Radio Reviews

Amazon.com has a link with e-pinions.com and trying to get the best price I clicked on Amazon.. e-pinions "AMAZON PRICE.$49.88 TOTAL DELIVERED. NOT SOO AMAZON HAS TWO NEW & USED FROM $94.99
Guess one should be very careful.. as one of the other reviewers said.. return too expensive to bother and description of auto-revere was misinfo.. so much for Amazon's integrity!

I just got this and bought it for the Aiwa reputation and reasonable price. The Q sound has an echo effect which is kind of anoying. What I am most disappointed about is that there is no good bass sound. I own 2 other Aiwa stereos which are bigger and more pricey but boy do they have bass. All in all you get what you pay for. If you want better sound, spend more $$$. Aiwa is a great brand to consider but maybe not this model.

I was looking for something for daughter's room. This was the right price, good sound, and a nice size. The music sounds very good for a portable boombox. I really like the remote control so that I can turn it on or off during the night without disturbing her. The only down side was that the volume control is by button instead of a gradual knob.

This Christmas season, I have noticed small
GMRS handhelds being sold as"family radios"
at mass-merchandise stores. Wal-Mart, Target, BJ's Wholesale
Club, Best Buy, and others are now selling these radios.

Audiovox started this trend with the GMRS-1525, and has now been joined by the
likes of Midland, Uniden, and others. Sold in blister packs, often in pairs.
They look, smell, and taste like FRS radios, but with a big difference:

On the packaging, much is made of "4-mile range" and "2 watts of power."
Little or no mention is made of the FCC license which is required to transmit
with these radios.

Apparently, these are becoming quite popular as the "next generation of family
radios." A quick check of GMRS frequencies on the scanner revealed lots of
children, call tones, and roger beeps. Just like the FRS frequencies.

What are your thoughts on the manner in which these radios are being marketed?

Legal?

Ethical?

In dealing with FRS (family radio services) radios, this has any of them beat hands down. I've owned four Motorola Talkabout FRS radios and found that in a high user environment there is too much interference from other users. I use these radios in a wet and cold environment where the temp. reaches the teens. These radio's perform with no variation of the signal. Yes they are battery dependent but in a 4 to 6 hour stint I've found that keeping them charged works fine. So keep the battery charged and you should get the range they advertise and get an ear piece so you don't have to have to volume on high...

I just recently purchased a pair of these radios and I have to say that these are the best that I've tried to date. I've tried the cobra 900 series gmrs , a few of the motorola radios,and have a set of audiovox frs radios. The pr2000 wx ... is great. The distance is the best I've seen. At least 3 times the average frs.I use them when riding my motorcycle with an after marked headset and the clarity is good.The best for your money. ...

This radio was ok at first but after I used it for a week, and I don't mean rough use, just regular in the house never moves kind of use the cd player crapped out on me. I was so mad. I paid much, much too much for this and I don't advise that you waste your money.

It is vary cool looking and the supper woofer is nice. But it takes way to many batteries for my taste (10 D’s for exact) if you are going to buy batteries buy rechargeable. The CD player has no shuffle (which I like). Note that the right supper woofer is [not real], (trust me I took it apart to see why it was not working its a plastic molding to look like one. I was upset and that is why I gave it 3*'s). Besides that I use it for roller hockey, it puts out a good LOUDE sound with nice quality and bass. (It takes stray shots fairly good with little skipping).

I paid ($$$)for this unit brand new. I've only had it for a few weeks it performs nicely so far. The sound is good and it's sporty looking. If you can pick it up for a low price like I did, I highly recomend it.

The only reason I keep this clock is for display reasons in the living room. First of all, the alarm buttons are in a place that makes it difficult to press down. You have to actually pick up the entire clock to set the alarm with the buttons because the way it is set up, there is no leverage when try to press the buttons. Two, its not very intuitive where the alarm on/off buttons are. It took me about 30 seconds to find the off button each morning when I used it as an alarm clock. That can get annoying if the person next to you isn't waking up with you. Third, the radio quality is so poor. I like to wake to music, but all I got was static. Yes, the display is nice, but you can find better clocks for cheaper if all you want is the display. That's my 2-cents.

What do you do with a clock that keeps advancing one minute each second? That's what happens when I use the "sleep" feature. Then, to correct the time, you have to press the time button through 24 hours...and if you over-correct...OOPS...press another 24 hours. There is no backward time adjustment. It's not cost-effective to send it back for replacement...so I just cannot use the "sleep" feature. Otherwise, the large display is great for us myopics. The radio is very adequate, and the alarm is LOUD! I like the radio...I just wish I was able to fall asleep to music.

The display on this thing is great, very clear and large enough to see from anywhere. The radio isn't the best but big deal it's a clock radio! The alarm buttons are more difficult to get to than on an average alarm clock making it an effectie wake up system seeing as it's difficult to turn the alarm off when you're drowsy. As an alarm clock it works great.

Everything on the clock works exceptionaly, and the user interface is intuitive, making it difficult to misset the alarm and oversleep. However, the viewing angle on the LCD ends at about 20 degrees above horizontal making it completly worthless unless you put it on the floor or sleep standing up. It order to tell what time it is and not just see a complete wash of green I have to nearly get completly out of bed. Makes you long for the days when little pieces of plastic fell over revealing the next digit, and I wasn't even alive then! :D

Pros: 1) Setting and resetting the time, alarm(s) and radio presets is extremely intuitive and takes about two seconds. 2) It gets fantastic reception--better than any previous clock radio I've owned. And 3) The NAP BUTTON. Find me another small profile alarm clock with a nap button for the price. I bought two of these--one for the bedroom, one for the office--just for this feature, which I often use as a timer as well.



Cons: I will be the first to admit that the viewing angle is not great--but think of it this way: when I toss and turn in bed at night, the last thing I want to do is look over and see 3am flashing at me. At least I know the alarm will go off at the right time. But if you need to see this clock from across the room, keep looking.

This is the best alarm clock I have seen on the market. The instant that I spotted it, I was sold. Crappy alarm clocks are a pet peave of mine, and this one is great. Setting the time takes seconds. Setting the digital presets takes seconds. It looks fabulous and I can rest my beer or a cup of coffee on it (I don't recommend it) if I wanted to. No batteries? Not a problem because it takes only seconds to set- no holding down a button for two minutes while it cycles through. I am buying one for by brother right now. Oh- the brightness control (3 settings) is wonderful if you like your bedroom very dark (or very bright!)

Thank goodness this clock has been discontinued. What a piece of junk. While the unit is physically sturdy, the display is small and awfully hard to read. The display light is inefficient at letting you read the black digits. The buttons on my clock became hard to use; they started to require more and more pressure to make them work until I have to brace the clock on the bed....jamming my fingers on the buttons. I'm ready for a new one!

I like quirky tools, and this alarm is quirky.

First the down sides.

- The indiglo light is horrible and you can't see this alarm from across the room, or even a few feet away when your eyes are all beary from sleep. The light sensor isn't too great either, so I pretty much leave it on or off.
- The switches & knobs (alarm on/off, am/fm, brightness, frequency) on the side are, well, on the side, and you have to sort of figure out which is which, though I remember vaguely which is which.

- The buttons can be hard to push, but I think they're easy to push.
- It can be hard to tune in your favorite radio stations.

What I like about it:

- Two Alarms! YAY. I set the 2nd one for 14 minutes after the first, which gives me 9 minutes then 5 minutes then 4 minutes snooze (then alternating 5 and 4 minute snoozes).
- The layout of the buttons on the front is pretty good. The slow back/fwd fast back/fwd on the left side is great and makes it very easy to set the alarm time. The alarm button also stands out enough that you hit it without accidentally hitting the time button.
- The snooze button is easy to hit. Then again, I'm not a morning person, so maybe that's a down side.
- Backup battery.
- Heavy-Duty construction.
- The light dims, so it becomes a regular LCD display.

If I were Timex, I'd improve this clock by adding/changing:

- Better backlight, they should user-test this. I realise Indiglo is a big brand and probably helps sell this product, but they really need to improve on this for this particular application.
- For the size & weight you'd think it would also do nature sound or something (not that I'm a fan of them), but it doesn't.

That's about it. I like this alarm a lot, if you want a dual alarm clock and can deal with the indiglo (which dims so you don't have a light blaring in your face all night), I highly suggest this one.

Good:
-Shows date and alarm time on the display ALL the time.
-Great battery backup (see story below).

Bad:
-Display is hard to see from far away, because it is a backlit LCD (it looks cool, though).

The Story:
When an ice storm hit Kansas City, my power was out for almost a week. The Timex, because it has an LCD display, continues to display the time. When the power is out, instead of the radio (if you have it set to radio), it beeps--so you won't sleep in. After a week of no power, it still had the time on the display! I couldn't believe it. Timex did a great job designing the internals of this.

I bought them and immediately checked them in kayaking trip. No second of work after been submerged in water. Don't believe the manufacturer!

Bought a pair about a month ago. Took my wife and kids to our favorite water park in Orlando. As soon as my unit got wet, it stopped working. The display is not visible, the speaker does not work, the unit does not even turn on. It has not worked since (been about 10 days). The unit was submerged in 2 feet of water for about 30 seconds as we cruised the lazy river. Bottom line, they are not water resistant.

We purchased the Unwired Water Resistant 2 Way Radios for use on a camping trip....our kids have had a great time with them. They are sturdy and brightly colored; the 2-mile range is stretching it a bit, but the info provided with the radios even states that the 2 mile range is over an open field. Of course, buildings, trees etc. will diminsh the range. We had good reception as far as 3 city blocks. I've tested other, more ... brands that also report the 2 mile range and have had the same reception. Unless you are willing to pay ... for more sophisticated radios, these are nice walkie talkies and a good value. Battery usage is very conservative, too (25 hrs.). Water resistance is important, esp. with kids, and the radios weren't affected after being used at the beach.

Bought this at Christmas 2001. By mid-March, it would not work. IF the time displayed, it was 18:88. (Since this is in another review, it must be a common failure mode.) The radio and CD player would not work either.

DO NOT buy this product. Select another clock/radio/CD.

After only 4 months of use, this product shutdown completely. I woke up one morning and in the time display showed 18:88. After unplugging the radio and waiting a good 2 hours, I plugged the radio back on the same thing appeared on the display. Everything stopped working, the CD, the time, the radio as well as the on and off button. NOTHING was working! I must say, I was extremely disappointed in this product and I felt as if I was cheated.

The industry behind this machine is fine - the parts, the labor, the detail, all no problem. But the design is weak. In particuarly, the sound is too narrowly directed. The front-loading of all the speakers is a poor choice for an instrument whose audience might be less than a foot away. Nonetheless, the sound is clear, and the placement of controls is better than some other models.

What a disappointment. These don't work in 1/2 of the range advertised, and they eat 6 "AA" batteries in less than 2 hours (not constant talk time). Even with rechargables, the incredibly low battery life makes them useless.

The range is good only in wide open space.

The PTT button broke the first day of use.

I have been using the T5420 Talkabout for a year now and it still works great! You shouldn't expect to have an exact 2 mile radius unless you are in an open area - no obstructions, trees, walls, mountains, etc.

These radios come in handy when my friends and I go on long drives since it helps us keep in touch with each other across vehicles. We also use it during outdoor activities such as biking, skiing and snowboarding because these areas usually don't have cellphone coverage.

Further to our last confused shopper, can anyone tell me which Vox earbud (single pin, no Ptt button)will work with the 5420 Talkabout? I have tried local shops, and they all appear confused as well. I may also have to phone Motorola.

Used this item while on a snowmabile trip. Took a while to get the ear piece adjusted so my ear didn't hurt. 10 of us started with the ear pieces but the sound of the engines would kick the vox on. That would render the radios useless. After a short while we all removed the ear piece altogether. I used it quite a lot since the trip and it works very well if you remember to make a little noise before you talk to get the vox to kick in. Product needs much improvement. But for now it is all we have.

I recently bought a pair of Motorola 6310 radios (not yet received) and am now trying to figure out which of the earbud/mic units can be used with them, without much success.

There are several model numbers shown on the Amazon (and other) web sites, with the differences apparently being: (1) the radio model numbers with which they can be used (probably related to items 2 & 3 which follow); (2) the connectors attached, 2 pin or 1 pin; and (3)their VOX capability. Reference to the Motorola web site for 2 way radios does not clear it up.

The Model numbers I've found for the earbud/mic units are:

#53727 single pin connector and apparently no VOX capability.

#50229 double pin connector and apparently no VOX capability.

#50256 double pin connector with VOX capability.

Anyone who has definitive applicability/use information could be a hero.

By the way, the same confusion would appear to apply to the headset/boom mic units (model numbers #50226 with 2 pin connector and VOX and model #53725 single pin connector and VOX). Same for the speaker/mic units: model #50225 (shown on Amazon site as only for 250 Series radio), and model #53724 apparently for all other radios. It's not clear to me if either of these has VOX capability.

If you understand these mysteries please post a review with the answers. Failing that I suspose I need to use the phone to call Motorola and enter the labyrinth of their automated phone system.