It's been exactly one month since we introduced a very interesting speaker Riva Arena, which offers a relatively uncompromising musical experience in the given category. When its larger sibling called Festival also arrived at our editorial office, it was clear that it would not be easy after the success of Arena. With a price tag that doubles that of the base Riva Arena model and also double the size, you can only expect double the quality. So, without further ado, let's see if we'll actually get to see it and Festival will stand up to our review as well as its smaller brother Arena.
Riva Festival is a multi-room speaker with virtually unlimited connection options. At first glance, the speaker itself is nothing special in terms of design, but if you open the cover itself, you will find that it consists of a wooden core, in which 10 ADX speakers are arranged, which ensure that the sound fills the entire room, even if you use only one speaker, they eliminate the feeling that the music is coming from only one place in the room, which you can reliably detect even with your eyes closed. The wooden core with the speakers is then covered by high-quality hardened plastic, and what will surely please you, despite the fact that this speaker will dominate your living room rather than your garden, is its resistance to splashing water. On the top, you'll find controls equipped with braille symbols, and on the back, a series of ports. The speaker is unusually heavy even for its relatively large dimensions, weighing almost 6,5 kilograms, and the construction gives a very high-quality impression at first and second glance.
Thanks to them, in combination with wireless technologies, you will basically not find the option of connecting a sound source that would be missing here. As for wireless options, you can use Wi-Fi, DLNA, AirPlay™ and Bluetooth®, and for cable connections you can use a 3,5mm aux connector, a USB connector and even an optical cable. In general, you can connect anything you want to the speaker, either classically or wirelessly. Riva can work within your network either as part of an AirPlay system or if you have to for some special reason Android, then just set everything as Chromecast. The advantage of connecting via Chromecast (using the GoogleHome APP) is the ability to pair speakers into groups and play to these groups using applications that support ChromeCast, such as Spotify, Deezer, and the like. Using the Riva Wand application, you can even listen to music directly from your DLNA server. At the same time, the speaker can play music up to Hi-Res 24-bit/192kHz quality, which is not exactly standard for compact speakers with an integrated amplifier.
What may be essential for some is the fact that the Riva Festival is a Multi-Room speaker, which means that you can place several speakers around the apartment and easily switch between them, while listening to the song on the speakers as you move smoothly through the house or apartment. individual rooms, or if you have a house party, just turn on music streaming from your iPhone or Mac to all speakers at once. If you just want to charge your device directly from the speaker, you have the option. You can charge your device via the integrated USB.
What everyone reading this review is waiting for is the sound quality. However, this time it is quite difficult to judge, because it extremely depends on the room in which you listen to the speaker and on which pad it is placed. If you put it on the floor in a sound-proof or acoustically bad room, the quality will not be nearly as good as if you sound a huge, acoustically good room. Of course, this is true of every single speaker in the world, but this time I feel that it is true not twice, but a hundred times more than other speakers. Riva Festival is a serious matter and it is quite important to perceive it as such. You are buying a high-end speaker, at least within the given category, and you have to take into account that in order for its quality to stand out, it is extremely important to place it correctly. It is ideal to get real pads for the speakers, for example made of granite or other solid stone, and then place the Riva Festival on them, which will not be a problem thanks to the rubber pads.
If you place the speaker well, you will get an unusually balanced sound, which surpasses the vast majority of other speakers in the given category by a level. You hear the bass when it's actually used and when you want to hear it, not at any deeper tone like some speakers do. The mids and highs are perfectly balanced and if you add to that the fact that the sound literally surrounds you, then it is not a problem to get carried away while listening and close your eyes here and there and imagine how you are at a real concert, the atmosphere that Riva Festival creates has very close.
Riva Festival is different from most classic wireless speakers, thanks to its ten speakers distributed on three sides at an angle of ninety degrees, on the one hand, the fact that the sound does not come from two but only one speaker is partially lost, which I have a fundamental problem with most common Bluetooth and Multiroom speakers , but the sound can also fill the entire room thanks to Trillium technology. This indicates that the speaker has a left and right channel, which are always taken care of by a pair of speakers on the right and left side, respectively, and also a mono channel that plays from the center, i.e. facing you. As a result, a virtual stereo can be created in the space, which fills the entire room. If you have an acoustically good room, you will suddenly find yourself in the middle of a live concert. This is also helped by the balanced sound, which is not too artificial, but on the contrary has a slight club touch, but really only very slightly. The basis of the Riva brand philosophy is to reproduce the sound as the artists recorded it, with as little distortion as possible. The speaker delivers music very vividly and entertainingly, despite not distorting the music.
If you're looking for a no-compromise speaker to which you can connect anything and whenever you can think of in any way you can think of, and at the same time want quality undistorted sound, then the Riva Festival is for you. However, remember that this is a speaker that can reliably fill a room of 80 square meters, and honestly, if you have a small office, I think the Riva Arena will be enough for you, where you won't have to worry about where to place it. You can listen to both speakers in a store in Brno at the link below and compare which one you will invest in. Whether you choose a smaller or larger version, you will make a great choice.
- Even the best review in the world can't convey the real listening experience, you can come hear the Riva speakers right here.
- You can buy Riva Festival directly here or at your favorite retailer.
