The manufacturer may be unfamiliar, but Roku is an excellent streaming platform, so is this affordable 4K flatscreen too good to resist, wonders Steve May? German TV giant Metz is the latest company to release a line of low-cost 4K HDR screens built around the Roku smart platform. Forever nipping at the heels of Amazon's Fire TV OS, Roku is distinguished by its ease of use. It doesn't bamboozle or befuddle, but does offer a huge variety of streaming service apps. Metz is an unfamiliar name to UK buyers, but it has an illustrious history that dates back to the 1930s. A regular face at the Berli ..read more

The 98P745K is TCL's most affordable 98in TV, costing around the same as a premium 55in OLED. John Archer wonders if this is the dawn of a new era When it comes to home cinema, bigger is always better. This idea has traditionally fed a thriving home cinema projector market, reinforced by the way king-sized TVs with screens of 90in and above have tended to be remortgage-requiringly expensive. Suddenly, though, projectors are finding themselves looking over their shoulders as a new breed of ultra-large TV – that you don't need to be an oil magnate to afford – bursts onto the scene. TCL is right ..read more

Danish brand's immersive audio processors finally find their equal in this stunning eight-channel power amp, says Martin Dew The launch of the eight-channel MXA-8400 amplifier in September 2023 filled a yawning gap in Lyngdorf's range. Until then, its customers had to stack multiples of its two-channel SDA-2400 amps to drive a home cinema speaker array. A model with more built-in channels was needed to get in line with competitors. The result is the MXA-8400, first teased in 2020 when company founder Peter Lyngdorf showed off a glass-topped prototype at ISE in Amsterdam. Then Covid took hold ..read more

The original Ambeo soundbar was a sonic revelation. Now Sennheiser hopes to impress with its smallest model yet. Steve May downsizes his Atmos addiction Intended for everyday living rooms and multimedia spaces, Sennheiser's Ambeo Mini wouldn't look out of place beneath a 42in or 48in screen. At less than half the cubic volume of its Soundbar Plus stablemate , and a fraction of the gigantic original Ambeo Max, you might even describe it as meek. That would be a mistake. This third addition to the Ambeo clan might be cute and compact, but there's no compromise on power. Its Class D amplification ..read more

On the surface, this £995 12in ported subwoofer doesn't scream 'AV excitement', but Richard Stevenson discovers it has hidden depths. Literally The Impact X Series is Velodyne's take on high-value subwoofery; all the LFE spills without the frills. Available in 10in, 12in and 15in variants, the theme is front-firing single-driver subwoofers with big amplifiers in 'functionally' styled ported cabinets. The 12in model tested here is the Goldilocks of the series, combining a punchy 12in long-throw driver with a 300W class A/B amp in a beefy 20mm-thick MDF cabinet and coming to a retailer near you ..read more

Jon Thompson once thought he'd never have to rewind a VHS tape again, but now discovers the vintage AV format is threatening a comeback 'It's dead!' is a term I have heard all my life about many things. Most recently, it's been popping up over and over again regards physical movie media. Then Oppenheimer came out on 4K Blu-ray and sold out all across the US in only a few days. People were crossing state lines to try and find a copy, and as always, the eBay scalpers kicked in with copies going for $500 to $1,000 for a very short period of time. So if the medium is dead, then why did it go crazy ..read more

Steve Withers samples a floorstanding multichannel package from British sonic wizards Q Acoustics When you think of multichannel audio the first thing that probably comes to mind are the surround (or height) channels, but in reality even the most active surround sound mix is primarily focused on the front of the soundstage. The main left and right speakers, along with the centre channel, do most of the heavy lifting by creating a wall of sound at the screen end of the room. So it pays to invest in bigger speakers that can handle the load, while also offering the added benefit of pulling double ..read more

Denon's new AV amp will help it consolidate its position in the mid-range market, says Steve Withers Denon has successfully carved a niche for itself when it comes to AV amplifiers and receivers, from the entry-level AVR-X2800H to the all-singing, all-dancing AVC-A1H flagship. But it's the middle segment of this market where the brand has perhaps proved strongest and the AVC-X4800H auditioned here is the perfect example, being an AV amplifier that combines features, performance and affordability. To demonstrate the value for money I'm talking about, let's quickly compare it to models above and ..read more

In late 2023 loudspeaker brand Magico announced a set of £450,000 loudspeakers. That's the sort of price tag that boggles, although those familiar with the company might just shrug, as its top-of-the-range offering is close to £1m. Not long after, Sonus faber announced a £695,000 package, called Suprema, but at least this comes with a couple of subwoofers. These launches piqued my interest, because it confirmed that the 'high-end' in hi-fi is still a thing, even while the budget arena is booming. Music lovers have never had so much choice. It's a different story in home cinema, where 'high-end ..read more

Do you have a sonically lacking flatscreen and a spare pair of loudspeakers? Ed Selley auditions an affordable HDMI-equipped amplifier that will unite the two As a 'hi-fi person' I'm no stranger to devices that perform one function. It's a cornerstone of the hi-fi separates approach and it ironically gets more pronounced the more expensive the equipment becomes. Even with this taken into account, Tangent's new Ampster TV II is a fairly unusual thing. Closely related to the Danish company's long-running Ampster II, this £200 unit again is based around a Class D integrated amplifier rated at 50W ..read more