Issue 633 • 8 – 21 June 2022 63What is Spotify Connect?
Winner of a five-star ‘Buy It!’ award, the Roberts
Stream 94i is our favourite internet radio
The retro-styled Roberts Revival iStream3 works with
Deezer, Amazon Music, Tidal and Spotify Connecthttp://www.snipca.com/42087)..) It has a USB
port you can use to play audio files from
a stick, and a 3.5mm audio input for
connecting other devices. It also has both
a line-out and headphone jack, so you
can send audio to another set of speakers
if you prefer.
On top of that, it streams via Bluetooth,
and works as a network player, which
means you can stream tracks stored on a
computer or NAS drive elsewhere in your
home. It works with Spotify Connect too,
which is the music-streaming service’s
best feature (see box below). And if
that’s not enough, you can tune into
FM and DAB (digital), and there are
five pre-set buttons for easy access to
your favourite stations.
Perhaps the only thing that might
put you off is having to pay another
£45 for a compatible battery (the
BP931, see http://www.snipca.com/42090))
if you want to play the radio away
from a mains socket.
Tune into more music services
Go above £200 and you start paying
for a more stylish design (often retro)
and extra music services. The Roberts
Revival iStream3 (£218 from http://www.
snipca.com/42088, pictured below)
looks like the kind of radio Arthur
Burrows would have lived to see before
he died in 1947, and works with Deezer,
Amazon Music, Tidal and Spotify
Connect.
Cleverly, it has built-in charging for the
six AA batteries, and you can control it
using your voice if you have an AmazonEcho device to pair it with. The screen
is on top, not at the front, which you
may find makes it harder to browse
stations, though you can also do this
from your phone or tablet using the
Undok app (Android http://www.snipca.
com/42093; iOS http://www.snipca.
com/42092).Splash out on a high-end radio
We’ll finish with the ‘if money’s no
object’ choice: the Ruark R5 (£1,099 from
http://www.snipca.com/42091, pictured above).
What you get for your money is a
stunning sound, far richer than any
other radio here. It’s aimed at
audiophiles who want their web
radio to sound as exquisite as their
existing hi-fi system.
If you own a turntable you can
hook that up to the R5 via its phono
inputs and there’s even a slot-loading
CD player, as well as an Ethernet port
for a more reliable connection.
These are all exceptional features,
but clearly they’re overkill if all
you really want is a simple internet
radio.Launched in 2013, Spotify Connect lets you play the
audio in your Spotify collection to any compatible
device – smart speakers, smart TVs, web radios and
hi-fis – not just your phone or computer. It’s all done
via Wi-Fi, so you can avoid the hassle of pairing via
Bluetooth.
It works on one device at a time, unless you’re
using a multi-room system such as Sonos, where
you can select a group (two rooms or more, set
up via Sonos’s app) to stream music to. Best of all,
Spotify Connect doesn’t use your phone, tablet or
computer to stream music. Instead, the audio comes
directly from its servers to your device. This means for
example that you can use your phone to make callseven while Spotify Connect is running.
It’s not free though. You’ll have to sign up to one
of Spotify’s paid-for Premium services, which start at
£9.99 a month (www.snipca.com/42094) and bring
other benefits such as no adverts and the ability to
choose which songs to play.
How you use Spotify Connect depends on the
device you’re controlling it from. On your phone, select
a song to start playing, then click the ‘Now Playing’ bar,
followed by the device logo at the bottom left. Now
select a device to hear the audio on and it’ll turn from
white to green (see screenshot). On a computer, click
the ‘Connect to a device’ button bottom right to bring up
devices you can use.At £1,099, the Ruark R5 is strictlly for audiophiles
with existing hi-fi systems and deep pockets