Libratone Too review

 ? WHAT IS THE LIBRATONE TOO

The Libratone Too is a small wireless speaker that belongs to a class where price, portability and sound quality converge. Little "tube" speakers such as this are often great buys.

This model is another strong contender, but one that favours style and a clean sound over the sort of room-filling bass you get with the Bose SoundLink Mini II and others.

Related: Best Bluetooth Speakers

Libratone Too – Design and Features

The Libratone Too is a cute little tube speaker. There are plenty of rivals sporting a similar shape, but few have the sheer charm of this one.

First, there are no hard edges to the Libratone Too. The smooth weaved grille curves into the soft-touch rubberised plastic of the base, with the rubber carry-handle popping out of the end. Nothing looks out of place here, and all its parts are colour-matched.

The controls on the Too’s top have plenty of Libratone special sauce, too. The lightly indented power button all-but blends into the shell and the light-up Libratone logo is actually a smart touch-sensitive panel that lets you control playback with a tap, or alter volume with a circular sweep.

Among small wireless speakers it stands out, but in use I’ve found it a little annoying at times. When you carry the Libratone Too around, it’s far too easy to accidentally knock the touch panel, which will result in pausing your tunes. I’ve done this a lot, more times than I’ve actually used the touchpad deliberately. It doesn't help that's positioned so close to the carrying handle.

Since the Libratone Too uses a relatively hard rubberised underside rather than a full rubber foot, the speaker tends to transmit far more vibration than much of the competition. This means it can actually use the surface it's on to improve the bass; unfortunately, it also results in some unwanted noise if you rest it on the wrong object.

These are niggles rather than big problems, however, and the Libratone Too has both a microphone for calls and a solid battery life of up to 12 hours. It has splash-proofing too – it’s certified to IPX4, meaning it will handle the odd splash but not being submerged in water. Other than the water-resistant grille, it’s the rubber clasp covering the micro-USB charge socket and 3.5mm input that make this possible.

LIBRATONE TOO – SOUND QUALITY

The Libratone Too’s design is largely a success. It’s prettier than the competition, without upping the price or sacrificing many important features. However, sound quality is a little more mixed.

Positives include that the sound is nicely balanced and that it has “360-degree” dispersal. What this really means is that, contrary to what you’d guess, the drivers actually face upwards, the sound then being routed through both sides of the grille.

Most speakers of this type have front-facing drivers. There are two 1.5-inch active drivers and a passive radiator, used in little speakers like this to increase bass power.

This is precisely what the Libratone Too lacks, however: bass. Playing next to the Bose SoundLink Mini II, the Too sounds meek and reserved, without anything like the fun low-end punch of the Bose speaker. It’s a much smaller sound that doesn’t get close to the room-filling capabilities of the best at the size.

On a surface that won’t resonate sympathetically to improve the low-end, the Too sounds like one of the less exciting speakers in this class. For example, the Jam Heavy Metal has more crisp treble, and bass somewhere between the Libratone and the Bose.

In the Libratone Too’s favour is that it's £60 cheaper than the Bose SoundLink Mini II, but alternatives from Creative and Jam Audio aren’t weighed down by the same price difference.

A few years ago the Libratone Too would have seemed like a bit of a revelation. Nowadays, sonically, it’s a middleweight – if one that’s still perfectly satisfying.

The scenarios in which it will flourishe are when you’re not having to deal with a sound “sweet spot”, or you don’t want to disturb people nearby too much with your tunes.

A picnic in the park is native ground for the Libratone Too. Bung it in the centre of your spread and everyone sat around it will be able to hear properly, where with most speakers of this style, one side get a better deal than the other.

 ?SHOULD YOU BUY THE LIBRATONE TOO

The Libratone Too scores better on design than sound quality; it's a sensibly priced and pretty portable speaker, with no glaring feature gaps.

Alternatives tend to sound bigger, bassier and more energetic, so if you’re out to fill your kitchen or living room with music that you’re going to want to dance to, consider the options.

These include Libratone’s own Click speaker, although it suffers from bass that isn't quite as tight and well controlled as some. Other favourites worth a look include the seriously beefy-sounding Bose SoundLink Mini II, the crisp Jam Heavy Metal and the Creative iRoar Go.

None of them quite have the colourful style of the Libratone Too, though – so if a fun, low-maintenance speaker is what you’re after, you’ve found one here.

JBL Xtreme review

It's no coincidence that JBL's massive Xtreme Bluetooth speaker resembles theInfinity One so closely. After all, both companies co-exist under the umbrella of renowned audio giant Harman. But even so, JBL's latest lifts even the smallest details, such as the design language, button layout and the ports, from Infinity's first portable speaker, which released last year.

So, where does the JBL Xtreme deviate and forge its own path, if ever? The Infinity One isn't the best choice for outside enjoyment, but that's what the Xtreme prides itself in. It's a bigger, tougher, splashproof version of its classy cousin.

JBL's speaker is educated in handling the elements, and it can pipe your tunes for up to 15 hours before needing a charge. This all comes at the cost of $299 (£249, about AU$423, though the product isn't available in AU at the time of writing), which, surprise, is the same cost of the Infinity One. But being splashproof, its only unique quality, just isn't enough to set the Xtreme apart from its better-sounding relative. That said, it outperforms many of its excellent, cheaper competitors with booming sound and a long-lasting battery.

Design

The JBL Xtreme lives up to its name in several ways, and it's design is one of them. The speaker's 4.6-pound build makes it a behemoth compared to more totable options, but it wears its weight well. This cylindrical boombox is wrapped in a slick, uniform sheet of mesh fabric that echoes the more playful look of the UE Boom.

• Buy JBL Xtreme at Amazon for $205.27

Its sides are capped in soft rubber to give the Xtreme some resistance from dings, something that I wish the Infinity One had. Its dual bass radiators take center stage here, detailed with a slick, spiraled etching and rather subtle brand placement. Up toward the top of the speaker, JBL installed tough, brushed metal hooks that allow you to hook on the included strap. This adds versatility, making it easy to loop the speaker over your shoulder during a walk or hang it from a tree branch for an outdoor gathering.

The buttons, which are located on its top, cover the usual list of functions found in a modern Bluetooth speaker, with one small surprise in the mix. This tube-shaped speaker features JBL Connect, a button that allows you to pair up with a second JBL Xtreme wirelessly. It's unique, but fairly useless unless you have it in your plans to buy more than one of these pricey speakers.

There's a Bluetooth button that can be held down for a few seconds to pair a new phone, tablet or computer. Next up are the volume buttons. No surprises here. The play button on the right side of the panel has a few useful functions. Giving it a press while cranking out music will pause the playback. Tap it twice to skip songs, three times to go backward in the song selection. These extra commands are minor but welcome inclusions in any Bluetooth speaker.

Around its back, the JBL Xtreme hides its ports behind a zipper-protected compartment. When unzipped, you can get a peek at the 3.5mm port that allows you to plug in music from an external source, as well as two USB ports for charging your portable devices. There's also a power jack where you can plug in the power brick. And although the zipper is neat-looking and a novel way to keep things dry inside, I found that it came at the cost of cumbersome port accessibility. Plugging wires in with little effort was a constant struggle.

Performance

With a name like Xtreme, you'd hope that its performance delivers and, thankfully, it does. This speaker is capable of the super-loud playback that you'd expect from its size, which is perfect if you're trying to pump tunes through a large venue or outdoors. But even so, playing music at high volumes does you no good if the sound isn't up to par.

Solid audio performance runs in the Harman genes, and like the Infinity One, the JBL Xtreme sounds excellent. I found that during my tests, it handled jazz, hip-hop and rock songs well and highlighted the particular facets that make each genre unique. Jazz and hip-hop are bass-heavy and mids are relatively warm in their sound. Rock sounds punchy, with highs that don't distort at high volumes. The Xtreme handled all three just right.

If you asked me last year if the Xtreme represented the pinnacle of sound performance for the size and cost of the unit, I would have said yes. But, in time since then, I've heard the Infinity One. And as good as JBL's twist on the cylindrical speaker is, the Infinity One is still my go-to choice for excellent audio fidelity.

The Xtreme is also a competent speakerphone. I took a few calls with it and the voice playback was clear. The recipient also reported that, thanks to the noise and echo-cancelling microphone built into the speaker, my voice sounded as if I speaking into a phone.

Connecting to JBL's mega speaker is simple and the Bluetooth tether is strong, stretching from one end of my apartment to the other without a blip of signal cutout. It's 10,000mAH internal battery has no problem pushing its advertised 15 hours of music playback at normal to loud volume levels. At a lower volume, I was actually able to squeeze an extra two hours out of the battery life, pushing the number up to about 17 hours.

Verdict

JBL's Xtreme offers stellar sound performance and a long-lasting battery to keep the beat going for up to 17 hours, depending on how loud you listen to your music. It's suited for the outdoors with a splashproof design and is a smart choice if you don't want to sacrifice sound quality for durability.

I've been doing a lot of comparing between the JBL Xtreme and the Infinity One, and while JBL's super-sized speaker does enough to set itself apart, I'd ultimately go with Infinity's for its superior sound fidelity. The One is much more fragile and thus is more suited as a coffee table centerpiece than the Xtreme. But, its sound profile is more balanced and rich, pumping through more accurate bass performance. However, there is one sacrifice: its 5,000mAH battery, which powers music playback for only up to 10 hours.

Extending outside its immediate family, there are a bunch of speakers available that do everything that the JBL Xtreme can do for less money. Candidates like the UE Boom and the TDK Trek Flex offer a similar style and splashproof capabilities, and can act as a speakerphone, too. However, JBL's speaker smashes them all with superior sound quality and battery life, coming together to make for a smart purchase, if you have the money.

Otone BluWall Direct review

The Otone BluWall Direct is a multi room, high-res audio capable, Wi-Fi enabled Bluetooth speaker system from the UK audio company. With a number of Bluetooth speakers from Otone already on the market, the BluWall Direct raises the bar with the addition of Hi Def FLAC playback and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity.

The unit itself opts for discreet, subtle styling, available in six different colour schemes to suit different tastes or to match the decoration in different rooms of the house.

It has removable plastic grills covered with fabric on both the front and back, and an aluminium bezel with five buttons and a couple of status lights on the top. A detachable rubber carry handle matches the colour of the grill.

Under the hood are two 2-inch mid/high drivers and a 3-inch woofer, and round the back is a 4.5 x 3-inch rectangular passive radiator. This is what gives the BluWall its massive bass response...but more about that later.

On the back are an AC input for the power cable, 3.5mm line in and out, and a USB socket for connecting external drives and sticks. It will also charge your phone from the mains or its internal battery too. There's also a slot for a microSD card, which you won't find unless you remove the back grill.

The BluWall looks and feels well made, and although it's quite big compared to lots of portable speakers, it isn't that deep, meaning it can sit quite happily on small shelf or table.

It has weight to it, but it's not so heavy that you couldn't chuck it in a backpack.

The different colours mean you can either pick one that blends into the background or one that screams for your attention.

Connections

The BluWall has loads of input options. You can hook it up to your home Wi-Fi network, you can connect straight to it using Wi-Fi Direct, it has Bluetooth, you can plug a USB stick in the back, or a microSD card. It even has a good old line in.

It might seem a little unnecessary having all these inputs, but actually, they are all useful for doing slightly different things.

Linked to your home Wi-Fi network, the BluWall can play music stored on any Android or iOS device. It works with Spotify, as well as having built in radio apps, including TuneIn.

Linking the BluWall to your network is really easy, you just hold down both volume buttons for a couple of seconds and it scans for networks, then you enter your network password in the app and it's done. Do this once, and it will just show up in the app as long as it's switched on.

Connecting to the BluWall using Wi-Fi Direct is equally easy.

Just go to your Wi-Fi settings and the BluWall will show up in the list of available networks. Just tap to connect and you're done. You can now stream any music on your device, including Hi-Res FLAC files.

That's it though - you can't stream from the internet from sites like Spotify. This would be a big issue if the BluWall didn't also have Bluetooth connectivity, but it does. And as Bluetooth doesn't support Hi-Res audio yet it means you can make the most of the BluWall's capability when you're on the move.

If you do want to stream music from the web then connect to the BluWall via Bluetooth and it will play anything your phone or tablet can, including sites like Soundcloud and Mixcloud and, of course, YouTube.

If you want to save battery on your phone then the BluWall will play files from a USB drive or MicroSD card. This works nicely, still controlled from the app and for me preferable to filling my phones memory up with large Hi-Res audio files.

Multiroom

As it's a multiroom system, two or more BluWall Directs can be linked to play the same audio in different rooms of the house.

This works well, wandering the house with the same music playing is nice if you're busy doing stuff and can't stay in one room. You can also link a pair and use each one as a separate channel and have a stereo setup.

I found the BluWall struggled here - there was a slight delay in audio between speakers, which gave a weird delayed phasing sound rather than a nice wide stereo image. This could be down to my home Wi-Fi, but even with the BluWalls in the same room as the router I had this problem.

The Otone app itself is quite simple to use. It's easy on the eye, and is quick to navigate to settings and other options. Your music is listed by song, artist and album and you can build playlists of your favourite tracks within the app.

The BluWall kicks out a lot of sound for such a relatively small speaker. It goes way louder than is comfortable to listen to in an average sized room, and easily fills a big space with sound.

It goes really low as well, thanks to the passive radiator on the back which couples with the woofer to produce nice, deep sub bass that most Bluetooth speakers don't even attempt to try and play.

Listening to bass heavy music in FLAC on the BluWall is really satisfying, and Spotify set at 320kbps sounds great as well. There is a noticeable drop in quality when using Bluetooth, but not by much, and if you're used to using a Bluetooth speaker then the improvement you'll hear when playing Hi-Res files is most welcome.

We Liked

The BluWall sounds great, especially when handling big bass lines.

The host of input and connectivity options all have their place, and I found myself using them all on different occasions to do different things, even using the line in when watching films on my laptop to beef up the sound.

It produces high quality audio good enough for use as a home system, and is portable enough to take on your travels as well. Having high-resolution audio on the move is a bonus, and hopefully one day will become the norm for wireless speaker systems.

We Disliked

There are issues with the BluWall. It often had trouble connecting to my Wi-Fi network, meaning I had to manually add it again. This only takes a minute or two, but is a bit annoying if you keep having to do it.

The battery isn't that great either, the manual says it will last for eight hours, but I found it to be closer to six at the volume levels I normally listen to.

The control app, although nice to look at and easy to use, is very basic. There's no EQ or tone controls. The volume is extremely sensitive, jumping from quite quiet to very loud with a couple of clicks. Once it's at half volume it's really loud, and doesn't get any louder as you turn it up to full.

You can get better control using the buttons on the unit, but if it's up on a shelf and you're using the app then you want that control to be there.

While the BluWall can play very loud, at high volume it loses a lot of it's warmth, with the bass not quite able to keep up with the raised mids and highs, giving it a harsher, scratchy sound.

I never found myself wanting it that loud though, and it still sounds nice and deep at a decent enough volume for everyday listening.

Verdict

With the Otone BluWall Direct you get a lot of bang for your buck. There's nothing else at a similar price range that offers not only Hi-Res audio, but all the other connectivity options and such deep, solid sub bass.

It bridges the gap between something you'd use at home and a portable speaker you'll use on the move. Although there are better options for a multi room system, as a standalone unit and portable speaker this is well worth a look.

Moon Neo 230HAD review

Booming headphone use has led to a resurgence in dedicated amps. What was once an esoteric subdivision of beardy hi-fi – I'm not talking about little USB DACs here, but proper combi preamp/DAC/amplification – now dances on the fringe of the mainstream, as users increasingly listen to music at their desk.

While big brands have muscled their way into the space, the boom has also provided an opportunity for high-end outfits like Moon by Simaudio. This Canadian specialist has been exerting a gravitation pull on audiophiles, offering intriguing hardware alternatives to popular hi-fi marques like Arcam, Naim and Denon.

Moon by Simaudio may not exactly be a household monicker, but the company has carved a solid rep for musical fidelity. The 230HAD tested here is the latest in its Neo series, which also comprises the all-in-one Neo Ace streaming music system, a rival to the Arcam Solo.

As befits its £1,150 / $1,500 / AU$2,099 price tag, this is a solid, substantial (2.8kg) component. The chassis is rolled aluminium with a chamfered front fascia. A silvered logo is flanked by a volume knob to the right and 3.5mm mini-jack input to the right, for wired sources. The headphone jack is (naturally) a full-size 1/4-inch job.

Rear-side connections comprise a pair of analogue stereo phono inputs, a single digital optical input and two coaxial digital inputs, plus a USB B connection for laptop hook-up. There are preamp outputs, one fixed the other variable, for integration into a stereo amp or AV receiver.

Input selection is confirmed by two columns of LEDs, which illuminate both source and format/sample rate.

The 230HAD ships with an ugly full-size IR remote, which only makes sense when used with a full suite of Moon components – much of the buttronry relates to Moon source components – although you can use it to toggle through the various inputs.

Output power is rated 100mW at 600Ohms/1W at 50 Ohms. The dynamic range of the DAC hits 118dB, while THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is specified at 0.005%. Power consumption when idle is quite high, at 10w.

High-res audio ready

The 230 HAD is on point when it comes to high-res audio, but you can only play high-res DSD and PCM files via the USB B connection. DSD support covers single, double and quadruple (2.8, 5.6 and 11.2) data rates.

There are some set-up caveats when it comes to laptop listening. Mac users have it easy – they need simply connect via USB and they're good to go; device support is native within the Apple OS.

Predictably, it's more of a faff for Windows users. You need to download bespoke device driver software from the Simaudio site – specifically the Moon USB HD DSD driver, plus the ASIO driver. Alternatively you could use jRiver or Foobar with the device drivers and associated plugins.

Performance

The 230HAD is an astonishing listen. The sonic character of this amp is crisp and precise, favouring detail above all else. At times though this Moon can lack atmosphere, sounding overly bright, depending on the source material.

There's nothing clever about Shonen Knife's punk tribute album Osaka Ramones (CD), but it is fun. However, the Moon reveals all its choppy, vocal rawness, with none of the joyous bop. Step up the fidelity and you're rewarded with a far more forgiving stereo imaging.

I partnered the 230HAD with Audio Technica ATH-W100 Sovereign headphones, longstanding favourites with distinctive wooden enclosures, a pair of vintage AKG K270s with cutesy twin driver arrangement, and the more recent Oppo Planar magnetic PM-1. The amp had no problems driving them all, even the usually demanding Oppo.

While the amp will slum it with Spotify, it purrs when spoilt. Up the ante to 24-bit content, be it FLAC or SACD/DSD, and its sheer musicality will quickly put a grin on your face. 2L's recording of Anna Follesso's Bartok Sonata Solo for Violin is presented in almost surgical detail. It sounded as though the strings were being plucked inside me head. Literally, inside. This is refined, clever stuff.

While the spec is forward-looking, there are some limitations. That media player mini-jack may have legacy use, but I'd prefer to see a front-facing USB slot, so I can preload a thumb drive with tracks and leave my media player where it belongs (misplaced somewhere around the house). There's no wireless provision at all.

Most users will opt to drive the 230HAD over USB, but I thought the amp was best served from a decent analogue source. I lavished it with a pair of Chord Shawline analogue interconnects (a £200 indulgence) and absolutely loved the results.

And I guess therein lines its appeal. It's just as at home on a desktop as in a dedicated listening room. Analogue or high-res, the Moon Neo 230HAD sounds suitably stellar with both.

We liked

The Moon Neo 230HAD is refined and classically musical. It offers extraordinary clarity and precision, making it a great choice for born-again audiophiles. There's plenty of connectivity too, enabling it to be used either as a simple USB sound system, or integrated into something much more complex.

We disliked

With no Bluetooth onboard, tech hipsters may take some convincing. It can also sound a little on the bright side, lacking punch with rock and dance music.

Verdict

The Moon 230HAD is something of a poster boy for headphone hi-fi. It offers astonishing levels of clarity, and sounds delicious with high-res audio. Sure, it's only really for those owning above-average headphones, and it lacks some modern niceties, but the sheer vibrancy of this amplifier will repay the investment.

Sony HT-NT5 Soundbar review

In a world where soundbars are largely regarded as functional necessities rather than proper audio kit, it's reassuring to encounter the Sony HT-NT5. This £599, $700US, AU$999 2.1 sound system is a cut above the commonplace, both in form and function. With a Hi-Res Audio badge to indicate solidarity with 24-bit sound sources, and some touches of designer flash in the cosmetics, it's an intriguing proposition.

Sitting at the top of Sony's 2016 soundbar line-up, the HT-NT5 system comprises a wireless subwoofer and slimline soundbar. The latter boasts a smart hairline finish, and features a three-way speaker design comprising a pair of mid-range drivers, flanked by a gold-ringed high-frequency super tweeter and a secondary tweeter on the edge of the unit. Inside, there's a Sony S Master digital amp module for every driver.

Around the back are two connection wells, one with an Arc-enabled HDMI output, plus two inputs, the other with a third HDMI, plus optical digital input and Ethernet. All three HDMI inputs support 4K Ultra HD sources. There's also a USB port on the right hand side and Wi-Fi, for the record, is dual-band.

The subwoofer is relatively compact, distinguished mainly by a front-facing high gloss port.

Setup

Setup is pleasingly straightforward. The crossover with the sub is managed automatically, so it's simply a matter of placement and managing the volume. Wi-Fi is supported by NFC and Bluetooth covers both AAC and higher-resolution LDAC.

The HT-NT5 can also be used as part of a multi-room wireless system, integrating with other Sony wireless speaker systems through the brand's SongPal app.

The system ships with a dinky little remote, but the soundbar also has touch sensitive controls and a display that does that clever thing of appearing to glow through the bodywork. Very stylish.

The package includes two small wall-mounts for those that would prefer that option, but you can also sit the 'bar on AV furniture. It is wide though, at 108cm, so make sure you have enough space.

The soundbar's Home page provides a pictorial shortcut to all inputs and sources, including networked or NAS and PC devices. Integrated services boil down to Spotify Connect and Google Cast, which effectively opens up a host of apps from your smartphone, including TuneIn radio, Qobuz and Google Play Music.

Performance

The HT-NT5 soundbar performs differently, depending on its orientation – but the change is not as drastically as you might imagine. Stereo imaging is at its most pronounced when the speaker is in its on-wall orientation. Sat flat, the angled midrange woofers sit within an acoustic dimple, leaving the edge facing tweeter keeps the soundfield crisp.

Don't worry about sorting which way is which, though, the HT-NT5 is smart enough to optimise sound performance depending on the positioning. The subwoofer, on the other hand, can sound a little pendulous but at least it's not overly intrusive.

All that said, the HT-NT5 soundbar is refreshingly musical. Rush's classic hard-prog "2112" is well handled with Geddy Lee's high-pitched vocals coming through loud and clear, and a reassuringly sharp edge to the axework. "Lessons" flits between acoustic noodles and clenched fist riffs, with an energy that belies the fact this is a TV soundbar.

With movies, the HT-NT5 offers similar enunciation. While it doesn't come close to emulating a genuine surround soundstage, it has no problem sounding urgent and exciting.

The theatrical trailer for Burnt (the Bradley Cooper foodie flop), uses cutlery as a percussive instrument, allowing the 2.1 system to sound fast, insistent and dramatic. The HT-NT5, it turns out, is great with knives, forks and spoons.

There are limitations though. When a bellowing Jake Gyllenhaal gets punched in the face at the start of boxing drama Southpaw, the sub thumps but doesn't drop significantly below the belt. The sub starts to make itself known at 31.5kHz, but doesn't really start to agitate pottery below 50Hz. The mid-range woofers come in at 100Hz, with the tweeters kicking in around 200Hz.

Onboard amplification is rated by Sony at a combined 400w, but you should take that with a pinch of salt. With audio sources and Blu-ray, there's enough poke to make you grin, however the output level of Sky's DD 5.1 feed has long been relatively low, so with Game of Thrones, I had the system racked up to Max volume, and it still wasn't enough to really attract the ire of White Walkers (or my neighbors).

The stereo width of the soundbar is best appreciated when in its wall mount orientation, but dialogue remains largely balanced between the horizontal and flat use. As Daenerys Targaryen's dragons first appear at the start of The Battle of the Bastards (Season 6, episode 9), there's a great unfurling of wings and collapsing rubble. The wings aren't quite as leathery as you might hope, but when the dragons belch fire over slaver's bay there's a pleasing wall of noise.

Overall, the HT-NT5 is an accomplished 2.1 package that looks splendid and offers a level of mid-range clarity that cheaper bars typically can't match. It's prim and precise, musical and extremely mannered. If Pride and Prejudice is your bag, you're sorted. If the system does have a limitation however, it's the subwoofer. It really doesn't quite go deep enough to do justice to more visceral content – like the thud of a punch or rumble of an engine – but it's well equipped in terms of connectivity at least, and offers a heap of file compatibility.

We liked

With its ultra slim design and 4K HDMI-ready inputs, the HT-NT5 is both good looking and forward facing. It may be a TV soundbar, but this Hi-Res Audio-ready soundbar's also an audiophile-grade component in its own right.

We disliked

At times the system can sound a little too sharp with movie content, and it doesn't really plumb the depths when deep LFE is required. It's almost too refined for its own good – seriously, it's like it was designed by your next door neighbor – and it's best suited to large flatscreen TVs than tiny 32-inchers.

Final verdict

With the HT-NT5, Sony has produced a soundbar with audiophile aspirations and an unapologetic upmarket design. Disarmingly versatile, it works equally well on furniture as on-wall, and generously offers a trio of 4K-ready HDMI inputs, plus compatibility with FLAC and DSD audio files. On the debit side, however, it's not massively powerful and the sub is definitely PG-rated.

Pioneer XDP-100R review

Update:

Our main issue with the otherwise excellent Pioneer XDP-100R was the fact that its actual output was pretty weak. You had to have the discrete volume control pushed up to almost the maximum to be able to hear it clearly out in the wild.

• Buy Pioneer XDP-100R at Amazon for $525.24

That's now changed.

Originally the volume had been limited in line with certain legislation, but with one of the latest system updates Pioneer has introduced a feature called 'variable line-out' which unlocks the full power of the XDP-100R's output.

The feature has been pushed out to existing models and just needs to be turned on in the system settings and the device rebooted. And from then on you can power high-end headphones and high-res audio tracks to ear-bleeding volumes.

Nice.

The sort of high-quality headphones you'll want to run with the Pioneer's high-quality innards need a greater output than standard cans, and the HRA tracks the XDP-100R loves to play also deserve a little extra volume too.

We've been testing the new feature for a while now and, for the money, that little update has made the Pioneer XDP-100R easily one of the best, and most versatile, dedicated HRA players on the market today. It's also a great sign the engineers are still working on ways to make it even better.

The Pioneer XDP-100R is the company's first high-resolution audio (HRA) player, and has been conceived as a genuine alternative to the more expensive Acoustic Research and Astell & Kern devices.

It's also set to be one of the first players that will be able to take advantage of the new Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) file format that's set to launch later this year.

That's the technology which is going to bring bona fide high-resolution audio to the streaming generation – and if you're not excited about that you need your ears checking.

While the majority of people are still happy to stick with running Spotify from their phones, more and more of us are really starting to care about the noises we're flooding our ears with.

That doesn't mean we're becoming polo neck-wearing audiophiles with bespoke listening rooms – it just means there's a growing recognition that there's better sound out there than YouTube, Spotify and white-tailed Apple ear-buds.

As much as we might malign the style-over-quality marketing monster that is Dre's Beats brand of headphones, they have proved to be the gateway drug to higher-end headphones, and subsequently higher-quality audio sources.

And that means there's more and more of a market for high-quality portable players too.

Pioneer is tapping into this burgeoning audience for improved quality with its XDP-100R player, a device which literally wears its high-resolution audio leanings on its 

sleeve.

Hardwired for sound

At its most basic the Pioneer XDP-100R is an Android Lollipop-based media player with a 4.7-inch touchscreen and the audio chops to cope with a huge range of formats and sampling rates, including DSD 11.2MHz and FLAC 24-bit/384kHz.

But Pioneer has gone to town to ensure that it hasn't just hit the standard marketing checkpoints needed for a HRA player by packing it full of high-quality audio silicon too.

That side of the hardware equation is powered by a SABRE ES9018K2M digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which is paired with a SABRE 9601K headphone amp.

The SABRE pairing can't quite match the sonic skills of Acoustic Research's AR M2 player, with its powerful class A amplifier, but also means it doesn't need the same huge power reserves to keep playing.

And it's not just the actual components Pioneer has used either – it's their placement. Pioneer has physically separated the audio circuit board from the system circuit board, ensuring there's no extraneous noise added into the sound from the Qualcomm CPU running the rest of the player.

It has also pushed the power supply as far down the board as possible, with all the analog audio circuits gathered around the headphone output on the top, again to try and keep the signals as clean as possible.

On the system hardware side the quad-core Qualcomm CPU is backed up by 2GB of system RAM and an impressively bright, clear screen with a 1280 x 720 resolution.

There's only 32GB of internal storage, with around 25GB available for actual content, but Pioneer has added a pair of microSD slots on the side. Both are capable of supporting cards up to 200GB in capacity, giving the XDP-100R a pretty staggering potential storage capacity of some 432GB.

Even with a hefty HRA library, that's a healthy amount of storage space.

If you're more into the streaming vibe then Tidal, Spotify and Deezer come pre-loaded, enabling you to stream directly from the Wi-Fi connection. It's not just about incoming wireless goodness either, as the XDP-100R also supports Bluetooth connectivity, with aptX support for CD-quality transmission.

The device's 1,630mAH battery is good for a quoted 16 hours continuous playback, and the Android 5.1.1 OS is pretty good at marshalling its power reserves during standby time too.

Master-quality streaming

All that internal audio goodness is one thing, but the potential for MQA support down the line adds a whole other string to the Pioneer player's bow.

MQA is set to revolutionise the high-resolution audio world, bringing it out of the closed-off arena of the super-serious audiophile and opening it up to the convenience of music streaming and portability.

Traditional HRA formats need incredibly large file sizes to fit in all the audio data for true lossless playback – a single 24-bit/192kHz FLAC album can take up over 1.5GB of space.

That makes them impractical in general terms for streaming, and means that with the base 32GB of internal storage in the XDP-100R you're not going to fit much high-quality music onto the portable player without serious expansion.

MQA, however, uses a technique the company is calling Audio Origami to 'fold' up a high-resolution file into a far more manageable size. That means files that are magnitudes smaller than at present, and which are only a little larger than the CD-quality tracks Tidal streams today.

The MQA format does need a compatible decoder in the playback device to fully unfold the file into its original, studio master, state. But one of the neatest tricks of all is the fact that even without such a decoder it will still play. It won't be in its original full studio format, but thanks to the origami technique it will still be of higher quality than CD.

This in turn means big things for streaming companies. The fact that MQA files are adaptive, and able to unfold to whatever level the playback device can support, means those companies only need to store one format for each track in their library.

In Tidal's case it currently houses some 1.4 petabytes of audio data, because of all the different formats it supports. Replacing some of that with MQA files will save a huge amount of server space, and therefore money.

Tidal is promising MQA support soon – we were expecting it to drop very soon after the new year, but there have reportedly been some technical delays which have slowed things down.

Fingers crossed those get ironed out, so this brave new world of HRA streaming can truly begin.