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Home / News / Fast Facts – Arcam rCube

Fast Facts – Arcam rCube

Presenting a legit alternative to B&W’s champion Zeppelin docks, Arcam reckons it’s time the trophy took up some space in its cabinet

What is it?

“The world’s best iPod/iPhone speaker dock,” if you ask Arcam, but they would say that, wouldn’t they? The boast follows three years of gruelling research and design resulting in this fairly unassuming box. It’s certainly a far cry from B&W’s striking elliptical-balloon Zeppelin design.

And I should get one because…?

Because everyone knows that serious hi-fi comes in serious looking boxes, not jaunty elliptical balloon shapes, obviously. But even overlooking the first rule of audiophilia, the rCube system has four speaker drivers pumping out 90W of audio bliss.

And?

And that bit about it being the best iPod speaker dock might just be right. Early reports from our test labs suggest that B&W might have to go back to the drawing board if they want to steal back their ‘best dock’ silverware. The acid test will be in the review, which we’ll have here shortly, but brace yourself for a surprise.

I don’t like surprises

Then you’ll like the rCube. It does what it’s supposed to, and should do it well. It also streams CD-quality tunes from computers and portable devices using Kleer. You can even stream from another rCube for multi-room hi-fi. Although you’ll need to accessorise for that.

This is starting to sound expensive

You can get a much cheaper dock, but £500 is hardly exclusive for what promises to raise the bar in quality portable iPhone speakers. The rCube is available from October 1, 2010.

Read our hands-on with the Arcam rCube

Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home