The Riva Concert – Available in 2 colours for £199.99 via Amazon
In a world where a speaker is not just a speaker anymore with virtual assistants such as Seri, Google Assistant and Alexa being part of our everyday life. Speaker companies have had to adapt and introduce virtual assistants.
We have been given the chance to review Smart Speaker the Riva Concert. On first impressions, this is a great sounding smart speaker but could it be a contender to take on Sonos and be the best around?
The Riva Concert costs £199.99 via Amazon and comes in either black or white in the design and really looks slick in design. When you pop this out of the box you are greeted by 3 different power leads meaning you can use this in both the UK and overseas and you also get an instruction manual. Our speaker did not come with the battery boost to make this wireless but if you wanted to make it wireless for use on the move the battery base costs an additional £69.99 but for this review we used it plugged in.
Setting up the Riva Concert they want you to do this in a pain-free manner and on the inside of the box you will see some simple instructions in how to get this started. This is great as once you download the app and plug in your set up in minutes.
You will have to pair the speaker to your Wi-Fi network then link to your Amazon account as the speaker runs of Alexa. All very simple to set up anyone could do this even if your not great when it comes to technology. Once set up you will notice the Riva Logo lights up which is great as you know it has your attention. Something great about this Speaker is the app to set up can be used on either IOS or Android meaning all can enjoy this speaker.
Now the Riva concert allows you to connect to a number of different Music Streaming services like Amazon Music, Spotify Premium and Tidal. What is also great about this product is you can add Bluetooth streaming which I have used when listening to the Wrestle Talk videos I enjoy on Youtube.
Another bonus of using the Riva Concert is the aeroplane Mode which allows you to stream music stored on your phone, Media Server or USB Storage without the need of being connected to your home Wifi. If you are going to use this mode I would consider the optional Riva Battery pack that will give you about 15 hours of charge according to Riva. I have ordered one so will update this review once that been tested.
On the back of this speaker, you will notice something I think is quite cool the Riva Concert allows you to charge your phone with a USB Jack and this can be used if the speaker is in a wireless or wired connection. This means if your phone runs out of battery you can plug and charge and continue to enjoy using the speaker.
Moving to the top of the speaker that is where you find the control panel which allows changing volume and change track. Unfortunately there no pause or play button but this is not an issue its a smart speaker talk to it and command it.
Sound wise the Riva allows for a quality sound when used the HIFI setting on your Tidal streaming service and this gives a fantastic sound with the help of the speaker that goes all around meaning you get to hear the sound in all angles and wherever you are in the room.
If you love volume this speaker can pump out a sound that could even kick the backside of the Sonos rival. When you have the sound on normal it gives a great bass and the app allows you to adjust both the bass and treble to your liking. The Highs are also great and the vocals are crystal clear when am listening to the Greatest Showman Album or any other album for that matter.
One Small negative I noticed about this speaker is on the Amazon Alexa app you can pre-program a routine, for example, I have a present of “Alexa Good Morning” Which should tell me the news and traffic. When I give this command the Riva Concert says voice pre-sets cant be supported but then does them anyway which is a little annoying but nothing to stress over.
So overall the Riva Concert is a great speaker that I feel could really give you a worthy alternative to the Sonos One. The Riva allows for the travel mode and also gives you more music streaming sources which the Sonos does not allow you to move the speaker with you which is not the case with the Riva. If having a smart speaker on the move is important the Riva is a great pick and at £199.99 its money well spent.
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