myOurReview

Fosi Audio Merak: Review First things first: the Fosi Audio Merak is not as portable a CD player as you might think by looking at it. Obviously it’s small (28 x 150 x 150mm, HxWxD) and light (less than half a kilogram), but though easily picked up and moved around, it requires mains power to function. So there’s no taking it out and about — unless you also take a powerbank with you, of course. No, the Merak is designed for slotting into an external system or for private domestic listening via headphones. It manages both of these things thanks to a selection of analog and digital outputs. On the device's front, along with some physical controls and a rather small OLED display, there’s a 3.5mm headphone socket powered by Texas Instruments TPA6120 amplification. But it’s on the rear of the machine where the bulk of the action is. As well as a 3.5mm line-level analog output, there’s a digital opt...

Q Acoustics 3040c review: Two-minute review The 3040c is the smaller of two floorstanding speakers in Q Acoustics' celebrated 3000c range — it’s the fifth and final 3000c model, and it’s arguably the best of the lot. For £599 or equivalent, depending on where you reside, you'll receive two reasonably compact, elegant and nicely finished cabinets (available in four different finishes) with optimised point-to-bracing inside and a three-strong driver array on the outside. Two 120mm mid/bass drivers sandwich a 22mm soft-dome tweeter that’s decoupled from the rest of the cabinet — and with some input from a rear-firing bass reflex port, a claimed frequency response of 43Hz - 30khz is the result. Sensitivity of 88dB means you don’t need all that burly of an amplifier to drive these Q Acoustics speakers effectively. And when they’re being driven effectively, there’s plenty to like in ultimate te...

PSB iQ2: Two-minute review ‘Larger’ is not the same as ‘large’, and so while the PSB iQ2 is the larger of the two models in the newly refreshed iQ range, it’s still a very compact little pair of speakers. ‘Compact’ in this instance, though, in no way implies a shortage of features or a restriction on performance The standard of build and finish is good, the looks clean and understated no matter which of the seven different finishes you choose. The iQ2 has everything you could realistically hope for in a wireless speaker system costing this sort of money. It has — deep breath — wired and wireless connectivity (including a moving magnet phono stage for use with a turntable, and a HDMI eARC socket for connection to a TV), one of the best user interfaces around in the shape of BluOS, a total of 270 watts of power, frequency response that belies the physical size of the speakers, and authentically hig...

Astell & Kern AK HC5: two-minute review Astell & Kern builds some outstanding digital audio players, and the company also knows how to charge us for them. But it’s taken pity on those of us without the wherewithal, and has developed this HC5 headphone amp/DAC. It is a portable device intended to transform your bog-standard smartphone into a viable source of hi-res audio for anyone with the wired headphones good enough to take advantage of it. With high-end AKM digital-to-analog conversion components on board, Astell & Kern’s ‘digital audio remaster’ and ‘high driving mode’ technologies included, and both balanced and unbalanced headphone outputs, the HC5 is specified to get the job done. It also features half- a-dozen digital filters, as well as a huge range of volume adjustment and some slightly imprecise-feeling physical controls that serve to undermine the robust and tactile overal...

One-minute review With the OLED806, Philips has delivered a good-looking, well-made OLED TV with an absolute stack of functionality, a unique selling point and periodically splendid picture quality. And it’s done all this for a real-world price. Including every HDR standard isn’t unique - Panasonic does it too - but it certainly makes every other rival look a bit petty. A couple of HDMI inputs with full 2.1 specification is no more than next-gen gamers deserve. And the excellent picture quality - balanced and naturalistic, yet vibrant and exciting at the same time - is augmented by four-sided Ambilight for extra immersion and reduced eye-strain.  The Philips even sounds pretty good. All of which means the also-ran Android TV interface and intimidatingly in-depth set-up menus can be safely ignored in favour of everything the OLED806 gets right. If it’s in your price range, you simply have to audition it.     Price and availability The Philips OLED806 is part ...

The Samsung Q950TS is no longer the latest 8K flagship from the world's biggest TV brand – that moniker goes to the new QN900A we saw launched in 2021. But the Q950TS is still a notable 8K TV with impressive specs that might be worth eyeing up in any upcoming Black Friday sales. There's an element to which the Q950TS is overspecified, no matter how much you spend on it. With 8K resolution , this screen will spend most of its processing power upscaling the SD, HD and 4K sources you put into it, given the sheer lack of native 8K content out there. Yes, 8K cameras exist and yes, Netflix has apparently used one to develop some content. And yes, if this summer’s Tokyo Olympics don’t succumb to coronavirus paranoia then Japanese broadcaster NHK plans to broadcast the entire shebang in 8K. But really, 8K content in any meaningful quantity still looks a long way off.  So if it’s going to make any sort of case for itself at all, the Q950TS is going to have to perform miracles wit...