Articles

AV receivers and dedicated processors both decode Atmos — but the engineering tradeoffs are real. Marcus Vale breaks down what the measurements actually tell you.

Theo Mensah cuts through the forum noise to explain what Roon, UPnP/DLNA and proprietary apps actually do differently — and whether any of it affects the sound.

Jonno Fraser breaks down how to correctly position every Dolby Atmos speaker channel — from the LCR front stage to overhead heights — in a real home cinema room.

B&W's fifth-generation 801 D5 debuts at $65,000/pair, unveiled at High End Vienna on 4 June 2026. Here's why it matters for serious Australian listeners.

JBL unveiled the 237kg, US$159,990 Summit Everest at High End Vienna 2026, completing its Summit Series on the brand's 80th anniversary.

KEF's revived Coda W packs 12th-gen Uni-Q, 100W Class D per side and a full input suite into an active standmount at US$999/pair. Is this the giant-killer the market needed?

ProAc has revived the classic DB1 as the Response DB1R — its smallest ribbon-tweeter standmount yet — unveiled at Bristol 2026. Here's what Australian buyers need to know.

The Dali Sonik 1 costs AU$849/pair and delivers a level of refinement that embarrasses plenty of speakers at twice the price. Dave Okafor puts them to the test.

Cambridge Audio debuts its first active wireless speaker range at CES 2026 — three models, serious specs and a flagship that challenges KEF on its own turf.

JBL's range-topping Summit Ama standmount brings horn-loaded compression-driver engineering to the high-end bookshelf. But does it justify its $20,000 asking price?

Dan D'Agostino unveils the Momentum Z monoblock — 500W into 8 ohms, Kinetic Drive Regulator technology, and a network port for real-time monitoring.

The 805 D5 arrives as the entry point to B&W's new 800 Series Diamond D5 range, with a refined Diamond Dome tweeter, Continuum cone and a $15,000/pair AU price tag.

Audio Note (UK) debuts the Oto SE 35 at £5,950/$5,950 — the first major technical refresh of its beloved EL84 integrated in decades.

McIntosh's MA2375 is its first all-valve integrated in over a decade — 75 watts per channel, pure analogue, with phono and headphone stages built in.

Rega unveiled the Solis power amp and Mercury preamp at Bristol 2026 — the British brand's first genuine reference amplification in years. Here's what it means.

FiiO teased a fully discrete, pure Class A desktop headphone amp ahead of Vienna High End 2026. Marcus Vale breaks down what it means for serious headphone listeners.

British pro-audio specialist Ultrafide debuts its first home integrated at Bristol 2026 — the 125W Enso INT-125, priced at £3,500.

Audio-Technica's AT-MCD1 arrives June 4, 2026, with a unified CVD diamond cantilever-and-stylus and dual moving-coil design at US$11,000.

Ortofon unveiled its most advanced moving-coil cartridge ever at High End Vienna on June 4, 2026. Here's why the MC Vertex matters for serious vinyl listeners.

Lumin's X2 ditches off-the-shelf DAC chips for a fully discrete converter, marking a bold new direction for the Hong Kong brand's flagship network player.

NAD's C 589 CD player pairs MQA Labs' QRONO d2a reconstruction technology with an ESS Sabre DAC — here's what that means for serious listeners.

dCS unveils its first-ever multichannel DAC at High End Vienna 2026 — eight stereo Ring DACs, discrete Class A outputs, and a question worth asking: is this the future of high-end home cinema?

Audeze's LCD-5s arrives with SLAM acoustic bass technology — a passive, non-DSP system promising deeper, tighter low frequencies on its $4,500 open-back flagship planar.

Antipodes Audio has established Oladra as its own super-premium digital brand, debuting the Sentia and Presence servers at AXPONA 2026.

Meze Audio's ASTRU arrives at $899 as a titanium-bodied, single-driver flagship IEM. Is its 10mm composite dynamic the antidote to multi-driver complexity?

Astell&Kern's AK HC5 dongle brings the flagship AK4499EX DAC chip and an OLED display to your pocket for $450. Is it the serious listener's ultimate USB-C companion?

Final's DX10000 CL debuted at Winter Headphone Festival Mini 2026 with a 26mm CVD pure solid diamond dome — and a price to match its ambition.

AWOL Vision's new Aetherion Max and Pro UST projectors bring tri-laser DLP, Dolby Vision Gaming and 240Hz to the laser TV fight. Here's what AU buyers need to know.

Hisense unveiled the XR10 long-throw and PX4-Pro UST at CES 2026, pushing its TriChroma RGB laser line further than ever. Here's what AU buyers need to know.

BenQ's W5850 brings laser/phosphor to the W5800 formula at US$6,999. Is the step up worth it for serious Australian cinema rooms?

The Valerion VisionMaster Max brings tri-laser DLP, Dolby Vision and 110% Rec.2020 to Australian lounge rooms for around AUD $3,896. Sofia Laurent investigates.

XGIMI's TITAN Noir Max debuts at CES 2026 with RGB triple-laser, a dual-iris contrast system and up to 100,000:1 dynamic contrast. Here's what AU buyers need to know.

JVC's BLU-Escent laser D-ILA range — from the compact NZ500 to the 8K e-shiftX NZ900 — continues to define premium projection heading into 2026.

Epson's Q-series flagship QB1000 is now established in Australia at AUD $11,900. We dig into whether it truly resets the benchmark below $12k.

Marantz slots a new mid-tier separates pairing beneath its flagship AV 10 and AV 20, with an 11.4-channel processor and 6-channel Class D amplifier, both priced at US$4,000.

Yamaha's new entry-level RX300A and RX500A AV receivers inherit the flagship AVENTAGE A.R.T. Wedge — a rare and meaningful trickle-down at under $600 USD.

Denon refreshes its mid-tier X-Series with the AVR-X2900H and AVC-X3900H, bringing Dirac Live, Auro-3D, IMAX Enhanced and wireless rear channels to the mainstream.

HARMAN expands Arcam's Radia family into home cinema with three AV receivers, a 16-channel processor and two power amps — all landing in Australia Q3 2026.

Onkyo unveiled a 15-channel THX Dominus processor and new receiver line at CES 2026, signalling a serious return to the AV separates market.

JBL Synthesis unveiled two new processors and a flagship receiver at ISE 2026. Here's what the SDR-40, SDP-60 and SDP-70 mean for serious Australian home-cinema buyers.

HDMI 2.2 doubles bandwidth to 96 Gbps, introduces the Ultra96 cable and a new latency protocol. Here's what it means for Australian home cinema buyers right now.

LG's Sound Suite H7 is the world's first soundbar powered by Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, promising adaptive spatial audio across up to 27 speaker configurations for US$999.99.

Dirac's 3.14.1 and 3.14.3 releases retire the old DLCT and expand ART support. Here's what changed, why it matters, and what AU buyers need to know.

miniDSP's Tide16 bundles Dirac Live Room Correction, Bass Control and ART in a standalone 16-channel processor. Marcus Vale unpacks what that means.

SVS debuted its biggest 3000-series overhaul in over 20 years at CES 2026. Here's what the R|Evolution means for Australian buyers.

SVS debuts its first-ever soundbar at CES 2026, pairing Dolby Atmos with a 600W wireless sub — and the 3000 Micro R|Evolution is already in AU.

REL's new Planar series breaks from the box format with two slim, wall-mountable subwoofers just 5.7 inches deep. Here's what it means for AU buyers.

CEDIA's 2026 Australian calendar is locked in: the Tech Summit and Smart Home Awards head to the Gold Coast in late October.

KEF's new Ci5120QLM-THX and Ci3120QLM-THX bring Uni-Q with MAT and THX certification to the in-wall space. Here's what AU buyers need to know.

ISE 2026 confirmed what many of us have suspected: microLED and RGB laser are rewriting the rules of residential cinema. Here's what it means for Australian buyers.

Spotify's new three-tier Premium structure in India, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Africa gates lossless 24-bit FLAC behind the top Platinum tier. Here's what it means for AU listeners.

Samsung's R95H and R85H series bring RGB mini-LED LCD down to $1,599 at CES 2026 — a genuine shift in big-screen home cinema value.

Qobuz's June 2026 annual results show 45.7% revenue growth in 2025, dwarfing the market's 8.8% rise, with profitability now targeted by March 2027.

Apple Music VP Oliver Schusser says most fans can't tell lossless from standard quality. Theo Mensah unpacks what that means for serious Australian listeners.

Qobuz has published an AI Charter and a proprietary detection system to tag fully AI-generated music, pledging to keep human curation at the heart of its catalog.

At CES 2026, Dolby confirmed Atmos Music is now built into 150+ vehicles across 35+ automakers. Here's what it means for spatial audio's mainstream moment.

Qobuz MD Dan Mackta says Spotify's lossless rollout caused only modest cancellations before the hi-res streamer's user base grew — here's why that matters.

Pioneer's SPHERA DMH-WT8000NEX is the world's first aftermarket in-dash receiver with Dolby Atmos via Apple CarPlay — and at $1,299.99 USD, it's a genuine game-changer.

After 21 years in Munich, HIGH END moved to Vienna for 2026 — and its debut drew 23,109 visitors, sold out months ahead, and left the industry buzzing.

Arcam debuted the dual-mono A50 Signature integrated amp and the CD25 CD player at HIGH END Vienna 2026, marking 50 years with genuine engineering intent.