• Elite Swiss audio specialist Goldmund launches Telos 9800 amplifier
• Looks like Eve from Wall-E
• Costs $500,000 / £370,000 (around AU$705,000)

You can get Wall-E toys for about $10, but if you want a huge-scale prototype model of Eve (which also plays your music), it'll cost you a little bit more… 

I jest, of course. Swiss home audio company Goldmund has unveiled the Telos 9800, a new amplifier which looks inspired by the Pixar movie — or, to my eyes, one of the robots from Love, Death & Robots' Three Robots episodes.

This amplifier costs $500,00 / £370,000 (about AU$700,000), so it's a lot more expensive than a toy — and let me be clear, this is no toy. It's a serious product for hi-fi enthusiasts-slash-audiophiles and a luxury item, to be sure.

What does Telos mean? According to a brief Wikipedia search (after a brief Google search, in which AI Overview gave me something totally irrelevant), it's a term Aristotle used to refer to the intended end state of a natural creature. Deep.

The power tower

In our case, the Goldmund Telos 9800 is the end state of your home hi-fi set-up, and not just because it'll blow every last penny out of your budget.

It offers a whopping 1,560W of power at 8 ohms, with a built-in transformer (9.7kVA capacity), to avoid frying your hi-fi kit.

As you'll see in the images, there are two stages of the Telos: one is a power supply and the other is the amplifier, connected but not pressed up against each other.

It connects via XLR or RCA, with S/PDIF input and output too.

As you can imagine from the pictures, this thing is pretty huge. It's 1.367 meters tall, with a base of 50 x 50cm. The unit weighs 360kg too, so if you're ordering one, you really do need to factor in shipping and delivery costs.

Ultimately, it's not built for the average home hi-fi set-up. It's built for the "money no object" buyer, and for those of us unburdened by delivery costs. That is not this writer. But one can still dream…

Xiaomi Sound Play review

It turns out that major mobile manufacturer Xiaomi also makes Bluetooth speakers, and its latest model, the Xiaomi Sound Play, is aiming to deliver “immersive, powerful sound” as well as a “stylish and versatile” design.

But that’s not all. The tech giant is doing all of this while keeping its speaker nice and cheap. It comes in at just £49.90 (about $67 / AU$95) — which is refreshingly affordable for an 18W model with features such as smart lighting, Auracast, and IP68 waterproofing.

So can the Xiaomi Sound Play compete with some of the very best Bluetooth speakers around? The answer is a little more complicated than a simple yes or no.

Let’s start by looking at the areas in which the Sound Play excels, and there are a fair few of these. I alluded to some a moment ago — its waterproofing and LED lights, for example. That IP68 rating means that the speaker is fully dustproof, but can also survive a dunking under a meter and a half of water for as long as 30 minutes, so you really can take it anywhere without fear of damage.

The lighting — a key selling point of this speaker — is pretty neat too. Lights sit on the base of the speaker and beneath a panel on the top side, which resembles an infinity mirror. And the rings of lighting really help to make your listening sessions more immersive, especially in lower-lit conditions. You can customize the color and pattern of the lights too, and one setting also syncs up to bass output. That level of customizability is spectacular to see on a speaker in this price category.

More generally, I’m quite a big fan of how the Sound Play looks. It comes in four very stylish colors — the Purple variant I tried is quite the looker, as is the Green version. It is reminiscent of the JBL Flip 7 in terms of look and feel, with a neat fabric exterior and psuedo-cylindrical build. The inclusion of the infinity mirror light and handy rubber strap also make it a real stand-out, looks wise.

Another welcome inclusion is a built-in mic, for speakerphone duties. This is something you don't often see these days and it does add value, on paper. However, I made a phone call and although my voice sounded clear on the other end, I noticed a high-pitched chime whenever the other person wasn’t speaking. It wasn’t a dealbreaker (my discussion was still easy to navigate), but it's my job to notice these things.

Other highlights include a JBL Grip-rivalling 14-hour battery life — which is excellent for a speaker of this size — as well as Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, and true wireless stereo playback for anyone with multiple Sound Play models at their disposal.

Something that the Sound Play omits, however, is companion app support. For me, this is a bigger miss — an app could’ve opened up EQ adjustment, remote light alteration, and precise battery life tracking. The speaker’s nominal price doesn’t quite excuse this either. There are a number of budget-friendly rivals from the likes of Earfun, Edifier, and Tribit that do come with app support.

By now you must be wondering how Xiaomi’s speaker sounds. In honesty, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It’s a steady performer in some areas, but in need of improvement in others.

In general, the Sound Play delivers fairly clear audio. In Yes I Know My Way by Pino Daniele, vocals had good presence in the mix, and even had a decent sense of separation from other instruments in the mid-range. OK, higher-pitched drums weren’t the most expressive or articulate, but they didn’t sound tinny at mid-volume, and bass was weighted relatively well too.

With more energetic tracks, such as Trip by Ruze, the cracks started to show. There was a slightly compressed quality to the track, and the pumping bass just didn’t come through with the command or depth of similarly sized rivals, including the JBL Grip, which I directly tested against the Sound Play.

During this comparison, the Grip just delivered a more fun performance, with enhanced directionality and low-end punch. But that’s not to say Xiaomi’s speaker was blown out of the water — it still held its own with commendable clarity in the mid-range and fairly agile bass.

In House tracks, bass drops didn’t always have the impact or dynamism I was listening out for, and vibrant drums could occasionally sound on the blunt side. But then again, the Xiaomi didn’t succumb to a boomy, super-muddy sound that a lot of its budget rivals do — it puts up a fairly controlled performance overall.

As a smaller speaker, the Sound Play can’t get super loud, and bass will thin out substantially at top volume levels. It also won’t deliver the most detailed or open sound ever — again, I found a few tracks sounded a little compressed and narrow, which isn’t helped by the lack of higher-res codecs like LDAC or aptX.

All in all, I think the Sound Play sounds good enough for the price you pay. Sure, it’s not the most dynamic or revealing-sounding model on the market, but you get typically clear, decently balanced sound without having to shell out all too much cash.

So, looking at the Xiaomi Sound Play as a whole, would I consider it worth buying? Well that depends. If you’re on a tight budget, and you want a speaker for less than £50, then I think the Sound Play is an option worth considering. It doesn’t sound amazing, but it gets the job done, and I’m a big fan of its durable yet eye-catching design.

However, if you’ve got a little more money to play with, then I’d suggest picking up the JBL Flip 7. That model can produce truly seismic bass, incredibly clean audio, and has a top-class companion app to boot. The JBL Grip is another neat alternative, especially if you can grab it on sale.

Xiaomi Sound Play review: price & release date

• Priced at £49.90 (about $67 / AU$95)
• Launched in May 2026
• Scheduled to release in Australia in August 2026

The Xiaomi Sound Play was launched in May 2026, at the same time as its recently released 17T series. The speaker is available for £49.90 (about $67 / AU$95) in the UK, although Xiaomi told me that there are no plans for a US release, and the speaker won’t be available in Australia until August 2026. It can be purchased in one of four colors — Black, Green, Purple, or White — via Xiaomi’s digital store.

Xiaomi Sound Play review: specs

Should I buy the Xiaomi Sound Play?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Xiaomi Sound Play review: also consider

How I tested the Xiaomi Sound Play

• I spent multiple days testing
• Mainly streamed tunes via Tidal
• Reviewed by someone who’s tested more than 50 Bluetooth speakers

I spent multiple days testing out the Xiaomi Sound Play, during which time I listened to countless tunes, exhausted its various features, and compared it against various rivals.

When listening to music I mainly streamed tracks over Tidal, but I dipped into Spotify from time to time as well. As always, I started out by sifting through the TechRadar reference playlist, which features songs from a wide variety of genres. I also listened to a ton of tunes from my personal library as well, though.

More generally, I’ve spent years reviewing audio gear here at TechRadar, and have tested a whole lot of Bluetooth speakers — more than 50 in fact. I’ve tried out everything from pocket-sized audio companions like the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2 through to luxurious large-sized alternatives like the Marshall Bromley 750, as well as Xiaomi Sound Play rivals like the JBL Grip, so I know exactly what it takes for a speaker to stand out in this highly competitive market.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: August 2026

I’ve tested more than 50 Bluetooth speakers, and whenever I review a new model, there are a number of factors to consider. Do its features rival the competition? Can its design merge beauty with practicality? Is it actually worth the asking price? But one question is more important than any other: does it genuinely sound good?

This raised a deep curiosity within me. What if a Bluetooth speaker was judged on sound alone, with elements such as pricing, brand reputation, and looks holding no influence on people’s perception of quality? Well, I decided to find out for myself, and blindfolded four of my colleagues for a blind speaker test.

I played a 30-second snippet of a track, asked listeners to make notes, and when each speaker had been tested, I got my participants to rank each speaker from 1 to 5 (with 1 being the best, and 5 the worst). We repeated this process across five different tracks, each spanning a range of genres, in order to determine which sounded the best.

A few things to run through before we get into the results, though. The volume of the speakers were all equalized, but I ensured not to push them above 80% volume, in order to limit distortion and compression. Each speaker was also set to its default EQ, and tracks were streamed from a single source device over Spotify. Also, my listeners had no prior knowledge of the speakers involved in the test, so as to cancel out any prejudices or prior experiences they may potentially hold.

I decided to use five speakers in a very similar size category: the JBL Go 5, the IKEA Kallsup, the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2, the Edifier ES20, and the Ultimate Ears Miniroll. Some have a higher power output than others and some are considerably cheaper (or pricier) than others. And some sit in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers, while others have fallen short. But interestingly, rankings varied quite a fair bit depending on the track and listener involved.

Curious to find out who came out on top? Here’s how our listeners ranked each speaker across each track, as well as the final scores.

Track 1: Fascinator by Max Dean

I started with a house track, Fascinator by Max Dean. I asked participants to listen to a short lead up to some sub-bass, and while I emphasized that the small models wouldn’t produce roaring power, I asked them to assess how well the speakers manage it. When the drop came in, I also asked them to judge how controlled and precise drums sounded in the treble range.

The results were pretty interesting here. Our cheapest option, the $10 / £5 IKEA Kallsup was the clear loser, with one listener, Caspar, noting ‘tinny’ highs and underwhelming bass — a sentiment generally shared across the board. It was quite close between JBL and Edifier here, with some listeners noting a slight lack in low-end impact, but improved mid-range performance and tighter treble.

However, the clear winner was Bose, which ranked 1st with all of our participants — and spoiler alert, this was the only instance of a unanimous verdict across the entire experiment. One listener, Ashley, noted how the track sounded ‘balanced with no distortion’ with others including Josh and Erin highlighting meatier bass and a pleasingly warm tone.

Track 2: Orphans by Cero

I changed up the vibe for Track 2, and played a snippet from the jazz-infused indie pop track Orphans by Japanese band Cero. Vocals are meant to be slightly forward, so I asked listeners to determine how well the speakers captured this, while also prompting them to judge how well-balanced percussion and guitars were in the mix.

The Kallsup unfortunately finished in last place once more, with Josh highlighting ‘rolled off’ vocals and unclear guitars in the mid-range. However, the JBL Go 5 wasn’t far in front, with Erin noting ‘lifeless guitars’.

The Edifier ES20 and UE Miniroll performed well, though, with participants highlighting better balance across the frequency range, warmer and more prominent vocals, and cleaner bass. The SoundLink Micro Gen 2 took the win once more, though, with an emphasis on clearer, more tonally accurate guitars, well-defined vocals, and more articulate percussion.

Track 3: The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz

I wanted to try out something softer next, so I went for the legendary Bossa Nova track, The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz. I requested my blindfolded colleagues to tune into the separation between guitars and vocals, the subtlety and texture of vocals and percussion, and control of the double bass. And this is where things got really interesting.

Surprisingly, Bose, which had been bossing it so far, finished in a lowly 4th place here, with listeners generally expressing disappointment with the speaker’s overemphasized bass and slightly unrefined treble response.

However, one thing remained the same, as the IKEA Kallsup came in 5th place. In fact, this was the only occasion in which every listener decided the Kallsup was the worst performer, with Erin writing: ‘No. What? What is this? It sounds like there’s a horde of bees trying to escape.’ Ouch.

Our champion this time out was the Edifier ES20, a speaker which I’ve often championed for its supreme mid-range clarity. Listeners appreciated this model’s beautifully balanced presentation, textured and controlled double bass, and detailed vocals. The UE Miniroll and JBL Go 5 finished 2nd and 3rd respectively, with our participants widely noting their relatively expansive interpretation of the track, and talking up their crisp, textured handling of vocals.

Track 4: Come On, Come Over by Jaco Pastorius

But how did the speaker manage a busier, more chaotic mix? I threw on Come On, Come Over by Jaco Pastorius, a funky, high-octane track that has it all. Participants were told to listen for the aggressiveness and clarity of horns, the quality of the track’s mid-bass punch, and how the speakers manage the swathe of instruments and vocals.

And it seemed that in this test, order was restored to how it had been up until Track 3. Bose came out on top, with Ashley praising the speaker’s balanced approach and Caspar highlighting the SoundLink Micro Gen 2’s impactful low end and enhanced vocal clarity. However, the Edifier ES20 and UE Miniroll did run Bose very close indeed. Participants enjoyed the tonality of the vocals, the decently open soundstage, and solid separation on offer.

IKEA’s Kallsup fell to last place, however, largely due to its unregimented bass and tinny mids. Meanwhile, listeners also felt that the JBL Go 5 struggled with the business of the tune, though some did highlight solid clarity in the treble range.

Track 5: Black Eye by Allie X

With Track 5, I wanted to assess the portable speakers’ handling of dynamics, so I went with an electronic song from TechRadar’s reference playlist, Black Eye by Allie X. Colleagues were asked to hone in on the attack of strings in the beginning of the snippet, and assess the control and dynamism of the bass and its impact, as well as the breathiness and detailing in the vocals.

And this was an incredibly close battle between Bose, Edifier, and Ultimate Ears. Bose just about managed to top the podium, with Erin delighted with the ‘dramatic strings’ and ‘expansive vocals,’ and Caspar highlighting dynamic bass and ‘nice balance between vocals and instruments’.

Josh’s favorite was the ES20, stating that vocals were ‘wonderfully conveyed’ and that bass was ‘punchy yet controlled’. Ashley, however, liked the UE Miniroll the most, arguing that it offered the cleanest low-end and most articulate vocals of the bunch.

But the poor Kallsup finished in 5th once more. Muted synths, a lack of texture and kick in the low-end, and recessed vocals left our listeners wanting more.

Final results: and the winner is…

So, the experiment drew to a close. Our listeners handed over their final scores, and I totaled them up to discover which speaker was king on sound alone. And the winner was… the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2!

Was I surprised by the result? Well, not entirely. I personally think this is a great-sounding small speaker, and its ability to produce meatier bass than much of the competition, alongside more precision in the treble range and clearer separation was all it needed to scoop up top spot.

What’s important to recognize, though, is that Bose’s small speaker is far pricier than all of the competition. It has a list price of $129 / £119.95, and while it certainly produces the goods in terms of sound, that’s an awfully high price tag given that you can nab larger, meatier, and more feature-rich models at that cost — the JBL Flip 7 is probably the first that comes to mind.

I was surprised, however, that the Edifier ES20 did so well. Josh selected the ES20 as his overall favorite, and it continually competed closely with Bose throughout, even topping the table in Track 3. In the UK, it’s less than half the price of the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2, but you really wouldn’t think so. Its composure and clarity in the mid-range is exceptional, and it has enough warm bass and controlled treble to keep more energetic tracks sounding as they should. If you want value for money, I think this model is absolutely worth checking out.

Another standout was the UE Miniroll, which Ashley picked out as her personal favorite. It continued to plate up clear mids and bass throughout, and I think it earns its relatively modest price.

Some may be surprised to see the JBL Go 5 a bit off the pace in 4th, but I still think it produced a solid performance across the experiment considering its limitations. It has a weaker power output than the top 3 speakers, which limits its ability to provide the drive and low-end might that others can. And although it could’ve offered slightly better separation, it's still a great small speaker given its low asking price of $54.95 / £39.99.

I felt very sorry for the IKEA Kallsup, which was regularly placed last by each of our participants. However, in the IKEA speaker's defense, not only does it have the lowest power output of the bunch (at just 3W), but it’s just $9.99 / £5. Yes, it's extremely cheap, and so the fact that it occasionally squeaked 4th place here and there is impressive in itself.

Check out the final table below, where you can see the final scores and rankings for each speaker, as well as their typical asking price. Were the results as you expected? Let me know in the comments!

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Two-minute review

The 3040c is the smaller of two floorstanding speakers in Q Acoustics' celebrated 3000c range — it’s the fifth and final 3000c model, and it’s arguably the best of the lot.

For £599 or equivalent, depending on where you reside, you'll receive two reasonably compact, elegant and nicely finished cabinets (available in four different finishes) with optimised point-to-bracing inside and a three-strong driver array on the outside.

Two 120mm mid/bass drivers sandwich a 22mm soft-dome tweeter that’s decoupled from the rest of the cabinet — and with some input from a rear-firing bass reflex port, a claimed frequency response of 43Hz - 30khz is the result.

Sensitivity of 88dB means you don’t need all that burly of an amplifier to drive these Q Acoustics speakers effectively.

And when they’re being driven effectively, there’s plenty to like in ultimate terms and even more when you keep the price of these speakers uppermost in your mind. They’re a balanced, poised and expressive listen, good at soundstaging, better at maintaining a convincing tonal balance, and best of all when it comes to detail retrieval.

Some of the best stereo speakers on the market? Yes. OK, they could do with a touch more dynamic headroom and a slightly more assured method of expressing rhythms, but really I’m tempted to ask what more you might realistically hope for when listening to a pair of compact, well-made floorstanders for this money…

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Price & release date

• $1,099 / £599 (around AU$1,140, based on UK pricing)
• Released July 30, 2026

The Q Acoustics 3040c passive floorstanding loudspeakers are on sale now, and in the United Kingdom a pair will cost you £599. This translates to €899 in the Eurozone and £1099 in the United States (yes, a little pricier in the States) while prices for other territories, including Australia, are yet to be confirmed.

Competition? You'd really be looking at bookshelf speakers for anything as affordable as this from a trusted name — and let me be clear, Q Acoustics is one such name. So, it's a lot of speaker (and speaker tech) for the price.

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Features

• 22mm soft dome tweeter
• 2 x 120mm Continuous Curved Cone mid/bass driver
• 43Hz - 30kHz frequency response
• 88dB sensitivity

No one’s expecting a whole lot of features when it comes to reasonably affordable passive loudspeakers, which is just as well given the Q Acoustics 3040c have just the essentials.

As is the company’s standard operating proactive, though, these few features are completely fit for purpose.

On the inside, Q Acoustics has used its targeted ‘point-to-point’ bracing technology — having identified those areas of the cabinet that are prone to low frequency vibrations, ‘P2P’ reinforcement seems to minimise those vibrations and produce a cleaner, better focused soundstage as a result. It’s also deployed ‘Helmholtz Pressure Equalisers’, a series of tubes that minimise internal pressure; this reduces the build-up of standing waves inside the cabinet and keeps sonic colouration to a minimum as a result.

At the rear of the cabinet there are a couple of very low-profile speaker binding posts, positioned just below a fairly large bass reflex port. Q Acoustics provides foam bungs for the ports — so feel free to experiment with the position of the speakers and the effect of the bungs too.

Up front there are three drivers that are familiar from some of the more expensive model ranges in the Q Acoustics line-up. Here, a decoupled 22mm soft-dome tweeter is positioned between two 120mm mid/bass drivers — these are of the ‘continuous curved cone’ design that made its debut much further up the Q Acoustics loudspeaker range.

‘‘C³’ is designed to combine the low-frequency response of a straight conic cone with the control and clarity more commonly associated with a flared cone design. It’s a straightforwardly impressive design with, at this point in time, nothing to prove.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Sound quality

• Full-scale sound with drive and poise in equal measure
• Great facility with detail retrieval
• Could use greater dynamic impetus

Every audio product reviewed at TechRadar (and there are myriad options) has be put into proper context, of course — and so while I’m going to open this section with a couple of mild-ish criticisms, it’s important to remember that these are relatively affordable floorstanding loudspeakers that are likely to form part of a relatively affordable stereo system. Agreed? Good.

So when playing a copy of Phoebe Bridger’s Lost Boys the 3040c don’t have quite the dynamic potency to track the changes in volume or attack quite as fully as they might. They can do more than allude to changes in intensity, of course, but they don’t put quite as much distance between ‘minimum’ and ‘maximum’ as is absolutely ideal.

And while I’m finding fault, there’s no denying the Q Acoustics don’t quite have the instinctive flow that’s required to fully express a rhythm or manage a tempo. Control of low-frequency activity is never in any doubt, and there’s no suggestion the speakers can drag at the rhythm of a recording — but there’s no denying the 3040c could sound more fluent, especially when asked to play overtly rhythm-based material.

But with this griping out of the way, I can concentrate on all the ways the 3040c is straightforwardly impressive.

It’s a very nicely balanced listen where tonality and frequency response are concerned, for starters. Previous Q Acoustics loudspeakers have tended to err on the warm-ish side of neutral when it comes to tonality, but the 3040c is not at all inclined to stick its oar in — any heat (or lack thereof) in the sound you’re experiencing is there before it reaches the speakers, either in the recording or in the source equipment that’s delivering it.

The speakers are poised and even from the bottom of the frequency range to the top; there’s no overstating of any part and no underplaying, just a smooth and balanced representation. The integration of the drivers is first class, and the point at which handover from the bigger drivers to the tweeter takes place is imperceptible.

As well as the low-frequency punch and substance I mentioned, the Q Acoustics deal with the attack and decay of bass information fairly confidently — and they’re just as adept when it comes to midrange resolution. The 3040c are a detailed listen in every respect, and this manifests itself particularly where voices are concerned. There’s plenty of information about timbre and texture made apparent. At the top end there’s similar alacrity, and more than a hint of bite and shine — but with the substance to ensure treble sounds are never hard or edgy.

Despite the lack of ultimate dynamic headroom, the Q Acoustics do good work with the more minor, but no less significant, dynamics of tonal and harmonic variation. They can identify and reveal even very fleeting and/or subtle occurrences in a recording, and coherently lay them out as part of the overall presentation. If there are details embedded in a recording, the 3040c do their utmost to get them to you.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Design

• 942 x 285 x 281mm (HxWxD)
• Magnetically attached grilles
• Choice of four finishes

You have to hand it to Q Acoustics: the 3040c look, and even to an extent feel, like much more expensive loudspeakers than they actually are.

The standard of build and finish is excellent, and even the vinyl wrap that covers the MDF cabinets of my ‘Claro’ walnut review sample is a cut or two above the norm — and I am confident that is also the case if you prefer the ‘pin’ oak, satin white or satin black alternatives.

The 942 x 285 x 281mm (HxWxD) dimensions mean the proportions of the cabinet are harmonious. That ‘width’ measurement includes the small aluminium stabilisers that fit to the back of each cabinet and make it less susceptible to rocking or, heaven help us, toppling. The look of the cabinet is further enhanced by the crisply rendered curves along each horizontal edge.

Q Acoustics supplies magnetic grilles, but for my money you’re better off leaving them in the packaging and enjoying the sight of the driver array instead. The satin nickel brightwork that surrounds them is a confident touch, and another little flourish that suggests the 3040c might cost a fair bit more than they actually do.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Usability & setup

• Attach the stabilisers and spikes
• Connect to an amplifier using appropriate speaker cable
• Toe in just a little towards your listening position

Well, they’re passive loudspeakers and so setting them up and using them is hardly rocket science.

You’ll need to attach the little outrigger stabilisers to the bottom of each cabinet, and then attach the floor spikes. These can be adjusted from the top, so getting the cabinets level is no hardship.

Then, connect the speakers to the amplifier that’s driving them with speaker cable — ideally two identical lengths. And then try to make sure the speakers are toed in, just a fraction, towards the spot from where you do your listening.

• Usability & setup score: 5 / 5

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Value

• You'll struggle to find decent floorstanding speakers for this money
• Q Acoustics is a trusted name — and the 3040c are worthy of that heritage

This money won’t even get you on the ladder at some loudspeaker companies, but Q Acoustics first made a name for itself by redefining what ‘entry level’ ought to mean where booth sonic performance and build quality are concerned.

It almost goes without saying that the 3040c does nothing to spoil this reputation — and as a result, it represents prodigious value for money for anyone who wants a fairly big sound from a fairly compact and unarguably affordable floorstander.

• Value score: 5 / 5

Should I buy Q Acoustics 3040c?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Also consider

Part of the appeal of the 3040c, in addition to the way they look and sound, is the money Q Acoustics wants in exchange for a pair. It’s genuinely hard to find a pair of floorstanding loudspeakers from a brand anything like as credible as this one for anything like the money — even brands such as DALI, Fyne Audio or Monitor Audio (to name just three) start their floorstanding ranges with models costing several hundred of your chosen currency more than this.

If you're happy to consider bookshelf models however, look to the Dali Sonik 1 or even Cambridge Audio L/R S. But again, they're not floorstanding speakers.

How I tested the Q Acoustics 3040c

I connected the 3040c to a WiiM Amp Pro using a couple of lengths of QED loudspeaker cable, and then connected a preamplified Technics turntable to the WiiM’s single analog input.

I used a Rega CD player, connected to the amplifier’s digital optical input, and also streamed via Bluetooth and Tidal Connect using an Apple iPhone 15 Pro. Which meant I was able to listen to music in lots of different formats, and at lots of different resolutions, more-or-less non-stop for a week or so.

• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

The Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus is a speaker that requires no introduction. It’s a truly iconic model, and there really is nothing else on the market that looks quite like it.

With its mollusk-like build, tapered damping tubes and exceptional sound, it's no wonder that Bowers & Wilkins proudly announces it as “the last wish” of co-founder John Bowers. And even though the Nautilus launched all the way back in 1993, it's still being produced to this day.

During my time at the High End Vienna show earlier this year, I got a chance to check out the B&W Nautilus for myself, and got to learn more about its weird and wonderful design. I even had the chance to speak with Bowers & Wilkins’ Product Marketing Director, Andy Kerr, about why people keep coming back to the speaker, even 33 years down the line — and you may be surprised by just how popular it still is…

Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus: an introduction

For the uninitiated, the Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus is a floor-standing loudspeaker that boasts a striking spiral design and tapered tubes, resulting in one of the most unique looking models that money can buy. But despite its off-the-wall appearance, its design is very much rooted in utility.

Kerr explained to me that, in essence, the speaker attempts to create the impression of drive units “hanging in free air,” operating without the typical restrictions of a traditional cabinet or enclosure.

While B&W still decided to harness the “pressurization benefits of some form of an enclosure,” he said, there was an active effort to remove the audibility of the box — something that was achieved by using the tapered tubes that the Nautilus is still known for.

“Each tube increases in length relative to the size of the drive unit,” said Kerr. “So you've got a relatively small one for the upper tweeter, slightly longer still for the lower mid, and then this [tube for the bass section] is three meters long but kind of swirled up”.

As the driver operates, pressure dissipates into the Nautilus' tubes — which are also padded with “an absorbent wadding material” — eliminating rearward reflections and drastically reducing distortion while capturing that sense of the driver operating in free space. “It's one of the best loudspeakers you'd hear at disappearing.”

And while he accepts that the Nautilus may not be suited for a studio environment in the same way that the Bowers & Wilkins 801 D5 are, Kerr states, “As an experiment for reducing the audibility of a loudspeaker, it’s perfect”.

The legacy lives on

The ingenious design and sound of the Nautilus has remained, and Kerr notes that many people still purchase the speaker to this day. In fact, so many people are interested in having a Nautilus of their own that there are years' worth of backorders.

I was told that B&W is still producing approximately 50 pairs a year for sale — pretty impressive given that each individual pair takes around 31 days to make, all meticulously done by hand.

Audio enthusiasts can grab a pair of Nautilus speakers in the standard colorways — Black, Midnight Blue, and Silver — for a sum typically in the $110,000 or £100,000 ballpark. But there’s a slightly more expensive alternative, one that’s proved very popular with buyers: a custom option.

That’s right, for around £120,000 (US pricing was not shared), you can order the Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus with special paint, and get the speaker in just about any color imaginable. I was shown a handful of customer photos, and there were some exceptional finishes to behold, including McLaren Orange, Ferrari Red, and Minty Green variants, only adding to the unique nature of the Nautilus.

As things stand, there are three years — yes, three years — of backorders. Even though the Nautilus is a speaker like no other, the sheer volume of interest is seriously impressive all of these years later.

You all know what a guitar amplifier is. Big, intimidating stacks of speakers and dials, designed for some nice loud guitar playing. But do they work as well for other people's guitars; i.e., can a big powerful block of music-playing kit double as a home speaker for recorded music?

It may seem like a stupid question, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that speakers and amps are the same thing... kinda. And for people who don't have the money to buy a guitar amp and a home speaker, could buying the former kill two birds with one stone? I had to find out.

Now, I’m not talking about a guitar amp-esque speaker made by a brand traditionally known for its amps (and before these new Bluetooth speaker things became so jolly well lucrative), such as the Marshall Stanmore IV or the Orange Box. No, I’m talking about a real power-speaker designed for guitars, with jacks and dials galore and no Bluetooth in sight.

Specifically, I’m talking about my Line 6 Spider IV amp, which I have owned for at least half of my life, thus far.

Now, I know Line 6 has a mixed reputation, making it an odd choice to incorporate into a home sound system. Its speakers aren't even for serious guitarists — they're for edgy 14-year-olds without much cash who just want goofy levels of distortion. In my defense, when I bought it, I was an edge 14-year-old without much cash, who just wanted goofy levels of distortion. And it still works fine for what I need.

For the tech-heads among you, my Spider IV offers 75W of power. For the purposes of this article, you should know it has a 3.5mm and a 6.35mm input, and I played music from my turntable as well as some Edifier speakers (the same set-up as in my recent article about setting up a new turntable, so an Edifier M90 and Sony PS-LX310BT). The amp was getting incorporated into an existing hi-fi system, not replacing it.

The other important point of context before we get started is that I had to make a conscious effort to turn off my brain before undergoing these experiments. In many parts of my rational brain, I could tell that a guitar amp wouldn't function smoothly as a speaker; they're not designed to hit a wide range of frequencies, just the ones guitars play at, and they're not intended to be connected to a chain of other players. If I switched off the scientific part of my cranium, I could just mess around with wires, have some fun, and see what happened.

Turning my amp into a subwoofer

With my first experiment, I decided to start small: I’d see if my amp could function as a subwoofer for my Edifier M90s. I wanted to use its wattage just to give me some extra 'oomph', even though it’s not a bass amp.

First, I used a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to connect the M90s, from their Sub Out port, to the amp’s smaller input… and nothing happened. I couldn’t hear a peep from the Line 6, though oddly, the amp’s volume control adjusted the output from the speakers.

Next, I took the risky move of using a 3.5mm to 6.35mm to connect the Sub Out port to the amp’s primary input — risky because I was using an unbalanced stereo cable across devices really not meant for this use, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

I turned the Line 6’s dials all the way down, plugged the cable in, and popped on some Morgan Wallen before slowly turning the volume up.

The resulting speaker sound is best described as ‘rhythmic, distorted pulses’: I was getting something, but it sounded more like asthmatic coughs than music. The amp was clearly connected, and outputting something, but it was just rhythmic fuzz. I suppose that's the Line 6 effect.

I spent quite a while fiddling with the dials, but it was impossible to reduce the drive, while also retaining enough volume for the amp to be audible when I wasn’t putting my ear to it. So it wasn't good for most music, but turn the volume up while listening to a rock track, and the pulses sounded like the strums of a really keen rhythm guitarist trying to play along. This was pretty nostalgic for me, because when I bought the Line 6, that's basically exactly what I was doing.

I tried the same experiment with my turntable, which was connected to the Edifiers via Bluetooth, and found the same result, albeit watered-down.

How about as a giant aux speaker?

Perhaps I was trying to run before I could walk? For my next experiment, I decided to make things a bit more simple. I connected the iPad I was using as a music player, to a USB-C to 3.5mm converter, and then plugged in the aforementioned 3.5mm to 6.35mm cable which led to the guitar amp’s primary input.

I could hear music! I mean, if you could call it that. The Line 6 not being a bass amp became patently clear here, because I was basically just getting treble. It was surreal; I've tested speakers and earbuds with barely any bass, but never any with literally no low frequencies to speak of.

Plus, a weird phase effect was causing noticeable oscillations in the music, providing a powerful attack but fast fade. It was most audible in Post Malone’s voice (I’d moved on to Post Malone at this point) – it sounded like he’d learnt Mongolian Throat Singing.

The resulting sound was odd, and didn't match even the affordable Tribit Stormbox Micro 3 I use in the shower, but at least the guitar amp gave me some control over it: I could use the dials to add a bit of warmth, and some fuzz to mask the lack of bass.

Then I had a brainwave: I returned to the 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable from the first section, and music sounded much better. There was finally some bass (not much), and Malone was back to his regular singing voice. It was the closest to a speaker I'd managed to bring the amp.

It wasn’t perfect, though: Line 6 amps can sound quite tinny, and I felt like I was listening to music on some cheap earbuds you get free with a flight… just 75W ones that'd annoy the downstairs neighbor.

Let's add some drive

Obviously, the thing missing from my set-up was more things, so I whacked out a Pigtronix Fat Drive to add to the mix. You can probably tell what this does; it’s obviously a vital addition to an amp which is slated for offering nothing but drive.

Here’s how the set-up looked now: a USB-C to 3.5mm converter plugged into my iPad, leading to a 3.5mm to 6.35mm cable, which was plugged into the Fat Drive pedal, which was connected to another 6.35mm to 6.35mm cable, which led into my amp. That music was getting quite a few air miles before being played.

You can probably imagine what more drive did to already-too-distorted music; it sounded like it was playing from behind a waterfall. Add to that the phase effect that playing music from the 6.35mm port provided, and it was even more of a write-off than before.

I wasn't expecting sudden audio clarity, though. As with the rest of this piece, it was just a fun experiment to try.

Unfortunately, there was a casualty to this experiment: my Fat Drive pedal conked out the day after the test, and I’ve not been able to revive it. I don’t blame my tests, as much as the several years of misuse and poor management prior to them, but I’d still like to pour one out for the Pigtronix.

Lessons learnt

Obviously, I didn’t go into this experiment thinking that a guitar amplifier would make for a genuine home speaker alternative. That’s like thinking a pottery kiln is a good microwave replacement; it technically does the same thing, but things are going to get a little crunchy.

But I was hoping it'd turn into a fun, albeit messy, party speaker in a pinch, in case I had people over and suddenly wanted room-filling sound. Sure, I could buy such a device, but given how expensive tech is (and how much space that'd take if I already own an amp), who needs that?

I always knew, too, that some useful features would be missing. My amp doesn't allow for a wireless connection, for example, and it's far from being portable.

The solution is already out there: recent Bluetooth speakers released under the Fender name (though made by by a different company called Riffsound) had an XLR port that doubles as a 6.35mm jack, so you can plug a guitar and use it as an amp, even though it's technically a speaker.

Given how many guitar companies now make consumer tech (Marshall, Fender, Orange; Yamaha does too but it's an everything-music company really), it'd be great to see this kind of feature again. Or, at the very least, some way of blurring the borders between amp and speaker. Not all of us have the space or money for both.

If someone tells you a song is important to them, you should listen to it carefully. Because afterwards, you'll know them better. If they share a song with you, treat it with the kind of care and respect you'd give to a treasured photo or keepsake. It's a window into their very private world. And it is all we really have, in the end.

I knew the songs that were truly important to my mom: Eric Clapton (well, Derek and the Dominos) and Layla; Cream's Strange Brew; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Sanibel (which I can never ever listen to without crying, ever again); Hendrix's Are You Experienced?; Jethro Tull's Aqualung and so many more that were on heavy rotation in the car, whenever she'd drive me to ballet class as a child.

And I knew the musicians she respected: Janis Joplin, Prince ("He's a better musician than anyone gives him credit for, Becky"), The Hollies, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bowie, Rod Stewart, The Police, Genesis, Springsteen, The Eagles, Fela Kuti (my parents actually met in Nigeria, but that's another story)… it's a long list.

What I didn't know was that my mom had since learned to love Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran. I only know this because she'd bought their CDs from thrift stores. I even now know a couple of the volunteers from said thrift stores. They worked out who I was from my name, when I went to donate a few things (it's so hard to let anything go when someone dies) and they asked after her.

It turns out that they used to put certain CDs aside, ready for when she came in. And apparently she always bought whatever they recommended — my mom was a kind, giving and inquisitive person.

I also didn't know my mom had an extra cupboard stuffed solely with CDs. The entire back catalogs of The Beatles, Jackson Browne and Jethro Tull weren't a surprise, but Wu-Tang Clan's 1993 epic Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was likely a thrift store revelation — I can even see she paid £2 for it — and I love that for her.

I should explain: my mom and I were very close. We also lost my beautiful younger sister in 2021 after an illness (not helped by that whole pandemic thing) which made us cling to each other even more. But I lived and worked in London; she lived a three-hour drive away. Distance is annoying.

You may have guessed that my mom has passed. And you may also have guessed that it was sudden, so I never got the chance to say goodbye. I never got to do it the way you always imagine you'll be able to at the end; to hug her, hold her hand, thank her for being my awesome mom and hear whatever she might want to tell me.

If you're reading this and thinking, 'Me too', I urge you to sit with your person's music for a while. And this is especially pertinent if it's music they kept in their car.

Tangled up in blue

Behold! The car my mom part-exchanged her bigger, sportier Mazda for in 2013. I coated her off for getting an "old lady car" with its "toaster engine" and begged her to reconsider, but the deal was done.

And now that this vehicle has sadly come to me, I made a curious revelation: the CD player I've always known to be in this car wasn't there when she bought it. She must have had it fitted later. How do I know? I found the original central dash column in the spare wardrobe. And she clearly loved this (then) new souped up player, because every available compartment, door and nook in this car is stuffed full of CD books — those ones where you do away with the case for space and fit the holographic discs into the little plastic sleeves.

I love that she did this as a gift to herself and didn't tell anyone. When I first stuck the key in the ignition, Hootie & the Blowfish's Cracked Rear View was playing. We went to see them in the early noughties, at the House of Blues in Florida. I cried for a full hour at the wheel, still in the parking lot. I needed it. Actually, it felt good.

Also in the car was Santana (we saw Carlos et al at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2016), Bon Jovi ('95, Wembley), Bruce Springsteen (Ricoh Arena, Coventry, also 2016) and several CDs I'd burned for her between 2002 and 2005. I always tried to write in a circular fashion with my black Sharpie when I created these discs, to echo the grooves of a record. There's a whole extra feature to be written about the lost art of burning a CD for someone you love, I think.

Oye Como Va

It wasn't just acts we'd seen live taking up the limited space in her car, of course. My mom kept a lot of Bob Dylan around; Blood on the Tracks was clearly the last thing she'd been spinning before switching the disc out for a bit of Hootie — and Traveling Wilburys' Vol. 1 was just below that, in the little cubby hole above the CD player.

In the time since I lost my mom, I've driven this car a lot. I have often driven it at night, when I couldn't sleep. On the road, I belted out the songs I burned for her back when that was a thing you did for people you loved. It was my grief therapy. I shared playlists with her friends and we talked about gigs they'd been to with her. They say it helped them too.

If I couldn't make a decision about what she'd want me to do about things, I put one of her tracks on in the car and found the answer. And it was invariably, "Don't worry about it. Live your life and be free, Becky. I love you".

I hope she knows I love her too. I miss her. And I definitely approve of her taste in music.

Music has always been a non-negotiable in my life. I see now that it was a non-negotiable in my mom's life too. She just showed it quietly and in different ways, because she was a mom to two daughters and that took it out of her.

I truly believe humans need music. We need real music with real lyrics, that actual people had to write down or they couldn't rest. We need the chord progressions that had to get out of their heads and onto a tape. And we need the meaning these tracks take on years down the line — their association with the lives and loves of people close to us.

Old, scratched, starting to struggle; those compact discs are like my mom's little Madza — becoming harder to run. To be honest, I know the feeling. Parts of the car are held together with gaffer tape (aren't we all?). At its last service, the intake of breath over the teeth and slow shake of the mechanic's head seemed a little graver than before.

But I will never sell that car, or the collection of CDs within it. Not that I'd get much for either, anyway.

I have named the car Hidders, short for Hidalgo, after our gypsy heritage. To me it will always be priceless. And somehow, owning the music my mom casually kept in her ever-evolving life gig on wheels has brought me closer to her.

Now that I've listened to every CD that was squirrelled away in Hidders when I got it, I've started taking my sister's old collection of discs in there too, whenever I need to chat with her. Oh yes, we carefully kept her stacks of Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, Prince, Maxwell, Sinéad O'Connor, D'Angelo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, Madonna, Black Eyed Peas and more too.

And don't tell me you never talk to people who may or may not physically be there in the car? You should try it, it's great.

Love you, mom and Jo. See you both down the road.

You may not have heard of the Armour Home Group, but you have almost certainly heard of its three hi-fi brands: Q Acoustics, QED, and Goldring. Q Acoustics is one of the masters of great-value value speakers, QED is one of the best-known cable makers, and Goldring is a 120-year-old turntable specialist.

And you may not have heard of its new Managing Director, Charlie Henderson, but you will absolutely have heard of the audio brands he's helped to lead, including Cambridge Audio, Naim, and Jabra.

I've met Henderson before in his roles at Cambridge and Naim, and I was fascinated by how the email I received announcing his appointment promised to focus on expanding the brands "beyond the hi-fi" sector.

I wondered if that meant moving into more 'mainstream' parts of the audio world, and I wasn't sure how that would really work with a brand like QED, so I wanted to find out more — but it turned out that Henderson had something completely different in mind.

He wanted to talk about how the brands can support the return of public listening rooms, how they can engage with the new wave of people getting into hi-fi — and how the hi-fi world can get its "mojo" back.

TechRadar: You said in your introduction at the company that "My goal is to elevate these brands beyond the hi-fi sector and into the broader music community", referring to Q Acoustics, QED, and Goldring. So what do you have in mind?

Charlie Henderson: I have felt for a long time that the hi-fi industry has lost some of its mojo. If we go back to the '50s, '60s, '70s — kind of the essence of British hi-fi in particular — lots of those company founders were either part of rock bands, or they were gigging, or they were visiting live venues, and that's why they got into this industry. So a real love of music was always there.

I think we've seen maybe over the last 10 years or so that it's gone a bit stale. And I think in all the roles I've had in this industry, I've been really keen to make sure that we reboot it. So we talk about our mission as a business, which is to move beyond the hi-fi bubble and become part of music culture — almost as though that's revolutionary, but it's not; it's just going back to what hi-fi was. It was always part of music culture.

But if we think about going around Vienna High End or the Bristol Hi-Fi Show or any of these kinds of events, it's usually less about the music and it's mostly about the equipment and the technology. I think that's a shame. It's not why I'm in this industry; it's not why all the people I tend to find that I'm working with are in this industry.

So that is our mission, and the way we do it is by just being authentic about why we're really here.

TR: It's funny, of all the big tech shows, IFA is the one that has started doing what you're saying, and trying to be a cultural hub as well as a tech show. But really audio is such a kind of tangential part of IFA compared to these music shows that you're talking about.

CH: I remember chatting to a [very respected] hi-fi journalist at the Munich show a couple of years ago, and he just hung out with us. This was in my Cambridge [Audio] days, he just kind of just hung out because he was like, 'Man, at least someone's playing some proper music.'

You walk around the halls and it's Kate Bush and Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and all of the usual stuff. Great artists, they're still important musical acts and incredible — but decades have moved on and there's different artists today, you know? People like Fred Again and Ren are my two favorites at the moment, because I think they're British artists who are defining the real musical culture right now. And I haven't heard any Fred Again or Ren at an audio show.

I probably would hear it at IFA, and I think it's because IFA represents companies who understand that they are part of consumer culture. I think the hi-fi industry maybe sometimes thinks that consumer culture is a dirty word. I couldn't disagree more. Knowing who your customer is and what appeals to them and being part of their world, that's our responsibility as manufacturers ultimately.

TR: So what do you see music culture as being in 2026? We're in the middle of one of the most interesting times of audio I can think of, where the new audience who grew up on streaming are coming in and going, ‘I want to move beyond this.’ And that is partly behind the vinyl revival with young people really wanting to actively get into that side — but it's also leading us in the direction of every device having streaming built in or being ‘active’. There are these two arguably separate paths, so where can you ‘meet’ music culture as a company?

CH: There's a little bit of convenience going on here. Active is clearly a future direction for our industry, fueled by convenience and simplicity. I've spent a long time in my career involved in separates hi-fi, and that has a place, but I think even companies who have been focused on that over the last few decades realize that active is the direction of travel. I think that's down to people just wanting a simpler life.

But then there's the ironic flip side of that. We talk about the vinyl revival and analog renaissance and all these things, [including] CDs. I'm using one of my old Motorola phones for my phone because I don't always want to be connected on a smartphone.

But one of my favorite cartoons is [the one that asks] ‘What got you into vinyl? Was it the inconvenience or the expense?’ You know that one? I think the ritual [of playing and choosing vinyl] is really important.

Just for a second, I'm going to kind of dive off into part of how we'll execute our mission. You know, moving into being more a part of music culture isn't just about understanding the music side of it, it's actually how people experience music. I think as an industry, the hi-fi industry has long lamented the question: how do we get people to come in and listen to what music should sound like?

I don't believe [getting people to come to us] is the right answer. Go to where people are listening to music and show them how it could sound. There is a bar culture called the kissa bar culture that came out of Tokyo over the last 20 or so years. It manifests itself in these listening rooms, and you see them at Studio 180 in London, for example. Spotify has just announced its own version of one of these listening rooms as well. That's where music culture is for me.

There was a great article I was reading the other day where it's basically saying listening rooms like that are the new nightclubs. I thought that was super interesting because it's a place where people just assemble, share a passion of music. They might be sipping nice teas or drinking great whiskey or maybe just chatting, you know? It's a place to socialize.

We're seeing this resurgence of gaming, and I mean board gaming. I think that's beautiful, because it's people coming together and escaping the distractions of modern-day technology. It's definitely a younger audience who are doing that because they are sick to the high teeth of everything being online, everything being intangible and losing that connection with friends.

You're seeing it also manifesting in things like running clubs appearing and becoming a huge thing for people in their teens and 20s and early 30s, just craving for human connection.

And I think that is part of music culture. It's human connection. It's why gig tickets are going through the roof again — Glastonbury's selling out faster than ever.

And people really spend more on music, on a hi-fi system or an audio system. They're quite happy with their [premium] Apple Bluetooth products, they're already spending that money. They're dropping £1,000 on Glastonbury tickets and spending all this money on Taylor Swift to get the eight different versions of an album that she releases. They're obsessed by music, but they don't know who to talk to because no one's talking to them.

TR: This might tie back to what your plan is to get out there and interact with people, but the immediate problem that occurs to me with having more of these spaces — and about these spaces becoming more popular even though there's appetite for them — is the general collapse in the ‘third-place’ concept. Places you can go that are not work and that are not home and that are also sustainable businesses. A lot of these places are struggling. Board game cafes have done all right, but you've got maybe one or two per city. They're not like how pubs and bars have been absolutely everywhere in the past. So do you see yourselves opening some of these venues, or supporting them directly in other ways?

CH: I think the pub reference is interesting because we've seen a decline in pubs. We know how many pubs are shutting every week, and nightclubs. I think it's just a different way of people getting together. I'm not surprised that there's only one or two [board game cafes] in a town, because there's probably only ever been one or two nightclubs in a town. Clearly not the same number of people going through [board game cafes as nightclubs], but it's just a place where people can get together.

But just because they're not doing it publicly, doesn't mean they're not doing it at home, you know? We know that vinyl and turntable sales continue to increase year over year over year because people are creating their own environments at home.

In terms of how we execute it, it's by working through our relationships that we have as a team — and that I bring to the business as well in terms of relationships in the music industry and venues within the music industry — and saying ‘how do we support you creating your own listening bar environments’ or being able to [develop] kissa bar culture.

And doing that globally, importantly, as well. We might be based in the UK and proudly British hi-fi brands, but we're a global business, so how do we get a venue in Tokyo, the home of all of this culture? We've had some really good conversations in Vienna just last week about being able to do this in places in Australia, and opportunities in places like New York and across Europe. Spain, Italy and France are way ahead of the UK when it comes to this listening bar culture already.

And then obviously in the UK, our approach will be to support those venues either by equipping them with the right kind of technology to be able to deliver it, or helping people to open them. There's a difference between pop-up events, which are fun for the industry, and actually supporting these venues to be successful in what they're trying to do.

There's an ethical story here. Sometimes people say, ‘So what is it you do as a business? You're making stuff?’ I'm like: no, it's bigger than that. We make products for sure, but they transform people's lives.

It sounds very floaty and you know, almost ephemeral, but it's true: music changes how people feel, so we have a responsibility to make that available to people wherever they want to be. That's kind of our cultural thing, and we'll do that by making sure that the great kit that we make is in the places they want to go to — the two come together.

The outcome is that people realize that [our brands are] actually part of music culture, and therefore we are the people who are signposting who they could listen to great music through, and that's the business upside of it.

TR: So when you talk to these places about what support they need from you, what are they saying?

CH: Support financially. Equipment. There are some which have been really successful with very advanced audio systems, but most locations can't manage that.

We are proudly in the accessible end of the spectrum as a company, particularly around the Q Acoustics range. It's high-quality equipment, but it doesn't cost the Earth, so we can help some of these smaller venues perhaps be part of this movement; we can loan equipment to them, or work with them on [cost]. I think that's probably the practical thing that we'd be able to do.

TR: You’re talking about getting closer to music culture and being a music-listening brand, not a technical brand, if you think of it in those terms. Do you think that's something that separates you from the Chinese hi-fi brands that are exploding in popularity? A lot of them feel quite led by technical people who are able to create pretty incredible products for low prices, but the pitch feels based on technical specs.

CH: I think these brands aren’t that different to traditional hi-fi companies. You know, I've worked in a number of brands where it’s an engineering-led culture — and there's a bit of a transformation that we'll do at Armour Home; there's a degree of engineering-led culture [there].

What has been fun is seeing everything from the engineering teams, but also that our designers saying, ‘Hang on, we could be bolder and braver and less safe and actually be really exciting.’

So I'm already seeing renders for products that will come out in the next 12 to 18 months where I'm like, ‘Yeah, OK, now we're talking’. These are products that really speak to having a sense of style and presence, and really selective decisions around the colors, materials and finishes that we use, and being much closer to interior design. Pantone colors of the year and these similar cultural cues that matter [to people] — just being cool and relevant, that alone is more than maybe the Chinese brands are able to do because they're not attuned to it in quite the same way.

There is a distinction, though. It isn't just British tastes that matter; it's understanding the global tastes as well. So working with our global distributors as well to really get a sense of what is current right now in China or in Australia or in the US, and bringing that as a bit of a mix. Otherwise we fall into the trap I think British hi-fi brands have done in the past where they think everything starts and stops at the English Channel.

TR: Right now, Goldring is really a turntable accessories company that happens to make one turntable [the Goldring GR3]. So, is your plan to expand its reach by offering more turntable models, or are you thinking more about expanding the kind of accessories it makes into phono stages or something else that's not in the range at the moment?

CH: One of my observations when joining the Armour Home Group is that we focus a lot around the Q Acoustics business. And then we have two other businesses within it, which are Goldring and QED. I think that focus is a miss, [and] that's a shame, because we have 120 years this year of history with Goldring. It is one of two of the oldest audio brands in existence, and it has been there at all the defining moments over a century.

Then we have QED, which is 53 years old this year, and it was the brand that started the whole cable revolution from bell wire to proper audio hi-fi grade cables. Something called the Genesis report, which was written by the guys at QED, is still the bible that everyone else has followed ever since.

Q Acoustics has been the new kid on the block a little bit. It's 20 years old this year, so I kind of joke with people in the business that it's not a teenager anymore, we're a grown-up… but we have 120 years of Goldring.

So in the context of your question, Goldring is a beautiful thing for us to have in the family because it allows us to talk about 120 years of history, and iconic decks like the G99 or GL75 with Lenco that were built over the decades. But it's also bang up to date, because vinyl culture is hot.

So we have to do a couple of things. One is to celebrate the past and then also bring things bang up to date in the future. I've had some extraordinary conversations with some of the people I've met in this business, but one of them in particular is a guy called David Giffin.

He's been in the business for 40 years, his father was in the business for 41 years before that, and he was sharing with me this extraordinary scrapbook of all of the sort of cuttings over decades of this business.

That is extraordinary in itself, but he's now the person that people come to from all of the forums going, ‘This is the guy who can rebuild whatever cartridges from around the world’. He's showing me pictures of some Japanese cartridges, like super-esoteric cartridges made out of marble, that he's been tasked with repairing.

So this extraordinary level of skill sits in our Goldring team, and we don't talk about that nearly enough; it's extraordinary. How do we make that manifest itself in the consumer world? We let people know that we have some of the best cartridges, certainly for consistency of performance, that money can buy. We've got everything from entry level right up to Ethos at the top level

You can come to us for turntables too. We have GR3 as a turntable at the moment, and without giving any secrets away, of course we're looking at what more we can do more around that.

But I need to make sure that [a new] turntable is something truly iconic that celebrates 120 years of Goldring, that reminds everybody that this was the brand that started it all, and can sit proudly in a kissa bar environment, celebrated on this plinth, almost like they're shrines. Something that's truly special.

And then at the same time, [should] tie our brands together, so I can use QED technology in the development of that turntable, and I can also make sure we've got Q Acoustic speakers that do service to a turntable with 120 years' worth of history. That’s where some of these new flagship projects that we're working on are really exciting, because the material choices alone are bold.

I talk a lot internally about the thread between the brands. They're not disparate brands. We're incredibly fortunate to have three brands that bring everything together from the source through the connectivity through to the output, and we need to do more of that.

TR: So we should probably expect a cohesive, very premium, very celebratory set of stuff to come from this thinking?

CH: This is where I get kicked under the table by my PR handlers. You should expect a much more bold and confident view as to what we bring to market because I believe we've earned that over many, many, many, many decades.

TR: Are you considering doing something like special edition versions of Q Acoustics speakers that are Goldring-branded or designed? Q Acoustics' design language tends to have friendly, rounded corners, and rounded edges. I look at the GR3 and I see this stark, hard-edged cuboid block. Do you want a set of Q Acoustics speakers that are equally hard-edged and glossy-finished, [and] maybe have the Goldring logo on?

CH: I think it could be that way, or it could be the other way around. You could see a Goldring turntable that leans more into the home-friendly design, or I could see everything elevating to a new design approach as well, sure.

What I can be clearer about is that I think it's important that there are technology linkages where possible across the three brands, and design cues where appropriate across all three as well, without betraying the core design fundamentals of each brand. It's a balancing act.

TR: The biggest missing pieces of your portfolio are the amp and streamer. Is that something you think about expanding into, or do you think the future is more in the combined active speaker route in the Q Acoustics range?

CH: There are two parts to that. We have our core business, and we have our distribution business in the UK, and it’s important to mention that our distribution business is really interesting.

We've got Xgimi at one end in terms of cutting-edge projector technology; we’re just rolling that out with retailers across the UK, and we literally can't keep up with demand.

Almost at the other extreme we've got Grado. Cool as hell, legit New York vibes, super interesting, iconic design. And then in the middle we've got Burson Audio, a head-fi and amp brand.

But there is the missing link [in our brands], which is amplification and streaming. Active speakers definitely support that, clearly, but we have a very successful passive speaker range, and I need to work out how to tackle that. Is that through partnerships? Is that through collaboration with existing manufacturers in the industry, those who are on the same mission as us of understanding that music culture is really important for the industry? Or do we treat it as a distribution opportunity for us in the UK? And I don't have the answer yet, but I know it's important.

TR: QED is surely the hardest brand here to expand beyond the core hi-fi community, unless you take a bit of a left turn. So what is your thinking there? Would you keep QED as a nice ‘glue’ option to connect everything together, or is there some future for QED that goes beyond what it does now?

CH: I would start by saying it’s about re-remembering that QED is the brand that started it all, and helping that awareness grow. There are other brands out there who've established a strong position in the premium and luxury cable sector, but they're all essentially going back to the Genesis report.

We are working on redefining the ranges, I'll put it that way, so you'll see some news coming out of QED fairly soon anyway.

I think connectivity is a question in itself. Cables were the original connection, but now wireless is a connection, and so I'm certainly pondering in my idle moments about whether QED should be in that wireless area. Because it's the modern day glue, and it's interesting you ask the question because it's definitely in my mind.

TR: You alluded to this earlier, but it's the old business study question of asking ‘What do we actually sell? Is it cables or is it connections? And if it's connections, then should we think about something medium than cables in the future?’ Is that the kind of question you're exploring for QED?

CH: Absolutely. And I’m only four weeks in, which is why I'm not giving you clear answers, but I can see that there is a clear consumer understanding among those who know us today that we are the connection. But there are consumers today who don't even know us, they're not being signposted well enough because of the music culture topic we've gone into as to how they listen to music — so they might recognize QED as being the connection, but they're only used to wireless connectivity. And so what do we do with that?

TR: I'm sure you are not going to have anything specific to say on this subject when it comes to products, but it's very relevant to this topic: have you seen the Pro-ject Wireless Box E? They've made this little box that connects directly to the speaker posts on the back of your passive speakers, it plugs into power, and it makes them wireless using the WiiM platform.

CH: I think that's actually quite exciting for our category. A theory I have is that a lot of people are starting to inherit hi-fi, so family members might be getting to an age or passing on, sadly, and people are discovering turntables in the loft. ‘What do I do with this?’

That's interesting for me as well, which is getting people on a journey. One of the companies I worked at was world-famous for understanding the importance of being there at the beginning of someone's journey and being with them for life. It’s a separates company, and it's the upgrade journey that people went on that's really important to me. It's one of the things that I'm talking to the marketing teams about, within the group. It's about making it easier to understand where you start and where you could go.

QED is a perfect example actually, where it's a bit of a maze and really hard to navigate, so making sure that, just from a packaging and a communications point of view, people know where they are on that journey. Are they at the beginning? Are they at our ‘good’, our ‘better’ or our ‘best’ — so they can work out where they could step up through their audio life.

I don't think we have done that enough in our ranges. It's the same with our 3000 series to our 5000 series range, and then up to our Concept portfolio, in Q Acoustics. It's making it really clear about what this [product] does at this level, what you can expect at this [higher] level and what you can expect at this [highest] level. This idea that it's always a little itch that's not quite scratched; it could always get better.

TR: One of the entry points that I think we're seeing a lot of at the moment is desktop speakers. You guys have compact speakers, bookshelf speakers that are pretty small — but in particular, there's this kind of breakout sector right now that’s one step down in size from there. Quite often wireless or active, but designed for people who are getting into the audiophile stage via their desktop. Based on what you were just saying, are you guys exploring more of these opportunities where there is some breakout sector where you can say ‘OK, this is where we can get people on board in our journey’?

CH: I'm gonna half answer that. We have three different bookshelves in our 3000 series and the same in the 5000 series, and those are to meet the needs of three different kinds of bookshelf customer. Some of them are international, like the 3030c, because they’re the bigger of the lot and the US buyers like a larger volume for the cabinet.

The 3010 and 5010 are our small footprint version. They are used in home offices a lot, but I think there are new audiences coming through. There's gaming, and there are younger consumers who might be in flat shares or whatever that need something smaller. So yes, we are watching that part of the industry very closely.

TR: We’ve talked a lot about music, and that's kind of clearly where your focus is as far as building a new identity and the opportunities. But Q Acoustics has such a successful history in the home theater space; it was one of the earliest pioneers of soundbars and soundbases, but left that area really right as it was exploding — though exploding with entries from the likes of LG and Samsung. At the moment, there's no a product in that area; is that something you could see the brand getting back into, or do you want to focus on that music side?

CH: So there is a crossover. Being part of music culture doesn't mean it's exclusive to other elements of it, and I think home entertainment and AV is still very much part of that culture of entertainment. And it is important to us strategically; we still have products in the range that allow us to satisfy a lot of those needs. We have a range of subwoofers from entry through to high performance.

In terms of the soundbar category, it’s quite a scary category. It's very hard to compete with free, and the TV manufacturers will offer a soundbar as free, or give a retailer the latitude to offer it for free to close a TV sale.

I've been actively involved in some products in that space in the past, and I've seen how successful they can be if they are designed really well.

I'm dancing around an answer to say: no plans at the moment. It is a category that I look at with curiosity, but I'm not sure if it's the absolute priority yet. Surround sound, yes — but soundbar, I'm not sure yet.

TR: In surround sound, what we’re seeing there is, again, a lot of people who are ready to step up, in the same way as we talked about people in hi-fi wanting to move up in the journey. One of the key trends happening in home theater right now is the move to wireless surround systems. Do you think that is a route you can see Q Acoustics going down? It's a complicated technical thing to deal with, but I feel like it's something that any company in the space right now needs to reckon with.

CH: So we've definitely got the capabilities to develop solutions in that space. An area we haven't talked about is install, and I think there is a bigger opportunity actually about making install an option for homeowners. We have a branch of products that we call ‘easy install’ — the name says it all, you know, super easy for the average DIYer through to electricians to install. I see that there's probably a future for much more there, in terms of in-ceiling speakers and maybe some satellite speakers to create this environment.

There's a whole tangent we could go down about whether Atmos has gained momentum. I think for me, it's still a ‘watch and see’.

But I think the idea of in-ceiling or in-wall speakers and satellite speakers, and maybe some floorstanders or bookshelves as an option, and them all working together, that's interesting — and I think wireless within that environment is really interesting. And by ‘interesting’ that means ‘yes, I'm considering that’.

The ‘easy install’ stuff is super interesting though for us, because we've all been in this industry a long time. We've seen that installation systems are seen as complex and scary and difficult and expensive. You need a server-mounted system and you need specialisms and you need lots of complexity and disruption to your home… it isn't like that anymore. I've been really blown away.

My wife doesn't know this yet, but I'm going to switch stuff out in our house, because I've suddenly realized how easy it is. Q Acoustics has a thing called the E300a, which is essentially a built-in amplifier and streaming modules in a down-lighter-like size. Wire it up to a couple of in-ceiling speakers, you've got a system ready to go. It couldn't be easier. Voice controlled, so you can say ‘Alexa play BBC 6 Music’ or whatever.

I don't think people realize they can do this yet generally, and that they can do it themselves on a weekend, or they can get their local electrician to come and pop it in, because it's easy. And we're trying to support the electrician channel to do more of that. Maybe that's more interesting than the soundbars on their own.

Let's get nerdyish for a second. HDMI ARC I think is really, really important. Thank God for it, because I think particularly if you're earlier on in your [hi-fi] journey, you have to make some compromises, but you can enjoy hi-fi quality sound through an HDMI ARC interface and it'll still be part of a pseudo AV system.

Sure, it's compromised because you're not going to get the bells and whistles coming from all around — Titanic isn't going to sound quite the same — but it's going to sound beautiful when you listen to music. In that kind of relationship between ‘is it music’ or ‘is it audiovisual’, I think it’s entertainment as a whole, and finding the best of both worlds. HDMI ARC has been a savior.

TR: There's also the element where, if people go to [the] Reddit home theater community for their advice on whether to buy a soundbar, or which is the right soundbar, what they will get is a lot of people saying that they should actually get a stereo setup. There are people who say this will always be better than any soundbar, and you guys do have that option in your active speakers.

CH: That's what I mean; you can get the best of both worlds. That stereo presence though is always going to be better; that’s the point, isn't it, because you're not compromised by [having] the bar in the middle.

TR: So finally, what is the holistic brand proposition you want to offer from Armour Home? If you're addressing what you want all of your brands to do at once, and you’ve got this idea of how you can integrate with the community, what do you want people to think about Q Acoustics and QED and Goldring in combination?

CH: I want people to see that there is a relationship between all three brands that takes us from the origins of the audio experience right up to the modern day. That there is some confidence in those brands, that we understand the legacy that they bring, and that Q Acoustics kind of brings that freshness to it as well.

That we can bring those technologies together more, so there's more integration there and the design and feel about them having a relationship closer together as well. So rather than Armor Home as a parent company being a collection of brands, Armor Home is the home of source through to the output.

And that we've got a vibe as well, that we're not passive, forgive the pun, in this industry — that we recognize that it's about the hairs on your arms. It isn't just about the engineering.

It's just about having a shared passion and experience and being visible to everybody in the places that they enjoy being. This idea of ‘we'll come to you, you don't need to come to us because we are the same as you’.

Sony PS-LX3BT: Two-minute review

The Sony PS-LX3BT is one of the first new turntables to leave Sony’s R&D department in years. It comes some time after the launch of the Sony PS-LX310BT, one of what TechRadar rightfully deems to be the best turntables for beginners — and has big shoes to fill, accordingly.

And fill them it sort-of does, at least in the most literal of senses. It shares a lot of physical attributes, aims for the same sleek aesthetic, and seeks to corner the same, well, corner of the market with user-friendly interfaces and a no-nonsense approach to playing records. It’s a shame it doesn’t quite stick the landing.

Price is the major sticking point for me — its launch price far overshot similarly specced, and better-featured, turntables in the same market. This was the backdrop against which certain bugbears became serious missteps — from a stylus that Sony insists you need to replace through them, to a cheap-feeling body that feels like it’s come from a device a third of the price.

These things overshadow the PS-LX3BT’s capable performance with audio, via its decent on-board preamp and its star-of-the-show press-and-play Bluetooth connectivity. It could be good — it is good, by some metrics — but not for where it’s asking to sit.

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Price & release date

• Unveiled February 2, 2026
• Priced $399.99 / £299 / AU$469

The Sony PS-LX3BT is a fully automatic, Bluetooth-enabled plug-and-play turntable, with an eye cocked squarely at the upper limits of the entry level. At its launch price of $399 / £299 / AU$469, it’s not what I would call cheap; in fact, it’s undercut by a fair few near-equivalent competitors — most compelling of which is the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT.

Then, there's this turntable's own sibling (they actually launched together), the Sony PS-LX5BT which is pricier but adds a more delicate stylus pressure of 2.0g ± 0.5g, a thicker and more premium rubber mat, a tweaked circuit design engineered to suppress unwanted vibration, a dedicated gold-plated audio jack out port (something not present here) with a cable in the box, plus a slightly more high-end, all-black finish.

Most other competitors in the market, though, do not have ‘Sony’ tastefully emblazoned on the chassis. Sony is a tried-and-tested household brand for AV tech, be it TVs, games consoles, CD players or integrated hi-fi systems.

Hence, the brand is likely better-trusted by new or returning vinyl enthusiasts to deliver something intuitive, fuss-free and of a minimum quality. Is this trust well-founded? The 2019 Sony PS-LX310BT was a huge success, but it was also a lot cheaper (depending on where you lived), having launched at $199 / £200 / AU$399. So, you can see the issue…

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Specs

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Features

• Fully automatic operation
• AptX Adaptive Bluetooth output
• Built-in phono preamp and gain control

The Sony PS-LX3BT is an automatic turntable; this means it can be operated entirely by the array of buttons and switches adorning its anthracite-hued surface. Simply select the size and speed of your record, then use the buttons at the front to control the placement or removal of the tonearm. The platter’s rotation is triggered by moving the tonearm past a certain point, so even if you want to use the PS-LX3BT manually (by virtue of the silver finger-rest protruding from where the headshell would be) you literally only have to lift a finger to play a record.

Automatic turntable mechanisms are not so new, and this mechanical design doesn’t sound especially new either, with some familiar clunks and whirrs I know from my old Rotel system. What is, at least slightly newer, though, is Bluetooth connectivity, which the PS-LX3BT quite proudly has. More specifically, there’s aptX Adaptive Bluetooth transmission, for low-latency, high-resolution streaming from the turntable to your Bluetooth receiver of choice and accessed via a suavely flush button in the front-left corner of the chassis face.

On top of this Bluetooth connectivity, the LX3BT has connections the old-fashioned way, via a hard-wired stereo RCA cable out from the back. It’s an odd choice to use a permanently attached cable instead of a port – and at that, given the audience for this thing, I’m surprised there isn’t a 3.5mm Aux out either.

Still, that RCA cable feeds a built-in and switchable phono preamp, which means you can plug your turntable in most any amplifier without needing an extra gain stage. On top of that, there’s a gain switch that lets you boost or attenuate your turntable’s output by 4dB. Surprising in a different way; thoughtful, even.

The LX3BT has, like many other entry-level turntables of its ilk, a completely built-in cartridge arrangement with a replaceable stylus element. The stylus part here looks strikingly like one of Audio-Technica’s AT-3600 series, but is “designed specifically for this turntable”, according to Sony’s website FAQ. With a bit of sleuthing, the stylus does appear to be Audio-Technica’s AT3600LAX, a conical stylus with a carbon-fiber cantilever – though Sony’s specs point to a slightly heftier 3.5g tracking force. (Incidentally, my own tracking-force measurements of the tonearm put its exertion at a, for me, troublingly high 3.7g.)

Crucially, this thin layer of proprietariness creates an uneasy route to self-replacement, or indeed upgrade. Sony would prefer you go through its dealers or customer service department for a like-for-like stylus replacement, indicating that “other styluses are not supported”. Built-in cartridges and replaceable styli can be clever entry-level phenomena, and can be executed transparently well, but here, in this manner, it trends a little too close to being anti-consumer for my liking. Minus thoughtfulness points.

• Features score: 3 / 5

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Sound quality

• Warm, clear sound from stylus
• Faultless Bluetooth transmission
• Clean, clear built-in preamp

For all the grumblings I’ve leveled at the Sony PS-LX3BT thus far, I will contend that it actually does sound good. That definitely-not-an-AT-3600L-in-a-moustache cartridge presents a perfectly reasonable quality of sound — great, even, for its place in the market.

True to the marketing copy, the LX3BT sounds warm, the general color of its cartridge being a little on the soft side with some noticeable roll-off towards the upper reaches. Future Islands’ As Long As You Are sounds no less rich for this character, all big, warbly synths and croon-adjacent missives throughout. It's an enjoyable listen.

Testing the 7-inch functionality of the automatic mechanism, I chucked on early-80s groover Emergency (Dial 999) by Loose Ends (a DJ-set staple, and an undeniable bop besides — fight me). It ended up being a great conduit by which to recognize the strengths of the PS-LX3BT’s built-in phono preamp. Often in budget turntables, these can be brittle or a little saturating; this one is clear and full, rendering those snappy standout snares and breakout vocal refrains in gratifying detail.

The whole outfit seems to benefit guitars and vocals over anything, though everything sounds, to some extent, present and fulsome; Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Risky, featuring Iggy Pop, is a sparse arrangement benefited by Iggy’s game attempt at a Let’s Dance-era Bowie impression — his voice is a raspy little joy all the time, but rendered to some good effect here.

Unobtrusively good sound quality notwithstanding, the aptX Adaptive Bluetooth connectivity is arguably the star of the show. It’s fast to connect to, and, with regards to fidelity, sounds indistinguishable from its analog alternative. I had a whale of a time in the kitchen listening to Mitski’s Nothing’s About To Happen To Me, in all its full and heartbreaking glory, fuss-free.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Design

• Cheap-feeling construction
• Easy to set up
• One-touch Bluetooth

Pulling the PS-LX3BT out of the box, I found the chassis to be quite light. Surprisingly light, even. Putting it together, it became clear that almost every element was some form of plastic — besides occasional aspects, and the die-cast aluminum platter. It’s not a reassuring weight, though the turntable is undeniably stable on its feet.

I’m more disappointed by the perceivable cheapness of the construction on display here. A series of design decisions were made that preferred cost to user experience, leading to a pretty nasty-feeling finish on the chassis shell, a flimsy tonearm rest clasp that doesn’t actually clasp, and a spring-assisted tonearm that inspires little confidence.

At least the LX3BT is an easy thing to set up — as easy as seating the platter belt, plugging in a power adapter and delivering the hardwired stereo RCA cable to your amp or speaker of choice. It couldn’t be more plug-and-play, nor more foolproof to use via its clearly labeled buttons and knobs.

Again, the best bit of the Sony PS-LX3BT seems to be its Bluetooth. Where many other devices struggle unduly with one-touch connectivity, connecting this turntable to my portable speaker was the easiest time of my life; a single button press, a modicum of patient waiting with speaker held (camply) in-hand, and it was paired.

This aptX Adaptive connectivity can be utilized simultaneously to the PS-LX3BT’s analog outputs, too. This means dual-zone listening; I got to enjoy hi-res Mitski in the kitchen while my wife bopped along in the living room, too. And, again, it sounded great! A positive side-effect design decision, that pitches the Sony LX3BT well for casual home listening.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Value

• Great-sounding entry-level turntable…
• …that’s fundamentally overpriced
• And doesn’t allow self-replacement of stylus

To be completely frank, I find it difficult to square the price of this against its own quality, let alone the standards set by other turntable brands. It’s the top end of the entry level, and yet it has the same unfriendly design principles as the cheap-and-cheerful, ten-a-penny budget turntables it’s meant to outclass.

The caveat is that it does, ultimately, deliver on its core purposes. It’s an automatic turntable, and it does indeed automate much of the turntable-playing process — for the most part successfully, too. It’s a Bluetooth-enabled turntable, and its Bluetooth just works, which is something you can’t say for some other devices. And through it all, it sounds pretty darn decent.

But these are all things that turntables a third cheaper can offer. You deserve so much more for $400 / £300 than a brand logo; if you let it, that same amount of investment could buy you a solid turntable that delivers better quality sound, and gives you the keys to the kingdom vis-a-vis calibration and repairs too.

Here, it is worth my acknowledging that, in the intervening weeks since the LX3BT’s launch, there seems to have been a post-launch price-adjustment of sorts; many outlets are offering it at $348 / £250, or even slightly less. This makes the turntable a much more palatable prospect investment-wise, but I do think my criticisms stand — and that other turntables have met the moment a little better.

• Value score: 2.5 / 5

Should I buy the Sony PS-LX3BT?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Sony PS-LX3BT review: Also consider

How I tested the Sony PS-LX3BT

• Tested for 4 weeks
• Used as a part of a living-room hi-fi system
• Tested with a Cambridge hi-fi amplifier and Dali Sonik 1 bookshelf speakers

The Sony PS-LX3BT spent a month or so atop my living-room hi-fi stack, as my primary means of listening to records. As such, its output was treated by a Cambridge Audio A2 integrated amplifier, which itself fed a pair of Dali Sonik 1 bookshelf speakers.

Bluetooth connectivity was tested with my trusty kitchen speaker, a Soundcore Motion 300. For testing, I listened to a wide variety of favored records across genres, to get a comprehensive feel for the LX3BT’s performance.

• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: two minute review

Nothing highlights the highs and lows of vinyl like a proper turn table such as the Fluance RT87. Maybe you’ve been using the same Audio Technica LP-60 or even Crossley or Victrola that proliferates the storefront of every record store you’ve ever been to. No shame, I’ve had each at some point.

But there’s something about a fully manual turntable from assembling and calibrating (and testing one’s patience) to cleaning a record every time you put a new one on. Convenient is not necessarily a word that I would use for this process. But it is a bit meditative. More importantly, the audio quality you get a step above with that analog warmth that the best turntables are known for, while not adding unnecessary distortion that may make your vinyl also sound a bit unintentionally lo-fi.

Of course, spending the $799.99 / £666.33 / AU$1,231.70 is not enough for that immersive listening experience. You should probably get a pair of the best stereo speakers you can afford. And if those speakers don’t have a built-in phono preamp, you’ll have to get one of those too. This turntable does not come with one.

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: price and release date

• How much does it cost? $799.99 (around £666 / AU$1,230)
• When is it available? Available now (launched in June 2026)
• Where can you get it? Available now in the US; UK and Australia coming soon

Newest among Fluance’s offerings with a mid-June 2026 release, the Fluance RT87 is available in the US and will (at the time of writing) be available in the UK,and Australia very soon. And whether you get it in Natural Walnut, Piano Black, or Piano White, the price goes for an only-cheap-to-audiophile price of $799.99 (around £666 / AU$1,230). And that price stays the same regardless of cartridge, of which you can choose from the Ortofon 2M Blue or Audio Technica AT-VM95ML.

Just be aware that the Fluance RT87 does not have a built-in phono preamp, so you’ll need to invest in one. Fluance does sell the PA10 Phono Preamp for $99.99 / £82.99 / AU$154 and can be bundled (though without a discount) on its site.

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: features

• Very light on features and extra perks — the connoisseurs' choice
• No phono preamp or 45 RPM adapter
• Does come with a bubble level

If the Fluance RT87 is more for the audio purist and I think that’s who the brand is targeting, then it makes sense that this turntable is pretty light on convenience-focused features. There is no built-in phono preamp — something you can find on much cheaper decks like the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT. And, of course, you won’t find Bluetooth connectivity or any other unique types of connectivity.

I don’t say this as a bad thing, either. After all, the Fluance RT87 is meant for someone ready to enter more serious vinyl listening and all those extra accoutrements take away from what’s important and that’s its performance and everything involved in making sure that it performs properly.

While I’ll cover most of those choices for performance in the next couple sections, it’s worth noting that the Fluance RT87 comes with the option of either the Ortofon 2M Blue or Audio Technica AT-VM95ML cartridge, either of which cost over $150 as just as part ($166.99 and $179.00, respectively). The configuration reviewed here is the Ortofon 2M Blue.

While there are plenty of opinions out there on both cartridges and how they affect the sound and I won’t parse out that whole conversation — people’s opinions of cartridges are as varied as they are on any other piece of audio equipment — other than to say that either cartridge marks an entry point into serious audio quality from more budget cartridges… just like the Fluance RT87 itself.

It’s also worth mentioning that this turntable can play 78, 45, and 33 RPM, via a selector on the lower left corner of the turntable so no need to adjust the belt like some turntables. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a 45 RPM adapter. Additionally, it has an Auto-Stop toggle on the back.

Features score: 3 / 5

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: sound quality

• Has a sweet, slightly warm sound
• Soundstage is immersive
• No discernable inner groove distortion

I learned a lot about my records using the Fluance RT87 as my conduit. I learned that I didn’t like the way Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is mixed. I learned that there’s way too much happening in Kamasi Washington’s Truth. Just to name a few.

You hear something that was there this whole time, but you noticed it on this last listen. And that’s not something that typically happens with entry-level gear. In short, I really enjoyed listening to the Fluance RT87. And while the turn table is a step or two up from entry-level gear (maybe beginner audiophile gear or first serious turntable level), the rest of the chain was more on the budget side — Fluance’s affordable PA10 phono amp and the company’s Ai41 speakers. Solid gear, but not transcendent.

One of the good things about using the Ai41 speakers is its Bluetooth connectivity. I could compare a record to a digital stream of the same music via HiFi through Deezer, which I did in a few cases. Rumours, for instance, got a play through vinyl as well as Kacey Musgrave’s Golden Hour. And the vinyl sounded just a little bit better. Maybe it’s the even-order harmonics. Maybe it’s using physical media over digital zeros and ones. To me, everything through the Fluance RT87 had this little bit of bloom to it. It just sounded a little bit sweeter.

Since I had done my best to properly set up my bookshelf speakers when I did my serious listening, I found the soundstage to be expansive and enveloping during listening sessions. I mentioned Kamasi Washington’s Truth, from his album Harmony of Difference before. When playing that song (really the whole record), not only could I hear his band to the outer reaches of where the speakers were projecting, but I could hear precise placement of various horn parts placed across the sound stage. In the same vein, Radiohead’s Pyramid Song sounded phenomenal on this setup.

As far as frequency response goes, I was pretty pleased. With the obvious caveat that the speakers are going to be the biggest bottleneck in a sound system (a bit of an oversimplification), I found the mid-range to be rich and full. Kacey Musgrave’s voice and guitar on Slow Burn, the opening track from Golden Hour, has weight to it. And the high-end has plenty of detail, while retaining some of the warmth of analog as it’s a tiny bit rolled off in a pleasing kind of way.

Now, the bass response is a bit tighter as opposed to big or woolly. It was still very present. Sure, it has a defined space on an older record like Rumours or Talking Heads’ Remain In The Light, but it’s easily placeable and doesn’t overpower the mix in something like FKA Twigs’ EP1.

Lastly, every record I played had a good amount of headroom so that the music came through clearly and without any real distortion (outside of those even order harmonics). And there wasn’t any discernable inner groove distortion either as the stylus would wind its way to the end of each side.

Sound quality: 5 / 5

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: design

• Heavy-duty plinth and platter
• Belt-driven
• Removable cartridge

If you’re just getting into turntables, you might be wondering what puts the Fluance RT87 in a more expensive price bracket compared to a lot of the popular, feature-filled turntables out there, one of which you might be upgrading from.

Obviously the sound quality is a huge part of that, which we’ve already covered, but that sound quality is affected by the build of the Fluance RT87. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that it’s a classy-looking deck with a high-gloss finish, available in Natural Walnut (reviewed here), Piano White, and Piano Black. It is made from MDF, but that’s actually a positive, as it doesn’t create any resonance.

Getting back to that build, the plinth, aka the body or chassis of the turntable, is heavy — the whole thing weighs 21 lb (9.5 kg) — giving the turntable a durable feel. Also, the acrylic platter is hefty in and of itself at 4.1 lb (1.85 kg). Incidental bumping or closing of the dust cover, which is surprisingly easy to scratch, doesn’t skip or affect the sound. And unless your record is warped, it will rotate without any up or down motion.

This is a belt-driven turntable with an adjustable and rigid carbon fiber tonearm (you even get a little hex wrench to adjust it), complete with removable counterweight and tiny anti-skate weight, and replaceable cartridge. I’ve mentioned earlier the two types of cartridges to select from and the fact that the reviewed model here came with the Ortofon 2M Blue. It’s worth noting that this is a moving magnet cartridge with a nude elliptical stylus.

The feet, of which there are three, are adjustable to help level the Fluance RT87. They are basically large, mostly silicon silicon screws.

Control-wise, there’s just the speed selector on the front, left corner of the plinth and the auto-stop toggle on the back. The ports are about as Spartan — just stereo RCA inputs and a ground outlet.

As far as extras go, the turntable comes with a RCA cable, ground cable, hex wrench for adjusting the tone arm, and bubble level, so you can adjust the turntable’s angle accordingly before you end up butchering any records. Brushes and any extras will require an individual purchase.

Design score: 4.5 / 5

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: ease of use and setup

• Putting it together takes ten minutes
• Not plug-and-play
• Fine tuning takes even longer

This should not be your first turntable. There’s ritual to setting up the Fluance RT87, as there is for a lot of turntables once you graduate beyond the three-to-four hundred dollar range. Because of that, it was equal parts frustrating and engaging. So, yes, there is some assembly required.

When first unboxing, I had to remove everything from its plastic wrapping and then spend probably five minutes just getting everything all together. I had to put the platter on the plinth, put the belt around the platter and then on the motor, put the Ortofon cartridge on one end of the tonearm followed by the counterweight on the other end, then on goes the anti-skate weight, and, lastly, I had to add the hinges to the dust cover and then attach it to the plinth.

But wait, we’re not ready to start playing any records. I had to turn the platter a few times with the belt on so that it’s evenly distributed. Since the platter doesn’t have a ridge or indentation for the belt, it has a habit of slipping off (and still does if I’m a bit clumsy removing a record after play) — something you don’t have to deal with on cheaper decks.

I also had to adjust the feet so that the turntable is completely level, making sure records lie flat during play. This takes a bit of time because you have to reach under and turn each foot clockwise to extend (counter-clockwise to shorten) until the bubble level shows its bubble directly in the center. This took me about ten minutes of adjusting initially, though to be fair, I was using a table that wasn’t very level. After moving the Fluance RT87 from the table I first had it set up on to a different, somewhat treated room where I had to put it on the floor, it required much less adjusting.

Adjusting the tonearm’s counterweight took quite a while as I had to be precise in getting it to balance flat instead of flying up and away from the turntable or digging into my records. While it’s par for the course, this probably also took me about ten minutes of adjusting, though that’s partially because I set it up according to the manual and found the tonearm to still not have enough weight from the counterweight.

Similarly, the anti-skate weight here is a bit finicky as well. It’s just a tiny ball on a thread thin enough to thread a needle with a loop on the other end to attach to the tonearm. The tonearm attachment is basically a lever with four notches on it to account for different anti-skate weight needs (for instance, the anti-skate should loop over a different rung when using the Ortofon cartridge versus the Audio-Technica one). Not only did it take some experimentation to find the right setting, but the loop kept slipping off its rung.

If you’re upgrading to your first big-boy or big-girl turntable and considering this one, just be ready to put in some time getting it right before actually using it. Also be aware that some of the required attention to detail during setup is not unique to this turntable, though anti-skate weights aren’t always a tiny ball on a tiny string.

Usability and setup score: 3.5 / 5

Fluance RT87 Turntable review: value

• Less features and automation than cheaper turntables
• Better sound quality than those cheaper turntables
• Some entry-to-premium decks may sound as good, but aren’t as sturdy

It’s interesting that the cheaper decks are the more convenient. It’s almost as if the more money you spend, the less features. Exhibit A, for instance, might be the FiiO TT13. This turntable costs a little over a quarter of the price of the Fluance RT87 ($249 / £239 / AU$249 if you need specifics), while adding in Bluetooth connectivity, a built-in phono amp, a fully automatic tonearm, and, frankly, due to its plug-n-play design requires none of the setup or fine tuning of the record player reviewed here. But I would hazard that the Fluance RT87 sounds quite a bit better since it has a bit more heft to its sound.

If you’ve been looking at upping your vinyl game, you might have already looked at the popular Rega Planar PL1, which at $595 / £299 / AU$645, is probably a more direct comparison. But, while the Rega also has a pretty spacious sound, it’s a bit more workmanlike in construction. It’s more utilitarian in looks and is much more light weight in construction. The Fluance RT87’s acrylic platter alone weighs about half of the Rega Planar PL1, making the Fluance more likely to absorb shocks and bumps without fuss.

Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Fluance RT87 Turntable?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Fluance RT87 Turntable review:: Also consider

How I tested the Fluance RT87 Turntable

• Used regularly for a few weeks
• Played through Fluance P10 Phono Preamp and Fluance Ai41
• Played at various speeds and different size records

I used the Fluance RT87 for a few weeks, listening to as wide a variety of music from Rock to Jazz to Americana that I could. In so doing, I used the different speeds as well as seeing how it did with different size records. I also used the record player in a couple different rooms and with a couple different speakers, the Fluance Ai41 mentioned above and the Klipsch The Nines II.

I’ve tested a lot of tech gear over the years from laptops to keyboards and speakers, and so have been able to use my expertise towards giving an honest and fair opinion, not to mention a critical eye, to any product I test.

• First reviewed: July 2026
• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

• Marantz unveils replacements for the acclaimed PM6007 and CD6007 amp and CD player
• Amp has HDMI ARC and high-quality Bluetooth streaming, plus phono MM input
• From $750 / £499 / AU$1,000

One of the things I love about quality hi-fi is that it's often made to be a treat for your eyes as well as your ears. The new Marantz Model 70 integrated amp and CD 70 CD player definitely come into that category: I think they look stunning.

I'm probably a little bit biased because my CD player is a Marantz (the CD6007 that this one makes obsolete, no less) and I love it dearly. But both new models promise serious substance to match their style.

The Model 70 and CD 70 are the successors to the acclaimed PM6007 and the aforementioned CD6007, and Marantz promises that both deliver what the brand calls its signature "warm, detailed and deeply musical" sound.

But there are significant upgrades that should make this new generation an even more luxurious listen.

Marantz Model 70 and CD 70: key features and pricing

The Marantz Model 70 is an integrated amp with HDMI ARC and Bluetooth, with the latter offering transmission and reception via aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, AAC and SBC. In addition to the usual audio connections there are preamplifier and subwoofer outputs.

The 50-watt Class A/B amplifier features an upgraded topology with an enhanced power supply and larger toroidal transformer, which Marantz says delivers greater dynamic expression, improved speaker control and increased authority across all kinds of speakers. It includes a high-quality MM phono stage for your turntable and a high-performance ES Sabre DAC for digital audio sources.

The Marantz CD 70 features the same DAC as the Model 70 plus additional proprietary HDAM (High Definition Amplifier Module) circuitry to deliver "detailed, expressive and emotionally engaging reproduction of compact discs, extracting every nuance from treasured music collections," Marantz says. There's a USB-A port on the front for your digital files, and support for hi-res formats including FLAC HD, ALAC, AIFF and DSD.

As with the Model 70 amp, the circuitry has been optimized to reduce noise and preserve detail; there's an upgraded power supply, "strategically deployed" copper hardware and a double-layered chassis base with rigid isolation feet.

As with their predecessors, the Model 70 and CD 70 aren't terrifyingly expensive. The official price of the CD 70 compact disc player is $750 / £499 / AU$1,000, while the Model 70 integrated amp is £749 / AU$1,455 (no US price was given, but based on the UK/AU price differences from the CD 70, we'd assume around $1,100).

Sony's social media team are having a rough week: anything they post is getting piled on by angry gamers who are outraged by Sony's plans to stop the production of game discs.

Many PlayStation owners are vowing to boycott the PlayStation Store, cancel their PlayStation Plus membership and never buy PlayStation products again.

It's a PR nightmare for sure, with pretty much any online PlayStation content becoming a place for gamers to protest, derailing any attempt to talk about anything else.

It reminds me of the response to Sonos' introduction of a new and hugely flawed app, which Sonos now admits was badly done.

Sonos' PR nightmare lasted for around 18 months, there is now optimism and rebuilt trust around the new changes it's bringing to improve the app. Could Sony learn from Sonos' experience and its attempts to rebuild customer trust?

I think the answer is: yes it could, but no it won't.

What Sonos got right and Sony probably won't

Speaking to TechRadar earlier this year, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad set out his views on how to try and make angry customers happy again. "You just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through."

So far, Sony isn't doing that: rather than respond to gamers' concerns, it's battening down the hatches and staying silent about its move to digital-only. And that's a shame, because there are genuine reasons for gamers to worry about Sony's decision.

There are three key concerns about digital-only. The first, and I think the most important, is cost. The PlayStation Store is ludicrously expensive: for example Spider-Man 2, a three-year-old game, is £69.99 digital today in the UK, where I'm based. Competition between retailers means it's around £37 on disc.

The second is second-hand gaming. I buy many games second-hand, and many gamers like to sell their games after they've completed them or got annoyed by them, so that they can spend what they recoup on more new games (a win for the industry overall). So I can buy Returnal for about £20 on eBay. I can't buy the digital edition second-hand, so if I want the digital version it's… you guessed it, £69.99.

To be fair, you can get both games, and others, on PlayStation Plus Extra. But not everyone wants or can sustain yet another subscription, and we know that all subscription services go up in price — often dramatically so, as we saw with Xbox Game Pass last year.

And the third is ownership. Sony's disc announcement came just days after it deleted customers' purchased copies of over 500 movies, making it clear that purchasing doesn't mean owning forever. And those movies cost a lot less than £69.99.

Sony may have to eat humble pie for a while in order to mimic Sonos here, seeking out customer views to talk about those concerns, and maybe thinking about how to address them — so for example it could tell us that digital codes would still be sold through multiple retailers, like Nintendo does with its key cards, or that we'd be able to resell our digital-only games (even if it hasn't developed the mechanism for this yet).

However, the reality is that for a firm the size of Sony, even a significant customer backlash such as 246,586 signatures on a petition represents a microscopic proportion of its 125 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, let alone the many more PlayStation owners — and it can afford to ignore them.

That's something of a gamble. Just ask Microsoft, whose Game Pass price hike scared off far more customers than expected — according to reports, it lost 4 million out of 34 million Game Pass subscribers when it was expecting huge growth instead, forcing a partial reversal.

But Sony's gaming business is far bigger, and that means it can still upset a lot of customers without feeling much pain.

I suspect Sony is going to take a different lesson from the Sonos situation: even at the height of customer anger, Sonos still sold lots of speakers, soundbars and subs.

Then again, maybe Sony is more rattled than it's currently letting on. Two days after the digital-only announcement, with customers raging online, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki sold more than half of his Sony stock and Sony's chief strategy officer unloaded a bunch of Sony shares too.

Marshall Stanmore IV review

If you want to invite a speaker that looks as good as it sounds into your living room, then the new Marshall Stanmore IV could be a great pick for you. It aims to deliver everything its predecessor did, but better, with a broader soundstage, enhanced bass, and superior controls.

And as someone who owns (and loves) the previous model in this line, best believe I was expecting big things from the Stanmore IV. Luckily, it delivered, offering up impressive sound, a solid set of features, and an eye-catching design. But is it worth its relatively premium price tag? Here’s what I think after many hours of testing.

But before we decide whether the Marshall Stanmore IV can sit alongside the very best Bluetooth speakers, let’s take a look under the hood. This thing essentially uses the same setup as its sibling, the Marshall Acton IV, but crucially with a larger woofer. That means you’re getting a single 5-inch sub with 60W of amplification alongside two 0.75-inch tweeters with 25W of amplification. The result? Big, commanding, and engrossing sound.

I started by firing up Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz, and the Stanmore IV handled it masterfully. Wailing electric guitars had excellent tonal accuracy and cut through with clarity; vocals also sounded driven and emotive.

Moving over to a deeper track, like Vision of Love by Lewis Taylor, and the Stanmore IV continued to impress. Deep bass pumping through the track hit with tremendous impact while remaining regimented and clean. But thumping low-end never came at the expense of sounds elsewhere in the frequency range. High-pitched drums sounded expressive and vibrant, while vocals in the mid-range were granted plenty of room to play in. Bass can even reach down to 38Hz, meaning you get brilliant, low extension — even sub-bass comes through with vigor and confidence.

LDAC is also on board now for higher-res Bluetooth listening, which helped to illuminate breathy vocal details in Black Eye by Allie X. And even though I’d argue the speaker has a more energetic sound signature, with a lot of focus on the hard-hitting low end, it still supplies a detailed, nuanced listen.

One of the limitations of the Stanmore IV’s little sibling, the Acton IV was its stereo playback. Although it whipped up a decent impression of stereo sound, its small size made it a little difficult to create the most meaningful sense of separation. But the larger, wider build of the Stanmore IV takes things up a notch, and in Jimi Hendrix's Foxey Lady I picked up on a stronger sense of separation, with lead guitar brilliantly placed on the right.

And, more generally speaking, the Stanmore IV whips up a broad, engrossing soundstage. Marshall has improved the tweeters and waveguides on this model to help disperse sound more evenly and provide room-filling sound. However the extra width has been achieved, it certainly gets the nod from me.

Marshall’s Dynamic Loudness tech also ensured that tracks maintained admirable clarity, even at higher volumes. Of course, you can still expect a bit of compression at 100%, say, but I was impressed with the speaker’s control in the upper echelons of loudness. The Stanmore IV is even better in this regard than the smaller Acton IV — perhaps thanks to its larger woofer and larger cabinet size.

Overall, the Stanmore IV provides powerful, driven, and exciting sound, with commendable depth and expression. It's bullish and confident, but still takes time to smell the flowers — and its wider soundstage and refined bass even helps it surpass its already impressive predecessor.

But now it’s time to move on from sound and look at a few of the features you can enjoy on the Stanmore IV. If you’ve already seen my Marshall Acton IV review, then you’ll get the gist of what’s on board. The Stanmore IV uses the newer Marshall app, enabling you to save three EQ calibrations (using a five-band equalizer), and you can use the M button to cycle between these if you like. The app also opens up placement compensation, enabling you to optimize the speaker’s audio output depending on its positioning, and there’s an option to change the brightness of the LED indicators.

Like the Stanmore III, there’s also RCA and 3.5mm connectivity, allowing you to hook up a turntable, or connect the speaker up to an AUX cable.

Something I wish the Stanmore IV did have is Wi-Fi connectivity. Not only does Wi-Fi provide the highest quality wireless listening experience, but it also prevents pesky sounds from your device — like phone calls and notifications — blasting from the speaker. What’s more, this is a home speaker, so it could easily have a stable connection to your home network at all times.

Marshall has multi-room covered with Auracast tech, which enables a bunch of its speakers to pair together, but I would’ve loved to have seen Wi-Fi onboard for the most seamless, quality-focused listening experience.

Another thing the Stanmore IV leaves out is voice assistant capabilities. Unlike models such as the Sonos Era 100 or Bose Lifestyle Ultra, there’s no smart voice control onboard. Although this is a function that I personally don’t tend to use on speakers, I know that some may wish for it on a model designed primarily for home use.

But something that’s sure to be a hit with most is the Stanmore IV’s design. This thing is an absolute beauty, and although it looks very similar to its predecessor, I’d argue that there’s no need to fix something that’s not broken. The new Stanmore stuns with a gorgeous faux leather exterior, beautiful speaker grille, and luxurious golden detailing. It looks like a true statement piece, and an item that will complement any living space (while still producing excellent audio).

As was the case on the Acton IV, buttons and control knobs are also perfectly responsive and pleasing to use, and there are also onboard EQ controls for altering bass and treble levels if you want to make some changes in a pinch.

So, now we come to the big question. Is the Marshall Stanmore IV worth the money? Well, it’s not the cheapest speaker around, with a price tag of $399.99 / £349.99 / AU$679, making it $100 / £90 / AU$180 more than the Acton IV. On the surface, that may seem like a significant jump for a speaker that’s almost identical — bar a larger cabinet and slightly larger woofer. But these seemingly small changes actually make a significant difference, in my view.

It maintains tighter control at the highest volumes, and also produces the seismic sound that Marshall has become associated with. And that’s not to do the Acton down — it’s just to say that I think you get your money’s worth when stepping up to the Stanmore. I’d also say that the Stanmore competes well against rivals in its price category, with a lower price tag yet more might than a rival like the Denon Home 400. I’d also argue it produces a more striking sound than a model like the Sonos Roam 2 — though you do miss out on Wi-Fi and a few smart features.

Overall, the Marshall Stanmore IV is a great speaker that produces energetic, impactful sound, alongside a stunning look and nifty companion app. Yes, I would’ve loved to have seen Wi-Fi on board, but with LDAC for higher-res Bluetooth streaming added into the mix, I’d still happily recommend this musical maestro from Marshall.

Marshall Stanmore IV review: price & release date

• $399.99 / £349.99 / AU$679
• First released July 2026

The Marshall Stanmore IV was released in July 2026, around four years after its predecessor hit the shelves. This newer model launched alongside the Marshall Acton IV, which is — in essence — a smaller version of the Stanmore. This model comes in at $399.99 / £349.99 (AU$580).

Marshall Stanmore IV review: specs

Should I buy the Marshall Stanmore IV?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Marshall Stanmore IV review: also consider

How I tested the Marshall Stanmore IV

• Spent days testing the speaker
• Used at our dedicated music testing space at Future Labs
• Mainly streamed music over Tidal

I tested the Marshall Stanmore IV over the course of a few days, during which time I listened to hours worth of music and exhausted every feature the speaker had to offer.

Most of the time, I used the Stanmore IV in our dedicated music testing room at Future Labs, where I mainly streamed tunes via Tidal on my Xiaomi 17. To begin with, I sifted through the tracks in our TechRadar reference playlist — which features songs from a wide variety of genres — but I also bumped a bunch of tunes from my personal library.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar. I’ve reviewed everything from premium wireless headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6 through to Dolby Atmos soundbars such as the JBL Bar 1300MK2. I’ve also tested more than 50 Bluetooth speakers, including lots of Marshall models, including the Marshall Middleton II and Acton IV.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

PSB iQ2: Two-minute review

‘Larger’ is not the same as ‘large’, and so while the PSB iQ2 is the larger of the two models in the newly refreshed iQ range, it’s still a very compact little pair of speakers. ‘Compact’ in this instance, though, in no way implies a shortage of features or a restriction on performance

The standard of build and finish is good, the looks clean and understated no matter which of the seven different finishes you choose. The iQ2 has everything you could realistically hope for in a wireless speaker system costing this sort of money. It has — deep breath — wired and wireless connectivity (including a moving magnet phono stage for use with a turntable, and a HDMI eARC socket for connection to a TV), one of the best user interfaces around in the shape of BluOS, a total of 270 watts of power, frequency response that belies the physical size of the speakers, and authentically high-resolution playback. That's a lot.

Though you don’t get everything you could realistically hope for where sound quality is concerned, the PSB nevertheless has plenty to recommend it. Through every input except its phono stage, it’s a lively, engaging and informative listen, can deal confidently with rhythms and tempos, has a fair amount of well-controlled punch, and doesn’t overlook the finer details when it comes to unpicking a recording.

It can sound a little cramped via Bluetooth, sure, and its phono stage is dull when every other input sounds energetic. But as long as you’re not expecting small cabinets with small drivers to deliver hangar-filling sound you'll get from the best stereo speakers on the market there’s plenty to enjoy here.

PSB iQ2 review: Price & release date

• $1,399 / £1,199 / $2,299 (approx.)
• Released in June 2026

The PSB iQ2 active wireless stereo speaker system is on sale now. In the United States it sells for $1,399 — unless you like the walnut veneer finish, in which case it'll set you back $1,499. The equivalent in the United Kingdom is £1,199 / £1,299. The pricing is yet to be confirmed for Australia, but you’re probably looking at AU$2299 / AU$2499 or thereabouts.

There is neither the time nor the space to reel off all the very many excellent products that PSB is going up against at this price.

PSB iQ2 review: Features

• 19mm aluminum dome tweeter, 100mm mid/bass driver
• 24bit/192kHz DAC
• Wireless and wired inputs

It’s compact, yes, but PSB's iQ2 has found enough space to ensure it's equipped to justify the asking price. No aspect of its specification is underpowered.

Getting your audio information on board in the first place can be done in a number of different ways. All physical inputs are on the rear panel of the ‘primary’ speaker. It has sockets for HDMI eARC, digital optical, USB-C, USB-A and a moving magnet phono stage on RCAs for use with a turntable (this input is switchable to line level in the control app). There’s also a pre-out for connecting to a subwoofer.

The wireless stuff is covered off by Bluetooth with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility. The iQ2 is compatible with the BluOS eco-system, which means wireless access to every worthwhile music streaming service, internet radio and any content you may have stored on a device connected to the local network.

Once it’s on board, the digital stuff is handled by a 24bit/192kHz digital-to-analog converter before it’s handed over for amplification — the analog stuff, of course, is passed straight through. There are 270 watts of TI Burr Brown-derived Class D amplification to power the driver array — 45 watts for each 19mm aluminum dome tweeter, and 90 watts for each 100mm mid/bass drivers. The latter, mildly unusually, are positioned above the former. This is an arrangement that, suggests PSB, is good for a frequency response of 64Hz - 20kHz.

• Features score: 5 / 5

PSB iQ2 review: Sound quality

• Lively and informative sound
• Well-organized soundstage but not the largest
• Sounds dull via its phono stage

There are caveats here, and they concern the out-and-out scale of sound the PSB is capable of generating (or not), and the efficacy of its phono stage. But it’s probably best to start with the things the iQ2 gets — there are more than one or two.

With a Tidal-derived stream of Geese’s Getting Killed playing as a 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC file, the iQ2 is an energetic, engaging listen with a stack of pertinent observation to make where tone, timbre and basic detail retrieval are concerned. It maintains a nicely even-handed tonality, neither adding to nor subtracting from the organic heat of the recording. At every turn, it is attentive to even the finer details of texture and harmonic variation.

It sounds very much like it extends further down the frequency range than PSB is claiming, and when it’s down there it punches with well-controlled determination (as well as no little variation) and has no problems expressing rhythms believably as a result.

Frequency response is equally well judged, so when the system modulates from low end to midrange there’s no apparent step change. Then, once it's there, the iQ2 invests voices with plenty of character and emotional attitude, as well as revealing the finer details of technique. Move up again into the highest frequencies and, though the PSB is not the most substantial where treble sounds are concerned, it manages to describe shine and bite without becoming hard or glassy. The DSP-assisted crossover occurs at around the 3Khz mark, but it’s basically imperceptible.

There’s a fair amount of dynamic headroom available, so as well as having the grunt to play good and loud, the iQ2 breathes deeply enough to put worthwhile distance between the quieter moments of a recording and the points of greatest intensity and attack. And it can manage these transitions without audible stress or compression, which is not something you can automatically say about some of its nominal rivals.

The soundstage it creates is well defined and properly organized, so even complex recordings are laid out coherently. It’s not the most expansive soundstage you ever encountered, though. These are small-ish cabinets featuring small-ish drivers, and quite obviously there’s a limit to the scale of sound you’re entitled to expect. Got a great big room you want to fill with sound? You’ll be needing bigger speakers than these.

And it’s definitely worth noting that the above applies to most, but not all, of the iQ2’s inputs. It can, inevitably, sound a little squashed when streaming via Bluetooth — this is hardly unheard of, even in systems costing plenty more than this. Yet the integrated phono stage is an authentic disappointment. It gives away the bulk of the vibrant, energetic attitude the system displays through all of its other inputs and replaces it with an altogether more pedestrian, vanilla alternative. No turntable = no problem, of course, but if you have a record player you’d like to use, try and hear the PSB’s phono stage before you commit to spending any money…

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

PSB iQ2 review: Design

• 246 x 145 x 192mm (HxWxD)
• Choice of seven finishes
• Rear-firing bass reflex port

If a significant part of the appeal of systems like this is their relatively discreet nature, then PSB is onto a winner with the iQ2. Even by prevailing standards it’s notably compact at 246 x 145 x 192mm, and as long as you give each cabinet’s rear-facing bass port a little breathing space then it’s very adaptable and flexible when it comes to positioning.

As is generally the case with PSB, the standard of build and finish that’s on display here is more than acceptable. The cabinet edges are crisp and clean, and the combination of MDF and aluminum used in the construction allows the speaker to be fairly light (7.4kg per pair) but notably robust. The main sleeve is of MDF, the rear panel is of aluminum, and the front baffle (which is separated from the main body by a slim slice of brightwork) is MDF on aluminum.

There are seven available finishes, which means there really ought to be something to suit your interior design choices, but I can’t help thinking I got the short straw with my review sample's ‘sandstone’ beige. It’s a rather insipid and non-committal color. I haven't seen them but I’d suggest that any of the black, white, ‘boreal’ green, ‘granite’ gray, ‘ember’ red or (cost option) walnut veneer alternatives are likely to be preferable.

For me, anyway, the fact the iQ2 is supplied with four little magnetically attached grilles that cover only the drivers rather than the entirety of the front baffle is probably a good thing. Unless you’re actually trying to disguise the colour of the speakers in the first place…

• Design score: 5

PSB iQ2 review: Usability & setup

• BluOS control app
• A few physical controls
• Easy to create a multi-channel or multi-room system

The primary speaker, the one with all the physical and wireless connectivity, also features a few capacitive (and illuminated) touch controls on its top panel. They’re useful if you happen to be passing, but of much more wide-ranging use is the BluOS control app.

BluOS is an increasingly popular control and management interface, one that’s been adopted by quite a number of manufacturers, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a clean, clear and stable interface, logical in navigation and extensive in its functionality.

Everything you need, from initial set-up — telling the primary speaker if it’s the left or right channel, for instance — and EQ control to establishing a multi-channel or multi-room system using any BluOS-compatible product, can be taken care of from here. Integrating your favorite music streaming service(s), accessing internet radio, checking for updates, so on and so forth — they're all here.

A great operating system is not, in and of itself, a reason to buy a wireless speaker system but it certainly makes it easier when you’re making your mind up.

• Usability & setup score: 5 / 5

PSB iQ2 review: Value

• Great specification
• Very acceptable build and finish
• Energetic sound

Just because you don’t get a whole lot in physical terms, doesn’t mean the PSB iQ2 doesn’t represent very decent value for money.

The specification is good, the operating system is better still, the standard of build and finish is very acceptable indeed — and best of all, the sound is energetic and engaging through all but one of the input options.

If you want nicely poised and enjoyable sound from a system that won’t dominate your room, there’s authentic value to be had here.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy PSB iQ2?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

PSB iQ2 review: Also consider

How I tested the PSB iQ2

I put the iQ2 on some Soundstyle speaker stands for the majority of this test — from there they were attached to a turntable and a CD player (via the phono input and the digital optical input respectively), as well as streaming via Bluetooth and from Tidal using the BluOS app.

I also tried them on a shelf for a while, and listened purely wirelessly, but because my shelves are positioned in the traditional way, it was quite difficult to get the rear bass reflex ports far enough away from a rear surface…

• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

Moving home is such a pain, and that's doubly true when half of your possessions are tech gadgets. I just spent weeks moving my belongings between two flats on opposite sides of London, and it would've taken half the time if I didn't have to shift countless large boxes that were 10% gadget and 90% packaging to keep said gadget from breaking.

Eventually I finished moving to The Ladder, as the area is called (not funny, since most tenants still aren't on it), and as soon as I had my foot on the rung, as it were, my turntable and hi-fi kit was the first thing I set up. The deposit had barely gone through before my Sony PS-LX310BT was on the cabinet and some Edifier M90s were either side.

That's right, the very first thing. Before I unpacked my clothes. I still haven't unpacked my books or computer. Getting some tunes going was the most important task.

This wasn't just because I wanted to enjoy some music while I unpacked, though, or because I wanted to claim the good speaker spots in the living room before my flatmate moved his own turntable in (OK actually, that was part of it). No: it's because getting your hi-fi set up in a new flat can save you loads of faff later on down the line.

Pride of place

Speakers aren't something you can just dump anywhere in your living room and get a good experience. A lot of thought needs to go into where they're placed.

Stereo speakers like mine need to be placed so they're spread evenly across a room, to put the listener in the sweet spot betwixt the two, not hidden together in a corner. You want to make sure they're placed on a surface that won't offer unwanted resonance, aren't too close to a wall and are, ideally, at ear level.

If you set up a living room and then bring your hi-fi kit into it, the ideal placement for all of this may already be taken up by other things. Books or DVDs or fancy liqueurs can hog the shelf space on which a speaker would ideally do best.

In my old apartment, the only convenient space for a turntable was on a shelf in the corner of the room. Reaching it to swap a record was a chore, and so I didn't bother using the player as much as I otherwise would.

That's why I thought it important to give my hi-fi set-up priority space in the room. Now, everything else can be place around it.

I'll admit, it wasn't perfect. As you can see in the pictures, I put my speakers on the same cabinet as the turntable. Great for taking pictures, not so great for music, because vibration interference might affect record playback. Unfortunately, it's the only place in the room where I could equally space the speakers, so it's something I'll have to make do with.

A mess of cables

"There's nothing as fun and sexy as cable management" is what I would say if I wanted to say something totally wrong. I hate the whole process of cleaning up wires and cables, and so often ignore it, leaving trails and black snakes and wire rat kings running like veins around my house.

(I know some people find great satisfaction in cable management and maintenance, with some cables ties and so on, and that's fair enough. It's just not my cup of tea. You can try and help me with mine, if you want though).

Unfortunately, this can quickly become a problem with a hi-fi set-up, when players and speakers need cables for power, cables for music, cables for the sake of it sometimes. I've created some pretty hideous messes in the past.

Sometimes, that makes moving house quite a pain, because you're left tangling or untangling countless wires. It's why I thought it important to set up everything quickly when I moved: I could refresh my cable situation, making sure I had all my audio cables in position before any annoying extras needed to be added.

I'm glad I did, because in the week I've moved here, the behind-the-cabinet area has turned into a nest of vipers. If I had to add my turntable now, it'd give me a migraine trying to work out what goes where.

That's especially true of power plugs, which are few and far between in any rental flat. Where I've plugged in the turntable and speakers, I also have to find space for a refrigerator, internet router, separate internet box (yeah, my ISP really likes taking up power points apparently), and various other things.

Since I've yet to buy a splitter, I'm constantly playing musical chairs with the plugs, removing and replacing them to find space for my laptop charger or projector. Thankfully, since the turntable and speakers were there first, they're too embedded to remove.

Where do the records go?

When I first set up my turntable and speaker, I thought those pieces of kit getting central spots would be the end of my space issue. I was wrong. And I'm not just talking about the fact that my flatmate and I have far more UK pint glasses than our kitchen storage can cope with.

Records. I'm talking about records. They're pretty big, aren't they? A lot bigger than my Spotify collection, that's for sure, because that takes up zero space.

Partly, I'm talking about how tall and wide records are. They just don't stack on all shelves, so you need to be smart about where you place them.

But the biggest problem for my flatmate and I soon became just how many records we have between us. We must have far north of 50 collectively, which makes them hard to fit on any kind of shelf.

Unfortunately, I didn't think of this ahead of time, and we only realized the issue when we'd already settled in the living room. Where were our records going to go? We'd already filled the crevices in the cabinet with bowls and plates, and reaching the shelves required a stretch, so that was no cigar.

It took some reorganization to carve out a space for them in one of the cabinet's areas, and that's only a half measure, because I had to sacrifice about three-fifths of my collection to the black void that is my unpacked room. But our favorite records are within reach, at least.

If I'd have thought this far in advance, I'd have saved some more cabinet space for records. But it just goes to prove the point: a hi-fi system takes thought, and if you don't bring it into your home before anything else (yes, including bowls and cutlery and little ramekins of the sort I have far too many of), you end up having to totally reorganize when it's too late.

• People continue to build alternative Sonos apps with features Sonos hasn't offered
• Recent creations include customizable room correction that works with front surrounds
• Most aren't widely available, and are being shown in invite-only betas

In the last few months, Sonos has finally moved on from fixing its app's tech issues to improving it with new navigation and adding some useful new techy features, such as a key new network troubleshooting option.

But many Sonos users are just tired of waiting for long-requested features — such as the ability to add front surround speakers — so they're building their own alternatives instead.

We covered some user-created apps to improve the Sonos ecosystem not too long ago, and the list of available options continues to grow.

More Sonos apps than you can shake a soundbar at

First up there's "the app Sonos should have made" according to its creator: Somos InControl. It's an iOS remote for Sonos home theater products with custom EQ, saveable sound presets, surround height levels and music features too.

The big draws here are that it supports adding front left and right surround speakers, and the ability to save EQ options for different use cases — the example screen shot has slightly tweaked sound for 5.1 surround versus Dolby Atmos versus music listening that you instantly switch between. It's an Apple TestFlight work in progress so availability is limited, but it looks very impressive.

The app Sonos should have made. Try it for free. from r/sonos

Moosic is a self-hosted music server app that offers an alternative to Trueplay's room tuning, with the always-welcome ability to display charts of the room correction, plus more customization options for the tuning.

It also enables you to switch your Sonos configuration — such as switching a pair of Era 300s from working as rear speakers to working as stereo music speakers — but to keep separate room-tuning profiles for each configuration, which again is something Trueplay doesn't offer.

If you're wondering why not just use TruePlay, creator AffectionateFox5907 explains: "Sonos does not provide a way to switch between home theatre and music setup seamlessly. My app does, but as part of that I lose Trueplay. When you unbond and rebond a speaker, each time it will lose its Trueplay configuration. My app basically builds a better Sonos app that adds features I've been wanting for a while without having to have a bunch of different apps. This now works with multiple subs and should work with fronts added as well."

One of the big downsides of using third-party apps that add front surrounds is that it disables Trueplay, so this is a win for people coloring outside the usual Sonos surround lines.

It also looks ideal for anyone who's found using their home theater for music to be a bit of a pain, and there are plenty of people who do: there's a whole Reddit thread asking for a simple switch between movie mode and music mode without having to reconfigure your system every time you do it.

I built my own version of "Trueplay" from r/sonos

Last but not least, MajorAtmosphere has created Kyuu (pronounced "queue"), an iOS Sonos controller that enables you to use UPnP for local files, which the Sonos app doesn't support.

As they explain: "Kyuu runs a lightweight local server that handles speaker discovery via SSDP, polls playback state, and sends commands directly to your speakers. The iOS app talks to that server over your LAN — no cloud, no Sonos account, no external dependencies."

I built a local-first Sonos controller iOS app using the UPnP API — no account required [Beta] from r/sonos

The best Bluetooth speakers get better every year: we get improved batteries to supply even more sonic stamina, wider connectivity, and a dizzying range of designs. The market is so competitive that 'good enough' just isn't good enough to stand out any more, and that means the speakers launched and launching in 2026 are often exceptional.

The first six months of 2026 have been great for audio fans, with a range of very good portable speakers to cover pretty much every niche. There are ridiculously loud party speakers that'll annoy your neighbors, tiny portables that are perfect for podcasts, small speakers that are ideal for when you're showering and go-anywhere, play-anything portables for the great outdoors. And we've tested a ton of them with in-depth reviews.

So I've picked out the five top Bluetooth speakers we've review so far in 2026, now that we're half-way through the year. The products I've picked here aren't the only Bluetooth speakers launched in 2026 by any means — for example, there was IKEA's 10-dollar Kallsup speaker, which is so cheap you can buy stacks of them to make a musical pyramid, which we also tried. I also haven't featured stationary wireless speakers that may include Bluetooth, but tend to be more focused on Wi-Fi — we're all about the portable options here.

I've picked my top five based on our in-depth testing, their price tags and how well I think they'll fit into most people's lives.

5. Tribit Stormbox Micro 3

• List price of $64.99 / £62.99 (about AU$130)
• Released in April 2026
• Rating: 4.5 / 5

The budget Bluetooth sector is absolutely jam-packed with affordable options, but it's hard to beat the Tribit Stormbox Micro 3: it's super-cheap even at full price, and it's frequently discounted from the launch price of $64.99 / £62.99 (about AU$130).

With 24 hours of battery life, a solid build and IP68 dust and water resistance it's a great go-anywhere speaker, and while its single 48mm driver is small, it's surprisingly punchy, with impressive bass for such a compact design. We really like the sound the Micro 3 delivers: it's a good all-rounder for music, podcasts and audiobooks.

Read our Tribit Stormbox Micro 3 review

4. Marshall Bromley 450

• List price of $799.99 / £549.99 / AU$1,079
• Available from March 31, 2026
• Rating: 4 / 5

The Marshall Bromley 450 is the marginally more sensible member of the Bromley party speaker range: it's considerably cheaper than its very expensive sibling, but still puts out a whopping 400W of Class D amplification — and it can keep playing for over 40 hours, albeit not at full volume. With a list price of $799.99 / £549.00 / AU$1,079 it's still quite expensive, but you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.

In our Marshall Bromley 450 review, we praised its 360-degree audio and noted that you can pair it with a second Bromley over Auracast if 400W isn't shaking the building enough. And as someone who's carried many a Marshall amp up and down venue stairs, I love that it echoes the design of classic Marshall amps and cabinets. Like most of my favorite rock bands it's a little bit ridiculous and enormously entertaining.

Read our Marshall Bromley 450 review

3. JBL Go 5

• List price of $54.95 / £39.99 (about AU$75)
• Released in April 2026
• Rating: 5 / 5

JBL is one of the best-known brands in the Bluetooth speaker space, and it consistently delivers very impressive products with equally impressive prices. Last year's JBL Flip 7 and JBL Charge 6 are firm favorites of ours, and this year JBL has updated its cute JBL Go ultraportable.

We gave this new model the full five stars in our JBL Go 5 review, calling it "the best tiny Bluetooth speaker" — while 4.8W output means it's hardly a party speaker, it delivers impressive sound from its tiny case along with attractive edge lighting and a durable, waterproof design. It's one of the best-sounding small speakers we've ever tested.

Read our JBL Go 5 review

2. Sonos Play

• List price of $299 / £299 / AU$499
• Released on March 31st, 2026
• Rating: 4.5 / 5

So far we've been focused on Bluetooth-only speakers, but now let's turn to a portable option that can also be used in multi-room setups over Wi-Fi. Sonos is the big brand in that space, and the Sonos Play is a superb new addition to the Sonos range whether you want it to fly solo, take it on your travels, or use it as part of a wider Sonos setup.

It's a little more expensive than rivals, but the Sonos Play delivers powerful and well-rounded audio, has superb streaming support and connectivity including Hi-Res Audio over Wi-Fi, and its USB-C port can be used as an audio input: you can get an adapter that enables you to connect a turntable or other wired audio source.

It delivers up to 24 hours of battery life and sits on a good-looking charging cradle when you don't need to take it places, which means you can grab and go in an instant without unplugging.

Read our Sonos Play review

1. JBL Xtreme 5

• List price of $399.95 / £329.99 (about AU$560)
• Launched in April 2026
• Rating: 5 / 5

This beast makes the JBL Go 5 look like it was made for a Lego character. The rugged, chunky and very loud JBL Xtreme 5 is a bit of a beast, delivering mesmerizing bass from its rather hefty frame. It's marginally bigger than its predecessor, but the sound is bigger too.

As we said in our review, "this is how you do an upgrade. This model has more power, more striking sound, lighting for added beauty points, and an even more durable build than last time out." It's also solidly built, reminiscent of the old Nokia phones where if you dropped them, you were more likely to break the ground than your phone.

Dustproof, waterproof and with a long-lasting battery keeping the party going for up to 28 hours, the JBL Xtreme 5 is exceptional — but if it's just a little too heavyweight for you, the 2025 JBL Charge 6 is very good too.

Read our JBL Extreme 5 review

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker: Two-minute review

It may not always be among the first brands to get a particular type of product to market, but you can usually rely on Bose to have done a proper job by the time it gets around to it. And on paper, that seems to be exactly what’s happened with this new Lifestyle Ultra Speaker — it’s priced and specified to meet the market-leaders head on, and has one or two points of difference to try and make its case even stronger.

The looks, for instance, are just distinct enough from the usual ‘cylinder of sound’ design to stand out in a showroom. The specification, which includes a 38mm mid/high driver angled to fire upwards through the top of the cabinet, promises authentic spatial audio performance where many a rival relies on digital sound processing in an effort to achieve the effect. And the appearance of Alexa+ as a voice assistant marks the first time a non-Amazon product is using the technology.

One of the best wireless speakers around? Yes, in a word. In practice, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has an awful lot to recommend it and immediately becomes a real contender. There's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, with Apple Airplay and Google Cast baked in too. It’s also a punchy, detailed and respectably dynamic listen, can play very loudly indeed if you so desire, and has a definite and well-defined sensation of height to its sound. You’ll need to be into the EQ settings to get treble response balanced out and calmed down, but overall this is an upfront, energetic but not remotely unsubtle performer that deserves a place on even very short shortlists.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Price and release date

• Launched May 15, 2026
• $299 / £299 / AU$499 in black or white (the 'sand' finish is pricier)

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it costs £299. Or, at least, it does in either of the black or ‘white smoke’ finishes. If you fancy the Bang & Olufsen-tastic ‘sand’ finish with its natural oak base, you’re looking at £349.

In America it sells for $299 / $349, while in Australia (where the ‘sand’ finish does not seem to be available), the going rate is AU$499.

At this price, the Lifestyle Ultra Speakers' chief rival in the Bluetooth arena is probably the slightly more expensive (at its regular price, anyway) JBL Xtreme 5. And that's a five-star speaker, so competition is tough. That said, the Bose you're reading about offers streaming over your home's Wi-Fi network too, so in that category, your easy comparison is the Sonos Play.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Specs

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Features

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity
• Three-driver speaker array includes 38mm up-firing mid/high drive unit- 3.5mm analog input

In most respects, the feature-set of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is somewhere between ‘very good’ and ‘very good indeed’ — the features we know about fall into one of those categories, anyway. This is Bose we’re dealing with, of course, which means there are no details whatsoever regarding some aspects of specification forthcoming.

I’m going to go ahead and guess the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker uses Class D amplification, and that there’s an adequate amount of power on board (the ‘sound quality’ section will let you know how I’ve come to this particular conclusion).

What I know for sure is that there’s a three-driver array on board that’s in receipt of this mysterious amplification — a forward-facing 76mm mid/bass driver below a 25mm tweeter, with a 38mm mid/high driver angled up and out through the top of the cabinet.

As for what these drivers are made from, or the frequency response they’re capable of generating, well, your guess is as good as mine. Whatever the frequency response is, though, it’s bolstered by a rear-facing ‘QuietPort’ bass reflex port at the rear of the cabinet.

The port is towards the bottom of the back of the cabinet, just above a 3.5mm line-level analog input that constitutes the Bose’s only physical connectivity.

Wireless stuff is handled by dual-band wi-fi and Bluetooth — the latter is version 5.3 but is only compatible with the bog-standard SBC and AAC codecs, which is a shame when you consider the number of alternatives that are capable of local streaming to a higher standard. Still, Wi-Fi means Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast and Spotify Connect are all available, with TIDAL Connect promised sooner rather than later.

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Design

• 184 x 121 x 167mm (HxWxD)
• Choice of three finishes
• Fixed grille

You make your own mind up when it comes to looks, of course, but for my money the shape of the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker makes a very pleasant change from all those cylindrical speakers that make up the bulk of the competition the Bose faces. The soft, rounded shape is miles ahead of the rather boxy stuff Bose has been turning out before now.

At 184 x 121 x 167mm (HxWxD) the proportions are pleasing, and the speaker is just about compact enough to work happily on a shelf (as long as there’s space above it for the up-firing driver to do its thing, of course). The standard of build and finish is basically impeccable, and there’s even a suggestion of tactility to the plastics Bose has used here. No matter which of the three available finishes you choose (the black of my sample, the ‘white smoke’ alternative that has more than a hint of grey about it, or the cost-option ‘sand’ alternative), the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker looks and feels the part.

The looks are nicely enhanced by the wraparound grille that covers a good portion of the front of the speaker. The fact that it’s notably proud of the main body makes it look very much like it can be detached — but it can’t, so don’t even try. No good can come of it.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Sound quality

• Spacious and punchy presentation
• Pronounced ‘height’ element to sound
• A little more width and a little less high-end vigour wouldn’t go amiss

First things first: the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker makes good use of its up-firing driver — dial in some ‘height’ in the control app, queue up a FLAC file of Idles’ Never Fight a Man with a Perm, let the ‘TrueSpatial’ processing do its thing, and you get a presentation that’s considerably taller than the cabinet from which it’s coming.

There’s nice even frequency response on display, too — the Bose digs respectably deep, hitting good and hard and the bottom of the frequency range, and the transitions to the midrange and into the highest frequencies is pretty smooth. While it goes out of way to ensure no part of the frequency range is over- or under-represented, the speaker does project the midrange just a little. The ‘V’ shape that results is more of a bump than a spike, though. Control of the bottom end is pretty tight, so the speaker has no real issues in expressing rhythms confidently. Detail levels are high at every stage. The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is quite an insightful listen, and pays good attention to the more minor details in a recording — the fact that it presents quite a spacious and well-defined soundstage helps to make this obvious.

There’s a good sensation space to the overall sound, and certainly more than enough room for every participant in a recording to get the space in which to operate — but the left/right width of the presentation is quite curtailed in comparison to the height element. The result is a slightly narrow, notably tall sound that’s slightly counter-intuitive right until the moment you get used to it.

The tonal balance is, for the most part, pretty consistent; the Bose is a fairly neutral device in this respect. There’s a slight lack of substance to treble sounds compared to the rest of the frequency range, a tiny hint of toothiness that’s rather at odds with the robust way the rest of the range is presented. It’s nothing a moment or two examining your EQ options can’t mitigate, though.

Add in a reasonable facility with dynamics — the broad stuff about volume and intensity, and the more subtle dynamics of harmonic variation too — and the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker makes a pretty convincing case for itself. Unless, of course, you’re listening to content that simply doesn’t enjoy being forced into a spatial audio presentation. You can minimise the effect of the height channel in the app, but you can’t defeat the ‘TrueSpatial’ processing — and uncooperative recordings can sound just a touch vague where more compliant stuff is quite sharply focused.

• Sound quality: 4.5 / 5

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: setup & usability

• Alexa+ voice control
• Physical and app control too
• No auto-calibration feature

As far as ‘setup’ is concerned, the Bose is either mercifully straightforward or rather underpowered — it depends on your point of view. In order to get up and running, it’s simply a question of finding a suitable position for the speaker (Bose will sell you a wall-mount of a dedicated stand, and there’s a thread in the base of the cabinet for use with third-party supports) and plugging it in. Then it’s simply a question of logging into wi-fi and to Amazon in order to activate the voice assistant. There’s no automatic room calibration routine available here (which is distinct from the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar that launched at the same time), so any tweaks to the performance of the speaker will have to be made in the Bose control app.

The app itself is clean and logical, and as well as some EQ adjustment (plus a slider to increase or decrease the sensation of sonic height) it’s where you can create a stereo pair with a second Lifestyle Ultra Speaker or incorporate your speaker into a home theatre system. Use the Google Home app, meanwhile, and a multiroom system using any and all compatible speakers can very easily be set up.There are some physical controls on the top of the speaker, too.

Capacitive buttons take care of play/pause, volume up/down, Bluetooth pairing, input selection, and waking this voice assistant — there’s a button to defeat the mic too, in case you don’t want Alexa+ to listen out for you.

This is the first non-Amazon product to take advantage of Alexa+ voice control and, while Amazon has kept some smart features for itself, this version works very well indeed. It’s alert to voice prompts, and is rapid in its responses to any questions or instructions you might have.

• Setup & usability: 4.5 / 5

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Value

Obviously there’s no shortage of wireless speakers at this sort of money, and some of them are very good indeed. Spending your money with Bose rather than with, say, brands as credible as Apple, Denon, Sonos or WiiM (to name just a few) does have upsides, though.

Obviously there’s the standard of build and finish, the very pleasant aesthetic and the many positives about the way the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker sounds. But there’s also the open and agnostic nature of its multiroom capability, as well as the welcome and well-implemented appearance of Alexa+ as a voice assistant to be factored in too. So while this is not your only choice, the value for money it offers means it should really be on your shortlist.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review: Also consider

How I tested the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker

I used the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker on a kitchen worktop, a bookshelf, and a dedicated speaker stand. I used an iPhone 15 Pro to stream to it using Bluetooth (given the lack of worthwhile codec compatibility, there didn’t seem much point in getting anything better specified charged up), and I also used the iOS device to listen to Apple Music via AirPlay 2.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed: July 2026

• Audio Pro has just unveiled the A15 W (yes, late on a Friday afternoon)
• The Danish brand's progeny offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and portability
• Available now, priced at $400 / £299 / around AU$579

If the 2022 Audio Pro A15 was a natural Sonos Move rival, the newly launched 2026 Audio Pro A15 W might happily butt heads with the Sonos Move 2.

It could also compete with a new series of Bluetooth-only 'HYG' speakers from Jamo, the Denon Home 400 (which it resembles rather strongly), something from WiiM's expanding arsenal of products or the new Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker — top tip on that one: a review will be going live over the weekend and it's worth a read...

Back to the A15 W, though, and what you've got here is a portable wireless speaker that boasts room-filling sound, flexible streaming options and battery-powered portability that's built for both indoor and outdoor listening.

And that's where it has the edge over some (if not all of the competition), because your average Wi-Fi enabled speaker usually needs to remain hooked up to a power socket within your home.

Not so here — in fact, alongside Bluetooth capability and an 11-hour battery life, you also get a 'water resistant' IPX2 rating, so it'll survive a European shower (if not the deluges we've been seeing during World Cup matches in the US this week).

Audio Pro tells me it can also be used as a multi-room system with other A15 W speakers (or in fact any W series speaker from the Audio Pro range) but because it also supports both Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast, it should be easy to welcome it into existing Apple or Android-based multi-room systems.

The (Audio) Pro mindset

I've long been a fan of Audio Pro speakers, starting with the Bluetooth only T3+ I listen to every day, but having tested the five-star, Wi-Fi enabled Audio Pro C20, I know very well about the decidedly 'Hygge' adjacent firm's admirable way with HDMI ARC-toting, sub-out sporting, RCA hook-up-able AirPlay and Google Cast speakers.

Interestingly, the grille looks fixed on this model, and I've always been a fan of removing the grilles on my Audio Pro speakers to see the relaxed, rock-chic driver configurations underneath.

The A15 W features a two-way speaker system with a dedicated tweeter alongside a 4.5-inch woofer. You can stream music via Bluetooth too, with better-quality aptX support, and if using Wi-Fi you'll be aided by the latest Audio Pro app, to access compatible music streaming services directly. I've used it before, and I like it a lot.

For instant access to playlists and internet radio stations, six preset buttons across the top plate are there to offer one-touch playback without working out where you've left your phone. A 3.5mm aux input also enables connection to portable music players and compatible turntables or CD players. So, no HDMI ARC, sub-out or RCA this time (its newest rival, the Denon 400 also lacks these things), but there's the same contemporary fabric finish and contrasting aluminium control buttons as I've come to expect from the brand.

The Audio Pro A15 W is available in Dark Grey and Light Grey finishes, and it'll set you back $400 / £299 (which is around AU$579), whichever color you go for.

How good does it sound? I can't vouch for that yet. But I'll be working on it…

We're halfway through 2026, which means a lot of products have passed through TechRadar's testing rooms — in total, we've reviewed a colossal 639 products in January to June 2026.

That includes a load of fantastic audio tech — including new options good enough to challenge the best wireless speakers, the best turntables, the best DACs to get more from streaming music on your PC or phone, and the best stereo speakers.

Our expert reviewers have tested a lot of stuff, and some products have proven to be the cream that rises to the top. Here are the products in these areas that scored either 5 stars or 4.5 stars in our reviews, making them best-in-class or highly recommended.

Wireless & stereo speakers

Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i

• Score: 5 / 5
• Price: $499 / £249 / AU$699 (pair)

What is it? The latest bookshelf stereo speakers in Wharfedale's famous 'Diamond' line, which is over 40 years old and clearly still going strong. They're two-way speakers with a 25mm tweeter, a 130mm mid/bass driver, and deliverying a frequency range of 65Hz - 20kHz. And they're easy to drive, and flexible on positioning — a great beginner hi-fi model.

What we said: "The Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i speakers turn out to be (yet another) high-achieving-yet-affordable loudspeaker option. They sound excellent, they're very unfussy about what drives them, they look and feel good, and they're extremely well priced. They're a little large for a pair of ostensibly 'bookshelf' speakers, so be warned if you're actually looking to put them on shelves, but that's easily forgiven."

Read our full Wharfedale Diamond 12.1i review

Cambridge L/R S

What is it? Small and stylish active stereo speakers with wireless connectivity as well as wired digital and analogue connections. There's 100 watts of Class D amplification powering a 21mm tweeter and 76mm mid/bass driver combo, and the connection stretch to USB-C, line-level stereo RCA, digital optical input, a pre-out for a subwoofer, and Bluetooth (with aptX HD codec compatibility).

What we said: "The Cambridge L/R S is a good-looking, well-built wireless active stereo speaker system that has the bold sound smarts to back up the fine, multi-option visuals. Sure, it's a little too confident at the bottom of the frequency range, with too much weight given to bass information, but for the money it's a genuine contender in an already-stacked market. Requires serious consideration."

Read our full Cambridge L/R S review

Sonos Play

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $299 / £299 / AU$499

What is it? Sonos' mid-size portable speaker, with enough power and quality to work as a home speaker, but a battery and charging cradle so you can take it away instantly. With audio input as an option over its USB-C port (via an adapter) it's incredible versatile — it's also tough and waterproof.

What we said: "The Sonos Play is a triumph of usability. It has just the right design and convenience considerations to make you pick it up and use it more often than other speakers, even great portable ones. To paraphrase a notable camera quote: the best speaker is the one you choose to listen on. The Sonos Play encourages me to listen more, in more places. It doesn't hurt that it sounds better than most portable speakers, too, and can hold its own as a home speaker."

Read our full Sonos Play review

Fluance Ri91

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $799 (about £640 / AU$1,270)

What is it? Big floorstanding active speakers with the power of a full hi-fi system, but no need for a separate amp or inputs. There's 150 watts of power behind two 6.5-inch mid/bass drivers and an AMT tweeter per speaker, and connections include HDMI, two RCA inputs, a subwoofer out, and Bluetooth (including aptX HD).

What we said: "The Fluance Ri91 sound great when turned up, though they can be a bit mid-focused, especially for those looking for neutral-sounding speakers. The included HDMI ARC input (quality control issues notwithstanding) are appreciated, as is the ability to stream higher-res audio over Bluetooth aptX."

Read our full Fluance Ri91 review

Denon Home 400

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $599 / £449 (around AU$999)

What is it? A relatively hefty and powerful wireless speaker (think of it as a fair bit bigger than a toaster), that uses six-drivers to deliver expansive Dolby Atmos spatial sound. There are left and right drivers, upfiring drive units, and two 4.5-inch woofers, all with their own Class D amplification. It uses the Denon HEOS wireless system and app, which is powerful and well-specced too.

What we said: "It's a home speaker that delivers where it counts, and is probably the most compelling single-unit spatial audio offering at this price, where it goes head-to-head with some serious competition. It offers confident, engaging and immersive spatial audio performance, a thoughtful and stylish design, and a great range of connectivity options, along with an excellent HEOS app. It sounds wonderful in its default Auto mode or the slightly more balanced Pure mode, but it really rewards those of us who tinker a bit, especially if you mess around with some of the customization options for the width and height of spatial sound."

Read our full Denon Home 400 review

Klipsch The Nines II

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $2,399 / £2,249 / AU$4,999

What is it? A pair of active standmount stereo speakers (their size and weight maybe pushes them beyond being 'bookshelf' speakers, really) that deliver tons of power connectivity with any extra components needed. They can be a soundbar replacement with HDMI and Dolby Atmos/DTS:X support, plus they have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for music, as well as optical, phono, USB, coaxial, and ethernet.

What we said: "The Klipsch The Nines II are an easy recommendation despite the weight and despite the price bump over the previous version. It's thanks to the immersive, robust sound and large set of features, not to mention broad connectivity — they're an excellent all-in-one hi-fi upgrade."

Read our full Klipsch The Nines II review

Sonos Era 100 SL

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $189 / £169 / AU$289

What is it? A cheaper version of Sonos' entry-level home speaker, delivering all the same connectivity as the regular Era 100 (including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, plus line-in over its USB-C port using an adapter) and the same sound quality, but for cheaper. You lose voice control and Quick Trueplay on Android as a result, but it's hard to argue with the price.

What we said: "What Sonos has achieved with the Era 100 SL is impressive. It has managed to pack in the same quality sound, great connectivity and iconic design, while dropping the price to a more affordable level. But there are absolutely some compromises — voice control is absent here, while Android users will miss out Sonos' room correction. Despite this though, it's one of the strongest performers in its price range, making it an easy choice if you never invested in the original Era 100."

Read our full Sonos Era 100 SL review

Turntables

Sony PS-LX5BT 

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $499 / £399 / AU$599

What is it? Sony's successor to its previous and wildly popular affordable Bluetooth turntable, bringing fully automatic operation and Bluetooth connectivity in a sleek design. The ultimate beginner turntable? Well, there's a cheaper version that might be more tempting, but for the price, it's hard to argue with.

What we said: "The Sony PS-LX5BT picks up where the PS-LX310BT it replaces left off — as one of the best pound-for-pound Bluetooth turntables around. If you want the most painless vinyl experience possible, you’ve come to the right place."

Read our full Sony PS-LX5BT review

Goldring GR3

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $1,299 / £699 (around AU$1,599)

What is it? Goldring is one of the oldest hi-fi companies in the world, and hasn't made a turntable in several decades — and now it's back with a very well-specified and great-looking new model. A built-in phono stage and high-quality provided cartridge make it great for relative novices, though it's odd that you can't bypass that phono.

What we said: "Goldring has managed to enter a tricky area of the turntable market with a player that is distinct enough (where finish, specification and sound quality are concerned) to stand out and make quite a compelling case for itself."

Read our full Goldring GR3 review

Headphone DACs

Fiio KA15

• Score: 5 / 5
• Price: $99.99 / £99.99 / AU$189.99

What is it? This tiny DAC blends the retro with the modern. It does a better job of converting hi-res audio to analog than your device's built-in DAC will, and has a fun little cassette animation while it plays.

What we said: "If you have big audio ambitions and a very small budget, the KA15 is excellent value for money. It's a significant upgrade in sound quality for smartphones and computers, and while it's not as powerful as a desktop headphone amp it has more than enough oomph for a wide range of headphones and IEMs so it's fairly future-proof."

Read our full Fiio KA15 review

Eversolo DAC-Z10

• Score: 5 / 5
• Price: $1,980 / £1,939 / AU$3,339

What is it? A super-versatile addition to a hi-fi setup, providing a high-end DAC system, a pre-amp, and a powerful headphone amp all in one unit. It's pricey, but it's incredibly well-specified, making it kind of a bargain — at least as far as premium hi-fi goes.

What we said: "The Eversolo DAC-Z10 won’t fail to satisfy, provided your partnering equipment is up to scratch. It’s a premium DAC for a premium system, and offers all the bells and whistles you could hope for as a result, as well as immaculate sound quality that specializes in finding every possible grain of detail in your music. It's simply as capable a DAC/preamp/headphone amp as this sort of money can buy."

Read our full Eversolo DAC-Z10 review

iFi GO Link 2

• Score: 4.5 / 5
• Price: $59 / £59 (around AU$111)

What is it? A no-fuss, super-small headphone DAC to make it easy to use wired headphones and earbuds with your phone or laptop, and with an audio upgrade along the way. Oh, and it's super-cheap as a bonus.

What we said: "The iFi Go Link 2 takes everything that's great about the original and packs it into a dinky DAC that's even smaller and lighter than before. It's a fantastic audio upgrade and it's priced very keenly, too."

Read our full iFi Go Link 2 review