Nightmare Machine (Sony Dream Machine)

Member Name: rdobbie

Product:	Sony Dream Machine
Date:	13/07/02 (6370 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks the part

Disadvantages: A confusing mass of buttons, Display not visible from all angles, Doesn't display time when alarm goes off (read op to see what I mean)

(Please note: this opinion is about the Sony Dream Machine ICF-C113 which is not the same as the model pictured and described above. There are many variants in the Sony Dream Machine range.)

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I have to confess that I didn't actually need another clock radio when I bought this, but I was won over by the ultra-cool and sexy looks of this model.

My last clock radio was the classic 1980's wedge shaped Sony ICF-C220L (a present for my 10th birthday from my grandparents), which had done its job and looked good at the time when set against grey/red diagonal stripe wallpaper and black ash furniture, but somehow the time had come to move on from this grotesque throwback from Thatcher's Britain.

So last Christmas I purchased my Sony ICF-C113 from Comet at the Argos-trouncing price of £34.99.

It's a very stylish silver cube in a matt finish which measures a mere 12cm in every direction, taking up the smallest of spaces on your bedside table.

Now, what sets it apart from the cheapo £6.99 bits of tat? Let me see...

Well there's a switch that lets you change the display backlight from orange to green. It's only an aesthetic thing but quite nice if you fancy a change now and then. There's also a switch which changes the brightness of the display between high and low. Fun to fiddle with, but not much use in the grand scheme of things.

The radio gives decent enough sound quality on all the local and national FM stations, and the digital PLL tuning means you can programme five of your favourite stations into the machine. This is quite a boon if you wish to flick between channels when lying in bed, but paradoxically you can only be woken up by the station you have programmed onto preset channel 1. So if you wanted a bit of variety in the mornings, this would mean manually retuning your chosen radio station onto preset channel 1, which rather defeats the whole idea don&#
39;t you think? Naturally the radio also picks up medium wave and long wave frequencies which I haven't used but I have no doubt they sound fine.

The buzzer alarm (or the "P45 avoidance warning" as I call it) is loud and shrill, guaranteed to penetrate your dreams and fill you with the joyous thought of another day at work.

There is one particular function which I have to admit is a real godsend - the Daylight Saving Time button. Whenever the clocks go back or forward, one simple click will realign the time instead of having to do that finger-numbing cycle through 23 hours.

A clever built-in power backup remembers the correct time and the preset radio stations if you suffer a power cut or unplug the machine for whatever reason.

But I'm not going to heap praise upon Sony for packing all these electronic functions onto this product. Features like digital radio tuning have been commonplace on cheap hi-fi's and car stereos for years, yet in the clock radio sector they are marketed as luxury extras. And this bit of kit isn't cheap - it costs five times the price of the cheapest clock radios, and I bet it only cost Sony tuppence to drag this model into the 21st century.

I have identified something of a designer's faux-pas on this machine which can lead to early morning heart failure. Confused? Let me explain...

When the radio comes on, let's say at 7.30am, for some bizarre reason the LCD display shows the frequency of the radio station instead of the time. The frequency of my chosen station is 103.4 FM (that's Century FM for all you northerners). So you suddenly open your eyes to see the display saying "1034" when it should be saying "0730" which leads to a cry of "oh sh*t" as you leap across the bedroom trying to think of an excuse to tell your boss.

After replaying this cycle of panic followed by overwhelming relief for several days on the
trot, you get into the habit of turning the radio off in order to see what time it is, and then turning the radio back on if you actually want to listen to it. Was this product designed on a National Lottery grant or something?

I just can't see why the designers at Sony thought we needed a daily reminder of the frequency of our favourite radio station. When you're waking up in the morning there's only one thing you need to see on the display - and that's the time.

Another example of bad design on this model is that you can only read the time when your head is positioned at eye level with the display. This is because it uses a backlit Liquid Crystal Display (like a digital watch) instead of the Light Emitting Diode displays which are usually used on clock radios. In practice this means that your bedside table must be at exactly the same height as your head on the pillow, or else you won't be able to read the display on this crazy little beast.

But the big problem I have with this machine is the bewildering array of 14 silver buttons on the top. Printed on and around these buttons is a mass of text in tiny grey lettering, much of which is in garbled acronym form and makes little sense to the human operator.

You need to spend a good half an hour studying the manual before you feel even remotely confident with this clock radio. Even then, you never feel totally fluent with the confusing sprawl of buttons, and need to keep the manual by the bedside in order to periodically remind yourself of the function of each cryptically labelled button. The only well designed button is the snooze bar which is thoughtfully positioned along the front and can't be missed by an arm that reaches out to request another ten minutes' sleep.

This machine isn't user friendly. It's like having to learn an entire operating system. Machines like this should be logical and self explanatory. I can't help suspecting
that the over-technical styling was a misguided attempt to give the product added appeal. But when you're bleary-eyed in the morning and find yourself taking random stabs at the many buttons (which you can't see without sitting up because they're horizontally mounted) it can be irritating to say the least.

I'm disappointed to say that the sleek Sony styling is about the only saving grace I can find in favour of this model. Strangely the clock radio market sector is virtually untouched by design trends, so the modern styling of this product is successful in making it leap out at you from the shelf in Comet.

After having tried to live with this machine for six months, it's become obvious to me that Sony didn't "people test" this model - they just cobbled together a load of buttons onto a silver box and hoped for the best. Sorry Sony, but I like more thought to go into my electrical products.

Trust me - I'm not being unduly harsh here - this clock radio is a pain to live with. It gets a big thumbs down from me.

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