This isn’t the first time that I’ve penned, or perhaps tapped, a confession, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Like many of our contemporaries, we’re occasionally guilty of overlooking some of the lifestyle products occupying the rather attractive display area at the front of our store.

Our Ruark Audio stand takes up a fair amount of valuable real estate, but until recently, only two products were regularly called into action.

First, there’s the Ruark MR1 Mk3 active speaker system, usually connected to a Rega Planar 1 Plus turntable and demonstrated to customers with a very specific set of requirements:

“I’m on a strict budget, but I want something that sounds better than the suitcase player I’ve got at the moment.”

It does indeed.

Then there’s the solution to another common, slightly exasperated question:

“Have you got a nice-sounding radio that’s simple to use in my kitchen, bedroom, conservatory or shed?”

“Yes. This is the Ruark R1S.”

Both products are easy to reach, easy to demonstrate and sound great sitting on top of a set of venerable IKEA Kallax shelves, which probably isn’t too far removed from how they’ll eventually be used at home.

So far, so groovy.

However, there has been another product sitting nearby that we haven’t paid nearly enough attention to. It represents Ruark’s first venture back into what most people would recognise as a more conventional hi-fi system for quite some time.

Meet the Ruark R610 Music Console…

A Proper Hi-Fi System in One Box

Launched towards the end of 2024, the R610 can be partnered with almost any suitable pair of passive loudspeakers. However, Ruark naturally designed it to work alongside its matching Sabre-R speakers.

Together, the two products form a complete music system that is likely to provide everything most people could reasonably need.

At its heart, the R610 is a compact 75W-per-channel amplifier, but describing it as simply an amplifier is doing it a considerable disservice.

There are analogue RCA inputs, optical digital audio, HDMI ARC and eARC for connecting your television, plus internet radio, DAB, DAB+ and FM tuners. There’s also a moving magnet phono stage, allowing you to connect a turntable without needing another box cluttering up the furniture.

Streaming is covered through Apple AirPlay and Google Cast, with support for Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect and Qobuz Connect. Deezer, BBC Sounds and Apple Music are also supported, alongside a host of other services.

In other words, it can handle your television, turntable, favourite radio stations and almost any streaming service you’re likely to use.

That’s quite a lot of capability squeezed into one very smart wooden box.

sufficient sockets for most lifestyle applications…

Familiar Ruark Design, Grown-Up Ambitions

The R610 looks unmistakably like a Ruark product.

The case is wrapped in a handsome wooden finish, with a five-inch colour display and a walnut slatted grille running across the front. It feels more like a carefully chosen piece of furniture than another anonymous black box demanding space in the living room.

On top of the unit sits Ruark’s familiar control system. Those already acquainted with the company’s products will recognise the ring of satisfyingly clicky black buttons surrounding a knurled multifunction dial.

The same design is repeated on the rechargeable remote control, which adds a welcome sense of occasion when opening the glossy, colour-printed carton.

It also brought an extra smile to those of us old enough to remember the original Ruark R3 (Now superseded by the R3S). That model came with a similarly round controller, which sat in a cradle on the top and doubled as the main control interface.

We also remember the exotic batteries it required, which eventually turned out to be available only from camera shops.

Oh, the fun we had.

Thankfully, the new remote is rechargeable, so nobody needs to embark upon an expedition to find obscure photographic batteries.

The Matching Sabre-R Speakers

The Sabre-R speakers have clearly been designed as proper partners for the R610 rather than as an afterthought.

Their finish complements the Music Console perfectly, right down to the walnut detailing and silver Ruark logo across the lower section of the front baffle. It’s all very neat and shows that someone has thought carefully about the visual language of the complete system.

They are medium-sized bookshelf speakers and give their best performance when placed on suitable stands. However, they can also work well on a sturdy shelf or piece of furniture, helped by the small isolating feet fitted underneath.

Ruark even supplies a few metres of decent, factory-terminated speaker cable in the box.

That is extremely unusual these days.

It means that customers choosing the R610 and Sabre-R combination have almost everything required to get the system playing immediately. No emergency return journey to the shop, no rummaging through drawers and no attempt to connect the speakers using something last seen attached to a midi system in 1997.

It’s another small but sensible example of joined-up thinking.

Ruark also makes a matching compact CD player called the R-CD100, which can be added for those of us who still enjoy physical digital media and would rather not consign our CD collections to the loft.

smart eh? they do come with grilles but we wouldn’t be able to see the drivers with them on…

The Important Bit: Does It Cut the Mustard?

This is all very well, but like everything else in the store, the Ruark doesn’t get house room simply for being pretty.

It still has to cut the mustard, or perhaps the moutarde.

I’m very happy to report that the R610 and Sabre-R combination absolutely does.

For the thick end of two grand, you would expect it to perform well, but there is more substance here than the elegant appearance might initially suggest.

The sound is fulsome, fruity and pleasingly full-bodied. Voices have plenty of weight, instruments sound substantial and there is a generous sense of scale that you might not expect from a system of this size.

It is not edgy, aggressive or desperate to impress you with every tiny detail during the opening thirty seconds of a demonstration. Instead, it delivers music in an easy, confident and thoroughly enjoyable way.

That doesn’t mean it sounds dull or sluggish. There is still plenty of life, rhythm and definition, but nothing is pushed forward unnaturally. The balance is smooth without becoming woolly, and the Sabre-R speakers produce a larger and more convincing stereo image than their dimensions might suggest.

Bass is satisfyingly weighty without becoming unruly, while vocals remain clear and comfortably placed between the speakers. It can fill the room when required, but it is equally enjoyable at lower volumes when you simply want some music playing in the background.

Most importantly, it is the kind of system you could listen to happily for hours without becoming tired.

I suspect that’s exactly what most owners will do.

More Than Just a Lifestyle System

The phrase “lifestyle system” can sometimes sound like a polite way of saying that something looks better than it sounds.

That isn’t the case here.

The R610 and Sabre-R combination would suit anyone who wants proper hi-fi performance but doesn’t necessarily want a large equipment rack, several separate boxes and a collection of remote controls scattered across the sofa.

It could easily become the main music system in a living room, apartment or smaller home. It would also make a superb second system for someone who already owns a more traditional setup elsewhere in the house.

You can connect a turntable, improve the sound from your television, stream music, listen to the radio and add the matching CD player if required. Crucially, all of this can be achieved without the room starting to resemble the control deck of a small submarine.

It is attractive enough to keep everyone in the household happy, straightforward enough to use every day and capable enough to satisfy someone who genuinely cares about sound quality.

That balance is much harder to achieve than Ruark makes it appear.

The Swansea Verdict

Perhaps the real confession is that we should have been demonstrating the R610 more often.

It would be easy to look at the smart wooden case, neat controls and matching speakers and assume that style has taken priority over performance. Spend some time listening, though, and it becomes clear that there is a proper hi-fi system underneath the polished exterior.

The R610 and Sabre-R speakers are beautifully made, thoughtfully designed and extremely easy to live with. More importantly, they produce a big, rich and thoroughly enjoyable sound that encourages you to stop investigating the equipment and start listening to the music.

Style and substance?

Yes, actually. Ruark has managed both.

The R610 and Sabre-R speakers are now on near-permanent demonstration at Audio T Swansea. Why not pop in, choose some music and give them a spin?

Just don’t make us confess that we’ve overlooked them again.

Thanks for reading.

Adrian – Audio T Swansea

If you have any questions about any of the equipment featured in this article, or any other Hi-Fi or home cinema enquiries, be sure to Contact Us.

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