Clock-Radio Reviews

It's hard to find information on the power consumption of many products, even though the cost of energy can sometimes add up to be more than the purchase price. Since parts of this unit are powered up all the time, I was concerned, and asked Cambridge. They didn't have a power measurment, but they did have the standby current draw number measured on a sample: 100 mA, which could mean as high as 12 W power draw. That's on the order of $12/year, depending on your electric rate. That's much higher than it needs to be just to run the clock--typical clock radios are 1 to 3 W. I ended up getting the Sony ICF-CD831 instead, which consumes around 1.5 W. Of course, the sound quality (and the price) are much lower so it isn't directly comparable.

Cambridge makes two comparable table radios, the 730 and the Model 88. (The 740 is a 730 with a CD, and the 88CD is an 88 with a CD). I basically purchased the 88CD because I was starting to feel unhappy with the Cambridge 730 that I had used for while (for which I also wrote a review). I felt that the deliberate distortions designed into the 730's sound were becoming very annoying for my listening, which is mainly classical music. The distortion, in selected frequency ranges, of the sound of natural instruments, had just become too distracting.

Now I have used the Model 88 for a few weeks and can make a pretty firm conclusion that it was designed with total audio accuracy as its goal. There are definitely no deliberatr distortions anywhere in it's frequency range. It reproduces treble to higher frequencies than the 730, and bass to lower frequencies as well. The sound is more even and balanced throughout all frequency ranges. When comparing the two using a CD source (I had to use the 730's AUX input, unfortunately, which may have introduced artifacts of its own), the Model 88 shows how simply outstanding it is. The difference was akin to that between an audiophile system vs one for blasting out a movie soundtrack. The 88 was clean and precise and just delicious, and the 730 was really bloated in the lower ranges and muted in the very high ranges. At the end of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, for instance, when all the horns and timpani and cymbals came in together with the rest of the orchestra, everything was beautifully distinct amidst all the power. On the 730, the sound became more muddied. There was more perceived power because of the artificial boost that the 730 gave to some of the mid-lower frequencies, but it was simply not clean.

Having said all that, I must admit that the 730 sounds more "satisfying" when used for listening to FM. The 88 is simply too accurate and harshly exposes any flaws in the FM signal. (The tuner is fantastic, but you simply cannot expect the same sound as you would from the CD source). The 730 makes the whole sound "fuller" and more soothing somehow.

Since the two models cost almost the same, the choice between the two comes down to whether you care for sonic accuracy (88), or just a generic "good sound" that can instantly impress, but does not stand up to scrutiny (730).

Having spent all these words on the comparison between these two radios, I ought to say a word about their absolute qualities. Firstly, the listening public really does owe Henry Kloss, the legendary designer of the 88, a debt of gratitude for building such a fantastic piece of audio equipment. It truly is startling how much better the 88 sounds than competing brands or models (I shan't mention names; anyway, there aren't that many real competitors in this class). I can even see it being used as the main audio system in a small room in place of a mid- to hi-end component system, it is that good. IMHO, the 730 was an attempt by Cambridge to modify the sound of the 88 to be more satisfying to the pop and hip-hop crowd, plus add a little more pizazz to the dials and displays. That doesn't make the 730 a bad piece of equipment - it still easily outdoes the other brands.

When first lifting this out of the box, I could tell this was no ordinary clock radio. It has such a solid, substantial weight to it - you perceive a higher quality. Once you plug it in and listen to the full, rich sound - your perceptions are confirmed. This is the most amazing sounding small radio I have ever listened to. The price is a lot, considering my old clock radio was about 20 bucks, but for an audio nerd, it is well worth it. I wanted a nice CD player to fall asleep to with all the conveniences of a clock radio and this fits perfectly. The handy remote and luxury features like a dimming display and dual alarms are added bonuses. It is a simple, clean design and the sound is remarkable - I highly recommend.

The problems I have with this unit are numerous:

1) The display is backlit *only* when you press the face of the unit. Which means you can't tell what time it is at night unless you reach over and push the face.

2) The phyiscal orientation of the unit determines which alarm you hear, but the controls to turn off the alarm are only on one side. You will have to pick up the unit, turn it around, hunt down the little alarm on/off button, and put it back down on the side you want. No thanks.

3) The sleep function only sounds the alarm three times. Once you've snoozed the third time, the alarm won't sound again until the next morning. A great way to miss work :(

Yes, it looks cool; yes, the alarms are very nice and will wake even a sound sleeper. But if any of the negatives above sound annoying to you, you'll probably find this unusable.

Following the previous reviewer's comments I went ahead and bought this clock. Having serious problems waking up this toy saved my semester... The sounds are definitely going to wake you up and the design is cool. It will take you a sec to understand what the rotation does (it is a gravity sensor with 4 predefined positions that selects the sound according to the way you rotate and place the clock). It may work with batteries but it has a "battery low" indicator and an 1 min internal battery so that you won't have to reset the clock every time you change them. Radio reception is good, though I was never interested in that feature...It is the best alarm clock I ever had...strongly recommended...gj philips!

I was searching for a clock that was capable of actually waking me. This is it. The "sonar" alarm does actually wake me up. Have no fear though, the buzzer and frog alarms offer others looking for less of a jolt a more serene wake up. The radio even picks up my favorite public radio station even though it doesn't have that strong of a signal. I also like that the display is not glowing all night, but if you push the dial it lights up; sometimes the glow from an alarm clock keeps me from sleeping.
The only remotely negative thing I can say is that it is battery operated. I hope it doesn't go through batteries quickly but I haven't had it long enough to tell. Also, when the description says you "Rotate the clock to change the alarm" it means the entire clock. It is a sphere and has guides on the back that keep it from rolling away.

To me, battery back-up is essential...

I purchased this great Sony CD/Radio/Alarm Clock for my office. It works perfect as an office clock as the LED display is rather large and easy to read from across the room. The radio gets surprisingly good reception and my CD's sound great. It's pretty small in size, so fits perfect on my desk too.

In fact, I like this little Sony so much, that I purchased a white one for home use. It's a great alarm clock that is easy to set. You can have two different times programmed in, which works out perfect for the days I wake up early to go to the gym.

If you need an alarm clock or a portable CD player, this would be a great choice.

this thing is nice. The nap timer and the 2 preset alarm times are especially handy, and the sound is surprisingly decent too. Well worth my 50 bucks.

This alarm does its job; however its a job to get it to do so. There is a total of fourteen dials and buttons, with a total of twenty different functions, some of which must be used in tandem. ( a pain! ) The names on the buttons are printed sooooo small they are very difficult to read - lite gray on a black background. To this reviewer simpler is usually better; try another alarm clock.

THE GOOD - got this as a present from my mom as a college student. it never fails to make me up and hit the snooze! and the BEST feature is are the double alarms you can set to either wake up to the buzz or radio. the radio tuner and volume dials are on one side, while the alarm switches are on the other side - both easy to access and learn. has a 9-volt backup battery source in the back u can use.

THE BAD - the buttons on the front are a bit hard to press and hold down when setting the time/alarm, but you get used to it. the LED light is a bit too bright even on the lowest setting...that's only a nitpick since i like the room black as night. it is not small, but about 7" wide, 5" high, 3" deep - a good size to handle with though, i dont clocks that are too small.

OVERALL - worth the 20$!

The Zenith Z124B Dual Alarm Clock Radio is a good buy. I've had it now for two years and haven't seen any problems with it. The best thing about it is that it's small and can fit just about anywhere. You can set the alarm to where it'll wake you up by a buzzer or the radio. It's not confusing to learn how to set the alarm, change the time, or anything. And you can also set the volume on how loud you want the alarm to be. There's also a switch that allows you to set how bright the digital time appears.

If you're looking for a good clock radio that is worth the price, I recommend getting this one.

The wall-wart power supply was of poor quality, and on weaker signals there was an audible AC hum. When switching from Wx Radio to FM Broadcast below 93 Mhz I usually got a loud buzzing instead of the radio station. The phase-locked loop (PLL) did not lock. Tuning above 93 Mhz and then down would allow reception but who wants a radio that acts that way. (I mostly listen to NPR at 91.1 Mhz.) The round "selector" dial was rough to operate and felt like a rusty wheel, requiring a little more force than necessary. Side volume control was rough in operation. As far as I can tell there was no way to actually turn it off, so if it were unplugged the batteries would exhaust themselves...

The N.W.S. Weather radio broadcasts and S.A.M.E encoding are great. It's a shame I can't find a good quality receiver.

This seems to work as advertised. One feature that has not been mentioned is that you can add up to 3 new SAME alert codes. This may be useful in the future for new codes for warnings, AMBER alerts, etc. On the con side, I tried to wall mount the radio about four feet high. It is difficult for a 6 foot person to read the LCD display at that height. I think the LCD's just are not easily seen unless you look at them almost straight on. But when I put the radio on a desk, it was much easier to read the LCD display.

I bought this Weaher radio after hours and hours of trying to find one that had a price that I could afford and the options (S.A.M.E.) that I wanted. I have to say that this radio has worked flawlessly. I went to the NOAA's website to get my county code, programmed it in and now I get nothing but alerts for the county I live in thanks to the S.A.M.E. technology. The NWS runs a Emergency Alert system test on it every Wednesday at 2:00pm in my area which lets me know that they are alive. It does take some playing around with to figure some things out, but nothing too complicated. This is a great weather radio and I highly recommend it.

The Model 3 Clock Radio is flawed. Its sound quality though is excellent.

The biggest problem for me is that the front and back panels are nearly unreadable under most ambient light conditions. The standard lettering and background colors combined with font size and the reflectance of the "metallic" treatment do not produce enough contrast to promote legibility. A flashlight (held at the right angle to avoid reflectance) is a useful tool for changing frequencies. My Tivoli Model 1 (classic/walnut), in contrast, is much much easier to use and sounds just as good.

I agree with another reviewer that another problem with the Model 3 is that the clock is entirely dependent on batteries. It would be better for this AC radio to have an AC clock with a battery backup.

Wonderful full sound and appearance. But lacks a bass/treble adjustment... so you can't adust for music/talk etc. The default is high in the bass end and there is no way to adjust it..... Worst.. the clock started losing about 5 minutes a day... way too much for a quartz clock... should be accurate to 1 second a month... after a week, the clock died entirely... I figgured that maybe the battery (supplied with the unit) was just a dud.. so I replaced it with a new high-grade battery... same story... So I returned it... Tweeter's current (June 2004) catalog is offering this product for $159.99.

The Henry-Kloss / Tivoli Audio Model 3 may be the "Porsche of alarm clock radios"... but what's wrong with that? I was searching for a stylish clock radio, with high-quality sound in a nightstand sized footprint.

But for my tastes, the Bose wave radio, and all the other 'made-in-the-pacific-rim-white-plastic' "commodity" clock radios simply miss the mark. I didn't want a Wal-Mart special - instead, I wanted something more 'organic', with a hint of the retro style of my father's 1950's tabletop radio. And this is it!

Clock: quartz, run by a single AA battery (included) - minimal power consumption, immune to power outages.

Radio: real wooden case, simple to operate dials, AM/FM + AUX input, snooze button on top, external FM antenna (included). The station lock "tuning indicator" glows amber when locked, and there's not a pop or fizzle to be heard.

I'm thinking of adding the Model 3 extra speaker (with 2nd alarm) AND the sub-woofer for under the bed. This product may not be for everyone, but it will certainly hold a prime spot on MY nightstand for many years to come.

I really liked this clock at first, but then I discovered that their placement of controls was really poor. They've got a volume wheel on the left and a tuning wheel on the right. Not only are these easy to confuse (and the tuning is really difficult), but I find I bump them all the time while holding the clock, which I have to do in order to keep the clock from sliding away from me when I hit one of the buttons on the front.

In the future, I'll look for a clock with all frequently-accessed buttons on the top where that won't be a problem.

It looks really cool. Display is somewhat cirved up, so it may be a little bit inconvenient to see from below (that is, from your bed). Tuning is difficult, so I keep the same station all the time. TV band is impossible to tune in, at least in my neighborhood. Display is very beautiful. It is so bright that I usually keep it face off in the night. I would give six stars for the looks, but the radio is a bit disappointing. You can find a clock with digital tuning for the price.

I bought this clock fully intending to name it Murray but upon opening the box I realized that this alarm clock was definatly not a Murray, it was more like a Monique or Dannile. I settled on the name Betty. Betty is an excellent alarm clock. Reliable, Smooth and Professional. With a contemporary look this alarm clock really excells in all aspects of waking. I highly recommend this fine product.

On the advice of another reviewer here, I bought this item for mydaughter for the Holidays. Within a month or so, it started actingup, and eventually the CD player stopped working. I know that theprice is low, but if this is what you get... save your money and buyan alarm clock at Wal-Mart.

I decided to get rid of my Sony Dream Machine and replace it with the Memorex MC2850. I have had the memorex for 3 weeks now and it's been great! I like listening to music before I go to bed and what better way then to listen to my favorite CD and set the sleep timer to 90, 60, or 30 minutes and it will turn off automatically. The buttons, especially the volume and alarm controls do take time getting used to but after 2 weeks, I memorized where they all were. Although I do wish there was better placement of the volume control. The sound is stereo so for moderate to low level, it's great like in an office or bedroom. It's smaller than I expected, it doesn't take that much more space than your typical alarm clock!

I bought this one for my daughter and she now has no excuses for waking up for school in time. It's slick looking and the kids love it. Great CD and radio sound. I highly recommend it.

The nature sounds on this item were not very good. There was no was to adjust the volume on these sounds and the bird sound would wake the dead and scare them back to life.

This radio did a remarkable job in waking me up to the sounds of nature. It was a great buy and I recommend it 4 thumbs up.

I was looking for an alarm clock that would wake me up gently to nature sounds and this one is great. There are three sounds you can use: ocean, running brook, or birds. One previous reviewer thought the birds noise was too loud. I would say it is the loudest of the nature sounds but in no means does it scare me awake, like a true alarm would. It is easy to program and hasnt failed to wake me every morning on time since I bought it. I good buy for your money.

Perhaps longer...at least the worst in recent memory. Let's outline the basics

1. The overall design looks like a scale model of a digital billboard you'd use with a model train set - nothing Martha Stewart would allow thrown over her security fence much less invite inside. (Mine as of 5 Feb was White of a somewhat different shape.)

2. The actual display functons..dimmer, etc. are OK. The pain in the touche comes from setting the alarm. (assuming basic time setting is a one-time event - like breaking a bone.) My wife, a nurse, needs different settings and spends much too long next to the bed clicking the damn clock to get 20hrs past the last setting...

3. The Coupe de Grais is the GD alarm itself. You have the basic NORAD buzzer calling the pilots to defend the homeland - loud enough for two, non-connected rooms. (no dimmer here!)

And then the perhaps the Enron deal of the whole thing: the flipping sounds of nature. Perhaps recorded before man walked upright with technology developed during the period.
Ever listed to a crystal set? ...trust me it sounds better than this.

Summary: This is a real piece of S.... not deserving a slot in Amazon. I see this as a great item for yard sales in areas without power, as a fund rasing device for the Taliban Relief Fund, or to use as a testing device for mental patients ready for release - it comes with a 3lb. hammer to go with it. (the test of how sick they still are depends upon how long it takes them to 'kill the clock'.)

I didn't return it because we'll put it in a guest room especially when someone comes who we don't wish to stay too long. Good hunting - look elsewhere.

...The color is very nice, but it is definitely a lot lighter than in the picture. I would have preferred that the snooze button was either larger or a different shape than the other buttons to make it easier to find while I was still "half asleep." The nature sounds are a good way of adding variety to your alarm...but after some time they would get tiring because they don't sound extremely natural. The display can be somewhat difficult to read at certain angles since the numbers are facing you at a slanted angle. The quality of the radio feature is decent, but don't expect anything spectacular. This alarm clock does the job for me...I have woken up each time the alarm went off. This alarm is loud enough for most people, but, if you are the type who needs an extremely loud alarm to wake up, it would be best to look elsewhere.

this item is perfect no complaints at all