It's not every day that an audio legend brings back one of its most iconic names and while also charting brand new territory. But that's what Ruark Audio is doing with its R610 Music Console and Sabre-R bookshelf speakers. And while the looks and name of the speakers echo Ruark's greatest hits, and the music player has a design harking back to the stereo music centers of the 1970s, this new system and speakers are anything but old-fashioned.
Let's start with the speakers. The original Sabre loudspeakers were introduced way back in 1985 with a combination of clever drive units and gorgeous cabinet work, and these new Sabre-Rs follow in that tradition. They come with 26mm silk dome tweeters with neodymium motors, 14cm natural fibre cone woofers with 30mm 4-layer voice coils and long-throw motors, and you can choose between Fused Walnut and Satin Charcoal lacquer.
The price is £599 (about $800 / AU$1,170) per pair. An all-in-one streamer The R610 Music Console is a first for the brand, an all-in-one music streamer with twin 75W Class D amplifiers and all the connectivity you could ask for: Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, AirPlay 2 and Google Cast; DAB/DAB+/FM and internet radio; hi-res audio support up to 32-bit/384kHz; HDMI with eARC; a moving magnet RIAA phono input; aptX HD over Bluetooth; and a TOSLINK optical digital input. A matching CD drive will be launched shortly.
The player is powered by a modern switch mode power supply that provides dedicated and optimized powerlin.