LATEST ADDITIONS

Samsung's debut Ultra HD Blu-ray player – the UBD-K8500 – is available to buy online and in UK stores from today according to the Korean corp.    The deck, which supports 4K HDR playback as well as the usual CD, DVD and BD formats, retails for around £230. Stockists are said to include Currys, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Samsung.com.

We’ve all been there. Grovelled around the back of an AV system looking for the plug that needs jiggling in its socket to restore a mysteriously lost connection. We’ve trodden on a plug, and broken it, and so made an expensive cable useless; or broken the little plastic lock leaf on the RJ45 plug at the end of a carefully-laid Ethernet network cable. Worse still, we’ve tripped over a lead, wrenched the plug and broken the socket in a pricey piece of gear. And how many smartphones and tablets have been wrecked by someone pushing the USB connector home the wrong way round? What a wonderful world it would be if connections no long relied on plugs.

Ruark has announced that it has given its multifunctional R7 sound system a sonic tuneup, claiming improvements to stereo imaging and integration. Working to ramp up the audio performance of its 'radiogram', the British audio brand has made tweaks to the crossovers and Class A/B amplifier stage. 

Generally speaking, our modern connected world is a good thing, particularly when it comes to electronic doodads. Back in the day, before the 'net, we would buy a gadget, happy to know that what it did when first unboxed would be what it would do forever (wear and tear not withstanding) – play DVDs, amplify music, time an egg.