Carey's Tesslor R601S Tube Radio Review

As with any radio, it has its strengths and weaknesses, but the Tesslor’s assets far outweigh its liabilities (if you can even find them). First and foremost, the sound quality is superb; the radio gives excellent clarity of voice and instrument at varying ranges with no muffling present. It takes about a half hour to warm up and one will experience some station drift as it does so. Once it is warm, I have found it to lock on to stations very well. Talk radio stations sound very clear (albeit with a slight touch of bass), but nothing that I have had issue with- it is very well balanced for a radio with no tonal controls. Whether it is music or talk radio, the sound fills my living room and dining room with no distortion.

The dark matte finish of the case is heirloom quality, built to last, and very attractive to display- so much so, my wife gave me “special dispensation” to bring it forth from my Mancave to the living area. The reception is excellent on FM and very good on AM during the daytime. At night, there are some Reno AM stations that become harder to pick up even with "better” receivers, and my Terk AM Advantage works very well inductively pulling in some of those harder to receive stations. It is not a DX-intended radio, but its reception is nothing to sneeze at on FM or AM. In Reno, I do not need an antenna for this radio and the local stations come in quite clearly. If the need ever arises, the radio has selections and ports for FM and AM internal/ external antennae independently. The radio also comes equipped with a “magic eye” indicator for station reception. Even when the two sides of the eye are not convergent (which is a scenario that seldom applies to a very few Reno stations received by this radio), I still get good reception and quality. For alternative input, it has an aux-in port and selector knob option for IPod plug-in, but I often use a CC Radio Transmitter 2 from my Grace internet radio. 

I do not have another apples-for-apples comparable radio (like a Tivoli Model Two) or another transistor electronic stereo to give a good “shoot-out”, but my Tivoli Model One, which I once thought to be quite clear and distinct, does not match the warmth or clarity of the Tesslor R601S. My Sangean WR-11 sounds even more bass-heavy and less listenable with talk radio. (As I said, these are good monoaural radios and not in the R601S’ league for proper comparison). I had a quality question and when I called Tesslor, I received a live person on the phone on the first two rings who was very knowledgeable and answered my questions to my satisfaction. I would think there would be a swift response if there were any service issues. If you have other questions, there are good comments on Amazon as well as a very good video review. 

The Tesslor has been a wonderful addition to our home; this was the best radio gift I have ever received, and my wife hit the nail on the head with this one!

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Comments

[Gary]

Thanks for the review, Carey.

[StarHalo]

Thanks Carey, great stuff. This one has topped my "dream radio" list for a long time now, glad to see yet another glowing review. I look forward to the day I can put one on my table and listen to the Danny Stiles Music Museum through it..

[Scooby214]

Sounds like a great radio. It reminds me of one of my tube radios: a 1956 Blaupunkt Granada. I recovered it from a trash pile. I replaced a few capacitors and returned it to its original beautiful sound. Its FM has some of the best sound quality I've ever heard from a tabletop radio, and its AM has wide enough bandwidth to give it near-FM sound quality.

Brian

[Drive-In-Freak]

All of the RF circuit in those is solid state, but you've got to love that tube sound. Does it have connections for outboard speakers? I would imagine it would really shine with some good efficient bookshelf speakers.

[David]

US distributor:

http://www.tesslor-usa.com/

[Canadian SWL]

This looks like an amazing radio - I'm even considering paying to have it shipped to Canada - but I noticed that the AM band stops at 1600kHz. Anyone else notice this? I called the distributor in Long Beach, California and they said the stereo model uses the same tuning board as the monaural version. Can anyone confirm if the tuner stops at 1600 or 1710kHz?

[StarHalo]

You actually have something to listen to beyond 1600? Here on the West Coast there's some all-business station on 1700, I noted it when DXing and have never tuned beyond ~1510 since..

[Gary]

The specs on the company's web site indicate that the AM band does indeed stop at 1600 kHz.

http://www.tesslor-usa.com/r-601s-specifications/

[Drive-In-Freak]

KCJJ 1630 out of Iowa City is a great station..one of the last real radio stations here in the US.

[StarHalo]

Drive-In, that certainly does look like a genuine radio station, local owned and operated, thanks for the heads up. A bummer they turn down their signal at night, and I see they only recently stopped broadcasting in AM Stereo..

[Drive-In-Freak]

You're quite welcome.
Even with the 1KW they still get quite a signal out as the frequency isn't crowded. I used to be able to pull it in all the way down here in Florida before WRDW singed on in Georgia (as if everybody really needed yet another sports talk station let alone network fed sports talk).
It covers most of the northeast with ease over to the Rockies...as long as the conditions aren't horrible.

[Pianoplayr88key]

StarHalo, if you're referring to XEPE Tecate/Tijuana on 1700, it's been ESPN sports for a few years now.

As for KCJJ, I may have heard it years ago when the expanded band was new, but now I have a local on that frequency. It's off the air from midnight to 5 or 6 am, but I get a spanish station from CO or WY during that time.

[Paul Bown]

Have had the r601 mono with bt for a year now ,excellent on fm or am clear warm sound , if you like radios you must get one , however no longer made so that makes it even more desirable.I listen to a sangean wr11 bt most of the time also a must have .

[dmc bohol]

as of Nov 2018 this radio is no longer available in Amazon or even eBay.
the website of tesslor cannot be reached too...
how disappointing that we can no longer buy this...