• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss Model One AM/FM Radio

rocketrobo

rocketrobo

Rocketrobo
Subscriber
These little radios are well known for sounding great, looking cool, and having great reception. They are the perfect size for a kitchen radio. You can easily find any number of remarkably glowing reviews online.

I bought mine second hand off Craigslost. Looked fine, but when I got it home and tried it out, the tuning was atrocious. Static, drifting, it couldn't hold a channel for more than a few seconds. I guess this is why it was cheap.

A bit of research, and it turns out this is a well know problem with these units. The lubricant in the tuner mechanism gets hard with age, and the tuner is no longer operating smoothly and in spec.

The recommended solution is to wind the tuning knob back and forth 20+ times, to re-distribute the lubricant. I tried this several times, and ... it didn't work. The tuner itself is fully encased in both plastic and a metal shield, so getting in there with some tuner lubricant is almost impossible.

One adventurous lad on the internet talks of buying a new tuner from China and completely replacing the old one. With the effort to do this, and skill to calibrate it, this was out of my league or interest.

I was about to chuck it in the bin, when I had one more idea. I disassembled it yet again (there is one small connector you need to unplug to easily open the case, then the front pulls out). I took a heat gun and carefully heated the tuner assembly up to where it was quite hot. My thinking was to soften or even melt the lubricant, to where it would flow easy while I cranked the dial back and forth yet again 20+ times. As I did this, I could feel through the knob the actual tuner mechanism getting smoother and easier to turn.

After letting it cool completely - and winding the tuner knob back and forth a few times while it cooled - I plugged it in again and powered it on.

This seems to have done the trick. If you have one of these nice little radios and it's acting up, give it a shot before you chuck it!
 
Register to hide this ad
Bought my wife one for her birthday several years ago, thinking it was a clone of the KLH...

Maybe its our area, but petty poor reception, very disappointed. Would not recommend if in moderate or fringe FM reception area :no:
 
I bought one of these also. Performance was mediocre at best.
Either of my two 40+ year old KLH 21s kicked it to the curb.
 
Last edited:
When I bought my Model One I was a bit disappointed with the radio reception until I hooked up an external antenna.
 
Another trick I learned here on AK years ago is to turn the radio upside down as you run the tuner knob across the entire frequency range. Apparently that pesky gravity causes the lubricant to pull away from the mechanism and pool at the bottom. I like your idea of applying heat. Perhaps upside down and some heat will work well together.
 
tcdriver said:
When I bought my Model One I was a bit disappointed with the radio reception until I hooked up an external antenna.
Click to expand...

I did that as well. It definitely helped! Still seems a bit finicky for a table-top radio. But ... it definitely sounds really good!
 
Picked up one for $20 on FB marketplace for the heck of it. Sounds great and my wife loves it and uses it daily!!
 
I've got 3 of them around the house and use them a lot. Very easy on the ears. A couple are having the scratchy tuner problem so this thread is helpful. I'll have to try the inverted heat gun technique.
 
Back in 2006 or so Target carried these for a brief time. They went on clearance...25%, 50% then 75%. When I found them at 75% off, I bought all they had left. Ended up with two Model Two CD's (A model one, plus extra speaker for stereo and a matching CD player) and one of the Model Three Alarm clock radios. Liked them so much I bought a matching subwoofer for one set.

Great little units. Loved the inputs on them and they really looked the part of a higher end piece. It's difficult to find a quality small AM/FM radio anymore.
 
_tk said:
Back in 2006 or so Target carried these for a brief time. They went on clearance...25%, 50% then 75%. When I found them at 75% off, I bought all they had left. Ended up with two Model Two CD's (A model one, plus extra speaker for stereo and a matching CD player) and one of the Model Three Alarm clock radios. Liked them so much I bought a matching subwoofer for one set.

Great little units. Loved the inputs on them and they really looked the part of a higher end piece. It's difficult to find a quality small AM/FM radio anymore.
Click to expand...

I too bought 3 on clearance at TARGET back then, but only found the Model 2 radios. I also find them often at Yard and Estate Sales very cheap: $2 was my best scroe :banana::music: for the PAL model.
 
I used to own the original model and loved it. At some point I sold it and bought a Sirius/XM version and wish I hadn't. PITA and came to despise the Sirius/XM company. Why oh why...
 
Hi. I recently bought a brand new oldstock dark walnut 'platinum series', aka lacquered wood. The only date anywhere is a 2006 Tivoli copyright on the box... but that's not to say it was made in that year - just not before then. In any case, it had been sitting never-used for a long time... and now, with an external antennae, it locked onto many stations easily, but tuning between 'em was loud and noisy.

I was planning to open it up and use some contact cleaner (DeoxIT) on the dial, but a helpful Tivoli customer service rep suggested I unplug the unit and leave it sitting upside-down for 4 hours, then flip it right-side-up, plug it in (i'm guessing to warm it up a bit), turn the volume down to nil, and slowly turn the dial back and forth across the whole range for 5 minutes. Well... after turning the dial for half an hour, there was a LOT of improvement when I tested it... and after more than a full hour of turning the dial (while watching a movie), it was PERFECT. This thing thing looks great, and works great.

In my setup, I've got it (rec) outputting to my main amp & speakers... but it's own mono-speaker works fine too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom