Raumfeld One S review

Sonos has been the leader in whole-home music streaming industry for a long time, long enough to see numerous competitors fall by the wayside. In the last few years at least a dozen new players have emerged, including DTS’ PlayFi, Bose’s SoundTouch, Denon’s HEOS andYamaha’s MusicCast. Now it’s time to add to the mix Raumfeld, a German brand currently available in the UK and coming to the US soon.

While the company’s line of wireless products gets pricey very quickly — the Stereo L is over $2,000 — the entry-level Raumfeld One S, which is $249 or £199, offers excellent sound quality and a robust design. Compared against both Denon’s HEOS 1 and the Sonos Play:1, the Raumfeld comes out on top in terms of sonics and is the only one that supports higher-than-CD-quality music.

As a gateway drug to Raumfeld’s architecture, the One S is pretty compelling. Despite a troublesome setup and somewhat weaker functionality judged against that of competitors, its great sound helps it stand out.

Meanwhile Raumfeld has announced introductory pricing for the One S (in addition to bundles for its One L and Soundbar), which is now available to pre-order in the US for $189. The speakers will be available as of February 2016.

Design

Compared to the other speakers in the range — particularly the blockbusting Stereo M — the One S is the plainest-looking Raumfeld speaker. The One S is available in a choice of either black or white, but in either case it is dominated by a black cloth grill. The front and sides are covered in black acoustic cloth and the rest of the speaker is dressed in plastic. While the white version looks a little more striking in its two-tone color scheme, it’s not by much.

The One S’ moisture-resistant design makes it particularly suited to use in kitchens and bathrooms, and it comes with a rubber stopper to block the ports underneath. The stopper makes the speaker humidity-proof rather than water-proof, for while the rubber adds some protection you can still see the bare driver poking through the acoustic cloth.

The top of the unit houses rubberized buttons for volume and four customizable shortcuts.

Features

The Raumfeld One S is a multiroom speaker which can run either over Wi-Fi or via Ethernet (but not Bluetooth). There’s a USB port too. While it’s designed to be used in damp environments, even maybe a pool, unlike the Denon HEOS 1 it lacks battery capabilities and therefore portability.

While you can’t expect much in the way of “high fidelity” out of a small box like the One S, Raumfeld’s ecosystem is especially attractive to audiophiles, namely for its support for high-resolution 24-bit/192 kHz files. For the record CD quality ends at 16-bit/44 kHz.