Best Hi-Fi and Home Theater Products: 10 Award-Winning Picks

Introduction

Every year brings a fresh wave of receivers, speakers, soundbars, and televisions, and only a handful turn out to matter. This roundup gathers ten products that earned top honors in our year-end awards for 2023, spanning everything from a budget AV receiver to a reference floorstanding speaker.

Some of these picks are obvious. Others are quieter choices that only reveal their value after weeks of listening in a real room rather than a showroom floor.

How These Picks Were Chosen

To be eligible, a product had to spend meaningful time with us during the year, not simply pass through for a first impression. We weighed sound quality and picture quality first, then looked at how each product behaved day to day: setup, usability, adjustability, and how well it held up when compared directly against the alternatives.

Value mattered as much as raw performance. Several winners here took their category because they delivered most of what far more expensive products offer, and a few were compared head to head against components costing many times more.

Best AV Receiver: Sony 7000ES

The receiver category was unusually deep, with the Sony 7000ES taking the top spot ahead of the Anthem MRX 740, the Onkyo RZ70, the Marantz Cinema 70, and the Marantz Cinema 40. What separated the Sony was the combination of musical ability, home theater performance, and the spatial audio processing built in internally, which made a noticeable difference in practice. The decision was close to unanimous, and the team was impressed enough to buy one for their own system.

The Anthem MRX 740 was the runner-up and drew praise for its musicality and its industrial design. It leans toward custom installation work, with a slower processor and audible fan noise, which held it back from the top spot.

Best Soundbar: Samsung Q990C

Samsung’s Q990C won soundbar of the year, the third consecutive year the company has taken this category. On paper it is a modest update over the previous generation, with the biggest change coming from tuning rather than new hardware, and that tuning proved to be the difference maker. It remains one of the strongest performance-to-price propositions in home theater, offering more customization and adjustability than its closest rival while undercutting that rival by roughly $1,100.

The Sonos Arc Ultimate Immersive Set was the runner-up and was described as absolutely fabulous, and the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar impressed as a standalone bar. The Bang & Olufsen Beosound Theatre and the JBL Bar 1300X completed the field.

Best All-Around Speaker: KEF R11 Meta

The KEF R11 Meta was named high-end speaker of the year and then took the overall product of the year award, the highest honor in the roundup. It was described as the most consistent, well-built, and impressive speaker of the year, holding its own in direct comparisons against everything else that came through the listening room. Other speakers sometimes offered a different flavor that a listener might prefer, but nothing outright beat it at any price.

The R11 Meta sits in the over $3,000 per pair tier and is built to anchor a system for years rather than be rotated out. It was also nominated for design of the year, alongside the MoFi SourcePoint 8, the Sonos Era 300, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Theatre, the Bang & Olufsen A9, and the Audiolab 9000A.

Best TV: Sony X95L

The television category split between the best-performing set and the most enjoyable one. Following the rules of the roundup, the Sony X95L took TV of the year as the best overall performer, including out-of-the-box picture quality, and it was called reference caliber. It was nominated alongside the Samsung S95C OLED, the Hisense 85UX, and the TCL 98-inch QM8.

For viewers who want the most accurate picture without a lengthy setup process, this is the straightforward choice of the group.

Best Big-Screen TV: TCL 98-Inch QM8

The TCL 98-inch QM8 did not take the title outright, but it earned a share of the TV honors as the most cinematic and enjoyable set of the year. It is a mini-LED design, and while it is not as strong as the Sony overall, its scale and out-of-the-box performance made it the television the editors looked forward to watching every day. Buyers who want maximum screen size will find it the more exciting option of the two.

Best Integrated Amplifier: Yamaha 2000A

The amplifier category covers both separate and integrated designs, and the Yamaha 2000A came out on top as an exceptional, reference-caliber integrated amplifier with modern technology. The Yamaha 1000A was the runner-up and was kept on hand as a budget reference piece, while the Audiolab 7000A, the Marantz AMP 10, the Technics SU-GX70, and the Marantz Stereo 70 filled out the field.

The step up from the 1000A to the 2000A is audible, though the lower model remains a phenomenal option for less money. The only real design note is a black bar along the bottom of the silver finish.

Best Powered Speaker and Design: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A9

The Beosound A9 won powered speaker of the year and design of the year, and it was named a favorite product of the year. It was the most used and most listened-to speaker in the house all year, and the appeal comes from combining sound quality with a distinctive visual design, an easy user experience, and flexible placement.

The Sonos Era 300, the Klipsch The Sevens, and the Klipsch The Nines were the other powered speaker nominees, and the MoFi SourcePoint 8 was the runner-up in the design category.

Best Speaker Under $1,000: Focal Theva No.1

The under $1,000 per pair category was quiet this year, and the Focal Theva No.1 was the only speaker that genuinely impressed. It comes in at around $1,000 per pair, and it was clear within days of living with it that it was the winner. There is a matching center channel as well, so it can form the basis of a strong budget home theater as easily as a two-channel system.

Best Speaker $1,000 to $3,000: Q Acoustics 5040

This was the most crowded category of the year, with the Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3, the Klipsch RP-8000F Mark II, the MoFi SourcePoint 8, the MartinLogan Foundation F2, and the Q Acoustics 5040 all in contention. The 5040 won as a sleeper that gets remarkably close to the far more expensive Concept 50, which had been a favorite in the previous year’s roundup.

Direct comparisons on a high-end amplifier showed real differences between the two, but far fewer than the price gap would suggest. The MoFi SourcePoint 8 was the runner-up and was a pleasant surprise in its own right.

Best Budget Component: Marantz Cinema 70

In the under $1,500 category, the Marantz Cinema 70 was named the best budget component of the year, and it was described as the best pound-for-pound budget component of everything that came through. The category was genuinely difficult, with the Klipsch The Sevens, the Sony 1000A receiver, the Samsung Q990C, the Focal Theva No.1, the Eversolo Z8 DAC, and the Q Acoustics 5040 also nominated. The Eversolo Z8 DAC was a particular shock, holding its own against components costing many times more.

Buying Advice

The right pick depends on what you actually use and how much room you have. A soundbar such as the Samsung Q990C wins when space and simplicity matter, while separates give you room to upgrade over time. On the audio side, the KEF R11 Meta is the safest long-term investment if the budget allows, the Q Acoustics 5040 delivers a surprising amount of that experience for less, and the Focal Theva No.1 is the natural entry point.

For video, choose the Sony X95L if overall picture quality comes first, or the TCL 98-inch QM8 if cinematic scale matters more than absolute performance. For amplification, the Yamaha 2000A is the reference choice, and the Marantz Cinema 70 is the budget-friendly receiver that punches above its price. The Beosound A9 is the pick for a room where the speaker is meant to be seen and used every day.

Conclusion

None of these products are the only good options in their categories, but each one earned its place by doing something specific very well. The KEF R11 Meta took the highest honor of the year for good reason, and the rest of the list covers the practical range from budget receivers to 98-inch televisions. Match the product to the room and to the way you listen, and any of these will serve you well for a long time.