Tivoli Adds Bluetooth Connectivity, Bows Noise-Canceling Headphones

Specialty audio retailing “is a business that’s dying,” Tom DeVesto, founder of Tivoli Audio, said at a news conference in New York Wednesday to announce refreshed Tivoli tabletop radios and a new noise-canceling headphone.

Tivoli, once sold through Circuit City and at Best Buy, where there was “nobody talking about anything but big-screen TVs,” is now finding shelf space at furnishings stores such as Conran and Room & Board, along with “a few” traditional specialty audio dealers, Tivoli’s website and Amazon, DeVesto said. “Our dealer network is pretty much gone,” DeVesto said, citing the demise of stores where customers could get a demo and get educated about products. He observed that Harvard Square, near Tivoli headquarters, “used to have 15 stereo shops within a five-minute walking distance,” he said. Now “there’s not a real stereo store in Boston anymore,” he said.

Tivoli is also still operating its company-branded store in Natick, Mass., which is doing “very well” since opening in November 2010, DeVesto said, but Tivoli’s plans to open more company-owned locations took a dive a couple of years ago along with the economy, DeVesto told us. Plans are still on the radar, with New York and London likely locations, but nothing is currently in the works, he said. Tivoli won’t be sold through Apple stores, DeVesto said emphatically, citing his mother’s advice, “if you can’t say anything nice. …"

Tivoli’s Radio Silenz headphones are expected to be joined by a Bluetooth model, DeVesto said, but he doesn’t envision a full line of headphones. The category is “exploding,” he noted, but DeVesto isn’t a fan of earbuds and Tivoli “doesn’t need to bring anything to the party,” he said For Tivoli, headphones without noise canceling “don’t make any sense at all,” he said, so a full line of headphones isn’t in the works.

The Radio Silenz headphones are active noise-canceling models, which Tivoli calls the first to use wood housing for the ear cups instead of plastic. The real-wood finishes are available in black ash, walnut and cherry and the headphones will begin shipping in a few weeks at $129.99, DeVesto said. The phones have a defeat button on each ear cup that can turn off noise-canceling and audio to allow for brief conversation, and they can operate with noise canceling on or off for use below 10,000 feet. Ambient noise reduction is up to 85 percent, the company said.

DeVesto “wouldn’t be surprised if everything we make” going forward includes Bluetooth because of the simplicity it provides. Tivoli has no plans for AirPlay integration, he said. Tivoli added Bluetooth to its PAL and 12-year-old Model One table radios for streaming user content and Internet radio from a smartphone or tablet to a Tivoli radio. The Bluetooth radios will ship in July at $259 for the Model One and $259 for the PAL, DeVesto said. Tivoli also announced BluCon ($149.99, summer) a Bluetooth retrofit option for consumers who have older model Tivoli radios. The compact music receiver -- which measures roughly 2 inches square and an inch thick -- streams music from a Bluetooth enabled mobile device to a tabletop radio or any audio playback system with an auxiliary audio jack. Tivoli uses Bluetooth version 2.1 +EDR with A2DP, chosen for “music quality,” DeVesto said.

Tivoli released its first app Monday, an iTunes app for Tivoli Radio, a database of 100 radio stations the company has selected from its much larger Tivoli Audio NetWorks Global Audio database of radio stations. The number of stations available on the app, which displays a Tivoli user interface on smartphones and tablets, is locked in at 100 for “simplicity,” DeVesto said, and can’t be changed by users. That jibes with the company’s philosophy of radio presets on its analog products over the years that have been limited to five. Apps are divided into 10 categories with 10 stations in each category, DeVesto said, and Tivoli plans to swap out stations as necessary to keep up with changes in station availability. Regarding whether he’s concerned about alienating listeners who might be attached to a station that suddenly disappears from the menu, DeVesto said the company “hadn’t thought about that” and might bring such a station back, if possible, based on listener response. The apps are free and an Android app will follow, DeVesto said.

Most of Tivoli’s business -- 65 percent -- comes from overseas, DeVesto said, and the company is soon launching additional websites for Spain, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and France. Tivoli has just opened a new distribution warehouse in the Netherlands where it can “ship anywhere in Europe within 48 hours,” he said.