Two hi-fi biggies just announced cool new curved stereo speakers: one passive, one active, take your pick

The new Wharfedale Denton 1S updates a modern classic
Fyne Audio Cubit 5 has impressive connectivity and power
£649 and £549 respectively

If you’re looking for compact and stylish hi-fi speakers, you’re spoiled for choice this week: two much-loved speaker brands have unveiled brand new models.

First up is Wharfedale, who have introduced a revitalized version of their classic 1970s Denton speakers with a passive, modern-looking design.

And if you prefer powered active speakers with their own amplification, Fyne Audio’s Cubit 5 speakers are designed to connect to virtually anything without the need for other components.

Wharfedale Denton 1S: key features and prices

Wharfedale’s original Denton speaker was launched in 1974 and became an instant classic – looking much more contemporary than its veneered rivals and offering impressive sound thanks to clever driver design.

The 2026 version, the Denton 1S, is equally avant-garde: rather than imitating the original, it’s more of an homage, with similar flexibility for placement anywhere, but with much more advanced speaker technology and anti-resonant materials.

The driver here is new and places a 25mm silk dome tweeter concentrically inside a 165mm polypropylene mid/bass cone to deliver aligned and coherent sound. It’s combined with a computer-modeled crossover and a new equalizer that Wharfedale calls the “Brilliance switch”; changing from normal to maximum increases the response by 1.5 dB between 2 and 4 kHz for close-to-wall positioning. Bass extension is reduced to 45Hz (-6dB), which is impressive for such a compact enclosure.

The Denton 1S comes in three colors: black, blue and white. The RRP is £649 (around $867 / AU$1,209) per pair and will be available from the end of May.

Fyne Audio Cubit 5: Key features and pricing

A pair of Fyne Audio Cubit 5 speakers in white on either side of an Apple iMac. They are all on a light wooden desk in front of a window on a bright day.

(Image credit: Fyne Audio)

Fyne Audio is a Scottish hi-fi manufacturer of some renown, and their new Cubit 5 is a compact active bookshelf system with up to 240W of power and high-resolution audio up to 24-bit/96KHz. It has Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD and AAC, and rather than simply plugging in a standard Bluetooth module, Fyne says its circuit has gone through extensive development to offer the cleanest possible path to the amplification module.

There is a lot of connectivity here. The Cubit 5 has a built-in phono stage for your turntable; analog and optical digital inputs; HDMI eARC; and a subwoofer output for additional bass. The driver is Fyne’s latest 5″ (125mm) IsoFlare unit, and the bass reflex port is front-mounted so you can place the speakers close to walls without noise.

There are five finishes here: Black, Titanium Pearl, Olive Green, Pebble Gray, and Arctic White. All models will be available from June 2026 with an RRP of £549/$749 (around AU$1,023).