Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One - Radio tuner - dark walnut

by Tivoli Audio

Product Details

• ASIN: B00069L5ZY
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,458 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Tivoli Model One has been praised far and wide for its high-quality sound, small size, and cool, retro styling. We got our hands on a sample unit and came away impressed, just as many others have. Anyone who wants a compact, stylish radio with surprisingly good sound should give the Model One a look.

Design
In many ways, the Model One is the culminating achievement of famed audio engineer Henry Kloss's long career. Designed from the ground up by Kloss, who passed away in 2002, the radio exudes understated class and elegant simplicity. We received the Platinum Series Model One, which features a hand-lacquered, high gloss dark walnut cabinet that is simply gorgeous. According to Tivoli, the genuine wood casing isn't just for looks as it provides "an acoustically inert housing" that maximizes the speaker's sound quality. At just over 8 inches wide, 4.5 inches high, and 5.25 inches deep, the Model One is about the size of a toaster turned on its side-- plenty small to fit on a desk, dresser, or nightstand.

The Model One's single rotary dial handles tuning for both AM and FM stations. It feels sturdy and smooth in the hand. The dial is designed to move between stations at a speed that is a bit slower than the speed at which the user turns the knob-- a 5 to 1 ratio, to be exact. This "ratio" dialing technique makes it far easier to tune stations accurately and quickly. It's a nice touch that sets the unit apart from other desktop radios.

The tuner band selection and volume dials are easy to control. Plus, they're well designed for hands of all sizes. A small LED power indicator, as well as an LED that helps determine signal strength, are positioned between the dials. We liked the light-colored face and dark lettering printed on the Platinum Series model we reviewed; it made for easy operation in dimly-lit rooms. The Model One's single, 3" driver is protected by a handsome metal speaker cover. Tivoli adds that the speaker is enhanced by a "multi-stage frequency contouring circuit that adjusts the speaker's output over half-octave increments." The result, Tivoli claims, is "musically accurate tonal balance and bass response."

The back of the unit features a coaxial antenna jack for the included FM antenna wire. While the Model One also has an internal FM antenna, Tivoli recommends using the supplied external one for tricky tuning in locales with a lot of stations crammed together. There's a handy switch for switching between the internal and external antennae. A standard 3.5mm headphone jack is also provided, as is a 3.5mm auxiliary line in port for plugging in your iPod or other music device. If you want to use the Model One as a component tuner-- not a bad idea given the overall quality and accuracy of the tuning circuitry-- Tivoli has provided a 3.5mm output port. The back panel also sports separate ports for AC and DC power, making the unit a great choice for boating or RV use.

Listening Pleasure
As with the Tivoli iPal portable speaker system, we were initially skeptical about the performance of a small, one-speaker unit that only offers monaural sound. The reality is that most small two-speaker systems don't allow you to place the speakers very far apart anyway, and the Model One's rich, resonant sound more than made up for its lack of true stereo separation. Plus, the Model One is a single, elegant box with no annoying speaker cords.

While the Model One isn't designed to provide earth-shattering sound at high volume, it produces surprising clarity and fullness at normal listening levels. When turned all the way up, the unit's rich sound persists and we suspect that Tivoli engineered the Model One's volume level to max out before any distortion arises. If you don't need a lot of volume, the Model One delivers. As with the iPal, we were left scratching our heads and wondering how such great sound could come from such a little box.

The Model One's tuning accuracy is also impressive; we were able to dial in stations we didn't even know existed. Tivoli says this is due to the unit's discrete-component FM tuner technology, which was originally developed for cellular telephones. Whatever Tivoli has done here, they did it right; closely-spaced stations are a breeze to tune.

Pros

• Compact form factor
• Excellent sound
• Supremely accurate tuning

Cons

• Not engineered to produce extremely high volume levels

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pricey, but worth it, May 26, 2006

By 

Optimist (Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One - Radio tuner - dark walnut (Electronics)

This radio has 3 things that make it outshine other brands I tried: 1) it has very good audio for its size, 2) it looks great, and 3) it has a very good tuner able to pull in weak stations.

I got this for my wife's birthday as a third attempt to provide her with a kitchen radio that can receive the weak PBS stations in our town. Two others (Sony and GE) were completely unable to pick up PBS. This radio can receive them, provided I place the external antenna in the right position. On strong stations, of course, it has no problem, even with its internal antenna. It is just that when the signal is very weak, even the best possible radio design must be given a chance by providing a good antenna (This is actually an expert opinion since I teach radio design at a state university. The problem has to do with what is called the Thermal Noise Floor and the FM detector's sensitivity. Limits of physics and engineering - yada, yada, yada ;-)

Another problem radios have with weak signals is receiving them when there are strong signals around (called intermod and blocking problems). This radio does a pretty good job dealing with those problems too. There is a hip-hop station in our area which is so strong that other radios like the Sony and GE kitchen models I tried had the entire bottom of the FM band unusable. The strong station comes in everywhere on the dial with those radios. The Tivoli did have a few instances of receiving this annoying station at places on the dial where stations were weak or absent, but it was much improved over the other brands, and it was able to dig out the weak PBS signals. The only radios that might do a better job are car radios which are designed to deal with the problem. But a comparison of the Tivoli with my Pioneer car radio and its "Supertuner" showed them to be about on a par - except that the Tivoli actually sounded better!

On the subject of sound, the Tivoli is very good - amazing for the small speaker. Midrange and highs are very pleasing, but I feel the bass is a bit colored and maybe too strong. But that's another place where the design of the radio is probably about as good as physics will allow, given the size - so I'm very happy.

Finally, the looks... I got the platinum version of the Model-One for the polished wood, and boy is it polished. They even throw in a pair of white gloves so you don't get finger prints on the finish when you take it out of the box ! Nice touch...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reception!, June 6, 2008

By 

Anna Gibson (The Shoals, Alabama) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One - Radio tuner - dark walnut (Electronics)

I like to listen to public radio as I get ready for work, and for years I've listened on a radio boombox with a constant background of static. An outdoor antenna is not practical, so I did some research to learn if there were radios out there that got really good reception. This one kept coming up, as did the Boston Acoustic Recepter radio. I chose this one because quite frankly, it's just gorgeous. But it has brains as well as beauty. I am now listening to NPR with a full, clear sound free of static and noise. When I first set it up, I was still getting a little static, but when I moved the cord just a tad, it went away and has been crystal clear ever since. I never even had to attach the antenna (it comes with an antenna cord too). And did I mention that it just looks really cool?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent table radio, October 21, 2009

By 

Zach Barlow (sacramento) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One - Radio tuner - dark walnut (Electronics)

I listen to a lot of classical and talk radio. For this purpose, it works magnificently (and looks beautiful!) and gets plenty loud to hear throughout my house. The tuning knob turns with a decent amount of friction so it feels very well built and solid. I also liked that it comes with a bag (as if you're going to take it anywhere in the first place) and cleaning cloth.
Expensive, yes, but so nice!