For a company that’s been turning out high-quality turntable cartridges since the early 1960s, Audio-Technica certainly took its sweet time to begin manufacturing record players. Unless you count the ‘Sound Burger’ of the late 1980s (which I don’t, despite its re-release), it was the back end of 2009 before Audio-Technica delivered a turntable — but since then the dam has broken, and now the Japanese specialist is one of the most credible names around when it comes to record players at real-world money.

The AT-LP7X comes complete with the company’s AT-LT10 headshell and AT-VM95E MM cartridge attached — and also with a switchable moving magnet / moving coil preamplifier on board too. All of which means that setting up this record player is about as straightforward as it gets. And it’s compatible with just about any audio system you care to mention.

The quality of build and finish is well up to the standard this asking price demands, the height-adjustable isolation feet are another welcome feature, and the fully detachable dust-cover doesn’t harm the perceived value of the AT-LP7X either.

It’s not the most exciting listen, the Audio-Technica, and those who prefer a vigorous and/or front-foot attitude to their music will find it a little more laid-back than is ideal. The rest of us, though, will find quite a lot of solace in the turntable’s ability with detail retrieval and with rhythmic expression, in its even-handed attitude to frequency response and its careful lack of influence where tonality is concerned.

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X Review: Price and release date

• Launched on January 6, 2026
• Costs $999 / £699 / AU$1,799

The Audio-Technica AT-LP7X is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it costs £699. It sells for around $999 in the United States, while in Australia you’re looking at AU$1,799 or thereabouts.

This makes it a deck for Proper Vinyl People, rather than an entry-level turntable (something that might even have some amplification in the plinth and some speakers bundled in the box), so its closest competition for the money is something along the lines of the Rega Planar 3. Take note though: unlike the A-T you've come here to read about, the Rega option won't come supplied with a cartridge — or even a preamp…

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Features

• Integrated, switchable MM/MC phono stage
• J-shaped tonearm with AT-LT10 headshell and AT-VM95E MM cartridge
• Dual-axis gimbal

Any list of ‘features’ tends to be quite same-y when you’re discussing belt-drive turntables that sell at a realistic price. So the fact that the AT-LP7X has one more feature than is the norm is something worth discussing…

On the rear of the plinth, close to the stereo RCA left and right outputs, there are a couple of small switches. One is marked ‘phono/line’, the other ‘MM/MC’ — switch the first to ‘line’ and you engage the Audio-Technica’s integrated preamplifier, which amplifies the outbound signal to the point it can be connected to any amplifier, powered speaker or what-have-you with a line-level analog input.

The other switch allows you to tell the preamplifier if the turntable is fitted with a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge so it can adjust itself accordingly. And this is refreshingly unusual and welcome.

When it arrives, the AT-LP7X is supplied with a moving magnet cartridge — one of Audio-Technica’s well-regarded AT-VM95E designs. It’s prefitted to an AT-LT10 headshell positioned at the end of a 247mm J-shaped tonearm, and is preadjusted too. The tonearm features a dual-axis gimbal (to keep tilting to an absolute minimum) and has manual adjustment for tracking, height and counterweight integrated.

The set-up guide provided by Audio-Technica is admirably clear and succinct, and anyone with even remotely steady hands will be able to bring the AT-LP7X to a state of readiness in next-to-no time.

This is a belt-drive turntable with automatic speed adjustment — there’s a large rotary dial on the plinth that has ‘33’, ‘45’ and ‘stop’ positions, so there’s no need to faff around with the belt or what-have-you in order to change speeds. Speed is governed by an optical sensor-monitored motor designed to ensure rotational accuracy; to minimise the transmission of mechanical noise and/or vibration, it’s decoupled from the plinth by rubber bushings.

The stainless steel spindle has a thermal-plastic, sheet-type bearing to further help maintain precise rotational speed. Power comes via an external switching supply that isolates AC-to-DC conversion away from the turntable to suppress electrical interference.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Sound quality

• Smooth frequency response and even tonality
• Good low-frequency control
• Phono stage could be more involving

Use the AT-LP7X’s integrated phono stage to preamplify the signal on its way to an amplifier and there’s plenty to enjoy about the way the Audio-Technica goes about delivering music. No matter if it’s the opaque simmer of Bob Dylan’s Love Sick or the relentless build of ØXN’s Cruel Mother, this turntable is an even-handed and informative listen.

It certainly has a handle on frequency response. The low frequencies it generates could be a little less soft, it’s true, but in terms of allowing each area of the frequency range a similar amount of emphasis the AT-LP7X is an assured performer. It’s not especially keen on sticking its oar in where tonality is concerned, either — there’s a nicely neutral balance to the sound that allows the source material to dictate terms in this respect.

Despite the slight lack of substance at the bottom end, bass sounds are nicely controlled and there’s the facility with rhythmic expression that vinyl-fanciers routinely hold up as a major virtue of the format.

The midrange is open and informative, and the differences in timbre, character and technique between the two vocalists previously mentioned are made absolutely plain. At the top end there’s a serving of polite attack, and just enough bite and crunch to treble sounds to keep things interesting.

The Audio-Technica describes a reasonably well-defined soundstage and can position the participants in a recording on it with a fair amount of confidence. ‘Reasonable’ is an equally fair way to describe the AT-LP7X’s facility with dynamics, too — the ØXN recording builds in volume and intensity tenaciously, and this turntable does more than allude to these upshifts while stopping short of giving them full expression.

It’s more adept when it comes to detail retrieval, needing no qualification as to how impressively it handles the weighting and contextualisation of even the most minor occurrences in a recording.

The Audio-Technica’s overriding character is a little uninvolving, though — it presents music in a rather matter-of-fact way that has apparently traded excitement for a desire not to cause a fuss.

Some, but not all, of this attitude can be blamed on the integrated phono stage. Switch it off and instead connect the the AT-LP7X to a decent external alternative (an elderly Leema Elements, say, or a newer Pro-Ject Phono Box) and while it doesn’t suddenly turn the Audio-Technica into a snappy front-foot ball of energy, it certainly serves to bring a little more animation to the sound. All the things the turntable does well remain present and correct, but its attitude becomes a little more lively, a little more interested — and a little more interesting as a result.

• Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Design

• 157 x 450 x 352mm (HxWxD, inc. dust-cover)
• MDF plinth, acrylic platter
• Spring-based, height-adjustable isolation feet

No one in their right minds attempts to mess with the established design of a record player, of course — not unless they’re trying to justify some stratospheric asking price, anyway. And so with the AT-LP7X Audio-Technica has stuck closely to the long-established ‘rectangle with a circle on it’ template. The slightly curved corners of the plinth are as close as the company has come to deviating from the norm.

But just because the AT-LP7X hasn’t been ‘designed’ so much as ‘built’, that doesn’t mean Audio-Technica has withheld care and attention. The MDF plinth is very nicely finished, and stands on four hefty height-adjustable spring-based isolation feet that offer good isolation from external vibration to the main body. The 20mm platter is acrylic, and so smoothly finished that a slip-mat is an option rather than a necessity — its high-density design is yet another attempt to dampen vibration down to a bare minimum.

The AT-LP7X is supplied with a smoked Perspex dust-cover. This fits tidily around the plinth, and lifts all the way off rather than being hinged. With the dust-cover in place, the entire thing tips the scales at 7.6kg.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Usability and setup

• Adjust anti-skate and counterweight
• Select ‘phono’ or ‘line’ output
• Connect to amplifier or powered speaker

Audio-Technica has tried to make setting up the AT-LP7X as simple as possible. The tonearm already has its headshell and cartridge attached, and it’s pre-adjusted, so you need only dial in the appropriate amount of anti-skate and adjust the counterweight as per the set-up instructions. This is the work of just a moment or two, and then you’re good to go.

Or, at least, you are once you’ve connected the turntable to the mains and to your amplifier (or similar) using a pair of analogue RCA cables — Audio-Technica supplies all the necessary. Then select either ‘phono’ or ‘line’ output at the rear of the plinth (depending on whether or not your amplifier has a phono-level input) and make sure the other switch is set to ‘MM’ (if you’re using the supplied AT-VM95E cartridge).

To use the AT-LP7X, it’s just a question of getting the platter spinning at the correct speed and then carefully lowering the needle onto the vinyl. This is ancient technology by the standards of home entertainment, and there’s precious little complexity to it where the end user is concerned.

• Usability and setup score: 5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Value

If you need a phono stage to amplify the sound of that record player you’re thinking of buying, the AT-LP7X makes a lot of sense. Not only is it well-made and painless where set-up and operation are concerned, it’s got an integrated phono stage that can handle both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges — the value for money it offers in this respect is obvious.

If your system already features half-decent phono amplification, though, the Audio-Technica is not quite as compelling — because you’re spending money on a feature you’re unlikely to use once you’ve done the obligatory A/B comparison…

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Audio-Technica AT-LP7X?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X : Also consider

How I tested the Audio-Technica AT-LP7X

I tested the AT-LP7X in two ways. Firstly with its integrated phono stage switched on, and connected to a line-level analog input on an Eversolo DAC-Z10 preamplifier — this in turn is connected to a Cambridge Edge W power amplifier driving a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 Signature standmounting loudspeakers.

And then with the phono stage switched off and the connection from the turntable running to a Pro-Ject Phono Box preamplifier before being sent on to the Eversolo.

And then I listened to more records than was, strictly speaking, necessary.

• First reviewed: October 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

For a cent short of $180 (or a penny short of £140) Creative will sell you its XF1 desktop stereo speaker system — and don’t imagine this money buys anything less than a fully featured and serious product. It may look a little frivolous, especially when its cork ‘wedge’ stands are attached, but the XF1 is all business. And besides, those stands elevate the speakers to the point they’re firing at your ears rather than your torso.

An active and bi-amped arrangement that requires the speakers to be wired together and one of them to be connected to mains power, the Creative XF1 has a total of 72 watts of power on board — ample in the context of the most likely use cases. Bluetooth connectivity is on board, too with codec compatibility including the high-end LDAC option, and the USB-C input on the rear of the main speaker allows for genuinely hi-res content to be an option. There’s also an analog socket for additional input flexibility.

Very acceptable specification is complemented by a more-than-adequate standard of build and finish, a couple of colour options (black or white, monochrome fans) and a control app that features a 10-band PEQ offering an enormous amount of end-user input into the eventual sound.

And that sound has plenty going for it. Good enough for our best stereo speakers guide? For this sort of money, absolutely. There’s not a huge amount of variation at the bottom end, it’s true, and not a whole lot of momentum either, but elsewhere the XF1 does good work. Detail retrieval is impressive, the simple scale of sound it’s capable of generating is almost startling, and there’s a real facility for midrange communication. Add in a fair amount of dynamic headroom, as well as a proper sensation of focus and separation even if you’re sitting very close to the speakers, and it should be apparent that a place on your shortlist is the very least the Creative XF1 deserves.

Creative XF1 Review: Price and release date

• Launched June 24, 2026
• Retails for $179 / £139 / AU$339

The Creative XF1 desktop stereo speaker system is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it will cost you £139. It goes for $179 in the United States, while in Australia it sells for AU$339.

Usually, we wax lyrical about competing products at the level, but to do that here I'd likely need to delve into cheaper Bluetooth solo speaker options, bought twice and put in stereo mode. Even Ruark's Mk1 line (now into its third iteration) bijou stereo speakers are more than twice the price.

Know this: this is not a lot of money for such a proposition. Very few companies will give you more for less, although Logitech, with its Z407 is one notable example that can be yours for just a touch less than the Creative.

Creative XF1 review: Features

• 72 watts of Class D power
• Active, bi-amped configuration
• Digital and analogue inputs

Keep both the modest nature of the asking price and the equally modest physical dimensions of the XF1 uppermost in your mind and it's difficult not to be at least a little impressed by the way it’s specified.

There’s no facility to swap the orientation of the speakers — the one that takes care of connectivity and needs mains power is the right channel and that’s an end of it. Here’s where you plug in your sources using either USB-C (the XF1 can natively handle digital audio files of up to 24bit/96kHz resolution) or line-level analogue 3.5mm inputs on the rear of the speaker, and where you connect to the left channel using a supplied four-pin cable.

There’s also a pre-out for a subwoofer, an ‘energy saving’ switch that will power down an inactive XF1 if you set it to the ‘on’ position, and a button to initiate Bluetooth pairing. Wireless connectivity is on board the right speaker, too — the Creative uses Bluetooth 6.0, and is compatible with LDAC as well as the more common SBC and AAC codecs.

That four-pin cable carries all audio data from right to left, and all power requirements too. Creative has specified a block of Class D amplification for each of the drivers in the XF1 — each 19mm soft-dome tweeter gets 10 watts of power, and each 76mm mid/bass driver (designed using what Creative describes as ‘finite element analysis’ for minimal distortion) gets 26 watts to play with.

An all-in total of 72 watts should really prove ample in a system that’s almost certain to be no kind of meaningful distance from your ears when it’s in position — especially when you factor in the back-firing bass reflex port towards the top of the rear of each cabinet. Creative suggests frequency response from this arrangement is 55Hz - 40kHz.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Sound quality

• Manages to sound spacious yet focused at the same time
• Good with detail retrieval
• Slightly plodding character to the low end

If you’re using the XF1 on a desktop, the chances are you won’t need to explore the outer reaches of its abilities where volume is concerned. If you’re sitting a greater distance from them, though, never worry that these little cabinets will sound lost. They’re louder than they look.

And no matter the volume level at which you’re listening, the Creative system sounds bigger than it looks, too. A 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC file of Lorde’s Shapeshifter sounds open and spacious, with plenty of air around the elements of the recording — but at the same time the speakers manage to focus the performance quite convincingly too. There’s a commonality to the way it presents the recording, a togetherness that’s by no means a given in systems like this, especially not systems that cost as relatively little as this. The idea of a soundstage is made more than just a notion.

With the qualified exception of the bottom of the frequency range, the XF1 does good work in identifying details in a recording and giving them the sort of context and weighting they require. It’s particularly adept in the midrange, where the smallest variations in tone or timbre or texture are picked up on — it serves to make voices sound characterful and individualistic. The tonal balance is never truly neutral no matter how you might finesse the PEQ settings, but the suggestion of heat does at least serve to mitigate the tweeter’s tendency to hit the highest frequencies with rather too much enthusiasm.

There’s a reasonable amount of dynamic headroom available, so if your music (or your movie, or your game) ticks off a big up- or downshift in volume or intensity, the XF1 doesn’t panic. It maintains its composure and its tonal balance, its frequency response doesn’t alter, and it does a reasonable job of putting meaningful distance between the most and least attacking sounds.

At the bottom of the frequency range the Creative is a little less assured and a little less successful. It hits admirably hard, but bass isn’t as well controlled as the rest of the frequency information, and can plod a little as a result — this has an unwelcome knock-on effect where rhythmic expression is concerned. And the low end is all rather one-note - there’s little of the variation or the fine detail available here that’s apparent elsewhere.

Switch to Bluetooth stream of Girl and Girl’s Call a Doctor and, broadly speaking, the XF1 maintains its attitude and fundamental character. Derail levels drop away just a fraction, and there’s a little less positivity where stereo focus and separation are concerned, but taken as a whole the Creative is a perfectly viable system where wireless music is concerned.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Design

• 191 x 100 x 155mm (HxWxD)
• Cork stands included
• Curved MDF cabinets

Desktop space is usually at a premium, of course, so the XF1’s 191 x 100 x 155mm (HxWxD) dimensions are usefully compact. And given that most desktops are lower than the ears of the person who’s sitting at it, the appearance of a couple of detachable cork stands that raise each speaker at an angle of 15° is very welcome indeed.

The speakers themselves are made almost entirely from MDF, and from the curves along each horizontal edge to the slightly soft-touch matte finish, they look a little more expensive than they actually are — and this is true no matter if you've chosen the white finish or the black of my sample. The standard of build and finish wouldn’t disgrace a system costing two or three times this amount.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Usability and setup

• One physical control plus an LED tell-take
• Creative Nexus app
• ‘Wireless’ means a minimum of two wires

As far as setting up the XF1 is concerned, there’s really not much to it. As with most ‘wireless’ speaker systems, some wires are necessary — in this instance, there’s a wire from the right speaker to the left carrying all power and data, and another from the right speaker to a mains power supply. Make these two connections, pair a smartphone via Bluetooth and you’re good to go - or you may decide to go the whole hi-res hog and make a USB-C connection from a laptop or smartphone with a premium music streaming service on board.

There’s a single turn/push control dial on the front baffle of the right speaker, along with a tell-tale LED- here’s where you get control of power on/off, volume and input selection. And there’s also the Creative Nexus control app — it features precisely no playback controls, but it does allow you to check on firmware updates and let the system know if it’s on a desktop or not. It also gives access to a 10-band PEQ that has scope for custom settings as well as literally dozens upon dozens of presets, some of Creative’s own design, some uploaded by users.

• Usability and setup score: 5 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Value

As with most Creative systems, the sensation of value for money is pretty strong with the XF1. Sonically it’s not without its issues, as I’ve discussed — but it’s possible to weigh these against the things it gets right in audio terms, the standard of the build and finish that’s on display, the neat and tidy dimensions, and the amount of tweaking the PEQ allows and still conclude you’re getting your money’s-worth.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Creative XF1?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Creative XF1 : Also consider

How I tested the Creative XF1

Naturally I position the Creative XF1 on my desktop, a speaker on either side of my MacBook Pro. Plugged into the mains, connected to each other and with a USB-C cable running from the laptop to the rear on the right speaker, I am able to access lots of hi-res content via the Qobuz and TIDAL apps. I also connect an iPhone 15 Pro and a FiiO M15S digital audio player wirelessly via Bluetooth — the latter allows use of the LDAC codec, and connecting it via its 3.5mm headphone output to the Creative’s corresponding input allows me to assess how effective (or otherwise) the XF1’s digital-to-analogue conversion is.

• First reviewed: October 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

Leak has been doing very nicely as its own tribute act lately, and the latest product to get the ‘walnut and aluminium’ mid-20th century modern retro treatment is a network streamer called TruStream.

But while it looks like a throwback, the TruStream is thoroughly modern on the inside. Wired and wireless connectivity, balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs, a top-end 32bit ESS Sabre DAC and a streaming platform provided by Silent Angel all contribute to a player that’s absolutely got it where it counts. Its control app could learn a thing or two from pretty much anyone else’s control app, mind you…

Given some good hi-res content to deal with, the Leak proves an expansive, detailed listen that controls both the layout of a soundstage and the description of rhythms really well. Its powers of insight and resolution make for an absorbing listen — although the sensation of outright fidelity is undermined just a little by the integrated DAC’s tendency to attack high frequency information a little too readily and by a relative lack of dynamic headroom. But given everything it does well in sonic terms, and given that it’s a visually unique offering in a “me too!” market, don’t be surprised if plenty of people are able to overlook these shortcomings…

Leak TruStream Review: Price and release date

• Launched in April 2026
• Costs $1,499 / £999 / AU$2,199

The Leak TruStream network music player is on sale now having hit shelves in April 2026 for most of us, and in the United Kingdom it costs £999. In Australia it goes for something like AU$2,199, while in the United States it will set you back $1,499 or thereabouts.

And while that's not crazy money in the world of hi-res audio and hi-fi, it's emphatically an investment — and Leak's still up against stiff competition from the likes of Cambridge, with the CXN100, priced at $1,099 / £899 / €1,049 (around AU$1,665).

There's also a November 2026-launch Yamaha dual hi-fi streamer launch to cast your eye over if you're looking for alternatives, starting with the cheaper Yamaha WXC-70, which at the time of writing is due to sell for £859 (about $1,170, AU$1,700), so it's the cheaper of the two models.

Then again, Nagra's Compact Streamer was launched just before the Leak, in March 2026 — and that will set you back a slightly more eye-watering £6,000 / AU$9,495 (around $8,000). So, there's plenty to think about within Leak's chosen territory.

Leak TruStream review: Features

• 32bit ESS Sabre DAC
• Digital outputs as well as balanced and unbalanced analogue outputs
• Silent Angel streaming platform

You’re not short of choice when it comes to network streamers at this sort of money, even if the rest of them don’t have a hint of the TruStream’s visual panache. Good looks will only carry a product a little way, though, so it’s just as well Leak has specified the TruStream to be fully competitive.

The TruStream uses Silent Angel technology for its streaming platform, and that’s an uncomplicatedly good thing. Low-noise digital transmission and stable networking are the foundations of Silent Angel’s reputation, and when you also consider the Leak’s wide compatibility with streaming technologies it looks like a very wise choice indeed. Apple AirPlay 2, ‘Connect’ for Qobuz, Spotify and TIDAL, and TuneIn internet radio are all available, and in addition the TruStream can deal with playback from network-attached devices via DLNA or from physically connected USB drives. By way of an encore, it’s also Roon Ready.

The Leak takes care of the critical digital-to-analogue business with a 32bit ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M DAC chipset. It’s able to deal with every worthwhile digital audio file type (as well as quite a few of the more esoteric alternatives) and can operate at resolutions of up to 32bit/768kHz PCM and DSD512. You can get the information to the DAC using Ethernet, dual-band wi-fi or one of the three USB inputs on the rear of the machine — there’s a USB-C for use with PCs and a couple of USB-A slots for direct connection of storage devices.

You’ve a few options when it comes to getting it out again, too. As well as balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA analog outputs, the Leak also features digital coaxial and digital optical outputs - which is handy on the off-chance you have a more capable DAC somewhere in your system than the one fitted here. There’s also a 6.3mm headphone socket on the fascia, which is powered by a dedicated current-feedback headphone amplifier that’s able to drive even quite tricky loads presented by unhelpful headphones.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Leak TruStream review: Sound quality

• Detailed, organised sound delivered at considerable scale
• Could be more dynamic
• Treble response can be provoked

It’s not, strictly speaking, a game of two halves here — because the things the TruStream gets right outweigh the things it struggles with more than somewhat. Its shortcomings, though, do undermine its overall performance more than a touch - so I may as well start with them before I get into the good stuff.

The Leak is not an especially dynamic listen where the broad strokes of ‘quiet/loud’ and ‘gentle/intense’ are concerned. The two-and-a-half hours of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II feature more than a few fluctuations of this type, and while the TruStream is able to make the differences in volume and attack apparent, it doesn’t have the headroom to put proper distance between them. Some similarly priced rivals describe the distance between ‘quiet’ and ‘loud’ in miles, but the Leak measures them in meters.

The same recording reveals its tendency to hit the higher frequencies quite hard, too — or, at least, it does when it’s doing its own digital-to-analog converting. The onboard DAC has a lot going for it — as I will get to shortly — but it’s fairly edgy where treble sounds are concerned and in the wrong circumstances can become quite fierce. A listen to the way the Leak hits the plosives in the vocal during Dalliance by The Wedding Present lets you know what ‘the wrong circumstances’ are.

Elsewhere, though, the TruStream has plenty going for it. The scale of its presentation, for instance, is straightforwardly impressive. It generates a large and persuasive soundstage that manages to incorporate a sensation of ‘front to back’ as well as ‘left to right’. The areas between participants on the stage are described just as carefully as the activities of the participants themselves, and there’s more than enough breathing space available for even the most complex recordings to sound organised and coherent.

Aside from the latent treble issues, there’s a nice neutrality to the tonality and an evenness to the frequency response that’s on display here. At the bottom end the TruStream hits good and hard without being showy about it, and controls the attack of bass sounds with such confidence that rhythms are always expressed in a positive and naturalistic manner. It transitions into the midrange smoothly, and once there it’s perfectly capable of revealing the full range of attitude and character in a vocal performance.

In fact, detail levels are gratifyingly high at every stage — even the most minor occurrences in a recording are picked up on, and the Leak has real expertise when it comes to giving these details the proper weighting and context. It’s particularly adept when it comes to identifying the harmonic variations that come to fore when listening to unaccompanied voice or solo instrument, and those same circumstances also let it highlight its facility with transient information.

• Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5

Leak TruStream review: Design

• 118 x 330 x 288mm (HxWxD)
• A single, quite distinctive, finish
• Goes without a display

Whoever it was that said “people who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like” was really onto something. Not everyone will want their network streamer to look like it was designed 70 years ago, of course — but the rest of us will get one look at the diminutive (118 x 330 x 288mm, HxWxD) walnut casework and immediately feel covetous.

The fact that the TruStream is very nicely constructed and impeccably finished, and the aluminium of its fascia contrasts nicely with the wooden panelling - both materials are as tactile as they are visually alluring.

I realise the whole md-century vibe might be compromised by a fascia display, but nevertheless it conceivably puts the TruStream at a disadvantage when you consider the price-comparable rivals that feature quite large, crisp, bright, colourful screens displaying album artwork and what-have-you.

Yes, that information is all available on the device you’re using to stream to the Leak — but ultimately I have to hope the money that has been saved by not implementing any display technology, and the absence of the inevitable electrical activity a display creates inside a streamer, results in a player that outperforms anything of similar price that has one.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Leak TruStream review: Usability and setup

• Remote control handset
• ‘Leak TruStream’ control app
• A few fascia controls

Setting up the Leak TruStream is, with one significant caveat, straightforward. It needs to be plugged into the mains, of course, and a physical connection made to the system into which it’s forming a part — all that’s required then is to get it onto your local network and you’re good to go.

But because of the way the ‘Leak TruStream’ control app (which is free for iOS and Android) is configured, this is not as simple as it really should be. It uses a mixture of fonts, all of them rather small and some of them with unnecessary serifs that look fussy and spoil legibility. The occasional use of black type on an orange background is unhelpful too — yes, it passes WCAG (web content accessibility guidelines) standards but is nevertheless difficult to read, especially as those guidelines tend to concern themselves with ‘normal’ and ‘large’ text. The colorblind or otherwise visually impaired will find these elements fatiguing if they can read them at all.

It’s only fair to mention at this point that the app is stable, wide-ranging and does all of the stuff you’d reasonably expect: browse internet stations, check for firmware updates, build playlists and so on, and there’s a degree of home-page customisation available too. But it’s hard to shake the suspicion that this started as a desktop application and has been transferred to mobile devices either on the cheap or in a hurry (or both).

The big remote control handset is a system control, and so the majority of its buttons are surplus to TruStream requirements. Still, it’s a sight more legible than the control app. And the very few fascia controls (power on/off, input selection and volume) feel nicely positive in their action.

The volume control allows the Leak to function as a preamplifier when connected directly to active speakers or a power amp, as long as you don’t mind ‘the system’ consisting of a network streamer — there are no inputs for external source devices, of course.

• Usability and setup score: 3 / 5

Leak TruStream review: Value

If you can put a price on a pleasing aesthetic, on the look and feel of premium materials, and on hard-to-come-by individuality, then the Leak TruStream seems a pretty compelling offering even before you consider the thorough nature of its specification or the sound it makes. And though the sound it produces is not entirely without issues, there’s so much to like about it in sonic terms that it seems likely that many listeners who are sold on the look will reach an accommodation with the slight shortcomings in the sound.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

Should I buy the Leak TruStream?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Leak TruStream: Also consider

How I tested the Leak TruStream

I use the TruStream as a source, connected to an Eversolo DAC-Z10 first by its analogue outputs and then by its digital equivalent - which makes assessing the relative quality of the Leak’s DAC straightforward. I also connect it directly to a Cambridge Edge W power amp using its XLR outputs - which means it’s now a preamp as well as a network player. Alternating between wi-fi and Ethernet connections allows access to Qobuz and TIDAL Connect, as well as giving access to a Synology BeeStation Plus (full of very hi-res content) on the local network.

• First reviewed: October 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

Wharfedale has been having a lovely old time with its range of ‘Heritage’ loudspeakers lately — revisiting, remixing and reworking some of its Greatest Hits. The new Denton 1S, though, is slightly different. It’s an update of a 1974 design that went all-out to present as modern and forward-thinking. And so this reinterpretation has a ‘modern retro’ vibe rather than the ‘antique’ feel of other Wharfedale ‘Heritage’ models.

The curvy cabinet with its recessed front baffle, the mildly dramatic coaxial driver arrangement (which sees the tweeter positioned in throat of the mid/bass driver) and the handily compact dimensions are all attractive — and the option of a fairly deep blue as a finish doesn’t do any harm in this respect either. The numbers, both in terms of frequency response and of sensitivity, are encouraging too.

And when they’re doing their thing, it’s immediately apparent that the Wharfedale Denton 1S are no mere pastiche — they are a profoundly competitive pair of loudspeakers on their own terms and yes, it's a good enough performance to make them some of the best stereo speakers on the market, right now.

The sound is, ultimately, slightly small-scale — but it’s organised, confident, entertaining, loaded with detail and has real unity and singularity to the way it’s presented. Yes, $999 / £649 spent elsewhere on a small pair of passive standmount speakers will buy you something different in sonic terms, certainly, but it’s very debatable indeed as to whether it can buy you anything better.

Wharfedale Denton 1S Review: Price and release date

• Launched May 31, 2026
• List price of $999 / £649 / AU$1,699

The Wharfedale Denton 1S speakers are available now, and in the United Kingdom a pair will set you back £649. In the United States this solution costs $999, while in Australia the going rate is AU$1,699 or thereabouts.

At this money, the just about cheaper Dali Sonik 1 might be their chief competition, at $900 / £449.99 / AU$849. And just to throw it out there, while many pricier options obviously exist, Cambridge Audio's Award-winning active L/R S can be yours for a little less, at $549 / £399 / AU$949. Something to consider, anyway.

Wharfedale Denton 1S review: Features

• Coaxial tweeter / mid/bass driver
• ‘Brilliance’ switch
• Rear-facing bass reflex port

Passive loudspeakers have purity of purpose and are, unless someone’s being bloodyminded, relatively simple devices. Their list of features is seldom exhaustive. It’s a sign of just how straightforward passive loudspeakers tend to be that the Denton 1S stands apart simply because of a small rocker switch on the rear of each cabinet.

Unlike 1974’s original Denton 1, the Denton 1S features a truly coaxial driver arrangement. Here a 25mm soft-dome tweeter sits in the acoustic centre of a 165mm mid/bass driver made from polypropylene. Here, as with any coaxial driver, the idea is to offer superior time-alignment and driver integration.

With the forward-firing drivers bolstered by a rear-facing bass reflex port, Wharfedale is quoting a frequency response of 50Hz — 20kHz and sensitivity of 88dB — that second figure strongly suggests this speaker will be in no way tricky to drive. Of course, the orientation of the reflex port means that low frequency presence is likely to increase the closer to a rear surface the speaker is positioned — and that’s where the little rocker switches come in.

It’s described as a ‘brilliance’ control, and its two positions are labelled ‘norm’ and ‘max’. The idea is that setting the switch to ‘max’ will give a 1.5dB boost to the 2 - 4kHz area, which should allow the upper frequencies to hold their own against the emboldened low end in the event that the reflex port is delivering a little too much of a good thing. Of course, it will take the listener roughly no time at all to establish whether or not they think the ‘max’ setting is a good idea or not.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Wharfedale Denton 1S review: Sound quality

• Detailed, energetic and rhythmically coherent sound
• Great imaging and stereo focus
• Ultimately sound fractionally small-scale

Owners of loft apartments, aircraft hangars and the like, look away now. There’s a huge amount to enjoy about the way the Wharfedale Denton 1S perform, but when it comes to outright scale, the ability to fill an authentically large space with sound, there are better options around that cost a similar amount of money.

Everyone else, though, should read on.

No matter the source of music, no matter if it’s as straightforward as Looped by Kiasmos or as relatively complex as Re-make/Re-model by Roxy Music, the Denton 1S get an immediate handle on it. They’re a generously entertaining listen, vigorous in a nicely controlled manner, and carry enough detail along with them to make sure you’re as informed as you are stimulated.

That coaxial driver arrangement works a treat inasmuch as the imaging and stereo focus the speakers are capable of is completely convincing. There’s a unity and a togetherness about the way the Wharfedale present recordings that’s never less than enjoyable and periodically absorbing. In combination with their spirited and enthusiastic attitude, it makes for a genuine sense of performance — even if you’re listening to a recording that was never a performance in the first place. And while the soundstage isn’t the largest, it’s properly defined and rigorously organised.

The tonal balance is, fractionally, on the warmer side of neutral — but as long as the system that’s powering the speakers isn’t overtly toasty then it really shouldn’t be an issue. Frequency response, too, is just slightly titled. There’s a tiny suggestion of emphasis on the lowest frequencies, but again this is only likely to be a concern if the speakers are powered by a bass-centric set-up. Anyway, low-end control is confident and the Wharfedale express rhythms with real coherence as a result.

Midrange resolution is impressive too, and there’s real eloquence to the way the Denton 1S handle voices. Detail retrieval, which is impressive across the board, really comes to the fore here — the character and attitude imbued in a vocal performance, as well as information regarding timbre and technique, are made apparent. And at the top of the frequency range, the Wharfedale attack with determination — but there’s plenty of substance, as well as brilliance, to treble sounds, and never any suggestion of edginess or hardness.

The attention to detail extends as far as the dynamic of harmonic variation, and there’s a fair amount of capacity where the broader dynamics of volume or intensity are concerned. When the charge into the last chorus or the massed orchestral crescendo kicks in, the Denton 1S track it faithfully — and they do so without altering their sonic characteristics in the slightest.

And you don’t need a brute of an amplifier to enjoy all of these admirable attributes. The Wharfedale are in no way tricky to drive; even a modestly priced amplifier with unremarkable power numbers should have no problem getting the best from these speakers. And ‘the best’ is, on a pound-for-pound basis, at least on a par with the very best around.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Wharfedale Denton 1S review: Design

• 330 x 236 x 229mm (HxWxD)
• Magnetically attached grilles
• Choice of three finishes

The coaxial driver means the Denton 1S should be just as happy (and effective) positioned on its side as it is standing upright. And the fact that Wharfedale has provided an integrated fitting for a wall bracket suggests the company thinks the speaker will perform successfully if it’s wall-mounted too. Cabinet depth of 229mm (which obviously increases with the pair of speaker cable binding posts at the rear) doesn’t automatically shout ‘wall-mount!’ to me, though, I have to admit.

Mind you, no matter where you position the Wharfedale they look good. The cabinet features the same curves and the same recessed front baffle as the original Denton 1 — in white, especially, there’s more than a hint of that late-60s / early-70s futurism that started years previously with the likes of Dieter Rams and Stanley Kubrick. Unlike the original model, though, which was made from moulded polyurethane that looked and felt super-modern but was a bit of a disaster in acoustic terms, the Denton 1S is made from bonded and braced fibreboard. Less modern, more effective.

That recessed front baffle allows the magnetically attached grilles to almost sit within the cabinet, and they’re flush with the top, bottom and side panels when they’re in position. Both the grille and the front baffle features a quite assertive stylised ‘W’ logo that lets you know you’re in the presence of a ‘Heritage’ Wharfedale design.

The compulsory options of black and white are joined by a third finish — the deep-ish blue of my review sample. Each of the available finishes looks good, no two ways about it, but the dimensions and the shape of the Denton 1S could quite easily lend themselves to quite a few other colours. It works for Dali and Cambridge, and I see no reason why Wharfedale shouldn’t produce the Denton 1S in some livelier finishes than are currently on offer.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Wharfedale Denton 1S review: Usability and setup

• Attach some speaker cable running from an amplifier
• Position the speakers to your satisfaction
• Experiment with grille and ‘brilliance’ switch

Just as with ‘features’, there’s really not too much to get your head around here. You’ll decide to position your speakers on dedicated stands, or on wall-brackets, or on a shelf… no matter where you want them, though, they’ll need to be connected to an amplifier via a couple of lengths of speaker cable.

After they’re positioned and running, you have just a couple of chances to have some input into the way they sound. The sonic difference between ‘grille on’ and ‘grille off’ is, quite honestly, less significant than the visual difference — but you will most definitely have a preference as to whether you prefer your ‘brilliance’ switch at ‘norm’ or ‘max’.

• Usability and setup score: 5 / 5

Wharfedale Denton 1S review: Value

It’s very hard indeed to argue against the notion that there’s great value for money on offer here. The Wharfedale Denton 1S are properly made, expertly finished, visually interesting (everything’s relative, after all), intriguing on a technological level and, most importantly of all, sound engaging and alert. Unless you crave absolutely as much sonic scale as this sort of money can buy, there’s an awful lot to enjoy and even admire here.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Wharfedale Denton 1S?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Wharfedale Denton 1S : Also consider

How I tested the Wharfedale Denton 1S

With the Wharfedale Denton 1S on a pair of Blok Axis stands, I connect them to my reference system: Cambridge Edge W power amplifier, Eversolo DAC-Z10 pre-amplifier, Technics SL1300G turntable (with Goldring 1022 cartridge and preamplified by a Chord Huei), Arcam ST25 network streamer and Rega Apollo CD player — so I was able to listen to music from many storage formats and at a wide variety of resolutions. And then in an effort to up the ‘retro’ credentials just a little, I replaced the pre- and power amplifier with an A&R Cambridge A60 integrated amplifier from 1976.

• First reviewed: October 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

It’s been a long time since Astell & Kern has had a genuinely affordable digital audio player in its line-up, and the launch of the PD5 does nothing to change that.

It’s been a while since the company had anything as visually unremarkable as this in its catalog, too — but try not to get hung up on the perceived value and instead concentrate on the priceless nature of its sound quality.

And besides, a considerable amount of money put Astell & Kern’s way for a PD5 may not buy you much in the way of design or tactility but it gets you an extremely thoroughly specified device. Eight Cirrus Logic DACs? 20-point EQ adjustment? Balanced and unbalanced headphone outputs? The ability to work as a desktop DAC? Enough power to get a tune out even the most uncooperative headphones? The PD5 has all of this, and more — and it’s all in the service of audio performance that’s as good as any portable device at anything like this price point.

When it comes to clarity, to detail retrieval and to outright fidelity, the PD5 is extremely hard to criticise and yes, it fully emphatically deserves a place in our best MP3 players guide. And its talents don’t stop there, not even close — its sound is punchily robust, effortlessly dynamic, brilliantly controlled and organised, and thoroughly engaging. If you take your portable listening experience seriously (or your desktop listening experience for that matter — the PD5 is also an excellent USB DAC), this Astell & Kern absolutely demands your attention.

Away from audio quality the PD5 isn’t perfect; there are rare occasions on which it can be glitchy in operation, its on-screen menus are approaching ‘miniscule’, and it neither looks nor feels quite as expensive as it actually is. All of this, though, is made to seem fairly trivial by the way the PD5 performs its primary function.

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Price and release date

• Priced $1,049 / £899 / AU$1,349
• Announced in August 2026; released in September 2026

The Astell & Kern PD5 digital audio player is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it costs £899. In the United States it will set you back $1,049, while in Australia it goes for AU$1,349.

Anyone familiar with such devices knows that for an A&K player, that's actually not so expensive — again, note my 'for an A&K player' wording there. This company's flagship DAPs go for $3,999 / £3,799 / AU$6,599 (Astell & Kern A&ultima SP4000 and its newer T-suffixed sibling, I'm looking at you), but you can also get a hi-res player from A&K's sub-brand — called the Activo P1 — for $430 / £399 (around AU$869).

There are crucial differences in the specifications which I'll go into, but it's good to have an idea of the market at least, when looking at such a fee and being told by its makers that it is "entry level".

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Features

• Eight (count ‘em!) Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs
• Balanced and unbalanced headphone outputs
• Bluetooth 5.3 with aptX HD support

The PD5 isn’t the first Astell & Kern product that’s been so thoroughly specified that discussing every one of its features in any kind of depth might take up most of your day. So let’s say right from the off that no eventuality has been overlooked where the PD5 is concerned, and then let’s deal with the headlines and then try not to get too bogged down in all the rest of it…

Never knowingly understated, Astell & Kern has fitted eight Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chipsets here. The user interface gives you the option of listening using four, or all eight — listening in octa-mode offers optimal sound quality, but eats into battery life quite badly (engage all eight DACs and you’re looking at 15 hours of playback as opposed to the 28 or so you should get when listening to ‘just’ four). Taking the battery from ‘flat’ to ‘full’ takes around two-and-a-half hours.

In terms of feeding digital audio content to that considerable digital-to-analog conversion line-up, you have a few options. The bare-bones Android user interface Astell & Kern has deployed here, along with dual-band wi-fi, allows you to download the app of your favourite music streaming service(s), and 64GB of internal memory allows you to store some content to the PD5’s local storage. There’s a microSD card slot on the bottom of the frame (next to the USB-C slot that’s used for data transfer and for battery charging) too — it can accept cards of up to 1.5TB, which should prove adequate for all the hi-res content you might desire.

The player can deal with resolutions of up to 32bit/384kHz PCM and DSD256, and is Roon Ready as well as featuring full-on Qobuz Connect integration. Or you might decide to bypass the fancy-pants D-to-A circuitry altogether and use Bluetooth to drive a pair of wireless headphones (although it does seem a bit of a weird idea to spend £899 on a player in order to use it like a smartphone).

The PD5 features Bluetooth 5.3 with codec support up to and including aptX HD. It also has two headphone outputs: an unbalanced 3.5mm socket and a balanced 4.4mm alternative that’s compatible with five-pole jacks. Use the 4.4mm output, select octa-DAC mode, and the Astell & Kern can summon a mammoth 8Vrms of power — so even the most demanding headphones will have to do as they are told. But there are quite a few ways in which the sound can be affected, both by the device and by the person using it, before it reaches these outputs.

The ‘EnviroTune’ feature uses a mic integrated into the top edge of the PD5 to analyse ambient noise in real time and correct those frequencies affected by it without just making everything louder. The ‘Teraton Alpha’ audio engine that’s familiar from some of Astell & Kern’s uber-pricey DAPs minimises noise from the power supply and creates amplification that’s as stable and distortion-free as possible. And ‘Enhanced Signal Alignment’ technology synchronises outgoing signals in an effort to negate phase distortion and deliver the most coherent sonic image possible.

The end user, meanwhile, gets a choice of digital filters and some quite in-depth EQ adjustment to look into. The default filter is ‘low latency fast’, and it is as distinct in its effect as ‘low latency slow’, ‘phase compensated fast’ and ‘phase compensated slow’ are from each other. A ten-band EQ offers fairly granular adjustment of the sound, and an ‘advanced’ EQ interface allows frequency response to be defined using a graph with 20 (!) plotting points.

The PD5 will function as a desktop too, thanks to its USB-C slot’s ability with data transfer. Simply make a hard connection to, say, your laptop, select ‘DAC input’ in the ‘USB Mode’ sub-menu, and the Astell & Kern automatically switches on octa-DAC mode in order to give your computer a proper go at sounding decent for once.

Features score: 5 / 5

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Sound quality

• Clarity, detail and dynamism in equal measure
• Organised and fully resolved sound
• Well-controlled punch and drive

The Astell & Kern PD5 is an admirably unpicky device, although obviously there are limits. Give it the sort of standard content available on a proper music streaming service (which means a CD-quality resolution of 16bit/44.1kHz) and it does an admirable job of maximising the information available to it. Step down from there, though, to the sort of squashed nonsense served up by Apple Music or Spotify, and the PD5 struggles to conceal its disdain. But you didn’t spend proper money to listen to compressed poverty-spec streams, did you?

So a 16bit/44.1kHz stream of Hood’s Western Housing Concerns is delivered in tremendous fashion. The presentation is open and spacious, with an expansive soundstage on which each element of the recording gets ample room in which to stretch out and express itself. The layout is rigorously observed, and the PD5’s powers or organisation mean the stage is locked in place and completely convincing.

Tonality is absolutely neutral, the player offering neither heat nor chill to the colour of the recording. There’s excellent clarity to the presentation, a really dark and quiet background in front of which the band perform — and at every stage of the frequency range, there’s absolutely fanatical attention to detail. No matter how minor an occurrence, how far back in the mix, or how fleeting, the Astell & Kern will seize upon it and give it precisely the amount of weight and emphasis it requires.

Frequency response is similarly even-handed, and similarly convincing as a result. A switch to a DSD64 file of Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough reveals deep, textured, tremendously varied and thrillingly solid low-frequency response, and bass is controlled to the point that rhythmic expression is never less than positive and confident. Midrange resolution is no less accomplished, with the singer’s mic technique made every bit as apparent as his tone and timbre. The top of the frequency range strikes a lovely balance between substance and brilliance, and again there’s an absolutely stack of information available. The PD5 doesn’t over- or underemphasise any part of the frequency range, and as a result this glossy, audibly expensive recording sounds as natural and polished as it ever did.

Dynamic headroom is considerable when it’s time to describe big variations in volume or intensity or attack, and the more subtle dynamics of harmonic variation and transient response are never overlooked. The entire presentation hangs together seamlessly, the Astell & Kern offering a proper sense of unity and singularity to recordings of every type.

And perhaps best of all, there’s nothing show-y or even especially analytical about the way the PD5 goes about things. As far as insight into a recording goes it’s basically untouchable at the money, but that’s not what defines the Astell & Kern. It’s the energy of its sound, the engaged and engaging nature of its performance, that makes it as entertaining a listen as you’ll get from a portable device costing less than four figures.

Sound quality score: 5 / 5

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Design

• 120 x 70 x 16mm (HxWxD)
• 4.1in touchscreen display
• 198g

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Astell & Kern PD5 as a physical object, let me make that clear from the off. The dimensions are nicely palm-sized, the weight is sufficient to make it feel like a premium product without being a burden to a jacket pocket, and the standard of fit and finish is impeccable.

And I’m not about to pretend I miss the painfully pointy edges of some previous Astell & Kern models, either — the PD5 is a much friendlier proposition in this respect — nor the painfully self-conscious offset screen of the old SR35. But there’s nothing remarkable about the design of the PD5, nothing to set it apart from the pack of products competing with it for your hard-earned. Even the volume dial, previously a little Astell & Kern design flourish, is unremarkable here.

I realise I can’t have it all ways, and a calm and sensible aesthetic is preferable to something overwrought and wilful. But I find myself slightly concerned that for the PD5, Astell & Kern may have bypassed its industrial design team altogether…

Design score: 4.5 / 5

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Usability and setup

• Bright, rather reflective screen
• In-depth menus
• Occasional operational oddities

As mentioned, the PD5 uses a stripped-back version of Android as its user interface — and it’s all the better for it. Too many digital audio players pointlessly include a lot of your smartphone’s functionality for no reason, as far as I can tell, other than to eat into the machine’s local memory.

The 4.1in touchscreen is bright, although rather more reflective than is ideal, and it’s responsive without being on a hair trigger. The Astell & Kern’s menus are extensive, and as a result the font size is really very small — but squint and you should be able to make out what’s what (even if the occasional use of ‘red on black’ for text is a terrible idea).

Setting up the PD5 to your satisfaction isn’t the work of a moment. But when you finally get finished you can at least be sure you have a digital audio player that’s primed to do exactly what you want, and in the manner you want it.

There are occasional glitches in operation, though — or, at least, that’s my experience. I install the Tidal music streaming app, and also insert a microSD card full of hi-res content. But every now and then, both sources will play at the same time. Pressing ‘play’ on a Tidal file usually stops playback from the local storage and vice versa — but not always, which is a weird one and no mistake.

Usability and setup score: 3.5 / 5

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Value

Because the majority of the money you’ve spent on a PD5 has gone on the internals, it’s difficult to suggest its perceived value is especially high even if you accept that it’s beautifully constructed and even quite tactile. No, the value for money Astell & Kern is offering here doesn’t reveal itself until you start listening — and then it becomes quickly apparent that your money has been very well spent indeed.

Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Astell & Kern PD5?

Buy it if... 

Don't buy it if... 

Astell & Kern PD5 review: Also consider

How I tested the Astell & Kern PD5

• Listened using Tidal and Qobuz files
• Popped a 512GB microSD card loaded with extremely hi-res content into it
• Used Sennheiser IE900 and Meze Audio Strada for most of my testing

I installed the Tidal music streaming app and also deployed Qobuz Connect (it’s a slicker experience altogether than installing the app onto the player), and I inserted a 512GB microSD card loaded with extremely high-resolution content.

Then I connected a pair of Sennheiser IE900 IEMs using the 4.4mm balanced output, and also used a pair of Meze Audio Strada headphones connected the same way.

I also investigated the PD5’s desktop DAC credentials by plugging it into an Apple MacBook Pro and using the Qobuz and Tidal desktop apps to listen to hi-res using the same pairs of headphones.

• First reviewed in October 2026

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

The world is not short of little DAC/headphone amps that want to bring a taste of authentic audio quality to your desktop experience — and here’s another one. The Topping DX1 II is a thorough update of a previous (and very competitive) in the Chinese brand's stable, and it makes a strong case for itself even before it’s started doing its thing.

The aluminum casework looks and feels good and the on-paper specification is difficult to lay a glove on. It includes — deep breath — a very hi-res ESS DAC, carefully considered digital and analog architecture, USB-C for both power and data, sufficient grunt to drive most headphones without difficulty, a fistful of input and output options (including balanced analog connectivity), and the facility for plenty of end-user input where sound is concerned. The standard of construction and finish is more than adequate. And a little remote control handset takes some of the pressure off an overworked physical control interface.

The difference the DX1 II can make to your audio experience when it sits between, say, your laptop and the headphones that are plugged into it is fairly profound. The Topping is by no means perfect — it doesn’t attack the top of the frequency range quite as willingly as it might, and it doesn’t have the heft to make big dynamic variations as apparent as they might be — but it’s a far more convincing and well-realized listen than your laptop alone has a hope of being. Soundstaging, rhythmic expression, detail levels and all-around musicality all enjoy a big uptick, and the way the DX1 II handles a tonal balance is one of the most uncomplicatedly enjoyable things about it.

The Topping DX1 II hasn’t closed the door on other desktop-friendly headphone amp/DAC units at similar money, but it’s certainly made sure it’s on the inside of the conversation for the best on the market.

Topping DX1 II review: Price & release date

• Announced on May 18, 2026 (with availability from late June/July 2026)
• Priced $119 / £119 (around AU$169)

The Topping DX1 II is on sale now, and in the United States it costs $119. It’s £119 in the United Kingdom, while in Australia it goes for around AU$169.

So, it's a little pricier than the oh-so-portable iFi Go Link Max and the bigger, hip-flask-esque iFi Uno, say, but an awful lot cheaper than the also-new iFi iDSD GR2.

What exactly are you getting for your money if you go for the Topping? Read on.

Topping DX1 II review: Features

• ESS ES9039Q2M DAC
• Balanced and unbalanced outputs
• UAC 1.0 and UAC 2.0

There’s something quite admirable about the way Topping has specified the DX1 II — I’ve used bigger and more expensive DAC/headphone amps that don’t come close to the level of this little device.

It’s built around a very capable ESS ES90392QM DAC chipset and features dual-DAC architecture with a dedicated digital-to-analog converter for each channel, plus fully independent processing. Digital files of up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD256 are supported.

A 16-core XMOS XU-316 assists with signal processing — just as with the dual-DAC arrangement and the fully balanced analog stage, the idea is to keep noise and distortion to an absolute minimum.

Digital audio information can be delivered using either the digital optical input or the USB-C slot on the rear of the Topping. The USB-C input also provides power to the device. Outputs consist of an unbalanced 3.5mm headphone socket, a couple of balanced 4.4mm alternatives (one for headphones, the other for connecting the DX1 II to a system, a powered speaker or what-have-you) and a line-level analog output on stereo RCAs.

There’s an optical output in case the digital signal needs to be preserved, and a switch to toggle between UAC 1.0 and UAC 2.0 — the first setting allows the Topping to be compatible with, say, the Nintendo Switch and the Sony PlayStation 5.

Topping has made provision for an awful lot of end-user input into the way the DX1 II performs. Connect it to a computer and you can access both the ‘Home Web’ platform (from where stuff like gain can be adjusted and no fewer than eight distinct digital filters are available) and ‘Topping Tune’. This uses a simple drag-n-drop interface to allow the user to easily create and adjust PEQ settings — frequency, gain and bandwidth control across 10 bands (with independent left and right channel adjustment) can be tweaked and settings saved. It’s available across each of the DX1 II’s outputs.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Topping DX1 II review: Sound quality

• Impressively detailed, easy-going sound
• Pleasant tonal balance
• Could easily sound more dynamic

It’s possible to make quite significant changes to the ultimate sound of the DX1 II, of course — those digital filters have a slight effect, but go crazy with the PEQ and you can achieve some pretty obvious alternations. What you can’t do, though, is defeat the things the Topping does well or fully correct its shortcomings.

With a 24bit/48kHz FLAC file of The Record by Boygenius playing in the Tidal desktop app and incoming via USB-C, it doesn’t take long at all to appreciate the facility the DX1 II has with detail retrieval. It’s alert to even the most minor, most subtle occurrences in the recording, keeps an eye on the low-level dynamics of harmonic over- and undertones, and deals with transients confidently too. It gives these details good weighting, so the emphasis is always on the music and not solely on how deeply into it the Topping can peer.

The tonal balance it strikes is naturalistic and pleasant, and its over-all character is, in the most positive way, easy-going and quite laid-back. It can do ‘urgency’ if it absolutely has to, of course, but its fundamental attitude is one that’s not in any way fatiguing. At no point is the Topping likely to grab you by the lapels — it’s altogether too grown-up and, again in a positive way, polite for that sort of behavior.

Some of this comes about because of its relative lack of dynamic impetus. The headline dynamics of ‘quiet’ and ‘LOUD!’ in a 16bit/44.1kHz file of Life Metal by Sunn O))) are somewhat flattened by the slight shortage of headroom the DX1 II exhibits. The distance between these two positions is not as pronounced as it is when described by a DAC/headphone amp that breathes a little more deeply. Some of it is due to the Topping’s slight-but-definite tendency to roll off the highest frequencies. There’s acceptable extension into the top end, but not quite the attack or even assertiveness that makes treble sounds properly bite and shine.

Elsewhere, though, the DX1 II is on firmer ground. It has a good understanding of rhythm and tempo, and controls its low-frequency activity to the point that there’s a proper sensation of fluency to the way rhythms are expressed. It can open up a soundstage to the point that even quite complex recordings get a little elbow-room, and the stage is also controlled well. And it’s worth noting that, unlike a couple of nominal rivals, the DX1 II doesn’t alter its behavior depending on the volume you’re listening at — even when playing very quietly or really quite loud, its sonic stance remains consistent.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Topping DX1 II review: Design

• 275g
• Aluminum chassis
• 32 x 100 x 100mm (HxWxD)

The DX1 II is usefully compact (just 32 x 100 x 100mm, HxWxD), so won’t hog space on your desktop or equipment rack. Built mostly from machined aluminum, it’s very well-made and finished — its edges are nicely rounded and it’s not remotely sharp at any of its corners.

At 275g, it’s unlikely to be towed around your desktop by heavy-cabled headphones, either. Only the fact that some of the socketry is quite close together on the rear panel (which is inevitable, really) precludes the use of chunkier, more premium cables and constitutes any kind of issue.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Topping DX1 II review: Usability & setup

• LED display
• Remote control handset
• Overworked fascia control dial

The majority of the fascia is occupied by a relatively large and gratifyingly legible LED display — volume level, selected input and what-have-you is all revealed. There’s also a relatively large turn/press dial that covers a lot of the device's functions. In all honesty, the dial is not especially intuitive when you want to do anything beyond change input or adjust volume — so it’s just as well Topping provides a little remote control handset that makes getting at your EQs, and all the rest of it, quite a lot more straightforward.

Set-up is the work of a moment, of course. You’ll need to connect the USB-C slot to a source of power — maybe this is also your source of music, if it isn’t then your source will need to be connected to the optical input. Then you need to connect the DX1 II to its output device — headphones, probably, or maybe the stereo RCA outputs to an amplifier or powered speaker. And then you’re in business.

• Usability & setup score: 4 / 5

Topping DX1 II review: Value

• Small but feels premium
• Good standard of build
• Out-and-out sound quality not up there (but you won't feel short-changed)

It may only be tiny, but Topping has managed to make the DX1 II feel and, to a lesser extent, look like it deserves to cost three figures. The standard of build is well up to snuff, too — and when you take the thoroughgoing nature of its specification into account, too, the sensation of value for money is hard to argue with.

The value proposition isn’t quite so cut-and-dried when it comes to out-and-out sound quality - but even here the DX1 II does more than enough right to prevent you feeling short-changed.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Topping DX1 II?

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

Topping DX1 II review: Also consider

It’s more affordable than the DX1 II — and it looks and feels it, too — but the iFi Uno is a high-achieving little device that offers a direct, confident and information-rich sound no matter the source of music it’s connected to.

How I tested the Topping DX1 II

I used the Topping DX1 II with an Apple MacBook Pro — connecting to the USB-C slot allowed for data transfer and power supply at the same time, and gave access to numerous music streaming services.

I connected a pair of Sennheiser IE900 wired in-ear headphones to the unbalanced 3.5mm output, and also to the balanced 4.4mm output (the Sennheiser have a selection of cables with different terminations).

I also connected a Sony PlayStation 5 via the optical input and sent the DX1 II output signal to the preamp in my reference system via its RCA outputs.

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

It’s taken Fyne Audio less than a decade to establish itself as a deeply credible manufacturer of passive loudspeakers at a wide range of prices. The Cubitt 5, though, represents its first pair of active speakers — and they've got some serious competition to overcome.

At first glance, though, the system seems to have every chance. Its compact, well-made cabinets are available in a wide range of finishes, and are home to an intriguing driver array that draws liberally from the company’s very successful (and much more expensive) line-up of passive loudspeakers. Power is more than adequate at 240 watts, and the range of inputs (Bluetooth with aptX HD capability, line- and MM phono-level analog, optical and HDMI ARC) is very competitive, too. The lack of on-system controls is an odd decision, as is the lack confirmation of selected input or volume, and the remote handset that’s your only control option is unlovely.

Get the system up and running and you’ll have to ignore the unwelcome low-volume hiss that comes from each speaker before any music is cued up — fortunately it’s not an issue once your tracks are playing. Instead you’re free to admire the Cubitt 5’s abilities with detail retrieval, soundstaging, low-frequency authority and articulate midrange communication. It’s absolutely as confident as is acceptable when it comes to handling the top of the frequency range, but even here it’s not overtly ill-balanced or unruly.

Add in significant dynamic headroom, an expansive overall presentation and a disinclination to alter its stance in any significant way no matter which of its input options is in use, and it’s apparent that where the fundamentals are concerned, the Cubitt 5 has plenty going for it. Maybe not quite for the best stereo speakers on the market, though.

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Price & release date

• Launched on June 30, 2026
• Priced $749 / £549 / AU$1,499

The Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 wireless stereo speaker system is on sale now, and in the United States it costs $749. In the United Kingdom it sells for £549, while in Australia you’ll have to part with AU$1,499.

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Features

• 127mm ‘IsoFlare’ mid/bass driver with 19mm concentric titanium dome tweeter
• 240 watts of Class D power
• Wired and wireless inputs

The idea of positioning a tweeter in the acoustic center of a mid or mid/bass driver is not a new one, but it’s a rarity nevertheless, and Fyne Audio has been busily democratizing its ‘IsoFlare’ variation on this particular theme for a while now. The Cubitt 5 is just the latest example.

In this instance there’s a 19mm titanium dome tweeter positioned in the center of a 127mm multi-fiber mid/bass driver — the idea, as ever, is to create a single point-source of sound at the same time as optimizing driver integration and sound dispersion. The mid/bass driver’s surround is the company’s ‘FyneFlute’ design, the unusual pattern of which helps minimize unwanted energy from the pistonic movement of the driver. Each of the four drivers gets 60 watts of Class D amplification to power it — an all-in total of 240 watts really should be adequate in a system such as this — and the output is bolstered by a front-firing bass reflex slot. It’s an arrangement Fyne Audio suggests will deliver a frequency response of 43Hz - 34kHz.

The primary speaker takes care of all wired and wireless connectivity. The wireless stuff consists of Bluetooth 5.0, with codec compatibility up to and including aptX HD. Physical connections, all on the rear panel, run to a moving magnet (or high-output moving coil) phono stage accessed via stereo RCA inputs, a line-level analog equivalent also using RCAs, a digital optical input and an HDMI ARC socket. All incoming digital information is dealt with by a DAC of 24bit/96kHz resolution.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Sound quality

• Expansive and controlled presentation
• Solid punch and decent dynamics
• Audible hiss when not playing

There’s a unique aspect to the way the Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 performs — or, at least, it’s unique in my extensive experience of products of this type. Connect the speakers together using the supplied umbilical, plug the primary speaker into the mains, turn the power on, and there’s an obvious and consistent hiss from both speakers. Is it loud? No, but it can be heard down the length of my listening room. Is it audible when playing music? No, not at all. So is it an issue? I guess not, unless you intend to use the speakers on your desktop, but I can’t pretend it fills me with confidence.

Which is a great pity, because when it’s actually playing music the Cubitt 5 is one of the best sub-$750 wireless stereo speaker systems I’ve heard so far. In virtually every respect, it’s an enjoyable, balanced and well-sorted listen.

With a vinyl copy of Julian Cope’s Peggy Suicide incoming via the moving magnet phono stage, the Fyne Audio doesn’t take its eye off the ball for a moment. It’s good where detail retrieval is concerned, and manages to stay on top of the finest details without sacrificing any sense of unity or performance. It creates a fairly large soundstage — it’s certainly larger than the cabinets that are producing it — and it’s coherent, organized and easy to understand.

The tonal balance is persuasive, too, the Cubitt 5 hits the plosives at the top of the frequency range absolutely as hard as it dares, but somehow they never quite get too edgy or overly hard. The midrange is sweetly communicative, so there’s confidence and eloquence to the way the system handles a vocalist. And while the claims for extension down to 43Hz are, I think it’s fair to say, a false alarm, the Cubitt 5 nevertheless bigs deep, hits hard and controls its low-frequency activity well. Rhythmic expression is very decent as a result, and the way the system handles tempos is similarly unforced and naturalistic.

There’s a fair amount of dynamic headroom available, so the Fyne Audio handles big shifts in volume or intensity calmly, and its overall attention to detail means that the more subtle dynamics of harmonic variation are given their due weighting, too. Frequency response is nice and even, too. The tendency to attack the highest frequencies can make it sound like the top end is being overstated on occasion, but otherwise the Cubitt 5 gives every area of the frequency range fair representation.

It’s winningly unconcerned about volume, too. Some systems can change their character when asked to play at bigger levels, but the Fyne Audio just gets louder. There’s no change in tonal balance or frequency response, and the stage maintains its shape, too. And the same is true when you change inputs — switch to a wireless stream of John Glacier’s Money Shows and the fundamental attitude and character of the system don’t alter in the slightest. It’s still balanced, insightful, punchy and just slightly treble-happy.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Design

• 260 x 165 x 215mm (HxWxD)
• Available in five different finishes
• Supplied without grilles

It’s by no means an easy trick to pull off, but the Cubitt 5 manages to look discreet and interesting at the same time.

The ‘discreet’ part is mostly thanks to the 260 x 165 x 215mm (HxWxD) dimensions, assisted by some nicely curved cabinet corners and a selection of no fewer than five very agreeable finishes. My sample is in ‘olive green’, but ‘arctic white’, ‘midnight black’, ‘pearl titanium’ and ‘pebble gray’ are also available. No matter which finish you decide suits you best, you’ll find it’s the final flourish in a process that includes a very high standard of construction. There are no visible seams, and the soft-touch paint is flawlessly applied.

‘Interesting’ is mostly derived from the driver array that’s already been discussed in the ‘features’ section of this review, as well as the forward-facing bass reflex slot that somehow makes each speaker’s appearance easy to anthropomorphize. The not-quite-circular brightwork surrounding the driver array doesn’t do any harm when it comes to making this most functional of products look interesting, either. It comes as no surprise to me that Fyne Audio doesn’t see the need to supply the Cubitt 5 with grilles.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Usability & setup

• Speakers must be wired together
• No app, no on-speaker controls, no input selection of volume indicator
• Nasty remote control handset

In terms of getting up and running, there’s really not a lot to get your head around here. Despite the fact this is an active system, only the primary speaker requires mains power — it transmits power, as well as data, along a supplied four-core umbilical cable that screws down onto the rear of each speaker. Once the speakers are connected together and the primary is powered up, it’s really only a question of positioning them to your satisfaction and then you’re in business.

Getting what you want from the system isn’t all that tricky, either, but neither is it all that satisfying an experience. This is not a Wi-Fi-enabled system, of course, so there’s no control app, which is hardly unheard-of in this part of the market. There are no controls on either speaker, either, which is rather less common. The primary speaker has an LED tell-tale that’s red when the system’s in standby and blue when it’s powered up. The blue light flashes when it’s following instructions from the remote handset that’s your only method of operation.

Given that the remote is all you’ve got, though, it’s a shame Fyne Audio specified what I imagine is the least expensive handset it could source. The look and feel is down-market, and the fact you’ve no indication of the source that’s been selected or the volume level that’s been specified only adds to the impression of cost- and corner-cutting.

• Usability & setup score: 3 / 5

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Value

Judged purely on the sound it makes, there’s no denying the Cubitt 5 offers very decent value for money indeed — once it’s making a sound, that is. The standard of build and finish only adds to the impression of money well spent.

But there’s more to it than this, of course — and as far as the experiential goes, the feel of operating the system, the sensation is undeniably low-rent. Which unfortunately undermines the impression of value the Fyne Audio system otherwise offers.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Fyne Audio Cubitt 5?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Fyne Audio Cubitt 5 review: Also consider

The Cambridge L/R S system handily undercuts the Fyne Audio on price, and has an awful lot to recommend it both aesthetically and in audio terms. Not quite the room-filling ability of the Cubitt 5, mind you.

And the same is true of the Ruark Audio MR1 mk3, but if you want a well-specified and great-sounding system that’s genuinely small enough for desktop use and isn’t as pricey as the Fyne Audio, you need look no further.

How I tested the Fyne Audio Cubitt 5

Almost all my testing is done with the Cubitt 5 positioned on a pair of Soundstyle S2 speaker stands, joined together by their supplied connecting cable and with the primary speaker plugged into the mains.

Sources include a FiiO M15S digital audio player with aptX HD Bluetooth capability, a Technics SL-1300G with Goldring 1022 cartridge for vinyl via the phono stage, a Rega Apollo CD player connected to the optical input, and a Philips OLED806 via the HDMI socket.

Which means a lot of different content, stored in a variety of file types, and of many resolutions, is available — and then I listen for almost an entire working week.

• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

If you were expecting a minor update over Technics' previous over-ears in the EAH-A1000, you're in for a surprise. Because in the four-years-and-loose-change since its last over-ear offering, Technics' various audio departments have been very, very busy — and I'm referring to the design team as well as the sonic engineering squad.

Here's a novel idea to kick things off: these headphones have Technics' own proprietary, top-secret metallic juice concoction oiling the drivers. Those familiar with the company's hugely successful earbuds (and if you read this publication regularly, you will be) will remember the firm's Magnetic Fluid Driver technology.

Technics pioneered it to aid the pistonic motion of those tiny drivers. As they busily move back and forth to create physical sound waves from electrical signals, said fluid helps the units stay extra-true in their work and free from variance. But it's no small feat to scale up from 10mm mechanisms within concha-fit earpieces to 40mm drivers that cover the whole ear, and that is what has been achieved, all without adding any weight to the headset.

So are the new, far more attractive EAH-A1000 (all vegan leather, svelte arms, and brushed metallic top plates) ready to assume a spot in our best noise-cancelling headphones guide then? Yes, depending on your listening tastes. There's detail, width, a lovely circumaural presentation and musical timing in droves. However, depending on the kind of music you regularly listen to, or the sonic tuning you prefer, they'll either be just what you need or fall just slightly short in terms of oomph, bass clout and zeal. And as much as I adore them, I have to confirm that my heart and ears belong in the latter group.

If triple-device connectivity seems like something you'd really like from your headphones, these are an excellent buy — and believe me when I tell you it's hard to return to a state of only being connected to two source devices at once (rather than seamless sonic switching between your tablet, phone and laptop at will) when you've become used to three.

And in terms of features elsewhere, the Technics score highly for ANC, which is robust and effective but never sweetens or hollows out your music unnecessarily. I do find the Ambient profiles (there are two; 'Transparent' for sounds around you, or 'Attention' which aims to hone in on voices and announcements specifically) a little light touch, though. If you value Sony's Quick Attention feature to actively pipe in sounds when you cover an ear cup, you'll be disappointed here. Technics' profiles do dampen your audio and the result is natural, but it feels a touch too passive, no matter how much I dial up the transparency on the graph in the app.

I really enjoyed this same, slightly lighter touch feel within the spatial audio profiles, though. Your options are static or head-tracked and they are of course device- and streaming-service agnostic (Technics does not currently make mobile phones or offer a music streaming service, so it cannot tie you into an ecosystem in the way that Apple can). For me, these offer a more enveloping, engaging soundstage at the times when you may want that — in classical tracks, say.

Call quality is also very good, although Sidetone fans (and I'm one of those) might be dismayed to learn that Technics' excellent voice amplification tech for its earbuds, whereby your own voice doesn't sound so muffled as you speak, has never made it to its over-ears.

I'll get granular on my very minor issues with the on-ear controls in due course, but for this money — which is significantly less than AirPods Max 2 (but with a much better battery life) and the same asking fee as the also-new Sonos Ace Ultra — the sonic detail is excellent value for money. They're not the most punchy and zealous cans I've ever heard, but they are diligent, accurate and beautifully musical. And mark my words, some people will adore them for critical listening.

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Price & release date

• Released on September 29, 2026
• Priced $449 / £399 / AU$699

Technics has priced these headphones at $449 / £399 / AU$699, to sit comfortably within a premium space that includes much more expensive hits such as the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 (at $799 / £629 / AU$1,299) and AirPods Max 2 ($549 / £499 / AU$999, although I've seen a few discounts on these MSRPs lately).

The excellent Sony WH-1000XM6 (also $449 / £399 / AU$699) are arguably Technics' chief competition, and this is likely why they've been released at the same price-point — but the superb September 2026 Sonos Ace Ultra can be yours for exactly this money too.

The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro also recently launched at just a shade cheaper than the Technics ($399 / £349 / AU$699) so, although certainly not in the budget headphones sector, Technics' pricing is hardly unreasonable.

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Specs

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Features

• Spatial audio with the option of Dolby Head Tracking
• Industry-leading simultaneous triple-device connectivity
• 8-tab EQ; ANC and Transparency modes both with 0-99 sliders

There are no hearing tests, hearing aid features or scope for nodding to either answer calls or respond to your voice assistant here and, honestly, I don't miss these features.

You will get wearer detection to pause your music, plus ANC that can either be set to 'Adaptive', to automatically adjust to your surroundings, or simply 'On' to tweak yourself. This is done on a little virtual dial within the easy-to-navigate (and easy-to-tailor, thanks to the option of prioritizing certain profiles on the home screen) Technics AudioConnect app.

For me, dialling up the ANC to 100% or thereabouts gives very good results. It dulls all but the really heavy crashes and clatters in my home office — even the sound of the microwave didn't creep in. I don't say it lightly either; Technics has done a great job with the active noise cancellation here.

Transparency? It also gets its own in-app dial, but here you can also choose between 'Attention', which is supposed to seek out voices and announcements around you, or 'Transparent', which lets in all ambient noise, to make you aware of where you are. For me, these are less successful. I certainly hear quite a bit more of my other half's lovely voice when selecting 'Attention' — and there's no hiss or tinniness to either the ambient sound or audio in my cans — but I still feel as if I need to remove them to hear him properly.

Although these headphones may seem relatively light on extras (there's no Sony 'Quick Attention' rival, to actively pipe a person's voice into your ear, and that is perhaps one perk I would have liked to see) the features you need are all here and, largely, they're implemented very well. The EQ graph is well-designed and, as well as presets for Bass+, Super Bass+, Vocal, Treble+ and Dynamic, you can create custom sound profiles on an 8-band tab.

And although I'd love Technics' excellent Sidetone tech to trickle from its earbuds to its cans as well as that magnetic fluid has, to hear my own voice better in calls, callers said my voice was nevertheless clear.

But I've saved one of the best (best!) features for last: triple-device connectivity. It simplifies life so much more than you might think not to have to keep disconnecting one device to add another when you regularly work on a tablet, a laptop and a phone!

I asked Technics recently why so few other companies are offering multipoint to three devices and was essentially told (I say 'essentially' only because I was talking to a Technics engineer through a Japanese translator, in Tokyo) that it isn't easy to get everything on a Bluetooth chipset, because you "need to be very organized".

So, the fact that when you connect to three devices simultaneously, you'll lose LDAC streaming quality, makes a lot of sense. Choose to forego Bluetooth entirely and you can listen via USB-C Lossless audio, although the headphones do need to be powered on for this.

A quick note on the Technics EAH-A1000's battery life: it's good rather than phenomenal. Up to 45 hours with ANC on sounds great, until you realize that's without LDAC (at which point stamina drops to 30 hours), but up to 90 hours without ANC and without LDAC is still a good chunk of time. To put that into perspective, Apple's AirPods Max 2 can only go for up to 20 hours with ANC on, but Cambridge's excellent P100 SE can last for up to 100 hours without ANC, or 60 hours with it — although it's worth noting that Cambridge hasn't disclosed how much aptX listening might affect things.

All in all, Technics has given us a well-rounded and beautifully presented feature set that does the essentials well, and even adds an extra device to your regular multipoint setup. The one fly in the ointment? A light-touch 'Transparency' profile that for me could use a bit of extra oomph.

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Sound quality

• LDAC support, plus Lossless via USB-C or 3.5mm bundled cables
• Exceptionally detailed audio for this level
• Also very occasionally a little too polite and lacking in bite

If you, like me, cue up Jamie T's 3310, the first track on his new album Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) you'll be very happy with these headphones. I defy you to knock the Technics EAH-A1000 while listening to more pared back intros and acoustic tracks. Here, the guitar sits beautifully under your left ear, textured and three-dimensional, and Wimbledon's finest rapper-slash-crooner might just as well be in the room, glancing at you as he sings about cider, the London district of Barnes, its cash-strapped cousin Twickenham, and how he longs to be 33 again.

As the track continues and the mix intensifies, you might feel as if you're missing an extra ounce of disillusion through T's petulant, unimpressed vocal though, and I'd agree. Deploying 'Bass+' in the EQ tab does help a little, but also puts you slightly further back from other frequencies in the mix. These are not the best choice for those who listen to heavier music or grime.

However, I've said it before and I'll reiterate here: there's nothing wrong with refinement and pulling back just a little to gain space, breadth and add a modicum of detail to every intake of breath and strum of a guitar. The issue here is that in easing off on the throttle for fear of overstating the low end especially, the Technics err just slightly in the opposite direction; if I'm being hyper-critical, they're just a touch too polite.

It's no huge issue, but it's my job to relay what I hear. Again, this will be a matter of taste and, depending on which genres of music you most enjoy, you may hear things while listening with these headphones that truly delight you. Stream Hotel California (I don't need to tell you the name of the LA five-piece who released it, do I?) and there's a stunning level of clarity to the shakers, guitars, bass and cymbals in the intro. Stream Bad Bunny's BAILE INoLVIDABLE and you may want just a little more good old fashioned sub-bass wallop.

Switch to B&W's Px8 S2 and there's an ounce more crispness through the leading edges of notes and more palpable dynamic nuance across the frequencies, which has me dancing rather than just nodding my head to Fontaines D.C.'s Favourite, but it's a close-run race — and given the fact that the B&W product is quite a bit more expensive, that's a big compliment for the Technics set of cans.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Design

• A very good-looking set of headphones
• The case is a winner too
• On-ear physical buttons occasionally fail to respond

My review sample is the classic black version rather than the new 'Platinum Greige' set, but both are incredibly stylish and promote no small sense of pride in ownership.

The case, bijou and useful though it is (and with a lovely bit of storage for your cables, which you'd think would be a given but isn't), is not imprinted with a Technics logo save for a demure mention on the zipper tag. This is because, and I'm quoting a revered member of the Technics design team here: "Everything at Technics must either be engraved onto the metal or embroidered to the fabric of a product: we do not print."

Everything has been finessed from the EAH-A800 and the look is far less bulky. At their unveiling, I was shown dozens of samples of potential top-plates for the ear cup: too shiny, too grooved, too smooth… this goes way beyond meticulous attention to detail. Technics wants us to love the look of them, and make no mistake, I do.

To circle back to the Magnetic Fluid Driver for a moment, the EAH-A1000 incorporates Technics' SST (Symmetrical Surround Technology) Edge — aka the same tech that's also used in the company's hi-fi flagship speakers — alongside the magnetic fluid-enhanced drivers that have been scaled up from Technics' earbuds.

What's under the hood is a pure rigid carbon-fiber diaphragm with dome shape and cone shape ideas (think a dish with a slight raise in the center), along with a redesigned acoustic control chamber, to better manage airflow. The EAH-A1000 also feature a new 'Baffle Flat Structure' to reduce "uneven surfaces around the driver, limiting unwanted reflections".

The arms of the headphones have been thinned, reshaped and refined since the EAH-A800, and I think it's a careful and chic solution. The movement of the arm is silent and the headphones have remained supremely comfortable during wear, throughout the course of my listening. Clamping force? Yes, it's here to promote passive isolation, but never to a fault. I think the fit is aided by the 13-degree angle of the ear cups, relative to the headband, implemented by the female Head of Design. Apparently, over 500 people tested them prior to landing on this specific degree, and half of those tested were women. Hurrah. (In case it needs to be said, women also like music.)

Any issues? One: the physical buttons located on the right ear cup. The one closest to the nape of your neck scrolls through ANC profiles; the central rocker can slide for volume and be pushed for playback control; the one nearest your cheek is for power and pairing. The volume rocker is great to use, but pushing it to pause music is a little more hit-and-miss if you don't press firmly, or don't make sure the rocker is truly central in its mounting. And the power button needs to pressed for two seconds to initiate powering off, but if you do this while removing them, in my experience it often doesn't work. It's a small issue, but one that obviously may affect battery life — and it doesn't help that my Cambridge reference headphones have a simple, reliable slider to switch them off.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Value

• Sonically bang on for the money
• They look and feel more expensive than they are
• Not as feature-stuffed as some rivals, though

If you value an expansive, detailed, insightful listen, you cannot do much better for the money. The ANC is also more than up to snuff and among the best-in-class, and they're light and easy to transport, with a useful but fuss-free case.

That said, you can better the EAH-A1000 just slightly for zealous energy and the kind of impact that makes you get up and dance to the music in your cans — and if you rely heavily on a 'Transparency' profile to cut through the noise, they won't be for you.

Nevertheless, if sound is king, you should add these to your test drive list.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Technics EAH-A1000?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Technics EAH-A1000 review: Also consider

How I tested the Technics EAH-A1000

• Tested for two weeks, listened against the AirPods Max 2, Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 and Cambridge P100 SE
• Listened on a short flight, in a hotel room in London, at home and while walking alone along a blustery seafront
• Listened to Qobuz, Tidal and Apple Music Lossless tracks via USB-C to my FiiO player and streamed to my iPhone 15 Pro, MacBook Pro and Sony Xperia smartphone

The Technics EAH-A100 became my primary travel companions for two weeks — after a 24-hour run-in period. And carrying (or wearing them) anywhere was never a chore.

They accompanied me to the airport (walking brusquely from the Airport Express train and on a brief flight) and at home, on the UK's Jurassic Coast.

To test their comfort levels (no notes), ANC (also excellent) and battery life claims (very good rather than class-leading, but there's not a lot in it), I followed TechRadar's meticulous methodology testing.

To check the audio performance across the frequencies, I listened for many hours, in various environments, to my own reference playlists on Apple Music, Qobuz and Tidal, alongside TechRadar's reference tracks, and two of my favorite podcasts.

I’ve been testing audio products for well over seven years now, as a full-time job — first at our sister site What Hi-Fi? and now here at TechRadar. I know, tough gig (but someone has to). As a dancer, aerialist and musical theater performer in another life, I have always found that sound quality (in particular musicality and cohesion), fit and the user experience take priority for me in headphones, but having heard how wonderful ANC can be when done well, I know what I'm listening for there, too.

Read more about how we test at TechRadar

• First reviewed: October 2026

A couple of years on from the launch of the Sabre-R standmounting speaker, Ruark Audio is revisiting another of its Greatest Passive Loudspeaker Hits — and this Talisman-R is the result.

It’s a compact and unassuming design at first glance, but get up close and that sloping ‘double baffle’ design makes for an interesting point of visual difference and harks back to 1990’s original Talisman design. It has solid acoustic benefits, too. As has long been established Ruark Audio behavior, the Talisman-R is carefully constructed and beautifully finished, with some nice details that elevate the look.

This is a small and discreet cabinet fitted with a 27mm tweeter and a 170mm mid/bass driver, an array bolstered by a front-facing bass reflex port. As such you shouldn’t expect the largest sonic presentation this sort of money can buy, but in every other respect the Talisman-R alternates between ‘very good’ and ‘really very good indeed’. Its powers of organization and control are excellent, it is alert to even the finest details in a recording, it has a respectable amount of dynamic headroom available, and it expresses rhythms with real confidence and positivity. It’s nicely balanced where tonality is concerned, is very even when it comes to frequency response, and is never less than entertaining in its fundamental attitude.

Unless you’re trying to make an entirely different visual statement, and/or unless you’re trying to fill a large space with sound, there’s really no reason not to seek out the Ruark Audio Talisman-R and give it a good listen. A contender for the best stereo speakers on the market with good reason.

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Price & release date

• Launched June, 2026
• Priced $2,399 / £1,499 / AU$3,299

The Ruark Audio Talisman-R floorstanding loudspeakers are on sale now, and in the United States they sell for $2,399 per pair. In the United Kingdom the going rate is £1,499, while in Australia they will set you back AU$3,299.

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Features

• 27mm silk dome tweeter, 170mm natural fiber mid/bass driver
• Forward-facing bass reflex port
• 35Hz - 20kHz frequency response

Like any sensible pair of passive loudspeakers, the Ruark Audio Talisman-R aren’t exactly overburdened with features. Those features that are present, though, are entirely fit for purpose.

Behind the magnetically attached grille there’s a 27mm silk dome tweeter driven by a neodymium motor arrangement. Beneath here (but still towards the top of the baffle) there’s a 170mm mid/bass natural fiber cone backed by a long-throw motor. And below this there’s a bass-reflex port, the forward-facing nature of which should theoretically make the Talisman-R a little more forgiving of room position than if it were at the rear of the cabinet.

Crossover is sensibly positioned at 2.2kHz, and the other numbers connected with the Ruark Audio are similarly encouraging. A nominal impedance of 6 ohms and sensitivity of 87dB/W suggests the Talisman-R are not all that difficult to drive (Ruark Audio recommends amplification power of somewhere between 75 and 200W), and the claimed frequency response is 35Hz - 20kHz.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Sound quality

• Controlled and organized (but also more fun than this might suggest)
• Articulate and revealing, especially through the midrange
• Not quite the out-and-out scale of some rivals

You’re no doubt aware that this sort of money spent with other loudspeaker brands will buy you bigger, more physically imposing designs with a higher driver-count and greater visual drama than the Talisman-R offers. But as I’m sure you’re also aware, it’s not what you’ve got but what you do with it that counts — and the sonic output of this small cabinet, with its unremarkable complement of drivers, is straightforwardly impressive.

The speakers are certainly an appreciably larger, more spacious listen than their appearance might suggest. Play America! by Bill Callahan and the soundstage they create is properly organized and extremely carefully focused. The ability to position a voice in the center of the stage, project it slightly without making it sound estranged from the rest of the action, and have it emanate from well above the top of the cabinets themselves is a talent that never gets old. The Talisman-R may not have the outright scale of some larger alternatives, but the coherence of the soundstage goes a very long way towards making up for it.

The positive, direct nature of the Ruark Audio attitude is very agreeable, too. Tonality is clean and consistent from the bottom of the frequency range to the top, and this goes a long way towards facilitating this level of clarity, but this sonic personality goes beyond tonal neutrality. It’s not about the amount of detail the speakers reveal, either — although their powers of detail retrieval are significant, both where the broad strokes and the more minor, more transient stuff is concerned. The candid, upfront quality of reproduction here also leans heavily on the midrange eloquence available. The articulate and revealing way the Talisman-R has with voices means everything in a vocal performance, from technique and tone to character and attitude, is made fully available.

The careful neutrality the speakers exhibit also means the overall presentation is quite tightly unified and ‘together’. There’s a sensation of singularity to the way these speakers present music that gives more than a hint of the idea of ‘performance’. Crossover between the drivers is imperceptible, the inputs of the bass reflex port are subtle and well-managed, ensuring the idea of coherent timing, that all of the frequency information is reaching your ears at the same time, is strong.

Frequency response itself is smooth and convincing. No area of the frequency range is overstated and no area is underplayed, even as the speakers give the midrange a little nudge towards the front of the stage. And its seems nigh-on impossible to fluster the Talsiman-R with the music you want to listen to — even an element-heavy and/or complex recording like If You Want Me by Cisco Cisco is properly organized on that gratifyingly well-defined soundstage, and the speakers give due weighting to the spaces and silences on the stage just as readily as they do to the actual occurrences.

Low frequencies are nicely shaped, equally nicely controlled, and the combination of punch and attack means there’s plenty of momentum available for those recordings that require it. Detail of tone and texture is readily available, there’s plenty of variation in the way the Ruark Audio presents bass sounds, and attack and decay is beautifully judged and naturalistic.

There’s ample dynamic headroom available for when the going gets particularly rowdy or intense. The Ruark Audio can track big shifts in volume and attack without sounding stressed or altering their sonic characteristics in any meaningful way. They’re generally untroubled by high volumes, either — there’s no suggestion of shoutiness or two-dimensionality to their presentation even if you listen at properly antisocial levels.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Design

• 840 x 210 x 255mm (HxWxD)
• Choice of two finishes
• ‘Double baffle’ has sound acoustic principles

It doesn’t do to get carried away when it comes to the design of floorstanding loudspeakers — seldom does any good come of it. The Talisman-R, though, have enough about them where design is concerned to count as ‘interesting’ while stopping well short of ‘weird’.

At 840 x 210 x 255mm (HxWxD), each speaker is usefully compact and, at 17.6kg, no kind of burden to get into position. Those dimensions, though, don’t tell the whole story.

Seen from the dead ahead, the speakers seem to lean back just a little on their plinths. View them in profile, though, and it becomes apparent that they feature an extruded front baffle that is a little larger than the main body of the cabinet and that means the overall design is mildly trapezoid (just as the original Talisman was). In fact, the Ruark Audio feature a ‘double baffle’ arrangement that’s intended to minimize resonance and the transfer of vibrational energy from the drivers into the cabinet. So, not for the first time where this company is concerned, solid acoustic principles have had a pleasant knock-on effect where industrial design is concerned.

The standard of build and finish is, as we’ve all come to expect from Ruark Audio, basically impeccable. The satin charcoal finish of my review sample is smooth and almost tactile (an alternative finish, with a fused walnut baffle in front of the satin charcoal cabinet, is also available), the magnetically attached grilles sit neatly inside the baffle edges, and there’s a small design flourish at the bottom of the front panel in the shape of some trademark walnut slats and a little badge carrying the company logo. At a part of the market when too many rivals indulge in rather shouty looks, the Talisman-R are a model of visual discretion and understatement.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Usability & setup

• Bi-wire speaker cable terminals
• Forward-facing bass reflex port helps with positioning
• Silicone feet or floor spikes are available

As far as ‘usability’ is concerned, well, these are passive loudspeakers so there’s really not a great deal to it. Ruark Audio recommends ensuring the speakers are somewhere between 1.5m and 2.5m apart (bear in mind you will, ideally, be further from them when you’re listening than they are from each other), 20-30cm from rear and side walls, and toed in just a little towards your listening position. Each speaker has bi-wire cable terminals that can accept banana plugs, spade connections or bare wire — they’re linked when you take them from the box, so if you intend to bi-wire don’t forget to take the links off.

When they are unblocked the Talisman-R are fitted with low-profile silicone feet for use with hard floors. There are floor spikes in the packaging, too, which are ideal if your speakers are going to be on a carpeted floor.

As with almost every loudspeaker, it’s just a question of putting some hours on them before you make a judgement on the way the Talisman-R sound. A period of running in before a speaker is ready to reveal everything it’s capable of is far from unusual, and it’s the case here.

• Usability & setup score: 5 / 5

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Value

If you’re going to judge your $2,399 floorstanding speakers by the amount of space they occupy or by the number of drivers they feature, nothing about the Ruark Audio Talisman-R is going to convince you of the value for money they represent.

But if you value discretion, build quality and, above all, sound quality — and you’re not trying to fill an especially large space with music — then there’s an awful lot of bang for your buck here.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Ruark Audio Talisman-R Luxe?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Ruark Audio Talisman-R review: Also consider

At either side of the asking price for a pair of Talisman-R you’ll find very worthwhile models from very credible brands.

The Q Acoustics 5050 are now available at around the $1,300 mark, and they represent excellent value for money where sound is concerned — they make a much more assertive visual statement than the Ruark Audio, too.

Go to the other end of the scale, consider spending $2,500, and the PMC Prodigy 5 can be yours. In their own way they’re just as visually unassuming as the Talisman-R, and in their own way they’re just as sonically accomplished.

How I tested the Ruark Audio Talisman-R

I used QED GA XT speaker cable to connect the Talisman-R to a Cambridge Edge W power amplifier.

The amp gets its signal from an Eversolo DAC-Z10 which is being fed by a Ruark Apollo CD player and an Arcam ST25 network streamer (both via digital optical) and a Technics SL-1300G with Goldring 1022 cartridge via a Chord Huei phono stage.

This way I’m able to listen to lots of content stored in various formats.

• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

I really like the Roku Pro Series OLED TV. And in some ways, it’s an improvement over the previous Roku Pro. Every time I look at that OLED panel, I think about when OLED TVs first came out and someone would comment about how they have such deep blacks, because they really do.

But in some ways, it’s not quite as good as the Roku Pro Series (2025) because it’s trying to keep the same price point while including a more expensive part (the OLED panel). So, there are trade-offs. The color and brightness are not as brilliant, though that’s par for the course with brightness and OLED. The audio has a little less in the low end. And the shadowbox design is gone, which also means less cable management.

So, I’m a little conflicted. The best TVs at this price point have a little more to offer outside of those deeper blacks. However, I also think it should rank among the best OLED TVs at this price, making OLED TVs just a little more accessible — especially because at the time of reviewing it had dropped to $999, and we're now seeing the price fall to a frankly ridiculous $799 for the 65-inch model.

If you’ve ever looked at an OLED TV and just stared in wonder, but then had to turn away because of the price, then the Roku Pro Series OLED TV is probably for you — as long as your room isn't too bright, because it's limited brightness makes it prone to reflections overpowering the screen.

Roku Pro Series OLED TV review: Price and release date

• Released in September 2026
• Launch prices: 55-inch: $999.99, 65-inch: $1,199.99
• Prices for both have fallen since launch

The Roku Pro Series (2025) I covered last year already came with a limited number of options – specifically coming in 55-, 65-, and 75-inch – but the Roku Pro Series OLED TV reviewed here comes in even fewer flavors. There’s the 55-inch size, which launched at $999.99, and the 65-inch which launched for $1,199.99.

Much like the Roku Pro Series (2025), which was priced at $1,199.99 when first released and goes for $699.99 at the time of writing, the Roku Pro OLED has already had some discounts, with the 65-inch available for $999.99 during my review period. And at the time of publishing, it fell to just $799 for the larger model, which is astonishing value.

The Roku Pro Series OLED TV has been available since the beginning of September of 2026.

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Specs

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Benchmark results

Previous

1 / 4

Next

Brightness Measurements

HDR Filmmaker ModeHDR StandardSDR Filmmaker ModeSDR Standard

Roku Pro OLED

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

462

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

96

LG B6

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

835

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

150

TCL QM7L

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

2270

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

723

07501,5002,2503,000

nits

HDR Filmmaker Mode Data

Product	HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window) (nits)	HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Roku Pro OLED	462	96
LG B6	835	150
TCL QM7L	2270	723

Roku Pro OLED

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

587

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

113

LG B6

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

740

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

150

TCL QM7L

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

2419

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

774

07501,5002,2503,000

nits

HDR Standard Data

Product	HDR Standard Mode (10% window) (nits)	HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Roku Pro OLED	587	113
LG B6	740	150
TCL QM7L	2419	774

Roku Pro OLED

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

330

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

0

LG B6

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

192

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

183

TCL QM7L

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

196

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

266

0100200300400

nits

SDR Filmmaker Mode Data

Product	SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window) (nits)	SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Roku Pro OLED	330	N/A
LG B6	192	183
TCL QM7L	196	266

Roku Pro OLED

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

384

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

0

LG B6

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

230

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

196

TCL QM7L

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

463

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

479

0150300450600

nits

SDR Standard Data

Product	SDR Standard Mode (10% window) (nits)	SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Roku Pro OLED	384	N/A
LG B6	230	196
TCL QM7L	463	479

HDR color gamut

Closer to 100% is better. Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator.

Roku Pro OLED

UHDA-P3

96.2

BT.2020

71.1

LG B6

UHDA-P3

97.4

BT.2020

72.5

TCL QM7L

UHDA-P3

98

BT.2020

90.5

0255075100

HDR Filmmaker Mode Data

Product	UHDA-P3 ()	BT.2020 ()
Roku Pro OLED	96.2	71.1
LG B6	97.4	72.5
TCL QM7L	98	90.5

Picture accuracy

A lower score is better. Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator.

SDR Delta-E

Roku Pro OLED

2.3

LG B6

1.1

TCL QM7L

2.6

0123

SDR Delta-E Data

Product	Value
Roku Pro OLED	2.3
LG B6	1.1
TCL QM7L	2.6

Input lag

Lower is better. Taken using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Video Signal Lag Tester.

4K 60Hz

Roku Pro OLED

9.1

LG B6

8.9

TCL QM7L

9.4

012345678910

ms

4K 60Hz Data

Product	Value
Roku Pro OLED	9.1
LG B6	8.9
TCL QM7L	9.4

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Features

• No hands-free control
• Supports most HDR and spatial audio formats
• Can integrate into a number of smart home ecosystems

I think one of the reasons that the Roku Pro Series OLED’s price is a little cheaper than previous versions of the Roku Pro Series, despite coming with an OLED screen, is the fact that hands-free control is no longer part of the package. This might be a benefit for those who don't like the idea of a voice-activated device always listening in, but it’s a nice feature that I always appreciate. And so it’s a feature I miss on this TV.

That said, there’s still voice support through the remote, so you can press a button and ask the TV to look something up, open settings, or even what the weather is. But it’s not a voice assistant that you can talk to.

As far as HDR support, the Roku Pro Series OLED comes with Dolby Vision, which adjusts the brightness and color on a per-scene basis, but it doesn’t come with the IQ version that I’ve been seeing on similar priced TVs, where the system also takes into account the ambient light levels of the room you're watching in. It also has HDR10+ support — and it's rare to TVs to support both (only Panasonic releases OLED TVs in the US that do both).

Roku hasn't announced any support for Dolby Vision 2, and indicated to TechRadar that there are no plans to add support in the future, at least currently.

Similarly, spatial audio support includes the most important that one would need, Dolby Atmos, but doesn’t come with any DTS support. Now, Dolby is much more prevalent and most people won’t notice the absence, especially if you’re just using the TV speakers, but it’s a notable exclusion. That, rival OLEDs such as the LG B6 and Samsung S85H are also lacking DTS.

If you care about integrating your TV into a smart home ecosystem (and allowing you to talk to it in a roundabout way), the Roku Pro Series OLED TV does support a number of ecosystems. Specifically, you can connect it to Roku Smart Home, Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Home. Oh, and since I mentioned Apple, Apple AirPlay is on hand.

For gaming, you've got 4K 120Hz support and variable refresh rate support, but there's not dedicated quick gaming menu as you get on most other models.

• Features Score: 4 / 5

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Picture Quality

• Deep blacks as expected on an OLED TV
• Color coverage is good but not spectacular
• Low brightness means it's prone to reflections in bright rooms

What’s so interesting about the picture quality of the Roku Pro Series OLED TV is that, yes, it has a beautiful OLED panel, but its pedigree as a mid-range TV is still evident. While I’ll mostly speak about my personal experience using the TV, it’s worth mentioning some of the benchmarks and how they prove the point.

BT.2020 color gamut coverage is something touted as something to watch for despite very little content actually using that color range. Still, if content moves in that direction, the Roku Pro Series OLED’s 71% coverage in film maker mode is standard, only falling slightly short of the 72.5% achieved by the LG B6.

When similarly-priced, rival mini-LED TVs such as the TCL QM7L can hit 90.5% and even other OLEDs are hitting over 80% of the BT.2020 range, the Roku Pro OLED's number seems low, but it's in-line with other budget OLEDs. That said, what’s really important is the DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, and that’s a healthy 96% in our testing.

The Roku Pro OLED hit 462 nits of brightness in HDR Dark (its closest equivalent to Filmmaker Mode) on a 10% window. Compared to the rival B6, which hit 835 nits HDR peak brightness on the same 10% window in Filmmaker Mode, the Roku's number is low. While I found that its reflections weren't too different to other TVs I've tested in my bright room, the Roku certainly isn't a bright TV.

The black areas of a screen are just deeper thanks to OLED’s unique feature of turning individuals pixel offs to offer 'perfect' contrast. Because of this, shadows have more depth, benefitting movies like Sinners or The Batman, where much of those movies take place at night or in the shadows.

The screen is also very uniform. I didn’t see any vignetting in the corners or edges of the screen and solid colors looked the same across it.

Motion looks smooth without being unnatural when watching sports for the most part, though in things like slow motion replays things can come across a bit choppier.

I mentioned the color coverage earlier in terms of benchmarks, but during use, it is somewhat noticeable that the colors are good, but not great. They seem reasonably accurate, but they don’t pop off the screen like they would on the Hisense U7, for instance. Then again, the Hisense doesn’t have the impressive black tones of the Roku Pro Series OLED TV.

• Picture quality score: 4 / 5

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Sound Quality

• Not much low end
• Mid-range and high-end sound good
• Has Night Mode and Dialog enhancing settings

I go back and forth on the Roku Pro Series OLED TV’s audio. It’s clearly good enough to skip the soundbar for just standard TV viewing. But it doesn’t sound as good as the thicker Roku Pro Series TVs that preceded it. The OLED version, because it no longer has the thick shadowbox design of its predecessors, has less space for speakers or ports to help with audio.

If you want to hear rumble when Batman runs the Penguin off the road in The Batman, for instance, or really feel the impact of an offensive and defensive line battling it out at the one yard line, then you'll need something with bigger drivers and a subwoofer. This TV just doesn’t have the necessary bass to really offer that level of immersion. I think because of the lack of bass, there’s also a bit of boxiness in the sound quality as well.

However, the mid-range is balanced and rich sounding, while the high-end has a good amount of clarity without sounding harsh that audio still sounds good. The score on a soundtrack-heavy movie will sound full. Similarly, I had no trouble distinguishing dialog or voices in whatever media I’m watching.

As far as menu diving goes, the Roku Pro Series OLED TV offers six different sound modes including an Auto and Night Mode, both of which work as intended. There are also settings for enabling virtual surround sound, dialog enhancer, volume leveling, and adjustments for the bass and treble.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Design

• Designed to show off thin OLED panel
• Minimal cable management
• Tool-less feet installation

The most notable change over previous Roku Pro Series TVs on the OLED is the fact that it no longer sports the shadowbox design. Frankly, I miss it. The shadowbox design did make those previous versions thicker, but they were uniform from end to end with recessed cable management so they could be mounted on the wall and be completely flush. Well, that’s gone.

Instead, to show off how thin the OLED panel is, only the bottom two thirds of the TV is thicker than the panel. At its thickest, it’s only 1.6 inches, so it does cut a somewhat svelte figure (for a TV). And while I do appreciate the fact that Roku isn’t resting on its laurels, this fundamental change in design means that there are some compromises.

I’ve mentioned the sound quality above, and I do think the change in this design affects it. There’s also much more limited cable management — basically there’s a clip on each foot to route cables through.

I do appreciate that the feet can be installed without any tools. Instead of needing a screwdriver, each screw has a large plastic head that can be tightened by hand. I also like the fact that the feet can be installed at two different heights.

There are a few clues in some other areas that highlight the fact that the Roku Pro Series OLED is, essentially, an entry-level OLED TV. The fact that it comes with Wi-Fi 5 in an age where most cutting edge and more premium products come with Wi-Fi 6 at least, and it comes with Bluetooth 5.2 despite the existence of Bluetooth 6. These are not significant limitations, but they’re certainly shortcuts.

On the bright side, there is a 'remote locator' button on the side of the TV, which is nice for the more absent-minded among us. And it makes a fairly pleasant pinging sound. You won’t be tearing your couch apart trying to find the remote just to turn off the sound.

Lastly, despite having four HDMI 2.1 (one eARC enabled), only two have markings next to them for gaming. Maybe this is just a suggestion, but typically that means that the other two HDMI ports don’t support 4K at the 120Hz refresh rate. Confusing, but sadly the HDMI rules do allow this. At least, there’s a USB 2.0 and USB-C 3.0 port along with optical, ethernet, and coaxial.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Smart TV & Menus

• Updated Roku Interface
• Decent amount of free content
• Lots of adjustments available, though only when watching content

If you haven’t used a Roku device in awhile, the state of the Roku interface at the time of this review is a little different than the OS of yore. It still takes inspiration from the more bubbly aspects of, say, an iPhone’s operating system with a changeable cartoony background (and screensaver) and an interactive list of tiles.

The tiles, however, are organized by categories. When first turning the TV on, I’m greeted with a selection of what Roku calls 'Top Picks For You', showing specific content based on previous behavior. Following that is a collection of the apps that I use most under 'Quick Access'. Then there are suggestions for what to watch next and a few other bundles of tiles before getting to the more traditional Roku experience where I can browse all the installed app tiles.

Free content is mostly accessible through the Roku app, though you’ll come across plenty if you browse the other sections such as the Live Action TV app and in the sports section.

The settings are baked into the operating system with plenty of accessibility options and a guest mode available. However, the deeper dives into picture and sound quality require you to have content open at the time. This is somewhat common now and it makes sense with TVs like this that have things like Dolby Vision where the screen adjusts settings behind the scenes based on what content is pulled up. Still, it’s a bit annoying.

At least, there are all the picture modes and plenty of fine-tuning available through the menu once something’s up on the screen. Adjustments like Micro and Dynamic Contrast are on hand as well as Action Smoothing and Clarity, not to mention the fact that you can adjust the Gamma Correction as well as color temperature and space.

• Smart TV & menus score: 4 / 5

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Gaming

• Good for gaming because of the OLED screen
• 120Hz refresh rate through HDMI 2.1 for next-gen consoles
• Not much in the way of gaming-specific features

When it comes to what makes a TV a good gaming TV, there are two things to consider. The first is the TV’s performance that similarly affects all the other content, such as color coverage, HDR support, sound quality, and so forth. And in that regard, the Roku Pro Series OLED makes for a good gaming TV.

The sound is not perfect (more bass would make a big difference) but is good enough. And as far as picture quality goes, you get to play your games through an OLED panel and experience the contrast it has to offer, not to mention the HDR support it comes with.

Of course, this TV also supports 120Hz refresh rate, which helps give a smoother gaming experience, especially with a next-gen console or PC. There are TVs with higher refresh rates, but a PlayStation 5 maxes out at 120Hz anyway (and the difference between 120Hz and 144Hz/165Hz is not all that noticeable).

The second thing to factor in a gaming TV are the gaming-specific extras that come along with said TV. In that regard, the Roku Pro Series OLED is somewhat lacking. There’s no game bar or game-specific menu, so don’t expect to pull up a crosshair or fps counter. Not to mention, there's not much game-specific picture fine-tuning either.

There is, at least, a picture mode for gaming that also allows one to choose between different sub-modes. Basically, you get the choice between an HDR Dark, HDR Standard, and HDR Bright version of that picture mode.

• Gaming score: 4 / 5

Roku Pro Series OLED TV: Value

• The cost of OLED results in some trade-offs
• Very good price for an OLED TV
• Non-OLED TVs are a cheaper and almost just-as-good alternative

Underneath the OLED panel, the Roku Pro Series OLED TV is a competent mid-range TV that unfortunately trades some overall performance for OLED's rich contrast. You get those deeper blacks, but it doesn’t sound as good and isn't as bright as the Roku Pro Series (2025) that it replaces.

At the time of reviews, the Roku Pro Series OLED had fallen to $999 at 65 inches — and then got a sale discount bringing it to just $799. Let’s take the LG B6 for comparison’s sake, LG’s 2026 budget OLED. A 65-inch model will set you back $1,299.99 as I write this, $500 higher than that of the Roku Pro OLED. However, there’s also the LG B6E cheaper version (which has very few differences from the B6, mainly some unimportant AI modes) for $999, so that’s only a $200 difference.

The B6 and B6E are of course available at wider size ranges (48 to 83-inches), but these models are about as budget as OLED TVs go, so the Roku Pro Series OLED is effectively as cheap as you can get an OLED without going for an older model.

Compared to the B6E, you're losing two ports capable of 4K 120Hz, some gaming modes, and getting lower brightness. Is that a fair trade off? If you're not bothered about gaming, saving the cash and putting it towards a soundbar with sub could be just want you want.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Roku Pro Series OLED TV?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if…

Also consider...

How I tested the Roku Pro Series OLED TV

• I used the TV for a couple weeks
• Tested with both TV, movies, music, and games

I used the Roku Pro Series OLED TV regularly for a couple weeks. I tested it using streaming shows, movies, music, and games (via PS5). I went through the various features to see if it work as advertised. I also spent time listening to the audio as well as paying attention to the picture quality.

After spending some time with this TV, it’s my humble opinion that this TV is ideal for those who want an OLED TV at mid-range prices and are okay with the trade-off required.

I’ve tested a lot of tech gear over the years from laptops to keyboards and speakers, and so have been able to use my expertise towards giving an honest and fair opinion, not to mention a critical eye, to any product I test.

• First reviewed: September 2026
• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

Samsung’s Micro RGB lineup is its first foray into the RGB TV market, and the Samsung R95H is the flagship model in that lineup. It's an impressive TV, and a very strong performer in key areas such as movies and gaming; and, while I don’t think it quite beats the best OLED TVs, it's a good showcase for how RGB models are shaping up against the best TVs in general.

The R95H delivers great overall picture quality, with vibrant colors which also look accurate in most scenes, as well as strong contrast and refined detail. While its black levels don’t quite match those of OLED, they’re still very rich for a backlit TV. It’s not all smooth sailing, as the R95H can get overly bright, especially in Movie mode, and it’s not immune to blooming in very dark scenes. Still, its overall picture quality is of a high standard.

Sound quality on the R95H is solid for the most part, with good accuracy and detail, as well as commendable bass and solid mid-range tones. Speech is clear in most scenes I watched, and there is some sense of surround. However, the soundstage could be wider, and the volume does need to be pushed sometimes, so I’d recommend one of the best soundbars for those wanting a more of a home-theater experience.

The R95H is up there with the best gaming TVs, offering four fully-specced HDMI 2.1 ports along with a low 11.7ms input lag time for smooth gaming performance. There are tons of cloud gaming options available too, and Samsung's Gaming Hub is still an excellent feature. While its Game picture mode could be more accurate, this is still an excellent gaming TV.

Tizen is a good smart TV platform, giving you access to all the major streaming apps, as well as a plethora of AI tools for picture, sound and general usage. Its menus are generally well laid out and easy to navigate, and, while there are some frustrations, such as autoplaying Samsung TV Plus and large banner ads on the home screen, these don’t detract too much from what is a solid smart TV interface.

The R95H is a premium TV, with the 65-inch model priced at $2,799 / £2,899 / AU$4,999. This puts it at a similar price level to flagship OLED TVs, and while I don’t think it quite tops OLED, it shows how rapidly RGB tech is advancing.

A quick note on the images in this review: the TV may appear to have a red tint, but this is caused by the camera reacting to the anti-glare screen, and it not something that's discernible when viewing content on the TV.

Samsung R95H review: Prices & release date

• Release date: July 2026
• 65-inch: $3,199 / £3,099 / AU$5,299
• 75-inch: $4,499 / £3,999 / AU$7,999
• 85-inch: $5,499 / £5,899 / AU$9,999

The Samsung R95H is the flagship model in Samsung’s Micro RGB TV lineup, sitting above the Samsung R85H. It’s available in 65, 75 and 85-inch sizes. The launch price for the 65-inch model I tested is $3,199 / £3,099 / AU$5,299, putting it at the premium end of the market.

Since its launch in July 2026, prices have dropped across all sizes in both the US and UK. The 65-inch has dropped to $2,799 / £2,899, putting it in similar price brackets to Samsung’s flagship S95H / S99H OLED (priced at $2,899 / £2,899) and LG’s flagship G6 OLED ($2,699 / £2,999). In the US and UK the R95H is cheaper than Sony’s rival RGB, the Bravia 9 II, which is priced at $3,499 / £3,499 / AU$5,995.

Samsung R95H review: Specs

Samsung R95H review: Benchmark results

Previous

1 / 4

Next

Brightness measurements

HDR FilmmakerHDR StandardSDR FilmmakerSDR Standard

Samsung R95H

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

1977

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

612

Samsung S95H/S99H

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

2739

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

449

Sony Bravia 7 II

HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

1114

HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

829

07501,5002,2503,000

nits

HDR Filmmaker Data

Product	HDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window) (nits)	HDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Samsung R95H	1977	612
Samsung S95H/S99H	2739	449
Sony Bravia 7 II	1114	829

Samsung R95H

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

2066

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

647

Samsung S95H/S99H

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

2831

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

463

Sony Bravia 7 II

HDR Standard Mode (10% window)

1295

HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

788

07501,5002,2503,000

nits

HDR Standard Data

Product	HDR Standard Mode (10% window) (nits)	HDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Samsung R95H	2066	647
Samsung S95H/S99H	2831	463
Sony Bravia 7 II	1295	788

Samsung R95H

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

115

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

185

Samsung S95H/S99H

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

220

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

219

Sony Bravia 7 II

SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window)

90

SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen)

94

075150225300

nits

SDR Filmmaker Data

Product	SDR Filmmaker Mode (10% window) (nits)	SDR Filmmaker Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Samsung R95H	115	185
Samsung S95H/S99H	220	219
Sony Bravia 7 II	90	94

Samsung R95H

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

413

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

187

Samsung S95H/S99H

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

229

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

229

Sony Bravia 7 II

SDR Standard Mode (10% window)

608

SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen)

476

0200400600800

nits

SDR Standard Data

Product	SDR Standard Mode (10% window) (nits)	SDR Standard Mode (Fullscreen) (nits)
Samsung R95H	413	187
Samsung S95H/S99H	229	229
Sony Bravia 7 II	608	476

HDR color gamut

Closer to 100% is better. Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator.

Samsung R95H

UHDA-P3

148

BT.2020

94.1

Samsung S95H/S99H

UHDA-P3

99.9

BT.2020

89.2

Sony Bravia 7 II

UHDA-P3

98.6

BT.2020

89.6

037.575112.5150

HDR Filmmaker Data

Product	UHDA-P3 ()	BT.2020 ()
Samsung R95H	148	94.1
Samsung S95H/S99H	99.9	89.2
Sony Bravia 7 II	98.6	89.6

Picture accuracy

A lower score is better. Taken using a colorimeter and test pattern generator.

SDR Delta-E

Samsung R95H

3.7

Samsung S95H/S99H

1.6

Sony Bravia 7 II

6.5

01234567

SDR Delta-E Data

Product	Value
Samsung R95H	3.7
Samsung S95H/S99H	1.6
Sony Bravia 7 II	6.5

Input lag

Lower is better. Taken using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Video Signal Lag Tester.

Samsung R95H

4K 60Hz

11.7

1080p 120Hz

9.4

Samsung S95H/S99H

4K 60Hz

9.5

1080p 120Hz

5

Sony Bravia 7 II

4K 60Hz

10.4

1080p 120Hz

5.7

03.757.511.2515

ms

HDR Filmmaker Data

Product	4K 60Hz (ms)	1080p 120Hz (ms)
Samsung R95H	11.7	9.4
Samsung S95H/S99H	9.5	5
Sony Bravia 7 II	10.4	5.7

Samsung R95H review: Features

• RGB backlight
• Glare-free screen
• Samsung Vision AI and Tizen smart TV platform

The R95H uses Samsung’s ‘Micro RGB’ backlight technology, which uses LEDs that are smaller than mini-LEDs, and which consist of red, green and blue LEDs (hence RGB) rather than the traditional white in order to deliver bolder colors and brightness.

It comes equipped with the Samsung Micro RGB AI Engine Pro processor, which has features such as Micro RGB Precision Color, 4K AI Upscaling Pro and Color Booster Pro. The TV itself also has a Glare Free screen, an anti-reflection matte screen that has featured in several of Samsung's TVs, including the Samsung S95H / S99H.

In terms of HDR support, the R95H supports HDR10+, but as usual, there is no support for Dolby Vision.

For gaming, the R95H has four HDMI 2.1 ports, which support 4K 165Hz, full VRR including Freesync and G-Sync, ALLM and HDR10+ gaming. It also supports cloud gaming apps from the likes of Xbox and Nvidia GeForce Now. The R95H is also compatible with the Wireless One Connect Box, which can be used in tandem with the TV’s built-in ports, meaning there are a potential eight HDMI 2.1 ports on offer.

The R95H has a 4.2.2 channel speaker array, totaling 70W of power. Supported sound features include Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+), Active Voice Amplifier Pro, Adaptive Sound Pro and AI Sound Controller Pro. The R95H supports Dolby Atmos, but not DTS:X.

The R95H’s smart TV platform is Samsung’s own One UI Tizen, which supports major streaming apps including Netflix and Prime Video, and for those in the UK it supports all major apps including BBC iPlayer and ITVX. There's also support for Samsung Vision AI, which enables AI features such as AI Soccer Mode Pro and Generative Wallpaper.

• Feature score: 5 / 5

Samsung R95H review: Picture quality

• Strong contrast and detail
• Bold colors
• Effective anti-glare

Starting with some brightness measurements, the R95H registered 1,977 nits and 2,066 nits peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker mode and Standard mode respectively. These are solid brightness results, but surprisingly lower than those of Samsung’s flagship OLED, the S95H/S99H, which registered 2,739 nits and 2,831 nits in the same modes respectively.

Where the R95H has an advantage over OLED is in its fullscreen HDR brightness, which hit 612 nits and 600 nits in the same Filmmaker and Standard picture modes, roughly 150 nits higher than the S95H/S99H OLED. While these numbers are solid, they're lower than those of rival RGB TVs such as the Hisense UR8, which hit over 750 nits in both picture modes, and even the Sony Bravia 7 II, which hit over 800 nits in its own Filmmaker mode.

The R95H showcases good upscaling when watching lower-resolution and SDR content. Watching various channels on Samsung TV Plus, from America’s Got Talent re-runs to news channels, the picture looked more detailed than anticipated, showing the R95H’s effective upscaling.

Moving on to the reference 4K Blu-rays I use for testing, the R95H demonstrated very good picture quality. RGB’s selling point is its color reproduction, and the R95H succeeded here. Throughout The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, colors were bold and vibrant, shown in particular whenever the Lumas were on screen. Colors also appeared accurate throughout, with the red of Mario’s overalls looking true to life. I did notice that while watching in Movie mode, there was some clipping of bright objects, and color luminance could look a little distorted at times. Dropping the brightness down to 40 improved this.

In the live-action movie, Speed Racer, I was impressed at how the R95H rendered the gaudy, saturated color scheme of the Racer household, with its vibrant greens and oranges. It captured the oversaturated look, while still delivering realistic colors. While I did prefer the Sony Bravia 7 II’s colors in my Bravia 7 II vs R95H comparison, in isolated viewing, the R95H’s colors were impressive. The R95H did, however, reproduce accurate and realistic skin tones throughout my viewing.

Measuring the R95H’s color gamut coverage, it registered a staggering 148% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, as well as a 94.1% of the BT.2020 color space. These are incredible results, rivaling the best projectors, and the BT.2020 result rivals QD-OLED, found in Samsung's flagship S95H/S99H TVs.

Switching to The Batman for higher-contrast and darker scenes, the R95H demonstrated strong contrast in almost every scene, with a great balance between light and dark tones. This was most evident in the crime scene at Mayor Mitchell’s house, and in the Batcave. The R95H also delivered excellent shadow detail, with objects like paintings on the wall of Mitchell’s house still legible even in the most shadowed areas.

I did find that while I could watch The Batman in bright conditions, thanks to the R95H’s effective glare-free screen, it was best watched in Filmmaker mode in more ambient/dimmer conditions. In Movie mode, The Batman had a tendency to look over-sharp and over-bright in places.

While its black tones weren’t quite OLED-level, the R95H did deliver some seriously rich, deep blacks in Alien: Romulus. Shots of space looked as inky as I could have hoped for, and were impressive for a backlit TV.

The R95H also demonstrated strong viewing angles, and while there was some blooming present in some scenes in The Batman and Alien; Romulus when I viewed the TV off-center, its backlight control was far more effective than you’ll see from standard LED and mini-LED TVs.

Finally, for motion, the R95H is capable of handling fast-paced scenes from movies like Speed Racer, as cars weave around the track. It showed some judder as commentators panned across the screen, but I’ve found every TV has struggled with this. For the best motion, I found setting blur and judder reduction to 3 looked smooth without venturing into soap opera-effect territory.

For sports, I watched some Major League Soccer highlights via Apple TV, and the R95H not only handled the action well but produced a very natural picture in Standard mode (my preferred picture mode for sports) that I found pleasing to watch.

• Picture quality score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung R95H review: Sound quality

• Effective OTS+ results in great sound positioning
• Decent bass and mid range
• Sound can feel contained to rear of the screen

The R95H’s built-in speaker array is a 4.2.2 channel, 70W system. It supports Dolby Atmos and has two preset sound modes: Standard and Amplify. There are AI sound features such as Adaptive Sound Pro available to use.

Watching the Batmobile chase scene from The Batman and the various race scenes in Speed Racer, with the TV set to its Amplify sound mode, I was unsurprised to hear that the R95H delivered accurate sound that was well mapped with the action on the screen, something I’ve found with a lot of Samsung TVs, thanks to its OTS+ feature. Whether it was a spray of bullets hitting the Batmobile in The Batman or the sound of the Mach 5 grinding a rail in Speed Racer, the sound accuracy was impressive.

The speakers deliver good mid-range tones throughout, as well as some punchy bass that accurately captures the rumble of the Batmobile’s engine and the roar of the race cars in Speed Racer. There were some impressive surround effects in both reference movies too.

While the speakers are generally decent, I did have to push the volume to higher levels (70+ out of 100) to get a more cinematic experience. The bass also felt flat at times, and sound did still feel contained to the rear of the screen. Turning on Adaptive Sound in the AI settings added more width, but at the cost of bass. While its sound is decent, those wanting a more cinematic experience would benefit from a soundbar.

• Sound quality: 4 / 5

Samsung R95H review: Design

• Polished frame
• Thinner than other RGB TVs I’ve tested
• Light but sturdy

The R95H takes a lot of design cues from other Samsung TVs, with a sleek, silver frame that gives the TV a premium look. Compared to other RGB TVs I’ve tested, the R95H is thinner, which again gives it an appealing look. It has a central pedestal stand that feels sturdy when attached, while the TV itself feels light for a 65-inch, and lighter than other RGB TVs I’ve tested.

The screen has a bezel-less design, giving maximum room to the pictures on screen. The R95H also has the aforementioned glare-free matte screen for easier viewing in bright conditions.

The supplied remote is the Samsung SolarCell remote, which can be recharged via the rear solar panel or via USB-C. The remote has shortcut buttons to major apps such as Netflix, as well as an AI button and mic button for voice control.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung R95H review: Smart TV & menus

• One UI Tizen smart TV platform
• Hubs including Home and Game
• Good range of settings

As with all Samsung TVs, the R95H uses Samsung’s own Tizen OS smart TV platform, now known as One UI Tizen. Tizen has several different hubs, including the Home hub, where apps and TV shows and movie recommendations are presented, and Game hub, where cloud gaming apps are housed. There are also Daily and Art hubs, for lifestyle and art-themed apps respectively.

Tizen supports a wide array of apps, including major streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney. In the UK, streaming services such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX are supported. It should be noted that Tizen doesn’t use Freely or Freeview for live TV, instead using its own Samsung TV Plus system.

Various AI features are supported, including the Samsung Vision AI Companion, which can be used to find specific content, or answer more general questions that you ask the AI. Also included are other AI picture and sound features, as discussed in the Features section above.

Tizen is good at offering recommendations, and the Home hub is well laid out, but as with all smart TV platforms nowadays, there's a large banner ad at the top of the screen that can be intrusive when you're trying to navigate.

Menus are well laid out and easy to navigate, and there are a good number of settings, enabling you to tailor the picture to your preferences. Tizen is fairly straightforward to use, although I did find that Samsung TV Plus would play if I lingered on the Home menu, which could be frustrating.

• Smart TV & menus score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung R95H review: Gaming

• Four HDMI 2.1 ports
• 11.7ms input lag time
• 4K 165Hz, FreeSync and G-Sync supported

The R95H has four HDMI 2.1 ports, all of which are fully equipped for gaming. It supports 4K 165Hz, full VRR including Freesync and G-sync, HDR10+ gaming and ALLM. There's a dedicated Game menu where you can adjust game-specific settings, and the Game Hub, which houses cloud gaming apps such as Xbox, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Luna.

When I measured the R95H’s input lag, it registered an 11.7ms (4K 60Hz) time. This is below the 15ms input lag time we look for, but is higher than other Samsung TVs I’ve tested, which all tend to register sub-10ms times.

Actual gameplay on the R95H is smooth, even during fast-paced action. Playing Battlefield V on Xbox Series X, the R95H easily handled the chaotic gunfights as I had to snap from target to target, showing no signs of judder or stutter. The Game picture mode rendered crisp textures and accurate colors for the most part, though I did find it favored red tones in one desert mission I played. Overall, though, the R95H is a superb gaming TV.

• Gaming score: 5 / 5

Samsung R95H review: Value

• Premium priced TV
• Similar price to OLEDs
• Good performance and features

The R95H is a premium TV, with the 65-inch model I tested available for around $2,799 / £2,899 / AU$4,795 at the time of writing. This puts it in a similar price bracket to flagship OLEDs, such as Samsung’s S95H/S99H, which costs $2,799 / £2,899 / AU$5,295, and the LG G6, which costs $2,699 / £2,999 / AU$4,995 for a 65-inch. Compared to other RGB TVs I’ve tested, it’s one of the pricier models, but is cheaper than the rival flagship Sony Bravia 9 II, the 65-inch model of which costs $3,599 / £3,499 / AU$5,995.

The R95H commands a premium price, but does deliver premium performance and features similar to those rival OLEDs and RGB TV mentioned above. Since its release, prices for the R95H have dropped, and I anticipate they’ll continue to drop from now on, improving its value proposition. For now, I don’t think it can quite outshine rival OLEDs for the money, but it's close, and this is still a very good TV.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Samsung R95H?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also Consider

How I tested the Samsung R95H

• Tested over a few weeks
• Tested in varying light conditions in our testing lab
• Measurements taken using Portrait Displays Calman software

The first step of my testing was casual viewing to establish the best pictures modes. For sports and daytime TV, Standard worked best, and for movies and TV shows, I switched between Movie and Filmmaker depending on the content.

After this, I did my critical viewing using reference 4K Blu-ray scenes to test color, contrast, motion and detail. I also used SDR broadcast TV to test upscaling, as well as sports to test the R95H's sports viewing.

Next, I tested the R95H using specialized measuring equipment, including a Murideo Six G 8K metal test pattern generator, Klein K-10A colorimeter and Jeti Spectral 15VA spectroradiometer and Portrait Displays' Calman color calibration software.

To test brightness, I took SDR and HDR brightness measurements using white window patterns in sizes 1-100%, focusing on peak (10%) and fullscreen (100%) measurements.

After this, I tested color and grayscale accuracy in SDR, using Delta-E values (the margin for error between the test pattern signal source and what is displayed on screen.)

Next, I tested HDR color gamut coverage, using the BT.2020 and UHDA-P3 color spaces. The closer to 100%, the better.

Finally, I measured the R95H's input lag using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI Input Lag Tester.

We also do two new tests as part of our testing. The first is the HDR EOTF, which shows the accuracy of a TV's brightness across its range, using 1,000, 4,000 and 10,000 nits targets. Then, there is the Spectral Power Distribution test, which measures how a TV recreates colors.

• First reviewed: September 2026
• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee