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Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2024
Bought for my neighbor to replace out her old Bose . . . (which couldn't manage multi-channel transmissions)The preferred radio station moved all classical music programs to their (not so new) HD2 channel.This item is not a Bose . . . However, it is doing a fine job none the less and receives the necessary channel.Our reception area is poor, but it seems to work well even so. Sometime the HD2 signal become too weak and it drops back to the no-HD channel. Unfortunately, once there, should the signal improve it will not reestablish the preset HD2 channel. (Ditto power loss.)It will be a few training sessions before the right Preset can be reselected - do I say 'automatically' - or 'without intervention'?Otherwise . . . Great! And given our current audible range, who is to know it's not a Bose or Bang & Olufsen?
Gale
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2023
This clock radio has better sound quality and a little more volume than I expected. It won't blow you away, but it is more than adequate for clock radio service. I bought it specifically for an HD2 commercial free jazz station in our area and it tunes it with ease. The line output so you can use it with bigger powered speakers or a system is a very nice feature. This would be just about perfect at it's price point IF it had battery backup. The omission of this feature on what is otherwise a wonderfully well thought out design is just baffling to me. I wish I could give it five stars as it produces above it's price point in every way but this.
Mcgyver
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2023
Great sound for its size. Many advanced features too. The operation of the unit is quite complicated though, due to having the fewest buttons they could use to do the job. I'm sure mor buttons would equate to cheaper contact used, and then fail. I wish the clock was visible when playing an HD station with the artist info on the display. In any other play mode the radio screen defaults to the clock, after a set pause, WITHOUT any radio info on the display. Strange setup, but for the price, I can DEAL! lol
Just Looking
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2023
Good AM/HDFM reception with presets and input/output ports. Acceptable sound with builtin speaker.Better than expected. Alarm Clock is a bonus. Buy an external backup battery pack if power drops are a concern.
Karl F Migrin
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2022
The display is overly bright (in my opinion) and could use a dimmer control. There is no battery backup and where I live in Michigan I experience frequent power outages that erase most of my settings. The Sleep button is in line with several other buttons and in the middle of the night you need to remember to count (by feel) the correct number of buttons over this button is, otherwise you may hit the wrong button and a alarm buzzer may wake you up. The Sleep button could use some backlighting to make it more visible in the dark. The display needs to be blackened out a little bit more around the edges of the display as ambient white light comes shining through.
Jeffrey Clyman
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2022
As a baby boomer, this is definitely not the radio i grew up with, but one made for 2020, when we’re surrounded by smart devices. My last radio purchase was 30 years ago, but haven’t listened at home for the last 20, but exposed infrequently while driving. Just bought an alexa echo, to be used mainly as a modern compact speaker, and became hooked immediately by radio stations offered by tunein, so began looking at real radios, thinking that hd would offer comparable quality. In short, i am quite impressed. All the functions seem to work well, including, hd, rds, auto clock time, single wire pigtail antenna, and rec out port, which i feed into a bluetooth transmission dongle powered by the radios usb port. The echo device receives and switches the stereo hd audio perfectly, blending nicely with its own built in features. Standby power consumption is miniscule at around 2 watts, though less would be better; persists station presets when power is disconnected. The pigtail antenna bothered me initially, so i read everything i could find about fm radio antennas, wondering about converting to a twin lead dipole or omnidirectional digital tv antenna. I quickly tossed that idea after inspecting the circuit board, but instead tried doubling the pigtail length, perhaps improving reception slightly, though I still probably receive well 90% of what’s available in my suburban region. Auto clock time was confusing because the time was not updated immediately, but discovered after a few days that the function probably operates while the radio is not playing, searching the full spectrum, independent of stations tuned for listening. Wish list includes provision for connecting external antenna and integrated bluetooth supporting control by alexa device.
Lee J. Kochendorfer
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2021
Could not program clock speaker was tinny sounding I was hoping for tivoli or cambridge sounds works sound but all I got was cheap clock radio sound .
Ed
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2020
I really like this little alarm clock. I don't use it in my bedroom; I use the line out and have it attached to my stereo. The sound quality is really good; I was not completely happy with the antenna; I modified it so I could use a 75 Ohm coaxial FM antenna so I could get stronger signals. Digital can be fickle if your signal is week. Their is one caveat; the tuner will only play in mono if its in analog mode. The turner will play stereo in HD mode provided you have an attached stereo cable plugged into either the headphone jack or line out. But if you prefer mono; you can force the stereo digital broadcasts to play in mono. I play it on a stereo; so I enjoy the separation. Having the additional HD side bands has really opened up my listening choices in my area. If a station is not in HD; I usually go back to one of my old slide bar tuners that have no trouble locking onto a good stereo signal. So the mono analog only does not really bother me.
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