5 top home-entertainment gadgets, from audiophile headphones to TV-streaming technology

CURVED screens are overthrowing tube TVs and wireless surround-sound systems have killed big speaker boxes. Here are five top gadgets to update your lounge room.

How to future-proof your lounge room

LOUNGE rooms are not as simple as they used to be.

Routers have replaced rabbit ears, curved screens overthrown tube TVs, and wireless surround-sound systems killed the big speaker boxes and wire tangle.

Below is a guide to five of the best and freshest home-entertainment products for your future-proofed living room.

Sony MDR-Z7 headphones

Sony / 4.5/5 / $1000 / sony.com.au

Pure sound ... At $1000 and with 70mm drivers, Sony's MDR-Z7 headphones are designed for audiophiles.

If you’re after a decent pair of headphones for the morning commute, you can stop reading now. With 70mm drivers and a 4 to 100,000Hz range, these beautifully made headphones sit atop Sony’s range. You can plug them into your smartphone while riding public transport but they are designed for plugging into an amp in a living room and transporting you to your musical happy place. The sound quality is all you could wish for, with a heavy-duty cable that splits to screw into each side. They’re comfortable, as you would expect, but they’re also bulky and don’t come with a protective case.

Linksys Max-Stream AC2600

Linksys / 4.5/5 / $429.95 / harveynorman.com.au

All antennas up ... The newly released Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit router is designed to service homes with many connected devices.

It may look like an upturned table but the newest networking device from Linksys could prove an important peacekeeper in videostreaming, game-playing, gadget-filled households. The gigabit router is the first to feature MU-MIMO technology that better handles wi-fi traffic by prioritising demanding services (like Presto or Netflix video streaming) over low-demand services (your phone’s Twitter stream). The router can also provide a serious wireless speed boost on the 5GHz band and offers a USB 3.0 connection for fast network storage and smart customisations in its software. On the downside, it won’t provide the same speed on 2.4GHz and it’s pricier than other routers.

Audio-Technica ATH-R70X

Audio-Technica / 4.5/5 / $499.95 / audiotechnica.com.au

Hear it all ... Audio-Technica ATH-R70X’s open-back high-end headphones are designed to deliver natural audio.

These unusually shaped headphones are an audiophile’s dream. Audio-Technica’s first professional open-back reference headphones feature an exclusive 45mm sound driver, a pure alloy magnetic circuit, and efficient magnets to deliver refreshingly natural sound, with crisp mid-tones, fine details, no noticeable distortion, and a frequency response from 5 to 40,000Hz. Their 3D wing support design is no good for portability but it distributes their 210g weight so evenly you could forget you’re wearing them. A hard case to protect the carbon composite resin construction would have been smart, but for the purest sound and comfort the R70X headphones are unmatched.

LG Music Flow H4

LG / 3.5/5 / $279 / lg.com/au

Solid sound ... The Music Flow H4 speaker connects to LG’s larger system.

While it qualifies as portable, there is nothing flimsy about this speaker that is about the size of a brick and feels almost as solid. You can pair two such speakers for stereo sound, connect it to other speakers in LG’s Music Flow multi-room system or just take it on a picnic to play music wirelessly using Bluetooth or through its auxiliary port. A button marked “F” lets you toggle through modes although an indicator would make this easier. With 20W of power, it doesn’t have the tinny sound of some small speakers and will wirelessly play for up to 5.5 hours on one charge.

Pure Pop Midi with Bluetooth

Pure / 3.5/5 / $149 / pure.com/au

Audio family ... The Pure Pop line of digital radios ranges from Pop Mini, to Pop Midi and Pop Maxi.

This FM and DAB+ digital radio that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker offers versatility in a compact form that would fit in nicely on a kitchen bench. Using a 3-inch driver, the sound quality will not blow you away but that limitation is balanced by other features, including a large, handy button for power and volume and the choice of using a rechargeable battery, standard AA battery, or mains power. One downside is when playing music from a connected smartphone you need to control volume through the phone rather than the big volume button atop the Pop Midi.