When I was a young pup, I spent my first income tax refund on a pair of Cambridge SoundWorks bookshelf speakers. Those were my only speakers for more than ten years; they moved with me to six different cities.
Later, I remember walking through the audio area of CES and stopping dead at the Tivoli Audio booth, impressed by how cool and retro the company's little clock radios looked, and how surprisingly good they sounded.
And now here we are, ready to talk about the Como Audio Solo, another clock radio with good sound that not only picks up AM/FM signals, but wirelessly plays your digital music too.
All of these audio gadgets have something in common. The founder of each of these companies, and the head designer of their products, is the same guy: Audio Hall of Famer Tom DeVesto. Como Audio is DeVesto's latest sojourn into the consumer audio world. The pedigree of this little clock radio is, it's safe to say, as good as it gets.
The Solo ($300 for the walnut finish, $350 for hickory, white, or black) smells like a piece of furniture. The pleasant aroma hits you in the face when you open the box. And we're not talking Ikea-style cedar, we're talking leather couches. The radio itself looks like it was made in the 1970s---FM antenna and all---although this retro vibe is quickly betrayed by the TFT color display prominently set into its front panel. Even with the screen, which becomes a clock when you're not using it, the Solo doesn't look like a tech-forward gadget. Put it on your nightstand and it just looks like a really fancy clock radio.
And that's not a bad thing. As DeVesto's previous company Tivoli has previously proven, there's a place in the world for a killer clock radio. And in that regard, the Solo delivers. It's absolutely loaded with connectivity. There's no CD player, so apologies to your mom and that Barry Manilow CD that's been in her digital clock radio for ten years. However, the Solo plays both terrestrial and internet radio, streams audio from your phone over Bluetooth, and connects to Wi-Fi so you can use Spotify Connect. You can plug it into your television via an optical cable, you can play music off a USB drive, and you can plug in your headphones if you want to give everyone around you a break. There are even two additional Aux In ports for whatever else you want (Amazon Dot, anyone?). It can be controlled with an included remote or with a mobile app if you don't want to mess with the front-panel buttons. Multiple Solos (or other Como Audio products) can be networked together to give you multi-room audio throughout your home.
The audio quality of the Solo doesn't quite live up to its pedigree. It has two drivers; one tweeter and one woofer. As its name implies, the Solo produces audio in mono. But the lack of stereo isn't what keeps the Solo's audio quality from going over the top. It sounds good at lower volumes, but as you get louder---and we're talking only about a third of the way up the knob---the sound can get a little harsh. If you're using the Solo as a clock radio or an alarm, this is fine. Nobody wants to wake up to the volume cranked to 11, anyway. But if this is a core piece of your audio system, or a multi-room system, you might find it lacking at higher levels.
Because the Solo has so much connectivity and is so feature-heavy, setting it up is a chore. Setup is managed by pushing and turning a set of three knobs below the TFT display. It's not intuitive. Some of the instructions on the screen refer to a "Select" button that doesn't exist---or that I couldn't find, at least, as there's no button with that label. Getting the Solo on my Wi-Fi network was also a challenge.
If you're hoping for a little system that throws out killer audio and fills up your room, this isn't it. If you want a high-end clock radio, or a stand-alone system for your desk at work, the Solo will give you more than what you need.
7/10 - Very good, but not quite great.
