Clock-Radio Reviews

then the CD player stopped working after about 6 months. Funny thing is, another Timex CD alarm clock we purchased stopped working a few weeks later. We won't be buying Timex again.

on low volume you will hear a hum, somewhat complicated to find different features..........its going back sorry

this little machine is great. i've only had it for a few weeks, but it has surely made a big difference in how i start my day. i can program exact songs to wake up to...drifting from sleep into the waking world has never been more gentle. my girlfriend and i were tired of waking up to depressing news on NPR (not that the news should be avoided, but hearing it first thing upon waking can put a damper on the day). i think everyone should have a cd playing clock radio, if not this brand, then pick one of your choosing. i got this one for a good price and see absolutely nothing wrong with it. actually, let me rephrase that: the large green display is a tad bright (or brighter than the one i had grown accustomed to) and there is no dimmer switch as is available on other cd clock radios i looked at. it's really not a big deal at all, and after a night or two you probably won't even notice it. overall, i think it's a great buy...and the sound is pretty decent for such small machine.

The radio function did not work at all on this very poor quality Timex clock radio. No sound from where the speaker should be. Nothing. Not even a cackle. Nada. Nichts. The only sound this thing would make would be the cracking of cheap plastic upon impact with asphalt if thrown from a tall building. Features really do look great on paper, and the designers should be commended for having one of the best ideas on the market for this type of product, but perhaps the factory workers in China had a really bad day when they got around to trying to put these things together. Just thoroughly PATHETIC!!!
Shame on you Timex! Get your act together!!!!!!!!! :-(

P.S. I would have GLADLY paid $10 more if this item had been made using QUALITY workmanship!!!

I wanted something with large numbers, dual alarms, and battery backup; saw this and it seemed to fit the bill. However, once you read the manual, it says that there ARE two alarms, but one is buzzer only and the other is radio only.

Back it goes.

Finding a clock radio with battery back up and radio presets was a challenge. Most of them have analog radios, which means when I flip from the baseball game (am radio) to jazz (fm radio) I have to once again slowly turn the dial until I find the spot with the best reception. It is a joy to use presets.

Mine worked fine out of the box. Radio quality (sound) was good, suitable for a bedroom. Surprise, surprise, it came with the batteries (2 AAA) already installed for the battery back up.

Fine clock radio.

This is nice & easy to use. This Timex clock needs to have larger numbers & the alarm needs to be louder and more annoying to really wake a person up. If you are a sound sleeper this clock may not work as well. This one I feel was not worth the money.

The chimes remeinded me of a grandfather clock I own that I seem to phase out while I am sleeping. Witch is why this alarm probably did not work for me.

I feel the T127 is a far more exceptional electronic. It has a switch to make the alarm louder & the numbers softer & brighter

I know what the warranty said but this thing just shut off after a week of use. Next time I am going to buy a better brand and not care so much about the price!

I got this alarm clock when my first clock died during a travelling trip. Because I'm a light sleeper and am easily startled, I had to get a clock with an ascending alarm. This did the trick! The bells can get rather annoying if you don't shut it off as soon as you get up, but they're not meant to be music! The clock starts off very quietly but gets louder and louder until it's blaring. The button in the center is what shuts the alarm off, but the snooze'll work too if you can't find that button fast enough.

The red numbers are the perfect size. No they're not huge. If you're blind, get something bigger. If you're an extremely heavy sleeper, get something louder. It isn't the clock's fault some people wouldn't wake up even if a marching band came stampeding by!

I've had the clock for about 3 years now and have never had a problem with it. For the price, it's a great little clock. I love it!

Don't get me wrong. It looks nice, the radio sounds fine, but who in the world would design a clock radio that shows the radio station you're tuned to NOT THE TIME?!! It's in my office and I listen to the radio, but I can't just glance up and see what time it is - no - that would be too easy. I have to turn the radio off so it will return to the time. Then I turn the radio back on so I can repeat the process ten minutes from now. The other reviewer gave a great list of other problems, but this was the one I found to be the worst. Audiovox - pull your head out!

I see this item is no longer for sale on Amazon.com, and I can only hope it's discontinued.

The alarm and clock seem to work reliably, but every function - whether it's setting the clock, the alarm, or just turning the alarm off - requires a long, several-button-pushing process that's not intuitive whatsoever. To set the alarm you have to press the alarm button twice, then press the "set" button, then use the minute/hour hands to set it, then press the "set" button again. Most clocks simply have a switch you can throw, then set the alarm, then move the switch back. And good luck shutting the alarm off - you have to press the alarm button twice *while the alarm is going off* to shut it down. There is just a bunch of arbitrary button pushing to do functions that should be much simpler.

The only positive I can find is that the alarm has a volume gradient, so it starts quietly and then gradually increases in loudness until you hit snooze. If you see this for sale, I'd avoid it, and spend a little more on a better designed model.

Looks good for a cheap radio. Strog Built doesn't sound bad.
But you can only get one or two stations outdoors or in a big room in the house, don't take in to a small room or office because you wont get anything.
I wont recomended, for that money you can get something wiht better reception.

Got this product for my son for Christmas. Overall works well,and has a very large clock face. We were only able to tune in a few stations,but the ones that did come in had a pretty strong signal.
We would recommend this clock .

My experience with this clock wasn't good. It couldn't keep accurate time. I don't mean that it was a few minutes off. What I mean is that when I set it to the correct time at night it would be 45 minutes ahead by morning. I know it's a cheap clock, but I thought we had figured out how to be at least a little more accurate than that.

The radio was pretty cheesy, it was difficult to get it tuned to a radio station. While the tuner dial was large, it was just too hard to tune the radio (at least for me).

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this clock radio even as cheap as it is.

For less than $10, you can't really go wrong with this clock radio. It is your basic cheap clock radio -- digital display, crummy tuner and speaker, alarm with buzzer or radio. Has AM/FM tuner. Snooze and Sleep buttons (odd that these functions actually do different things, hmm?.) Nice round shape suggests the old, wind-up alarm clocks of yesteryear.

This Coby model features an extra-large green display useful for near-sighted persons (like myself) who need to see the time, in the dark, without fumbling for glasses. The product, is slightly marred, however, by rather unusual labeling of radio bands and controls. Must be for international markets? Also, somewhat counter-intuitive button placement.

PROS
- Cheap
- Great big display

CONS
- Weird international labels frighten Americans
- Odd button placement.

All things considered, if you need a cheap clock radio, you won't regret this choice.

Tried it in downtown San Francicso, then in Washington DC. Can not get strong-signalled FM stations. I wish I hadn't bought it.

Overall, we're happy with our purchase with one complaint. I wanted a clock radio with a weatherband, but it has nowhere that I can find to put batteries so it's worthless in event of power outage (which usually happens during a storm when I need the weatherband the most!).

We use it in the bathroom for a clock and to listen to the radio in the morning, so I can't comment on the alarm features. It's a little dim at night, but that might be desirable if it's by your bed.

I do like the daylight savings time feature and the preset buttons. It's also a very attractive clock and radio reception has been very good (with occasional adjustments to the antenna).

I was very disappointed when the machine would not fit! It was exactly the depth of the cabinet, which prevented us from being able to attach the cable to the back. Why in the world didn't the design take in to consideration the hookups could NOT be on the back against the wall? I would have just loved it, but Oh Well.

I have been shopping for several months for an under-cabinet LCD TV to replace our 18-year-old 5" RCA tube-type TV in our kitchen, which has served us well but has developed annoying on/off button problems and now looks old, clunky out-of-date.

Our requirements for a replacement unit were as follows:
1. Small, sleek, unobtrusive, LCD design that would blend in under our white cabinets
2. CD player so my wife could enjoy her books-on-CD in the kitchen (DVD and radio would be a plus but not essential)
3. We wanted to be able to view both local channels as well as satellite channels without needing to also install a DirecTV decoder box (this would take additional space -defeating our compactness goal -- and require more complicated wiring, not to mention monthly charges).
4. Quality (and warranty) that would ensure it would last several years.
5. Price under $500.
6. Given the limited selection and the poor quality reviews on other models, I needed to be able to examine it in person before buying.

I looked at these options:

1. Audiovox VE-1020 (and its older/smaller siblings). It way too pricey at $600-700 and read too many 'poor' reviews on audio quality and overall durability.
2. RCA BLC524: Screen too small, and 'poor' quality reviews, plus could not find it in a retail store.
3. Motorola/Moxell Tech KA-A13: Sounded good, reliable manufacturer, but could only find its announcement as it is not yet available.
4. Standalone 13" LCD (Gateway, Aquous, Sharp) with a separate swivel mounting bracket. I eliminated this option early because it would be too large, too expensive (~$100 for the bracket alone!), and it most cases would not include a CD player.

I bought the Sony as soon as I found its availability was advertised at a local electronics retail store. Bought it with an inexpensive 5-year extended warranty.

It's been in place for 2 weeks and we *like* it - it is living up to expectations, despite a couple of design flaws -- the absence of which would have earned the unit *five* stars.

First the flaws-all minor:

1. Fit and connections. As an earlier reviewer on this site pointed out, its installation is a tight fit under our cabinets, leaving only about an inch clearance to plug in the coax and a/v connectors. But this was easily remedied by purchasing right-angle adapters (Radio Shack, $4 each) that can be screwed in after installation with the 1" clearance. These redirect the cable and RCA connectors downward, making attaching the cables post-installation easy. Sony would do well to include these right-angle adapters.

2. Installation instructions. The alternative is to connect all your cables *prior* to installing the unit - something the instructions did not point out. In fact, the instructions could be improved in various areas. For instance, while the unit comes with variable-depth spacers so that installation under cabinets with doors that overhang the cabinet bottom, if you have flush-mounted doors (as we do), you *don't* want to use the spacers at all. Well, the instructions don't suggest this option, leaving you to think that the spacers are required in all cases. For me, this meant re-installing without the spacers, a minor hassle.

3. No built-in TV antenna. Unlike our old RCA, this unit does not have a built-in extending-wand antenna. This makes it a *requirement* that you connect TV and/or A/V inputs to another signal source to receive *anything* on the TV. While many people may be planning to do this, it *does* raise the ante on hooking it up. Sony would have a more versatile product for less experienced people if they included an optional "single rabbit ear" antenna that could be plugged into the TV/cable connector.

Now the good features:

1. TV: Sharp, noise-free wide-format picture, with settable options for standard 3x4 picture size and two wide-format variations. Just the right size. When not in used, screen is easily folded into a cavity under the unit and latches mechanically (more securely than magnetically, which may also wear out).

2. Sound: Perfect for TV viewing and CD story listening, and quite decent for FM or CD music, both in volume and fidelity. Two 3" speakers main the sound forward and downward, and the bass extender works as advertised. As long as you don't expect home theatre quality sound from this unit, you should be quite satisfied.

3. CD Player: Quality feel of its slide-out tray. Plays commercial and my home-recorded MP3s flawlessly.

4. Remote: Small, intuitive, well-constructed. Its bottom magnet attaches to our refrigerator nicely.

5. AM/FM presets: 5 of each, easily set, with manual tuning buttons on the unit and the remote.

6. TV/Video switch: Easily switches from the antenna/cable input to the a/v inputs. This is important, as the way we wired the unit, it only takes my technology-challenged wife one button click to switch from local channels to satellite channels coming in from our home theatre system.

7. Clock: Intuitive and easily set.

8. Timer: Doubt we will use - or care about -- this feature.

Bottom line: We like it a lot, both how it looks and how it works. The Sony name (and their 1-year manufacturer's warranty) - coupled with the inexpensive 5-year extended warranty we bought - should give us several good years of service...until it is again technologically out-of-date and needs upgrading again!

While the TEAC SRL50 is without a doubt one of the best sounding CD-clock-radios in the under $200 price range, I would not recommend this product to anyone. The unit produces such an annoying hum in standby mode, we could not stand to keep it in an adjacent room, much less on a bedside table.

The most amazing feature of the SRL50 is that the unit does not display the time when playing the radio or a CD. You have to press a button to display the time, and then it is only shown for four seconds. What's the point of having a CD-clock-radio that doesn't display the time? With this product, you will need to buy a separate clock.

This radio is a beautiful and stylish piece. It has very good bass response and clear sound. It is also very heavy (13lbs.). Overall: VERY GOOD!

Like most Sony low end products, you get what you pay for. The price for the item is fair. But, don't expect much. Analog tuning and just "ok" sound.

I have upgraded to the ICF CD2000, lists for around $189.00 It is portable and has great sound. This is the second model in the series. Stay away from the older portable model. I was told by sales people that there were lots of returns. Sorry do not have that model number.

I bought this model almost two years ago and keep it on my nightstand. It has developed a humming noise that varies in volume. It is loud enough to wake me up at night from time to time. Annoying enough that I need to replace it.

#1 disappointment: This unit does NOT have a digital synthesized AM/FM Tuner; it uses an old fashioned tuning wheel. Sony tries to compensate by using AFC on FM, but with all of the stations here (near LA), it probably would drift into another station with changes in temperature during the night. AM is very susceptible to AM interference and not very sensitive.

The power backup only holds for one minute; does NOT have a battery backup.

Audio power is only 1.2 watts per channel (3in. speakers), but sounds adequate. (Spec is 10% distortion)

Choice of CD music track for wakeup and dual alarms are nice features.

I will upgrade to a better unit.