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From Laserdisc players that also spin CDs to Blu-ray/DVD/VHS recorders, combis have been part of the home entertainment landscape for decades. Their appeal is easy to understand. Stuffing two or more different products into a single chassis means fewer boxes in packed AV racks, while all the functions are controlled from a single interface and remote control.

Monitor Audio is a revered name in audio circles but if you’re yet to sample its wares then this newly-buffed Silver series is a superb starting place. Sandwiched between the Gold and Bronze ranges, it marks the point where you start getting a proper high-end performance without having to remortgage. 

Focal, with its fine heritage in high-end speaker design, made the decision to join the soundbar club probably after it saw how successful Bose and B&W were doing at the premium end of the market. But neither the Bose Cinemate 1SR or B&W Panorama 2 have external subwoofer options and only the latter has the HDMI inputs that Focal’s Dimension offers. 

First there was the scratchy and hissy shellac 78, rendered obsolete by the improved sound of the 'microgroove' vinyl LP in the mid-1950s. Twenty years later, we had eight-track and cassette alternatives for pre-recorded music on the move – early in-car gear, followed by Sony's Walkman revolution. Recorded music was then taken into the digital realm by CD, but beyond that not a lot has happened to the technical basics of music for most mainstream users. Sure, downloaded music is now a popular option courtesy of iTunes and its ilk, but the vast majority listen at no better than CD quality. Indeed, if you haven't opted for a lossless download format like Apple Lossless or FLAC, and stuck with compression technologies like MP3 and AAC, then it's probably worse.