Sound + Image

SOUND + IMAGE magazine offers a comprehensive package focused on lifestyle home electronic entertainment. It provides easy-to-read information about audio and video equipment and how ordinary consumers can assemble extraordinary systems that look and sound fantastic.

Back to AI again • Why play pre-recorded music when you can make your own?

Vivid goes large

Suprema & Sonneto

A different kind of soundbar

Hideaway AV power

Meze rewrites the Lirics

PSB re-Imagined

Stax unpacked

B&O respins a classic

Meridian Ellipse

California streaming

Mixing with gamers

Discreet music

Genelac @ JMC

HIGH END MUNICH 2024 • Crazy hi-fi, aspirational hi-fi, innovative hi-fi, even some relatively affordable music-making systems — High End Munich continues to deliver Europe's biggest annual hi-fi show, and the 41st edition this May did not disappoint. Here is but a sample of the amazements that were to be heard; other show debuts have drifted onto our news pages and elsewhere in the issue…

Big sport on the big screen • In a year of big sport, our screens are getting bigger than ever. TVs up to 115 inches will land in Australia this year! Want even more? Check our reviews of two very different projectors which both go to 200 inches and beyond. Then a reference AV receiver and a nicely-priced soundbar. Because big sport demands a big screen – and big sound too!

Hisense UX & U8

Samsung 8K and 98-inchers

Sony A95L QD-OLED

TCL C855 & 115-incher

LG 97-inch OLED & beach TV

Top shelf • BenQ's W5800 is a full-sized ‘true 4K’ home cinema projector — no dongles, no built-in speakers, just a solid projector ready to deliver impressive images even for larger screens up to 200 inches.

Beaming baby box • Hisense has gone from TVs to short-throw ‘Laser TV’ projectors, and now brings a more conventional ‘mini’ projector in a kinda cube. How do Hisense's skills translate to the new environment?

Reference receiver • The ‘reference’ integrated AV receiver from Marantz may be the size of a beast, but it displays sense in its operations and subtle sensibility behind the 11 channels of power it provides for cinema and music alike.

Five from one • We gave JBL's top ‘Bar 1300’ an award; this lesser Bar 300 still combines an impressive five-channel feature set with sound both crisp and deep, at a more affordable price, from one box.

Naia goes higher • Rega has a new top deck, a production version of what was originally a no-limits experimental vinyl spinner, now birthed into the real world, with top turntable technology in a surprisingly skeletal design weighing under 5kg.

Second nature • Yamaha's ‘Natural Sound’ concept has rarely described a product better, as exotic materials and piano gloss combine in its 2000 Series floorstanders.

X hits the spot • Marking the centenary of Beyerdynamic, these ‘X’ edition headphones upgrade the standard version with the latest driver technology.

Ace in the hole • The long-awaited first headphones from Sonos look stylish and feel good. But sonically they play it very safe compared with the talented competition.

Compose yourself • Produced by a company formed of ex-AKG Austria staff, the Composers are the first consumer headphone from the company. They are ambitious, and hands-in-the-air magnificent performers.

True Wireless • Want to wander the world wrapped in your own private sonic universe? Wireless earbuds are more portable and less obtrusive than big headphones, though good fit becomes crucial, and their lifespans are low. Time to pop in the key competitors, from under $100 to premium models above $400.

Earfun Air Pro 3

Sony WF-C500

JBL Live Pro...