Home Entertainment

Three young designers have hit Kickstarter with a stylish turntable that can be cabled to your living room hi-fi setup or be wirelessly connected to Bluetooth speakers for "those who like it slow but sometimes prefer the fast and easy way."

Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes and sizes, from portables you can hold in your hand to mains-powered table-top belters. And then there are those from Denmark's Soundboks – suitcase-sized beasts with concert-level output.

Rotel introduced the affordable high-end Michi series in the early 1990s, only to retire the name a few short years after release. Now it's back with the launch of three new flagship components.

When connected together, the five units that make up the Air by Quirky form a single cylinder speaker. But each speaker can also operate separately for surround-sound placement or multi-room streaming entertainment.

Back in July, McIntosh Labs debuted a new generation of high resolution DAC in its C53 preamplifier. Next, the company installed it in the C2700 preamp, and now the DA2 Module is being made available as an upgrade kit for other McIntosh audio gear.

Not everyone has room for or wants their hi-fi system to have a commanding presence in the living room, which is where the Spinbase comes in – a powered speaker system that sits underneath your turntable.

First came the Google Home speakers, then we got Home speakers with screens, and now we've got the Google Nest Hub Max – the ultimate Google-powered smart speaker for 2019.

Billed as the world's first premium eco speakers, the modular Zero range makes use of recycled paper for its housing, with any waste returned to the paper mill for re-use.

Anker has launched on Kickstarter with a new Nebula projection system called the Cosmos. Well, actually there are two projectors on offer – a Full HD model with a pair of speakers and a 4K UHD unit packing four speakers for the promise of 3D audio.

The first audio component ever to wear the term Hi-Fi was released by Yamaha in 1954 – the HiFi Player. The company is building on this legacy with the release of the 5000 series that's "designed for the most discerning and passionate audiophiles."

What if you want to stream digital music from your smartphone and your hi-fi amplifier lacks a receiver? Provided you have spare analog or digital input ports, you can add one into the mix – such as the Zen Blue from the UK's iFi Audio.

Is high-frame-rate cinema a technological cul-de-sac, or is it a bracingly new visual aesthetic we just need to get used to?