Clock-Radio Reviews

I bought two of these - for each of my kids bedrooms. It is nice and compact with the clock and the cd player -- perfect for their bedside music. The problem is they don't keep time correctly -- every time there is a power outage (and they go on the back up battery) both start to run ahead (they seem to pick up 10 minutes every few months). One of them is now not playing the cd without hitting the button five times and turning it on and off a few times. It also sometimes starts playing music in the middle of the night on its own.

I was here looking to replace with the Sony (figured it was better quality) and was surprised to see another review liking this one and having problems with the Sony....

Actually ended up buying two of these, one for both floors of the house. We had to replace our less than a year old Sony's as they had both broke, one had the CD parts fall off and the other keep time from another universe. Yes I did take them back to the dealer and was told to send them to Sony. It was easier and in this case cheaper to buy new units. Easy to use and so far very reliable. I do like the CD track option for wake ups, really is special on those special celebration days for the significant other. I bought one GPX at a local retailer and the second from Amazon. Great product.....

I was very pleased and excited when I got this CD alarm/radio. The sound is good, the features work well. It's easy to figure out how everything works and to program the various functions. I loved it. HOWEVER, the second week I had it, CDs started to skip more and more (they play fine on both my other players), which is VERY annoying, since playing CDs to go to sleep and wake up by is mainly what I bought it for...so think about how you are going to be using this one, and how often.

This is a great gift to give. It has a clear sound and the CD player is great. My daughter loves it and she has no excuse not to get out of bed in the morning. The sound is great wakes her right up. I give it 5 stars/

The alarm automatically shuts itself off after an hour, however, if you let it shut off by itself, you have to reset the clock again, it will not go off the next morning, even if the alarm button is set.

The battery back up has worked when my power was out for a few hours, but when I lost power for 4 days, the back up didn't work.

This alarm clock has everything I need in an alarm clock. It has the battery back up, the 24 hour reset feature, and large numbers on the display. Who needs anything else?

I've owned the Philips MC-M570 shelf system for a few months and I am generally satisfied with its performance and features. I especially like the USB PC Link that allows you to play your PC sound through the system. However, there are several features missing that I find are really necessary for me. The unit lacks a balance control, separate bass and treble controls (not even a tone control), a cassette deck, and there are no line out jacks.

A balance control is a necessity if you put the unit's speakers in any place other than the "ideal" positions. The lack of bass and treble controls can be tolerated if you are happy with one of the nine preset equalization settings. The problem is that you can select only one of these at a time and cannot "mix and match" combinations of them. I am not particularly happy with any one of the preset settings, primarily because they all produce too much bass for my liking. A separate bass control would correct this.

Although the unit has 5 CD trays that are nicely arranged, a single cassette deck would be beneficial for recording from CD or the tuner. If it at least had "line out" jacks you could pipe the output to another device. The headphone output can be used for this but then the sound is muted. Since I only paid about a hundred bucks for the unit I decided that it was not worth returning it but I will probably relegate it to the guest room as soon as I find somrthing better. Paul Holliday 040719

I've had this system, for a couple of months, now. It is really a good one. The sound quality is superb, there is no distortion, in the 200watts of speaker power. I was disappointed that it does not have a dual cassette player/recorder, but the Pc USB feature, more than compensates. The only other thing was the remote control, it has no number pad, so you have to go forward, or back, if you don't want to go in disc order, or you don't want to program. This is an excellent bargain, especially when compared to similar products available, and there aren't many, with these features.

this is a fine alarm clock. it has funny nature sounds and alarms (my favorite is the babbling brook). I think the intention is that you put on the nature sound before going to sleep and it will help you sleep. great idea if the ocean sound, for example, didn't remind me of flushing toilets. I mean the sounds are muffled, like they are inside a box. the nature sound loops are short (about ten seconds then it repeats not too noticeably). the forest sound is mostly a bunch of crickets and the occasional hooting owl (if you into that sort of thing). anyways, this is a fine alarm clock in an attractive green package, but if you want to sleep to the sounds of nature, but one of those CDs, or move to the country.

These are nice and funky. We bought one used from somebody who put athletic tape over the speaker (on the back) to muffle the bird noise -- a good idea, it's plenty loud enough on "low" and with the tape. If you're a deep sleeper, I'm sure the unmuffled "high" setting will open your eyes.

Yes, it looks cool. Yes, it'll wake you up in the morning. But, the SOOTHING SOUNDS??!!! More like an electronic colliape - it's really tragic that it sounds so bad. Honest, you'll NEVER use the soothing sound component to fall asleep or wake up. After my son bought it with his Christmas money (which burns me even more) I kept trying to figure out how to make the soothing sound actually sound soothing. Well, no can do. It really just sounds bad.

I'm so glad I got this alarm clock - the sounds really help to block out noise from neighbors, etc. (I live in a dorm). I've been shopping for an alarm clock with "soothing sounds," but all the others cost so much more - this clock is a great value and it's really attractively designed.

I have purchased not one, or two, but three of these units! Each has survived in the harsh marine environment for less than a year. The problem always lies in the same two areas. The jog switch is not only difficult to use. It is the first thing to suffer from water intrusion. Why they would put such a device on a water resistant unit is beyond me. Obviously the seals cannot be made sufficiently water resistant. The second issue is where the power cord plugs into the unit. This is a standard plug arrangement, and not in the least water resistant. The metal portion of the plug remains visable upon installation.

Admittedly, the environment I use the unit is very harsh. I leave it on the deck of my sailboat where it receives light rainfall and ocean spray. I have been unable to find any water resistant unit other than Sony products. Sony used to make a Sports boombox that was yellow and extremely well built. It lasted me five years on the sailboat! That unit stayed on deck all the time. Even in heavy rainfall and sailed through a Tropical Storm while playing CDs!! It also came with a DC power adapter which is convenience for plugging in the boat. The new models do not.

The answer may be the expensive option of installing a complete audio system. However, that is expensive, requires wiring to be run through the boat, and, worst, requires putting holes in the boat to mount speakers.

In the meantime, I will purchase one more Sony Sports boombox because I like the price and the product before if fails to the elements. A hundred bucks a year for having tunes on the boat is worth it. This time, however, I am going to try the cheaper version without the jog switch, and treat the power connection with water resistant electric grease.

Just got this today - it has great sound for a small speakers.
The megabass was good considering it does not have any subwoofer.
The bass port in the back helps.

I don't know about the other reviewers, but I have experience with playing mp3 cds with different devices. This one works good. If it is skipping with MP3 songs, it is because it was burned at a faster speed. If you want good compatibility with other mp3 cd players, it is best to burn at 2x speed.

I like the way you can stand it up. Perfect for the back seat of a truck or car. As for the person complaining about the brick power supply, it's because this will let you use a dc power adapter for the car and be able to plug it into the power port.

I love electronics technlogy. This is a very cool little system, especially for the price. I was looking for an mp3 boombox and found this one by Sony and I do NOT regret its purchase.

Its a simple system and has every function I was looking for! When I looked at it in the store I was wondering where all the features could be. But with these few keys you can:

- play mp3 cds,
- shuffle tracks,
- repeat track, directory, cd, album.
- Rewind/Forward Tracks/Directories
- and scan rewind/forward tracks.
- Program your own folders (20) with your own track order up to 20 tracks or files for each folder!

There are 20 presets for the radio and they are very easy to set. The boombox is very intuitive. i figured out how to do everything in about 2 minutes of playing with it w/out the instructions, because everything just makes sense the way it's set up. Kudos to Sony for this!!! I really love it.

Worthy Extras:
Its also waterproof, very light and easy to carry!

PS. One thing that a buyer may expect is a remote, but there isn't one.

Wished I had read reviews 1st. Absolutlely terrible radio reception. I also get loud whooshing sound in background of fm stations, and can receive almost no am stations. Remote has never worked. Technical or customer assistance from GE is nonexistent. Only function that works is CD player.

We are out in the country and while, I cannot pick up all the radio stations, it's not necessarily because of the Spacemaker. I can't get some stations with my huge stereo system.

It was easy to install, and perfect for listening to music while you fix dinner. It's not going to be a BOOM BOX that will fill the whole house. Just enough for the kitchen. It looks nice too. All in all, a good buy and it was a wonderful mother's day gift.

I received this as a Mother's Day gift, and I am very pleased with the quality of sound it provides and with all the smart features of this product.

The remote control is an awesome convenience - I leave the remote on the kitchen table and use it more than the actual controls on the radio. There is capacity for 10 pre-set stations, which is also a great feature, so you can easily flip to another station when you're in the mood for something new. All the features are included on the remote, so you can turn it on/off, adjust volume, change stations, and switch from AM to FM to CD without getting up.

Also, it was super-easy to install. The instructions were clear, and there was a cardboard template to tape to the bottom of the cabinet with pre-marked holes for drilling. It was installed in 10 minutes.

disappointing device. the display is too bright, in three levels of too bright, no less. i have to put a baseball cap over it or it lights up the room at night. the volume knob is hard to control - it is a thumbwheel that barely sticks out. once you do get it it goes too loud or too soft. very touchy in lower volume range. tuning not superb in the extreme. bizarre layout of buttons on front panel, which are easily hit by accident. the display layout is not logical and many indicators are extremely tiny lettering - good luck determining if that is "fm" or "pm" and is that referring to the alarm status or the normal status? but what the hey, it's cute, so even though i gave it one star, let's pretend it's a shiny tin foil star.

The clock display is slightly bright at its lowest setting. The sound from the clock is pretty poor, and the volume control is not very accurate. It goes from too soft to loud to distorted loud. I have a hard time finding just the right volume.

The nature sounds are a nice alternative to the standard buzzer, but the quality is bad.

The buttons on my clock are hard to push and often one push of the button makes the hour/min jump by two or three. The paint on the buttons has worn away (after about 4 years) and the radio reception seems to be on the low side.

That all being said, it has worked steadily for about 4 years with no serious problems. While not a terrible clock, you could find better.

The adjustable backlighting would seem to be a nice feature, but even at the dimmest readable light, it seems to light up a dark room much more than an LED that the old fashion clock radios have. If light in your room while you are sleeping bothers you, don't get the Timex or any other backlit clock.

Also, the curved plastic cover on the front of the clock is problematic because there can easily be glare problems when trying to read the time from a side angle if sunlight is shining in the window.

This type of backlight make the time generally less readable from across the room compared to an LED style clock.

I'm sending mine back.

YOU SHOULDEN'T BUY IT. IT BROKE AFTER ABOUT TWO MONTHS. SOMETIMES, THE DISPLAY WOULD SAY "ERRR" INSTED OF "CD TR" DON'T BUY IT!!!

I was looking to replace this cd/clock radio, for the same reasons listed in many of these reviews...the cd player slowly became disfunctional. Mine has lasted about a year. Looking over the other choices, I cant say the reviews are much better. so in the end I say...it has quite good features, easy to read display & dual alarm, however dont expect the cd player to last. This year im going to try Phillips....RCA - get your act in gear - you have a nice design - add another buck to the cost and make it quality!

I read all of the reviews and there is some basis for complaint. I did not expect this thing to play as well as a more expensive model. There are a few functions like the wake to a CD that may not be that good but I wake to the alarm and the radio. The CD is not meant to be the main player for a person. I think they intended it to be just something you listen to for a couple hours a day at the most. I knew this would not have amazing sound quality but it is among the best for its price. If you are looking for a decent, space-saving, dual alarm clock with a CD/radio, this is a nice option. If you want a more sophisticated model, add a little more to the price and add onto the size a bit. For me, I needed a compact model that played a CD. This is just fine for what I wanted.