LATEST ADDITIONS

You might think that a Blu-ray player with a Freeview HD recorder shoehorned into its case would suffer from clicks and thrums, or that co-habitation would add unflattering pounds.

In the same week when all six Star Wars films appear on Blu-ray with a brand, spanking new six-channel soundtrack, Acoustic Energy has launched the Compact Neo 6.1 system. This £850 setup matches the existing Neo subwoofer with six Compact One speakers.

Danish brand Jamo has been exciting home cinema senses for years with killer audio kit that won’t break the bank. A case in point is the £260 S426 HCS3, a system that features a pair of 910mm-high S426 floorstanding speakers at the front, which isn’t something you’d expect for this price. They’re joined by a pair of bookshelf surround channels (S420 SUR) and a centre speaker (S420 CEN). The system doesn’t come with a subwoofer as standard, but you can add the SUB 260, which incredibly costs more (£300) than the rest of the package put together…

Reviewed here are the MilleniaOne and MilleniaSub products from Canadian brand Paradigm, sold as a money- no-object design, yet promoted as still costing way less than equivalent products for the level of technology. That said, the two and a half grand asking price is not peanuts.