Stuff UK – September 2019

FOR FULL REVIEWS OF ALL THE PRODUCTS IN OUR TOP TEN LISTINGS, VISIT STUFF.TV/TOP-10

BARGAIN BUY

22

1

33

44

55

TOP TENS SOUNDBARS SMART SPEAKERS TOP TENS

1

95

HOT

BUY

HOT

BUY

Sonos Beam

£399 / stuff.tv/SonosBeam^

Sonos’s home cinema gear has always been a little expensive,

but with the Beam it’s created a great-value soundbar. It

sounds ace, c omes with loads of features and is compact

enough to fit into the average living-room AV setup without

taking over. If you want the best-sounding system then the

Playbar or Playbase are still the products to go for, but they’re

a lot more money, they don’t have Alexa, and they don’t control

your TV in the same slick way the Beam does.

Sonos One

£199 / stuff.tv/SonosOne

Making an amazing speaker was an easy job for the multiroom

champs, but getting Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to dance

along in time with it... well, that wasn’t such a simple task. But

the One is now an altogether more well-rounded device than it

was at launch, supporting Spotify with voice control as well as

Amazon Music and TuneIn Radio, while the early Alexa hiccups

seem to have been fixed by a series of software updates. It also

has an improved processor in its 2019 ‘Gen 2’ form.

Stuff says +++++

Smaller and cheaper than the already excellent Playbar,

and packed full of smarts

Stuff says +++++

Sonos’s Alexa-powered speaker remains a class apart

from the competition

Dali Kubik One

+++++£799 / stuff.tv/KubikOne

Gorgeous high-end performance for

a not so gorgeous high-end price.

Apple HomePod

++++,£279 / stuff.tv/HomePod

For Apple Music users who want a high-end

smart speaker, this is a cracking choice.

Philips Fidelio B5

++++,£635 / stuff.tv/FidelioB5

A tech-packed soundbar that sounds as

exciting as it looks.

Amazon Echo

++++,£60 / stuff.tv/AmazonEcho

Nothing else in this price range looks quite

as good or gets the job done quite as well.

Stuff says +++++

One of the best bargains in tech right now

Stuff says +++++

The best-value upgrade ever... if you’ve got Sky

Stuff says ++++,

A smart speaker that’s ready to party

Amazon Echo Dot

£25 / stuff.tv/EchoDot

The massive price difference means that, for

many people, the 3rd-gen Dot is a better bet

than the full-size Echo. The only downside is

its poor-quality speaker, but the 3.5mm audio

output will solve that problem for most.

Sky Soundbox

from £249 / stuff.tv/SkySoundbox

If you already have a Sky Q subscription,

you can get this fantastic audio booster

on the cheap. If you haven’t, it’s really too

expensive to be worth considering ahead

of the class-leading Dali Kubik One.

Google Home Max

£199 / stuff.tv/HomeMax

If you want a smart speaker that can blow the

doors off a party, this is the best you can get

right now. All the smarts of the basic Home

speaker are here, naturally, and the larger

drivers offer much more powerful bass.

Stuff says +++++

A whole lot of under-telly hi-fi for the money

Q Acoustics Media 4

£185 / stuff.tv/Media4

The justifiably multi-award-winning

Media 4 combines subtle detail with

precise surround effects to be one of the

best-sounding and best-value soundbars

you can buy.