New Ruark Audio CD player indulges your retro fantasies in style

In the modern age of streaming services and instant gratification, the idea of using CDs feels strangely leftfield. After all, it's still a wholly digital medium, so it doesn't have the analogue appeal of something like vinyl, yet it still feels reminiscent of a bygone era.

If you're still holding onto a collection of discs from their heyday, there's great news coming from Ruark Audio. The luxurious audio brand has unveiled its newest product – the R-CD100 CD player.

Styled to match up with other products from the brand, you'll spot the grated walnut grill right away. It's something of a hallmark in the Ruark range, and looks seriously sumptuous.

That's layered beneath a machined aluminium top plate, which contrast neatly against the dark wood. It's not just a looker, either – this design is used to isolate the mechanism inside from external vibrations. That should help to ensure your discs don't skip and jump, even when they're on the same platform as your speakers.

To set it up, you'll simply need to plug the device into your other 100 series devices. Once connected, CD will automatically become a source option, allowing you to seamlessly integrate it with your other equipment.

As you'd probably come to expect from a brand like Ruark Audio, top tier sound quality is the order of the day. All of the signal processing goes through the existing Digital to Analogue converters built into your existing 100 series setup, so you already know how strong the performance will be.

Priced at £249.99 (approx. $325 / AU$493), this certainly won't be the cheapest CD player on the market. If that's what you're looking for, though, you're probably in the wrong place.

Rather, this is a neat little addition for those who already have a comprehensive Ruark Audio setup. For that, it's a great option.