Review Most of us have music all over the place - on PCs or Macs, phones, PMPs and USB sticks. If you also like to spend time listening to the radio - FM, DAB or internet - things can get complicated. With this in mind, Scottish audio specialist Revo has concocted a one-box-does-it-all player that promises to tie all those musical loose ends together.

Revo Heritage: 1960s styling, 2010 tech

Revo describes the Heritage as a "contemporary reinterpretation of the classic European table radio designs from the 1960s", which just about hits the nail on the head. Unlike some DAB radios that simply try too hard to be retro, the rather Presbyterian Heritage doesn't look painfully artsy or over styled.

The handsome looks are enhanced by the use some high quality materials, so it's all brushed aluminium and walnut veneer. The Heritage is larger than a traditional transistor radio, but it'll still sit on a shelf in any room. The telescopic aerial retracts fully into the body when not in use.

As well as being a combined RDS FM/DAB radio, the Heritage also works as a UPnP Wi-Fi music streamer, internet radio player, iPod/iPhone dock, and it can play DRM-free Flac, MP3, WMA and AAC files from USB storage. The Heritage isn't fully iPhone compliant, so you'll need to stick your handset into Flight Mode or hear bleepy interference whenever it communicates with a cell station. Nor can you use the Heritage's USB port to sync content.

Solid build quality

On the plus side, it works as a fully functioning alarm clock.

Connectivity is well catered for. As well as 802.11b/g Wi-Fi you also get an Ethernet port, 3.5mm auxiliary and headphones jacks, a composite-video out socket plus optical and RCA audio jacks, all of which make connecting the Heritage to a hi-fi or home cinema system a piece of cake - you just need to mute the Heritage's speaker.

There's no shortage of buttons to press

What impressed me most about the Heritage's functionality was the way it accessed media over a wireless network. Not only did it connect very reliably - the occasional drop-out is par for course, but the Heritage didn't drop once in over a week - but access to UPnP media was impressively swift.

Press and hold the navigation arrows on the remote or use the front-facing joystick and album lists scroll past very briskly. The Heritage will also let you add items to its on-board favourites playlist just by holding down the select key when a track is playing.

Mercifully, Revo has resisted the temptation to foist social networking apps on its users, though this may be because the Heritage's subtly attractive black and white OLED screen flatters to deceive. Yes, that black panel is 150mm corner-to-corner but only a central block measuring around 65 x 40mm actually does anything. Size notwithstanding, the screen is clear, crisp, easy on the eye and legible in even direct sunlight, while Revo has judged the amount of information it displays at any given time nicely.

Unlike the B&W Zeppelin Mini Reg Hardware looked at recently - you can read the review here - the Heritage takes its iPod audio in analogue form so you're stuck with the best that the Apple DAC can deliver. That's not such a big deal. With a 3in speaker and only 7W of power, the Heritage is not really in the same sonic league as the Zeppelin Mini.

The remote can be used for iPod navigation

That's not to say the Heritage is a poor performer - quite the opposite. No matter what music I threw at it, I was thoroughly impressed by the quality and composure of the sound even with the volume turned all the way up. Particularly impressive was the projection of vocals without the slightest hint of sibilance. In short, this is the best sounding single-speaker box I've tried, superior even to Logitech's Squeezebox Radio - reviewed here.

Revo wants £230 for the Heritage which is a fair price for something that does so many things so well. You can pick up a Squeezebox Radio for £160, but its lacks the Heritage's dock and FM/DAB radio, isn't as reliable an internet radio, and doesn't come with a remote.

Verdict

The Revo Heritage is that most rare of products: not only a jack of all trades but a master of them too. As well as being very solidly built and sporting a cracking retro design, the Heritage is a supremely versatile and rather fine sounding box of audio tricks. ®

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