Raumfeld Stereo Cubes review

German multiroom audio brand Raumfeld has been around for a few years, but parent company Teufel's direct sale business model meant it never became a household name here in the UK. The Stereo Cubes are just one of the brand's many multiroom speakers, which also include the One S and One M single speaker models, and the Stereo M and Stereo L twin-speaker systems. This modular approach lets you pick and choose between models to suit each room.

The Stereo Cubes are comprised of two separate speakers connected by a run of speaker wire, rather than two entirely separate wireless speakers. This means speaker placement is slightly more limited than with competing multi-room products, but it does remove some of the latency between speakers. Whether you can perceive any marginal delay in wirelessly paired speakers is questionable, however.

The speakers are available in either black or white. They live up to their name with a Bauhaus-inspired cubic design that looks unquestionably German with precision lines and a clean, uncluttered look. The team were divided on the design, with some loving the exposed speaker cones and distinct shape, but it's fair to say they might not fit in with certain décor, unlike other speakers.

 Construction is at least impressive. Each speaker has a lacquered wooden enclosure that feels robust, and the weight of the cabinets is reassuring. Each one contains a 5in long-throw woofer and a 1in tweeter in a coaxial arrangement. Aluminium accents along the bottom have integrated status LEDs that show when the Cubes are turned on and connected to your home network.

It's a shame the Stereo Cubes don’t have the preset buttons found on Raumfeld's other speakers; they could be programmed to play specific internet radio stations, but their omission here means you have to rely on your smartphone for playback.

The right speaker contains the amplifier and connections, as well as an output to the left speaker. You'll find a wired Ethernet Connection, pair of phono RCA inputs and a USB port on the back of the enclosure, which can be used to play music directly off a USB flash drive or external hard disk.

The fact that the Raumfeld system lets you connect a music source through the phono inputs and then broadcast the audio to other Raumfeld speakers on the network is a fantastic addition. It means you could pipe an analogue audio source such as a vinyl turntable into every room with a connected speaker.

APPS AND STREAMING

Setup is straightforward using the Raumfeld app, which is available on iOS and Android. You'll need to connect the speakers directly to your router with an Ethernet cable, before adding your Wi-Fi details and moving the Stereo Cubes to your desired location. This is an inconvenience, as many multiroom speakers don't actually require any wired connection to get started.

If your wireless signal isn’t strong enough or there is too much network congestion, the optional Raumfeld Expand network bridge (around £50) can create a dedicated mesh network for media streaming. Audio isn't compressed when transmitted between each speaker in a Raumfeld system, meaning it can be quite bandwidth intensive. We didn't encounter any issues with streaming audio or locally stored MP3s and didn't need to add an Expand to our setup, but 24 bit/192KHz audio will demand an uncongested Wi-Fi signal.

Raumfeld has most of the streaming services you would expect including Spotify, although Spotify Connect rather than the full app. That means you'll need to use the main Spotify app to select your tracks and push them to the speakers, rather than select them through the Raumfeld app. There’s also Tidal for high definition, lossless streaming and Napster, as well as TuneIn for internet radio.

AUDIO QUALITY

The Stereo Cubes had pleasing depth and delivery to their audio and lacked any distinct colour, which should appeal to those who enjoy a relatively flat, transparent sound. It makes them well placed for critical listening and we took delight in listening to our jazz and funk test tracks in particular; the brass instruments sounded crisp and there was excellent separation between the different audio layers, avoiding any potential muddiness. Vocals also sounded fantastic and bass had enough presence without becoming overpowering. Stereo separation, as you would expect, was excellent.

CONCLUSION

Overall the Stereo Cubes sound excellent but they come at a high price. If you like the design, they’re an excellent way to start a multiroom speaker system, but as with the competition, buy these and you're committed to Raumfeld's ecosystem. Fortunately Raumfeld has a raft of other speakers in different sizes that work together wirelessly if you plan on adding more over time. There’s decent music service support, including most of the big names, although it’s still behind Sonos, which still leads the pack by a considerable margin. Unless you're particularly taken with the design, or are willing to pay extra for marginally better sound quality, a pair of Sonos Play:1s are cheaper and an overall better buy.