LATEST ADDITIONS

Explaining where the 55A84K fits into Sony's current TV scheme of things is no easy task. First we need to clear up that it's a traditional 'White OLED' (WOLED) design, with white sub-pixel, not a new Quantum Dot OLED set. This should mean that its pictures are (probably) not as bright or richly coloured as Sony's A95K QD OLED (HCC #337) – although at £1,299, the 55in model tested here is a great deal more affordable than its same-sized A95K sibling.

What better way to put this Marantz high-end home cinema amplifier through its paces than with some high-brow music. Specifically, Winter, from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (or, as I like to call it, Le quattro stagioni). The trilling of violins, beautifully elucidated by this amplifier's melodious HDAM amplification, is sublime, and I just love the way the strings are dramatically engulfed by a full orchestral storm… and heavy weapons fire.

This multipurpose AV space hides a full-fat Dolby Atmos system with four subwoofers, but puts its dedicated stereo speakers on display.

As I write this, I am listening to a digital file, streamed from my NAS, via the Roon music management platform, into a DAC and from there 
to an amplifier driving a pair of speakers. There are any number of EQ and DSP options open to me in Roon but every single one of them is bypassed or switched off...