Compact hi-fi systems that make it easy to stream from the internet are a dime a dozen. But if you’re a fan of broadcast radio or compact discs, adding streaming to your setup can be a messy business, involving additional components or an entirely separate system.

The Ruark R5 is a relatively compact all-in-one system that seems wholly designed to address this specific issue, covering pretty much every base for CD or radio fans looking to move to a more modern connected device. It’s expensive at around $2000, but that compares favourably to the cost of putting together a system from components and speakers that could match the capabilities, sound and aesthetics here.

There’s a good old-fashioned aerial to snag FM, DAB and DAB+ broadcasts, but you can also hook it up to Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable to get Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music or internet radio. There’s a built-in CD player, as well as RCA, phono and optical inputs if you want to connect a tape deck, turntable or TV, or there’s Bluetooth to stream direct from your phone. And if you’ve got a big collection of digital music files, you can play them from USB, data discs or your home network via DLNA.

There’s no getting around the fact that it looks a bit dated, with its wood veneer and gray cloth, but I really like that about the R5. It’s an old hi-fi aesthetic, but with a satisfyingly clicky dial and smooth silent drive operation in place of chunky buttons and whirring gears. I also really enjoy that the remote is a mirror of the built-in controls, making it easy to select presets, search for channels by name or make fine adjustments to the sound without getting up.

And it sounds exactly how it looks; confident, expensive, warm. Perhaps a touch too polite depending on your tastes. Its ability to fill a room with crystal clear music is extremely impressive given its size, and it only seems to open up as you raise the volume. Its strength is unapologetically in the midrange, where fans of strings and vocals will find wonderfully detailed and naturally separated sound. There’s plenty of bass present, and it’s delivered convincingly, but modern metal and dance did leave the R5 sounding a bit winded.

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Obviously the easiest way to get music out of this thing is to just stick in a CD, and you’ll get very nice results if you do. But I was also impressed with some of the more contemporary source options. The R5 supports Spotify Connect, meaning that as long as it and your phone (or tablet or PC) are on the same network, you just have to open the app and play music. It also supports aptX HD, meaning many Android phones will be able to send over high quality audio from any app.

On the other hand not everything’s as slick. The UNDOK smartphone app you need to use to access Tidal, Deezer or advanced music searching functions is ugly and not always stable. And the R5 doesn’t support Google Cast or Apple AirPlay, so Spotify and UNDOK are the only ways to get music to it from your phone via Wi-Fi, with Bluetooth sufficing for anything else.

For that reason the R5 might be a bit limited if streaming is your primary concern, and you could be better off with a more robust or Cast-enabled system you can plug a CD player into. But if CDs and radio are the most important to you, and the connectivity features are mostly there for Spotify and to fill some of your preset slots with playlists instead of live stations, this is a solid and extremely capable option.