Clock-Radio Reviews

Our toddler got hold of our Sony Dream Machine and dispatched the one essential dial that controls time/alarm setting, so for several months we've been depending on internal body alarms--with the usual resultant catastrophes. What's more, since "spring forward" daylight savings the clock has been an hour off. Ah, parenthood. Finally we got around to ordering this Panasonic. But once out of the box (yesterday) the myriad problems quickly began to announce themselves. First, the design interface of the buttons is cryptic at best. Enlarge the image above and you'll see what I mean. Various functions are attributed to the same buttons, and they're all so squeezed together that the text directionals are not entirely clear. There are TWO time-set controls. Why? After fiddling with the danged thing last night I finally had to consult the instructions to set the alarm. In other words, it was not clear and apparent how to do a routine adjustment to a bottom-of-the-line component. Gimme a break. Even after reading the instructions we had difficulty. Maybe this was a lemon--and maybe not. We couldn't figure out how to make the "fast" function work in setting the alarm, so it took a long time and much button-pressing. We never did get it right, in fact.

This clock-radio represents much of what's wrong with the modern world, in albeit simplified terms:

1. Apparently it was designed by a troupe of monkeys. Seriously, Panasonic should be embarrassed by the poor design of this product. If I owned Panasonic stock (I don't) I would be selling today.

2. Just like car stereos, in which the classic, time-tested volume control knob is somehow not good enough (so they had to replace with complicated multi-function push-button controls that cannot be operated by anyone aside from the driver who has painstakenly learned the "rules"), the designers/manufactures of this clock-radio have taken a simple concept that worked...and ruined it.

3. Marketers/advertisers bombard us with lies about how great this product is.

4. Consumers, like a bunch of sheep, take the abuse--insuring the cycle will be repeated again, and again, ad nauseum.

Forget it. We want out. We're sending the blasted thing back today. Thankfully Amazon will refund our purchase and we can try again. There must be someone out there who can manufacture a clock-radio that does the job it was intended to do.

I got this as a replacement for my girlfriend. It has a lot of nice features, but (unfortunately) we're considering taking it back... The biggest problem is that the buttons are too small and too close together. The snooze, while bigger than the rest, is in a corner that can be hard to hit if the clock is not faced a certain direction. That's bearable, but the rest of the 5-6 buttons are tiny little circles all in a tight row. The off button is in the middle of the row and I have yet to hit it without pushing at least a few others in the process.

Similarily, the buttons to set the clock/alarm are positioned so that it is difficult to change the alarm time with one hand.

Finally, the "Tender Wake-Up System" is nice, but whenever I push snooze or off the volume goes up to full for a fraction of a second. Just long enough to really annoy me.

Overall the clock is just... annoying. We'll probably keep it and we'll probably get used to it, but I certainly wouldn't buy it again.

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I'm really happy with this little clock radio. It's an excellent value for the money. It looks great, works great, and sounds great. The glow is not too bright; it has a high and a low (I keep mine on low all the time). A note about the alarms: One is a radio alarm only and the other is a beeper alarm only. The radio alarm doesn't work if the power is out. The beeper alarm will work if the power is out. I thought that was odd. The unit does have a battery back-up.

I'm very pleased with this clock radio. I bought mine for $$$and not shipping cost on another website. Happy hunting!
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This system is WAY too expensive. I considered buying one until i actually heard it.
There is NO BASS!!! So you have to buy a subwoofer if you want good sound from it.
If you add it up(400 for the stereo, 300 for a decent subwoofer) 700 BUCKS!

I like the overall looks of my stereo, very cool!!!!!!!! For how my parents spent on it, $399.00 ouch! But it's on Ebay for less, but it's worth the money. Plays mp3's so I have music for hours.

Having read the reviews below, I feel compelled to set the record straight.

First, the speakers DO produce bass. It's not the overwhelming blowout hip hop concert kind, but it's bass nonetheless. If you want spine-tingling lows, get a more expensive system -- or one with a subwoofer. Or, better yet, adjust the bass on this system up a step or two. I'm pretty picky when it comes to audio (I also own a pair of B&Ws) and I'm pleased with the overall sound from these speakers.

Second, the system really does look great. One reviewer said it's impossible to turn off the display light. That's not true. Hold down the power button, and the display light turns off completely. Five stars for looks.

The features are great too. I wont go into too much detail here; you can read about that stuff online. I personally like the gradually increasing volume on the alarm (which will wake you up to your favorite CD).

Finally, my complaint: the remote control, which you WILL use, just sucks. It is not backlit, and its shape is such that you have no way of telling which buttons you're hitting in the dark (the buttons are indistinguishable from one another by feel). Result: it's really hard to use the remote at night in bed. This is an example of design run amok.

Otherwise I'm happy with the thing.

This is a nice unit that does what it says it does-- alert the user to warnings and watches for a large number of situations. We've used it during the busy spring weather season and it has never failed to warn us of impending events (severe thunderstorms, flash floods, tornadoes, even a child abduction), always a few minutes before our local television stations. Setup seemed confusing at first but two minutes with the manual made it quite clear and easy. The only glitch was that I had to look up our county code on the Internet-- the 800 number given was never available. With the SAME technology we keyed in on our county alone, and disabled activation for watches that we don't care about-- a really nice feature. It also includes a standard weather radio for forecasts whenever we like, plus an FM radio (which we don't use) and a clock. I'm very satisfied with the unit.

The original ones of these being marketed had a flaw in the system and did not always alert as they were supposed to! However, the newer ones have had that fixed. We bought one and contacted the manufacturer to be sure and they said that the ones available on the shelves now have been updated and work fine!

We deal with lots of severe weather in the Spring and Summer and ours is working just great! Its great to be able to program it to only alert for your county, so you are not awakened for another county getting a warning!

What a great radio, it works just fine. Took a bit of time to understand the instructions,but once it was properly set up, its operating just fine...

Don't buy this clock. It does not tell time correctly and the radio reception it horrible!

I bought this clock with the belief that I would be able to read the larger display more easily than the one I had at the moment. The numbers are larger, yes, but they are a grey/light black color backlit with an orange light which it makes it almost impossible for people who are nearsighted and aren't wearing their glasses.

The nature sounds give you two different options to sleep to and wake up to. You can sleep to the sounds of an ocean current or jungle sounds, and you can wake to cathedral bells or chimes. The ocean current is repetitive and gets boring very fast, not particularly soothing coming from a mono speaker. The others aren't too bad.

The design is rather cool, but with that fashionable sense comes the inevitable loss of ease of use with the controls. There are switches and controls all over the place behind the unit to turn on the radio, digital station tuner, switch sound effects, volume control and backlight strength. It is rather awkward but not difficult to get the hang of with time.

This clock radio is incredible!!!!

The design looks really good. The snooze button in the centre of the bottom thingy is nice and big, but its hard to press in so i usually have to stand over it. The screen is on the top thingy and its nice and big to read. Also if you want to listen to the radio then you turn this dial thingy at the back of the bottom thingy and the radio number comes up on the screen. This makes it easier to get no fuzzyness while you are listening to favorite music. The speaker is at the back of the clock radio in between the top and the bottom thingys. Also one thing i like is that you can have all different sounds like the beach. I love going to the beach. And it reminds me of going to the beach, which i love. Also there are some church bell sounds instead of the beep when you get out of bed. Or you can have the beep if you like beep. Plus this clock is nice and small shape on your desk so it fits easily.

In concluding this product, it is money well spent to buy it.

We got this CD player/radio for a wedding gift (from our registry). The tuner doesn't get a lot of stations in our area (we have tested this brand at circuit city since we got this one to see if it was just ours or if all of them were like that). Also, our tuning knob seems to be stuck, so we get ONE station really poorly. So, it has only been useful to us as a CD player so far, which really wasn't what we were looking for.

In response to "A Guest" in Virgina, I believe you wrote a review for the wrong product. You state your tuning knob has become stuck but this product has no tuning knob as it uses a digital tuner. Just thought others should know this. I havn't used this shower radio yet but I plan to pick one up after I received a Spectra shower radio (CR-500) for christmas which has broken after about a week, stay away from that one...

I was tottaly pleased to open this radio for a Christmas present onlt to find how great the speakers sound.Im looking to buy another unit for another room in the house. 5 stars!!!!

This clock has the quietest "buzzer" I've ever heard - useless to me as an alarm clock, which is what I bought it for.

This is a stereo unit, but the lack of stereo separation and closeness of the speakers makes it difficult to tell. Notwithstanding the above, if you can purchase this unit for 40% less than retail, it is definitely an excellent value.

...I have been using the unit for two months now and here is what you should expect:
PROS: 1) Excellent sound quality. 2) Numerous combinations of options available for wake-up times and modes. 3) Ability to
pre-select specific CD track for wake-up. 4) Typical "Sony" beautiful styling. 5) User friendly instructions and programming.
CONS: 1) Mediocre radio reception. 2) Increase Bass switch to "on" results in minute change in tonal quality. 3) No battery backup in case you accidentally unplug. 4) Not stereo. 5) Sound distorts at higher volumes unlike some of the $100.00
satellite speakers sold for desktop PC's.

Conclusion: If you have not owned an alarm clock with a CD player before, you will be surprised as to how much better your
mood will be when you wake up, when you can choose the music you
wake up to. For items like this, that you can see up close, touch, and try out in the store, you can save lots of cash by
buying online and know in advance what to expect.

Regardless of the tone you have it on, ocean waves, bird noises, or regular beeping, the volume will yank you out of sleep to the point of hurting your back (literally). There's no way to adjust the volume. The beeping is like a garbage truck backing up in your bedroom. The ocean waves are like AM radio static, and the bird sounds have to be something from Jurassic Park. The only positive thing is that the snooze button is big and on the top; it's easy to bang in order to turn the gut-wrenching sound off. I'm logged on today to find a plain alarm clock. I'm moving this one into the den to use merely as a clock with no intention of ever letting it make another sound.

Hate that infuriating buzz-buzz sound from your alarm clock? Nature sounds are a great solution, but you won't get them from this alarm clock. This alarm's "nature sounds" are actually closer to white noise and they're just about the only sound more unpleasant than the typical buzzing alarm clock. Fortunately, the standard buzzing is still an option on this alarm.

Sounds aside, the clock doesn't disappoint. The buttons to adjust alarm and time are found on the back of the unit, far away from the oversized snooze button on top. There's no danger of resetting the time as you sleepily grope for the snooze button.

One last warning: the clock is a little smaller than I expected from the image. If you're near-sighted, considering getting a clock with extra-large digits.

I'm looking for an alarm clock that 1)I can read without my contacts, 2)has a snooze alarm, and 3)doesn't have a loud, jarring alarm. I thought, after listening to several in the store, that this was the one; wrong! I set it for "ocean," and was awakened by a seagull screaming and tsunami waves crashing. My cat leaped off the bed, and I later discovered that the alarm had -- literally -- scared the ____ out of her! Needless to say, I'm returning the alarm; that's a little too much "nature" for me!

Product may seem good, but I'm disappointed in not getting a TV included. Now upon looking at discription of product, it says TV audio. I'm not sure what TV audio is, but I'll use the product as some gift.
If you could provide me with information on what is "TV audio"?

Thank You Don Snellenberger
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I guess that because it looks like a Bose, I thought it would sound something like a Bose. It doesn't. In fact, it sounds about as good as a [less expensive] "boombox". On the other hand, it is a pretty stylish little package. If you're looking for portability, looks, and some of the unique features (like TV and Weather bands) or basically just a clock radio, then you'll probably be satisfied. But it is pretty expensive for what you get. If you're looking for knock-your-socks-off sound, then look elsewhere. You'll get a lot more per dollar and per cubic foot from one of those executive mini systems.

I guess I expected that since it looks like a Bose, that it would sound like a Bose. It doesn't. It sounds about as good as your average ..."boombox". In that respect, it's fairly pricey for what you get, but it is an attractive little package. If you're looking for portability, style, and some of the unique features that this thing has (TV and weather band), then you'll probably be satisfied. If you're expecting knock-your-socks-off sound, then look elsewhere. You'll get a lot better sound per dollar and per cubic foot from one of those executive systems.

they just die....twice in less than a year!

I've been using this product for a year. And I have to say it is one of the best alarm clock / phone that I have used. I was looking for a clock radio first and then a phone, and this product is the best match for this price. The alarm is definitely loud and there is no way that you can sleep in. The time display is very bright and clear. I can see the time clearly without putting on my glasses although it's placed pretty far away from my bed. Another good thing about the clock feature is that it is very easy to adjust the time and the alarm compared to similar products on the market. One little drawback is that the sound quality of the radio is not as good as it could be, although the speakers are very loud. However, it's not my primary concern since I mainly use it as an alarm clock instead of a radio. I do not agree that this product breaks easily. I have dropped it a lot of times and it did not suffer from any damage at all. I have compared this with other products that have similar features.and this is the BEST and CHEAPest radio alarm clock / phone combination.

CID-402 is a multi-functional phone serving radio and clock functions. I bought it few months ago, and it could HELP me alot. I can set the radio as the alarm in order to wake me up in the morning. When I hear the radio,it means I should get up. Also, it has the SLEEP function. I think the phone that attracts me the most is the shape and design of it. I like the design so much. Though it has strong features, it is still designed as a slim phone. It just takes me a little space to place it. Consequently, it is indisputable that CID-402 is a really good phone. You should buy one.

Very upset that the product I received was not the one pictured. It came in a dark grey, nothing like the photo, so basically, its marinating in my closet.

I love the dual alarms as I can keep my original Mon-Fri alarm set while setting the second alarm for those days when I must wake up at a different time. However, there's a flaw in the design of this clock. The snooze button is much too close to the alarm reset button. As someone who uses the snooze button A LOT, I have gotten to work late several times because, in a still sleepy state, I have pressed the alarm reset button instead of the snooze button.

I love the digital radio w/10 preset station options AND dual alarm. It has waken us up very well the three days we've had it. Unfortunetly, it is impossible to read from across the room where we like to put our alarm clock. Otherwise, a great alarm clock.