Crave CES 2021 SPECIAL

THE GEAR WE’RE LUSTING AFTER

1 JBL SA750

>$3,000 (about £2,195) >jbl.com

> Reaching your 75th year is cause enough for celebration – doubly so when you’re a brand as venerable as JBL. To celebrate, the company has launched the SA750, a gorgeously retro integrated amplifier with a very modern set of capabilities onboard, including support for AirPlay 2. We love its use of milled aluminium and real wood teak veneer, plus those reassuringly chunky switches and dials. As you’d expect from a machine of its calibre, it’s capable of delivering 220W of power per channel into eight ohms, and it has built-in Ethernet, Wi-Fi and USB, as well as more traditional hi-fi connections. Team it with the L100 Classic 75 speakers ($1,000) for added street cred – but hurry, only 750 pairs of these stunning speakers (pictured inset) are being made.

2 Sony Bravia XR Master Series Z9J

> £TBC > sony.co.uk

> This is what the future of TV looks like. The Bravia XR Master Series Z9 is a gorgeous 85-inch LED TV that’s capable of handling 8K – the next-gen video standard that offers 7,680x4,320 pixels of resolution, or four times more than 4K, and 16 times more than 1080p. True, there’s not much 8K content you can watch right now, but Sony is ready for when it is – its new PlayStation 5 does 8K output too. While you wait for content creators to catch up, you can, ahem, console yourself with the Z9J’s onboard tech, which includes Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support.

3 Moflin

> About £295 > vanguard-industries.com