Rated 5 out of
5
by
Dave1974 from
Scandinavian furniture meets real hifi
Having owned & enjoyed the smaller R4 for years I decided it was time to check out the top end R7mk3. The soft grey finish on light oak legs looks stunning. A real focal point in my lounge, it has drawn many approving comments.
The range of ways you can play music make this without doubt one of the most versatile systems available. The sound has real depth thanks to the adjustable sub woofer mounted out of sight underneath. There is real clarity & great timing from an all in one unit & a warmth that I find beguiling even at low listening levels.
Obviously it can’t match the stereo separation of a hifi set up but honestly, for a plug & play system offering this quality from so many sources I am happy to make that small
sacrifice.
I have spent a fortune on hifi separates over the years trying to find the holy grail of audio, but really, it’s become tiresome constantly looking for that extra few percent of performance not to mention taking over a whole room with precisely positioned speakers & room treatments.
I am quite happy now to leave that world behind & just enjoy the music from this beautiful system.
Cannot recommend highly enough & if the reliability of my R4 is anything to go by I am confident the R7 will continue to play sweet music for many years to come.
Thankyou Ruark for an amazing product that had changed my musical life..
Date published: 2019-01-27
Rated 5 out of
5
by
magnard from
Sounds as good as it looks
I already loved Ruark products, having R1s, MR1s and an R2 around my living spaces. The R7 is the flagship and it is a cut above these already excellent products.
The Ruark house style of rich warmth and musical clarity is all there but there is a depth and an 'authority' to the sound you only get in the R7. It's debatable whether the sound enhancements 'Loudness' and '3D' are better on or off but after some experimentation I've concluded 'it depends'. Loudness as the name implies adds a bit of body to the sound at low volumes but at mid to high volumes the sound can turn a little unnatural. For example with a piano the sound becomes so crystalline and brightly lit it takes on a little of the hue of a harpsichord, and violins can sound a little reedy. Turned off at those higher volumes, balance is restored. 3D I like on all the time personally, giving a richer room filling sound stage. There is excellent instrument/part separation and I also find dynamic range is wider than on my other Ruark products, so, when starting a quiet track and then turning it up, a later louder passage is louder than expected, but in a good way: this is how it was meant so sound.
There is a good multi room feature but it's not perfect; I have my R7 in the bedroom and use the R7's extremely useful line out feature to connect wired MR1s in the lounge as well as the multi room feature to connect an R2 in the kitchen. This is easier to operate via the Ruark Link app than on the button menu of either the R7 or the R2 but the app isn't without its problems. Sometimes the two devices just seem to get confused as to which is doing what, but this may well be user error and an app update with redesigned multi room would probably make it easier. When it does work, which is most of the time, it is absolutely on beat with no echo between devices, which you can't say about Apply Airplay for example.
There is a plethora of connectivity options; as well as the built in internet radio and CD function, I'm using the optical input to provide a speaker for my LG TV, to which an Apple TV and Oppo Blu Ray player are connected. The combination looks and sounds fantastic. I've also got an Airport Express hooked up to a line in to play my iTunes library as an alternative to beaming the same library from my phone using the app's inbuilt 'Local Music' source option. I don't use bluetooth or Spotify so can't comment on these but the sources I do use have mostly been perfect; only third party apps like Glider seem to struggle to play as DNLA servers, but that may be Glider rather than all DNLAs.
In sum it looks great (if you like the Ruark aesthetic, which I do) and the sound is just effortlessly pleasurable and has made me hear a lot of my music with fresh ears. Yes, it's substantially more expensive than even the next most expensive Ruark product but if you like the look and sound of Ruark and appreciate the R7's immense functionality it's a step up well worth making.
Date published: 2019-02-15
Rated 5 out of
5
by
snorri56 from
Best Sound quality ever
I bought R2, R4 and atleast R7 Edition 2. I‘m a classic fan and i use my R7 very often. I love the clear and natural sound quality,
Date published: 2019-03-03
