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My first attempt with a 1st-gen iPad failed since laziness and worry over data integrity had me pass on the last OS update. However the free Raumfeld app insisted on the very latest. My Samsung Galaxy S4 proved adequately current. Without issue I could access the Google Play Store to download and install the Raumfeld app. Post app install the Master Cube must be connected to the home network’s router via Ethernet. In a few easy steps the app then guides the user to complete the install. First it ‘looks’ for the Cube—luckily with success—then all available WiFi networks show up. You obviously pick your own. And that concludes the install. Now the wired Ethernet connection can be removed since the Teufels will connect to the chosen WLAN network with each power-up.


Because the Cube System is a true multi-room product, the app can set up multiple pairs (as well as other Raumfeld models like the Speaker L we already reviewed) and assign them to specific rooms. This works out dead easy. A big shout-out for being very well thought out and so flexible. After the initial setup and room assignments all music libraries accessible over the network (menu point ‘My Music’) may be browsed. This is quick, stable and very intuitive.

  

If you have accounts with Napster, simfy, Last.fm or MTV Music, these are all integrated into the Raumfeld app to have you play their tunes in a jiffy. Spotify sadly isn’t on that list (yet?). The web radio app 'TuneIn' scans and plays Internet radio stations. The 'Line-In' button obviously plays whatever you’ve connected to the analog input. The Line-In by the way can also work as an A/D converter to forward digitized data to other Raumfeld kit. This even accommodates vinyl streaming. The app also handles USB hard-drive libraries or connected sticks. Each source shows up separately in the setup menu to be assigned its own volume and 3-band EQ values. On matters of outfit, flexibility, graphic interface—in short, the user experience—I give the Cubes and their Raumfeld app two thumbs way up. Even without network expertise, everything was self-explanatory and easy to sort. So far so very swell. And sonically?

I opted for two different setups. Since the Cubes seemed a bit big for my desktop (less due to the actual table, more to my mess), I went for a book rack and then the free space of the living room. The first aural impression was fresh and cracking! For a few months now I’ve had Wave Pictures’ ‘new’ album City Forgiveness on heavy rotation. Wave Pictures? Imagine a slightly inebriated Al Green singing through a €10 plastic mic directly into an el cheapo guitar amp with a dust-dry backup band. Think television or very early Giant Sand as a slightly drunk but rhythmically totally tight version of Swell. This affair is then masterminded by a James Last type showing signs of a hard night’s debauchery. In short, music full of passion, craziness and broad humour. The cut "Tropic" lives on the taut interplay of guitar and bass but also the exceptionally crafty mix – the bass fat and fulsome, the guitar amp close-mic’d to portray both direct and hall sound. And the Raumfeld Cubes rocked out on the shelf to heat up my books.