Sony ICFCDK50 Under Cabinet Kitchen CD Clock Radio

• Bass reflex sound system for rich, deep bass tones
• Built-in audio cable for digital music players
• CD player that accepts burned CD-R/RWs
• Digital FM/AM tuner with 15 presets; one-touch cooking timer
• Magnetic remote control for attaching to fridge

I have been looking for an inexpensive radio for my work bench for quite a while. What I really wanted was an AM/FM radio that I could mount out of the way and that also supported an input for my MP3 player. I was starting to think that no such item existed until I came across this radio so I bought it and mounted it under my work bench.

The sound quality is good for a radio in this price range and there is a handy battery backup for whenever the power gets cut momentarily (which is fairly common out there just because I'm always dinking around with stuff). I also love that my MP3 player hooks up so easily, which gives me acces to pretty much all my music when I don't feel like listening to the radio. I kind of doubt I will ever use the CD player.

Unfortunately, I immediately found that the quality of the FM reception was so poor I couldn't stand to listen to it (AM was fine). After a couple of days of playing around with the position of the power cord, I realized that the problem was feedback from the battery charger for my cordless drill that is plugged into the same outlet. Once I realized that, I changed how everything is plugged in and now the FM reception is very good :). It's too bad this doesn't just have an external FM antenna so people don't run into this problem I docked a star just for this reason.

I'll make one more comment about the more expensive version of this radio, the ICF-CDK70. When I was having all the reception issues, I thought I'd go give that one a try and I realized that this model (ICF-CDK50) is better in pretty much every way as long as you don't care about the CD changer. The ICF-CDK70 is bulkier, it does NOT have a battery backup, it still has the FM antenna in the power cord, it uses the same speakers, and it doesn't have the handy preset buttons for radio stations. In some ways, I can't believe they call it an upgrade! If you are considering one of these, I highly recommend sticking with this model.

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase.

Buy Sony ICFCDK50 Under Cabinet Kitchen CD Clock Radio Now

I installed this in my kitchen underneath a cabinet and it looks great. It's only about 4 inches in height or seemingly less, and was easy to install with the paper hole alignment guide provided. You put the paper guide into the cabinet and then you use a drill to make the holes through the bottom of the cabinet. I countersunk the screws into the wood by using a slightly larger drill bit to make small areas for the screw head. I didn't use the provided spacers, and instead just mounted the unit flush against the cabinet, and it looks great!

Now about the unit, the sound is great for our kitchen. I always leave the megabass setting on, without it it does not fill them room as well. I can crank this unit way up and hear it in all the rooms of my house, and it does not sound bad or like the speakers are going to break. So that's great, you can crank this baby!!!

The CD player works great, just like you would expect. Clock is fine. Timer is fine. Also hooked up to my ipod through the audio-in cord provided and that worked great as well.

Five presets buttons (actually 10 FM and 5 AM) make it really easy to switch around. The remote controller is neat, but don't really need to use it as I can reach the unit just as easily. Controller does not reflect off walls or anything like that, so you need a clear line-of-sight to make it work.

Overall, this is a great product and my wife and I love it!

Read Best Reviews of Sony ICFCDK50 Under Cabinet Kitchen CD Clock Radio Here

I purchased this radio after review of comments and other shopping services. It's being returned due to very poor FM performance.

A FM radio can be judged by a number of parameters the most basic of which are sensitivity (how well can the receiver pick out a weak signal) and selectivity (how well it rejects adjacent channels especially when a strong station is adjacent to a weak one on the dial). This radio performs poorly on both scores.

Sensitivity: All other radios in our home have no trouble picking up KPBS on 89.5 MHz in San Diego. In every location in our kitchen the ICF-CDK50 barely pulled the signal out of the static with the power cord extended full length. With the cord neatly stowed no signal was audible at all. There's no provision for an external FM antenna.

Selectivity: When tuned to XHFZO on 92.9, a weak Baja California station, the radio pulled in KMYI at 94.1 (6 channels away!) instead.

On the plus side the performance on strong to very strong stations was excellent modulo the limits of FM broadcasting. AM and CD performance was excellent. Sound was deemed very good.

Want Sony ICFCDK50 Under Cabinet Kitchen CD Clock Radio Discount?

The installation of the ICF-CDK50 is a 20 minute task using the adjustable spacers to compensate for front lip of cabinet, screws provided and template to drill four 3/16" holes. The Aux input is a 10" pigtail stereo audio cable well concealed that can be used on any MP3 type player left in a clip-on hanger or any other device with an audio output jack. The sound, with the built in Bass boost far exceeds typical table top radios with speakers of this size, enhanced by facing down and being reflected by the counter top, sort of a bass reflex effect. In a 12x16 home kitchen, any volume level above 50% is excessively loud. The manual tuning is very slow, be sure to program favorites in the 5 preset's. The timer function is easily used, set to even minutes; it counts down in seconds and sufficiently louder than the radio volume to gain your attention. The remote thankfully is not a credit card type, it is more like a roll of nickels and while IR, it has a full 180 degree range, likely not used in an active place like the kitchen but convenient if kept beside the telephone if more than an arms reach from the K50. In store comparisons with the twice thicker and expensive Sony ICF-CDK70 model proved it to be total overkill unless used in a work environment like a machine shop or sheltered outdoor/patio location. The 4+" thickness of the K70 vs the 2+" of the K50 reduces the typical 16" counter top to cabinet space to 12-", a significant consideration where Canisters or counter top appliances must exist under it. Other brands found at local store's sounded like pocket transistor radios while the K50 is comparable to a quality boom-box of 4~6' speakers. The rear of the case includes dogs to wrap excess power cable if you must power it from a receptacle in the counter backstop. However, from a performance standpoint, it appears that the FM/AM antenna is embedded in the power cord and coiling the excess length reduces signal strength, routing it up though or outside the cabinet to above, ideally if a gap or plate rail exist atop the cabinets routing the cable up and extending to any available power (like in a range hood) greatly enhances performance. The CD player is adequate, easy to use and when installed under a cabinet with a lower lip, easily accessed. The K50 is the optimum choice as a kitchen AM/FM radio, while offering excellent CD and MP3 player compatibility in a kitchen environment. Of note; there are other radios presently on the market that offer AM/FM/TV/Weather. None advertize the fact that the TV is an NTSC tuner that will be obsolete in Feb 2009 when TV moves to digital ATSC or that the weather alerts become terribly obnoxious after the "new' wears off.

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This Sony radio/CD player has a wonderful sound and is able to get my favorite radio station, where other radios that I tried could not. I love that it goes under the cabinet and frees up counter space. It looks great also.