Tivoli Audio Model One AM/FM Table Radio in Black/Silver (M1BBS)

I am a professional musician, recording engineer and lifetime radio enthusiast. It seems odd these days to be raving about a table radio, but this little guy is simply wonderful. Lots of fun. The sound quality is superb - glorious mono! - and it can thoroughly fill a small room. The Kloss tuner is a classic and one of the best, still. There is nothing not to like about it, and it has a great retro-modern look as well.Some comments and caveats:If your hearing isn't what it used to be, or you already have and like the sound of one of the Bose offerings, you will not like this. The Tivoli's treble is rounded and natural, not crispy and hyped like the Bose. The Tivoli produces a good deal of bass, which gives the sound a lot of body. It's diminutive size belies the volume it can produce, but some may not like the bass, which I find to be likewise natural. This radio produces less low end than the similar Sangean, which I think is too bassy. There is no tone control.The tuner is one of the best ever. Being all analog, it can tune channels which might be getting swamped by adjacent frequencies. Tuning requires a bit of technique, which I think is part of the enjoyment. If you live in or near a city, the built-in antenna might be all you need, but if you are in a "fringe" area I highly recommend an outdoor FM antenna and good coax. (I use the Fanfare "college band" antenna. The Winegard Omni is very good as well.) That's when this thing comes alive. I can tune close to fifty stations where I am in a fringe area of New York State with this set-up. Band-scanning is very entertaining. <g> Even if you are not in a fringe area, today's homes are typically full of transmitters, from wi-fi to cordless phones and many others. These can swamp radio frequencies. If you can put up an outdoor antenna,you might want to.My older home has aluminum siding which makes AM reception impossible, but I have found late at night that a tunable external loop - a Tecsun AN200, bought on Amazon - allows me to receive nearly inaudible stations clearly. I have listened to Louisville, KY from my location. You just place this inexpensive device adjacent to the radio and tune it as you would the radio. If you are in a city, there should be plenty of reception with the internal antenna if you want AM.There is an auxiliary input for your iPod, etc. It uses a mini stereo cable.Apparently the tuner can get crackly with age, which is easily fixed by "exercising" the tuner, back and forth. This is common with analog controls. I suspect many people lock in one station and never adjust the tuner, which could be part of the problem. Also, if it is used in a kitchen, airborne grease will eventually build up on the contacts. Adjusting the controls regularly will help keep it clean.If you've had any desire for a little old-school radio, there is nothing better.

I have had one of these radios for years that I use in the main bathroom every morning. Gotta get the weather and news first thing. I like the whiteness and small size. Good quality tone and the new antenna (now a telescoping metal one -- the original one had a black droopy wire that I had to tape to the mirror) is a vast improvement in tone quality and esthetics! This radio replaces a tiny, and tinny, one that I had for years since it was about as big as a softball. Although this radio is larger, it is so far better in tone that I don't mind the extra bulk on the vanity in the guest bathroom. Worth every penny!

Changed review from 3 to 4 stars:Nov 2018 update: I returned original unit about a year ago and been using a Sangean SW11 ever since. But, while the Sangean is a good radio, the vocals are not very clear, so I bought another Tivoli Model One and it does not seem to have the drift and sticky tuner knob the first unit had. I gave the Tivoli another chance because it went on sale and was about same price as Sangean. For any music with vocals the sound of the Tivoli is superior for my ears.Edited after one day of use. Changing from 4 star to 3 stars, I am observing an issue with the tuning knob that is probably going to cause me to return the unit. See Pros #4 and Cons #4 for details.I now own both a Tivoli Pal BT (about a week) and this Model One (for one day). My initial impressions are that it lives up to my expectations and the fine reviews it gets. I listen primarily to one station on FM (WFRS) Smithtown aka Family Radio and 710 (WOR) New York City. I am located in Suffolk County (on Long Island).Pros: 1. FM is great (lyrics in music are quite differentiated from the music). Even better than the PAL. Plenty of sound for my apartment. 2. Internal FM antenna OK, but the wire is better with a steadier signal. 3. Solidly built all over. Quality parts. 4. Smooth Controls. (See Cons below) 5. Super simple to use. No bells and whistles to confuse. 6. I would describe the sound as crisp and fairly full FM for such a small speaker. 7. Looks great on my book shelf.Cons: 1. AM is not useful for me (whereas the PAL is OK). But I think that is primarily because I keep the Model One in the same spot, while I can move the PAL around. I will get a small external AM antenna that I can move around to see if that helps. 2. Even though the FM wire antenna works for me, I think radios in this price class should come with a nicer dipole wire antenna. 3. Not cheap for an AM/FM radio, although this beige model at $111 is not too exorbitant. $150 is too much. 4. After using for a day, I am seeing stiffness in the tuning knob above station 100 on FM, knob remains smooth but gets uncomfortably stiff for the rest of the dial. Is it a lubrication issue or mechanical? I tried turning the knob briskly back and forth across the dial many times and stiffness remains. I do not have this issue at all on the PAL BT, which is smooth with same stiffness across the dial.

Este es el modelo más sencillo de los radios Tivoli, la calidad de los acabados es de lo mejor. La recepción es muy buena y la calidad del sonido excepcional. Es un excelente aparato para un purista de la radio: no tiene control remoto, ni sintonizador digital, ni usb, ni ranura de memoria, ni bluetooth ... solamente cuenta con buen sonido y buena recepción. La perilla del sintonizador tiene un funcionamiento muy suave. Sí cuenta con entrada auxiliar para conectarlo por medio de un conector de 3.5 mm y poder usarlo como bocina. También cuenta con salida de 3.5 mm si se quiere usar como receptor de alta calidad conectado a un amplificador. En una zona con buena intensidad de señal no requiere de antena externa, para zonas de recepción media la antena incluida es bastante eficiente. La entrada BNC para la antena de FM permite conectar antenas más sofisticadas, desde una telescópica interior hasta un dipolo exterior, si se quiere captar estaciones lejanas.El diseño es minimalista y de muy buen gusto. Estoy muy contento con mi compra y espero muchos años de buen servicio de este radio.

This is an attractive, compact, and very well made small radio, with excellent sound and precise tuning. With the enclosed external antenna wire we were able to get clear and stable FM reception to a distant station that was inaudible in our former $30 mass market radio. One complaint that has been mentioned by other customers is that over time the tuner no longer works effectively or holds the frequency. After "Googling" that problem the issue is that the tuner needs to be "exercised" once every few months by turning it back and forth from one end of the tuning range to the other (with the radio turned down or off). The problem is caused by dust collecting in the tuner and settling of the lubricant in the internal mechanism. Moving the tuner back and forth through its range helps redistribute the lubricant and remove the dust, making the tuner work like new, according to what others have said. Apparently this is a well known issue, so it is unfortunate that Tivoli does not disclose this in their product manual.

Received my Tivoli Model One last week. This is a new model that come with only DC 12V input! The item include external antenna (installed), Power Supply Adapter 110Vac to 240 Vac and the radio.Reception wise, some hit and miss…sometime using the internal antenna is better than the external??? But once hitting the good channels, the sound is good! Feel like old time! :)

This radio is the antithesis of most modern electronics. In a world of fully digital devices, this radio remains stubbornly analog, with very little in the way of extra, unnecessary features. It really pays homage to the golden age of radio. The device is well built from high quality materials. The three knobs impart a high sense of quality as you turn them. The tuning knob especially is a delight to use. There are no presets for stations, but the that just means you get to use the buttery smooth tuning knob, and the radio quickly locks on to stations. A small amber light glows ever brighter as you tune in to a station. The sound is excellent. It's mono, but you wouldn't get much stereo separation from most table radios anyway. The small speaker puts out a surprising amount of bass. The top end is a bit rolled off, so there is no sibilance. It's a warm sound that treats voices really well - perfect for radio. You don't get any of the harsh "s" sounds that you might hear on other radios. We have not played the radio beyond 1/2 of the volume, since it gets plenty loud at that point. I'm not sure how it would sound full out; but if you want something really loud, you'd be better off using a bigger (and stereo) system. There is an aux-in port on the back, but we use this as it was intended - to listen to the radio.

以前から気になっていたラジオですが、並行輸入品で手ごろな価格なので購入しました。筐体やパネルの質感はとても良いクラシックな雰囲気で音質、音量ともに自室で聞くパーソナルラジオとしては十分です。ただ、並行輸入品ですからFM の受信周波数が国内（76～90MHz)よりはずっと上の88～108MHｚ になっているので、そのままでは国内放送は受信できません。私は分解して内部のシールドを取り外し、局発コイルに47pF のコンデンサを並列に加えて80～90MHz 程度が受信できるように改造しました。東京周辺では主要な局は高い周波数によっているので、これでも実用になります。ただコンデンサを並列にすると周波数の範囲がせまくなるので、本当はコイルを卷足すのが望ましいのですがシールドケース入りのコイルで取り外しが難しいのでとりあえずコンデンサで試してみました。今度はプリントパターン側に小さなコイルを直列に入れて試してみます。【重要】 このような改造をした場合は当然保証が効かなくなりますし、シールドケースの取り外しなどかなり難易度が高い改造なので半田付け等に自信のある方のみ自己責任でお願いします。AM 側は一辺が90cm ほどの大きなループアンテナ（約10巻き）を造ってバリコンで同調を取りベランダに設置しました。3巻きほどの二次コイルで極細の同軸ケーブルで取り出して裏面の外部アンテナ端子に入力しました。注意する点はアンテナ端子は3.5mm のステレオミニプラグですが、グランドは使用せずに残りの二端子に接続する変則的な接続になっていることです。これでガンガン入るようになりましたが、選択度が悪いのでTBS などの影響で文化放送がマスクされて聞こえなくなりました。