The Tangent Quattro WiFi
radio has been making PR
waves over the last few
weeks, with looks and a
spec sheet that would
suggest it's the pick of
the crop in the sector
this summer.
Some great things have
come out of Denmark over
the centuries - Hans
Christian Andersen,
Lego, Peter Schmeichel.
Is it time to add the
Tangent Quattro to the
list?
First
Impressions
The Tangent Quattro is a
solid piece of kit.
Weighing in at around
the 4kg mark, this is no
flimsy, flyaway radio.
You instantly feel as
though you are handling
something of quality.
Unfortunately this also
translates into a lack
of portability, but then
Tangent is not trying to
deceive you. The Quattro
is labelled a WiFi
table radio and the
table is where it is
going to stay.
WiFi Radio Review
received the unit with
the walnut finish. There
are four cases to choose
from and Walnut is one
of the cheaper options,
but it still adds to the
feeling of quality. It
may just be a wood
veneer but, to be
honest, we couldn't
tell. You wouldn't quite
go so far as to say that
the Tangent has retro
looks but, like many of
its competitors, it has
pretensions in that
direction.
Our
one issue with the build
quality was that the
volume and tuning knobs
didn't have quite the
resistance to turning
that you would expect
from a quality
appliance. In fact the
tuning knob on our
review unit was slightly
wobbly.
What you can say is that
the Tangent looks great
and is certainly
something that you would
love to have sitting on
a prominent shelf
anywhere in your house.
However, we've got
ornaments that do that
job pretty well already
and they don't cost just
shy of £200, so the
important question is
how does the Tangent
perform when the power
is on and the streams
are flowing?
Setup
The setup process takes
several minutes, but it
is a one off so you
don't have to reschedule
your life now that you
are sharing it with a
Quattro.
When first switched on
the Quattro runs through
a short self-analysis
before scanning for
available wireless
networks. Here at WiFi
Towers we can pick up
three or four networks
on a laptop, but the
Quattro only noticed
one, fortunately the one
that mattered. This may
have been because the
Quattro receiver is not
particularly sensitive
or perhaps because
during the setup process
it uses a minimum signal
strength threshold.
If your network is
encrypted (and if not,
why not?) you will have
to enter the key to go
any further. The Quattro
has no keypad so this
involves twiddling the
tuning knob back and
forth as you select each
character in the key. We
found it no easy
process, but as said
above, it's a one off.
Once the correct key is
entered the Quattro
connects to the Reciva
database and downloads
the complete station
list. At last count
there were well over
6000 to choose from.
Operation
Let's be clear about one
thing. Like almost every
other WiFi radio device
out there the Tangent is
built on
Reciva technology.
This means that much of
the functionality is
common to its rivals and
therefore its unfair to
pin the blame for some
problems we encountered
on the Tangent, just as
it would be equally
unfair to praise it too
highly for features that
are shared by the £49
Logik. Wherever possible
we'll make it clear if
we think it's a Reciva
or a Quattro driven
issue or highlight.
The Tangent has three
major functions;
internet radio
streaming, file
streaming from a
networked PC and a
clock.
The first feature is the
one we really care
about, but it is good to
see file streaming
included in the package.
Finding a radio stream
is a simple matter.
"Finding a radio
stream is a simple
matter"
First you decide whether
to browse by location or
genre. Location allows
you to look at available
stations by country, but
not at a more granular
level than that, so the
2000+ stations available
in the USA cannot be
split up by state. The
makes the alphabet soup
of US station names a
little confusing for the
non-American. This is
not the fault of the
Tangent, but is how the
data is delivered by the
underlying Reciva
technology and so
afflicts all radios
using the same platform.
Once browsing a
country's available
streams you have the
option of breaking them
down by genre or viewing
all. In the case of the
larger countries such as
the USA and UK this is
quite a long list.
Navigating around the
menus and options is by
a combination of
‘select' and ‘back'
buttons and the tuning
knob. For some reason
the tuning knob and
‘select' buttons are
adjacent, but the ‘back'
button is divorced from
them and lined up with
another grouping of
buttons in the centre of
the radio.
We found this a strange
layout to get our head
around at first, often
hitting the ‘back'
button when we meant
‘select'. There's no
doubt in our minds that
this would have been
more intuitive if the
two buttons had been
adjacent.
The Tangent's LCD screen
is quite small with only
two lines of text. This
means that all
interaction takes place
in the horizontal plain
and only one selection
can be made at any one
time. As a result you
are using those select
and back buttons an
awful lot. We also found
that some station names
were too long for the
screen. This is not a
problem if you are just
talking about cutting
off the last few
characters, but in one
particular case it
caused much
consternation. BBC Radio
Five live comes in three
flavours via Reciva -
there is the normal
channel, Five Live Xtra
and then Five Live
International. Each
channel starts with the
name BBC Radio Five
Live, which is
unfortunately where the
Tangent's LCD screen
stops. Only experience
teaches you which is
which.
Button layout aside, we
were on the point of
listening to our first
station within seconds
of connecting to the
network.
Each station can have
several options. Many
are broadcast as Real
and WMA streams so you
have to choose between
them. The Tangent
doesn't care as it cope
easily with both.
"Some stations
operate on demand
broadcasting and the
Tangent handles this
beautifully too"
Some stations operate on
demand broadcasting and
the Tangent handles this
beautifully too. Choose
the ‘On Demand' option
and then select the
programme you want to
listen to. In many cases
you can then choose
which day as well,
giving you an archive of
several days of
listening to choose
from. The BBC is
especially good at
giving you access to a
back catalogue of
content and we found
ourselves far more
likely to listen to on
demand content via the
Tangent than we ever
would via a PC. However,
you are still limited to
the content that Reciva
knows about, and newer
On Demand content is not
always available. Here
in the UK the football
season has just kicked
off and the BBC is
delivering a daily
podcast. This hadn't yet
found its way into
Reciva's listings, two
weeks after it was first
available.
Browsing by Genre was
hit and miss, with the
classifications often a
little wide of the mark,
especially when music
style was used, but it
still acted as a useful
guide to foreign
stations.
When you power down the
Quattro it will remember
the last channel or file
you were listening to
and attempt to reconnect
when you turn it back
on. In many cases this
reconnection was almost
instant and amazingly
challenged the startup
time of a DAB radio in
the office.
Our testing did not pass
without some glitches.
On one occasion the
Quattro crashed
completely and would not
allow us to switch to a
new channel. On another
it dropped the WiFi
connection and failed to
reconnect to the network
altogether, despite the
fact that the laptop
sitting next to it was
happily connected with
good signal strength.
However, those were
isolated incidents in
what was a lengthy test
period
Sound
quality
The
Quattro has a single
speaker placed at the
top of the unit. The
sound quality from the
speaker was rich and
deep especially with the
higher quality streams.
Tangent claim that the
rigid case prevents
resonance and improves
the sound and we noticed
that there was no
vibration even at very
loud volumes. This seems
to be about as good as
you can expect from a
mono system and was a
very satisfying
listening experience.
File
streaming
The Quattro can connect
to a PC (not a Mac) on
the same network and
stream music files from
its hard drive in a
range of common
formats. Obviously only
shared folders can be
accessed, but once they
are the Quattro will
scan the folder for
compatible files and
then play them in order,
shuffled or according to
a pre-prepared playlist.
The Quattro can also
connect to a uPNP media
server such as Windows
Media Player 11.
Clock
The Tangent also has a
built in clock that gets
its timing from an
online time signal.
There is an alarm
function so you can wake
up to the internet radio
station of choice as
well as the obligatory
snooze button so that
you can tell it to go
away if you feel like
staying under the duvet.
If you fancy being
lulled to sleep by a
late night night chat
show from a far away
place then there is also
a sleep timer to turn
the Tangent off after
you have drifted away.
Conclusion
The Tangent Quattro has
the best quality of
sound we have yet come
across in a WiFi radio.
The build quality is
good, but not perfect -
we are slightly
concerned about the
tuning knob, but it
feels essentially solid
and is hard to fault in
the looks department.
Being tethered to a
power cable means that
it's not really portable
despite its small size.
This is one of the
premier devices in the
WiFi radio arena at the
moment. If it had a
rechargeable battery the
Tangent Quattro may well
have been a clear
leader.
Pros
Excellent sound quality
Good looks
Cons
Key layout and build
quality
Not portable
