What’s most surprising is that, having been unveiled and put on sale, the WiiM Ultra is actually even less than the cheapest option on that list. Can you imagine Apple ever asking what a reasonable price for its latest iPad Pro might be? Us neither. 

You get plenty of streamer for your money, too. The Mac Mini-esque aluminium chassis bears a 3.5in touchscreen, which can be used to just display things like artwork or to control playback and tweak settings, and a physical volume dial, adding a touch of the tactile to your digital music delivery.

There’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 inside, with two antennas for solid streaming from Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, AirPlay 2, and Chromecast, but it also has a pre-amp built-in, so you can use the wealth of ports round the back to connect other sources, from turntables to TVs. You get line-in and phono-in, optical and HDMI ARC, but there’s also a subwoofer socket, USB for adding storage, and a 3.5mm output that’s connected to a dedicated headphone amp. 

The WiiM Ultra uses an ES9038 Q2M SABRE DAC, which means hi-res files at up to 192kHz/24-bit are on the playback menu, with tech to automatically tweak the sound based on the sonic characteristics of the room you use it in. 

You get all of this for just £339 – a tenner less than the lowest price proposed by WiiM before launch. Bargain.

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Small enough to comfortably fit on practically any media unit, the Ren speakers also support Bluetooth streaming, along with USB, USB-C, RCA, AUX, and optical inputs — not to mention support for an external sub if you’re hankering for more action on the low end. The USB and optical inputs, by the way, support up to 24-bit/96kHz for hi-res audio devices like dedicated network streamers and hi-res digital audio players.

It’s a pretty substantial collection of inputs, and should cover everything from PCs and laptops, to phones, tablets, and more. The only real omission is a phono stage, which means you’ll need a separate one or have a turntable with one built in if you want to spin some vinyl as well. As for performance, we’ve yet to hear them ourselves, but their on-paper stats are promising, especially given their smaller stature. You’re looking at 100W of Class D amplification, along with 5.25in mid/woofers, paired with 1in silk dome tweeters.

Given their active nature (no need for an amp), compact size, and tantalising colour options — black, cream, white, green, brown and orange — the Kanto Audio Ren speakers definitely worthy of your audio upgrade shortlist. We’re particularly taken with the retro-tastic cream flavour, but you’re welcome to go as bright or as muted as you like. Priced at $599 / £499 and hitting shelves in July, they’re not going to fit very tight budgets, but if you’re serious about elevating your viewing and listening experience, you could bleed your wallet much more elsewhere.

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Clocking in at 71cm tall, costing $899/£749 and clearly aimed at compact living spaces, the pair have 2x100W of power on board and they use Q Acoustics’ C³ (pronounced as ‘C-cubed’) Continuous Curved Cone design. That should mean punchy bass but also detail elsewhere.

The usual use-case would be to combine the system with a device such as a CD player, streamer or turntable (as long as it has a preamp), but here’s also Bluetooth 5.0 including aptX HD and aptX Low Latency on board for streaming from devices.

However, like its smaller brother, the Q Acoustics M20, there’s no Apple AirPlay or Google Chromecast support.

You can also directly connect the M40 to a computer via USB while there are analogue inputs elsewhere. There’s also a subwoofer port should you want to give the bass even more oomph.

I’ve set up the M20s before and the process was easy – the M40s should be the same – the power goes into one side alongside the inputs and you can choose which way around they go (left or right).

The sound is optimised via a switch depending on the placement of the speakers – if they’re in a corner or free space, for example.

• Wireless speaker tech explained: should you go for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth?

The KB3 is machined from aluminium-magnesium alloy, so should withstand the most extreme bouts of gamer rage, and ditches the numerical keypad to keep its desk footprint to a minimum. It uses Gateron’s hot-swappable G Pro 3.0 Yellow linear switches, with semi-transparent key caps to show off the (obligatory) customisable RGB lighting underneath. The combo should deliver a consistent typing experience, 4mm travel distance and satisfyingly audible click with each press.

Not that you’ll hear it once tunes are pumping through the dual Cirrus Logic CS43131 DACs, and out to either the unbalanced 3.5mm or 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs. They support 32bit/384kHz and DSD256 playback, and are sure to be beefier than whatever’s built into your laptop or PC’s motherboard. Twin SGM8262 op-amps also provide 550mW of output oomph, which should be plenty for even the highest of high-end cans. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because you’ll also find them inside the pocket-friendly KA13 DAC and headphone amp.

The KB3 is a bit of a departure for FiiO, which is better known for its desktop DACs and portable audio players – but the firm hasn’t skimped in terms of features or compatibility. It plays nicely with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Dual USB connections then let it act as a passthrough or docking station for other accessories, and the slick integrated volume knob is stepless for fine-grain control.

It’s on sale this month in a choice of Midnight Black and Morning Silver colours, for a surprisingly wallet-friendly $149/£139/€169.

• Related: FiiO’s FT3 open-back headphones pack a punch for a more affordable price

The flagship $700/£580 JBL Authentics 500 offers both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth tech but the 270W smart speaker’s key spec is that it boasts Dolby Atmos tech to make the most of the triple 1in tweeters and three 2.75in midrange woofers.

The $330/£300 stereo JBL Authentics 200 and $430/£380 portable JBL Authentics 300 complete the lineup. The 200 (above) boasts dual 1in tweeters and a 5in full-range woofer, while the 300 (below) has an 8 hour battery life (we don’t have details on the audio capabilities of that model at present).

Dual Assistant

One interesting feature is that the Authentics lineup offers simultaneous access to both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so once you’ve set both up in the JBL One app you’re able to say “Hey Google,” or “Alexa” depending on which you prefer. While most home users will have a preference, the feature could be useful for speakers in shared spaces where users may have different voice assistant preferences.

Naturally you can also take calls on the smart speaker and as you’d expect you’re able to play connected music through various means aside from the voice assistants. The Authentics range supports Apple AirPlay, Spotify Connect and Google Chromecast while it’ll also work with other speakers using those systems and with Alexa’s Multi-Room Music capability too. Like other wireless speakers such as Sonos, the JBL Authentics range can automatically tune to the room you’ve placed it in.

In the JBL One app there are also customisable EQ settings if you’d like to further personalise your sound.

All of the JBL Authentics models will be available from mid-September.

The moniker actually comes from the fact that each one is made up of two separate 1.4m cabinets that are joined together by a ‘hyphen’ – a term used in architecture to describe something that links two structures together – called the M-Array.

Inside the M-Array is a single high-frequency transducer, plus six 2in midrange drivers, while each of the towers contains a pair of 8in bass drivers, making them the most powerful loudspeakers Monitor Audio has ever made. With that in mind, you might wonder why they weren’t named after the exclamation mark instead.

Of course, that kind of audio-pushing power could cause some serious rumbles, but the Monitor Audio Hyphn cabinets are crafted from thermoformed mineral and acrylic stone, which makes them totally rigid. Pair that with internal ribs and bracing that help to eliminate vibrations and that means physical distortion is kept to an absolute minimum – the holy grail for any audiophile.

“Hyphn is unlike anything we, or anyone else, has ever created: the most creatively ambitious, technically advanced, and powerful loudspeaker in the history of Monitor Audio Group,” says CEO Rob Barford. “It’s a definitive demonstration of the capabilities we’ve developed over our first five decades – and the shape of things to come.”

That kind of performance and those stop-you-in-your-tracks looks don’t come cheap, so after a quick glance at the $92,500​/£70,000 price tag you’ll probably decide they should really have been named after a long list of dollar signs instead.

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Weighing 12kg and measuring just over half a metre tall and 38cm across, it’s not quite as imposing as the transformative alien monuments in the movie, and wouldn’t get a whole warehouse raving all on its own, but it’s certainly got enough oomph to start a party. A Class-D amplifier provides 150 watts of tune-pushing power, but you can group as many as 16 of them together if your Wi-Fi (and your wallet) can cope with it. 

To play music through a Monolith you just have to get a message to the all-powerful extraterrestrial civilisation of old-skool ravers that controls the development of the human race, but if that fails you can always use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 5.0 instead. It works with Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, so you can easily play tunes straight from the apps as long as your phone is on the same Wi-Fi network, but AirPlay 2 support is in the works too. Just don’t play Also sprach Zarathustra through it or you might find yourself confronting a giant baby in outer space.

Each one is made from blackened birch plywood sourced locally in Nocs’ native Sweden, with two 6in vented woofers and three 3.5in full-range drivers, plus feet to angle it slightly upwards, so if you want to place it on the floor it won’t just play music to your shins. Nocs makes each one in its homeland, too, and they’re designed to be fully repairable, so if one of the drivers packs up it can be easily replaced.  

Nocs will start shipping the £1290 speakers at the end of January and you can unearth one of your own from nocsdesign.com.

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The new S-Series, X-Series and A-Series models cover the entire price spectrum, with the base model good for 7.2 surround sound and the top-end entry sporting a whopping 15 channels of amplification.

Home theatre first timers should be all about the AVR-S970H. The £799/€969, 7.2 channel AV receiver has three 8K-ready HDMI inputs (plus another three 4K-friendly ones). One of the two HDMI outs is good for 8K video too. All support HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG pass-through, and will play nicely with a high refresh rate Xbox One Series X or PlayStation 5. It’ll manage 145W per channel and supports Denon’s HEOS multi-room streaming.

The mainstream X-Series has three new additions for 2022. The £869/€969 AVR-X2800H delivers 7.2 channel sound with 95W per channel, and is also available with built-in DAB digital radio for an extra £30/€30. The AVC-X3800H steps things up to 9.4 channel sound, with up to 180W per channel, and will set you back £1499/€1699. The AVC-X4800H tops the range with 9.4 channel surround and 200W per channel amplification, with prices starting at £1999/€2399. The two more premium models will gain support for Dirac Live room correction with a forthcoming software update.

Denon has reserved the best for its top-tier A-Series range. The AVC-A1H can support a 9.4.6 surround sound setup with dedicated height channels and multiple subwoofers, delivering 210W of amplification per channel. It’s got seven HDMI inputs, with 8K and HDCP 2.3 support, along with three outputs (just one that’ll 8K here) and multi-zone support. It too will get Dirac Live room correction in the coming months. Naturally it commands the most premium price: expect to pay £5999/€6999 to add one of these to your home cinema setup.

The 2022 new arrivals will go on sale soon, from all the usual authorised Denon retailers and Hi-Fi experts.

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With a DirectDigital amplifier capable of 40 watts per channel inside, plus support for 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio tracks and MQA files, it should sound way bigger than it looks. Built-in Wi-Fi, aptX HD Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 mean it’s easy to play wirelessly from new-fashioned sources, plus there’s USB for attaching external hard drives, while a combo analogue/digital input takes care of turntables and other more retro stuff. 

On top, there’s a glass panel to control playback, plus it puts 20 music services and thousands of internet radio stations at your fingertips. If you want to do more, Bluesound’s excellent BluOS Controller app is compatible with it, plus it’ll let you add your Powernode Edge to a multiroom system. You can talk to it via Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, too.

It’s also compatible with Bluesound’s wireless Pulse Sub+, which, when combined with some satellite speakers, allows you to create a 2.1 or surround-sound system, with HDMI eARC used to hook it up to the telly. Well, it’s not like it’d look out of place underneath.

The Powernode Edge will be released on 3 October but you can pre-order one now, in black or white, for $649/£599.

The new, cylindrical Sub Mini is designed for small-to-medium size spaces and to work with lower-priced Sonos gear, particularly Sonos Ray and Beam on the soundbar front but also the One series and Ikea Symfonosk gear, too.

If you connect it up to one of those models it’ll handle the low frequencies primarily leaving the other Sonos gear to focus on the mid-range and high frequencies. The Sub Mini uses a robust 5GHz wireless connection so you shouldn’t get any interference.

Sub Mini clocks in at 6.35 kg compared to the 16kg Sub and measures 23x31x23cm compared to the Sub’s 39x40x16cm size. The Sub Mini boasts dual 6-inch force-cancelling woofers plus dual Class-D amplifiers. If you’re using it with the iOS app you’ll be able to tune it to the room with Trueplay. As you’d expect, the volume stays in sync with your paired soundbar or speaker. You’re also able to adjust the EQ in the Sonos app.

The Sub Mini’s design is different from the Sub because it’s a cylinder rather than a square, but Sonos says the central bass tunnel is designed to look similar to the Sub.

Sub Mini will still pair with Sonos Arc if you have one of those, but it will only work well if the room fits into the smaller category. Sonos says that larger rooms need the combination of Arc/Sub to work well.

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