Tivoli Audio Model Three AM/FM Clock Radio, Cherry/Metallic Taupe

• High-performance, easy-to-use analog clock radio with superior sound reproduction
• Fine quartz mechanical movement ensures accurate timekeeping
• 20-minute sleep timer, snooze button, and alarm thumbwheel
• 3-inch full-range driver; expandable with optional stereo speaker and subwoofer
• Measures 8.375 x 4.5 x 5.25 inches (W x H x D); 1-year warranty

I purchased the unit for it's renowned tuner but also for a replacement of my clock radio. The tuner is everything as claimed and nearly as good as a very high end tuner I currently own. The sound quality is also much better than expected. Where this unit falls apart is with the sleep functions. I could not get the snooze function to work as the radio would never come back on. An email to Tivoli revealed that the snooze must be activated within 120 seconds or it simply turns the radio off. This information was NOT in the manual! I know I'm not counting down from 120 seconds the moment the alarm awakes me from a soind sleep... Poor design. I've also discovered that the clock runs from the single AA battery at all times. It should run from the AC and only rely on the battery for back up. Another poorly thought out design. The two most important sleep functions are an afterthought and in my opinion not worth the cost or questionable functionality. If one were to add a second speaker the total would be $250 or $100 more than a model Two. That $100 only gets you a cheap battery operated clock and useless snooze function. Instead, spend your money on the model Two, the $80 sub and a wall timer. That's what I'm doing... You'll have a better system and save a few dollars as well!

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I heard a friend's Model One Tivoli, and was sold, so I decided to buy the Model Three and the Dual Alarm / Second Speaker unit for my bedroom, to replace a very cheap and unreliable alarm clock radio.

So for $200 what do you get? Well, you get a modified version of the Model One / Model Two Tivoli, and a clock radio with a sleep timer and wake to Aux / Radio / Alarm function. To be frank, I can't figure out how Tivoli justifies an extra $100 for a battery operated quartz clock insert that has barely advanced features (setting time is electronically controlled that's about it). In retrospect, the sensible in me would probably not make the same purchase again instead, I'd opt to get the Model Two unit, and a nice alarm clock (though the style wannabe in me probably would getting an all in one unit). Tivoli simply doesn't have enough "omph" or value for the dollar tossed in with the addition of the clock functions for the extra hun.

But let's break down the positives and negatives.

Positives: Sound quality kicks big time with lots of base in the unit (single speaker, dual speakers, even without the sub). FM radio, when dialed in right, sounds like near CD quality to my ears (with a caveat see below). "Action" on the tuning dial is sweet with the 4x stepped down gearing. Clock is fairly readable, though it is pretty recessed into the case, so from an angle, it's hard to see the hours well, esp. in the dark. Ability to plug in your iPod or other mp3 player to the Aux, hook up a sub, hook up a second speaker (or as I've done, the Model Three Dual Alarm second speaker) and other hookups wowsa for a clock radio! Ability to record audio is good as well I have an MP3 player / fm receiver thingie, and when I compare FM radio recordings made with the device on its own, and with the audio in ability, recording the Tivoli's FM radio, there is no comparison the Tivoli's FM sound quality is stellar (with a caveat again, see below)

Negatives: People proclaim the Tivoli's ability to pull in FM signals. I haven't experienced this as well as i expected some local stations sound hissy and tinny on the Tivoli, but in my '04 Jetta (with a radio that's often panned), they sound better. Where's this legendary FM ability across the dial? That said, when a station is pulled in by the Tivoli, it sounds (to my untrained ear at least) like big base CD quality. Other negatives: The 120 second "bug" in the design for the snooze feature has caused me to sleep in a few times (see another review for more info). Yes Tivoli that is a major design flaw. The decision on fonts and font colours makes the tuning dial and other labels on the front of the box almost unreadable in most bedroom light. And as mentioned above, the clock functionality is not worth the extra $100 in price maybe $30, maybe $40.

But it does look goooooood. :) And the sound is stellar rivals my other sound systems in the house costing $100s more.

Read Best Reviews of Tivoli Audio Model Three AM/FM Clock Radio, Cherry/Metallic Taupe Here

Let me start out by saying that I love Tivoli radios. I have a Model Two with a Model Sub-woofer in my living room and truly love the warm, rich sound along with the simple design and good looks. I liked the Model Two so much that I decided to buy the Model Three for the bedroom. Even in Mono mode, the sound is rich and exceptional and the tuner truly does pull in and lock onto FM stations as advertised. It looks beautiful and I had planned to order the up-firing companion speaker and have the ultimate clock radio. The problem I have is that as at least one other reviewer has stated the back light for the clock dial is so bright that I have not been able to sleep since I got the radio four days ago. I mean it is bright, you can make shadow figures on the wall from the light it puts out. I had to put a sock over the dial just to get some sleep. Now I feel foolish to have a $200.00 clock radio that I have to cover with a sock at night. Also the LEDS for the sleep and alarm function are bright enough alone to keep you awake. If you use the sleep function the LED stays on after the radio shuts off until you depress the button again and of course the alarm LED stays on all the time the alarm is set. Since Tivoli designed this to be a "bedroom radio" it is an inexcusable design flaw to not have include a means of toning down or disabling the back light for users that would prefer darkness while sleeping. I haven't tried the snooze function yet so haven't experienced the "snooze flaw" other reviewers have but it sounds pretty scary. One other clock flaw I experienced is that if I get home from work and go through my routine of getting everything ready for the next day before I settle in for the evening I discoverd that the 12 hour clock will sound the alarm if you try to set it for the next day within it seems a 2 hour window after the time you want to set the clock for the next day. In other words if you have the alarm set to wake up at 6:00 A.M. you can't activate the alarm until after 8:00 P.M. This bothers me because I personally have over slept more often by simply forgetting to set the alarm. In conclusion I cannot recommend buying this clock radio until Tivoli takes it back to the drawing board.

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I received the Tivoli Model Three from Amazon about three weeks ago, and think I've played with it enough to post a review. First, Amazon was dependable and delivered as I've always experienced.

Now to the clock radio.

I (almost) love it!

I'll compare the Tivoli Model Three to my eight-year-old JVC mid-priced boombox, which should sound better than a little clock radio.

Pros:

The Tivoli Model Three's tuner is great, even though it's analog. It receives many more stations and with much more clarity than the boombox, which has digital tuning. So don't let the digital vs. analog tuning fool you. Analog can be good when well-engineered. Digital tuning for over-the-air reception is not automatically better.

The Tivoli has a sensitive subtuning knob and LED that shows optimal reception. I didn't need to connect anything extra, such as a rooftop antenna or even the included wimpy little indoor antenna for much-better-than-expected reception.

Considering it's a little clock radio, the sound is great. As others have posted elsewhere, "warm" describes the sound. That's much better than "plastic," which is how I would describe my boombox after spending some recent time with both of them. I like the Tivoli's cherry wood cabinet for the sound and look. I also think a larger mono speaker is better than two inseparable 5/8" stereo speakers in a small device. That never make any sense to me.

Input-output features:

The Tivoli has some great options. You can buy an extra matching speaker and make it true stereo. I like this clock radio so much that I just ordered the extra speaker. You can buy a matching subwoofer.

It accomodates antenna input from, for example, a rooftop antenna.

Other no-nonsense features:

I thought the big hole toward the left back projected bass. I blocked the hole, and it turns out it provides more treble and midrange response.

Clock runs continuously on battery. If your power is interrupted, the battery will intercept and your alarm (but not your radio) will sound.

Cons:

There is no weak battery warning. I would have given it a 5-star out of five-star rating since there's not a 4-1/2 star option here, but it's only a 4-1/2 star out of five. In my opinion, no weak battery warning is a major issue. There is no LED for a weak battery, and the clock must run on battery at all times, not just as backup.

If you know what you're in for, this is a good-sounding, elegant-looking and functional clock radio.

It's retro in a few functions as well as looks. For example, you have to remember to turn it on when you go to sleep, since it's a 12-hour clock. That's actually a "plus," or at least not a problem for me, since I'm now using it as my main radio (due to the superiority of the sound and tuner) but might be a "con" for others.

If you change radio stations a lot, this might not be the clock radio for you. No digital tuning presets. Not a problem for me, since I usually keep it on the same few stations, and I can easily find and finely tune those stations with the easy big old-fashioned dial and sensitive subtuner. I prefer the simplicity and elegance to a whole bunch of little menus and buttons.

I looked and looked at all the popular clock radios for $200 or less on the market, reading manufacturer descriptions, user reviews, etc. They almost all are not great in one way or another. Sony offers one that seems pretty cool, with CD player and NOAA Weather Radio reception, but no backup battery! Get with it, Sony. Wouldn't the type of person who would want emergency information also want battery power? And also, as a bonus, wouldn't it be nice to have sound that's semi-tolerable? Panasonic offers one, again with a CD player, that supposedly has better sound than most. But of about 10 user reviews, at least half the people complained its backlight was too bright, even at the lowest setting. One guy said you could line a bunch of those up and light an airport runway with them. A user "solved" the problem by putting electrical tape over its backlit area, but then of course he couldn't see the time. But he was happier than before. These models were in the less than $100 range. Nearly all of them in this price range had little tiny buttons located in unintuitive places with difficult or impossible-to-read labels, especially in the dark, that did a bunch of stuff. A common complaint was that you had to read the manual to use it, and as one user said, "If you're good at memorizing ...."

After all this disgusting stuff, I almost opted for a $14.95 Sony. The sound is reportedly awful, but at least it has a backup battery, is cheap, and doesn't look hideous. It came down to this and the Tivoli.

I didn't really see anything between $100 and $200 worth a second look, except for the Tivoli Model Three. It was $200, since if you've read this far you probably already know or are curious about the price.

Here's what I decided from all this research that I need and don't need in a clock radio:

Do I really need another audio CD player in the bedroom? No. I have a boombox plus the computer. And I can add a subwoofer and CD player to the Tivoli! Plus, if I get rid of the plastic boombox later, Tivoli makes a matching CD player. But that's another $200. I'm tempted.

Do I want halfway-decent sound plus decent reception for the radio. Resounding yes!

Needs to be small. The Tivoli might look like a big (what do you call them?) desk radio from olden days. It's only 8-1/2" wide x 4-1/2" high x 5-1/2" deep.

Do I want it to look great? Definitely! And it does, in my opinion.

I almost love it.

The Model 3 Clock Radio is flawed. Its sound quality though is excellent.

The biggest problem for me is that the front and back panels are nearly unreadable under most ambient light conditions. The standard lettering and background colors combined with font size and the reflectance of the "metallic" treatment do not produce enough contrast to promote legibility. A flashlight (held at the right angle to avoid reflectance) is a useful tool for changing frequencies. My Tivoli Model 1 (classic/walnut), in contrast, is much much easier to use and sounds just as good.

I agree with another reviewer that another problem with the Model 3 is that the clock is entirely dependent on batteries. It would be better for this AC radio to have an AC clock with a battery backup.