Roberts Stream 94L
Our favourite budget radio remains a great buy
The Stream 94L is the latest iteration of a multiple What Hi-fi? Award-winning radio. Everything we loved about the previous Roberts Stream 94i remains the same: the same design, extensive features, ease of use and enjoyable sound quality. Even the price has remained the same – worth celebrating in our current economic climate. At £200, the Roberts Stream 94L effectively replaces its predecessor the 94i with little fanfare.
It’s a smart-looking unit, with excellent build quality throughout. The Stream 94L is mains powered, but you can buy an optional battery pack to make it fully portable. You can control most aspects of the radio using the front row of buttons and the two dials for volume and tuning, the latter of which is also used for scrolling and selecting options. A small remote is supplied, but we find ourselves preferring the excellent Undok app (free for IOS and Android) to select radio or streaming options, access settings, adjust the custom EQ, and save multiple presets. It’s much easier and slicker to use, especially when searching for radio stations.
You can instantly access your top five favourite radio stations using the unit’s preset buttons, but many more than that can be stored and played via the app. On the back panel, you will find an aux input and a line output, a USB port for playing MP3 files, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Inside lies a more powerful processor, which Roberts says results in speedier start-up times and faster functions. While we don’t have the older 94i on hand for comparison, the 94L is responsive and easy to use from the moment we plug it in. Selecting different inputs and radio stations is instinctive, and starting up from standby mode takes seconds.
You can listen to local and international radio stations thanks to internet radio, DAB/DAB+ and FM tuner (the antenna is included). Bluetooth was the big inclusion in the last model, and along with Spotify Connect, the new 94L now has built-in support for Amazon Music and Deezer streaming services.
A handy wi-fi icon in the full colour LCD display shows you signal strength, so you can fine-tune where you place the radio to get the best signal. The radio can display the bit rate, codec and each station’s sampling rate, plus song title, artist and station logo. The Stream 94L still operates as a bedside radio clock too.
Fine sense of timing
Whether you’re listening to 6 Radio, BBC 4’s Kitchen Cabinet or Seattle’s excellent KEXP 90.3 FM station, using DAB+, Bluetooth or Spotify, this radio is an enjoyable performer.
Acoustically, the ‘subwoofer’ at the back of the unit and the two smaller drivers on the front have remained unchanged in the new 94L model. This is great news for sound quality, although we hope that Roberts can push the performance even further when it comes to the next update.
Iggy Pop’s The Passenger sounds punchy and detailed, with all its ’70s punk energy intact. Dynamically, this little radio manages to pack in so much subtlety and has a natural ebb and flow to songs that even some dedicated hi-fi kit twice its price struggles to communicate. It’s an agile sound with a fine sense of timing.
The midrange remains a high point, with voices coming through clearly, focused and packed with expressive detail, whether you listen to radio DJS, sludgy grunge rock or podcasts. Voices have plenty of texture, and each personality shines through. Play something heavier such as Deftones’ My Own Summer (Shove It), and while it can get a little messy when the volume is pushed, the 94L still delivers a decent amount of weight to those thundering guitars and drums. Voices are crystal clear above the mix of instruments, and the melody is driven forward in an admirably sure-footed manner.
You will never get masses of deep bass from such a compact unit, but the basslines on Digital Underground’s Walk Real Kool are tuneful and taut. The Stream 94L’s smooth, unfussy nature masks just how talented a performer it is, especially in its ability to sound so fluid and capable with anything you play through it.
This is such a fun radio to listen to. The updates might seem slight, but we applaud Roberts for packing in more streaming options and not increasing the price tag a jot. The new Stream 94L remains a smart, well-featured and great-sounding radio at this price.