Homedics DP-900 Portable DocknParty iPod Docking Station with FM Clock Radio Black/White

I bought this to replace an old tinny-sounding mono alarm clock and a clunky bookshelf stereo. It was to function as an alarm and audio center in the bedroom. The sad thing is that it sounds pretty darned good, but it's poorly executed in just about every other way.

iPod playback is unreliable, with playback pausing at some interval after starting almost every time, requiring you to unpause seems to be a bug with the iPod display going into sleep mode. There's no sleep timer, a must on an alarm clock, and if you go to sleep to the iPod playing the alarm won't go off in the morning because "alarm mode" and "audio mode" are mutually exclusive. As a bonus there's no visual indication of which mode the unit's in.

iPod alarm mode is flaky, too if you don't pick a playlist and pause it before going to bed, the unit won't play any audio at alarm time. Add a lack of radio presets, and a too-bright backlight (why must every unit like this have a display bright enough to cast shadows?!) and it's a complete failure as anything other than a slightly unreliable docking station. What's tragic is that it's the best sounding unit under $200 I've found. Boo on Homedics for being such a tease this thing's going back.

This unit (DP-900) seemed like a good deal at the sale price of only $70 at Bed Bath & Beyond so we bought one. Worked alright. Sound quality was good, but setup and functions seemed clumsy and not very well thought out. The back-light on the unit is very bright and does not shut off, so we could not use it in our bedroom. Unit/remote functionality with iPod control was lacking. Unit would also randomly stop playing iPod music.

However, after 2 to 3 months of use the unit quit working all together. It will turn on and attempt to play from iPod or AM/FM radio, but all you can hear is a faint garbled noise. Volume control is also lost. Luckily, Bed, Bath & Beyond let us return without receipt & packaging for store credit.

I do not plan on purchasing another one of these units, and would not recommend it to others.

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The overall sound and ease of use is good, the remote did not work when received and it does not charge the IPOD Nano (5th Gen.) or my son's IPOD Touch...gives the error message of "charging is not supported by this accessory". Charging isn't a huge issue for me so the cost for sound ratio was good. It does charge the IPOD (1st Gen.)my wife uses.

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I bought this paper weight from some organization that was not Amazon, but none the less thru the Amazon website. It was DOA. The company required me to contact them in order to obtain the return authorization number. I had only a short period of time upon receipt of package to ensure that the product worked. If I had bought it as a gift for someone, I'd have been screwed. My solution: take it to [edited for content]. They accepted it for in store credit, and I got something else. Of course the manufacturer wanted nothing to do with me.

Lessons learned: watch the return policy, check the product reliability prior to purchase, and always have a back up return plan.

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My power went out for about 30 seconds tonight...(not unusual for the mountains) and now it's fried. I've never had anything ever fry and go completely dead from a simple power outage. This makes me hesitate from buying another one although I've had mine for about 2 years without any issues like the other 2 reviewers had. Hmmm...at the new price of only $38, I might take a chance on it again but I'm going to shop around first.

As for when it worked it was great. My teenage niece and her friends loved the sound and it never had any play issues. I keep it in the livingroom so the brightness of the clock isn't an issue. Personally I think it's too big for a bedroom alarm clock.