Roberts Blutune 200 review: Simple Bluetooth radio performance
Contributing Editor
If there’s one thing that we love at Radio Fidelity, it’s an attractive radio set packed with exceptional sound quality. One of my favourite brands when it comes to accessing 10/10 audio performance, is Roberts Radio – one of the most popular British companies in history.
Over the years, Roberts Radio has delivered everything from classy retro radios to convenient portable devices. The stylish and sophisticated Roberts Blutune 200 is just one item in an endless portfolio of reliable listening tools from Roberts.
The Blutune 200 provides a fantastic combination of aesthetic appeal and sound performance in a compact machine that will fit well into virtually any room of your home. Whether you’re looking for a product to liven up your living room, or a sensational bedside companion, the Blutune 200 is a great choice.
Here’s everything I learned during my own Roberts Radio Blutune 200 review.
Roberts Blutune 200 review: Design & build
It’s hard to find a Roberts radio that doesn’t have an attractive and sophisticated appearance. The Roberts Blutune is similar in style to the Stream 94i, though it’s a little larger. Like the Stream, the Blutune 200 features a combination of a sleek plastic façade and solid wood body. The wooden finish both gives the machine a warmer appeal when it’s sitting in your bedroom and living room and also provides extra depth to your sound quality too.
More than just an FM/DAB and DAB+ radio, the Blutune also has a built-in CD MP3/WMA playback option as well as Bluetooth streaming. The range of input options means that you can either tune into your favourite channels, or stream your playlists directly from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
The CD input is designed to be as seamless and hidden as possible. All you need to do is push the CD into a slot rather than using a tray, which helps to make the appearance a little more compact. I particularly liked the clear digital display and the included remote control, so you can manage your listening experience without getting off the sofa.
Roberts Blutune 200 review: Features
The Roberts Radio Blutune 200 isn’t the newest product in the Roberts collection. However, when it was designed several years ago, it was built according to such high standards, that the device still offers most of the leading features available from digital radios today. There are USB playback and recording functions, DAB+ built-in, and Bluetooth connectivity.
If you want to listen to music on your own, without distracting the other people in your household, the Roberts Blutune 200 also comes with a headphone jack. I found this particularly helpful when listening to music before bed at night.
Features include:
- An acoustically tuned cabinet for better sound
- High-end Bluetooth connectivity
- Recording for USB drives and SD cards
- FM/DAB/DAB+ audio
- USB port for smartphone charging
- Alarm clock with multiple alarm options
- Radio or CD wakeup options
- 20 preset radio stations
- CD drive and file streaming
- Remote control device management
- Adjustable sleep and snooze timers
- Equaliser with treble and bass
Unlike the Roberts Sports DAB 5, the Blutune 200 isn’t a portable device, but it’s relatively easy to move it and set the machine up and different parts of your home if necessary.
Roberts Blutune 200 review: Ease of use
One thing I did notice when conducting my Roberts Radio Blutune 200 review was how simple it was to get started with this excellent product. The radio feels sturdy and intuitive from the moment that you get it out of the box. As soon as you plug the system in, it automatically finds all the DAB and FM radio stations available in your area.
Notably, it can take a little longer to find a Bluetooth connection from time-to-time – but this is common with most digital radios. It’s also worth noting that the FM connectivity isn’t the best that I’ve come across – but there’s really no need to rely solely on FM when you have such a strong DAB signal.
Roberts Blutune 200 review: Sound quality
Once you have your Roberts Blutune 200 set up, you’ll find that the speakers offer an excellent quality of audio. The experience isn’t quite as robust as you might get from an alternative Roberts model, like the Revival RD70, but it’s still more than acceptable.
The bass level is quite high on the default setting, and the treble is a little edgy, but you can adjust the Blutune 200’s performance with the graphic equaliser. Additionally, the system remembers your EQ settings the next time you switch the device on – which is a handy feature.
One area where the sound quality of the Roberts Blutune really stands out, is when you’re using the streaming settings. The system seems to pick up external audio exceptionally well. If you like playing music from your phone for the whole household to hear, you’ll come to appreciate the Roberts Blutune.