We're looking to get a counter-top radio.

Sound quality should be excellent (to the extent feasible with this type
of system), the counter footprint should be small, and the price should
be reasonable.

We'll mostly be listening to music, but occasionally to speech, and
mostly to FM, but occasionally to AM. All the stations to which we
listen are local stations with strong signals, so ability to pull in
weak signals is not an issue.

We're considering the Henry Kloss Model One or Model Two, but we don't
know which is the better buy, or whether we should go in another
direction altogether.

Appearance is another consideration. The silver/white Model One would
look great where we're going to put this. I don't know whether the
Model Two is available with this color scheme, but I haven't seen it
advertised anywhere.

We'd like some advice. Please help if you can. Thanks in advance.

In article ,
"Anthony D. Minkoff" wrote:

We're looking to get a counter-top radio.

Sound quality should be excellent (to the extent feasible with this type
of system), the counter footprint should be small, and the price should
be reasonable.

We'll mostly be listening to music, but occasionally to speech, and
mostly to FM, but occasionally to AM. All the stations to which we
listen are local stations with strong signals, so ability to pull in
weak signals is not an issue.

We're considering the Henry Kloss Model One or Model Two, but we don't
know which is the better buy, or whether we should go in another
direction altogether.

Appearance is another consideration. The silver/white Model One would
look great where we're going to put this. I don't know whether the
Model Two is available with this color scheme, but I haven't seen it
advertised anywhere.

We'd like some advice. Please help if you can. Thanks in advance.

I took a look at the website and found "PAL Fashion Collection" models
if you think lime or sky blue would be better. :-)

The website lists the Model Two in "Silver/Black," which is great for
Raiders fans.

I don't see a downside to the Kloss/Tivoli: it will work, be attractive
and be relatively cheap. I suppose you could look at the competition
(Cambridge Soundworks, Boston Acoustics) that might give you stereo but
not necessarily more enjoyable sound. You could spend more on a mini
system from Denon or Panasonic, or less on a GE Superadio.

Stephen

MINe 109 wrote:
In article ,
"Anthony D. Minkoff" wrote:
snip


I don't see a downside to the Kloss/Tivoli: it will work, be attractive
and be relatively cheap. I suppose you could look at the competition
(Cambridge Soundworks, Boston Acoustics) that might give you stereo but
not necessarily more enjoyable sound. You could spend more on a mini
system from Denon or Panasonic, or less on a GE Superadio.

Be aware GE Superadios have had horrible QA and often have distortion
problems relating to FM alignment on production radios. They are easy
to fix for me but I have a RF gen, a low distortion audio gen and a
distortion meter and most people do not. I have also seen them with
rubbing voice coils on the woofer.

The Kloss or Tivoli radios are pretty good.

An often surprisingly good alternative is a car radio in a small wood
box with a 12 volt supply built in. Commercial "brick" switcher
supplies are available or can be scrounged from dead widgets, or a
toroid power transformer, a bridge rectifier moodule and a big
electrolytic cap can be had for $25 or so. OEM car radios often have
excellent FM sections. The last Parts Express catalog lists a Blaupunkt
AM/FM/CD player with remote and MP3 CD capability for $108. I put a
similar Blaupunkt in my car last year. Before mounting in the car I
powered it up with an ancient Lambda bench supply and hooked it to my
main stereo speakers in the listening room as an experiment. It sounded
good and the FM tuner was excellent-with an improvised long random
wire it got FM stations clearly that a boom box would not even notice
above the noise floor.

In article .com,
"Bret Ludwig" wrote:

Be aware GE Superadios have had horrible QA and often have distortion
problems relating to FM alignment on production radios. They are easy
to fix for me but I have a RF gen, a low distortion audio gen and a
distortion meter and most people do not. I have also seen them with
rubbing voice coils on the woofer.

I must be lucky with mine! Oh, well, sample of one...

For folks who don't know, the Superadio has a single speaker. For the
OP, it's not nearly as good looking as the Kloss.

The car stereo idea is fine except for the cosmetic requirement.

Stephen

MINe 109 wrote:
In article .com,
"Bret Ludwig" wrote:

Be aware GE Superadios have had horrible QA and often have distortion
problems relating to FM alignment on production radios. They are easy
to fix for me but I have a RF gen, a low distortion audio gen and a
distortion meter and most people do not. I have also seen them with
rubbing voice coils on the woofer.

I must be lucky with mine! Oh, well, sample of one...

For folks who don't know, the Superadio has a single speaker. For the
OP, it's not nearly as good looking as the Kloss.

The car stereo idea is fine except for the cosmetic requirement.

Actually it has a big speaker (the woofer) and a little speaker (the
tweeter), such as they are. Bass response is limited. It is basically
what they used to call generically a "transistor radio", only in bigger
form and with a little better RF performance-ok, a lot better RF
performance than most pocket radios. They are NOT a communications
receiver, nor a hi-fi unit.

Car radios are attractive when mounted in a case or box.

In article .com,
"Bret Ludwig" wrote:

MINe 109 wrote:
In article .com,
"Bret Ludwig" wrote:

Be aware GE Superadios have had horrible QA and often have distortion
problems relating to FM alignment on production radios. They are easy
to fix for me but I have a RF gen, a low distortion audio gen and a
distortion meter and most people do not. I have also seen them with
rubbing voice coils on the woofer.

I must be lucky with mine! Oh, well, sample of one...

For folks who don't know, the Superadio has a single speaker. For the
OP, it's not nearly as good looking as the Kloss.

The car stereo idea is fine except for the cosmetic requirement.

Actually it has a big speaker (the woofer) and a little speaker (the
tweeter), such as they are.

Arggh. Of course it does. Apologies.

Bass response is limited. It is basically
what they used to call generically a "transistor radio", only in bigger
form and with a little better RF performance-ok, a lot better RF
performance than most pocket radios. They are NOT a communications
receiver, nor a hi-fi unit.

Car radios are attractive when mounted in a case or box.

If the OP wants to do that, happiness all around.

Stephen

In article ,
MINe 109 wrote:

I took a look at the website and found "PAL Fashion Collection" models
if you think lime or sky blue would be better. :-)

Thanks for pointing that out. Seriously.

The iPAL looks like a good possibility. It's attractive, the footprint
is tiny (3.69" wide x 3.86" deep), the rechargeable battery provides a
lot of flexibility for placement (it doesn't need to be near an electric
outlet), and the reviews on Amazon.com rave about its sound quality. I
think its winning me over.

I don't see a downside to the Kloss/Tivoli: it will work, be attractive
and be relatively cheap. I suppose you could look at the competition
(Cambridge Soundworks, Boston Acoustics) that might give you stereo but
not necessarily more enjoyable sound.

I have a Boston Acoustics Receptor Radio in my bedroom, and love it. It
is a candidate. Its clock and alarm features are superfluous for my
purposes with the new one, so I started looking at the Henry Kloss Model
One, which I expect (based on what I have read) would give me sound that
is at least as good, for a lesser price, at the sacrifice of features I
don't need. (By the way, the Receptor Radio is mono.)

Boston Acoustics' other model, the MicroSystem CD, is $499. I'll pass.

As for the Cambridge SoundWorks, it's considerably larger than the other
candidates, and (based on the pictures) I don't find it very attractive.
Unless its sound quality is significantly superior to the smaller, more
attractive, and less expensive candidates, I think we can scratch this
one from the list.

The Cambridge SoundWorks and Henry Kloss Model Two both offer stereo
speakers and subwoofers. (In the case of the Cambridge SoundWorks, the
stereo speakers are rather close together.) How much of a difference do
these make?

What about the Henry Kloss Model Three? Given my requirements, is there
any reason I should consider this?

You could spend more on a mini
system from Denon or Panasonic, or less on a GE Superadio.

The Superadio seems to have little going for it other than price. It's
bigger and less attractive than any of the Henry Kloss models (including
the iPAL). The reviews on Amazon.com indicate that it has excellent
sound quality for AM radio and talk, and that FM/music is better than
one would expect for such a system, but hardly mind-blowing. Since I'm
interested more in FM/music than in AM/talk, I expect I would get a
better quality experience from one of the Henry Kloss models. (Note
that the Superadio does, like the iPAL, have the ability to run off of
batteries.)

If we're going cheap, I also found the Emerson radios on Amazon. Its
size and appearance resemble that of the Henry Kloss Model One so much
that one would think there should be some legal issues regarding trade
dress. From the reviews, the sound is nothing special, but it's quite
inexpensive. I don't think I need to be that chinchy.

At this point, I'm leaning towards the iPAL. Its looks, size, and
ability to run "disconnected" are all appealing. Unless I can get
clearly superior sound from a system whose price is within shouting
distance of the iPAL's, I think this is the winner.