Another week, another sea of hi-fi and home cinema announcements. If, like many of us, you have struggled to stay on top of all of them, don’t worry, as our team of experts has come up with a fresh entry to our weekly Rewind news digest!

Once again, we detail all the top stories and developments every AV fan should be aware of in a handy summary, making it quick and easy to stay on top of all the latest news.

We finished reviewing Sonos’s new hardware

The Sonos Beam Ultra Dolby Atmos soundbar and Ace Ultra wireless headphones are two of September’s hottest releases, coming from the audio firm behind multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winners. Last week, our reviewers published their full reviews of both products.

The Beam Ultra proved to be the more impressive of the two, with its new driver arrangement delivering a better sense of height and much improved, tighter low end than its step-down sibling, the Beam 2. So much so that we gave it a five-star rating and reported: “Sonos has struck Dolby Atmos gold yet again.”

The Ace Ultra proved to be a solid step in the right direction for Sonos’s wireless headphone offering, delivering a more powerful, rich and weighty sound than the three-star original Sonos Ace. But a slight lack of finesse stopped them from troubling the best of the best in their category, hence their four-star rating and our verdict:

“While they’re still not quite on the level of the class leaders, Sonos’s sophomore wireless headphones are a marked improvement in sound quality, along with their comfortable design and healthy features set.”

Read our full Sonos Beam Ultra review

Read our full Sonos Ace Ultra review

Fiio launched a new CD player

Last week, FiiO launched its new DP11 CD digital transport. In true FiiO style, the product is crammed to the brink with hardware, offering a kitchen-sink solution to people who want an affordable CD player that can double as a ripper, DAC and pre-amplifier.

Built around a Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chip, the unit shares a common circuit design with Fiio’s S15 streamer, and is being pitched as an affordable, flexible solution for CD collectors who are short on space. The unit is set to launch in the US and EU, costing $189 / €185. We still await UK pricing.

Read the full story: FiiO’s new CD player wants to do it all – with a DAC, pre-amplifier and more

Qualcomm unveiled its next-gen wireless headphone chip

Qualcomm (the company that builds the wireless chips used in numerous big-name wireless headphones, from the likes of Bose, Cambridge Audio, Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkins and more) last week unveiled its next-gen Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform.

Smaller, more power-efficient, and packed with AI features, the firm made a lot of noise about the chipsets’ technical upgrades. But for us here at What Hi-Fi? it was the firm’s audio claims that caught our attention. Qualcomm claims the reduced size will give headphone makers more freedom when it comes to driver size and, thanks to their advanced AI processing, better ANC and improved sound.

We’ll have to wait for headphones with the new chips to start appearing before we can confirm any of these claims, but if even a few of them ring true, we could be in for an audio treat.

Read the full story: Wireless headphones are about to get even more advanced with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Sound tech

MORE:

These are the best wireless headphones we have reviewed

We rank the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Our picks of the best CD players

Here at What Hi-Fi? we've spent the week testing for the 2026 Awards, pitting the best of the best against each other in a battle royale free-for-all.

It's a very exciting, but busy, time for the team, but we've still managed to find a few delectable deals.

On offer this week is a half-price(!) RGB Mini LED TV, a five-star OLED that comes with a soundbar completely free of charge and a new low for Bose's flagship headphones.

These are all products we've tried and tested ourselves, and we only recommend those that our expert reviewers grant four stars or above.

So the below are all great products, as well as being at an excellent price – let's take a look:

The LG G5 may be last year's flagship, but it's still an exceedingly bright five-star OLED and well worth buying now that there are some heavy discounts. This isn't quite the lowest price we've seen, but this offer does come with the four-star LG S70TY soundbar system included – absolutely free.

For those who want to block out the outside world on planes, trains or just at work, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd gen) are the king of noise-cancelling headphones. The price has been fluctuating somewhat, but at the time of writing, the cans are at the lowest price we've seen of £280 at Amazon thanks to a £39.60 reduction at checkout.

The JBL Xtreme 4 is a current Award-winner, and while it's at risk of being supplanted by its successor later this year, it's still highly recommended for its durable exterior and refined sound. Now at its lowest price, with a whopping 49 per cent discount.

Hisense has dominated the UST projector scene for some time now, and the newly-reviewed Hisense PX4 Pro has made several worthy improvements, offering deeper blacks, more colour volume and a holistically improved, more three-dimensional-looking image. Get a free Xbox controller, a month of Game Pass and £100 cashback too – full cashback details are here.

The Hisense UR9 was the first RGB Mini LED we reviewed, and we praised the technology for its controlled backlight performance and rich cinematic HDR picture. We did find it expensive, but now you can pick it up for half price – use the code GDTV300, and then claim £200 cashback from Hisense. Full Ts and Cs can be found here.

The Q Acoustics 5050 are some of the finest mid-price floorstanders you're likely to find. When properly partnered, they are pleasingly mature-sounding speakers that deliver impressive clarity and scale, now at their lowest price.

MORE:

Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy

And the best TVs for all budgets

Interested in the bigger picture? Here are the best projectors we have tested