Bought one of these radios some time ago but got fed up with moving it from one room to another – so decided to buy another. I use it principally for internet radio stations and the sound quality is excellent. The initial set-up may be just a little fiddly for some but follow the instruction book carefully and you won’t go far wrong – and it only has to be done once, of course.
I love the retro design of this radio, which has a similar look and feel to the old versions i remember from the 1960s, with a vinyl-covered wooden cabinet and sturdy metal fittings. Of course, a modern radio – or even a computer, which this basically is – doesn’t need that much space, and most of the interior is empty, except for the battery. Sound quality is pleasant and ‘woody’ – again, like the old radios it is based on. I was concerned about the many reports of the screen failing, and i ran into this within two days of using the machine. After i inserted batteries, i removed the power plug to see if it would switch seamlessly to battery power. It did, but when i inserted the plug back into the back of the machine, it interrupted the power, and the radio restarted. Trying this a second time – this time removing the plug from the wall – i got the dreaded white screen – no display at all, just a white rectangle. I tried various types of ‘turn it off and on again’ which didn’t help, but after i removed batteries and the plug, then left it off for 10 seconds or so, the radio could be turned on again, and the screen was back to normal. I tried this a couple of times and got the same results. I assume that there’s some circuit in the display that is sensitive to sudden jolts in power – not good in a device that’s meant to run on batteries and aci don’t know if this fix would work for everyone. I didn’t have the fading display that some people report. But if your radio goes suddenly to a plain white screen, removing all power and batteries for a bit is the first thing to try. I suspect many white screens are a digital lockup rather than a permanent failure. Putting aside its propensity to lock up, the screen could use a few improvements.
Nice product and good quality sound for the price. Easy to use, good old fashioned styling, with modern technology. Great combination, would recommend to anyone.
Purchased because of good reviews but found it to be lacking in bass and volume. It does however have a good overall sound so if you only need a small interestingly designed radio, and aren’t bothered so much it does have some good features like internet radio which connects to your wifi. Also includes the standard analogue and dab connections if necessary. Unfortunately not for me, but amazon accepted a refund fine.
It is a great radio in many respects but it has compromised itself in a few ways1- by sticking to the old design in as many ways as possible it has quite annoying ways of scrolling through menus and making selections. 2- if you turn it off and back on again it re sets alarms that come on unprogramed. Its really annoying and really compromises the integrity of roberts.
Being a bit of a geek, i have all my music on my nas (network attached storage – a little computer dedicated to storage) and was looking for a way to listen to it in the kitchen (my phone’s speaker is both quiet and sounds awful). After a lot of research i was deciding between the sonos play:1 and one of the roberts range. The sonos play:1 certainly has a better heritage, sonos are known for their high quality speakers – however i was dissatisfied that i would need for fork out an extra £40 for the sonos bridge in order to connect it to my network and would be limited to using an android app to control playback (the sonos play:1 has no media controls on the unit). The roberts revival istream, on the other hand is capable of both browsing music from a nas (via the dlna protocol) *and*, more crucially, is a dlna renderer (when you select the ‘internet music’ mode from the menu). Selecting music on the device is a little clunky (the menus are well laid out, but navigating the menus via the jog wheel is always going to feel slow), however the android (and presumably ios) app, whilst looking pretty ropey give you a much easier way to navigate your nas’ media. However, the unit really comes into it’s own as a dlna renderer – this allows you to ‘fling’ music to the istream from any dlna sender (which includes windows pcs, apple macs, etc and, best of all – ios and android phones). I use bubblesoft’s upnp app on my android phone – this works with the google music app so i can quickly and easily pick what music i want to listen to, press the ‘cast’ button – select the robert’s istream from the list and *bam* music in my kitcheni’ll leave it to others to go into more details about the sound and finish of this radio – but i’m very pleased with my purchase and am looking forward to listening to the music i want to whilst cooking and doing the dishes.
I have noted a significant number of complaints about the ‘display’ on this radio disappearing. Yes you are right, it can happen, but do not just pull the mains plug out or switch off at the wall socket or you can be sure that the display will ‘fail’. Of course it hasn’t failed at all. I’m an electronics engineer of fifty years experience so i approached this with a bit of thought. The on-off switch is not the same as a mains switch; it is imperative that you use the radio off function before disconnecting mains power any other way. I’m pretty sure that this is what is called a soft-switch (as in a computer and other items of modern equipment); when you push this switch it shuts down in an orderly fashion (just try pulling the plug on a windows computer. . It will take a lot longer to boot up next time round as it un-twists its nickers). Lots of modern equipment is not really off at all; just in limbo. . And sucking some power out of the mains or your batteries in the meantime. If it hasn’t got a nice clunky mains on/off switch then it’s just biding it’s time waiting for you to push the button againwe’ve had this radio for more than a year now, used daily, and the only time something goes daft is when we forget to follow the simple instruction above.
Key specs for Roberts Revival iStream2 DAB/DAB+/FM Internet Radio – Dove Grey:
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by entering your model number. - DAB/DAB+/FM and WIFI Internet radio. Battery Powered: Yes
- Spotify connect compatible music player
- Play your music collection from your computer
- Access to over 10,000 radio stations and podcasts
Comments from buyers
“Nice radio with some quirks!
, Delightful design, Good internet radio, some screen and power glitches.
, A great, stylish device, with one big flaw
“
This is my third roberts radio and the second one with dab. I had a revival dab before, until my daughter pinched it, so i knew what sort of quality to expect and, so far its everything i expected. I have used all the functions available to me including internet radio, streaming music files from my laptop using windows media player and the last. You get a voucher for a 30 day free subscription to this service and then its £3 per month if you wish to continue. I found setting the radio up for all functions very easy and straightforward. My wife, not a lover of technical things, found it simple to use too. The manual is comprehensive and clear and if you lose it you can download or read it on the roberts website. The radio itself is of the usual roberts quality with neat lines and robust build. I probably will only use it in the kitchen on mains power so cannot talk about battery life, sound quality is excellent for its size. Overall, perfect for my needs and exactly what i wanted.
But have the manual handy if only to suss out the button functions during set-up. I had it playing less than ten minutes after i opened the box. It is clearly a very good quality little radio, great sound. I like the retro look and the solid case and buckle that opens the back to access the battery area, it’s so easy and no fiddly little battery covers to break or lose. It’s true that the top facing buttons could get dirty and gritty and would have been better on the front. As i use mine in the kitchen i keep a little folded cloth on top to keep the cake mix and gravy out. However as you only need to press one button to switch it on and off the cover can stay in place all the time. For me it’s still a five star radio.
I like this – a lot – and if it was more reliable, it would get five stars. We bought it for the kitchen, as we’ve always been fond of roberts radios and own several. To be honest often in use it’s often an extension speaker for the ipad, though much of this functionality could be done through the radio alone (podcasts, dab etc), though the menu driven system isn’t exactly a joy to use for that. The app that allows you to control it through wifi on your phone does make this easier, and is great for adjusting volume from another room, or even changing function. The main con we were aware of when we bought it from reading other reviews, but decided to risk it and depend on the guarantee – the display conks out after some time. Sure enough, after several months, this happened to us, but amazon were there usual brilliant selves at sending us a replacement (actually, they did need a gentle nudge as i think we were originally routed via the manufacturer for a repair, but they came up with the goods as soon as we questioned it. It’s a bit of a surprise as this is probably the first roberts product that has consistently had a fault and not been withdrawn from the market, usually such a reliable company. Hoping the latest version we have has had the fault fixed – or we’ll be back to amazon.
Good connectivity with one usb input connection, and one 3. It comes with a mains adapter but will also run on 4 d cell batteries. Cons:two main control knobs a bit cheap. Controls do not light up although screen does. Only 10 presets for dab, 10 presets for fm and 10 presets for internet radio. You have to be quick to set the alarms. I have not had this long but so far this has been a great radio and i would buy again.
The radio’s good when it works, but unfortunately the display contrast went within the first few days, and i couldn’t read anything on it. At least amazon took it back and refunded with very little problem. Roberts charge £40 to have any problem fixed, which is very reasonable if i had had it for two years before it broke.
I brought this for my french mother-in-law who’s recently moved in with us. Being 91 years young and almost blind she loves listening to the radio but obviously her favourite stations aren’t available over here so the wi-fi internet facility of this radio seemed to provide the ideal solution. Once received, the set up was much easier than i expected and, having expected to have to type in the relevant url i was delighted to find that the wi-fi link automatically scans and displays all the stations so it was just a matter of finding the her favourite one and clicking on it. I was relieved to find that, once set the only control required is the on-off / volume knob which mil picked up straight away. She’s now delighted to be able to listen to her favourite programmes again and is also impressed by the sound quality. The solid and sturdy construction is an added bonus. When we can get to listen to it we’ve found the dab works very well in our area with plenty of stations giving good reception and good sound quality.
We took delivery of this a couple of weeks ago (birthday pressie for the wife). Here is my feedbackproduct set-up. We were listening to internet radio no more than 5 minutes out of the box. It has a slight delay when switching on when it’s connecting to the wifi but only a few seconds. The controls a quite intuitive when you get used to them. Hats off to the people who designed the interface whilst still retaining the retro layout. Fm radio worked well and i also streamed music from my laptop as a test – again worked well and was very easy (good instructions booklet helps). We only use it for internet radio so i can’t comment on dabproduct qualityyes, i know i could have found an internet radio at a third of the price but it would look like a pile of dog doo-doo compared to this. The look of the thing is amazing and it looks well made.
The best connection to all the radio-stations all around the globe. So my pc doesn’t have to stay on the whole day. You can choose the country, style etc. The design is very cool and fits in my living room.
Reading the reviews in germany and uk regards the istream 2, i was aware the sound quality was mentioned as poor. Thus my expectations wasn’t very high. Here’s my short summary:design: 4,5 starsi really like the design. I don’t know why, but somehow i expected a little bit more. For this feeling half a star less. Functionality: 4 starsas i have some other radios using undok-app, i’m happy with functionality. I have no problems receiving dab and fm, quality is very good. As well i had no connection problems to wlan. Unfortunately multiroom is not supported by istream2. I would expect this by a radio of this price level using undok-software. Sound: 1 staron very first impression i was happy with the sound. The radio plays louder than expected for 1w only. But using my favourite internet broadcasting station playing hits of the last 30 years, i recognized, the radio has big troubles with any kind of bass playing more than 50% of maximum volume.
This fabulous radio delivers everything i wanted and more. The dab radio is strong and clear, and i thought it wasn’t possible to get decent dab reception in my flat. The internet radio is fantastic too, i can also listen to podcasts as well as radio stations which is a big bonus. The alarm works when it’s running on batteries (i. , isn’t plugged in to the mains), unlike my old pure radio. And its great to have two alarms, so don’t need to change it at the weekend. It’s very easy to set up and navigate through all the menus and options – the instructions and clear and easy to follow. The sound is mellow and rich. Everything you’d expect from roberts.
This radio not only receives fm, dab and wifi and hence internet radio stations globally, but also has a usb input capable of supporting, according to roberts up to 64gb and a socket for your mp3 player. Well it does far more than that, i have just connected my wd work book usb drive at 700 gb and nearly full with wav mp3 and flac files and it handles that too. The available remote ‘connectr’ app only controls the radio in internet radio use, unless you see page 21 of the users manual and set up the wifi as always on, this uses more power but makes the remote operate at all times.
Syncs up no issue and has a clear and crisp sound. Pride of place in the kitchen.
Positive: solidly built, very good sound, looks nice, best of all is a great search function by genre/region for internet radio stationsbig negative (for me): 2 weeks after buying it, the radio stopped working on bbc iplayer when the bbc changed their format. Niggles: it doesn’t work on my spotify account because apparently my spotify account is the wrong type of account. The instructions only tell you how to connect to the music on your computer if you are using windows media player not anything else. Sometimes is just turns itself off. The sleep timer has to be set up from scratch each time you use it via the menu: settings: sleep. Not sure it is worth the nearly £200 pricedespite these problems i kept the radio until now, 10 months after purchase, the screen has gone blank so it is impossible to use. Amazon have not quibbled and i am returning it for a full refund tomorrow.
I purchased the roberts istream and upon taking her out of her packaging i was impressed the roberts looks and feels great i have to say i am a roberts fan and have owned around 6 roberts radio’s dating back from the 60’s through to this most recent purchase the internet picks up everything worldwide crystal clear i hook her up to my amp and bingo i am listening to great music from across the globe i love my ambient chill out through to jazz 70’s and 80’s music and i have so many great stations to choose from i would say to anyone who likes the retro look and style pick this up but do not expect bass booming sound this radio is not what its about its about style and build quality with adequate sound i am very impressed with this purchase.
I have had this product for a couple months now. It is a nice looking and apparently functional item and intuitive so far. The only reason i give it 4 * is the weight as i am currently having to carry it from room to room. Still trying to work out if i/it can include/create a system with wifi speakers as i would like the radio to stay in one place and ‘pipe’ it to different 3 rooms. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to like being unplugged and then reconnected but i think i got the hang of it. Nicehave a good day and please advise me if the above speaker option is ok as my savvy-ness is limited :p.
Internet radio sound great on this. Listening to stations from all over the world and not having to listen to presenters talking all day long is heaven. So far i’ve found stations dedicated solely (and rightly) to elvis presley and 2 favourites of mine absolute 60’s and 70’s. Can also be used to stream music from your mobile devices and if you have a spotify account that can be played through it as well. Only gripe is that it is perhaps a bit expensive, although like apple products you are paying for the name.
Wish i had found this radio years ago – it opens up so many radio channels that it beggars beliefit is generally advertised as dab/fm/internet ready, but it is also ‘future proofed’, having dab+. If my word isn’t good enough for you, here is the response i got from roberts customer service team when i raised the question with them:’thank you for your email. The revival-istream is dab/dab+/fm/internet compatible as this model has a aac+ codec in the product. Regards lisa prosser’you can buy this radio with confidence, knowing you are getting a radio with a great build quality, great sound, and great functionality.
Love how this radio looks and that’ the reason i bought it although i’m sure you could find a better sound system for the same price. Lots of functionality, including dab, internet radio, traditional radio, usb etc. I like the function for streaming spotify to the device. All in all a good purchase, but pricey.
I love this radio, it’s so beautiful to look at and the sound quality is great. I have an external hard drive connected to my router with a load of music on it which the radio can play which is a bonus as i didn’t know it done this so the 32gb flash drive i purchased is no longer needed. It picks up a lot more dab stations than the cheap asda one i got last week. I absolutely love it, one of the best purchases i have made in a while. I would definitely recommend it.
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