Forget Wi-Fi radio lives

For people who prefer to get their audio entertainment through the airwaves, rather than the internet, quality options are getting rather slim. There’s still life in radio yet though, as I discovered testing Tivoli Audio’s latest retro-inspired wood-panel benchtop unit, the Model One+.

I’m generally used to playing all music through Wi-Fi to various speakers around the house, and that includes any radio station you can think of, so at first I didn’t really get the appeal of a device that costs as much as a smart speaker yet does significantly less.

The Model One+ is a digital radio that also has Bluetooth, but it uses analogue-style dials and knobs and doesn’t connect to the internet.

But while the Model One+ might not be for me, it’s clear there is something of value here for anyone looking to replace a home radio. It’s simple to use and sounds good, provides more options than a standard wireless thanks to DAB+ digital radio and basic connectivity to external devices, and you can access all functions with the dials on the front of the device or the included remote; no apps or Wi-Fi needed.

The first thing you’ll notice is the huge old-school tuning dial. Like the other dials it’s only pretending to be analogue, and there are no needles or panels filled with frequencies and labels, but I do appreciate that the inner mechanism turns slower than the main dial just like on some old hi-fi systems.

After you’ve hit the “scan” button to add your local DAB+ stations, the dial lets you move through them in alphabetical order. For me this was more than 70 stations so it’s a bit of a pain to navigate, but you can store up to five favourites by holding one of the preset buttons.

As a clock radio, the Model One+ also has alarm and sleep functions.

If you’re not familiar with digital radio, you can think of DAB+ as similar to modern digital TV stations; there are more of them than the older analogue stations, they sound better, don’t need to be tuned in and have some extra benefits like song names being displayed on the device. Most major FM stations also broadcast on DAB+, but there are a lot of niche and genre-specific stations too. Importantly, unlike Spotify, you don’t have to pay for DAB+ and it doesn’t use your internet connection.

The Model One+ also does FM radio and it all works the same way, although obviously you’re turning the dial through the spectrum of frequencies rather than a collection of digital stations. You get a different set of five presets here, which is nice because it means 10 favourites total, but also annoying if you like a mix of DAB+ and FM stations.

I was impressed with the audio from the top-firing speaker, which is very clear and can get quite loud. It might be a bit bright and doesn’t have a huge punch to its bass (I didn’t notice much change after playing with the simple built-in equaliser), but it will fill a small to medium room with nice sound or well-defined voices.

Outside of radio there’s a 3.5 mm auxilliary port where you could technically plug a CD player or turntable, but more likely you’ll use it to connect a phone to listen to streaming apps or your own music files. The Model One+ does Bluetooth too, and performs very well.

One minor complaint I have is that the faux-analogue dials can feel imprecise given they’re styled after mechanical knobs. It’s not as simple as turning the source dial to the “Bluetooth” position for example, you just have to keep rotating it until the source you want appears, and it will often get stuck thinking as you go through DAB+ which can be frustrating. Once my presets were done I preferred to use the more precise remote.

The asking price of $400 may also be too much if you’re not specifically interested in DAB+, but luckily there are a number of other very similar models on offer. For example a super basic $169 Model One is just AM/FM and an auxilliary port, while the $279 One BT adds Bluetooth. These two models ditch the screen for a front-firing speaker and more reliable clicky source select dial.

On the other hand you could go higher up the ladder to the $500 Model One Digital, which does everything the One+ can and adds Wi-Fi support for Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. But then you lose all the analogue style dials and simplicity that made the Model One interesting in the first place.

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Tim is the editor of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald technology sections.

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