The clarity of the voice, even from another room is outstanding. The digital readability that another reviewer finds fault with? I don't know what he's talking about because this radio's readability is as good as it gets. He must have it set on dim read out. The reception on FM is excellent. On AM, it's absolutely amazing! I live in an NYC apartment with so much ambient AM radio interference that I seldom enjoy AM -- up until this Sony ICF-C707! Nearly FM quality on AM! All this with great style. This is one of those rare machines that is nearly perfectly pleasing.
Sony ICF-C707 Clock Radio with Programmable Nature Sounds for Sleeping and Waking (Black)This clock radio is much better than I expected. The reception is excellent...much better than my previous clock and my wife's. The blue light on the display has to settings, both of which are very bright at night, so I turn it off. The only feature I would change is how to set the alarm. If you miss a step, you can easily put the alarm type in the wrong mode (e.g. AM vs. FM vs. Nature sounds). The speaker is very loud, but is nice for listening to the radio because of the volume. Another nice feature is that you can independently set the volume for alarms A and B. Also, you can have the alarm for only weekdays, weekends, or both. That is a great feature and now I will not have my wife yelling at me on Saturday mornings for forgetting to turn the alarm off. I recommend this.
This clock has many nice features, including multiple alarms, nature
sounds, auto daylight savings, battery backup, and a wide snooze bar.
But if you can't glance at the clock and read the time easily, then the
product fails. The numbers are BLUE, and the backlight is also BLUE.
The backlight on the LCD display has 3 settings: bright, dim and off.
You can switch between these by pressing the snooze bar on top.
The bright setting is too bright, and the dim setting makes the clock
difficult to read at night or early morning when you're half-asleep.
Instead of blue numbers with a blue backlight, Sony should have went with
something more readable, like black numbers with a white backlight.
Disappointing...
** UPDATE - Problem with Buttons/Controls:
In the morning when waking up, most people hit the Snooze button once or
twice, then press the Alarm Off button. The Alarm Off button on this Sony
clock is tiny (3/8" x 3/16"), and is grouped with 7 other identically-sized
buttons. These tiny buttons are almost flush with the clock.
The Alarm Off button does not have any tactile clue, such as a raised 'dot'
or a lowered 'dimple'. So it's difficult to find this button by touch
early in the morning. Did the Sony designers actually test this clock
with a focus group before selling it to the public?
I bought this little clock radio primarily because I saw from the display model that you can connect an external AM antenna. The external antenna this thing comes with is plenty good enough to pick up my favorite stations where other alarm clocks were not.
It plays talk radio pretty well and has just enough features. I really like the noise maker and audio in features. Also key for me is the digital tuner (it can be so hard to get a dial at just the right spot) and the ability to set the volume for the music alarm (since I often listen to the radio when going to bed at a volume way too low to ever wake me up)
It doesn't have an ipod dock which is a plus for me since I don't use an ipod ever and would feel like I was paying extra for a feature I would never use.
If being able to check the time at night is important to you then I would only recommend this if you plan to place it on your nightstand. It would definitely be difficult to read from across the room but is perfectly readable at the middle brightness setting from my bed.
The title about sums it up. I saw this unit in a local BJ's and was blown away by the sound. This clock radio is *incredibly compact*, yet the sound that you get out of it is much more voluminous than the size of the unit would suggest. The antenna also picks up FM signals very well (even signals that are sometimes weak in my car and full sized stereo in my living room).
I can't say that I understand the complaints about the LCD brightness as it offers you three settings to choose from (bright, dimmed, and turning the backlight off completely) which is probably one more than most other units (usually just bright and dimmed or on and off). If the backlight -- even at the dimmest settings -- is too bright, then I suggest simply leaving the backlight off and hitting the large snooze button a few times (which toggles the brightness) when you want to check the time in the middle of the night and turning it back off.
Certainly, it can be said that some functional aspects of the unit have been sacrificed for the aesthetics of the unit (i.e. many of the buttons are small, untextured, and roughly the same size), however, I find those complaints to be minor misgivings for an otherwise superbly designed clock radio. These small design weaknesses are not enough to dock a full star.
With two separate alarms, BATTERY BACKUP (it even comes with a batter), a well designed antenna, crisp sound, audio-in jack, nature sounds (haven't used these), and easy to use interfaces, this unit is a keeper. It's so good, I'd consider buying one just as a compact desktop radio for the office. I'd say that the only way this unit could be better is if displayed the date and if it offered more presets (like a "Preset A/B/C" option) - as it is, you can only set 5 presets using the numbered nature sounds buttons.
This radio is tiny, much smaller than you expect from something that has so many features. In addition to an AM and FM antenna (the FM antenna can't be easily switched out for something better, while the AM antenna can), there's a 3.5mm jack for your iPhone/iPad, which is nice because you charge it using something else at the same time. (Too many similar products only work with older iPods/iPhones). The display is large and bright enough, and the nature sounds are pleasant. My only wish would be an audio-out jack so it could be plugged up to louder speakers. Otherwise, this is a nice compromise between a full-featured high-end iPod-compatible radio and a cheap alarm clock. - Nature Sounds - Clock Radio - Sony - Alarm Clock'
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