What Hi-Fi? 2026 award winners have started to land, with the first Best Buy picks revealed in partnership with Richer Sounds. The opening round covers 111 winners across 24 categories, giving readers an early read on where the brand is placing its strongest recommendations before the wider awards rollout finishes.
Alastair, What Hi-Fi?’s editor in chief, said the titles were chosen after months of rigorous comparative testing in dedicated testing rooms. He has more than a decade of experience as a journalist in both B2C and B2B press, and he previously served as Trusted Reviews’ editor-in-chief.
111 winners, 24 categories
The first set spans everything from affordable surround sound systems to high-end stereo amplifiers, budget turntables to premium televisions. That range matters because it shows the awards are not being handed out in one narrow slice of the market; they are spread across entry-level and premium kit, and across both hi-fi and home cinema.
What Hi-Fi? is also making the results easy to track as they roll out, posting winners on its website and social media channels as they are announced. For readers weighing a purchase, that turns the awards into a running shortlist rather than a single end-of-season list.
Products of the Year on 12th November
The overall Products of the Year will be crowned at the Awards ceremony and simultaneously online on 12th November. Alongside those top picks, the event will also reveal the Outstanding Contribution winner, Readers’ Award, Innovation of the Year, and Hall of Fame.
What Hi-Fi?’s 50th birthday adds three extra Golden Anniversary trophies this year, which gives this rollout a slightly wider prize pool than a standard awards cycle. It is a sensible way to mark the milestone: the first Best Buy list does the heavy lifting, and the later ceremony will decide which products sit above the rest.
What Hi-Fi? Best Buy rollout
The awkward part is also the useful part: the first winners have been revealed, but the winning products are not named in the announcement here. That leaves the headline numbers in place, while the detailed shopping decisions sit inside the fuller list as it appears.
Which products won the 111 Best Buy awards is the only question that matters next, and it is the one readers now need to check as the remaining announcements are published.
