Gadget review: Tivoli Radio Silenz noise cancelling headphones

Rating: 3 Star Rating

Price: £119.00


The Tivoli Audio Radio Silenz headphones are light, comfortable and portable, which makes them good for travel.

It features wooden earpieces which are stylish - they look good and are the product's most distinguishing feature.

What lets the headphones down is the pricing when juxtaposed against their performance.

Nice wooden features: The headphones look stylish when worn thanks to the wood panels

Nice wooden features: The headphones look stylish when worn thanks to the wood panels

They are noise cancelling headphones - which require one triple-A battery to operate and lasts 50 hours - and they work well with noise like bus engines.

It's not as good at wiping out conversation chatter, but this could be useful if you want to listen out for public service announcements.

When you're listening to music through the headphones there is usually no problem, but if you just want to use the feature for some peace and quiet then you might be put off by an audible hiss.

A cable coming down from the left ear has a compartment on it which features the on/off button for noise cancelling - you can listen to music without that feature activated if you want - as well as a volume control, and a 'defeat' button. This knocks out the music while you hold it down, so you can hear the outside world.

It's best not to use the included volume controls too much - you're better off turning it low and increasing the volume from source (your phone or mp3 player).

The sound quality is reasonable, with a balanced bass and decent, if not spectacular, detail.

They are not bad headphones but are a couple of price brackets too high. For a first foray into the headphones market, Tivoli have ticked some boxes but missed others.

If you want a pair of noise cancelling headphones that are comfortable enough to listen to for long periods of time and offer a good sound, then they are worth checking out.

But if sparkling audio quality is the goal, then these might not be for you.

 

Follow Rik on Twitter here: @riksharma_


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