Revo Blok review

Since wood is most speaker manufacturers' material of choice, it's perhaps surprising that we don't see wooden cabinets elsewhere. Revo is looking to address this with its Blok dock.

The hand-crafted wooden cabinet – yours in American walnut (pictured) or black oak – cuts an attractively suave figure, being at the same time imposing and rather warm and welcoming.

The finish is to a fairly high standard, with smooth edges and a responsive volume control wheel, but while we're definitely fans of the B&O-style hemispherical remote 'Kontrol', it can be a little fussy.

While it's reminiscent of some DAB/FM radio docks we've seen, this is 'just' an iPod dock. Mains-powered, the only other connection you'll find is a line input for connecting a non-Apple music player.

NXT speakers pump out the sound
Two 4.5in NXT balanced-mode radiator speakers dish out your tunes, capable as they are of outputting some 20 Watts of sound each. This type of speaker allows for just one driver to take care of treble and bass.

Sonically it's a different kettle of fish to your average iPod dock. The sound is substantial, and easily capable of filling a good-sized room. Pushed to a fair old volume there's no break up in sound quality either.

But listening to Take Me To The Hospital from The Prodigy's latest album, it's fair to say we have our reservations, too.

Bass lines need to be tighter, the wooliness to the bottom end impacts on punch, dynamics and clarity. Focus on the top end, on the other hand, and there's an edge to some treble frequencies that, with prolonged listening, start to grate.

We really wanted to love the Revo Blok. It's great to see a company trying something different in terms of style and design – but for £200 the sound quality really needs to be better.