Radio Reviews

If you are buying this for an alarm clock, not being able to read the time may be a problem.

I saw a couple of bad reviews about this product and wanted to add my opinion. I use this to listen to low volume music to fall asleep to. The CD player makes a little noise but is acceptable (I don't know how it would compare to other models). The sound it produces for a clock radio is quite nice (what do you want from a clock radio that costs about 70 bucks?). It plays everything I've put in it. There are options galore that I think are really cool. Have you ever turned off your alarm, then decided you'd like to sleep a little longer but have to get up because you already shut the thing off? No problem, just hit the Nap button and get some extra time. Several people mention that it's hard to read if it's not the right angle. I have never noticed any difficulty reading it other than if it's bright in the room it is hard to read from a distance (my wife still has a red LED clock so I can catch the time from her's when I can't read the Sony). I would recommend this to anyone that wants a CD clock radio with some extra bells and whistles.

I'm very happy with this little clock. After my old Sony clock radio started breaking which looked like a shoebox, I decided to opt for a bit more stylish one. After a couple weeks of searching, I came across this one and it had the best features for the price, was a more compact version, and generally looked nicer. After opening the box and plugging it in, I found it is a very nice alarm clock.

Pros: nice big display, adjustable brightness, the alarm is nice - I like that it starts out slow and gets annoying (sure to wake me up), TV, weather, digital tuner, smaller than my old one, nice design, easy to use, I also like that it plays CD-RWs.

Cons: just like my old one it has that stupid "mouse tail" of a FM antenna which is really dumb because you can't really adjust it with out literally holding it, at some angles the display is a bit hard to read - its best it you are standing up looking DOWN at it, the alarm may be a bit to "cute" and not loud enough for some people, sound on the CD player could be better - its kind of thin, but what do you expect - its not a Bose (I recommend turning on the base boost - it evens out the sound), I also wish it was a little smaller. However, I'd definitely recommend it!

im usually a fan of sony walkmans,,,this one had the potential for greatness,but the design is sooo flawed, that the clip often comes off, sending the walkman flying and the batteries fly out. often times, when i pull the walkman out of my bag, the battery case has opened, and the batteries are out of the walkman, forcing me to reset my 10 preset stations. might seem trivial, but having had to reset the 10 stations probably 50 times in the few months ive owne the walkman, gets really annoying. good news is--given as many times as the clip has come undone sending the walkman flying--it takes a licking and keeps on ticking

Had problems with the clip coming unattached from the unit. FM reception is mediocre, although probably on par with most walkman type devices of its class. Perhaps related to my unit in particular, but the socket connection became loose, making it possible to hear through only one channel.

I love it!! Stations always come in clear and It's small and compact too!

I wanted an FM tuner that I could use to schedule and record shows on my local Jazz stations and NPR. Car Talk, This American Life, etc. You know, time shift the radio like a VCR does for the TV. This product _should_ have done the trick. But no, the software is minimal and has no capabilities to record more than one timed show. This product can be replaced with a simple FM receiver from Radio Shack.

I sent email to D-Link offering to code this up for them. How hard can it be? If I had the protocol spec I could certainly do it in no time. No response. This thing is sitting on the shelf along with all the other failed products that _should_ have worked.

I had this thing for 2 weeks - and it actually did what it was advertised to do - receive and play FM radio through your pc. However, the way the Antenna connects to it's base absolutely stinks!!! They use an RCA plug connected to the extendable antenna via a very, very thin piece of steel. I move the antenna around a few times and that steel snapped, and there's no way to fix it.

If you buy this - it will work, but don't move it too much.

This is a great product, if you wanna listen to FM @ work.
The software worked fine on both XP and 2000.The software is bit confusing, but if you are a tech junkie you shouldn't have any problem.A bit advice for future buyers, make sure that you always select "line in" under volume control settings of options menu.

I bought two of these players for my kids. Within 3 months the alarm quit working on one unit and within 6 months the CD players quit working on both units. If you plan on using the CD player frequently, buy somethig other than this Memorex

We bought this for my daughter last Christmas. After a few months the CD stopped working. We bought this type of clock radio specifically for the CD feature. With a 90 day warrantee this is now mostly worthless. I wish I had seen these reviews before I had bought it. Look elsewhere for a CD clock radio.

I bought this clock radio for my office and have been mostly pleased with its performance. As another reviewer stated, CDs that play fine otherwise have a tendency to skip from time to time, which can be annoying, but overall this product is worth the money, especially if you aren't going to use it every day.

THE CD PLAYER SKIPS CONSTANTLY. I cleaned it over and over again, i cleaned my cds over and over. even when i put a brand new, unscratched CD in the piece of crap, IT STILL SKIPPED. i truely want my money back. I am so dissappointed. and on top of that, sometimes, when i have it on the cd player alarm mode, it doesnt go off and makes me late for class or work. i only like the fact that if it worked it would be perfect for my dorm because it is compact and it has multiple wake up times so me and my room mate can use it separately.

Here is my experience with this piece of junk: I bought it and it worked fine for a week. After that, it started to stick after playing two songs on any given CD, playing the same note over and over. I cleaned it, cleaned the CDs, played different CDs, tried anything to make it stop stalling. Finally,after 3 weeks of this, I snapped. I took it outside, threw it to the ground, and spent the next 20 minutes alternately jumping on it and smashing it with a hammer. You could GIVE me the $39.95 and I still wouldn't take it.

Okay I wll try and write everything I can think of that may help...:-)

I wanted soemthing simple for my litte studio- this had everything I wanted. Radio plus CD, Sleep function (you can only set it to 90, 60 or 30 that I know of) Dual alarm, headphone jack...

Manual tuner, but I get pretty good reception considering I'm in a valley. The CD quality is fine, but it would not play a CD I had burned myself. This may be important to some of you folks.

I love a sleep function, the only thing is if you fall asleep to CD, you wake up to one, no big deal for me, but who knows.

The actual player is lighter than in this picture (lighter gray, lighter blue) more attractive in person. And the clock display is neon green (not red like above)

I love how small it is, the top loading is pretty cool. It fits right on my nightstand. Overall a good value for the money, as I did a lot of reaserch.

I received this as a gift, so I'm glad I didn't have to shell for this. I am in agreement with the others who say that this product has defects. In my case, it is the radio. I listen to the radio more than I play cassettes or CDs, but it takes a ton of jiggling the settings slider before it will come on and stay on. And forget turning the radio off...then I must start the ritual again. It is very frustrating. The cassette player works well, and the cd player is adequate--not great--but adequate.

I purchased this CD player at a local store. I needed a portable device and this one was recommended by the store employee. I was only able to use the CD player sucessfully once, then it stopped working. I was trying to play a CD I purchased, not one that was CD-R. I would not recommend this CD player.

This player works OK, except with CD-R's, which was one of the reasons I wanted it to begin with. My CD-R's play fine on my old player, but not this cute portable one. I was very disappointed.

I received this as a gift, so I'm glad I didn't have to shell for this. I am in agreement with the others who say that this product has defects. In my case, it is the radio. I listen to the radio more than I play cassettes or CDs, but it takes a ton of jiggling the settings slider before it will come on and stay on. And forget turning the radio off...then I must start the ritual again. It is very frustrating. The cassette player works well, and the cd player is adequate--not great--but adequate.

I purchased this CD player at a local store. I needed a portable device and this one was recommended by the store employee. I was only able to use the CD player sucessfully once, then it stopped working. I was trying to play a CD I purchased, not one that was CD-R. I would not recommend this CD player.

This player works OK, except with CD-R's, which was one of the reasons I wanted it to begin with. My CD-R's play fine on my old player, but not this cute portable one. I was very disappointed.

I received this as a gift, so I'm glad I didn't have to shell for this. I am in agreement with the others who say that this product has defects. In my case, it is the radio. I listen to the radio more than I play cassettes or CDs, but it takes a ton of jiggling the settings slider before it will come on and stay on. And forget turning the radio off...then I must start the ritual again. It is very frustrating. The cassette player works well, and the cd player is adequate--not great--but adequate.

I purchased this CD player at a local store. I needed a portable device and this one was recommended by the store employee. I was only able to use the CD player sucessfully once, then it stopped working. I was trying to play a CD I purchased, not one that was CD-R. I would not recommend this CD player.

This player works OK, except with CD-R's, which was one of the reasons I wanted it to begin with. My CD-R's play fine on my old player, but not this cute portable one. I was very disappointed.

I received this as a gift, so I'm glad I didn't have to shell for this. I am in agreement with the others who say that this product has defects. In my case, it is the radio. I listen to the radio more than I play cassettes or CDs, but it takes a ton of jiggling the settings slider before it will come on and stay on. And forget turning the radio off...then I must start the ritual again. It is very frustrating. The cassette player works well, and the cd player is adequate--not great--but adequate.

I purchased this CD player at a local store. I needed a portable device and this one was recommended by the store employee. I was only able to use the CD player sucessfully once, then it stopped working. I was trying to play a CD I purchased, not one that was CD-R. I would not recommend this CD player.

This player works OK, except with CD-R's, which was one of the reasons I wanted it to begin with. My CD-R's play fine on my old player, but not this cute portable one. I was very disappointed.

This product has the most difficult programming instructions I have ever seen. Even changing the clock time (which you have to do 2X per year) proves to be a major challenge requiring the manual. The manual also must have been translated from Chinese as it is also difficult to understand...even for someone like myself with a technical degree! I tossed the product out after 6 months.

Sorry everyone, I really wanted to rate this high, ... It came with no antenna, standard. Without an antenna, it picks up few neighboring countie warnings, and lousy radio reception. The radio stinks, sounds cheap, like a ... 4 transistor I had 40 yrs ago. Hard to program (I work with computers), hard to operate. The alarm works half the time, probably due to no antenna. Save your money.

I ordered this unit because I wanted one radio that would both receive AM and FM, and also provide weather alerts. Surprisingly, the WR196T is one of the few on the market that combines these features. I ended up returning it to Amazon after 24 hours, for the following reasons: ... Second, the instructions were poor. Despite all of the functions to master, Oregon Scientific took the cheap approach of trying to condense all of the instructions onto a single large sheet of paper, which is folded into sections. The instructions aren't very clear either. Third, the controls are far from user-friendly. You'd think that the "Radio On" control would turn it on. Nope. A fact I only figured out after initially deciding I had a lemon. (I may be a bit off on this--the unit is already in the return mail so I don't have it in front of me to double-check the control). Fourth, the sound quality is mediocre. Not a big factor for the weather radio transmissions, but a problem while listening to AM/FM. Apparently the slim design, while high-tech, kept them from using a more adequate speaker. Fifth, the sensitivity of the radio, even for standard AM and FM, was mediocre. Local stations were weak unless I carefully positioned the unit. Sixth, the unit includes a clock radio/alarm function, probably because the design engineer saw that the chip set could handle it at little extra cost. For my purposes, this functionality only further complicated an already hard to use unit. I have a clock radio next to my bed; I don't need it in a unit like this. Seventh and last, I specifically wanted to listen to a station in the not-overly-new extended AM band, which runs from 1605-1710 KHz. Every recent car radio covers those frequencies. The WR196T stops at 1600 KHz. Would it have cost them that much to extend the unit to cover the full AM band? The only positive I can offer is that the unit includes a digital thermometer, which can be somewhat useful. I hope that Oregon Scientific sends their engineers back to the design consoles to build a better unit--they'd find that it would sell!