It feels like on the back of the vinyl revival (and, if you believe the reports, the cassette-enaissance), people who really care about their audio are also doubling down on the separates. I remember my dad being proud of his hi-fi set-up, and even as I teen I had my own (far cheaper) record player, cassette deck, tuner, and radio.
It's the latter that has been brought into this century with the Majority Fitzwilliam 3, a high-quality internet radio jam-packed full of features from the Cambridge-based company. Once you have it out of the packaging, the box itself looks pretty sleek (it also comes in two different colours - black and silver), nice shiny buttons, knobs and a little LCD colour display.
You get a decent-looking remote so setting it up was pretty simple and getting it attached to the internet was surprisingly painless. You've got several connection choices including AUX-In, AUX-Out, USB, Phono, 3.5mm jack, optical, and coaxial, so it's all going to depend on how you're going to integrate it into your system. There's also an option to fire off tunes from your phone using Bluetooth as well.
Let's start off with the radio itself. To say you've got plenty of choice is an understatement. The DAB+ internet radio brings more than 25,000 global stations to your fingertips. That's a lot. You can literally access the top 10 radio stations for every country around the world. Luckily, it comes with 90-odd pre-set channels to give you a hand (at least initially).
It is simple to search by continent, country, genre, and station name to explore a wide range of topics, but it's even easier if you download the Undok app on your smartphone, which allows you to navigate between audio modes, browse content and control playback volume all through a nifty UI.
The Fitzwilliam 3 isn't constrained to just radio, however, as you can also line up your favorite podcasts right there on the device, while if you are a Spotify user you can also access your playlists. It also has a dual alarm feature for wake-up and sleep functions.
Sound quality, as you would expect, is excellent be that music or the spoken word. This might be influenced by the rest opf your set-up, of course, but if you're looking a radio separately I'm guessing your speakers are already pretty decent!
I must admit, using the Fitzwilliam 3 did take me back to the days of playfully tuning in to any old station to see if I could find a new favourite tune. And that's probably one of its most abiding features - it brings back the sense of adventure so often lost by playlists and recommended listens.
The Fitzwilliam 3 is available from Amazon or direct from Majority at a price of £149.95.
