PURE Pop Midi modification -Tivoli Audio upgrade

A while ago I purchased a PURE Pop Midi Bluetooth as an alarm, kitchen radio and take anywhere mobile radio. It has been great feature wise and I like it's design and ability to take rechargeable batteries (although an optional battery pack is also available). The one big issue I had with it was the sound quality. Most notably the lack of bass and treble. Once unscrewed, it becomes clear why the sound quality is so poor. The speaker it houses is ridiculously cheap. It is a 2 ohm 2 watt cheaply constructed brandless speaker. In a search to find a replacement speaker on Ebay I stumbled upon a Tivoli Audio Music System (full range) 4 ohm 5 watt speaker that has the exact same diameter and sinked screw holes. The only problem was that the Tivoli speaker's depth was double that of the original speaker. I ordered it anyway for EUR 22 including shipping from China. See the Ebay description below.

I am not mistaken, the 4 ohm speaker will not hurt the amplifier in the PURE Pop Midi. it does mean that you have to turn up the volume somewhat more to get the same volume as with the original 2 ohm speaker. I would say that with the Tivoli speaker I need to crank the volume up to 20-22 to get the volume I had with the original speaker at 15 (which was my sweet spot). The quality of the sound, however, is much better than with the original speaker. Noticeably more bass and treble. If the amplifier in the PURE Pop Midi was a bit more powerful, I am sure the sound quality would have been even better. The somewhat plastic sound is also reduced but still noticeable. I have considered stuffing the housing with polyfill to further reduce the plastic sound hints, but there is so little room left in the housing with the Tivoli speaker in it that I reconsidered. See the images below of the modification. It took me an hour and a half, but that was mostly due to the fact that I had to modify the housing to fit the much larger magnet of the Tivoli speaker.

The screw holes of the Tivoli and the original speaker are practically identical resulting in a perfect fit of the Tivoli speaker. The much bigger magnet and depth of the Tivoli speaker, however, is a problem. You cannot close the housing without modifying it a bit. I used a soldering iron to make a hole in the battery pack housing. It is not very pretty, but good enough for me. I also cut the battery pack connector bracket in half to make more space but still allow a battery pack if needed (I do not use a battery pack, I prefer 4 rechargeable Eneloop Pro's which seem to last forever in this little radio). 

As you can see, the Tivoli speaker fits perfectly. 

 

Is the sound quality now perfect? Nope. Is is better? Yes, noticeably. You will lose some volume with the new speaker (due to the 2 ohm versus 4 ohm and differences in watts) but the volume you get has more bass and treble - just more full range than the original speaker. Even the maximum volume level of 32 is acceptable, although if you crank up the volume to 32 and set audio bass to +5 you can hear some resonance and distortion. My sweet spot now is the volume at 20 to 22, bass +0 and treble +5.

 

Feel free to leave a comment if you have questions.

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Comments: 8
  • #1

    www.miraclepianist.com/away-in-a-manger-lyrics/ (Saturday, 12 August 2017 23:24)

    I really like your writing style, great information, thankyou for posting.

  • #2

    Ceramics for kitchen (Thursday, 24 August 2017)

    Nice knowledge gaining article. This post is really the best on this valuable topic.

  • #3

    Plastic Packaging NZ (Friday, 15 September 2017 14:43)

    This product looks so unique and elegant and this is popular in china and the sound quality of the product is amazing and it is not so expensive and it can be afforded by any one.

  • #4

    book printing (Tuesday, 14 November 2017 13:46)

    I like this post,And I guess that they having fun to read this post,they shall take a good site to make a information,thanks for sharing it to me.

  • #5

    Ebbe Muenster (Tuesday, 31 December 2019 15:08)

    Thank you for the idea! I have just one question: How do you get from Picture 1 to 2? Or: How do you loosen the top, so that the two main parts can come apart? So far I have removed the four screws holding the main parts together and taken off the big volume knob. But I just can not see any more ways to proceed!

  • #6

    Aki (Wednesday, 19 February 2020 18:03)

    Thank you for your work. Could you please descibe in more detail how to remove the upper parts of the Pure without destoying anything? I didn't get it from the pictures.
    Thank you in advance
    Aki

  • #7

    Marinus (Sunday, 13 September 2020 17:53)

    I have the same question as Aki. Pure does not want to help is with this question.
    Anyoune a suggestion??

    Thanks in advance!
    Marinus

  • #8

    Marinus (Saturday, 24 October 2020 00:53)

    Found it!
    Goto photo 1. See the transparent/black square ring just below the white top. If antenna is removed, you can slide the ring down from the white top. Close to the white house, at each side, find a sticky black cover of 10 mm dia, underneath are the litle screws that keep the two parts of the house tied to the white top.
    good luck!