The feature that automatically turns the display completely dark, then
illuminates it when a hand is waved over the device (no need to find a
button in the dark) convinced me to purchase this clock radio. There
would be no possibility to hear "That clock is too bright; I can't get
to sleep."
That works as designed. The problem is the clock beeps when the
display is activated. Want to check the alarm time? Wave your hand
three times: beep... beep...beep! It sounds like the alarm on my
watch, which is intended to catch my attention, but this is louder
than the watch. There is no option to suppress this sound, and it is
not affected by the volume control. This is a fatal flaw when there
is more than one sleeper in the room.
There is no station memory. If you want to tune a different station,
you have to manually turn a wheel to find the desired station. I am
accustomed to have at least half a dozen stations that can be set
once, then selected with a button press. This requirement for manual
tuning is a bother. No possibility of a quick change to hear a
weather or traffic report, then back to music or whatever.
This lack of station presets is especially bad when one wants an alarm
to start the radio instead of just make a noise. A better design
would let the user associate a specific station to be tuned when the
alarm time arrives. With this Jensen unit, if you use sleep mode to
play the radio while you fall asleep, you need to wake up and re-tune
to the station you want to hear at alarm time.
There is another problem this lack of digital station presets produces.
The manual tuning mechanism tends to drift. I found after I turned
off the radio, it would tune a slightly different frequency when
subsequently turned on. Sometimes, the drift would be large enough
that no station would be heard - a problem if the radio is silent when
it is supposed to wake you - a nuisance when you have to frequently
adjust the tuning just to hear the same station.
The volume control does not permit fine adjustment of loudness at low
levels. Perhaps the circuit designer did not consider an audio taper
potentiometer, or a packaging engineer did not realize only one of two
possible orientations for the volume control is correct. Whatever the
reason, I always had a hard time to find a setting between "silent"
and "too loud" in a quiet bedroom environment.
The single picture in the product description shows a silver case with
black display. In fact, most of the case is black plastic; only the
front half-inch or so is silver, the remaining two and one-half inches
is black. Black is not ugly, but it was an unwelcome surprise on my
brown wood table. Additional images that show side and rear views
would be helpful. I would contribute them, except I repacked my unit
in order to return it.
Why two stars with all these problems? The sound from this radio is
natural and better than I expected from a unit with this size and
price. Jensen JRC-275 AM/FM Dual Alarm Clock Radio with Wave Sensor (Silver)
I had to replace an older alarm clock that was zapped during a storm. I honestly was looking for best price for a dual alarm & came across this. Its a solid product. There are some neat features on here in addition to the dual alarm. The night light is semi-useful. I love the fact the display completely goes black if you want it too...this is great if you have trouble sleeping to the annoying glow of the clock numbers. The room temperature is also handy. Best feature hands down is the wave sensor/gesture. All you have to do is wave your hand over the top to have it snooze, or turn the clock on if its off. The only thing I'd like to see different is red digits/light. Otherwise, I'm digging it. Would highly recommend.
I was trying to find an alarm clock that was more modern looking and wasn't bulky. I found it in this alarm clock. VERY easy to set, small size (display is large and bright though), has the ability to dim light to lower setting. Wave your hand over the top once, the temperature in the room displays, wave your hand over 2 times and it will show you what the first alarm is set at, wave 3 times and it will show you what the second alarm is set at.
Volume control is very sensitive, sound is not the best but the stations that come in are fine with me. I'm not looking for superior sound quality for this price.
It works for me and I'm buying another for inside my bathroom because of the larger display and the compact size will fit right on my counter (I'm always running late because of shower time!)
first the positives:
- Well Made
- Stylish (somewhat)
- Great features (i.e Motion sensor)
But...
1. Extremely bright display, which lights the whole room at night (even with dimmer to lowest setting and with nightlight turned off). This could be overcome if you only use the motion sensor to see the time at night (though you will be blinded when it flashes on for a few seconds);
2. As mentioned in other reviews (and I stupidly ignored), when you do initiate the motion sensor to see the time, it always beeps. And not a soft, subtle beep, but a loud, sharp beep that woke-up my wife everytime, so that I was afraid to even check the time at night anymore. So really, what good is a clock if you can't turn it on to see the time?
Two fatal flaws to what could have been a really nice bedside clock... - Alarms - Alarm Clock Radio - Alarm Clock - Clock Radio'
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