Although no one can deny their impressive sound quality, specialized HiFi equipment has to compete with all sort of multimedia solutions these days, from iPhone/iPod docking stations to media players, Rotel's latest RCX-1500 FM/DAB tuner picking up a few tricks along the way.

Apart from the uncompromising sound quality that is achieved thanks to a Wolfson DAC capable of 24bit/192kHz decoding and a Class D amplifier that provides plenty of voltage and current to easily drive lower impedance speakers down to 4 ohms while also running cooler then older A/B designs, this tuner also has a few other tricks up its sleeves.

This means that alongside normal FM stations, the RCX-1500 can provide access to Internet radio stations as well as premium music services like Pandora and SirriusXM.

However, the feature list doesn't stop here, the RCX-1500 also coming with a built-in RCD-1520 CD player and a front panel USB input for direct digital connection of an iPod or other USB enabled devices.

Both wired and WiFi networks can be used for accessing the Internet radio stations, the UPnP support enabling users to stream RealAudio, WMA, MP3, AAC & AAC+ (non DRM), AU, WAV and AIFF files to the RCX-1500 in order to be played back on your stereo speaker system, the enclosed amplifier providing users with up to 100 watts per channel.

All in all, I would have to say this tuner could be an interesting addition to older HiFi systems, that lack many of the network features that seem to come standard even in the most basic audio equipment today, without sacrificing sound quality in the process.