Atomic-Self-Setting-Clock Reviews

I bought this clock radio for my husband for his birthday several months ago. We are very disappointed with its performance for several reasons: 1) As stated in another review, the clock's glow is too bright. If you are used to sleeping in a very dark room, this clock will annoy the heck out of you. The lowest setting is still too bright. Also, sometimes it would switch to the brightest setting at midnight, waking us out of a sound sleep; 2) If you play a CD to go to sleep, you CANNOT wake to the alarm. This is really a terrible defect. It even says in the manual that if you wish to wake to the alarm you must "make sure there is no CD inside it." So, if you want to go to sleep to a CD, you either must wake to the CD (gradually) or wake up to take the CD out the night before. We cannot imagine why they would make the player like this; 3) We also noticed the spinning noise created when the player is at a low volume. We should have immediately returned the item but we ended up keeping it - we moved it to the bathroom for use with showers and are much happer with it in there. And for the clock radio? We went and bought a Sony (which was cheaper), and it is working out great. My advice? Don't bother with any Zenith clock radios, they should stick to making TV's!

It does what it is intended to do, better than any other clock radio I have seen - it wakes you up in the morning with gentle sounds. The guy who wrote the Amazon.com product description did not know what he was talking about. Neither did the manufacture's website last time I checked. This unit actually has two alarms not three. But each of them can be set to wake you up weekdays, weekends, or both. This is what makes this clock/radio/cd so useful. You can set it to wake you up at different times for workdays and weekend days! No more waking up Saturday morning at 6:00am because you forgot to turn the alarm clock off! The unit also turns on it's alarms gently. I particularly like the simple note sequences it can play to wake you up.

I'm really happy with this CD alarm clock.

The best features are:

the ability to set the alarms for weekdays only, weekends only, or all week;

the fact that it has two separate alarms which don't need daily re-setting;

the remote control that lets you hit snooze from across the room (as well as controlling other functions);

the ability to wake to one of three pre-programmed sounds (that start off quietly and gradually increase to wake you gently) OR the CD (and choose your track) OR the radio OR a buzzer;

the ability to choose from pre-programmed time limits to fall asleep to any of the above (the three "sleep sounds" being different from the "wake up sounds!");

that one can use the three relaxing "sleep sounds" not only to mask outside noises but for therapeutic qualities (they're gently repetitive but long enough to be unpredictable, and they're musical in nature);

the adjustable brightness display (so you can use it as a night-light); and the radio preset buttons.

It also comes with a lithium battery pre-installed and already set to the correct time (you may have to change your time zone simply by pressing one button on the base.) Plug it in and you're set.

The negatives? There aren't many... the display is a little too bright on the lowest setting, and would be less intrusive at night if it were red instead of green. The sound quality isn't that of a stereo, but it beats the average boom box, and there is a bass boost feature and "wide sound" option (but no EQ functions). As with a boom box, at very low volumes you can hear the CD mechanically spinning. The manual isn't written very clearly, and since there are a LOT of options, it might take a second run-through before you're comfortable with everything.

But for the price, you can't beat this little clock! The sound is very, very good at mid- to high-volumes, and it takes up virtually no table space. I'd definitely purchase it again and am very pleased with the quality.