RUARK R1 MK3

Among the networking AV receivers and music servers this issue, what a delight to review a product so compact and attractive as the Ruark R1. Its apparent simplicity actually underplays its four ways to play, but it’s a lovely object, a ‘deluxe tabletop radio’ as Ruark styles it.

And we do love products that come with a tool. We found a shiny silver thing in the bottom of the R1’s packaging and we wondered what it might do. But time for that later — we focused first on lifting the little Ruark from its wrapper, clipping the Australian pins onto the oversized power-plug, and admiring the walnut soft lacquer finish. (White and black are also available.)

EQUIPMENT

We know Ruark Audio well — indeed we should declare that some years ago we accepted a very nice fish pie from Ruark, and a cider too, we think, on the seafront at Southend-on-Sea, after touring their facilities and meeting Archie, the company dog. From decades past we remember them as Ruark Acoustics, making fine floorstanding and standmount speakers with thrusting names like Sabre and Swordsman, an essential British speaker brand called “the Aston Martin of DAB radios”, Ruark took such a sidestep that it created a new brand, Vita Audio, for these home-friendly lifestyle solutions. Such was their success, however, that traditional loudspeakers fell by the wayside (though “never say never”, says Alan O’Rourke), and the reinvented Ruark Audio now has a range of radio and streaming solutions from this latest Mk3 version of the R1 up to that four-legged radiogram of the future, the highly desirable R9.