The Mistake of Making Absolute Judgments About Radios

As many of you know, I really wanted to love the Tivoli Model One, which has a great look, feel, and speaker sound. Sadly, I ended up selling it, like I did with the Model Three, because neither gave me good FM performance. Especially, both would drift on FM. However, I've learned that the same radio performs differently in different environments. Cyril from Canada attests this with a recent comment:

I know you had trouble with your Tivoli Model 1, but I still think anybody looking for a high-end radio without presets or clock owes it to themselves to at least try one... They do sound great when they manage to grab and hold the station you want (which is 100% of the time for me).

I never experienced the FM drift problem you reported -- in fact my impression is that the radio even improves after "warming up" a bit. The FM reception on the BA Solo I tried was not as good as on the TM1. I never tried the Sangeans because I can't find any in store.

My impression from reading too many reviews on-line is that all the "usual suspects" can be excellent radios. Reception may be highly dependent on your particular physical settings though.

I completely agree with Cyril. Don't judge a radio based on any reviews, even mine, until you've tried the radio yourself because your environment is the final determiner of the radio's performance. Case in point: One Amazon reviewer actually wrote that the Kaito 2100, the best reception-radio I've ever owned, gave him "lousy" FM. I have no doubt that the problem was his environment, not the radio. If 99% of Kaito 2100 owners rhapsodize about its great reception powers, then there's a high probability that it will perform to your expectations, but there are no guarantees.

So to be fair to Tivoli, you should give the very well-built Model One a chance before dismissing it. And we can apply this principle to most radios.

 

Comments

[doby14]

I just bought a CCrane CCRadioSW for a friend of mine because it seems to be the same radio as the Kaito 2100/Redsun RP2100. I'll be interested to see if it works as well for him in Oakland, Calif. as it does for me in Chicago.

He wants to be able to get KOMO 1000 in Seattle.

(By the way, I would've gotten him a Kaito 2100, but Amazon doesn't seem to have it in stock, and I figured Universal Radio would take too long to send it. Besides, he'll appreciate the CCRadioSW's much better manual, which I've seen online. Knowing him, he would probably be annoyed by the Kaito's manual, which was clearly written by someone for whom English was not a first language.)

[Jeff McMahon]

David,

Funny, I'm from Oakland (1971-1989) and my brother still lives nearby in Berkeley. The San Francisco Bay Area gets great reception, a bit better than here in LA.

I can't promise he'll get that Seattle station.

The only manual directions I've had problems with is setting the clock for "normal" time, not military.

The more I use the 2100, the more I like and admire it. There's no radio out there with this kind of reception. I suspect best case scenario for the $300 Satellit 750 is that it will equal the 2100.

Sounds like you got your friend a great present.

[doby14]

I once lived in Oakland, too (1997-2005). I used my Sony ICF-7601 there, and I did find reception of out of market stations to be very good.

I lived near Piedmont Ave. and Macarthur Blvd. Sometimes I miss sitting on the benches that surround Lake Merritt, especially at night. I still have several friends in Oakland.

The friend I bought the CCRadioSW for lives in the Oakland hills, near Montclair.

[Jeff McMahon]

My first girlfriend is from Montclaire and I used to teach at Merritt College. Nostalgia. My brother is thinking of moving from the Berkeley Hills to Piedmont. He develops bio-fuel parks. I guess he can afford it.