Sound & vision

SOUND & VISION

With our pick of the best televisions, projectors, speakers, turntables and more, we serve up a truly tempting feast for your eyes and ears

Words: Simon Lucas Photography: Neil Godwin

BEST TVS

1 TCL 65P7K

Quite a few companies are happy to sell you a big, very affordable television – but TCL’s USP is to sell you a big, very affordable television that is really, really enjoyable to watch. The 65P7K is, frankly, supernatural value for money – it combines high contrast, excellent attention to detail, convincing colours and a very assured way with motion that eludes pretty much all of its price-comparable rivals and a fair few pricier ones, too. £549, tcl.com

2 PHILIPS 65OLED760

Even before you take its unique Ambilight feature into account, the Philips 65OLED760 is a startlingly capable, well-specified television for the money. It’s bright, lavishly detailed, loads its OLED-tastic black tones with stacks of detail, and is no slouch when it comes to acting as a gaming monitor, too. And then Ambilight makes the screen seem larger, and the viewing experience simultaneously more immersive and more restful. It’s quite remarkable. £1,249, philips.co.uk

3 SONY K65XR55 (BRAVIA 5)

It comes to something, doesn’t it, that a model from pretty much the dead centre of Sony’s 2025 range of TVs is so capable, so extensively specified and so enjoyable to watch? The Bravia 5 has so much going for it where picture quality is concerned – it’s stable, insightful, dynamic and beautifully defined – that it seems hard to see where Sony could make worthwhile improvements… £1,699, sony.co.uk

4 SONY BRAVIA 8 II

…yet here we are. The Sony Bravia 8 II is a Quantum Dot OLED TV and it does everything the technology has always promised. Which means it is outrageously bright, capable of delivering glaring contrast, does that inky thing with black tones, teases out the finest detail in every circumstance, and describes even the trickiest patterns confidently. A proper all-rounder. £2,499, www.sony.co.uk

5 PANASONIC TV-65Z95B

Some televisions look excellent straight from the box. The Panasonic TV-65Z95B is not one of those – it needs a moment spent setting it up before it looks its best. Happily, its best is stunning – this is a high achiever across the board where picture quality is concerned, and it’s downright amazing when it comes to contrast. And almost uniquely among TVs, it sounds very good, too. £2,999, www.panasonic.com

6 HISENSE 55S7NQTUK (CANVAS TV)

A high-performance TV is all well and good – but what about when it’s switched off? It’s just a black mirror, isn’t it? Well, not if it’s the Hisense Canvas TV. When it’s switched on, it’s a pleasure to watch – the punchy colours and clean white tones are especially good. When it’s off, its reflection-resistant matte screen, picture-frame-like surround and Art Mode enable it to become a painting. Or, rather, any number of paintings… £999, hisense.com

BEST CONTENT TO SHOW OFF YOUR SET

APPLE TV+

It may not have the most content, and it may not refresh its content as often as some, but there’s just no arguing with the quality of the content being served up by Apple TV+. Slow Horses gets most of the plaudits (which is absolutely fair enough), but the likes of Severance, The Studio and Ted Lasso (to name but three) are all equally compelling. £9.99 per month, tv.apple.com/gb