Topic: Table Radios

[Daryan]

I need a nice radio for my bedroom to listen to NPR.  I have looked at Tivoli, Sangean, and the Music Hall RDR-1.  Price is generally about the same.  Have any of you guys played with these and might be willing to comment?

Danke

[Will_S]

I have a Tivoli PAL.  The battery life is awesome.  Reception is remarkably good as well, although part of that may be due to the tiny size of the unit itself and the fact that it can therefore be moved around and placed in optimal spots for reception.

The sound...well...for a tiny box you can carry in one hand and run for hours on end without batteries, it's not bad.  For listening to NPR, it's probably entirely suitable.  It can sound a little plasticky at times, real bass can cause it to break up, and it's obviously missing the high and low ends of the spectrum (playing around with a sine wave generator I seemed to get useful response down to ~90 Hz and up to ~17 kHz, but the treble falls of rapidly as you move off-axis).  It's mono (duh) so playing back spaced-pair recordings can lead to weird frequency cancellation effects.  On the right kind of undemanding material it can sound pretty musical though.

Basically, as long as you don't buy into the reviews claiming audiophile sound, you'll probably be happy with a Tivoli for what it is.  I'm certainly happy with mine.

[bgalizio]

I have a Tivoli PAL.  The battery life is awesome.  Reception is remarkably good as well, although part of that may be due to the tiny size of the unit itself and the fact that it can therefore be moved around and placed in optimal spots for reception.

The sound...well...for a tiny box you can carry in one hand and run for hours on end without batteries, it's not bad.  For listening to NPR, it's probably entirely suitable.  It can sound a little plasticky at times, real bass can cause it to break up, and it's obviously missing the high and low ends of the spectrum (playing around with a sine wave generator I seemed to get useful response down to ~90 Hz and up to ~17 kHz, but the treble falls of rapidly as you move off-axis).  It's mono (duh) so playing back spaced-pair recordings can lead to weird frequency cancellation effects.  On the right kind of undemanding material it can sound pretty musical though.

Basically, as long as you don't buy into the reviews claiming audiophile sound, you'll probably be happy with a Tivoli for what it is.  I'm certainly happy with mine.

Got one for my Grandparents a few years ago. I'll echo the statements above and add that, depending on your decor, it looks pretty cool.

[pfife]

by npr, are you saying talk radio, or music on npr?   If it was just talk, I'd just get something that's like $10.

[audBall]

My grandparents have a Bose Waveradio and a recently purchased single channel Tivoli radio.  I f'in love their tivoli and have considered one for my kitchen as well.  It feels solid and robust when holding it and the frequency knob feels HQ.  For being just one speaker, I think it sounds better than their Bose (which I should note is 6+ years old now). 

That Tivoli never ceases to impress each time I visit.  I'd be interested to hear about their 'stereo' models and Cd players.

[tiberiusbkirk]

I don't have any of those you mentioned but have experience with some vintage models.
Our first table radio were the Sonys, we listened to baseball games with it prior to the days of cable.
I then wanted a nice clock radio. I bought a KLH 200, very nice unit I've heard it was made by Kyocera. Not really a clock radio
because the readout was so tiny.
I gave that as a housewarming gift to my sis, I bought myself a Proton 320 and still use it till this day.
The KLH looks better and has antenna connections. Both radios still work.

[coop]

I also have a PAL.  While it is not what i would call hifi, the sound that comes out of that small of a package is remarkable.  The tuner does not suck either, much better reception than any other boombox i have.  The big plus for me is portabillity.
    The company i work for is an authorized dealer for tivoli, not sure what we have in stock right now, but if you are interested let me know.
    coop