We were invited to the What Hi-Fi awards by KEF this year, who very kindly put us up in a hotel for the night, and had us seated at a table with a prime position in front of the main stage. Last year was great fun, but this year must be the most fun we’ve had at one of these awards events, with a good supply of champagne and wine and a fantastic meal (duck this year!) making it a very enjoyable event.
Can’t wait to see them? View the award winners we sell on our website now
This was our view at the start of the evening when What Hi-Fi magazine editor Joe Cox and colleague took to the stage to kick things off…
First up, the soundbar category had 4 winners with the popular Q Acoustics Media M4 soundbar winning the coveted “Product of the Year” award (you may recognise the chap collecting the award from Armour Distribution’s Q Acoustics videos!) The Dali Kubik One soundbar and Geneva Model cinema (available in Black or White) also took awards.
Next up in the Radios category, the excellent Roberts Stream 93i took the “Product of the Year” award with the PURE Evoke D2 and Revo SuperConnect also taking awards. We’ve had all 3 of these superb radios on demo in our showroom for some time and they all get a fair amount of playback, so you’ve got 3 great choices at different price levels, each offering something different on style!
…Ruark also won for their latest version of the R2, the R2 MkIII radio and system and Geneva won for their superb Model S radio and system.
In the popular and hotly contested earphones category, Sennheiser took “Product of the Year” with the Sennheiser Momentum iEi earphones. This one really wasn’t a surprise as these have been hugely popular since launch and offer a taste of Sennheiser’s latest “Momentum 2.0” headphones range in a far cheaper earphone. These earphones currently come in either Apple or Android versions in red (shown here) or (new) black chrome – view all versions of these earphones here.
Sennheiser also took an award for the superb, high-end IE800 earphones, quite probably the best earphones we’ve ever heard.
Moving onto AV, Yamaha bagged 2 awards in Home Cinema Amplifiers, winning for their superb “budget” RX-V379 AV Receiver and also for a higher end model from their “Aventage” range, the RX-A850 AV Receiver (which also features in-build MusicCast capabilities to form part of a MusicCast multi room system – you read more about MusicCast in one of our MusicCast blogs). Martin from Yamaha is shown here proudly holding their awards – well done Yamaha!
In DACs, Oppo won an award for their superb portable HA-2 headphone amplifier and DAC, a superb product that we’ve found gives wonderful results with earphones and headphones and improves the sound of literally everything we’ve tried with it.
On the other end of the spectrum from DACs in analog, Pro-Ject’s Essential II turntable (a true “budget champ”) won an award for another year running and its no surprise, given the fact it only costs around £200, is exceptionally well made and comes in a choice of black, white (shown below) or red!
In the streamers category, Naim won an award for their excellent ND5 XS streamer (see below) and Cyrus also won again for their excellent Stream XA streamer (we didn’t manage to get a photo of this one but we have it in store on demo along with the ND5 XS if you fancy coming in to discover the difference!)
Skipping back to AV and 5.1 speaker packages, KEF won for the 4th (fourth!!) time in a row for their superb high end R100 5.1 speaker package – Jonathan from KEF is shown here proudly holding this award – well done KEF!
…Tannoy also bagged an award in the AV category for their latest HTS-101 “XP” 5.1 speaker package, a huge upgrade on the system it replaces, and in reality an entirely new system that only shares this namesake with its predecessor. Tannoy also won an award in the speakers category for the excellent Revolution XT 6F speakers, a replacement for the original and hugely popular DC6TSE speakers and also a huge upgrade on its predecessor. Cheers all round for Tannoy! Other winners in AV included Dali’s excellent Zensor 1 5.1 speaker package, winning for another year, proving that sometimes you don’t need to change a winning formula!
Moving back to hi-fi, Onkyo won an award in the stereo amplifier category for their great value A-9010 amplifier, and Naim won again for their latest version of the Qute 2 all-in-one system (the entry model in the Naim uniti range that offers exceptional sound quality – simply add speakers, and you have some good ideas here – scroll down)
In speakers, there were a lot of winners, including KEF’s superb new KEF Egg wireless desktop speakers (available in black, red or the blue shown here).
…Q Acoustics also won twice, one for their excellent 3020 bookshelf speakers and one for the larger 3050 floorstanding speakers. Both models come in a choice of graphite (black), walnut, gloss black, gloss white (as shown here) or leather wrapped finishes.
…ATC also got in on the action with yet another yearly award for the fantastic SCM11 bookshelf speakers. This year they also won an award for the larger SCM19 bookshelf speakers.
Jumping from speakers to headphones, Sennheiser won yet again for their superb Momentum headphones – as with the Momentum iEi earphones (see above), these also come with an option of Apple or Android compatibility, with an inline remote for volume/calls and in this case a fantastic choice of colours (view all Momentum winners here). Grado also won an award for the SR325e headphones, a big step up from the popular “go to” SR80e model at a fraction of the price of the higher end Grado models. Incidentally we have ALL Grado headphones on demo in our showroom (by appointment) so you can visit us
Coming back to speakers, specifically of the wireless kind, Audio Pro won “Product of the Year” for their excellent T3 wireless speaker, a stylish and excellent sounding product that comes in a choice of cool colours. KEF also won another award for their excellent new KEF Muo wireless speaker. We don’t know how they’ve done it for £299 but nothing sounds as good as this at the price and although (at time of writing) we’ve only heard KEF’s demo unit, we can’t wait to receive our opening order very soon and get these onto display and demonstration in our showroom in the 4 funky colour choices.
…on the higher end side of things, Geneva won an award for their excellent Aerosphere large wireless speaker, which can also be used to form part of a wireless/multi room system with other Geneva Aerosphere products. Naim won the highly coveted “Readers Award” this year for their hugely popular Mu-So wireless speaker, a stunning product also on demonstration in our showroom. If you haven’t heard this – and whether you’re a Naim owner already or not – you owe it to yourself to come over and have a listen. Wharfedale also bagged an award for the amazing value DS-1 wireless Bluetooth speakers (not shown here), a steal at £129!
In the CD player and transport category, Cyrus won yet again for their CDi CD player, bagging a “Product of the Year” award for this excellent CD player. We havent found anything anywhere near the price that gets as much from your CD collection as this! Cyrus also won for their CDT CD transport, an excellent (and less expensive) option if you have a separate DAC.
Accessories was a bumper category this year. Arcam won again for their hugely popular miniBlink – an excellent way to add Bluetooth wireless capability to your existing hi-fi system.
Atacama bagged two awards for their newly upgraded Evoque Eco 60-40 SE hi-fi stand as well as an award for the excellent Moseco 6 speaker stands. If you hadn’t already realised, the wood options on these stands coem in the same finish options of either “natural”, “medium” or “dark” and are made from sustainable Bamboo, making these a stylish (and eco friendly) pairing for your hi-fi separates and speakers. After selling Atacama for over 8 years, we can safely say these are their best stands yet!
…the highly coveted “Product of the Year” in accessories was won by Chord’s excellent Clearway speaker cable, a superb upgrade for the already class leading Silver Screen. We don’t know how they’ve managed to improve on such an excellent cable, but Clearway sets a new reference for performance at a budget price. Chord also won an award for their great value C-Line RCA interconnects (we highly recommend using these in your system alongside Clearway on your speakers).
…that’s all for us for now! We had a great time at this year’s awards and its a pleasure to bring you our (slightly shaky!) photos and a bit of a quick write up.
Click here to view this year’s award winners that we sell.
For any further advice and assistance in putting together a winning hi-fi or AV system, please call or e-mail our friendly sales team who will be happy to help.