Great radios for the great outdoors

Audio firms combine high-fidelity, durability

Tivoli

Henry Kloss' Portable Audio Laboratory or PAL provides outstanding sound in a compact package.

By Gary Krakow

msnbc.com

updated 2:42 p.m. ET June 14, 2005

Gary Krakow
Columnist
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Portable radios and the great outdoors is a near perfect match. Whether you’re sitting on your porch, backpacking in the mountains or sunning yourself in the tropics listening to a great-sounding radio is one of the best ways I know of to keep informed and entertained.

Luckily, there are many terrific portable radios on the market. I’ve gathered information on a few of my favorites.

As far as I’m concerned, Tivoli makes the best sounding table and portable radios on the planet. Originally designed by the late audiophile genius Henry Kloss, Tivoli radio get the most from one small speaker placed in a small enclosure.

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Kloss’ final design is called the Portable Audio Laboratory or PAL. It comes in a number of mind-boggling colors – including white – to match your iPod (which can plug into the back). You have to hear how PAL sounds to believe that it’s really a portable AM/FM radio.

PAL’s treated 2.5” magnetically shielded driver and rubberized cabinet are weather resistant. Its rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride battery pack charges in about 3 hours, providing many hours of cordless playback (depending on how loud you like to listen). The little green LED serves as both a power and battery status indicator.

PAL is priced at $129.99 and comes with a one-year warranty.

Tivoli Songbook
Tivoli
Tivoli's portable clock radio, SongBook, is available in many colors.
Tivoli’s newest portable is called the SongBook. It is everything that the PAL is and more. I even think its slightly bigger size gives it an edge in overall sound quality too.

Think of SongBook as the ultimate portable clock radio. There’s a built-in alarm clock, sleep timer, and charger for your NiMH/NiCAD batteries (which aren’t included). The tuner has a digital readout, lights-up blue and comes with 5 buttons for you to pre-set your favorite stations.

Tivoli even added a rear keyhole cut-out for easy wall mounting. SongBook is also available in many colors, sports a one year warranty and sells for $159.99.

Up the scale size wise, is one of my all-time favorite portables — the GE Superadio III — one of the most popular AM/FM portables of all time. (MSNBC is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC, which is a GE company.)

C Crane
GE's Superadio III with separate woofer and tweeter.
Superadio is beefy all over. It’s 12.5 by 10.5 by 4.5 inches and weighs in at 6.4 pounds. There’s a 700MW amplifier pumping sound into a 2-inch cone tweeter and 6.5 inch woofer. There are separate treble and bass tone controls and a loudness control (to boost the bass at low volumes). It is powered by 6 “D” cell batteries (not included) or the built-in AC power cord.

Superadio has 2 separate settings for AM radio reception: wide and narrow. If you’re receiving a high-quality signal, you can use the wide mode and hear what AM radio is still capable of. If the signal is kind of noisy, narrow mode does the trick.

Best part of all is the GE Superadio III retails for under $60. You can find better prices by doing a search on the Web.

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