Sony Entry CD Clock Radio ICF-CD814
from Sony
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Customer Rating: 
Model No: ICFCD814.CEK
Release Date: 22/08/2006
Availability: dispatched within 24 hours
Index: Digital & Electronics
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Digital Box Price: £34.78
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Product Description USER FRIENDLY CD CLOCK RADIO WITH DUAL ALARM AND ANALOGUE TUNER, ANALOGUE FM/AM WITH CD, DUAL ALARM, EASY TO READ 1.4" GREEN LED DISPLAY, BRIGHTNESS CONTROL, EXTENDABLE SNOOZE.
Sound build, adequate function Sent: 04 March 2008
This product has the dimension and style of a biscuit tin, 'buzzers' that beep and an FM aerial that looks as if someone in the design department realised "Der crumbs Maisey, we forgot the FM aerial" just as the first batch was coming off the assembly line. Apart from that, it's fine.
As with other Sony items, the plastic casing feels solid and built to last. The sound is fine for a unit of this price with enough volume to reach the far side of a double bed :) The radio works well on FM but AM reception is hampered by the sheer number of radio stations elbowing each other for bandwidth. Consequently AM selectivity is not great. The FM aerial consists of a length of thin wire issuing from a hole at the rear of the unit which is why I think it was added late in the design process.
There are two independent alarm systems which can wake you with either radio, CD or buzzer. The utility of having two alarms in a single unit escapes me - unless your partner has long enough arms to reach the snooze button from the opposite side of the bed. The 'buzzer' beeps like a travel alarm clock - not like a mains driven unit - and, given the unit's night-time ambiance, viewed from the level of a pillow, of a Sherman tank, seems rather incongruous and pathetic.
The CD allows you to step through the tracks sequentially but there's no random play or repeat function. There are 'sleep' intervals of 90, 60, 30 and 15 minutes to turn off the radio or CD. The alarm 'snooze' time can be set from 10 to 60 minutes in multiples of 10.
The display digits are 35mm high with three switchable brightness settings which seem to cover most situations and should be visable even to those with the visual acuity of a mole. There's an 'audio in' socket to connect your portable MP3 player (not controlled by the sleep timer) but sadly no socket for headphones.
Overall? No prizes for beauty but, at half the cost and a third the size of a more stylish item, I feel justified in sacrificed my aesthetic needs at the alter of pecuniary interest.
Style: ***
Build: *****
Function: ****
Not bad Sent: 02 November 2007
Received this from Amazon quickly.
Good
-Sound quality is better than average
-Three level dimmer for display
-Clear green display (12 hour format)
-Alarm & Time setting is intuitive
-Front mounted jack to connect ipod etc
-Build quality is good, especially for the price.
Bad
-No battery backup - if the power fails you loose the time and alarm settings. This isn't an issue for me since it's in the study and I use the alarm during the day for picking kids up from school, etc but could be a major minus if you rely on the alarm function.
-VERY fiddly tuning and volume - tuning is 1:1 ratio (like a cheap pocket radio) and on the side so unless you move the unit you rely on knowing it's Radio2-Radio3-Radio4-Local etc on FM)
-Much bigger than I thought it would be - Amazon's description is accurate, I mistakenly looked at the picture and thought the CD lid would be the diameter of a CD - it's quite a bit bigger.
Overall - good value if you can live with the snags. Two alarms is handy, and it's pretty sensitive on FM - here in Hampshire I have the choice of several 'Better music from the 80's 90's and today, deep joy.....
Nice device at a good price  Sent: 29 June 2007
It does the basic functionality well - clock, radio, CD player with 2 alarms. You can even play your mp3 player through it. The sound quality is OK - but obviously not hi-fi. It's most suitable for use in the bedroom. The build quailty is good, with solid simple controls.
GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sent: 06 January 2007
I got this for xmas and it is GREAT!!!!!!!!! It has everything you need. Very big clock display- very easy to read. The radio quality is superb and the sound the cd player gives you is FANTASTIC. And on top of that it is cheap and has a well- known leading brand name!
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Associated digital product categories: Portable Electronics, Portable Audio, Personal CD Players, ICFCD,ICFCD814,814,ICFCD814CEK,814CEK,CEK |
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