It looks like Sonos is making a pair of headphones. This would be quite a departure for the brand, which has built a reputation as the king of multi-room audio. But if the Sonos track record is anything to go by, then we’re certainly interested to see the company try its hand at something new.
And the Sonos headphones could be here very soon indeed. In a recent earnings call with investors, Sonos’ CEO Patrick Spence said the firm would launch a new product in March 2021. While he didn’t give any details, speculation is rife he was talking about Sonos’ first wireless headphones.
So what kind of Sonos headphones can we expect? Will they be on-ear, over-ear or in-ear? Wireless? And what kinds of features and specs can we look forward to?
We’ve rounded up all the latest Sonos leaks and rumours, and sprinkled a bit of industry knowledge of our own into the mix, to bring you the best possible idea ahead of a launch. And if we’re in the right ballpark, it looks like we’re in for a treat…
Sonos headphones: release date
The Sonos headphones could be here very soon indeed. In his recent call with investors, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence promised “to deliver innovative new products”, and said a new device would launch in March.
That could be the second Bluetooth speaker that was spotted recently. Or it could be Sonos’ first pair of headphones. Spence did confirm for sure that “in the next year” there would be a product in a new category for Sonos. So this makes us very confident that the headphones are coming in 2021. Whether it’s March or later in the year, we’ll find out soon enough.
Sonos headphones: price
For consumer audio, Sonos speakers tend to have a small premium over competitor products – wireless speakers and also soundbars. So with its first headphones, we would expect to see something on the more premium side, with potentially a more affordable product further down the road. That’s certainly the way Sonos approached the speaker and soundbar categories.
While any Sonos headphones perhaps won’t trouble the Apple AirPods Max astonishingly high price of £549 ($549, AU$899), we can expect them to be similar to well-respected and well-established rivals like Sony and Bose.
Sony’s superb WH-1000XM4 (which have been some of our favourite over-ear headphones since they launched) retail for £350 ($350, AU$550), while Bose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 go for £350 ($399, AU550).
It’s a tricky line for Sonos to walk. Price them too low, and consumers won’t expect great sound quality. Too high, and they will turn off some potential buyers. Sonos has a large and dedicated following, but it’s not quite at Apple levels of slavish dedication. Hence an asking price of over £400 ($550, AU$700) is probably off the cards.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the headphones will cost about £220 ($300, AU$400). That would undercut Sony’s range toppers by quite a way.
Sonos headphones: design
(Image credit: Sonos (via USPTO))
Headphones come in all shapes and sizes: in-ear, on-ear, over-ear, wireless, wireless earbuds, sporty models, and so on. It seems like Sonos is going for an over-ear wireless model, as detailed by a patent that emerged in September last year.
The patent shows two designs, both of which take an over-ear, wireless form. They both have oval earcups that are angled slightly so that the lower part sits a little further forward on the wearer.
They look like a pretty standard pair of over-ear cans, but the devil is in the detail. Apple’s AirPods Max raised the bar somewhat in the design stakes lately – not only do they feature premium materials and an “obsessive craftsmanship”, they also let you swap the earcups for replacements. Handy if yours wear out, or you just want to sport a different colour for a change.
Replaceable parts are of course more sustainable and something we’re also seeing in wireless speakers such as the B&O Beosound Level, and indeed the Sonos Move (Sonos now sells a replacement battery kit for the Move).
Given that Sonos recently pledged to deliver “innovative new products”, and that it has already adopted a culture of replaceable parts in its other products, there’s a high likelihood that its first headphones will look to play on this.
Sonos headphones: features
(Image credit: Dixons)
The aforementioned patent also points to some pretty cool new features. Chief among them? Swap, which lets the cans work seamlessly with your home Sonos speakers like the Play:5.
The idea is simple. You come home listening to your headphones, and can ‘swap’ the music to your home system, so the same song switches to play from your Sonos multi-room speakers. It should happen seamlessly, so the song doesn’t miss a beat.
As the patent puts it: “For example, if a particular piece of content is currently playing on the wireless headphones, a swap changes the playback to play that piece of content on one or more other playback devices on the local network.”
The “one or more” is crucial here. It means that what’s playing on your headphones could ‘swap’ to blast from every speaker in your house, as long as they’re all on the same network (and presumably are all Sonos speakers).
It’s not something we’ve seen in headphones before, though we have seen something similar in other devices – for example, apps that let you start watching on your phone and pick up where you left off on your TV when you come home. Some headphones can also detect when you take them off and pause what’s playing. Sonos’ feature would seem like a natural evolution of these two functions.
Other than that, the patent shows all the usual bells and whistles: voice assistant control (as seen on the firm’s multi-room speakers and soundbars, like the Beam), volume slider, playback controls and a mic for handsfree calls. In fact, according to a Bloombergreport, which predates the patent’s emergence, the headphones will work with multiple virtual assistants, much like the Sonos Arc and Sonos One speakers.
We would also expect active noise cancelling (ANC), though how many levels and whether – and how much – control the wearer has over it remains to be seen. One of the patent designs mentions a rotating knob, which would give the wearer control over the ANC. The Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 (pictured, above) give you 10 levels of ANC to choose from – Sonos doesn’t have to match that necessarily, but some control would be nice.
Lastly, battery life. The AirPods Max manage 20 hours between charges, while the Sony WH-1000XM4 manage 30. We would expect Sonos to deliver somewhere between these two figures, though a lot depends on what kind of feature set it offers. No noise cancellation? Then there’s no excuse for not giving us more than 30 hours playback on a single charge, thank you very much.
Sonos headphones: initial verdict
Launching a premium pair of noise-cancelling wireless headphones is no mean feat – competition is fierce at that end of the market, with Sony, Sennheiser, B&W and Bose all vying for supremacy. It’s only been made harder by the recent entry of industry titan Apple into the space.
In its 20-odd years in the business, Sonos has built a solid reputation as an audio pioneer, so a move into headphones could be a very smart one indeed. If it can marry a desirable design, great sound and a killer feature set complete with an industry-first feature, it could be a real game-changer.
MORE:
Don’t Move, improve: Sonos launches replacement battery kit for its Move wireless speaker
Get the full skinny: Which Sonos speaker should you buy?
Sonos: everything you need to know about the multi-room king
On Thursday, Facebook released a new moderation transparency report showing a marked uptick in bullying and harassment enforcement, which reached a peak of 6.3 million total takedowns through the last quarter of 2020. It’s an increase from 3.5 million pieces last quarter and 2.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The company said much of the change is due to improvements in the automated systems that analyze Facebook and Instagram comments.
Facebook’s latest transparency report covers October to December 2020, a period that includes the US presidential election. During that time, the main Facebook network removed more harassment, organized hate and hate speech, and suicide and self-harm content. Instagram saw significant jumps in bullying and self-harm removals. The company says its numbers were shaped by two factors: more human review capacity and improvements in artificial intelligence, especially for non-English posts.
The company also indicates it will lean on automation to address a growing amount of video and audio on its platforms, including a rumored Clubhouse competitor. “We’re investing in technology across all the different sorts of ways that people share,” said CTO Mike Schroepfer on a call with reporters. “We understand audio, video, we understand the content around those things, who shared it, and build a broader picture of what’s happening there.” Facebook hasn’t confirmed the existence of a Clubhouse-like audio platform, but “I think there’s a lot we’re doing here that can apply to these different formats, and we obviously look at how the products are changing and invest ahead of those changes to make sure we have the technological tools we need,” he said.
Facebook pushed some moderation teams back into offices in early October; although it said in November that most moderators worked remotely, it’s also said that some sensitive content can’t be reviewed from home. Now, the company says increased moderation has helped Facebook and Instagram remove more suicide and self-injury posts. Facebook removed 2.5 million pieces of violating content, compared to 1.3 million pieces the preceding quarter, and Instagram removed 3.4 million pieces, up from 1.3 million. That’s comparable to pre-pandemic levels for Facebook, and it’s a significant absolute increase for Instagram.
Facebook bullying and harassment takedowns between Q3 2018 and Q4 2020.
Conversely, Facebook attributes some increases to AI-powered moderation. It removed 6.3 million pieces of bullying and harassing content on Facebook, for instance, which is nearly double the numbers from previous quarters. On Instagram, it removed 5 million pieces of content, up from 2.6 million pieces last quarter and 1.5 million pieces at the end of 2019. Those increases stem from tech that better analyzes comments in the context of the accompanying post.
Non-English language moderation has been a historic weak point for Facebook, and the company says it has improved AI language detection in Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese, fueling a hate speech takedown increase from 22.1 million to 26.9 million pieces. That’s not as big as the jump Facebook saw in late 2019, however, when it made what it described as dramatic improvements to its automated detection.
Facebook hate speech takedowns between Q4 2017 and Q4 2020.
Facebook says it’s changed its News Feed in ways that reduce the amount of hate speech and violent content people see. A survey of hate speech in the third quarter found that users averaged between 10 and 11 pieces of hate speech for every 10,000 pieces of content; in the fourth quarter, that dropped to seven or eight pieces. The company said it was still formulating responses to some suggestions from the Facebook Oversight Board, which released its first decisions last month.
As it did last quarter, Facebook suggested lawmakers could use its transparency report as the model for a legal framework. Facebook has supported changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a broad liability shield that has come under fire from critics of social media. “We think that regulation would be a very good thing,” said Monika Bickert, VP of content policy.
However, Facebook has not backed a specific legislative proposal — including the SAFE TECH Act, a sweeping rollback proposed in Congress last week. “We remain committed to having this dialogue with everybody in the United States who is working on finding a way forward with regulation,” said Bickert. “We’ve obviously seen a number of proposals in this area, and we’ve seen different focuses from different people on the Hill in terms of what they want to pursue, and we want to make sure that we are part of all those conversations.”
(Pocket-lint) – Sony has grown a legion of fans for its growing number of Alpha system cameras. Whether it’s the ultra compact A6000 series or a full-frame A7 series, there’s something for everyone. But it’s videographers who’ve turned more towards Sony’s mirrorless full-frame bodies in recent years – and it’s easy to see why when looking at the Alpha A7S III.
Spec wise, this third-generation ‘S’ model offers some incredible capabilities, with particular focus for video and low-light performance. Rather than go all-out on the pixel count, the A7S III opts for bigger pixels on a quality sensor. But does that limit its appeal?
Design
Dimensions: 128.9mm x 96.9mm x 80.8mm / Weight: 699g (with battery)
3-inch, 1.44m-dot vari-angle LCD touchscreen
Moisture- and dust-resistant design
Sony was among the first manufacturers to put a full-frame sensor in a compact mirrorless body (the original A7, from back in 2013, was revolutionary for its size). And while many manufacturers have since followed suit and Sony – with its own A7C – has made an even smaller one, the size of the A7S III makes it hugely practical to carry around. It’ll fit into most camera carriers, even with a lens on it.
Pocket-lint
The body weighs about 700g with a battery and memory card in it, but – of course – that weight goes up once you attach a lens. We were testing with the 12-24mm G Master lens, which is pretty bulky and weighty, but not so much that we got really tired from shooting with it handheld.
A lot of the A7S III’s buttons are well positioned, including the switch-ring around the shutter button at the top of the grip. There’s a dedicated red movie ring for shooting video, plus an exposure gain adjustment ring, a custom function button, and the shoot mode select dial.
The shoot mode dial has to be unlocked by pressing the button in the middle before turning, which adds a bit of security, but also frustration if you’re used to just turning the dial to quickly change between movie mode and one of the photo modes.
The other questionable decision is the position of the menu button. Most buttons on the back of the A7S III are within easy thumb reach. But not the menu button. That’s way off to the other side, on the left side of the viewfinder, meaning you have to use your other hand to dive into the menu system to adjust and change features and settings.
Best mirrorless cameras 2021: The best interchangeable lens cameras available to buy today
By Mike Lowe
·
Pocket-lint
There are plenty of customisable function buttons. Four, in fact, which are super useful when you want quick access to essential functions like changing the autofocus area or changing the white balance. Having that autofocus selection mode is super useful, especially if you want to use the joystick to manually pick a small area to focus on. Just for those times when the super smart autofocus engine doesn’t quick pick the right area.
Like a number of Sony’s recent cameras, the A7S III has a proper flip-out touchscreen too. It makes that little monitor way more useful and versatile. It enables better framing at awkward angles and – as importantly – makes shooting to camera easier whether handheld vlogging or when shooting with the camera on the tripod. You can focus and frame without having to go behind the camera or having your view obstructed like on the older models.
Videographer’s multi-tool
Ports: HDMI, 3.5mm, USB-C
XLR adapter available – offers 4-channel 24-bit audio recording
16-bit Raw data output for external recorders
Proxy recording internally
Cards: Dual SD (UHS-II)
If you’re just starting out making video, it’s unlikely you’d look at the A7S III right away, especially as the price point is enough to make your eyes water (it’s several thousand at launch – and we doubt that’ll drop much). But for the seasoned pro or someone wanting to up their game, it’s easy to see the appeal.
It may not look like it from the outside, but there’s a tonne of flexibility here when it comes to connecting additional gear like microphones and monitors. Not only do you get a 3.5mm input for microphone, the hotshoe with the right adapter attached (note: sold separately) can be used to power an XLR adapter for plugging in ‘proper’ microphones too.
Pocket-lint
Using the HDMI you can connect the A7S III’s output to an external recorder/monitor (with 16 bit Raw output), plus you have the ability to record proxy files simultaneously while capturing at your desired resolution and bitrate. That means your computer workflow load times should be faster, because you already have the proxies to hand, your desktop shouldn’t have to generate them for you.
That’s without listing all the bitrate, colour profile, resolution and frame-rate options available. And there are many (it’s worth having a look at Sony’s detailed breakdown in the A7S III’s full specifications). You can shoot in S-Log3, S-Gamut3 or Cine gamut profiles, so that your video matches the colour profile on your professional camera and allows you to colour grade it to your heart’s content, including the ability to shoot in HLG for HDR workflows.
Video and photo
12.1MP Exmor R CMOS sensor, Bionz XR processor
ISO sensitivity: 80-102,400 standard
4K video (4:2:2 up to 10bit)
Full-frame 4K at 120fps
S-Log2 and S-Log3
Sony has equipped the A7S III with a 12-megapixel sensor, which is in stark contrast to the much higher resolution 61-megapixel full frame sensor on the A7R IV. The reason: to feature enough pixels to effectively capture full 4K resolution video, but also to enable much better low-light performance. The bigger the sensor diodes (in effect the ‘pixels’), the more light it can draw in. And it works.
1/16Pocket-lint
Shooting in tricky situations with little light, using mostly street lights outside after sundown, still enabled us to take decent, sharp images completely handheld. Of course, part of this is down to the built in 5-axis stabilisation – which is great, but not infallible, so if we didn’t quite hold the camera steady enough then some images still came out with a little blur.
Switching the camera into auto mode, the default in our night time shoot was for the camera to select ISO 12,800 – which is rather high – but the sensor still managed to capture an impressive amount of range (at f/4 and a 2/5-second exposure), revealing the clouds in the sky and even silhouettes of hills miles in the distance. It’s not completely image-noise-free, but the results are more grain-like, at an acceptable level, and doesn’t result in the destruction of detail.
Testing with the 12-24mm G Master lens also meant we got to try one of Sony’s most recent wide-angle lenses. It’s not the most versatile lens in the world, but we found it more than usable for our regular close-up product shooting for our YouTube channel. It did struggle to focus when too close, but otherwise is a great tool to have in the studio.
Being able shoot practically unlimited 4K/50p footage meant we never had to worry that the camera would overheat. The redesigned heat dissipation inside the body means the A7S III never struggles – which is a step change from earlier Sony video-focused cameras. The result is smooth, sharp and detailed video with great colour. Rolling shutter seems to be a thing of the past too.
Further helped by that stabilisation – which introduces a 1.1x crop, but can be switched off for full-frame access – it’s easy enough to shoot handheld and keep things smooth and steady. For the times it gets a bit janky when our hands weren’t as steady as we’d like them to be, the resulting shakiness was minimal and easy to fix in post-production with Final Cut’s one-click stabilsation tool.
And for those times where we’d accidentally over-exposed and ended up with highlights that were overexposed, we were able to drop those brightness levels down for to retain detail and surface texture without any hassle. It’s a very forgiving camera.
For those of you who don’t shoot much beyond 60 frames per second, but need 4K for detail and 10 bit for colour grading and detail, the A7S III is more than capable, although the highest bitrate and frame-rate recording does require you to use Sony’s new CFExpress Type A card (also known as XQD). The rest can be recorded internally on UHS-II SD cards.
While it might not be the perfect camera for those looking to creat big, high-resolution images that are great for cropping into, the A7S III still takes great shots in daylight too. Colours are lovely, the depth of field on offer is sublime. Close-ish shots of plants revealed some stunning smooth bokeh.
1/15Pocket-lint
Battery performance is strong for a camera this powerful too. It uses one of Sony’s new FX100 batteries – which is good for about 510 shots or 80-95 minutes of video recording, depending on whether you use the viewfinder or LCD monitor. Plus, you can charge it via the USB-C port on the camera, so you could take a Type-C cable and a battery pack to refill while on the move.
Sony’s strength for the past couple of years has been autofocus and tracking and – until the recently announced A1 – the A7S III was the epitome of that effort. It has 759 phase-detection AF points, meaning almost the you can select to focus pretty much anywhere within the frame. What’s more, it combines with 425 contrast detection points, making focusing really quick and accurate.
Pocket-lint
Whether we left it to automatically focus on people’s or pet’s eyes, or manually chose the spot we wanted to focus on, it was really quick and tracking was so smooth and responsive we rarely saw it hunting when we took video footage into the edit suite. It does it with such efficiency pretty much all the time.
Digging into the settings you can choose whether you want it tracking a human eye or an animal eye, or whether you want to prioritise a specific eye, or to let the camera decide (it’s actually pretty clever and will choose whichever is closest by default, and does so without fail).
There are a lot more options in the settings menu, and while colour coding and reorganising things has made Sony’s software easier than it used to be, it can still be a bit overwhelming at times. There’s just so much there to get a handle on. You could easily spend an hour just going through the various options and trying to remember where it all is.
Verdict
The Sony Alpha A7S III is the most impressive video-centric consumer camera to date. By using the right sensor, processing power and heat dissipation, Sony offers full-frame recording at staggering resolutions quality. The price might make you wince a bit though.
While the sensor and performance lends the camera to professional video work, it also makes it very good in low-light situations for both stills and video. With a good lens, you can forget the tripod and go shoot dimly lit scenes handheld.
However, those stills photographers looking to shoot ultra-resolute images ought to look elsewhere – but it’s not as if there’s a lack of choice in the Alpha range. But for those invested in Sony for video work, the A7S III will be the mirrorless camera of choice for years to come.
Alternatives to consider
Pocket-lint
Panasonic Lumix S5
squirrel_widget_349477
It’s less than half the price of the Sony, and while it doesn’t quite match its performance in terms of video capabilities or low-light capabilities, if you’re wanting a strong video-centric mirrorless with great performance that won’t cost you nearly four grand, the Panasonic is a very strong choice.
Read our review
Pocket-lint
Sony A7R IV
squirrel_widget_174969
Sony’s A7R IV has a much higher-resolution sensor, making it a more suitable choice for photographers chasing those super-sharp image files that hey can present in huge format or crop into heavily. It’s not as strong on the video side, though, but it can still shoot 4K.
Launched back in 1991, Sonus Faber’s original Extrema were seen as the culmination of everything the Italian manufacturer had learnt in its first decade. Up to that point, the brand had carved out a useful niche at premium price levels, with a limited range of compact standmounters that were lauded as much for their immaculately crafted cabinets as their artfully judged sound.
The Extrema marked its first assault on the very top end of the speaker market and, as the name implies, the engineering team didn’t hold back. At £6000 ($12,500), they were up there with some of the priciest speakers available, but with hindsight, that price doesn’t seem unduly excessive – certainly not when considering the ambitious engineering, exceptional build quality and brilliant performance.
From the front, they look like mid-sized standmounters, measuring 46cm tall and 27cm wide, but move to the side and you’ll see their depth is almost comically out of proportion at a huge 55cm. Account for the thickness of the chunky cabinet walls and that gives a useful, though not huge, internal volume of 20 litres. The whole lot weighs in at a hernia-inducing 40kg.
This is far from a conventional wooden cabinet design, too. The satin black central section is comprises seven separate sections bolted together to form a highly rigid, low-resonance structure. You’ll find a heavily sculptured, 32mm-thick slab of solid walnut on each side, adding further rigidity and damping as well as an extra dose of visual drama. The combination of curves, angles and colours gives these Sonus Fabers a look unlike any other; you certainly cannot mistake them for anything else.
(Image credit: Sonus Faber)
Arguably, the drive units are just as special as the box. The tweeter is Dynaudio’s Esotar 330T/SF: a 28mm soft dome that was rightly regarded as one of the best around at the time. It is mated to a 19cm Audio Technology mid/bass unit, which uses a magnesium oxide-loaded polypropylene cone, coated with carbonium-acrylate for extra damping and resonance control.
Take the mid/bass unit out of the cabinet and you’ll see that the magnet on the back is huge. It’s about the size of the cone, suggesting that there’s plenty of magnetic drive but also that no corners have been cut.
It’s an impression that’s solidified with the use of a large 75mm voice coil and contemporary looking open chassis design. Overall, it’s clear that this is a proper no-compromise design. It’s a highly robust one, too, if the company’s claim that the Extrema will accept 2kW in short bursts without damage is true.
Look around the back of the enclosure and you’ll find a thick metal plate standing proud of the rear panel. Peek through the gap between the plate and panel and you’ll spy what looks like an oval-shaped drive unit but is, in fact, a passive radiator, designed to augment the speaker’s low-frequency output, centred on 35Hz.
(Image credit: Sonus Faber)
Early Extrema models used KEF’s long-running B139 ‘race track driver’ for the job, but later production models (from mid-1992 onwards) switched to the similar TDL 3021GT03 when the B139 went out of production.
A passive radiator and reflex port often work in much the same way. Ports tend to be far more common, simply because a tube (usually a plastic moulding) costs less than what is essentially another drive unit. The radiator in the Extrema is a little unusual because its output can be adjusted via a five-way rotary control on the back panel, allowing the speaker’s bass to be fine-tuned for their place in the listening room. The adjustment is subtle enough to be useful and allows us to dial in performance really well.
Next to the radiator’s control is a small heatsink. Why does a passive set of speakers need a heatsink? The Extrema has a kind of crossover design we’ve never come across before. While its use of a gentle first-order filter is relatively uncommon, it’s the lack of capacitors that provides the real talking point here.
Sonus Faber’s engineers wanted to avoid these components to improve clarity and transparency, and so, instead, they ended up using an inductor in parallel with the tweeter rather than the usual capacitor in series. For everything to work properly, a resistor is required in the circuit too, but it needs the heatsink to cope with the power demands. We never felt the heatsink getting hot during use, even with the speakers pushed hard.
(Image credit: Sonus Faber)
Naturally, the performance of a standmounter depends strongly on the kind of support it gets, and Sonus Faber left nothing to chance by making its own dedicated 55cm-tall steel stands. Coated in textured black paint, they use no fewer than six chunky pillars filled with lead and sand. These stands are exceptionally heavy, immensely rigid and do their job brilliantly. Their price back in 1991 was commensurately substantial, at £799 ($1500).
The Extrema are beautifully made and ooze luxury in a way few speakers manage. Indeed, those who appreciate high-end furniture will find much to admire here. While the speakers’ slightly oddball proportions may split opinion, there’s no denying the exquisite quality of workmanship here.
The adjustable passive radiator offers a certain amount of freedom, but we still prefer these speakers well out into the listening room and placed with a bit of angle to cross just behind the main listening position. This way, we get a wide and expansive soundstage coupled with a laser-precise sense of focus.
Any shoot-for-the-stars kind of speaker positively demands a top-class partnering system, and the fact that the Extrema were designed over three decades ago doesn’t change that. These remain immensely revealing and nuanced performers, so a lack of quality from your electronics won’t be hidden.
(Image credit: Sonus Faber)
We’d avoid using bright or aggressive system electronics, as the Extrema’s hugely capable tweeter and unusual crossover arrangement can combine to brutal effect, revealing flaws with glee.
Your amp will need a decent amount of grunt, too, if you’re going to make full use of the Extrema’s excellent dynamic abilities and loudness potential. Think of a healthy 100W-per-channel output as a good place to start, though we have no doubt there’s enough leeway for lower-powered combinations to work well. The rated sensitivity of 88dB/W/m and nominal 4ohm impedance isn’t unusually brutal.
Upon launch, the Extrema were considered exceptional performers and one of the best speakers money could buy. We can see why: given a state-of-the-art source such as Naim’s ND555/555PS DR music streamer and being driven by our current reference Burmester 088/911 Mk3 amp, these boxes still produce magnificent results.
They sound huge – so much bigger than their cabinet size suggests – and rarely do we come across standmounters that deliver such solidity and authority. Once the passive radiator is suitably dialled-in, we get taut and agile lows coupled to an impressive degree of muscularity.
(Image credit: Sonus Faber)
We listen to Hans Zimmer’s Gladiator OST and the Sonus Fabers seem right at home. They deliver a demanding track such as The Battle with real verve, surfing the wide-ranging dynamics skilfully and thumping out the vicious crescendos with control. Yet, despite all the chest-thumping on show, the whole lot is tied together with subtlety and finesse, as shown by the lovely way they render instrumental textures and low-level inflections.
There’s a wonderful sense of top-to-bottom cohesion that would shame many a current high-end speaker, and that goes in hand with seamless integration between the drive units. This is a nicely balanced presentation with an element of well-judged extra richness through the midrange and lower frequencies. Such a presentation adds meat to the bones of the sound, giving instruments and voices palpable presence in our listening room.
Detail levels are pleasing, though outright resolution and distortion levels are areas in which advancements in drive units and cabinet designs have resulted in significant improvements since the Extremas were made. A good modern high-end speaker will simply sound cleaner and clearer, but is it more enjoyable? Now, that’s open to debate. In much the same way that many enjoy driving a classic car more than a modern equivalent, so it is here.
We put on Bjork’s Vulnicura set and revel in the sonic textures and dynamic shading. There’s plenty of punch here, and the Extrema are more than happy to play at high volume. We enjoy the insight and effortless fluidity, not to mention their ability to make listening to music really feel like an all-enveloping experience rather than just a mere activity to pass the time. The Extrema seem to have a little bit of magic baked into their sonic DNA.
Judged by current standards, these speakers could be criticised for a lack of rhythmic drive, and we wouldn’t say no to a better sense of organisation when things get really complicated. Even so, the important thing is that we’re having so much fun and can’t help but keep listening.
The Sonus Faber Extrema are now, at the time of writing, 30 years old. There aren’t many good samples knocking about, and those that are still working aren’t easy to hear. We hope anyone who owns a pair really cherishes them, because they’re pretty much impossible to replace.
MORE:
22 debut speakers from iconic hi-fi brands
The best 30 hi-fi speakers of What Hi-Fi?’s lifetime
One maker’s Pico is another maker’s exercise bike controller board! This project was made by a maker known on Reddit as Pubudeux. After spinning their wheels, Pubudeux decided to use a Raspberry Pi Pico to help monitor exercise bike sessions and provide audio output for cycling classes.
The project is designed to be housed inside a case with the various sensors necessary to accurately monitor things like speed and duration on the bike. It will also house the speakers.
(Image credit: Pubudeux)
The Raspberry Pi Pico is used in tandem with a Pam 8403 amplifier board. It’s also using a battery voltage sensor, an infrared sensor and is connected to an LCD screen via I2C.
These sensors are used to count how many pedal strokes are occurring per minute and at what resistance. Once the cadence is determined, the data can be parsed to read out information about the rider’s performance in real-time.
This project is still in progress. You can read more about how it works and what developments are underway in the full thread on Reddit. In the meantime, check out our list of Best Raspberry Pi Projects for more cool creations from the maker community.
Commell has unveiled one of the industry’s first Pico-ITX motherboards featuring Intel’s Tiger Lake-UP3 processor with built-in Iris Xe graphics core. Not designed to compete with the best motherboards for PCs, The tiny LP-179 board is aimed primarily at embedded systems, yet it can enable everyone to build an ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) desktop featuring a decent quad-core CPU with an advanced GPU.
Commell’s LP-179 motherboard will initially be available with Intel’s Core i7-1185G7E (4C/8T, 1.80/4.40GHz, 12MB cache, 96 EU, 15W) or Celeron 6305E (2C/2T, 1.80GHz, 4MB cache, 48 EU, 15W) processor addressing premium and entry-level markets. The SoC may be accompanied by up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory using one SO-DIMM module, an M.2-2280 SSD featuring a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, and one SATA drive.
The tiny LP-179 — which measures 100×72 mm — has a rather decent connectivity department that includes an M.2-2230 slot for a Bluetooth + Wi-Fi adapter, two GbE ports (2.5 GbE Intel I225-LM, GbE I219-LM), two display outputs (one DisplayPort, one HDMI) and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports. Being aimed at embedded systems, Commell’s internal headers for USB 2.0, RS232, audio (controlled by the Realtek ALC262 chip), SMBus, a battery, and an LVDS or VGA.
(Image credit: Commell)
Motherboards from companies like Commell are rarely available in retail, but it is still possible to get them from stores like Alibaba, usually together with Pico-ITX cases. In addition, LP-179 boards will likely find themselves inside various UCFF PCs from second and third tier makers.
Pricing of Commell’s LP179 motherboards has not been announced.
Parties that need a midrange 11th Generation Core SoC, can opt for Core i5-1145GRE/1145G7E and Core i3-1115GRE/1115G4E, yet these boards will be built-to-order.
Facebook, a company known for ripping its ideas from competitors, has reportedly set its sights on social audio. The New York Times reports today that the company is working on a copycat of Clubhouse, the buzzy invite-only social audio startup. The Times reports the product is in the “early stages of development,” so it’s unclear if and when it might launch.
The news comes only five days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined Clubhouse and participated in a room to talk about the future of augmented and virtual reality. His presence on the app was shocking, given it’s a new social network, so the fact that Facebook might now be cloning Clubhouse is no surprise. The company has already done so with multiple other apps, including, most infamously, Stories, which it took from Snapchat, and Reels, its TikTok competitor that launched last year.
Twitter is also working on a Clubhouse competitor called Spaces, which is in beta at the moment. Its team acquired social podcasting company Breaker, seemingly for its expertise in social audio, to help beef up its efforts. Meanwhile, Mark Cuban is also at work on a live audio app called Fireside, which The Verge reported on earlier this week. Clearly, lots of people in tech think audio will be an important format for communicating in the future, and they’re rapidly trying to get in on it before the trend dies out.
Rocket League developer Psyonix announced today it’s partnering with an auto company to add an actual truck into the game. Sadly, no, it is not the Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the Ford F-150. A Rocket League-themed F-150 will be available for a limited time, beginning February 20th until February 28th.
The Ford F-150 RLE bundle will be available in the item shop with its own tab and costs 1,500 credits. The bundle includes the Ford F-150 RLE (pictured below), a set of standard and special edition wheels, boost, audio engine, player banner, and decal, all of which are themed after the special edition pickup truck.
Image: Psyonix
Image: Psyonix
Image: Psyonix
Image: Psyonix
As someone who enjoys pickup trucks, I am crying tears of joy because I can use one in Rocket League. There is something hilarious about the fact that I can drive a rocket-powered F-150 in the game and do ridiculous trick shots with it. I really want to see other auto companies like Chevrolet and Toyota add their trucks to the game. Seriously, imagine having the Tesla Cybertruck in Rocket League; I’d never stop laughing.
Alongside a new, limited-time vehicle, Psyonix and Ford are also introducing a new competitive two-day event where the best freestyles in Rocket League will compete and demonstrate their best moves for a chance to win a real 2021 Ford F-150.
Google’s newest Chromecast with Google TV video streamer has received a chunky firmware update.
According to 9to5google, the update brings improved 4K support for both TVs and AV receivers, including improved Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus passthrough.
The Google changelog (200918.033) doesn’t go into much detail, but the update is set to fix the ‘Data is corrupt’ bug that a few owners have experienced and that requires a full reset.
Some users have also reported that the dongle doesn’t trigger Dolby Atmos audio when streaming content from Disney+, only when streaming from Netflix and Prime Video. Fingers crossed the update addresses this.
Sadly, there’s still no sign of the Apple TV app but Google has promised to add it to the device sometime in “early 2021”.
The update is available now and should be delivered to your Chromecast with Google TV automatically. Want to do it manually? Hold the home button, select system update in the settings menu, and the device should seek out the latest firmware.
If you’re in the market for a streaming stick, the Chromecast with Google TV is well worth considering. Under review we called it “one of the best video streamers available” thanks to the excellent Google TV platform and voice remote. In fact, our only real gripe was the lack of Apple content, which should be resolved shortly.
MORE:
Everything you need to know about Google Chromecast
Our pick of the best media streamers and TV streaming devices
Fancy a smart speaker? Best Google Assistant speakers on the market
To commemorate Burmester’s late founder, Dieter Burmester, who would have turned 75 yesterday, Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH is announcing several new products to be released in 2021.
What’s new on the menu? Plenty, actually. Burmester is promising a slew of “new products such as music centres, power amplifiers, and a new turntable”.
In addition, Burmester states that its existing product lines, such as the Burmester Reference Line, will be “complemented and rounded off with new loudspeaker models”.
In 2020, the German high-end audio specialist presented the five-star premium surround sound system for the Porsche 911 and now the firm is concentrating its energies on its core products: hi-fi separates for the home.
In lieu of new imagery (and to showcase Burmester’s impressive history) the photo above is of the first ever Burmester product, the Burmester 777 – a preamp Dieter Burmester built himself from parts of medical machines and so-named because it was released on the seventh month in the year 1977. In 2007, the firm even released a 30th anniversary update in its honour, the Burmester 077. (Did we like it? Oh, you could say that. In our review, we concluded, “If you can afford it, buy it right now.”)
With High End Munich postponed until September this year for obvious reasons, we may miss out on a May reveal from Burmester – but of course, it’s not impossible.
“Dieter Burmester was a perfectionist who developed his components with a technical precision that is still unbeaten today,” said Marianne Burmester, the company’s managing director, adding, “Our ambition is to continue this uncompromising approach on behalf of delivering true sound.”
MORE:
See all our Burmester reviews
Read more about the Burmester 777 in 9 debut stereo amplifiers from iconic hi-fi brands
Need more high-end hi-fi? Peruse 10 of the craziest-looking high-end hi-fi products on the planet
The brains behind smartphone brand OnePlus has created a new London-based consumer tech outfit. Nothing – for that is the name of his company – is expected to launch a slew of devices this summer including a pair of wireless earbuds.
“We’re building an ecosystem of smart devices,” Carl Pei said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We’ll start with simpler products, wireless earbuds. We’re going to have multiple products throughout the year, not just audio products, and eventually, we want to build it so these devices talk to each other.”
Despite its embryonic state, Nothing has already attracted investment from the likes Alphabet Inc (Google’s venture capital arm), Kevin Lin (founder of Twitch), Steve Huffman (CEO of Reddit) and Tony Fadell (inventor of the iPod).
The tech guru hasn’t dropped any hints as to the design or spec of Nothing’s wireless earbuds, but the company’s website does offer some clues. Nothing says it’s determined to hit a “giant reset button”, “start from scratch” and “rethink everything” to reach its goals.
Meanwhile, OnePlus unveiled its first wireless earbuds last Summer. The budget OnePlus Buds offer noise-cancelling, 10 hours playback and Dolby Atmos support for £79 ($79, €89). Pei left OnePlus shortly after in what’s been called an “amicable” departure.
One thing’s for sure: Nothing won’t be short of competitors. From the Apple AirPods (2019) to the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the newly-unveiled KEF Mu3 buds, those who want wireless earbuds are spoilt for choice.
MORE:
Buddy up with the the best wireless earbuds: budget and premium
Our pick of the best AirPods alternatives
Need some peace and quiet? Check out the best wireless noise-cancelling headphones
Has the resurgence of vinyl got you excited? Perhaps you’re a lapsed lover of the big, groovy discs, with a collection in the loft just begging to have the cobwebs blown away – or maybe a newcomer looking to inject a little analogue into your current, exclusively digital musical diet.
But what if you don’t have a traditional hi-fi system to which you can simply connect a turntable? Or your current sound system is more geared towards TV sound, home cinema or multi-room?
Actually, in practically all of these cases, adding a turntable is remarkably easy – as long as you know the type of turntable you’re looking for. To help you, we’ve selected four non-traditional audio systems and outlined the sort of turntables you should be looking at and how to connect them.
We’ve even given specific examples of turntables to check out, so you’ll know exactly which model will work with your setup. Read on, you’re only a few steps away from vinyl nirvana…
How to add a turntable to a soundbar or soundbase
If the only audio system you’ve got is a soundbar or soundbase connected to your TV, you might be tempted to assume that adding a turntable simply isn’t on the cards – but you’d be wrong. In fact, with most soundbars and soundbases it’s a simple process; just choose the correct turntable, depending on which soundbar or soundbase you have.
Let’s use a couple of our 2020 Award winners as examples (we’ll tackle the Sonos Beam and Arc in the dedicated section below): both the Yamaha YAS-207 and Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar have a stereo analogue input in the form of a pair of standard RCA terminals. That means you can add any turntable that has a phono stage built-in, or any standard turntable via an external phono stage.
We’ll guess that at least part of your reason for choosing a soundbar or soundbase audio system was the neatness it offered, and you’re probably keen to avoid adding too many extra devices and their accompanying cables. So, we’re going to stick with turntables that have integrated phono stages for our recommendations. And, while these devices sound great for soundbars and soundbases, most don’t have the hi-fi credentials to make the most of serious, high-end kit, so it’s not worth spending a fortune on your new turntable.
With all of that in mind, we think the Audio-Technica AT-LP3 would be the best turntable to add to almost any soundbar or soundbase. It costs just £149, is simple to set up and sounds so good we gave it an Award. It has an integrated phono stage so you can connect it directly to any standard pair of stereo analogue terminals.
And if you simply can’t stomach the idea of adding any extra cables to your system, you could consider a turntable that outputs via Bluetooth, which most soundbars and soundbases (including the two mentioned above) can receive. Good-sounding Bluetooth turntables are still rather rare, and there’s an inevitable drop-off in sound quality compared to using cables, but if that’s the route you want to go down you could take a look at Sony’s five-star PS-LX310BT (£200), or if you really want to splash the cash then there’s the £1499 Cambridge Audio Alva TT.
How to add a turntable to an AV receiver
The great thing about an AV receiver (or AV amplifier) is that it has lots of inputs for all manner of audio and video devices, and connecting a turntable is not a problem. In fact, many AV receivers have a built-in phono stage, allowing you to connect any standard turntable directly. All of Denon’s current line of AV receivers have a phono stage, for example – simply connect your new deck to the ‘phono’ input and you’re sorted.
However, the phono stage of an AV receiver will often fall short of the performance of an external phono stage or one built into a turntable. It’s worth taking this into account if you’re serious about sound quality.
(If you do decide to add a turntable with a built-in phono stage or use an external phono stage, you need to avoid the phono input on your receiver and use one of the standard pairs of RCA terminals).
In terms of recommendations, let’s again look at our Award-winning AV receivers. For the Denon AVR-X3700H (tested at £999), we’d recommend the Rega Planar 1 Plus (£329); it’s Rega’s entry-level turntable in integrated phono stage form.
The Denon AVC-X6700H (available for £2299) is capable of making the most of a higher-end turntable – we’d suggest the Rega Planar 3 with the Elys 2 cartridge (£649). You could connect this directly to the amp’s phono input, but you’ll get more out of the set-up if you also add a dedicated phono stage. Rega’s own Fono MM MK3 (£199) is a strong choice.
The multi-Award-winning Sony STR-DN1080 doesn’t have a phono stage, but as we’ve suggested ignoring those of the Denons above, that’s no barrier to vinyl enjoyment. Here, we’d suggest the Sony PS-HX500 (£279), which will be a nice aesthetic match to the amp, sounds great, has an integrated phono stage and will even let you rip your vinyl to hi-res digital files via USB.
How to add a turntable to a Sonos system
A multi-room streaming system and turntable might not immediately sound like perfect bedfellows, but it’s surprisingly easy to add vinyl to Sonos – and if you do so you can hear your records in every room of the house.
You need one of the Sonos units with a standard pair of stereo analogue terminals. That means having a Play:5 (for which you’ll also need an RCA-to-3.5mm adapter), Connect (or older ZP80 or ZP90), Connect:Amp (or older ZP100 or ZP120) or the new Sonos Amp. None of these has a built-in phono stage, so you’ll need a turntable that has one integrated, or buy an external phono stage at the same time.
For the Sonos, we’d suggest the Sony PS-HX500, particularly if you’re connecting to the Sonos Amp, which is sonically capable enough to make more of the Sony’s musical talents. Connect the turntable to any of the Sonos devices listed above, and whatever vinyl you play on it can be streamed to every other Sonos in the house.
What if you’ve got a multi-room system that isn’t Sonos? Most offer a similar route to turntable integration. The majority of Bluesound’s players have standard stereo RCA inputs, as do Audio Pro’s C5 and C10 speakers, and both systems support multi-room playback of your vinyl.
How to add a turntable to a wireless speaker
If your existing music system consists of a simple wireless speaker, there’s still every chance that you’ll be able to connect a turntable.
To do it ‘properly’, you want a wireless speaker with an analogue stereo input (whether that’s a pair of RCA terminals or a 3.5mm socket that will require an inexpensive adapter), and all of our 2020 Award-winners (the JBL Flip 5, Audio Pro Addon C3, Audio Pro Addon C10 and Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation) have just that. In those cases we’d again suggest you check out the plug-and-play Audio-Technica AT-LP3.
And even if your wireless speaker is entirely lacking physical inputs, you can connect a Bluetooth turntable such as the Sony PS-LX310BT, which we gave five stars for both its wired and wireless audio talents.
In short, practically any wireless speaker can be connected to a turntable. The notable exceptions are the Sonos One, Play:1 and Play:3 (which can still receive streams from your turntable via another Sonos unit – see above) and the Apple HomePod.
10 tips for buying second-hand vinyl
Belt drive and direct drive turntables: everything you need to know
The times were that Dolby Atmos soundbars came at a premium but not any more, not now that Monoprice has launched its SB-600 5.1.2 system for under $450.
It’s not just a soundbar either. The Monoprice SB-600 is a bar, a wireless 8in subwoofer and two wireless satellite speakers to help create a genuine sense of TV surround sound. Monoprice is even throwing in wallmounting brackets, a remote control and an HDMI cable too.
The main bar itself comprises 2 x 2in cones for the centre channel, 2.5in drivers for the left and right as well as tweeters and up-firing units for the sides as well. They’re powered to the tune of 125W in total.
There are no height units on two satellite speakers. These are surround channels only, designed for placing behind the viewer. Their power output is just 15W each but expect plenty from the 180W sub with its down-firing cone.
Somehow Monoprice has still found change for a very healthy feature set. There are two Dolby Vision and 4K-rated HDMI inputs on the rear – so that you can use the system as something of a hub – and a single, eARC-enabled HDMI-out to help offer the best quality of audio, depending on your source. There are also ports for coaxial, optical, USB and a 3.5mm line plus wireless audio through Bluetooth 4.2.
It’s certainly an excellent package for the price on paper but the proof of the pudding is going to be in the listening. With any luck, this should be a neat and compelling compromise for those on a budget looking to take their first steps into external TV sound.
MORE:
Tried and tested; take a look at the very best Dolby Atmos soundbars.
Know your ARC from your elbow – HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC: everything you need to know.
After years of niche positioning in the music world, “high-resolution audio” (or “hi-res audio”) finally hit the mainstream, thanks to a huge raft of support in streaming services (such as Tidal and Amazon Music HD) and products (from smartphones to most digital hi-fi components).
So why should you care about hi-res audio? If you want the best digital music experience possible or at least better sound quality than you’re currently used to (and why wouldn’t you?), hi-res audio is definitely worth investigating.
It can be a daunting prospect. After all, what exactly constitutes hi-res audio, what do all the different file formats and numbers mean, where can you download or stream these high quality files, and what devices do you need to play it?
Indeed, where do you even begin?
That’s where we come in. Our handy guide will take you through the ins and outs of hi-res audio. By the end, we hope you’ll know everything you need to know (and then some) and will be well on your way to enjoying your new and improved sonic lifestyle.
50 of the best hi-fi albums for audiophiles
What is high-resolution audio?
Unlike high-definition video, there’s no single universal standard for hi-res audio. In 2014, the Digital Entertainment Group, Consumer Electronics Association and The Recording Academy, together with record labels, formally defined high-resolution audio as “lossless audio that is capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better than CD quality music sources”.
In its simplest terms, hi-res audio tends to refer to music files that have a higher sampling frequency and/or bit depth than CD, which is specified at 16-bit/44.1kHz.
Sampling frequency (or sample rate) refers to the number of times samples of the signal are taken per second during the analogue-to-digital conversion process. The more bits there are, the more accurately the signal can be measured in the first instance, so going 16bit to 24bit can deliver a noticeable leap in quality. Hi-res audio files usually use a sampling frequency of 96kHz or 192kHz at 24bit. You can also have 88.2kHz and 176.4kHz files too.
Hi-res audio does come with a downside though: file size. A hi-res file can typically be tens of megabytes in size, and a few tracks can quickly eat up the storage on your device or be cumbersome to stream over your wi-fi or mobile network. Thankfully, storage is much cheaper than it used to be, so it’s easier to get higher-capacity devices. And technologies such as MQA (see below) have arrived to help tackle that.
That’s not all: there are also several different hi-res audio file formats to choose from, all of which have their own compatibility requirements.
They include the popular FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) formats, both of which are compressed but in a way which means that, in theory, no information is lost. Other formats include the uncompressed WAV and AIFF formats, DSD (the format used for Super Audio CDs) and the more recent MQA (Master Quality Authenticated).
The relative merits of each of the formats can be argued, but the most crucial issue will be the file’s compatibility with your chosen products and software.
Here’s a breakdown of all the main file formats:
MP3 (not hi-res): Popular, lossy compressed format ensures small file size, but far from the best sound quality. Convenient for storing music on smartphones and iPods, but doesn’t support hi-res.
AAC (not hi-res): An alternative to MP3s, it’s lossy and compressed but sounds better. Used for iTunes downloads, Apple Music streaming (at 256kbps) and YouTube streaming.
WAV (hi-res): The standard format all CDs are encoded in. Great sound quality but it’s uncompressed, meaning huge file sizes (especially for hi-res files). It has poor metadata support (that is, album artwork, artist and song title information).
AIFF (hi-res): Apple’s alternative to WAV, with better metadata support. It is lossless and uncompressed (so big file sizes), but not massively popular.
FLAC (hi-res): This lossless compression format supports hi-res sample rates, takes up about half the space of WAV, and stores metadata. It’s royalty-free and widely supported (though not by Apple) and is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing hi-res albums.
ALAC (hi-res): Apple’s own lossless compression format also does hi-res, stores metadata and takes up half the space of WAV. An iTunes- and iOS-friendly alternative to FLAC.
DSD(hi-res): The single-bit format used for Super Audio CDs. It comes in 2.8MHz, 5.6mHz and 11.2mHz varieties, but isn’t widely supported.
MQA(hi-res): A lossless compression format that efficiently packages hi-res files with more emphasis on the time domain. Used for Tidal Masters hi-res streaming, and product support is picking up pace.
MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC: all the audio file formats explained
What’s so good about hi-res audio?
The main claimed benefit of high-resolution audio files is superior sound quality over compressed audio formats such as MP3 and AAC.
Downloads from sites such as Amazon and iTunes, and streaming services such as Spotify, use compressed file formats with relatively low bitrates – such as 256kbps AAC files on Apple Music and 320kbps Ogg Vorbis streams on Spotify.
The use of lossy compression means data is lost in the encoding process, which in turn means resolution is sacrificed for the sake of convenience and smaller file sizes. This has an effect upon the sound quality – those formats aren’t telling the full story of our favourite songs.
This might be fine when you’re listening to Spotify playlists on your smartphone on the bus on the morning commute, but serious audiophiles and music fans should want better. This is where high-resolution audio comes in.
To illustrate why it should sound better than MP3, for example, let’s compare the relative bitrates. The highest quality MP3 has a bitrate of 320kbps, whereas a 24-bit/192kHz file has a data rate of 9216kbps. Music CDs are 1411kbps.
The hi-res 24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz files should, therefore, more closely replicate the sound quality the musicians and engineers were working with in the studio. And they could be that very same recorded file, too. These files are labelled as “Studio Masters” in some cases.
With more information on the file to play with, hi-res audio tends to boast greater detail and texture, bringing listeners closer to the original performance – provided your system is transparent enough.
What do I need to play hi-res audio?
There’s a huge variety of products that can playback hi-res audio. It all depends on how big or small you want your system to be, how much your budget is, and what method you’ll mostly be using to listen to your tunes. But it’s never been easier to get involved, now that plenty of the digital and streaming ecosystem supports hi-res, and especially as popular streaming platforms such as Google Chromecast (although not AirPlay 2) do.
These days, even, you don’t have to completely abandon your vinyl collection to go hi-res, either; turntables such as the Sony PS-HX500 let you digitise your vinyl collection by ripping your record tracks into hi-res audio files.
Smartphones If you’re going portable, smartphones are increasingly supporting hi-res playback. This is restricted to higher-end Android models, though – Apple iPhones so far don’t support hi-res audio out of the box (though there are ways around this by using the right app, and then either plugging in a DAC or using Lightning headphones with the iPhones’ Lightning connector).
Phones that have USB-C sockets instead of 3.5mm headphones jacks for music playback – as is becoming the norm – can boost their USB-C output with adapters such as Zorloo’s Ztella USB-C DAC.
Hi-res audio is increasingly easy to stream wirelessly thanks to new advancements in Bluetooth. Phones with aptX HD Bluetooth support (which many these days have, although Apple’s iPhones are an exception) can wirelessly transmit hi-res audio to aptX HD-supporting headphones (such as the Sony WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM3 and Bowers & Wilkins PX7 noise-cancelling headphones).
aptX HD Bluetooth: What is it? How can you get it?
Portable music players Alternatively, there are plenty of dedicated portable hi-res music players such as various Sony Walkmans and Award-winning Astell & Kerns and Cowons that offer more storage space and far better sound quality than a multi-tasking smartphone. More digital players than not support hi-res audio, although again an Apple product is the exception, this time the iPod Touch.
Desktop For a desktop solution, your laptop (Windows, Mac, Linux) is a prime source for storing and playing hi-res music (after all, this is where you’ll be downloading the tunes from hi-res download sites anyway), but make sure the software you use to play music also supports hi-res playback. Apple iTunes, for instance, doesn’t support it, even if your MacBook does, so you’ll need to buy and download separate music playing software. The likes of Channel D’s Pure Music and Amarra are worth considering for a Mac. On a PC? Try JRiver Media Center.
DACs We wouldn’t just rely on your computer or phone’s internal DAC to do hi-res audio justice, either. A USB or desktop DAC (such as the Cyrus soundKey, Chord Mojo or Audiolab M-DAC nano) is a good way to get great sound quality out of hi-res files stored on your computer or smartphone (whose audio circuits don’t tend to be optimised for sound quality). Simply plug a decent digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) in between your source and headphones for an instant sonic boost.
Best DACs: USB, portable and desktop DAC
Music streamers
If you’re after a proper hi-fi set-up, you’ll need to look into music streamers that support hi-res, and highly recommendable contenders include the Audiolab 6000N Play, Cambridge CXN V2 and NAD C 658. This is especially if you’ll be storing your growing hi-res library on a NAS (Network Attached Storage, essentially a hard-drive with processing built in), which we would recommend.
Systems
There are plenty of other products that also support hi-res playback, including hybrid DAC-amp-streamer systems (Moon Neo Ace), speaker systems with everything built into them (KEF LS50 Wireless II), just-add-speaker systems (Marantz PM7000N) and current AV receivers (Sony STR-DN1080).
The ever-popular Sonos multi-room system still has no plans to support hi-res audio, and neither does Apple. But that has led rival companies such as Bluesound to offer hi-res playback across their range of connected products (for a higher price, of course).
Wireless speakers At the higher end of the wireless speaker market you’ll find hi-res support the norm. The likes of the Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation, Linn Series 3 and Bowers & Wilkins Formation Wedge are all able to handle hi-res file playback over wi-fi.
Best wireless speakers 2021
Where can I buy and download hi-res music?
Now that you’re armed with all this information on hi-res music, your next question should be: where can I get all these glorious hi-res music tracks?
There are currently a handful of UK download sites that let you buy and download single tracks and full albums in various hi-res formats. There are also plenty of US and European sites, though not all of them let you purchase from the UK.
Major music labels such as Sony, Warner and Universal have made their extensive music catalogues available to these hi-res download services – which is a real shot in the arm for fans of high-resolution audio. With all sites, make sure it’s clear what file format and bitrate you are buying. Ultimately, you may end up with a favourite go-to site, but even then, it’s worth checking across the different sites for the same album or track, too, as some stores can offer better prices than others.
Here are the top UK hi-res download sites:
7Digital With a strong catalogue offering hi-res music from all genres and a website that makes buying music easy, 7digital is an excellent all-rounder. There’s an accurate search function and the website is simple to navigate. You can easily spot hi-res recordings thanks to a ’24bit FLAC’ badge on an album or song’s thumbnail, and there’s also a dedicated hi-res section. The sole drawback is that it only offers downloads in the FLAC format. Prices are affordable, though, and you can buy individual tracks as well as full albums.
Qobuz Sublime
Music discovery and front-end intuitiveness get full marks on French download store Qobuz. Both the website and dedicated app are easy to navigate, and you can search by genre or new releases, which can be sorted by sample rate. There is a strong Francophile focus, although the catalogue is growing more varied every day. Pricing is competitive, but if you opt for the hybrid download-and-streaming Sublime+ service you do get discounts when buying hi-res albums.
HDtracks
HDtracks may be one of the most established hi-res download stores, but it’s in need of a refresh in looks and catalogue. It can feel aimed at an older audience (there’s strong focus on jazz, classical and dad rock), which can be off-putting for wider audiences, especially fans of more current, popular music. On the other hand, whereas other download sites offer FLAC as default, HDtracks lets you choose between FLAC, ALAC, WAV and AIFF (and the sampling rate for each) before downloading. There’s a selection of DSD tunes, too, which is great for audiophiles.
How to build the perfect hi-fi system
Where can I stream hi-res music?
Not ready to download hi-res files, or simply prefer streaming? Tidal and Qobuz streaming services have offered hi-res and CD-quality streams for years, putting them ahead of rivals Spotify and Apple Music. And now that Amazon has joined the party with its HD service, hi-res streaming is now firmly in the mainstream domain.
Tidal Masters Tidal and MQA’s partnership has brought us one step closer to mainstream hi-res music streaming. You’ll need to subscribe to Tidal’s HiFi tier (which offers CD quality streaming) to unlock the Masters section, and then you can stream hi-res MQA files through the desktop app and Android/iOS mobile apps.
Tidal claims a 30,000-strong catalogue of MQA files, with about 400 clearly labelled. The MQA files have a resolution of up to 24-bit/96kHz (any 192kHz files will be unpackaged to 96kHz by MQA’s core decoding). With the right kit, the streamed tunes sound great, too. It’s a solid foundation from which the hi-res streaming experience can only evolve.
Qobuz Sublime+ Qobuz strikes again here and says its hybrid download-and-streaming tier is ‘”the best music subscription in the world.” This top-tier package offers hi-res streaming up to 24bit/192kHz files (as well as CD quality tracks) on its desktop and mobile apps, with its 50-million-track catalogue including more than 240,000 hi-res albums.
The big downside is the price – you have to pay an upfront £250 annual fee to use Sublime+ and all its perks (which does include good discounts when buying hi-res albums). And in comparison, we found Tidal offers more drive and dynamism when it comes to sound quality. Qobuz’s hi-res streaming tier is a great venture, but only if you’re fully committed to hi-res streaming.
Amazon Music HD The most recent entrant into the hi-res streaming service world is Amazon – and its arrival at the end of 2019 largely marked hi-res streaming going mainstream. The cheapest hi-res service of the three, the value-packed streaming service is up there with the best thanks to its Intuitive desktop and mobile apps, good CD-quality and hi-res library and excellent value.
What’s next for hi-res audio?
With more support than ever before, hi-res audio is a viable choice for anyone interested in audio quality, whether part of your home audio system or when on the move.
Whether the biggest players – Apple, Sonos and Spotify – will ever natively support hi-res remains to be seen, but there are plenty of other, increasingly affordable ways that you can start delving into the hi-res audio world. (Interestingly, 360-degree or surround sound formats such as Sony 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos Music respectively are also making headway in offering higher quality, if not necessarily ‘hi-res’, music experiences, so they’re other options for melomaniacs to explore.)
With this wider availability, more people are able to learn and understand exactly what high-resolution audio is, and the benefits it can bring to music. There’s plenty of content out there, and there’s plenty of hardware to go with it.
So if you want the ultimate sonic solution, you know what to do.
MORE:
Where is Spotify Hi-Fi? And do we still want a lossless Spotify tier?
3 of the best high-res audio systems
Here’s a superb-sounding hi-fi system with streaming skills
Live concerts, gigs and festivals are still out as we march further into 2021, so the need to feel transported to somewhere more beautiful via melodies, lyrics and rhythms has rarely been felt more keenly. In short, music has never been in greater demand.
Whether you’re after a selection of sounds to help you get a good night’s sleep, tunes to entertain children at home or a selection of inspiring albums written in self-isolation, heading down to your local record shop and rifling through crates is off-menu right now. But that’s where streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Apple Music come in. These offer a lockdown-approved lifeline at the click of a button – a chance to test-drive new tracks and try sounds before you buy.
Spotify isn’t our reigning champion when it comes to value, variety and audio quality, but its popularity and accessibility is undeniable. And the platform is always trying to offer something new, whether it be artist-led algorithms to better personalise your music recommendations, listing virtual events in lieu of real ones or giving Spotify account-holders a chance to ‘tip’ acts while listening – acts who are clearly losing gig revenue right now.
If you’ve ever used Spotify, you’ll know that typing ‘new music’ into the search bar will yield a selection of curated mainstream newness from the likes of Lady Gaga, Ella Eyre, Jake Bugg and Stormzy, (and New Music Friday UK is always a good playlist shout here) but what if you’re looking for something a bit different? That’s where we come in. Why not lend your and ear to a few of these slightly more niche curated playlists? It’ll make a change from the hi-res files stored on your laptop, whatever’s on the Astell & Kern, the playlist someone shared with you at the start of the first lockdown or the CDs you retrieved from your car glove box, at any rate…
See our Spotify review
Crate Diggers Anonymous
(Image credit: Spotify)
Imagine a record store (remember those?) in Las Vegas. Now imagine one in east London. Now think about popping into one in Bilbao for a crate rummage. What new and old LPs might you unearth? You could soon be spinning John Mayall, Led Zep, Kool and the Gang, Barry White or Weather Report, it depends. There’s no specific genre here. Click play. Let’s see.
33 Spotify tips, tricks and features
Anti Pop
(Image credit: Spotify)
Think beat-driven spitting segued with melodic, softly-sung but often edgy vocals – forget commercial pop music, there’s a message here if we’ll only listen. Expect new tracks from Curtis Waters (pictured) and ballads from Joji interspersed with hard rap from Kenny Mason and everything in between. If OutKast, Wu Tang Clan, Dave, Dungeon Family or Bel Biv DeVoe have ever featured in your heavy rotation, give this a spin. You’ll almost certainly learn something.
10 Apple Music playlists to listen to right now
Defected Records (Deep House)
(Image credit: Defected Records)
There’s a time and a place for house music, and that time is right now, in your actual house. Home entertainment remains the only entertainment for most of us, so go ahead and bring it home. Defected Records is a British independent record label specialising in deep house music and recordings, founded in 1998 and based in London. This playlist does exactly what it says on the tin, with over 25 hours of head-nodding tracks from the likes of FISHER, Gorgon City, Ferreck Dawn and Jack Back.
25 of the best podcasts on Spotify
(Image credit: Matt Berninger/Spotify)
American singer-songwriter Matt Berninger (frontman of indie rock band The National) curates and updates this playlist on a weekly basis. You might get Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Leonard Cohen or Interpol. And you might get Marilyn Monroe, Whitney Houston or even John Prine singing about a happy enchilada.
“Playlist themes subject to change according to moods and events,” is the cover description. We say, if you want someone to serve up the collective mood through the medium of music, subscribe.
Tidal vs Spotify: which is better?
Most Necessary
(Image credit: Spotify)
It’s like the ultimate new rap music label. Spotify describes this playlist as “the official voice of generation next”. If you’re looking for a soundtrack for your next virtual house party, Most Necessary gets it done. With one eye on the next huge hit-single and another on capturing a snapshot of the current vernacular, you’ll rarely hear a track that misses the mark. Expect new offerings from CJ, DaBaby, Lil Tecca, BRS Kash (pictured) and Toosii, for starters.
Spotify Connect: what is it? How can you get it?
Phonica Recommends (Home)
(Image credit: Phonica)
Independent UK record store Phonica only opened in London’s Soho in 2003, but it quickly became one of the capital’s most-loved vinyl specialists. Basically, if Phonica recommends it, that’s more than good enough for us.
Phonica’s Spotify page reads: “So much great music out there that we’ve decided to split up our recommended playlists into two: one for the club and one for home listening”.
So now you’ve got two extra playlists to add to your list, spanning everything from dub, reggae, nu jazz, soul and funk to broken beat and techno. Click the link below to access Phonica’s recommended ‘home’ playlist, or turn your abode into a particularly exclusive club for the night, with the Phonica Recommends (Club) selection.
Gold School
(Image credit: Spotify)
Vintage throwback hip-hop that strays from the well-explored coastal tracks and celebrates lesser-known heroes of the genre. Think Camp Lo, Big L and Mac Miller alongside Drake, Ghostface Killah, Eminem, 50 Cent (pictured) and Nas.
Got a pressing Zoom meeting or big grocery shop ahead? Get the cans on and stream this. You’re going to ace it.
Acoustic Covers
(Image credit: Spotify)
Discover Hozier’s laid-back cover of the Destiny’s Child classic Say My Name, John Mayer’s take on Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ using just a mic and two guitars, or Teenage Dirtbag as you’ve never heard it before; sung not by Wheatus but by Ruston Kelly.
The moments of surprise, recognition and ultimately approval come thick and fast here. A staple go-to for when you just can’t decide what to listen to.
R&S – Office Favourites
(Image credit: R & S Records)
R&S Records is an independent record label founded in 1984 in Ghent, Belgium. R&S represents the initials of Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes, the couple responsible for creating the label.
Expect heavier electronica, house and trance offerings from Richard Fearless or V interspersed with expansive soundscapes from Darkstar, Nautic or Axel Boman, alongside the occasional grime track from Novelist. It’ll easily double as your running playlist too, if you’re pushing your time.
Late Night Lofi
(Image credit: Lofi/Spotify)
Think laid-back chill-hop, juicy lo-fi beats, layered synthy vocals, classical and jazz-infused piano chords with crisp textures; ice clinking in a glass, rain on a window, crunchy leaves and even the brushing of teeth. It’s perfect for playing through the cans and relaxing, zoning out, getting ready to sleep or seeing you through a bout of insomnia ’til sunrise.
At 4am in New York, when (if?) Birdland calls time at the bar, you’ll finish your drink and talk about the price of a subway ticket versus a yellow taxi home to this playlist, one day…
The What Hi-Fi? Lockdown Playlist (and more)
(Image credit: Bobby Womack)
Shameless self-promotion aside, this surely beats another Brian Eno album. What you’ll get is a What Hi-Fi? curated playlist featuring five-and-a-half hours of tunes to celebrate staying healthy and not going out.
It’s all relatively upbeat – no lonesome crooning – and all the titles here are relevant to our shared predicament, tangentially or otherwise. Think Lost In The Supermarket by The Clash, Outkast’s So Fresh, So Clean, Iggy Pop’s I’m Bored and Music For A Nurse by Oceansize, for starters.
Treat yourself to the full experience on Spotify and Tidal.
Like what you hear? There’s plenty more where that came from. We also regularly curate a monthly playlist featuring the music we’ve been listening to (and testing with) over the past 30 days. To enjoy it via the streaming service of your choice, just click on the relevant link below and drink your fill.
Listen: What Hi-Fi?Spotify playlist 2021
Listen: What Hi-Fi? Tidal playlist March 2021
Listen: What Hi-Fi? Deezer playlist March 2021
Listen: What Hi-Fi? Qobuz playlist March 2021
MORE:
Now stream 11 of the best musical soundtracks to test your speakers
See the best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
Watch 30 of the best music videos of all time
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
