REVO SuperConnect

Plenty of other reviews cover the wealth of playback options the SuperConnect delivers: the DAB, DAB+, FM, Wi-Fi Internet Radio and DLNA Network Playback, aptX Bluetooth, Spotify Connect etc. Others cover the high-end build quality and very impressive sound. I'm going to focus on the primary reason I bought this - to use as a bedside alarm clock radio. I don't think this is particularly well publicised so hopefully this helps someone. Firstly, the clear OLED display shows the time and date in a 01/01/2014 format (which automatically sets itself). This is shown permanently when in standby mode and is clear enough to read in the middle of the night. It's also not-too bright to illuminate the entire room. Below the time is the alarm activation times - there are two alarms so there could potentially be two times shown here - assuming they're set. There's also a wi-fi signal indicator. Setting the alarms is pretty straightforward. Switch the SuperConnect on, press the alarm button on the remote to bring up the alarm menu, select which of the two alarms you want to set and you enter another menu to set the time, source, volume, frequency etc. Save the details and repeat for the 2nd alarm. With the times set, and when the machine is in standby mode, press the alarm button on the remote to activate the alarms. Press it once to switch on alarm 1, a second time to switch on alarm 2, a third time to activate both alarms and a fourth time to switch both off. It's really easy to use and the small time indicator that appears in standby mode means you've got visual confirmation that (a) the alarm is activated and (b) what time it's set for. When the alarm activates - and I use this with the DAB radio as the preferred source - the volume gradually builds to the set level. This is far preferable to several other clock radios which switch on at the full volume and scare you half to death! Press either the power button on the machine or remote to switch off. It's one of the neatest and best featured clock radios I've come across. The only thing missing is a USB socket to connect my phone (it would be good if I could charge my phone from this). Otherwise, highly recommended. I should lastly add that DAB reception is excellent (and there's a proper telescopic aerial instead of a piece of wire). Connection to my wi-fi was really easy and it finds tracks on my NAS drive in seconds (although it's a bit laborious scrolling through them using the mini joystick controller). Yep, as a bedside radio it's brilliant.

I bought this radio primarily for internet radio and on that count it's pretty good. The sound quality is excellent. However, I also want to use FM and unfortunately the FM tuner on the SuperConnect is absolutely woeful. I can receive more than 10 FM stations in great quality on a small Sony XDR placed beside the Revo whereas the Revo itself struggles to tune in half of these stations - poor, noisy reception even with the aerial fully extended. I had expected a quality FM tuner for the price. Another (minor) annoyance is the remote control - not very ergonomic and uncomfortable to use . Having used this radio for about one month I can still say the sound quality is great - when it works. However, there are serious functional issues with the radio - the system often hangs when switching between internet radio stations and then has to be plugged out from the mains to reboot - even the power switch will not work when these hangs occur - also if the system recovers from a hang without power cycling then the radio station names are no longer displayed. Another annoyance is that if the radio is playing on a preset number and you press the preset number the software is not smart enough to realise it does not need to re-tune - it disconnects and reconnects which can take many seconds. This is the type of operation that occurred on cheap car radios many years ago. Revo really need to fix up these issues and provide a stable firmware release - it's just not good enough for something at this price point to have such basic faults.

Very nice radio, I have some small points of attention: * The Revo SuperConnect hasn't got an option to connect your phone via USB. Of course you can connect via Bluetooth, but an USB-connection on the front of the radio would be nice. * I thought the Revo SuperConnect had Spotify inside(!), so it would be possible to listen to Spotify with the radio. You can't, you still need to use your phone, because it's Spotify Connect (google it). Didn't now that. * My Revo SuperConnect is placed next to an Acer LCD monitor. Is the monitor is on, there is no DAB+-connection possible. It annoys me, I thought DAB+ would be better in every way, but if my monitor is on, I can't use DAB+ (the FM-signal is good, by the way.) * The Frontier Silicon Wi-Fi Radio Portal is fine, but it doesn't have the option to add your own podcasts. I would really like that. I contacted Frontier Silicon, but they didn't respond on my mail.

2 year review Major issues with volume knob - bass vibrates through the knob frame and rattles the radio Struggle to turn down the volume as knob usually turns it up when it should be going down.........has almost left the device unusable Remote control has also given up the ghost Do Not recommend this machine, especially for the price

The Revo SuperConnect is promoted primarily on the basis of its ability to connect. But that's not my experience with the SuperConect I bought at great expense. Mine connects to the music on my computer, loads the titles on to the radio's screen- and then refuses to play them. It tells me it's connecting and then re-connecting - but it never connects. It's a feature that runs in the family. I also have a Revo X3. Like the SuperConnect, it loads the titles on the screen. Then it plays one for about five seconds and then tells me (you've guessed it) it's re-connecting. It never does - not after five minutes, not after 10 minutes - not ever. Patience, you tell yourself, is a virtue, but after 10 fruitless attempts you are ready to throw the tedddy-bear out of the cot. You follow all the instructions in the handbook for fixing it. You turn to the handbook that came with your Roberts Stream 83i which has even more fix suggestions. But they don't work either. So you ask yourself what else does the SuperConnect have to offer? The online blurb hypes its "timeless design". But timeless is not quite the right word. Actually the only thing that stands out on its almost featureless face is the time. You can see it displayed from a distance of several metres. Good! Good! you tell yourself. But displayed above it is the date, and that's shown in a type so small you have to be sitting almost on top of the radio to read it. Consequently a more appropriate description of the radio would be "dateless design". But even that is inadequate unless you can call an undistinguished brown wooden box framing a colourless face with a square screen and a square speaker grille a design. There is also a row of buttons along the bottom but goodness knows what they are for because the labels are too small to read. Not that it matters, because the "designers" located them so close to the bottom (and thus to the table on which the radio stands) that you have to turn you hand upside down to operate them To sum up, the design of the SuperConnect has all the sex appeal of a eunuch in a brothel. Now compare this with the Pure Sensia that flanks it on my table. Here you can see a real designer's aesthetic sensibilities in play. Here is an agreeable football shape made out of modern moulded plastics and featuring two colours: yellow and black in a couple of my units and red and black in another. The oval shape of the radio is echoed by a stainless steel frame around the display screen on the face of the unit. That screen features the best digital clock ever incorporated in a tabletop radio. You can read the time from anywhere in a very large room and you can even read the date from a minimum of seven metres. OK, Ok, so you don't like plastic..you like what Revo calls a hand-crafted wooden cabinet. Well if you want to admire a dull box, admire the Revo. But if you want to see what can be done with a wooden cabinet, have a look at the Sangean WR-11 AM/FM tabletop radio. Here everything comes together to make a ,beautiful artefact: beautful wooden cabinet, sensitively designed face, lovely subdued colours and tones, everything in pleasing proportion. On top of my WR-11 sits my miserable Revo X3: featureless charcoal grey merging into featureless black and offering a clock you can't read from your bed if the radio is on a bench higher than your head because it's on a slope that blots out the bottom half of the numbers. There's little to be said for the X3 and not much more for the SuperConnect, which has a standard Internet tuner connecting to about 16,000 stations - just like most of my other Internet radios. It also has a DAB+ tuner which does a good job, but no better than my others.. It has Bluetooth and Spotify if you are interested in the tracks available from there. Im not. My musical interests are classical and a little trad jazz. I've been using the FM tuner for these with mixed results. The SuperConnect's comparátively large speaker and 15W amplifier handle instrumental and chamber music well but it pumps out big orchestral pieces with all the elegance of a wounded elephant trumpeting in the canebrake. I can see that my main use for the SuperConnect will be for listening to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. I'm afraid I didn't connect with this radio - and it didn't connect with me.

If you want a British designed product that exudes quality, plays DAB, DAB+, Internet Radio and connects to remote storage sources, or a smartphone for its audio goodness then LOOK NO FURTHER. I connected it to my home WiFi and was listening to an obscure radio station from Canada in roughly five minutes of cracking the amazon box seal. Positives - looks great, the real walnut case is even supplied with a polishing cloth - sounds great, much better than the PURE radio I replaced it with - very responsive, flick between internet stations, DAB and FM with ease - remote control is sturdy and feels like it was built to last, great if you plan to put the radio in an awkward place, but why would you? Show it off! Negatives - only eight presets per band (when I say band I mean you get 8 FM presets, 8 DAB presets, 8 internet radio presets). Very minor this but if you plan to fight over it and have differing tastes, you may be fighting over the presets. I also know that eight per band is very generous compared with competitor radios. So in summary then only thing I can moan about is something so picky, you should just go and order it.

Sound is excellent for a small unit, and the range of features impressive. My problem is the tiny print on the front control labels, and on the remote – bad news for the sight-impaired, and even for me with reasonable eyesight. The remote is quite small and has multiple buttons, all the same colour (differing from the one shown in the user manual on line). Not very user-friendly. The on/off switch on the front is hard to see as it’s black set in a black panel. Have the designers gone for good looks at the expense of user-friendliness? I needed the RCA connection on the back for a second audio input, but it’s output only. This was not clear from the users’ manual. Other reviewers here have criticised Revo’s after-sales support; I found it excellent, with an email reply within a couple of hours. I’d recommend the SuperConnect if you can live with the tiny print, but reluctantly I’m returning mine and may buy the rather pricier Ruark R2 (which has the 2 audio inputs I wanted). Full marks to Amazon for its returns policy & procedure.

Bought refurb model, delivered next day in super safe packaging. Is upgrade for bedside for my previous Roberts WM-202 stream. Sound is lovely, sometimes listen to radio / podcasts on my Grado headphones on which it sounds fine to me. Control joystick is useful feature. Interface very much like the Roberts in terms of menus and submenus. Minor gripes - points in terms of accessibility for Revo development team, are that because I am visually impaired that I was hoping OLED display would have more scope to adjust size and boldness of text and headings etc. Also more control over range of display brightness would be helpful too as I still need to drape a cloth over the display at night to keep our bedroom dark! (Had same issue with the Roberts). Other point is about tactile access. Roberts have a good reputation for access for blind / visually impaired people because we can usually learn to feel where the various controls and presets are. On the Superconnect this is more difficult because the emphasis IMHO appears to be on a clean visual aesthetic. The radio does look lovely! However by having slightly more raised buttons and presets would make the radio much easier to use for people with poor eyesight and at night time. I have been tempted to glue tactile bumpers onto the buttons and presets to make them easier to find but I know I would ruin the look of the radio if I did this! I know this is marketed as a table radio but buyers are using them as bedsides. All in all because of the quality I am happy to give 5 stars but hope my comments team accessibility can be borne in mind for future versions.