Five products to look out for this month
INSIDER
1Optoma UHZ55£2000
Optoma’s latest addition to its UHZ home cinema projector range is aiming for high brightness and an impressive contrast ratio. The UHZ55 touts a claimed 3000 lumens of brightness and a 2,500,000:1 contrast ratio, as well as “true 4K” resolution, although we suspect that Optoma has opted for pixel-shifting considering the price. This dream-team combination is set to provide “lights-on viewing” in situations where pesky ambient lighting might prove challenging for other projectors. Elsewhere you will find a built-in streaming platform developed by Optoma, which will allow you to download video-streaming apps directly to the projector, and an HDMI eARC socket should you want to connect an external sound system.
whf.cm/Optoma_4K
2Q Acoustics M40£749
We love the Q Acoustics M20 active bookshelf speakers – so how could we resist this new scaled-up version? The M40s are a pair of dinky floor-standing powered speakers, standing at just 71cm tall. But size isn’t everything; these speakers are promising 20OW of Class-D amplification. They are also feature-rich, with Bluetooth 5.0 on board with the aptX HD and aptX Low Latency codecs supported, as well as wired connectivity over RCA, optical, 3.5mm analogue and USB Type B (which supports up to 24-bit/192kHz hi-res files). These speakers also use the same C3 Continuous Curved Cone (or C-cubed for short) driver technology that you will find on the Award-winning 5040 floorstanders, and will come in the same three finishes of those speakers too; black, white or walnut - very stylish.
whf.cm/QAcoustics_M40
3Fiio M23£649
Is it a portable music player? Is it a Bluetooth headphone DAC? It’s… both. Fiio isn’t afraid to push boundaries when it comes to audio technology mash-ups (need we remind you of its gaming keyboard/ DAC device?). The M23 can play hi-res files at up to 24-bit 384kHz and PCM/DSD256, and MQA support is also on the menu. While wired headphones are always preferred, it can also transmit hi-res tracks over aptX HD Bluetooth and LDAC. But that’s not all. It can receive audio from a Bluetooth device and act as a DAC/amp. The option to power it over USB m
