Teuful have packed a lot of functions into a small package, but is the Radio 3sixty any good?
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If you’re in the UK Teuful are likely to be a new brand to you, but in fact they’re founded in 1979 dealing in audio equipment. They now offer a range of audio equipment, and I’ve previously reviewed the excellent Real Blue NC noise-cancelling headphones.
Radio 3sixty aims to fulfil all your audio needs in a compact design, and it really is a compact design that can easily be placed in the kitchen, office, bedroom, or anywhere else you’d like to benefit from this multi-talented bit of kit.
Setup
Setup was a little tricky, it’s not been adapted for sale in the UK. You will need a EU to UK plug adaptor and, on first power up, you will need to navigate menus in German to set the language preference to English.
This was made easier by the included English language manual which shows the menu options layout and allowed me to find my way to the language setting and switch to English. You only need to do this once, even if you unplug the 3sixty it remembers the language setting.
It’s a good looking unity, very compact with an LCD screen on the front, a control dial either side and a row of buttons on the bottom to store your favourite channels.
In a world of touch screen controls it felt a little odd to use a spinning dial, entering the WiFi password felt like cracking a safe! At least the menu system has been well thought out and the option you want is usually just a button push or dial spin away.
360 sound
It gets the 3sixty name from the speaker which is located on the top and means sound travels out all round the speaker rather than being fired forwards only. It also has an integrated subwoofer on the underside.
Around the back is the power in, a telescopic antenna, aux and USB in ports. These in ports are just two of the ways to play room-filling audio, the 3sixty also comes packing DAB+, internet radio, Bluetooth aptX, Spotify Connect and can playback from DLNA servers.
It connects to the internet via WiFi and then shows up in your Spotify app allowing you to transfer Spotify playback from your phone to the speaker.
I tested this with a Plex server and it worked brilliantly. You need to enable the DNLA option on your server and the 3sixty will then be able to see it. I could then navigate through my folders and playback my audio files directly from the server.
Plugging in a USB storage device works the same way, the files are listed on the screen for you to browse and select.
Quality sound
So it has the skills, but what about the sound? For a compact unit I was really impressed, sound quality is excellent and easily fills a room, living up to the 3sixty name.
I’ve no idea if it distorts at the highest volume output, I turned it up as loud as my ears could take it and had to turn it down again, I couldn’t turn it up to the highest setting as it’d be far too loud! Credit where it’s due, I wasn’t expecting such a small, compact, unit to have such a big output.
The integrated sub-woofer does a brilliant job, music sounds rich and deep, especially when you compare it to the inferior speakers of a mobile, it’s the audio equivalent of going from SD to 4K.
Vocals sound rich and warm, good job too as with hundreds of radio stations to pick from, you have a lot to listen to!
The Bluetooth and aux-in are handy if you want to pair the lush sound of the 3sixty with the AI smarts of an Amazon or Google AI product
This is only the second Teufel product I’ve reviewed but it’s the second time I’ve been impressed. Unlike the headphones (which don’t have a visual menu and are powered by USB) the 3sixy requires extra effort to get set up in the UK. I hope in time they will include different plugs and a language select option when you first power on the unit.
Despite the set up niggles this is an excellent unit. It looks great, sounds fantastic and has a great selection of audio sources.
