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.

Much like a computer, the GPS manages to freeze and crash the system. Though it easily starts back at the same place by turning the unit on and off, the freezes are all too frequent - perhaps this is version 1.0 of the software. I would not buy it for the GPS portion of the unit.
On the radio side, I have only used the FRS portion so cannot comment on the GMRS portion of the radio. It seems to work, though on the FRS portion, it certainly has no more range that my Motorola Talkabouts.
I believe the editorial review is out of date or incorrect. The FCC license is $..., not $.... It was changed on September 10th, but that was before the Audiovox was released by three months. ....

I recently purchased one of the GMRS / FRS / GPS tranceivers. It works great. I have one of the original Magellian GPS's from the days when they first came out. It has many of the same features however, the speed of finding GPS sattelites is much faster. Also, the radio features work great.

Great product, has a great radio and a easy to use gps. If you are thinking about buying a gps. Think: is it easy, does it have everything i need, and is it at a good price, Well this has it all.

After giving this system as a housewarming gift, I've been deeply disappointed (and more than a little embarrassed) by the results. The sound was great, and this very full-featured system was both compact and elegant in looks - a prefect fit for the condo in which it was being used. All of that merely adds to our disappointment that the system can't be made to work at all.

Upon delivery, one channel played intermittently and then not at all. A replacement base unit arrived very quickly courtesy of Amazon.com, who helped us diagnose the problem. The replacement worked for a few months, but began to fail piece by piece and was entirely out of service in just a few months.

Harmon Kardon factory service has had the unit for at least two full months, yet they say that they still don't "have the parts" to fix it. Maybe that means they aren't building them any more - which would be good news for unsuspecting consumers.

Christmas of 1998 I was pleasanty surprised to have received this as a gift and to date, it is one of my most valued possessions!! The sound quality is unmatched by any other, the ergonomic design is great on the eye and setting this item up is as easy as turning on your TV set.

I would recommend this to system to anyone. ...

I had seen this unit being sold for $1200.00 U.S when it first hit the market. I bought mine in Feb. of 2001 and I paid $399.00 (cdn) I got a very very awesome deal. I, and anybody I know that has seen it, think it is a very attractive looking system. I had read that there are units out there with quirks in the software etc...well, if that is what has brought the price of this unit down..so be it. Mine has not given me any problems. It does lack full featured cd programming etc, but that doesnt bother me. The cd sound is not tip-top, but you wont know that unless youre comparing it to cd players above the $600.00 mark. And even then, it's a matter of personal preference. The technical specs are that there is no more than a total of .09% t.h.d from 20Hz-20Khz. Each of the three pieces in the unit introducing their .03% I believe that to be true. It sounds true. It puts out large sound as well. It can fill a very large room with proper sound. Add a good subwoofer via the stereo sub line-outs. Use it as an amp via the three inputs. At the price I paid, I am happy. If I had to pay 1200.00 u.s dollars? Possibly not, definately not with any quirks. But I would consider it against other $1200 units for sure, it'd just be a matter of what I thought sounded more to my liking.

Class D citizen band provides an excelent very short distance communication. With the FCC only legally allowing 4 watts on 11 meters your range is very limited; all CB's can potentially be modified however for a illegal higher output. Unless your running a half wave base antenna, a nice beam, or a extremely long hi-gain mobile antenna dont expect much from this rig, or any other CB rig. With the new FRS fad they are pounding in the 2 mile range... however this is not true because one they run in (FM)frequency modulation mode which has excelent sound but its mainly line of sight communication only, two they have extreme power restrictions and no external antennas; those 350 miliwatts of power will barely get you a mile unless your in an excelent terrain. I highly recomend AM mode for distance, however if your going to buy a CB get one with (SSB) single side band which will allow you to use a portion of an AM wave the upper or lower part. In side band mode your 4 watt radio will produce 12 watts of legal power because you are only using the top, or bottom part of a wave without a carrier, this tends to be garbled so constant adjustment with the clarifier nobb may be neaded. As well on CB..11 meters if your lucky in the heat of the summer days the band accasionaly will open up and allow your radio wave to skip clear across the world; this is rare though running such low power but it is possible and ive seen it happen. But for those who seek the distance of radio Amateur (HAM) radio is what its all about. The FCC has made it possible to become a liscensed ham operator without knowing morse code anymore and a 35 question test which you can pass with a 70%. As a ham operator i can tell you its very rewarding, repeaters are free to use and usually have about a 25-40 mile range which you can hit with just miliwatts of power, or for those who seek long communications it is legal to run up to 1.5 kilowatts (1500 watts) of brute power. Although this is not neaded you can easily work the world with low power on certain bands. And with repeater ive hit some of them next to 100 miles away running only 5 watts on 2 meter fm. but thats all i have to say
73's
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The Midland 77-092 is definitely not overloaded with features, but it is a good low cost general purpose transceiver. I use it as a mobile unit with the Midland 18-2983 magnet mount antenna and am pleased with both products.

This Cb is great I have been using it for a while now and I love it. You do have to go to radio shack and get a cigarette adapter and splice the wires but its common sence stuff. and I didn't mount it. it sits fine in my ranger. You should get a good antenna I got a plastic whip at radio shack for about 20 bucks and it gets out far. The only thing you might consider is a filter because when the car runs it makes a buzz noise not lound just annoying but its nothing that you couldn't fix with your squelch because when you talk it goes away and when you get someone talking to you it will go away but if you are one that needs everything perfect go get it at radio shack. but other than that no problems! Its Great GET IT!

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.

I have had the frustrating journey too of learning the hard way about the CR-SRT100 SSR Receiver. It also goes by designation of CR-ZX0161Z. I was able to obtain it by buying a used CR-SRF100 which is the SRT100 plus a Control Display Unit(CDU)which is for non Sirius ready units. I then figured out that the supplied wiring harness (M2C457018) that you connect to the CDU is different than the one you use for hooking up the SRT100 to a Panasonic Sirius ready head unit.That harness is the M2C457019,which,thank God,you can purchase for a pricey $32.17 at www.PASC.Panasonic.com. I love my car stereo and was willing to do all this. If given another try at building a stereo system with the intention of using it to use Sirius or XM I would go with another brand where there are deals that throw in a FREE Satellite tuner with your head unit purchase. Hope this was helpful. TML

PAID-HACK ALERT: "Roy Givens III"

...is obviously an employee of Sirius, all of his 8 reviews are designed to run down XM radio and promote Sirius. What a pitiful, brainlessly-obvious fake. Surely Amazon can do a better job of screening out goons like this, otherwise the credibility of its users' reviews will continue to plummet.

Me, I own nor use neither system, just wanted to post this as a heads-up for unsuspecting Amazon users, so I'm giving it 3 stars as a neutral rating.

Get Kenwood or Audiovox instead. The newer 2004 models that are coming out from Panasonic are no longer Sirius-ready. I confirmed that talking to their support line today.

Trying to locate the necessary Panasonic receiver (CR-SRT100) to go with this head unit for Sirius service is near impossible now as it is no longer in any retail stores and has been discontinued. You might find it on Ebay or some obscure web sites overpriced, but you might also have problems getting other parts as well, such as a TERK SIR-SP splitter needed to hook up this hard-to-find CR-SRT100 receiver to an TERK SIR3 Sirius Satellite antenna that is equally impossible to find now in retail outlets.

Panasonic already burned older 3DO customers with backing out of their M3 gaming console product when the Playstation took over the market. Don't let them do the same to you if you want Sirius radio support from them.

The overall Quality is very good.The radio, tape player and CD player are all very good given the low cost of the unit. The bass boost does nothing but increase the overall volume at low listening levels.At low volume levels there is very little bass, but the bass gets better as the volume goes up.Overall,considering the low price, it seems to fill the niche as my six year old's first boombox very well.

I'm delighted with this item. I bought it to use in my office. It gets really good reception and plays cds and tapes. Of course it's doesn't have the fabulous sound quality one would want for their primary piece of audio equipment, but perfect for work. We even brought it on a car trip to listen to tapes since we only have a cd player in our car and it worked out great.

I use this product in my kitchen. Works fine for my basic needs, listening to NPR or some CDs while I'm cooking. Plus its nice and compact and doesn't occupy much shelf space in my kitchen. For the price this is really good value. I've had mine for about 6 months now and no problems so far!

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.

Unlike most new Aiwa's I've seen or purchased, this particular stereo seemed to be way out of date. The buttons were hard to push, and the remote was almost useless. The sound was decent, but for the money, I wouldn't recommend buying this stereo.

I didn't buy this from Amazon.com, but did get it as a gift last year. I was thrilled when I tore open the gift and saw I got an Aiwa boombox as I had bought other Aiwa products in the past and have been extremely satisfied with them. However, after I started playing this boombox, I was a bit disappointed with its limited volume output capacity as well with its volume output of recorded cassettes. But, overall, it serves its purpose and I can't complain otherwise.

As a 13 year old, I feel that this is a really great boombox. I really like the appearance; it's attractive looking. The sound is really good. And the Q-sound (virtual surround sound) is a great feature in that it makes the music sound like it is all around you. The only thing I don't really like about it is that it has a rather flimsy CD lid. Other than that, I am very pleased with it.

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.