A Real Radio for Radio Listeners without Compromise

I have been living with, listening to and enjoying the Tivoli Model One radio for more than a year now. I probably own at least 10 radios of different types and sizes and the Tivoli radio gets hours of daily use and is my preferred radio to listen to.

As a result, I can't recommend the Tivoli highly enough to anyone looking for a very good and attractive table radio for everyday listening.

Introduction: Why Spend $100 on a Radio?

Like other reviewers here, I was attracted to the Tivoli for both its understated good looks and the reputation of designer/engineer Henry Kloss.

I am a community radio producer and also do digital audio production professionally. I appreciate good, well-balanced sound, but I wouldn't quite consider myself an audiophile, since I don't obsess enough about audio equipment, and I'm also unwilling to spend the kind of money that audiophile grade equipment goes for.

I like to listen to the radio -- it's on many more hours in my household than the television. Therefore I want my radio to sound pleasing, but not draw attention to itself. I also don't want to have to mess with it -- I want to set my station and leave it alone.

I was also drawn to the Tivoli because my experience shows that the tuner sections of most modern receivers are pretty poor. All the design and money that goes into engineering sophisticated surround sound circuits seems to have sucked the performance out of basic functions, like listening to FM radio.

And, yet, I also have found that most single-purpose radios don't sound that great either. They tend toward the tinny side, and those that do sport some bass tend to overdo it, resulting in muddy, thumpy mid-bass that masquerades as real bass.

The one exception to this situation is the GE SuperRadio, which has both an accurate tuner section and nice sound due to a decent amplifier and speaker. However, while it performs well, the SuperRadio is not exactly the world's most attractive radio.

I was finally pushed to try to the Tivoli Model One because I had bought a new house and neither my fiancee nor I wanted a big ugly radio or stereo taking up our living room. We both agreed that the Tivoli would nicely complement our decor without taking over.

Tuner Performance

The real proof of the radio is in the listening, which is one reason why I've waited more than a year to write this review. While you can certainly get a sense for a piece of audio gear in few days worth of use, the true nature and utility of an item only shows through after you've lived with it.

Like other reviewers I have to agree that the tuning section of this radio is strong and precise, especially on FM. In fact, I would say that the Tivoli is one of the best FM receivers I've ever had the pleasure to use, and would be even better if I connected it to an outdoor FM antenna (which you can do). But even sitting on a table in my living room using the included wire antenna, I am able to pull in every station that you can reasonably expect to hear in my area.

By comparison, the Tivoli's FM tuner performs almost on par with my car stereo. And here, the car has a distinct advantage with being outside and having a good, tuned, external antenna. The poor Tivoli makes due with a simple wire antenna stuck inside my brick construction house, which is not too friendly to radio signals.

The AM performance of the Tivoli is also very good, but not quite a class-leader like its FM tuner. I think the GE SuperRadio has an edge in this arena, if all-out AM performance is what you're looking for.

Nevertheless, local AM stations are strong and unwavering. Even our local NPR station is strong at night when it goes to low power (just about 250 watts), which can be a challenge for lesser radios indoors.

I also like to listen to several Chicago AM stations, which all come in very strong and clear. The Chicago all-news station, WBBM 780, is sometimes even a challenge for my car radio, depending on atmospheric conditions. But I almost never have a problem getting it in on the Tivoli.

I will say also that the Tivoli is very good at rejecting stray AM noise so that the stations that come in do so very cleanly.

Tuning on the Tivoli is helped along by the well-weighted tuning knob that gives just enough resistance and precision to clearly tune in closely spaced stations. The tuning LED gives you a visible indicator of your tuning, too, getting brightest when you're locked on.

One final thing I must say about tuner performance is that unless your favorite station is far away and hard to tune in, or you're a DXer (someone who makes a hobby of trying to listen to distant radio signals), a lot of the ability to tune in distant stations is pretty academic. I think many people are like me in their radio listening habits. There are basically two stations that I listen to daily, and maybe 5 others that I tune in regularly, but not daily.

So, while being able to occasionally get that hard-to-find station is cool, what really matters is that my favorite stations come in consistently and cleanly every time I turn on the radio.

Although this may sound like a trivial matter, I think most of us have experienced the frustration of times when our radio just won't get the station we want. Well, I've never had that experience with the Tivoli -- my favorite stations have been there every day fore more than a year, without static or distortion. That's why it gets used every day.

Sound Quality

In addition to its excellent tuner, sound quality is the other major selling point of the Tivoli. One thing to remember when considering this radio is that it is not a boombox, mini-system or component rack stereo. It is not made for house parties or listening to classical performances at orchestra sound levels.

Instead of focusing on making the Tivoli play loud or have maximum bass, Henry Kloss and his engineers focused on making it sound nice and full at realistic listening levels. Any audio engineer knows you have to play tricks to make a radio that's smaller than a shoebox sound like stereo with 15" speakers. And some of those tricks don't actually make for nice sound.

That said, the Tivoli sounds amazing for such a small little radio. There is a very present bass that is rich and full. It does not extend down to subwoofer frequencies -- just by ear I'd say that there's very little bass content below 125 Hz or so. But the dropoff in bass response is very smooth and natural. There isn't a hump of emphasized mid-bass to make it seem like there's more bass than there is. If you're used to the MegaBass added to boomboxes and walkmen, this might take some getting used to. But after a while you'll find it more pleasing and less fatiguing to listen to.

The rest of the musical spectrum is also very smooth. There is not an extended high-end like you would hear on a well balanced high fidelity speaker system. But, then again, this is a radio, where FM tops out at 15kHz and AM usually tops out at half that. The Tivoli extracts the most from both bands.

What suprises me most about listening to AM on the Tivoli is that how often it sounds like I'm listening to an FM station. My local NPR affiliate is on AM and has an exceptionally good signal, both in terms of strength and fidelity. When music is part of their programming, like their rebroadcast of A Prairie Home Companion or the Midnight Special, there are few very subtle clues that you're not listening to an FM broadcast. The high end extends very nicely to it's 7 - 10kHz limit, with very little distortion or stridency.

But it's the low noise floor that fools me most. At least with local AM stations there is very little static -- when there is a brief amount of dead air, it's still hard to tell you're listening to AM.

Other Features

One of the interesting features of the Tivoli that I have only tried but not used daily is the ability to connect an external component like a CD player. Doing this reveals the high quality of the amp and speaker in this radio. To my ears, a portable CD player played through the Tivoli sounds better than most boomboxes and mini-systems in its price range.

Since I bought my radio Tivoli has introduced a matching CD player just for that purpose. They've also introduced the Model Two, which is a stereo version of this radio, to which you can also add a subwoofer.

Based on the quality of the Model One, I don't doubt that you can create a very nice living room stereo system using these radios as the base. You would have to step up to a component system or $1000+ integrated system from a big name in order to surpass it.

Conclusion

This is not the best radio you can buy, but it is the best radio you can buy for $100. The success of the Tivoli Model One is evident in the fact that it's created a new market segment. Since the Model One was introduced, other manufacturers like Boston Acoustics, Sangean and even Emerson have jumped on the bandwagon to produce nice-sounding, good looking table radios.

In fact, before the Model One was introduced, if you wanted a nice sounding, well performing and good looking radio you had to spend much more on a Bose Wave Radio or Cambridge Soundworks radio (also designed by Kloss).

The only real shortcomings to the Tivoli Model One are that because it's an analog radio, there are no presets or digital readout. A digital tuner does not equal a good tuner, but I could see the utility in having presets, though I don't miss the function myself.

Besides that, I see and hear no major shortcomings. You can't expect this to be a full stereo or high-precision professional tuner. But the Tivoli Model One delivers fully on everything it promises.