Tivoli Audio Radio Silenz (Black) review: Tivoli Audio Radio Silenz (Black)

Let me start by saying that I'm a fan of Tivoli Audio and have always liked the company's tabletop radios and portable PAL radios. They offer an excellent blend of design and performance, which makes it easier to overlook their relatively high price tags.

5.1

Tivoli Audio Radio Silenz (Black)

The Good

The <b>Tivoli Audio Radio Silenz</b> headphones are lightweight, relatively comfortable for on-ear headphones, and attractively designed, with earcups that are decked out in wood trim. You can also use the headphones without engaging the noise-cancellation.

The Bad

Overpriced; noise-canceling creates an audible hiss on quieter tracks and gaps in playback; sound should be more refined for this price.

The Bottom Line

The Tivoli Audio Radio Silenz noise-canceling headphones have some likeable qualities, but they aren't worth anywhere close to $160.

Alas, the company's first foray into the headphone market -- the noise-canceling headphone market no less -- is a different situation altogether. Instead of coming up with a unique, high-quality product, Tivoli's put something together that's both unoriginal and decidedly entry-level, with a misaligned $159.99 price tag that doesn't match its performance.

The reason I say unoriginal is that the Radio Silenz headphones appear to be an off-the-shelf Chinese design that's gussied up with Tivoli's signature wood trim on the earcups (the wood comes in walnut, cherry, and black ash colors). The headphones actually look pretty nice, are lightweight, fold up for transport, and are fairly comfortable for on-ear headphones. The only problem is that aside from the inline noise-canceling circuitry, which doesn't do much when activated, the Radio Silenz is very similar to the $25 MEElectronics HT-21. What's disconcerting is that the Tivoli headphones come with the exact same thin, cheap plastic carrying pouch that's included with the HT-21s.

True, two headphones can look the same on the outside (share the same housing) but sound different altogether. In fact, the Radio Silenz and HT-21 do sound different. The Radio Silenz offers more bass, but in the process sacrifices some detail. The HT-21 seems a bit thin by comparison but offers a touch more clarity. They both lack any sort of refinement associated with headphones that cost $150.

That said, we did give the HT-21s a good review largely because editor Justin Yu liked their design and thought they sounded quite decent for the money. But let me reiterate: the HT-21s are $25 headphones and these are $159.99 headphones.

Again, you can't expect too much refinement from entry-level $25-$35 on-ear headphones, but your expectations rise dramatically when you get into the $150 price range. I expected tighter bass and more detail from these guys, particularly because I have a lot of respect for the sound that Tivoli radios deliver. Instead, there's something a little mushy and bloated sounding about these headphones that puts them squarely in the sub-$50 camp. They don't sound bad, but they don't sound terribly good either.

The noise-canceling feature is also disappointing. To be clear, this is an active noise-canceling headphone, so the noise-canceling circuitry is incorporated into the aforementioned inline dongle (it's powered by a AAA battery and gives you about 50 hours of use). A button on the dongle, which also has a volume control, allows you to defeat the noise canceling and quiet your music so you can hear what's going on outside your headphones and talk to someone, perhaps a flight attendant. That's a nice feature and I also appreciated that you don't have to engage the noise-canceling to listen to music.

I tried the noise-cancelling in a few different environments and found that it did an OK job muffling the sound of the air-conditioning fan in my office (it's a loud fan that's similar to the background noise you'd experience on an aircraft). But the problem is you can hear a discernible hiss when listening to quieter music or during gaps in playback. This is par for the course for NC headphones, but it seemed much more noticeable on this model.

Conclusion
Look, if Tivoli has been put these out for $79 or even $99, I would have been much more willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and be less critical. The wood trim does add a nice touch to the design of the headphones. But the $159.99 price tag strikes me as cynical. Sure, plenty of other companies have tweaked and polished off-the-shelf designs of various consumer electronics products. But the Radio Silenz and HT-21 headphones are just too closely separated at birth. As it stands, you'd be better off with the compact and supercomfortable Bose OE2 or OE2i or Sennheiser's more affordable HD 238, which is being replaced by the HD 239.

Those models don't offer active noise-cancellation, but they do passively seal out a good amount of sound and you won't have to deal with hearing that audible hiss during quieter tracks or gaps in playback.