Preliminary Information
You name it this sleek audio/video system plays it, young ALFiE’s not a fussy sort. The integrated iPod dock means the entertainment hub is ready and waiting for your Apple portable’s tunes, while the rear panel’s auxiliary-in socket means you can swiftly hook-up an MP3 player. CDs, of course, are catered for – including recordable discs – while movie fans can drop in a DVD, letting ALFiE provide vision as well as sound. Happy to lounge in any room in the house, the Roth Audio system’s radio alarm and bundled remote control mean ALFiE is especially handy in the bedroom department.
Wherever you choose to lay down with ALFiE, however, you can rely on Roth Audio to supply high-quality sound and vision. The unit’s built-in audio engine is no slouch, powering out a total of 40 watts, and using a 2.1 amplifier and speaker combination to provide room-filling sound. Sneak a peek under its chassis, and you realise the use of an ever-so-clever downward-firing subwoofer helps beef-up the tracks, while allowing ALFiE to maintain a trim figure.
Adjustable bass and treble means you can tone down – or tone up for that matter – depending on your mood. Naturally, for a machine from the tune-loving people that created the sublime-sounding Music Cocoon MC4, this unit doesn’t just pound out a big sound, it also presents a beautiful sound – Roth Audio may always do competitive prices, but it will never do cheap sonics.
No home entertainment system is complete – though more than a few claim to be – without support for DVD. So whether you invite Freddy into your bedroom, Shrek into your playroom, or Audrey and Gregory into your wet afternoon, ALFiE’s selection of video outputs provide sharp images, while the 2.1 sound engine backs up the pictures with thrilling movie sonics.
- Built-in iPod dock
- Slot-fed drive plays DVD, CD-DA, Video CD, DVCD, CDR, CD/RW, and MP3
- Aux-in supports an external MP3 source
- FM/AM radio
- Digital clock with dual alarm
- Bass enhancement & tone controls
- Remote control
- Touch sensitive controls
Specifications
- Dimensions (mm): 390 x 105 x 255 (whd)
- FM/AM tuner
- Frequency response: 20Hz-20KHz
- Inputs: auxiliary-in
- LCD display (mm): 192 x 24mm
- Outputs: earphone, video, S-Video, RGB
- Power output: 2 x 10W + 1 x 20W
- Speaker system: 2.1
- Driver array: 2 x 6.35cm + 1 x 10.2cm
FM RADIO: SAFE AND (GREAT) SOUND
Each and every Roth Audio product shares a common goal: to deliver the best possible sound from the music source. So, for example, when you are listening to music from your iPod we strongly recommend you load your portable player with tunes ripped only at high-quality bit rates.
This advice carries over to the world of radio, where we favour FM over DAB. Yes, during foul weather conditions digital audio broadcasts can offer an extremely robust signal, and DAB also offers some (yawn) ‘interactive’ features. However – in our experience and in the main – FM simply sounds better. So, until DAB ups its sonic game, we are sticking with tried-and-tested FM.
Inferior sound, though, is not the only reason we are DAB-cautious – a further reason for our FM flag-waving is the apparent confusion over DAB’s future. In what appears to be a clear recognition of ‘standard’ DAB’s sonic limitations, the World DAB organisation has already announced a replacement format – the inventively named DAB+. This latest version offers the potential of superior sound over DAB, but unless your digital radio is fitted with the new receiving technology, or is upgradeable, it won’t be able to pick-up DAB+. Will DAB+ happen? Well, by the end of 2008, the world’s biggest maker of DAB radios aims to make 80% of its line up either DAB+ ready or DAB+ enabled. A further target of this maker is, by 2009, to only sell DAB+ radios. So, as far as we are concerned, regular DAB’s long-term future is unclear.
Confused? Bored and irritated by the potential of another format war? Yup, we are too and when you bear in mind the possible effect of Digital Radio Mondial (DRM) – the digital replacement technology for short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave radio currently being trialled by the BBC – for which you need a different type of radio again, you realise why FM is both safe and (very good) sound.
And if a spot of ‘British’ weather does dampen your reception quality, just do what we do: make yourself a mug of tea; choose your all-time favourite CD/MP3/vinyl; put your feet up; and enjoy.
