Raumfeld Stereo Cubes are the brainchild of Germany audiophile company Raumfeld. The company has been around since 2008 and was formed to try and bring better audio quality for digital devices. The company has seen success in Germany and Europe and is finally dipping its toes into the U.S. market. Let’s take a look at the Raumfeld Stereo Cubes.
Specifications
Speaker
- Frequency range from/to 62 – 20000 Hz
- Tweeter (number per enclosure) 1
- Tweeter (diameter) 1.1. in / 28.0 mm
- Tweeter (material) fabric
- Bass/Midrange driver (number per enclosure) 1
- Bass/Midrange driver (diameter) 5.1 in / 130.0 mm
- Bass/Midrange driver (material) fibre glass
- Acoustic principle 2-way
- Enclosure type vented
- Enclosure material MDF
- Enclosure surface varnish, matte
- Removable front cover Yes
- Screw hole diameter 6,00
- Bi-Amping/Bi-Wiring Yes
Connections
- Cinch input stereo 1
- 1/4 in (6.3 mm) jack socket – out 1
- USB 2.0 1
- LAN 1
- W-LAN 1
Playback
- MP3 Yes
- WMA Yes
- WAV Yes
- AAC Yes
- FLAC Yes
- OGG Yes
- Apple Lossless Yes
- Supported samplingrates bis 192 kHz
- Miscellaneous Gapless playback
Electronics
- Maximum number of items with Base unlimited
- Maximum number of items 150000
- Infrastructure mode Yes
- WLAN Standards 802.11b/g/n
- WLAN encryption WPA, WPA2
- 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet Yes
- Amplifier technology Class D
- Amplifier configuration 2.0
- Amplifier channels 2
- Maximum output – tweeter channel 45 Watt
- Maximum output – bass channel 45 Watt
- Maximum RMS output – tweeter channel 40 Watt
- Maximum RMS output – bass channel 40 Watt
- Multi-room Yes
- Power supply voltage 230 volts
- Standby-Function Yes
- Standby-Power consumption 0.40 watt
- Maximum power consumption 175 watt
- Mains cable – IEC connector (non-heating device) Yes
- Safety class 2
- Storage for settings when disconnected Yes
- Automatic on/off Yes
Design
Simplicity in its purest form almost always wins, and when it comes to design Raumfeld Stereo Cubes are simply a winner. Made from high quality materials these speakers are solid. They are a little on the heavier side, but that is due to the amazing components the company is using inside those beautiful cabinets. The controls are simple and minimal, volume and power on the front of the master speaker and nothing on the front of the slave speaker.
The aluminum blended in with the solid black wood of the cabinet and fabric mesh gives it that classy look with tastefully done Raumfeld branding. Around on the back you’ll find your Ethernet, RCA and USB inputs along with a setup button, power button and power input. The design, look and feel of the Raumfeld Stereo Cubes is on a whole other level of awesome and will make any room look even better.
Ease Of Use
Using and setting up the Raumfeld Stereo Cubes is a breeze. It’s very much like setting up a Bluetooth speaker except you’re using Wi-Fi instead, which has a better range than Bluetooth and better clarity. The nice thing about the Wi-Fi feature is that you can interconnect a series of Raumfeld speakers throughout the house to create a whole home music system (similar to Sonos). Raumfeld also sells a Wi-Fi expander that you can hook up to your router to ease some of the burden from it.
Once you have your Cubes setup and your app (iOS and Android) connected to Wi-Fi you can start playing music through the Raumfeld app. It’s important to note that in order to play music through these speakers, you must use the app, third-party apps won’t work. This is probably the only downfall to the Raumfeld system at this point…lack of diversity in app selection. Apple Music is not available to play on Raumfeld, though you can access your iTunes music stored on the device you have the app installed on.
Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Tidal are just a few of the offerings you can stream through the app but Google Play Music is not there yet. Raumfeld is working on an update that would give them Googlecast capability. This should allow Android and iOS users to stream Google Play Music, but that still leaves Apple Music out in the cold. There is no word on if Apple Music and Airplay will get any sort of consideration for the Raumfeld system.
There is one way to play selections from Apple Music, but it does involve downloading your Apple Music Playlists. You’ll have to have ArkMC Pro installed on your iPhone for offline playback (it doesn’t always work perfectly, either). This works for Android, too, but you’ll have to find a different DLNA/UPnP app in order to do it. Once you have ArkMC Pro installed and any music downloaded for offline play, you can fire up ArkMC Pro and choose Raumfeld for playback and it should work. It’s a long work around and ArkMC Pro will cost you a few bucks, but if you absolutely need to have Google Play Music or Apple Music working, this is a temp workaround.
Overall the system is very easy to use and set up. If you buy the Expander, be sure to set that up first before setting up any other Raumfeld speakers. The only drawback to ease of use is the limited streaming services you’re offered. While there are many people using Spotify and Tidal…there are just as many people using Google Play Music and Apple Music. Googlecast is coming so Google Play Music will be covered, now we hope Raumfeld will add Apple Music to the to-do list.
Raumfeld One S
Raumfeld also sent along their One S speaker, a smaller more personal speaker intended for smaller rooms such as offices. We used the One S to test the multiple room capability of the Raumfeld system. The One S also performed amazingly well and had crisp clear sound and the same clean and simple design as the Raumfeld Stereo Cubes. The One S would probably work great on its own as a college dorm speaker or a speaker for your teen’s room. The Stereo Cubes, on the other hand, are more suited for a full living room or larger room. Setup is identical to the Stereo Cubes and dead simple to get going. Raumfeld did an amazing job on the One S as well and our final rating reflects the Raumfeld Stereo Cubes and One S as a whole system.
Sound
This is the meat and potatoes, the sound. Design and setup are one thing but after searching for speakers and setting them up…you want to know how they sound! Let me tell you, Raumfeld has done an amazing job with their sound here. These small book shelf speakers are pushing some real rich and vibrant lows and mids, and the highs are just right. I felt the sound was well balanced for almost every genre of music I played on them. The speakers got so loud at just 3/4 volume I couldn’t go past without them just being too loud for our liking. Of course how loud you have it is subjective and one person might like it at full volume.
The Raumfeld Stereo Cubes and the One S are probably the best sounding speakers I’ve heard in this size and format. We’ve yet to test and use the competition at this caliber price point (and we welcome the opportunity to do so), but right now Raumfeld has totally gotten my attention with their crisp and vibrant audio blend. The company offers other speakers that are larger and much more expensive, such as the Stereo L’s at $2400. I can only imagine what those sound like just listening to the Cubes and the One S. While the price point of the Cubes and the One S may be on the higher side, the sound alone might just be worth your investment.
Price/Value
$699 is a nice chunk of change to slap into a pair of speakers, but Raumfeld’s design combined with the amazing sound coming from these speakers is worth the cost of admission.
Wrap Up
Worth the price, especially if you use Spotify, Tidal or TuneIn Radio. A nice investment into the future if you use Google Play Music, Pandora and other services as the company is working on bringing those into the fold.
[rwp-review id=”0″]*We were sent a review sample of the Raumfeld Stereo Cubes, Expander and One S for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
