Clock-Radio Reviews

CD Player started to skip in first few weeks of its use. It finally broke after 6 monts of use. The design of the unit isn't so bad , with the exception of volume control which in my opinion should be in place of timer control, but the quality of the equipment is very bad.

I was using a crummy boom box to listen to the radio while I was in the kitchen and hated the way it took up counter space, plus the reception was finicky. I looked at other models of under cabinet radios and the only other one that was comparable was the newest GE model. The older white models were clunky in design. The newer GE did not have as rich of a sound and it had a "busier" design that I thought would be a grunge magnet in the kitchen. I was concerned about the FM antenna in the cord, but it turned out to be an non-issue. Mounting was a breeze and the reception I get is the same as with our big receivers, even without the cord stretched out (I have it loosely looped on top of the unit). AM reception is the best in the house!

I bought this product for use as a bedroom player. Other stereos seemed a bit too bulky to fit my minimalist tastes and I had a limited budget to work with. I must say that I am very pleased with the performance of this player. Even though I mounted it under a bookcase shelf, it still produces amazing sound [despite the fact that the speakers are underneath the player].

As with most Sony electronics, it plays CD-R & -RWs perfectly. The radio is also of very high quality -- the reception is excellent. For the first time in my life I can catch every radio station I listen to. In addition, the remote is small and has a magnetic back for ease of storage.

Installation is a breeze (just make sure you have a drill handy!) as Sony provides a stencil of sorts (holes puched where you'll need to drill) to facilitate mounting.

I highly recommend this product for anyone on a budget looking for an attractive player.

First, the good parts. The digital tuning and presets make for great and easy tuning. The dual display alarm is also great. I didn't have a problem with the brightness of the display either.

However.....

Yes it has two alarms, but the 1st alarm is radio and the second alarm is tone. So when it says "especially useful for working couples" - it is, only as long as one likes to wake up to radio and the other alarm.

The biggest gripe of all, however, is the weak alarm. I guess I'm a heavy sleeper, or got used to the old alarm clock, but the alarm on this thing is hardly jarring. It starts off with a slow beep and increases its pace, but never really wakes me up. If the alarm was more powerful, it would be usable.

What others have said is accurate. The major drawback is the display -- it's too bright, even on the low setting, and isn't very clear from certain angles. DESPITE THAT, I love it. The fact that there are two additional, separate displays for each alarm (in a different color than the main display) is a huge plus. You can easily see when an alarm in on, and what the settings are. Also the separate up/down buttons for the clock and EACH alarm are a huge plus. Radio sound is pretty good, but this isn't my stereo, it's my alarm clock, so I don't really care. If I had to do it over again, I'd buy this baby again in a second.

This unit is outstanding. Here's why:

- Size. It has a small footprint.

- SEPERATE DISPLAYS FOR THE TWO ALARMS! This is an awesome feature which on its own sold me. I don't have to fumble with buttons to see what the alarm times are. The radio alarm is on the left, the buzzer alarm is on the right. No confusion. When you can see the times, it's set. When the panels are dark, it's off.

- Easy to set using tactile feedback alone. Only three buttons: up, down, and set. The buttons are nestled on little shelves below each of the alarm panels.

- The alarm is plenty loud enough for me and just at the right pitch to make me get up and turn it off!

- The display is clear enough for me and not too bright. I can read it in bed and across the room. I can also tell if the alarms are set even if I can't read the numbers. The alarm panels are orange when lit.

- Perfectly capable digital tuner with 5 presets. Who needs more on a clock radio?

- Easy to find snooze button

- Battery-less power failure back up (it works)

- Durable construction. Feels solid. I have had mine for 2 years and it continues to work flawlessly.

Alright, nothing is perfect. The downfalls include a high price and a display that could be improved but as I said, it satisfies me! I wouldn't mind an escalading alarm - the kind that start soft and progress to loud.

I only came on Amazon tonight to buy a second one! Just wish that price would come down a bit.

Bought the cambridge soundworks radio through amazon.com who get's it's through J&R Music World. After getting the radio, two days later the indicator light that tells you if the alarm is on stops working. Can't tell if the alarm is on by looking at the radio. This sucks. After paying 213.78 what do i do ? Send it back? Who knows, wait for 2 months to get it back. All for one tiny little light. I,ve decided to live with it . Sounds good, but don't know if the alarm is on by looking at the radio. I am not going through the trouble to send this back. I rate this radio a 2 star.

It simply isn't clear to me if the 730 is actually the old Model 88 with a new skin, or if they are completely unrelated. I don't have a Model 88 to which to listen, and am therefore unable to make a conclusion. However, considering Henry Kloss' emphasis on a natural musical sound, it seems likely to me that the 730 is NOT a Kloss design. Let me explain.

I own a Kloss-designed Model 1. It is a sweet and musical radio, quite an engineering marvel. It is an extremely satisfying radio to own and listen to. Then I heard that the Kloss out-did himself with the Model 88, mainly with extensions of the lower frequencies below 200 Hz. I had to get one, but was told that the Model 88 is now the 730, so the 730 is what I got.

After 2 months of daily listening, I have been sadly dissatisfied with the 730. While the tiny Kloss Model 1 was warm and musical (with a rich bass, mind you), the 730 is, simply put, uneven. Instead of a flat frequency response throughout its range, there is a significant hump somewhere below 200 Hz. (Too lazy to bring out the sound meter to check the exact frequency). When the music happens to have a compenent in that particular frequency, the apparent bass is artificially boosted and overwhelms the listener. Worse yet, it muddies up the frequencies around that hump when the hump is hit, and a lot of musical information is completely lost.

When listening to an orchestra, this effect is most pronounced when the timpani comes in. One particular kettle will set off the radio's artifical bass boost, and any following passages from the timpani is lost for the next 1-2 seconds until the rogue frequency damps away.

Perhaps this radio was designed for listening to electronic music, I don't know. It is too uneven for listening to classical music (or anything that needs to sound natural). The folks who glow about the 730's bass sound aren't looking for music in the bass, I fear. They are just looking for a lot of something that sounds like bass. Psychoacoustics at work again [big sigh].

My hunt for the real Model 88 continues, I guess ....

I bought a refurbished 730 from Cambridge on ebay for $140. At this price the thing is a real steal. Their shipping was prompt. I got several emails tracking their handling.

Pros:

The controls have been done beautifully and the range of functionality is immense ... it speaks 5 languages ... the remote is a tiny marvel ... the 730 is a real sound center, not just a radio. Remarkably hefty. I play my CD's through the rear aux input.

The sound is quite remarkable. In fact, it can be somewhat uncanny. The 730 replaced a long-used Proton radio whose tuner gave out but the 730 is "hifi" and -- in hindsight -- the Proton was just a very good table radio.

The FM tuner sensitivity is OK and I can do secure stereo on the station I most care about in a house where reception is usually somewhat problematic. Oddly, reception was worse with the Terk amplified antenna I use in my basement. I taped the 730's FM antenna wire along the length of the headboard.

Cons:

Yes, the bass response is hot and somewhat quirky ... some recordings just have too much bass for the 730. I keep the bass tone control flat and the treble slightly turned up.
The loudness contour must stay off.

The clock gained 3 minutes in its first 3 weeks, while I was away. But the cleaning lady says she might have touched it.
A mystery.

The display dims greatly when lights are out but still not enough that I can sleep just below it without covering the face. And the lights for the alarms make it even brighter.

The audio and FM input jacks in back were slightly flaky upon first use and required a bit of diddling to achieve secure connections; but they have been stable.

I bought this yesterday. I really bought this to be a mini boom box for my kitchen. Here's what I discovered that I didn't like about the product:

1 - The sound is not so good. I bought an RCA (w/vertical CD placement) at the same time. The RCAs sound was much better.

2 - The Sony requires manual tuning of the radio. No presets.

3 - Manual volume control.

4 - The buttons for CD use are confusing. The play and stop buttons blend in with the other buttons.

I did like:

1 - The FM antenna. Better reception than the RCA. I live in a valley, so reception is difficult.

2- The rest of the features seem on par with others in this price range.

I recently purchased this item for my husband. We love everything about it! The tuning is excellent. Our favorite stations come in crystal clear and the speakers are flawless! It's well worth the price. I will be purchasing another for my son.

I just bought this clock/radio at a discount store. I have been looking for a clock/radio which is also a CD player, but haven't had luck in finding any that I like. I did buy an RCA item and it was terrible- it stopped playing the CD in the middle of songs and wouldn't start playing again. I exchanged it for another, and the same thing happened. So I looked at this particular model, but really didn't like the shape and didn't like the green numbers. The RCA I bought had green numbers and it was near impossible to read in the middle of the night. When I saw this model for $20, I thought it was worth a try. I am glad I gave it a chance. This clock/radio is GREAT. I love it already and have only had it for a day. The CD sounds great for a small unit like this. The analog tuning is better than digital for fine tuning in my opinion. The radio sounds great too. The green numbers are rather large and easy to read. I have tried it alot in the past day and it has been nothing but a "dream machine." Totally recommended.

I bought this yesterday. I really bought this to be a mini boom box for my kitchen. Here's what I discovered that I didn't like about the product:

1 - The sound is not so good. I bought an RCA (w/vertical CD placement) at the same time. The RCAs sound was much better.

2 - The Sony requires manual tuning of the radio. No presets.

3 - Manual volume control.

4 - The buttons for CD use are confusing. The play and stop buttons blend in with the other buttons.

I did like:

1 - The FM antenna. Better reception than the RCA. I live in a valley, so reception is difficult.

2- The rest of the features seem on par with others in this price range.

I recently purchased this item for my husband. We love everything about it! The tuning is excellent. Our favorite stations come in crystal clear and the speakers are flawless! It's well worth the price. I will be purchasing another for my son.

I just bought this clock/radio at a discount store. I have been looking for a clock/radio which is also a CD player, but haven't had luck in finding any that I like. I did buy an RCA item and it was terrible- it stopped playing the CD in the middle of songs and wouldn't start playing again. I exchanged it for another, and the same thing happened. So I looked at this particular model, but really didn't like the shape and didn't like the green numbers. The RCA I bought had green numbers and it was near impossible to read in the middle of the night. When I saw this model for $20, I thought it was worth a try. I am glad I gave it a chance. This clock/radio is GREAT. I love it already and have only had it for a day. The CD sounds great for a small unit like this. The analog tuning is better than digital for fine tuning in my opinion. The radio sounds great too. The green numbers are rather large and easy to read. I have tried it alot in the past day and it has been nothing but a "dream machine." Totally recommended.

I bought this yesterday. I really bought this to be a mini boom box for my kitchen. Here's what I discovered that I didn't like about the product:

1 - The sound is not so good. I bought an RCA (w/vertical CD placement) at the same time. The RCAs sound was much better.

2 - The Sony requires manual tuning of the radio. No presets.

3 - Manual volume control.

4 - The buttons for CD use are confusing. The play and stop buttons blend in with the other buttons.

I did like:

1 - The FM antenna. Better reception than the RCA. I live in a valley, so reception is difficult.

2- The rest of the features seem on par with others in this price range.

I recently purchased this item for my husband. We love everything about it! The tuning is excellent. Our favorite stations come in crystal clear and the speakers are flawless! It's well worth the price. I will be purchasing another for my son.

I just bought this clock/radio at a discount store. I have been looking for a clock/radio which is also a CD player, but haven't had luck in finding any that I like. I did buy an RCA item and it was terrible- it stopped playing the CD in the middle of songs and wouldn't start playing again. I exchanged it for another, and the same thing happened. So I looked at this particular model, but really didn't like the shape and didn't like the green numbers. The RCA I bought had green numbers and it was near impossible to read in the middle of the night. When I saw this model for $20, I thought it was worth a try. I am glad I gave it a chance. This clock/radio is GREAT. I love it already and have only had it for a day. The CD sounds great for a small unit like this. The analog tuning is better than digital for fine tuning in my opinion. The radio sounds great too. The green numbers are rather large and easy to read. I have tried it alot in the past day and it has been nothing but a "dream machine." Totally recommended.

not impressed, I just packed this up to ship back to sony.
If I paid less for it, I would've just pitched it in the trash and avoided a sony next time. I had to deal with a voice recognition system for customer service ( how lame is that? )
I was finally able to get a semi-english speaking person on the other end of the line who made me unplug\plug-in the unit to see if that would fix it... ( no, it's not a windows pc )
cd players have been around for about 20 years now, it seems to me that they should be able to build a fairly reliable one at this point.

This is the best alarm clock I've ever had, except for one thing. No battery backup. I suppose I could plug it into one of my UPSs to alleviate that problem, but I was surprised at how quickly it lost its memory after power loss. It would also be nice if it had a digital tuner, but that isn't a big deal to me since I don't use it for readio much. If I did use it for radio a lot, it would drive me nuts manually tuning to stations.

I love the snooze feature where you can keep tapping it to change when the next alarm will be. The ideal alarm clock would be similar to this one, with a battery backup, and a digital tuner. Oh yeah, it sounds pretty good too. I have it set play a nature sounds CD when I wake up. When it plays the morning birds I sometimes confuse the recording for the real birds outside my window, and vice versa. I'm not saying these are excellent speakers, but they definitely sound good for an alarm clock. Oh, and it looks pretty stylish to most of the other boxy CD alarm clocks out there.

In short, a very good alarm clock, but plug it into a UPS if you want to be sure you won't be late for work because of a power outtage in the middle of the night.

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 about that before I bought it. But it is pretty good: I measure about 1.3 to 1.6 W with the display on dim; 1.7 to 2.0 W with the display bright. On dim, that's no higher than some plain alarm clocks without a radio or CD player. And it's much lower than some of the "high-end" competitors: about 6 W for the Bose Wave radio or the Cambridge Soundworks equivalents, or 3.3 W for the Panasonic RC-CD600. Still, if Sony cared to, they could cut it down to about half a watt.

On other aspects, it is very good. The display is easy to read even when dim--much better than backlit LCD displays. There's no mistaking the sound for a full size stereo, but the sound is decent and solid, and is loud enough for me to follow the news broadcast while I'm in the shower in the next room. The controls are easy to use.

One thing to look out for--the "PSYC" version looks different from the plain white one: it has silver trim and fluorescent pink lettering. This Amazon listing says PSYC but pictures the plain white one, so I don't know which you'd get if you ordered it. If you care about the looks make sure you are getting the one you prefer.

I like the controls and the layout. The clock is well designed and easy to use, which is unusual for one of these things. It's a solid little unit that picked up the atomic time in less than 5 minutes. So far, so good. The fatal problem is what others have noted: it is WAY too bright even on the dim setting. The thing should be called an atomic clock radio / night light. We compared it to two other alarm clocks and it had to be three times as bright as either of them. It literally lit up half a side of our king bed on the dim setting.

I mean, you create a nice design and layout, which seems like the hard part, and then you make an obvious goof on the display. Did anyone put this in a dark room before finalizing this thing for production?

I bought this item through a Gold Box offer since it was a better price than competing clock radios with similar features. After I took it out of the box, it took about five minutes to set up. (The manufacturer includes a quick start tag in case you don't want to read the manual) Here in Pittsburgh it takes about 2.5 days to sync with the atomic clock, but the manual warns that it can take up to 72 hours. Even before it was synchronized, the clock kept good time and operated perfectly. The dual alarms are great...they allow you to have weekday-only and weekend-only settings. The radio has decent quality sound for such a small device and it gets better reception than the stereo that sits in the same room. And, of course, the backup battery feature is a must when you live in an apartment builing like ours where it's questionable if the electricity will stay on after you go to work.

This is the best alarm clock I have ever had! We live in the mountains and the self setting mechanism still worked within 10 minutes. Two alarms and more features than I ever dreamed of.

This clock radio seemed to have it all; 2 alarms, CD player, sleep mode, detachable speaker with its own controls, remote.
The sound was a bit thin compared to the Denon we'd previously used, but the Denon was bigger and heavier. (It had failed after 10 or 12 years.) But the new unit was easy to set and the two alarms were sometimes useful, though of course one is buzzer-only.
We bought the Panasonic in late August. Last night, early March, we couldn't set the alarm. Pushing the buttons did nothing. In fact, the unit didn't respond to any of the buttons, even the power switch. We could turn it on with the remote, but you can't set the alarm functions with the remote. So I ended up pulling the $10 no-name-from-Walgreens clock-radio from my son's room in to use. (The Walgreen's unit is ancient, by the way.)
Nothing would get the Panasonic to work today, and their 800 number directs you, of course, to the web site. Per the web site, your warranty option is to ship it to Texas and get a 'refurbished' unit back, in ten days or so, they say. Great!
I am also currently trying to find a decent replacement for my miserable Siemens home/office phone system which also got funky within six months of purchase.
Doesn't anything work--AND KEEP WORKING--anymore?

Very decent alarm clock, better than anything I've tried in this price range. Unfortunately, it missed on few features. It does not have Weekend mode like Philips (that's a real shame.) It does not have Gentle Wake as Sony. CD player has a bad glitch - the transport does not have memory so playback always starts not from the last position but from the first track. Well, second alarm can be only buzz.

Overall it's not bad. At least it has battery backup, which somehow is missing on many other (and quite expensive) alarm clocks.

This was our second attempt to find a CD clock radio with battery backup and dual alarms. Reception is great, and audio quality is consistently Panasonic (great!) The battery backup will retain the time during power outages (not just for two minutes like some of the other units), but the "dual alarm" feature is slightly deceiving. With this unit, you can choose (for each alarm) whether the left, right, or both speakers will be triggered by the alarm. Unfortunately, "alarm 1" is CD or radio (with frequency and volume preset as part of the alarm), but "alarm 2" is the buzzer only. Granted, it is a relatively pleasant buzzer. This is yet-another piece of consumer electronics that is just this close to perfect, lacking only a tiny bit of software to overcome an obvious shortcoming.