A month after revealing the 107 Finest Purchase winners of the What Hello-Fi? Awards 2023, in affiliation with Sevenoaks Sound and Imaginative and prescient, we’ve right now adorned 26 of them – one from every product class – with the much more prestigious Product of the Yr accolade at our annual awards ceremony in London.
Product of the Yr winners signify the perfect merchandise throughout all of the evaluate classes we cowl, from TVs to turntables, audio system to streamers, and all the things in between.
The complete checklist of 26 Product of the Yr winners might be discovered under, as can the winners of our 5 particular awards: the Readers’ Award, Temptation Award, Innovation of the Yr Award, Excellent Contribution Award and the 2023 addition to the What Hello-Fi? Corridor of Fame. And keep in mind, the particular Awards challenge of the journal can be on sale from tomorrow (Thursday sixteenth November), each in outlets and on-line.
Sony was one of many large winners on the evening, with the model amassing no fewer than 5 Product of the Yr Awards.
It began with a three-peat win for its HT-A7000 Dolby Atmos soundbar and adopted this up with a gong for its implausible VPL-XW5000ES 4K projector.
Subsequent up for Sony was the vastly fashionable wi-fi headphones class, the place the beautiful WF-C700N had been the decide for Product of the Yr due to their beautiful mix of efficiency and worth.
However Sony wasn’t completed there. It additionally walked away with the coveted TV Product of the Yr Award due to its efficiency per pound champion, the A80L OLED and the Japanese large nonetheless discovered time for yet one more journey to the rostrum for its breathtaking TA-AN1000 house cinema amplifier.
It was additionally an enormous evening and return to kind for Arcam, who discovered its latest new vary of hi-fi separates chargeable for not one however two Product of the Yr Award-winners. One trophy went to its great CD5 CD participant, whereas the opposite recognised the brilliance of its A5 stereo amplifier. Each merchandise had been enormous hits amongst our evaluate crew in 2023.
And talking of Arcam, it gave us nice pleasure handy our Excellent Contribution Award to John Dawson, one of many founding fathers of a model that had a number one position in bringing DAB to market and was an early entrant into the nascent home-cinema market. John is one thing of an unsung large of the trade who, like his firm’s merchandise, hides enormous technical means behind a quiet, unassuming exterior.
Cambridge Audio additionally had a really profitable evening on the What Hello-Fi? Awards with its music steamers choosing up a number of trophies. Not solely was MXN10 our music streamer Product of the Yr, however it additionally turned out to be a agency favorite with our viewers, taking house the Readers’ Award too.
We additionally cleared a spot within the What Hello-Fi? Corridor of Fame for the corporate’s much-loved CXN (V2) streamer. It’s the primary music streamer to be added and has persistently delivered a degree of efficiency above and past its rivals ever because it launched approach again in 2017.
A giant 12 months for Sonos ended with the corporate profitable Product of the Yr for its multi-room providing as an entire and for the Period 300 which made a big effect within the wi-fi speaker market this 12 months.
On the earth of turntables, Professional-Ject repeated 2022’s success with a Product of the Yr Award for its wonderful Debut Professional, beating off wonderful competitors from Technics and Vertere.
Røde made fairly the splash in 2023 with its first consumer-friendly pair of wired headphones, the sensible NTH-100, and capped off a spectacular efficiency by choosing up a Product of the Yr Award within the wired headphones class, holding off some esteemed competitors from the likes of Grado and Shure.
Yamaha’s high-end YH-5000SE headphones blew us away with their desirability and sound high quality, making them a straightforward selection for our particular Temptation Award. They aren’t low cost, however we urge you to take a pay attention and also you’ll hear what all of the fuss is about.
One of many greatest Product Of the Yr Awards of the evening, standmount audio system, went to Bowers & Wilkins for the excellent 607 S3, which set a brand new benchmark at their specific worth level this 12 months.
Swap from two-channel to multi-channel and the British model additionally walked away with an award for its room-shaking 606 & 607 S3 speaker package deal.
The floorstanding audio system class wasn’t wanting high quality contenders this 12 months, with Wharfedale, Spendor and PMC all battling it out. However, it was the brand new Q Acoustics 5040 that blew us away sufficient to safe Product of the Yr.
Hello-fi separates are nice, but when comfort is king in your family, then Product of the Yr within the all-in-one techniques class can be of curiosity – this 12 months’s winner was as soon as once more the versatile and fantastic-sounding Technics SA-C600.
2023 has seen the emergence of a brand new TV know-how that manages to push the boundaries of OLED. LG Show’s Micro Lens Array provides hundreds of thousands of microscopic lenses over a WOLED panel to direct gentle in the direction of the viewer and boosts present gentle ranges to increased ranges than we’ve seen beforehand. It really works brilliantly and in consequence, picks up our Innovation of the Yr Award.
Apple returns to take three Awards in 2023. It picked up a Product of the Yr within the smartphone class due to the iPhone 15 Professional Max, however did not cease there. The Apple 4K TV did sufficient to maintain it on the prime of the video streamer sport, whereas the tenth Gen Apple iPad, delivers a sensational AV expertise packed right into a slick design, and wins the Product of the Yr within the pill class.
And that is all, of us – nicely, practically. You possibly can see all 26 Product of the Yr winners and people who took house our 5 particular awards under. Congratulations to all of the profitable manufacturers of each Finest Purchase and Product of the Yr trophies, and blissful searching (and, let’s face it, buying), pricey readers!
All 26 What Hello-Fi? 2022 Product of the Yr winners
Finest TV
Sony A80L
Finest soundbar
Sony HT-A7000
Finest standmount speaker
Bowers & Wilkins 607 S3
Finest floorstanding speaker
Q Acoustics 5040
Finest turntable
Professional-Ject Debut Professional
Finest wi-fi speaker
Sonos Period 300
Finest wired headphones
Purple NTH-100
Finest wi-fi headphones
Sony WF-C700N
Finest Blu-ray participant
Panasonic DP-UB820EB
Finest projector
Sony VPL-XW5000ES
Finest music streamer
Cambridge Audio MXN10
Finest CD participant
Arcam CD5
Finest radio
Ruark Audio R2 Mk4
Finest speaker package deal
Bowers & Wilkins 606 & 607 S3 speaker package deal
Finest pill
Apple iPad
Finest video streamer
Apple TV 4K
Finest stereo amplifier
Arcam A5
Finest house cinema amplifier
Sony TA-AN1000
Finest accent
Rega Discussion board MM Mk5
Finest set-top field
Sky Q
Finest DAC
Chord Mojo 2
Finest multi-room system
Sonos
Finest smartphone
Apple iPhone 15 Professional Max
Finest moveable music participant
Astell & Kern A&customary SR35
Finest system
Technics SA-C600
Finest streaming service
Disney+
The 5 What Hello-Fi? 2023 particular awards
Readers’ Award
Cambridge Audio MXN10
Corridor of Fame
Cambridge Audio CXN (V2)
Innovation of the Yr
LG Show Micro Lens Array
Temptation
Yamaha YH-5000SE
Excellent Contribution
John Dawson
