Vita Audio R4 Review

Pricey? Sure. Easy on the eyes and the ears? Most def

It's an age-old hi-fi dilemma: do you go with the small, sexy but underpowered desktop design, or should you opt for the ear-pleasing but oversized system? You know, the one that's also had a run-in with the ugly stick?

But if you'll forgive us for coming over all New Labour for a moment, there is a third way, and it's exemplified by products like the Vita Audio R4 - a gorgeous retro-tastic music system that also excels on the sonic front.

Okay, so it's not the smallest of desktop radios, and buying one will lay one heck of a hurtin' on your wallet - but consider the R4's versatility: as well as DAB and FM radio, it also plays CDs and will happily dock with your iPod, chucking out its tunes while topping up the battery. The cherry on a supremely tasty audio cake is a USB port for playback of WMA and MP3 tunes direct from a storage device.

Sound quality is glorious with all sources, thanks to 2.1-channel speaker and subwoofer combo that delivers sweet, clear treble and powerful but surprisingly flab-free bass. The tank-like build quality (the R4 weighs an impressive 8kg) also ensures that distortion is contained, even when the volume is cranked right up.