Ruark Audio's R1 DAB/FM radio, now in its MkII mode, offers terrific sound from its small casing, and arrives with optional extras designed to help its portability for the alfresco wireless enthusiast.
It's on sale now in four varieties, including a new restricted edition pastel azure, for £180.
The new type looks much like the initial R1, but now arrives with a couple of extras including tone controls and a "loudness" choice. There are also dual alarms proposing the alternative of awakening to melodies or a buzzer, as well as snooze, doze and replicate capabilities.
Sturdy, solid and compact, the R1MkII tips the scales at just under two kilos. It's nicely housed in a handcrafted wooden casing with handsome bent edges and comes in a choice of walnut veneer or high gloss lacquer finishes. You can furthermore get a 50s retro hand-stitched grained leather "CarryPack", in tan or very dark. It covers round the entire body for defence and includes a handle on peak. You'll glimpse it in all the photographs, but unfortunately it adds another £40 to the price tag.
The "RotoDial" command hub on peak is a large circular increased impel button enclosed by twelve lesser "petal" buttons. The large-scale button organises the power and capacity, while the lesser buttons are playback controls and five position presets which double up for DAB and FM programmes.
The fascia in matt shiny houses an easy-to-read format display that's larger than the initial and mechanically adjusts to suit ambient lightweight conditions. It is seated above the single 3.5in speaker and there's an auxiliary input for MP3 and other audio apparatus plus yield line and headphone socket aaround the back.
Ruark Audio R1 MkII Ruark Audio R1 MkIIRuark Audio
You can leave it lastingly closed into the mains of course, but if you desire to play it on the move you'll need to invest in the rechargeable "BackPack" battery, which attaches to the back panel with two little bolts. It adds another £50 to the price, but we performed it for eight hours directly without draining it, which is attractive good, and it assertions to hold its charge for at smallest a week.
Sound quality is extremely good, approaching wealthy and moderately hot from the relatively little nine-watt speaker. It's not a party machine, the R1 is very much designed for ambient listening, and at that it excels, with a lush, welcoming pitch that concerns abounding of minutia without allowing any component of the tonal range to override.
impelling it to its bounds there was just a teensy bit of mild distortion at the highest volume, too high for usual hearing, when playing dub reggae on 6Music. If you feel the need, the pitch controls will permit you to play with the balance of the sound, but in truth their effect isn't terribly well integrated -- as a direct you're better off attaching with the "natural" balance.
