watching a Hollywood blockbuster, detach the rears, place them behind you, and you're good to go. It’s a clever idea that eliminates speaker cables, plus the need to plug the rears into power sockets. JBL has taken this approach before with its earlier Bar 9.1 [HCC #314], but the Bar…

ASCENDO HAS ROCKED some serious and occasionally bonkers designs since 1999. From sane sub/sat speaker arrays and subsequently its own Room Tools EQ software, the German company has continued to push the envelope of speaker design, often with a bulldozer. The fully active, DSP-controlled, LED-illuminated Ascendo Live 15 speakers were a star of the Munich High End show a couple of years ago, and the brand has recently built upon its bonkers SMSG50 50in subwoofer with, er, an 80in model. Sadly, one wasn't available for review, so we got in Ascendo’s The 12 instead. This is the smallest active sub in the lineup, but still an interesting design and far from compact when compared to others at this price point in the UK. At 40cm wide, 40cm deep and 48cm tall,…

WE'VE ALREADY LOOKED at Perlisten’s flagship D215s subwoofer [HCC #334]. That model, measuring over 800mm tall and weighing in at 92kg, isn't for everyone; certainly no one who is not into power-lifting or, like myself, owns a projector screen mounted only 700mm above the floor. Enter the D212s, auditioned here. This subwoofer is very similar to the D215s, just scaled down a bit. It again features two drivers in a push-pull configuration, but this time they are 12in designs, rather than two 15s. Also again, they are arranged at right angles in a sealed box, the lower driver face-in to the enclosure and firing upwards. As always, the idea behind using dual drivers is an increased surface area to deliver greater SPLs, here down to a claimed 15Hz at -6dB.…

SKY STREAM IS increasingly looking like a game-changer in the world of pay TV. This diminutive device delivers the latest movies and premium shows from the Sky stable straight to your living room via broadband, in 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos. No messy cables or satellite dishes are required. At its heart is the latest iteration of the Sky Entertainment OS, meaning it’s effectively Sky Glass [see HCC #328] without the bundled QLED screen. This makes it ideal for those already happy with their TV. Head in the clouds The hardware itself is compact enough to park below or behind your AV stack or telly. It features a single HDMI output, plus Ethernet for those that would prefer to hardwire to their home network rather than stream over Wi-Fi. There’s…

YOU WILL BE forgiven for not being immediately familiar with the Eversolo brand. It is, in fact, the audio-focused wing of Zidoo, the Chinese company whose media boxes – including the EISA award-winning Neo S [see HCC #330] – have been carving out a formidable reputation in that category. Zidoo’s 'Neo' players boosted the audio side of its entry-level hardware but kept the video functionality, now the Eversolo DMP-A6 arrives to strip out the video section, boost the audio side even further and lower the price tag. This is in an extremely well-connected music streamer, built around a DAC stage using two ESS ES9038Q2M chips, allowing it to run fully balanced if your partnering amp is compatible. As well as its XLR outs, there are unbalanced RCA options, in addition…

BECAUSE OF THE job I have, I'm often asked techie questions by friends. Unfortunately, they usually want to know 'what’s the best TV for around £600' or 'what is an optical cable?', when I'd rather regale them with tales of the glorious high-end AV I'm lucky to experience. So I'll tell you instead. One of my 2023 highlights was a visit to the Hi-Fi Show Live, held at the Ascot Grandstand at the end of September. Run by the people behind HCC’s sister magazine Hi-Fi News, this show is all about premium audio. Very premium audio. Obviously there were five-figure turntables and anaconda-sized speaker cables to gawp at, but I made a beeline for the brands also with one foot in the home cinema camp. Monitor Audio’s astonishing Hyphn flagship…

In the latest issue of HCC [#347] Jon Thompson asked which movie VFX have impressed us the most? My choices are… Avatar: The Way of Water: absolutely gobsmackingly brilliant visuals that immediately immerse you into the world of Pandora’s watery environments. The Creator: also wonderful enhancements of real footage. Especially as they filmed real people and afterwards made them AI/Android with VFX. The other FX scenes are also very realistic. And further back in history, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was at the time absolutely fabulous regarding the groundbreaking (digital) FX. And the same goes for the original Avatar by James Cameron in 3D. Simply brilliant!  Roland Anton van Beek replies: I haven't seen The Creator yet but as a big fan of director Gareth Edwards I'm looking forward to it.…

➜ BLACKHAT: LIMITED ED. Following two cyber attacks that send a Hong Kong nuclear reactor into meltdown and cause a run on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a combined US/Chinese task-force tracks the software used to an old piece of code written by jailed computer hacker Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth). Deciding that the best person to help them catch a hacker will be one of their own, the agents offer Hathaway the chance to have his sentence commuted if he agrees to help them. A box office dud when it screened in 2015, Michael Mann’s Blackhat has recently undergone something of a critical re-evaluation. Not to the same levels as Miami Vice (2006), mind you – but then it’s not as good a movie. It does seem, however, that people have…

ON DEMAND ➜ MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS How to do a Godzilla-sized show on a smallscreen budget? Simple: buffer your short but expensive VFX moments with a mystery narrative that jumps back and forward across three time periods, and has a large cast running hither and thither at full pelt. It’s a smart conceit that, for the most part, works well. You'll be sufficiently swept up in the unfolding drama about the origins of the Monarch organisation, which has been keeping a watchful eye on years of monster mayhem, to not really notice the lack of onscreen Kaiju capers. It helps that this 10-episode series is played with conviction from the likes of Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe and Kurt and Wyatt Russell. The show builds on Legendary’s Monsterverse connected universe, which began…

Welcome to the AV-Holic Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! Hi everyone, my name is Patrik Etschmayer. I'm 57 and from St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland. How long have you been into home cinema? I got into this whole mess about 30 years ago when I connected my video recorder to a hi-fi system of speakers, subwoofer, preamp and power amp. I then switched from stereo fanatic towards home cinema. A succession of Mirage speakers, Onkyo processors, NAD amps, US-made LaserDisc players, and tube amps followed. I should have kept a ledger. When did you set up your cinema room? People in Switzerland usually rent their places and I found the perfect loft apartment with my wife almost 20 years ago. I put a home cinema with a projector in…