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Tesco Value CR-106 Clock Radio
by GEMYOO
Alarmingly good value 0 of 0 Ciao Users found the following review helpful
Rating from gemreview (24/08/2012)
Advantages Good value
Disadvantages Reception
~Memories~
When I lived at home with my mum, I remember getting my first alarm clock for high school and I felt so grown up and ... responsible. I also adored being able to listen to the radio while in bed. This is how I got into music and discovered loads of new artists and likewise, heard songs of years gone by.
I remember that my old alarm clock seemed to be indestructable. It was covered in speckles of paint, had been dropped umptenn times yet lived on far after I moved out 8 years later.
Having my own house, I used my mobile phone as an alarm and never had any gripes but then I swapped rooms with my son and our king size bed blocked the plug sockets so anything that was going to get plugged in has to stay in so my husband suggested we get an alarm clock.
Now this isnt the prettiest of alarm clock radio's but I wanted black rather than silver and when I saw this in Tesco at just under £6, i thought i'd bite the bullet and buy.
~Jumping for joy~
So, I got home and plugged in my new clock radio and practically jumped for joy when the bright red numbers jumped up. I'D FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT GLORIOUS RED DISPLAY!' It took me back years and I honestly felt quite emotional, remembering snuggling up in mums bed as a kid, watching the red numbers change and listening to the radio, this was the time when the Gulf War was on and I found something very comforting watching the red numbers as the time went on.
I also now find this easier than scrambling for my phone in the middle of the night to check the time. You cannot adjust the brightness of the red but there is no need to, its just perfect for day and night-time.
Another great feature that comes with most alarm clocks is the trustee snooze button, far easier to use that that on a mobile phone as its positioned on the top of the radio so any sleepy little dwarf can easily give it a whack and enjoy that extra 5 minutes....then 10 minutes...then 15 minutes! We all do it dont we? I even set mine too early so I can enjoy that snooze period. I do have this stupid onsession though, where when i set the alarm, all the numbers have to add up to 12 (so 6.42, 7.14 etc) and another where I get up when its rounded up to 5 minutes (so 6.55, 7am etc) anyway, this is daft i know but really important to me and this clock helps me to fulfill my little OCDs.
You can choose to be woken up to either the normal alarm clock tone or the radio, to be honest I find the radio to be unreliable for this as sometimes its fine and other times you cant hear it all all. It will probably have something to do with the reception but I cant take those risks when relying on an alarm and so I opt for the normal buzz which is loud and clear.
~Other features~
Well obviously, you have the radio which has both am and fm frequency. I find the radio to be quite good although again, quite tempramental and depends on the frequency and the reception. The ariel is a small thin wire at the back of the product and while the reception does not compare to our other stereos, for £6 I really cant grumble.
The alarm is set by using the shiny silver buttons on the top and is really easy to do.These silver buttons add a bit of glam to what would be a plain simple black plast ic device and make it look a little less 'cheap' The buttons have worn a little and are not as shiny as they were when bought but this can only be seen up close.
~Size doesnt matter, its what you do with it...~
Size-wise this is quite compact with the width and the depth being around 12cm so handy for a small bedside table or shelf. This size is perfect for me which is another reason why I was drawn to it.
It is quite a basic model but does what it says on the plain white value box and so I would definetly recommend it, it hasnt let us down yet.
A good price at £5.99 which will also bag you 5 clubpoints.
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Sony XDRC705 DAB
by TheTallGuyUK
This is a neat little clock radio - I've had mine for a couple of years now and have never had any reason to grumble.
I had owned a Pure digital radio before and had been pleased with it, so wanted the same functionality in the bedroom, especially as I like listening to BBC Radio 5 Live which my better half can't bear ... listening to on Medium Wave as she is crackle-intolerant. The same station on DAB is fine apparently so it seemed a sensible solution.
Tuning in was easy enough. It seemed to find all the available stations without any problems and it is easy to skip between them and to present your favourites.
Sound quality too is perfectly acceptable. It's a clock radio, so the quality is never going to be the same as a high-end hi-fi, but it does the job perfectly well given that it only has one speaker.
On its brightest setting, the clock display shines out like a lighthouse, illuminating the room almost better than our bedside light. But this is easily changed with a range of brightness settings varying from "searchlight" to "almost invisible"
The clock and date functions also sets themselves shortly after being powered up for the first time, or after a power cut. Which is great because manually resetting could get dull.
The alarm function is good. Four different alarm time settings can be programmed, each can be configured to weekdays, weekends only, daily or one-off settings. Each can also be programmed to sound FM, DAB or buzzer noises and - this is the really neat bit - you can set the volume you want it to come on to. So if you are the kind of person that likes to listen to the radio set on quietly to go to sleep, you can programme it to wake you up on a louder setting.
My only niggle is with the "one-off" setting which requires you to set the date as well as the time. By default it always comes up with today's date. Ok, that's useful if I wanted to set an alarm to wake me up from a cat nap during the day but mostly I want to set an alarm for tomorrow morning. So I'd have preferred it if it always went to tomorrow by default, especially if it's late at night and I'm setting the alarm for the next morning. It's never happened to me, but it would be easy not to notice the date and accidently set the alarm for the morning that has already passed.
Of course none of this is a problem when setting a regular alarm, but when do you most often want to set a one-off one - mostly when setting an alarm for a flight - so its a bit of an oversight.
But in general, its a very good product.
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Logic3 i-Station TimeCube Clock Radio
by QuinDogg
I just cannot sleep peacefully if I am not sure that my alarm is going to go off at the time I set it, simply because I hate not being punctual. That is why I figured I needed a very efficient, yet pleasant alarm clock.
With the Logic3 I was delighted to learn that it has a dock which works with most ipods and the iphone. So ... instead of just activating the radio or beeping when the time for sleeping is up, you can also program a song you like to wake you up (but maybe you won't like this since after a while you might end up hating your favourite song, since you probably hate everything that abruptly interrupts your nice sleep). But I chose a song which has a really loud beginning!
It is also a plus that you can use it as a speaker for these devices, so you can play the songs you like while cleaning or just to set your joyful mood before leaving to work.
The radio is not that great since digital radio is never going to have the same sound quality as the normal one. However it does its function properly, for instance to listen to the news or talk shows. The red bright numbers are perfect for those moments during the night when you barely open your eyes to see the time, I normally need glasses to read things, but since they are so big I can still tell what numbers they are and I like the red digital font of the numbers.
Generally, it is a good choice, but maybe if your sound quality demands are higher, then you might want to get a proper speaker with more bass and potency, however as a dual alarm clock and radio it's great!
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