R1 Bluetooth Radio

Your favourite chair. The well-worn sweater you always reach for. The watch your grandad gave you. Life’s full of things we treasure and for us, it’s the R1 radio. It was the first product that Ruark launched in 2006, and they still cherish it. It’s perfectly proportioned, beautifully made, deceptively powerful and entirely adorable. What’s not to love?

A New Approach
Each generation of the R1 has been an evolution of the original, but with R1 Mk4 Ruark wanted it to be more progressive both in design and performance.

Using a precision moulding process has allowed Ruark to gently profile the enclosure providing a fresh new look and the perfect surface for their new Light Cream and Espresso finishes. With acoustic treatment the enclosure is sturdy and acoustically inert, providing the ideal housing for Ruark’s electronics and NS+ driver.

Enhancing the design further is a beautiful hand-crafted slatted wood grille. This brings added sophistication and creates a timeless Eames like vibe, but overall, the design is still unique and distinctly Ruark.

A New Standard in Sound
Ruark’s previous R1 models were critically acclaimed for their sound, but with R1 Mk4 Ruark have further raised the bar! With their heritage in high-fidelity loudspeakers, they understand the complexities of enclosure and drive unit design and making sure that both are matched to each other. In particular their latest neodymium NS+ driver, as used in the R3 and R5 models, provides a smooth and extended frequency response and in R1 Mk4’s tuned enclosure delivers an impressive bass performance.

Driving the system is a punchy Class A/B linear amplifier for exceptional dynamics and with adaptive equalisation an eminently listenable sound is provided at all volume levels.

Packed with Useful Features
The crisp OLED display clearly shows time, alarm and programme information and auto adjusts to suit ambient light levels, making it a perfect bedside companion. Radio reception is excellent, and a Bluetooth receiver allows you to enjoy R1’s great sound when streaming from your phone or computer.

FM parameters can be set to suit US and Japanese needs, and a multilingual user interface makes R1 a truly international proposition. Also, with a real time clock built in, time and date are kept active when power is disconnected or when transmitted data is not available.

The list of features continues, but other highlights include a USB-C charge/shuffle playback port, headphone output, switchable line input and of course Ruark’ trademark RotoDial control system. Finally, for those seeking distant operation, Ruark have an optional compact remote control available.

As Ruark said back in 2006, radio never sounded or looked this good.