Tune into a vintage future

If you are a serious music listener and covet unlimited access to free sounds, you will love the Revo Heritage, a wireless Internet radio player and streaming music player.

The Heritage from Revo Technologies, a UK-based designer and manufacturer of award-winning multi-format digital radio products, is a six-in-one device that reinterprets the classic European table radio designs from the 1960s with aluminium and a real walnut veneer.

The Heritage can function as an Internet radio player, digital music player and streamer, iPod docking system, DAB (digital audio broadcast) radio, FM radio, Last.fm player and speaker system for portable MP3 player – as well as an alarm clock.

It comes with a high-fidelity 7W Class-D amplifier and a custom-designed 3-inch neodymium speaker driver. Our test found that the player reproduced good-quality sound.

The Internet radio function makes the Heritage very handy and fun to use, as it provides limitless access to music through more than 16,000 radio stations from 150 countries.

Linking the Heritage to the Internet is very easy. You simply connect it to your home router, using its remote control. Then enter the wireless connection password, and the Heritage will remember it and automatically connect to the router the next time you turn it on.

You also use the remote to change the device’s mode to Internet radio, which then has several ways to search for Internet stations. One is to search for stations by genre; another is from a selection of popular stations, or there’s stations by country.

Navigation control is child’s play too. Simply use the right arrow key on the remote to select your choice or use the left arrow key to go back.

The Internet radio stations are particularly interesting because they allow you to listen to music you rarely hear on normal FM stations. I’m partial to ’70s rock and was pleased to find some stations dedicated to that sound. I also found an Internet station dedicated to Pink Floyd songs called Forever Floyd. I spent hours listening to these special stations and the songs played smoothly on my True Internet’s 7-Megabit ADSL connection.

Siammetry, the online reseller of Revo Internet/digital radio/music streamer products in Thailand, tells me that Revo Internet radio gadgets are especially popular among expats in Thailand.

That’s easy to understand, as expats obviously enjoy using the Internet radio function to listen to stations in their hometowns. 

During the test, I enjoyed stuff a little closer to home, including stations based in Phuket and Pattaya.

Language learners can also use the Internet radio to tune into stations from countries whose lingo they are studying, such as French and German.

I also found the Heritage’s music player useful. Set it to this mode and you can play music files stored on your flash drive. The fun option is to stream music from your home desktop computer or notebook through the Heritage.

After turning on the folders sharing option on your Windows 7-based computer, your computer will find the Heritage and ask you to let it access your computer’s files. Then, the Heritage can play songs stored on your computer’s shared folders or public folders. 

That allows you to play music wirelessly from your computer on the Heritage, which may be in a different room.

The Heritage is ready for DAB radio broadcasts or digital FM, the quality of which is close to that of a CD. The DAB service should be available in Thailand within the next few years.

To tide you over, Last.fm is a music website that records what you listen to, analyses your music taste and recommends music for you. The service is available in Thailand for a modest monthly fee.

The Heritage can also control and play music from an iPod. During the test, I used it to play songs from an iPhone 4 and was pleased with the sound quality.

Revo Heritage can be ordered online from www.Siammetry.com for Bt12,500 as well as from Siammetry’s Facebook page.

 

           Key specs

Radio types supported: Internet radio stations, DAB and DAB+ digital radio, FM radio reception with RDS 

Amplifier: 7W

Speaker: Custom-designed 3-inch neodymium speaker driver

Input/Output: Stereo RCA, optical out and AUX IN connectors, 3.5mm headphone connector, USB

Docking: iPod docking with full control and charging

Display: Large, white-on-black, graphical OLED display

Dimension: 260mm (W) x 175mm (H) x 98mm (D)