British speaker great Ruark has made two stunning 'radiograms' for its 40th anniversary — beautiful modern wireless speakers that double as a sideboard

• Furniture speakers with vintage looks but state of the art connectivity
• Just 50 pieces of each finish available worldwide
• £6,495 (about $8,955 / AU$12,795)

Ruark is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and it's doing it in style: it's producing two very limited editions of the R810 radiogram, both of which are beautifully made and likely to sell out in a heartbeat.

The R810 MiE – the acronym is short for Made in England – comes in a choice of Penta-Chord Walnut and Leaf-Line Oak. And they're made using a process called marquetry, which Ruark tells me is "historically a symbol of status".

The process involves precisely cutting carefully selected and unique veneers, bonding them to the R810 cabinet, curing them and then applying multiple layers of lacquer with hand-sanding between coats.

The cabinet and grille components have been made exclusively for Ruark by Storm Furniture, an artisan furniture maker and members of the Guild of Master Craftsmen, and assembled in Southend in England.

The R810 MiE is part of the Made in England project Ruark launched with the R5 MiE all-in-one in 2021, but it had to pause the project due to COVID and subsequent component shortages. So this is the relaunch of that project, which suggests some equally stunning special editions of other products could be in the pipeline.

Ruark R810 MiE: key features and pricing

Don't let the word "radiogram" or the vintage styling fool you: this is a very modern affair when it comes to sound and streaming. The R810 MiE supports AirPlay and Google Cast, comes with Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect and TIDAL Connect, works with Apple Music, BBC Sounds, Deezer and other key apps, and supports Hi-Res Audio up to 32-bit/192kHz.

The MiE also has internet, DAB, DAB+ and FM tuners, HDMI ARC/eARC, Bluetooth headphone support and a phono input for your turntable.

Sadly this one isn't going to go into mass production: managing director Alan O'Rourke says that "volume production isn't viable" because of the massive amounts of labour and time involved in making each one. That's why the MiE edition costs considerably more than the normal R810, which comes in at around £3K: the R810 MIE has a price tag of £6,495 (about $8,955 / AU$12,795).

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.