Retio Radio Speaker

We’re huge fans of the retro aesthetic here at The Coolector and that is particularly true when it comes to tech devices. For that reason, you’ll not be at all surprised to hear we’ve fallen mighty hard for this awesome looking Retio Radio Speaker which is funding over on Kickstarter as we speak. This classy little number is a tribute to the precious moments in the past and each one is handcrafted in San Francisco, California, with black walnut, 360 brass and vintage nixie tube.

Boasting the sort of old school cool that will complement any mid-century style interiors, this Retio Radio Speaker is definitely right up our street here at Coolector HQ. Available for the great price of just $279 during the campaign (down from the final retail price of $399), it’s not hard to see why it has already taken Kickstarter by storm.

Vintage Vibes Aplenty

Designed as a tribute to classic aesthetics, the Retio Radio Speaker is an all-in-one retro radio, Bluetooth speaker, and clock which makes it a mighty versatile addition to your tech line up. We love the fact that it utilises Nixie tubes to display time and radio frequencies as this really adds to the vintage visual impact.

The Retio Radio Speaker on Kickstarter (from $279) is portable, with a 6800mAh battery that supports up to six hours of playback and clock time. Nixie tubes were first manufactured in the 1950s to display numerals or other information using glow discharge and the final Nixie tubes were made in the early ‘90s when the technology was replaced by lower-cost alternatives such as LED. So the fact the Retro Radio Speaker uses them helps it to stand out from the crowd even more.

Today’s Nixie tube stock availability is, of course, extremely limited, and the price goes up monthly as more people are starting to realise the beauty of their vintage hue. Use of these rare components makes Retio one of the most aesthetically superior speakers on the market in our opinion and the original Nixie tube manufacturers were conservative in describing the longevity of Nixie tubes – with their lifetime capable of spanning as long as 100,000 to 200,000 hours (22 years) when the driver circuit is properly designed and implemented.

Radio or Speaker

You can use Retio in radio mode or speaker mode via its Bluetooth connectivity and the quality of the sound is impeccable. It has amazing highs, crystal-clear mid ranges, and a deep powerful bass. The Retio comes equipped with a state-of-the-art Bluetooth 5.0 chip and a 10W Class-D amplifier to provide the most powerful sound you’ll ever get out of a speaker in this size category.

The sound is finely tuned using advanced DSP, which allows for a more balanced and comfortable listening experience. At just $279 during the Kickstarter campaign, pledges are flying in thick and fast for the Retio Radio Speaker so make sure you move quickly and don’t miss the boat on this bargain, super-early bird pricing. Head on over to Kickstarter now to throw your support behind this epic, vintage-inspired project.