REVIEW: TIVOLI Audio Model One Digital Radio

Eighteen years after the release of the original Model One radio from Tivoli Audio, the brand is back with the Model One Digital with a completely modern update that pays respects to the now iconic Model One radio.
Tivoli Audio
Model One Digital
Wireless DAB+ Radio
Tivoli Audio's iconic Model One radio and I go back a long, long way. To the beginning as a matter of fact.
About 18-years ago, I was overseeing a weekly technology audio-video section in the Melbourne Herald Sun, a mass daily which was then and still is, Australia’s largest selling newspaper.
The original Tivoli Model One radio featured in an edition covering the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show.
One reader just coincidently happened to be a Melbourne audio equipment importer who promptly contacted the Tivoli Audio company and soon after, became the Australasian importer of the brand.
Back then, the Model One radio carrying FM/AM bands became an instant nationwide smash hit.
Consumers loved the Model One's blend of retro and contemporary styling. They also enjoyed its operational simplicity, but most of all they liked the sumptuous sound.
Matter of fact, we all did. It was by a large measure the best sounding, easiest to use, easy-on-the-eye, tabletop radio around.
Overseas radio users agreed. The Tivoli Audio Model One sold like the proverbial hotcakes in every country it was available, and there were numerous.
It’s fair to say, the Model One was the radio that put radio back on the map for the home and in so doing, created a couple of distinctive categories: it was the first lifestyle radio with great sound, and when a portable version became available, it also opened the way for portable radios with great sound.
No small achievements in a market that were jaded by a horde of lacklustre competing radio sets that moreover had lousy sound.
18 years on and the news is all good.
The Tivoli Audio Model One radio is still made; only the current model is fully updated to include the DAB+ Digital Radio band in addition to FM. The move to digital brings a bundle of brand new radio stations with it along with banishing pesky interference to the radio bin of history.
The other nifty feature that we really like on our review sample is its Bluetooth aptX feature.
Using Bluetooth mode means we can get all the music stored on our smartphones and tablets playing through the Model One Digital, without a cable of any sort.
The Model One Digital carries the software application required to pair with any compatible Bluetooth enabled smart device.
Pairing is dead simple and only takes a couple of minutes. The app is so simple, anyone can do it.
Tivoli Audio has also given the new model Wi-Fi capability. The Wi-Fi feature allows you to stream music from most popular online music services to other Tivoli Audio Wi-Fi equipped models such as Tivoli Audio's ART series speakers in different parts of your home or office.
The Model One Digital will work with smart devices that use Android, iOS or Windows operating systems.
Music Services it supports currently include Spotify, Pandora, TIDAL, Qplay and zvtuner plus many more.
Thanks to the ability of the Model One Digital to receive firmware updates, this gives your investment a decent measure of future proofing.
And just in case you get so engrossed in the sound, and you lose track of time, the Model One Digital displays the time and the date.
All settings are crystal clear displayed on the Model One Digital’s OLED display screen.
Although it’s now thoroughly modern and stacked with user features, the Model One Digital is really about good sound.
Our review sample whether used with radio or streamed music, sounded full, tonally natural and full of fine detail.
If anything, the built-in Digital Sound Processing circuitry and a more powerful speaker ensured the new Model One’s sound audibly surpassed the groundbreaking sound of the original version.
As for styling, the new model is finished using Danish Gabriel fabric that looks as refreshing to the eye as it ever did.
Thanks to advances in technology and production, it's also more wallet-friendly than the original.
The new Tivoli Audio Model One Digital arrives at a time when more people are tuning in to DAB+ Digital radio than ever before.
In fact, reports suggest nearly double the number of people listening via streaming. So the radio medium is quite clearly, alive and well.
Tune in to DAB+ radio on your Model One Digital, and there are no data fees or battery life issues like those encountered with streaming from your smartphone for example.
This all adds up to a more affordable, better sounding, more usefully featured radio than the original version that arrived here nearly two decades ago.
The Tivoli Audio Model One Digital radio is on track to continue the legend started all those years ago. So the sound you hear is our applause for the new version of the world’s best sounding and most iconic tabletop radio.
Best of all it's available right now and sells in New Zealand for $599 RRP.
For more information visit Tivoli Audio.
The Tivoli Audio Model One Digital Review first appeared on GadgetNET.
Posted in: Lifestyle | Smart Homes & IoT
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