If you have visited whathifi.com over the past week or so, you may well have seen that the What Hi-Fi? Award winners for 2023 were recently revealed. Our annual awards season is a mammoth undertaking where we consider every product we have awarded a five-star review to in the preceding year, as well as a raft of brand-new kit, much of which is submitted by manufacturers themselves and some of which are so new that they only go on sale days before our winners are announced.
During this time we compare hundreds of products against one another to arrive at our final list of winners. On one of the many days spent locked up in our test rooms, the reviews team were deciding between a trio of music streamers and it occurred to me that there are some basic rules that should be followed to such a job properly.
This isn’t an extensive list by any means. It isn’t even in any particular order. But follow these simple guidelines when you are demoing kit with the view to buy, and you'll have a much better chance of making the right choice.
1 To ensure accurate results, set-up is everything
This is the big one, as the way a product is set up can make or break its performance. Let’s start with speakers. If they are standmounters, is the support a good one?
If a manufacturer makes a dedicated stand then that is usually a decent place to start, or just go for one of our speaker stand award winners and you can't go far wrong. It’s a small point, but whether we’re talking about a speaker stand or floorstanders themselves, make sure that the spikes at the bottom are properly adjusted so that the speaker is level and doesn’t rock. Why does the speaker being perfectly level matter? It just looks better.
Denne historien er fra February 2024-utgaven av What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra February 2024-utgaven av What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The slim, not shady soundbar
Shaking up the category and its nomenclature, Sony is pulling no punches with the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 9.
New world charm
The Music System (Gen 2) doesn't mince words, does it? It does exactly what it says on the wrapper play music. Simple.
Singing the verse
One of the most hallowed Indian hi-fi brands, Sonodyne has been making speakers for virtually every kind of application for decades now.
Radio Ga Ga
FOR Build quality, retro design, natural sound, simple controls
Maximizing on Mini
FOR Bright panel, calibrated modes, great picture quality
Vertere Dark Sabre
Details matter in audio design.
INDOOR PLANTS IN FULL BOOM
These premium wireless speakers are designed for use in the home - where they will raise the roof
RAISING THE BAR
Elevate your home cinema sound with this trio of convenient soundbar packages
I SPENT 24 HOURS IMMERSED IN DOLBY ATMOS MUSIC - THESE ARE 8 KEY THINGS I LEARNED
What Hi-Fi? UK deputy editor Andy Madden gained some interesting insights from the world of immersive audio on a visit to a Dolby Atmos studio
TAKE TO THE FLOOR
From pumping dance music to grand orchestral heft, these pillars of strength will deliver in spades