Herculodge

Tivoli PAL Soon to Retire? Or Not?

One of my favorite radios, the Tivoli PAL, is soon to retire was explained on the Tivoli website, but I look it up a few months later to see that that information is gone. My guess is that consumer demand has kept the PAL alive and well.  

Getting better reception than the very good PAL is the greatest radio for the general buyer: the Kaito KA 2100. 

World's Most Gorgeous Radio

I've seen a lot of radios in my time but in terms of looks I'm in love and am still waiting for the Eton Sound 100, which can be pre-ordered at J&R for $159 with free shipping. No reviews out yet but I assume it's a keeper, at least as good as my Sangean WR-2 but with greater styling cues, part retro, part modern. I'll have to get the Eton Sound 100 in black.

Foul Weather Has Rendered My Sangean HDR-1 Afoul

So far during bad rainy weather my HD on AM hasn't worked very well. It seems when it rains at night my HD turns off on AM and I'm stuck with conventional AM even on HD AM stations. Background crackle on 710 and 790 AM is driving me crazy. Today the HD was back in order.

FM has always sounded great but Sangean HDR-1 (my extensive review on Amazon is linked here) needs to work on this AM weakness.

Learning the "Personality" of my Sangean HDR-1 Radio

I've had my Sangean HDR-1 (Amazon Review is mine) for about a week now and after placing the external AM antenna on top of my picture frame, about three feet above the radio, I've found the "sweet spot" for my AM stations. FM has been great all along, but I wasn't sure about AM until I learned that the digital doesn't "kick in" for several seconds. You're in regular AM mode for 20 seconds or so, then you lock into digital. It sounds great. One day I was going from digital to regular AM mode, back and forth, on 710 AM, but that's been an exception. I've been locked in ever since. The digital sounds so good that Los Angeles' strongest (non-digital) AM station, 640 KFI, sounds terrible. Digital is the way to go.

Conclusions: So far I'm happy I didn't wait for the great looking Eton Sound 100 non-digital AM/FM radio and jumped on the HDR-1, which costs me $199, provided I get my $50 rebate in the mail.

Great Food and Wine Discoveries of 2006

1. Puttanesca sauce with sea bass and roasted garlic asparagus
2. Homemade yogurt biscuits with fig jam or honey
3. Pomegranate wine from Armenia (under $10 a bottle)
4. Upscale store-bought raisin bread
5. Raisin-cinnamon swirl peanut butter found at Peanut Butter & Company
6. 2004 Brown Zinfandel (the greatest red wine I've ever had at $40 a bottle)
7. Van Hovel White Rieseling
8. Rex Goliath Zinfandel (about $8 a bottle)
9. Plain nonfat yogurt with medjool dates
10. Fesenjan, a Persian dish made with pomegranate and walnuts
11. Triple chocolate rum cake (are you kidding me?)
12. Mexican chocolate ice cream