Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sound Investment. (5 stars without the clock radio.), July 14, 2007
[After using this machine for two months, I've got to express some displeasure with the 21 tiny buttons on the face. Unless the unit is in a lighted area and in front of your face, count on some intensive sessions devoted to nothing but memorizing the uses and locations of the buttons--and be sure to rehearse those assignments every week. Even punching the right ones when you first awaken is no more of a picnic. For a company that seduced the public with the elegant simplicity of its first radios (we have 2 of them in the house), Tivoli appears to have had a newly licensed airline pilot run amok with the design for this one. They've succeeded in creating a sleek face panel without telling you it's the consumer's job to solve each of the "pimples" on the instrument's visage to get it to play right! I'd gladly settle for 2-3 big knobs to cover the volume, tuning and time set, along with two conspicuous protruding buttons for eject and on/off. Better yet: knock off a few dollars and make it available without the clock radio.]
Call it the Bosendorfer of clock radios or the Volkswagen of compact, one-piece audio systems, it works either way. And when I see the current cost of a Tivoli iPod radio (good sound providing you keep the volume backed down), the price of this model seems less extravagant. Even though Tivoli keeps throwing in new "performance" gimmicks, the primary appeal is still the audio quality. It's not "miraculous," and it won't cause true audiophiles to forget the days of building a system from the ground up, beginning with a four hundred dollar cartridge, but the sound quality is nonetheless unlikely to leave you wanting. It replaces a Model One, which had a bit too much bass (why anyone would want to add Tivoli's "sub-woofer" eludes my understanding) and too little treble (a ride cymbal has got to sizzle). This machine addresses the problem, since it has a bottom-firing speaker and a tone control, permitting you to tease more treble out of the speakers. Moreover, it solves the problem of getting only a single channel from your input source. Finally, this machine smokes my Tivoli iPal. Fuller, better defined bass, sizzling ride cymbals (I cheated on the tone control a bit), "true" piano tones, some power to spare (thus eliminating distortion problems), and beautifully balanced sound. If you've got a well-recorded CD, you won't find a system of comparable size and weight capable of realizing its potential as fully as this Tivoli.
The clock radio takes some practice--for example, to get the sound source and volume set just right, especially if you choose to nod off with a different sound source or to plug a pillow speaker in the headphone jack. I love the CD player, but it too requires gentle handling. It seems to balk at the slightest bit of moisture, or even fingerprints, on a disc, and it takes its time responding to the listener's commands. At one point I nearly returned the machine when it appeared to eat my CD, refusing to give it back. Going over the instructions, I noticed a single sentence directing the owner to unplug the machine for 60 seconds when such an event occurs. Problem solved, though it will recur, especially if you become impatient. Treat this instrument like you would a Steinway, not a player piano, and it should respond in kind.
It's a quality little unit, but it doesn't butter your toast--or even toast it, for that matter. Or perhaps, like setting the alarms and operating the CD player more efficiently, that's simply a maneuver I haven't mastered yet. (later) I've moved this out of the bedroom, permitting me to crank it up a bit and listen from 12 feet away. The unit sounds sweeter than ever (even if I'm occasionally questioning the how much and why of the clock radio).
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tivoli's Flagship Audio System, January 30, 2008
Being the owner of an older car with a factory Bose audio system, I was considering a Bose Wave CD Sound System for my home. I was looking for something well built but smaller in size that would fit on my bedroom nightstand. That being said, a wake up alarm was also a must and I knew the Bose Wave had such. In addition, I was also interested in looking at radio's by Marantz and Harmon Kardon, however, I soon discovered that the latter two do not offer a table top, all-in-one, FM tuner with CD player.
Recently, in a Newsweek magazine, I had seen a full page ad for the Tivoli Audio Music System. Frankly, I had never heard of Tivoli, but, I was awe struck that they were making a small table top system in an actual wood cabinet. Ahh, it brought back memories of the days of the old Marantz and H.H. Scott wood cabinet hi-fi systems. I was intrigued to say the least.
A browse of the Tivoli Audio website revealed that the company was started by a Tom Devesto who was an associate of the legendary, late, Henry Kloss of Kloss Video and Cambridge Sound Works. The two partnered to form Tivoli Audio almost a decade ago. Tivoli specializes in small AM/FM Radios, some with CD, most of which are `clothed' in beautiful wood cabinetry offered in cherry, walnut or painted in glossy piano white or glossy piano black.
Back in December 2007, I started seriously contemplating purchasing the Tivoli Audio Music System in Cherry finish. This flagship Tivoli system was priced at 599.00, direct from Tivoli, and was priced the same at Amazon.com. I was not only impressed with the wood enclosure but was also interested in the Tivoli AM/FM receiver design. Unlike most other radio/receiver manufacturers, Tivoli uses a `Gallium Arsenide Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor', (GaAs MES-FET). It's a mouthful I know but it is similar to cell phone receiver technology and Tivoli claims that this transistor is better at handling multiple strong signals than integrated circuits or bipolar transistors. Bottom line, great reception of those weak FM stations! Another need on my list since I have yet to find a radio that gets classical 107.5 clearly here in South-Eastern Massachusetts.
I decided to send for the Tivoli Brochure and within a week, it was mailed to me. Low and behold, the first week of January 2008 rolls around and I am back on the Tivoli web site checking out their systems. I am shocked to see that the price of the Tivoli Audio Music System in Cherry & Walnut finish is now 999.00. That's right, a whopping 400.00 more. I decide to call the Tivoli Representative who was kind enough to staple his business card inside the mailed brochure. I asked the Tivoli Rep. If I was reading correctly that these systems had jumped up in price on their site. The Tivoli Rep. stated that the new 999.00 price was correct and that `Corporate' had informed them to increase the price on Jan 1, 2008. I then advised the Tivoli Rep. that I noticed that the price of the radio at Amazon was still at 599.00, through Amazon's vendor, J & R Audio. The Tivoli Rep. stated that the Amazon price should also now be 999.00 and that was the price that I would have to pay. I asked the Rep. if there were any updates or design changes to the 999.00 one compared to the 599.00 one. The Rep. stated that the radios were identical and that the price had changed due to supply and demand. Well, the next thing the Rep. heard was my dial tone because I had hung up and was frantically trying to log into my account at Amazon. In the end, I got the radio through Amazon for the 599.00. Unfortunately, to all considering this radio, a week later, the price at Amazon also jumped up to 999.00.
Regardless, I've had the radio for 3 weeks now and love it! The system has 2 front facing speakers and a `down firing' subwoofer, auto dimming display, digital tuner with 6 AM and 6 FM presets, separate external AM and FM antennas, FM Radio Data Service (RDS), slot load single CD player, dual Sleep timers with Snooze, a thin remote control and more. The 2 individual sleep timers can be set for tone wake up, radio or cd. If the power goes out, the back-up batteries keep the alarm in sequence so your not late for work. The system has a built in equalizer that you can turn on as well as a bass adjustment knob, the latter strangely placed on the back of the unit. I guess Tivoli does not think this is adjusted as often as the treble, which is controlled via a push of the volume knob on the front.
I found that the FM tuner was fantastic at pulling in distant stations clearly. I even find that I am getting FM stations that I did not know even existed as I can not get them on my living room, Pioneer A/V Receiver.
Negatives? Well, there are some minor ones. The biggest would be that this thing now costs 400.00 bucks more that it did last month! Other trivial items are the fact that this radio receives so many decent stations that you will find that the 6 presets buttons are no where near enough. The digital display automatically dims to reductions in ambient room light, but, with all the lights out at night I found that the display was too bright to have by the bedside. I was able to cure this problem by purchasing some `static cling' household window tint film and cutting a piece to place over the display lens. The factory ships a piece of this cling film on the face in the box to prevent scratching but it is a clear piece. I wound up using two tinted cling sheets together to get the brightness down to a acceptable level for the bedroom. Also, the units auto sensor eye is off to the side and not affected by my added cling sheet so it still brightens the display for easier reading when room lights are turned on. The small straight-wire FM antenna included was ok but I got even better reception with a dipole antenna, with adapter, purchased on e-bay. Lastly, the buttons on the radio face and the remote control are somewhat of an issue. The buttons on the face are neatly and symmetrically laid out but they are all sized the same so its hard to figure out which is which in low lighting or no lighting situations. Each button is labeled, just above, on the face of the radio. It would have been nice if Tivoli had made these name tags dimly back-lit as in automobile switch/dash control design. The remote suffers the same maladies as the buttons all `feel' and look the same. Often at night, I will attempt to change volume but will hit the treble button or power button the latter then turning the unit off. My TV remote has glow-in-the-dark buttons. This would have been a help but perhaps Tivoli thought this would have been tacky for such a high-line system. Lastly, the unit has a 12 month warranty which is 9 months more then most electronics today.
Some reviewers have complained that the `Space Phase Wide Mode' defaults to `always on' at each power on. Tivoli claims that this Wide Mode feature gives the listener a more `three dimensional, expanded sound stage'. Tivoli recommends it be on unless listening to the volume at loud levels. I have found that I normally listen to the volume at level 8-12, (out of 30 maximum volume steps), and find that I enjoy this feature being defaulted to `on'. I suppose that a regular `loud volume listener' may not approve and will have to turn this off each time. Interestingly, the equalizer can be set to `always off' so why Tivoli did not also offer that on the Wide Mode is odd. Finally, some reviewers have mentioned an issue with the CD player causing the unit's electronics to `hang' or `freeze up' thus causing all control buttons to be inoperative. My unit had an added instruction sheet, separate from the manual, addressing this condition. This instruction sheet advised that, the unit be turned off, unplugged, and the back-up batteries removed for 60 seconds, then all power restored. I have only seen this happen one time and it was caused, not by my use of the CD, but when I plugged the unit into another outlet and quickly turned the power on. The display lit up but was blank and no controls would work so I followed the this procedure and all has been well since.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but the Bose is Better, January 27, 2008
The tuner on the Tivoli Radio has been praised as being good at finding stations and holding them, and that was what motivated this purchase. We had a Bose in our kitchen that would partially lose the public radio station we listen to. I moved it and placed the Tivoli in this spot, only to discover that it did no better than the Bose. In fact when I put the Bose back into this spot and hooked it up to the short external antenna that came with the Tivoli, the Bose had better reception. More than that, the Bose has far friendlier controls. The Tivoli plays fine in its new location where the signal is stronger.
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