Tivoli Audio Music System+ - Bluetooth Enabled All-In-One DAB/ FM Hi-Fi System - Walnut/ Beige

I bought this radio from amazon and was excited about it's whole package. In fact it did work very well in terms of sound quality and to my amazement for such a compact unit. The DAB radio is really great too. It has buttons on the unit itself which makes it very usable unlike other rival products. All is great, but there is a major problem. The display is unreliable. It displays the wrong track number after a while and you have to do a reboot to get it right. Also I observed that the LCD display doesn't turn off completely and with signification back light. Due to all these I believe that the LCD display might just fail easily as some people have reported on the older model. I think the problem hasn't been solved which is a big disappointment for me. I like the unit very much, but reluctantly I have returned it due to this.

This machine has just one serious rival, which is the Ruark R4i. It needs to be immediately said that if your only consideration is sound quality, then you must buy the Ruark, because it has far better hi-fi components and a much greater output in wattage, meaning clearer and louder. However, the Ruark is an approximately 50% larger and heavier unit, so be prepared to allow quite a bit more space.Whereas the Ruark has a stated output of 80 watts, Tivoli are very careful to avoid mentioning the output in watts, which is the most accurate test. As has been reported by many other buyers, the sound output appears nowhere on Tivoli literature and enquiries with Tivoli always prove fruitless. My guess is that it is about 50 watts, being 2 x 15 plus a 20 watt subwoofer. (Tivoli, please tell us!) However, it has to be remembered that this is a neat, one-piece unit, so you cannot expect too much.It has to be said that the Tivoli does not suffer from poor sound quality. I would describe the sound as warm, very easy on the ear and with a lot of base if needed. Putting it into context, I have a similarly priced Bose unit purchased some time ago purely because of clever marketing by Bose, which is about all they are good for. Compared to the Tivoli, the Bose sounds like a silly little toy. On this occasion I did a lot more research and finally got it right. In a small to medium sized room, this unit sounds really good. Spoken voice broadcasts are crystal clear and all forms of music from classical to dance sound really good. However, you don't get distinct separation of musical instruments like you do from the Ruark.So why did I opt for the Tivoli over the Ruark, when they both cost exactly the same? Quite simply, my reasons for choosing the Tivoli are features and ease of use. With the Tivoli, every function can be operated directly from the set as well as the remote control and both are very well designed and configured. Ease of use is absolutely outstanding, whereas with the Ruark, everything depends on a really fiddly, badly designed remote that is both awkward to use and difficult to replace back into its aperture after use. You can't just simply hit a button when you want something to happen and if you misplace or drop the remote, you've lost the entire use of the set.Also, the Tivoli plays an ace card in the form of Bluetooth, which allows you to listen to music from your phone etc - something which the Ruark does not have. Instead, it has a very outdated iPod port (iPhone 4 and older). In addition, the radio element on the Tivoli is outstanding, providing the best DAB broadcasts I've ever heard.In summary, if the Ruark had better functionality, including Bluetooth, I would have bought it without hesitation but in the prevailing circumstances I'm 100% certain I've bought the right machine. The Tivoli is solidly built and is very easy to use. It is a great all round performer and a pleasure to own.I should also say that Amazon delivered it is perfect condition in just two days from ordering.

My first impressions when taking this out of the box were slightly under whelming from a design perspective. But this, unlike many other items, divided opinion within the house. My wife loved its solid almost `retro' one piece look in its dark cabinet. There is a clear display on the front and a front loading CD slot. The first thing we noticed was that the power cable was a two pin construction. Did we need to plug it into a `shaver plug' or did I need to cut the end off and put a UK three pin plug on it? Fortunately I had a suitable cable with a UK plug that was able to solve the problem. The manual was easy to follow - although there were a number of addendums attached. The product itself was easy to set up - following the addendum that stated the `AA (supplied) back up battery should be installed first'. The system easily found the DAB channels, although I did have a bit of a struggle at first with the FM ones. Connecting our Ipod to the system via Bluetooth was very easy (unlike some other systems we have had). Playing CD's is, of course, straight forward - and we were pleased that it played discs that we had put mp3 files onto. Of the sound quality - my view was that it was very good, but my wife thought that very good was an under-statement and wanted me to say in the review that it was excellent. DAB certainly was way above any other Radio DAB system I have listened to. So both our views were very favourable. But, I suspect the `crunch' on this will be the price.... At around £ 700, there are other options available. Whilst this is certainly a quality product, that I am sure will last for years, the price may struggle to match expectations in the UK?

The sound quality for the price was not as good as should be expected - including that the right hand speaker vibrated to low base sounds which was particularly irritating when playing classical music. Also the sound was relatively quiet on classical music (for which CD's are often recorded quieter than for 'modern' music) and the sound was not sharp enough to pick out distinct instruments. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but I also found the sound lacked sharpness on intricate CDs such as Pink Floyd.