A blast from the past: The only way to get ‘CD quality’ is… to buy a CD player!
Como Audio Musica
£649, comoaudio.co.uk
For a music format that’s supposed to be in terminal decline and about as relevant as reel-to-reel tape recorders, CDs are looking remarkably sprightly. The discs still sell in the millions every year (although it’s open to question how many of these are compilations bought in motorway service stations on long journeys to drown out the sound of the children).
Hence the Como Audio Musica – an update of a rather swish radio player from a couple of years ago, which swims against the tide and adds a CD player. Como Audio points out – quite reasonably – that digital music services such as Spotify are obsessed with delivering ‘CD-quality’ music over wi-fi, but says that ‘one easy way to achieve CD quality is… with CDs’.
The Musica offers pretty much every wireless technology you can think of: DAB radio, FM, services such as Spotify and Deezer via wi-fi and 30,000 internet radio stations, as well as Bluetooth
There’s also plenty more under the bonnet if you get tired of dusting off the stack of discs in your living room and remembering that you once actually paid real money to own Abba: Gold. The Musica offers pretty much every wireless technology you can think of: DAB radio, FM, services such as Spotify and Deezer via wi-fi and 30,000 internet radio stations, as well as Bluetooth.
You can also connect a television if you so desire, although it’s less clear why anyone would actually do this. Como Audio comes from designer Tom Devesto, who was behind the delectable, retro-style Tivoli radios. This offers similar wood-finished charms, with Italian-designed cabinetry housing a punchy array of components, and pleasingly tactile aluminium knobs.
Don’t laugh, these things are important. But what really makes it stand out is an exemplary approach to making it easy to use: there are eight ‘preset’ buttons on the front, which can be assigned to anything from radio stations to favourite playlists or albums. You can start music playing with one touch, without messing around with the remote or the app. I’ve also slowly (and sadly) realised that eight buttons are actually more than enough for the music I listen to in my day-to-day life.
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