LATEST ADDITIONS

Sub/sat system shows Craft Steve May auditions an unashamedly upmarket sub/sat system

SpeakerCraft is not the first brand that comes to mind when short-listing designer hi-fi. The company, best known as a purveyor of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, has an image that’s more plasterboard than posh. But that’s about to change with Its new RooTs loudspeakers that strive to impress. The piano gloss cabinets (in black or white) have a quality finish that would be a crime to hide away. The sub is especially handsome.

AV austerity Lacking in features you might expect, Onkyo’s first 3D Blu-ray player appears outgunned on every flank, says Steve May

Onkyo has carved itself a formidable niche in the lower-to-midrange AV receiver market by following a Tesco-like philosophy: piling features high and keeping prices low. But that’s not the route it’s taken with disc players. Here the company has played a purist card, which is admirable yet fraught with commercial peril.

It's time to form an orderly Q... Adam Rayner reacquaints himself with KEF’s pioneering Uni-Q driver technology – and enjoys picking and choosing his own 5.1 array

Just for once, I am going to give you the meat and potatoes straight away, we can wait for a moment for the narrative… These speakers are bloody brilliant, in many ways and on a good few levels. They draw upon lots of their predecessors’ technology, and while KEF makes speakers going right up to cost-no-object levels, this new Q Series (as against the still-sold ‘Classic Q Series’) have been made to a remarkably keen price for what they do. This has been done both by cutting corners where possible (the grilles aren’t magnetic, for instance) and using evolved, proven design cunning for the sonic result to be so amazingly uncompromised everywhere else.

Although a certain type of AV enthusiast shudders at the very mention of ‘processing’ in a TV, the reality is that no decent telly can produce good pictures without using at least some processing.