Sony Dream Machine ICF-CD843V CD Clock Radio with Digital Tuner

• Triple alarm for three different alarm times
• Snoozinator allows for custom snooze function with the press of a button
• Nap timer can be set for 10 to 120 minutes for quick cat naps
• Plays standard CD and CD-R/RW discs
• Tune in AM/FM, TV, and weather channels

This is a clock radio for the serious radio guy. It is a bit on the beefy side for the nightstand, but that's where it will provide the most pleasure. It has several thoughtful features. You can adjust the brightness of the digital read-out. I found the medium setting to be just fine. The digitally-tuned radio provides good reception. One complaint I have about most clock radios today is that they are puny when it comes to pulling the stations in. This one does an adequate job with both AM and FM, at least in my neighborhood. Of course, it has nice pre-sets for favorite stations. The CD player sounds good, with or without the bass boost. You can select CD shuffle, repeat, etc. One small complaint would be with regard to the volume control. It is a thumbdial on the side towards the back. You have to fumble a bit to find it in the middle of the night, and we all know that if you are listening to radio in the middle of the night you don't want it to blast. If you are changing from station to station or to CD, there will likely be a big difference in volume that will have to be dealt with. All in all, a heavyweight entry in the AM/FM/CD clock radio field. There is no earphone jack, but that may not matter to most people. There is also no battery back-up, but the radio retains its memory during a short power interruption.

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Very nice sound, better than the Philips product of similar price. However, some deficiencies make it a bit disappointing: (1) no digital volume control, so you can't set volume level for an alarm, and there is no progressively louder alarm; (2) (as someone else noted) if you want 2 alarms at 2 different times (e.g., 5am & 6am), they need to be on different music sources (e.g., 5am radio, 6am CD).

I'd still recommend it if the features don't make a big difference to you, since the sound is good and everything works well.

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The unit I bought was defective, losing power for no reason several times a day. However, this was hopefully just one bad unit, so my rating and review cover the features of the clock radio as I'd rate them if it hadn't been defective.

The major flaw in this item is that it has no battery backup. If the power goes out, it won't wake you up and you have to reset not only the clock, but all three alarm times and all twenty-five preset radio and TV stations (assuming you've programmed a station for all of them). This is enough of a problem that I wouldn't buy this model again, even though it has many good features. Other, more minor weak points: each of the three alarm times has to be set to a different wake sound: radio, CD, and beep. You can't set it to wake to the radio, for example, at three different times. Also, the button to choose the wake sound is slightly inconvenient because you have to keep pressing it to cycle through all the possibile combinations of alarms: just radio, just CD, just beep, radio then CD, radio then CD then beep, etc. However, that's only a minor inconvenience. As with most small CD players, you can hear the CD whirring as it spins, which is a little distracting if listening to soft music or nature sounds at low volume while trying to fall asleep. Still, that problem is less obvious than on some similar products, and at higher volumes it's not an issue.

There are many good features of this model. Most clock radios are terribly designed when it comes to the buttons and other controls. This one isn't perfect, but is much better than most. It doesn't give you a bunch of indistinguishable buttons in the same place, all the same size, as many models do. The placement of buttons seems fairly logical and different function buttons are grouped in different places on the face and come in different sizes, making it easier to remember which is which. One great feature is that changing radio stations works like it does on most car stereos: one button to change the band (FM1, FM2, AM, TV, Weather), then five separate buttons for each station you program within that band. There is a wheel-style volume control on the side of the unit, which works well and avoids cluttering up the face with up and down volume buttons. There is also a nap feature, which is nice to have, though this one jumps from 30 to 60 minutes, so you're out of luck if you want to set it for 40 or 50 minutes. (A nap timer is simply a countdown timer, and some models allow you to set it at any 10-minute interval. It allows you to quickly set an alarm to go off in, say, 20, 30, 60, or 90 minutes without having to reset one of the actual alarms to a precise time, then reset it again to your usual morning wake-up time.) The sound of this model is pretty good for a clock radio. Not hi-fi, but it does have two speakers, which is better than the one in many cheaper models.

Overall, this would be a very, very good product if they would add a battery backup. As it is, I would reluctantly avoid it for that reason, but in most other ways it is well designed.

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At this price point I can't complain too much about the Sony 843: Excellent AM reception. Slightly above average FM but bear in mind hard-to-get stations could give you trouble since the 843, like 99% of clock radios, relies on a little coiled plastic antenna in the back. Where I live in Los Angeles, KPCC 89.3 sometimes gives the Sony 843 problems, which I can only rectify by holding the tip of the wire antenna during my entire listening session. Needless to say, this is annoying and not practical. But the most glaring weakness is the CD player. It is so noisy that listening to music on it is too distracting so I quit playing CDs a long time ago.

But still if you can pick one up for fifty dollars or less it's worth it just for the radio and easy alarm functions. If you want a high-end clock radio with a telescopic antenna, there's only one that I know of, the Tivoli Songbook, but realize the Songbook costs nearly three times as much.

Update: I personally don't use my Songbook by my bed because it tips over. I use my best reception radio performer ever--my Grundig G4000, which I got on Amazon for $99, a very good price. It has a clock and alarm function but the clock digits may be too small for many. If you want a real clock radio by your bed and don't mind spending 99 dollars, you might check out the Sonido (made by Sangean). It's sleek and attractive, it has AM, FM, TV, and Weather bands, and it boasts a high-performance speaker, like its more expensive brother the WR-2, but even better than the WR-2, it has a telescopic antenna and it's 60 dollars less than its only competition, the Tivoli Songbook.

Update 1-29-07: If you want an attractive retro-modern clock radio with remote control, high-grade speaker and excellent reception, check out the Eton Sound 100. It retails for 150 bucks or so but can be found on sale on Amazon through other vendors. If you don't need a headphone jack or remote, the Boston Acoustics Receptor can be found on Amazon on sale between 100-120 dollars even though it retails for about 149. For bright sound, the Boston Acoustics is my very favorite.

What happened? Did the world forget how to design clock radios? I decided to buy a simple CD/Clock/Radio/Alarm unit. The world of electronics has been making these for ages. I was amazed at the fact that of the over 800 units listed on Amazon, basically NONE Of them got consistently high reviews. Even the best were lacking very basic features like battery back up for power outages, head phone jack, etc. Now, some of the gripes I read by various people were just preference differences. But it seems to me that in this day and age there are some very basic things that ALL digital alarm clocks should have, with the rest being options:

THE BASICS

TIME ACCURACY one Sony unit got dinged for losing 10 minutes on the hour ... now, in 2006, that's unexcusable.

MULTIPLE ALARMS / ALL MODES let's get real, if you're going to feature 2 or 3 alarms, let us set any of the unit's features for any of the alarms (CD/Radio/Buzzer).

DISPLAY SIZE/ADJUSTMENT I can't imagine an application where someone would want tiny alarm clock numbers, so bigger seems universally better. Make 'em as big as the unit will allow. As for dimmer settings, 2 was always OK for me, but I've seen folks complain that 3 wasn't enough. Perhaps an analog dial for the dimmer? Infinite control.

VOLUME CONTROL Simply put, you should be able to adjust the volume of the radio from barely audible to the full capability of the speaker, without distortion, either analog (before turning the unit on) or digitally (after turning it on). Some folks like each, so offer both and you'll get everyone.

ADJUSTABLE SNOOZE NO matter what number the engineers pick for the snooze delay ... someone won't like it. So, make it adjustable, with the option for it to become progressive (longer or shorter with each pressing of the snooze bar).

BUTTON TEXT Many of us sleep in dark rooms at night ... shocking I know. So why so many clock designers insist on black knobs on black radios with black lettering ... baffles me. If the unit is dark, the lettering should be bold and bright. If the unit is light, the lettering should be bold and dark. If the unit is mid-tone, the lettering should be bold and either white or dark. Not that hard to figure out.

FLAT TOP DESIGN when did someone decide that appliances with rounded tops were a good idea? Ever try to set your classes on top of a rounded alarm clock?

USER FRIENDLY BUTTONS ... ALL OF THEM I read one great review of a Sony unit with a great Snooze button and a collection of rather useless and overly small buttons for everything else. Think about it. Guys, when we wake up, we're sleepy ... we need easy to find, easy to use buttons.

HEADPHONE JACK My CAMERA has a headphone jack ... so why can't my alarm clock AM/FM Radio / CD player?

BATTERY BACK UP Power outages happen. So unless your clock has one of those cool gadgets that automatically resets itself to the Naval Observatory Master Clock ... give us a battery back up option?

I've got a very nice RCA unit at home now that lacks only 2 things I want ... a CD player and a headphone jack. It keeps good time, has battery back up, big numbers, easy to use buttons (though the text by the buttons is too small and it is "black on black"). Otherwise, it's pretty good. But it didn't come with a CD option.

I had a very nice Sony CD/Alarm/Radio/Clock a few years back, and it worked fine, until someone stole it ... and they don't make it any more.

So ... the search goes on. Come on, guys ... let's design a unit worthy of the name. I know people so fed up with their search for a reasonable and well designed unit that they've taken to using their cell phones as their alarm clocks. That's pitiful.

JTD