Tivoliaudio

The eldest sister was the Model One, family's first-born and daughter to Henry Kloss and Tom de Vesto, founders of Tivoli Audio; it was followed by the PAL, a younger sister bearing the same imprinting of the first. Then it was the turn of Model Two (review on Videohifi coming soon), which opens the concept of the mono portable radio towards expansible systems. It is stereo and it is composed of two satellites, one of which is a Model One-like tuner while the other one is the right channel; they can be combined with a subwoofer and - since a few months ago - with a CD player. The last born is the Model Three, which has been showed out in these days at the CES where it won the Innovations Award (together with the Combo, i.e. the combination of Two + Sub + CD). In production by the end of next month, it is a clock radio similar to the Model One (see picture), only difference being the loudspeaker placed atop the cabinet to make room, on the front panel, for a stylish analog watch.


Model Three		Model CD

We have the Model one and the PAL under test in this issue.

Model One

It was July 2001 when, entering a Hi-Fi shop, I spotted among expensive devices that cute and somehow rétro product, colored in water green and wooden brown, that looked like an intruder amid the black and gray suits of HiFi and HT systems. Upon suggestion from the salesperson I tried it and, from that day on, the Tivoli Audio Model One has been playing music in my kitchen letting my wife appreciate, for once, a HiFi piece. This Model One is one of those objects giving a contribution to the history of good music reproduction and, I'd dare say, of the High Fidelity; its successful blend of aesthetics and good sound made a world-scale best seller of it.

But what is this delicious object ? It's an AM/FM mono radio with a sensational selectivity and a great sound, it's the technical heritage a giant like Mr. Henry Kloss wished to leave to us, showing everybody how research and technology can still have a human attitude. And easy to use the Model One is, with its large analog frequency tuning knob that, thanks to a 5:1 ratio, allows a perfect tuning, a task made easier by a kind of magic eye consisting of a yellow led light that gets brighter as frequency gets tuned in more closely. On the front panel we also find, from left to right, the 3" loudspeaker and two little knobs: one is the volume potentiometer while the other one is a selector controlling the on/off status and the switch between AM and FM bands. In between lay two led lights, the already described yellow one and a green one that lights when the unit is on.

The rear panel hosts: a plug for the mains cord (the AC PSU is built-in), another one for a 12V external PSU, a source-in connector (for a CDP or similar), a headphone plug and a tape recorder output. We also find the post for an external aerial and a switch to select the external or the internal one.

One can find many aspects that help make the Model One an excellent blend of qualities: the cabinet is wood made, except for front and rear panels which are made of thick plastic, available in four color combinations. These are: fawn front panel with walnut cabinet; cobalt blue front panel with cherry cabinet; water green front panel with maple cabinet; silver front panel with white cabinet. With its bottom reflex tube, this cabinet turns the radio into a true loudspeaker box bearing a built-in tuner; four rubber feet keep the device a few millimeters off the tabletop. The GaAs FET aerial mixer allows great input sensitivity and selectivity; this latter characteristic immediately results in the advantage of skipping hybrid circuits. It is therefore possible to install a mixer without any transformer, having as a result a device that is compact and easy to interface - not to mention the ability to reduce the interference between neighboring frequencies (see picture 1 and 2).

Reception is already high level with the wire aerial included; I tested it with my Silver Ribbon indoors aerial by Magnum Dynalab and I found a further improvement in reception and, accordingly, in sound quality. Sound becomes more "physical", but I repeat that outstanding performances can be obtained with the factory-installed wire aerial too. A multi-frequency equalizer circuit is also present, allowing a flat frequency response at different output levels. Even turning the knob to end, sound does not distort and the voice coming out of this radio is surprising for naturalness and frequency response extension; it hardly gives any listening fatigue even after hours, too. In the various tries I carried out along these years, I noticed that Model One gives its best in not too large rooms (my kitchen is 3 by 4 meter wide). Better if it is placed on a wall shelf or a bookshelf, in a wall corner if possible - in order to further reinforce its bass response.

Therefore the Model One well deserves its present success and, even though it costs more than a normal radio (the street price is around 150 Euro anyway), its price / quality ratio is very favorable.