Ask Tom DeVesto why a feature is absent from one of his Tivoli Audio products, and he doesn't miss a beat: "If you want a product to be simple to use, then you have to pick and choose the features." It may be "a little dictatorial" to make those choices, he said, but if they aren't made, "you are going to fall short" of achieving simplicity.

Some of those choices can be a little quirky: Tivoli's flagship Music System (a premium AM-FM-CD clock radio system) and its iYiYi (an iPod speaker dock with an AM-FM radio) both have "sleep" functions that are limited to 20 minutes - and only 20 minutes. That's all the time it takes for most people to go to sleep, DeVesto insists, "and if not, they can reach over and hit the button again to get another 20 minutes."

Quirkiness is part of Boston-based Tivoli's corporate heritage. It was founded by DeVesto and his longtime business partner Henry Kloss (now deceased), the legendary audio and video designer. Kloss famously had very firm ideas about what he wanted in his products, and DeVesto has kept up the tradition. For example, the very first Tivoli product, the Model One Radio, was a simple wood box with an analog dial tuner and a single, monaural speaker.

Throughout their many ventures they helped define what one might call the "medium-end" audio/video market. "High-end" is the term used for boutique components aimed at well-heeled buyers looking for something better than that offered by mass-market consumer electronics. But these goods can run thousands of dollars. Getting superior sound at an affordable price is a much more difficult job. That's where DeVesto and Kloss have succeeded.

For this review, I tested the Music System ($600 standard; fancier wood finishes run as high as $750) and the iYiYi ($300). As you can tell from those prices, not everyone is going to rush out and buy one. You can find clock radios and iPod speaker docks for vastly less than that. As a matter of fact, you can pay less at Tivoli itself. The Model Three clock radio (with a retro dial clock) is $200, for example.

To claim premium prices, the products have to offer premium performance, and for the most part Tivoli delivers on that score.

The Music System is housed in a nicely built wooden cabinet - a rarity these days outside of the Tivoli product lineup - and aesthetically it complements the night stand it's sitting on. DeVesto made good on his promises of simplicity: Only one button has more than one function. It comes pretty close to his goal of being "as easy to use as a lamp." There is a slot-feed CD mechanism that handles both standard music CDs and MP3 discs.

There are two 3-inch stereo speakers on the front and a downward firing subwoofer (for bass) on the bottom. The sound is enhanced by circuitry to simulate a wider stereo separation between the speakers.

The iYiYi comes in the inevitable white/silver or black/silver schemes. It has basically the same two speakers as the Music System, but no subwoofer or separation technology. The crowded iPod accessory market apparently puts a tighter cap on price and hence components for a speaker dock system.

Still both share the signature Tivoli "grown-up sound": crisp, accurate, stronger in highs and midrange and less pronounced in bass than is typical these days. The sound complements classical, jazz, and acoustic music. Hard-rock lovers might not be as enthusiastic. As you would expect, the Music System's added features means its playback is noticeably more elegant, especially with CDs.

It is worth noting that "accurate" is not an unalloyed plus. If a recording is horrible - and here I am not passing judgment on artistic merit; I mean how good a job the production studio did in engineering it - accurate reproduction will accurately reproduce the fact that the recording sounds like it was made in a closet. The Music System, in fact, will make it very obvious when you are listening to an MP3 file rather than an original CD that the MP3 compression has stolen some of the sound quality.

The Massachusetts audio giant, Bose, makes a lot of money in its consumer product lines in large measure because it does a really good job of hiding the imperfections in mediocre recordings.

DeVesto is entirely disdainful of the way competing products sound: "You can duplicate that with a Tivoli - just put a blanket in front of it."

The beauty of a Tivoli system is that when you have your hands on a truly great recording, you can hear that greatness to a much greater degree than one would think possible from what is after all a relatively small box. When you want Beethoven to roll over and tell Tchaikovsky the news (Chuck Berry for those of you too young to remember), the news will be all good.

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Al Gordon is a Massachusetts-based writer who specializes in technology and consumer electronics. You can read more of his articles at www.algordon.com/techblog.html and e-mail him at eagle@algordon.com.