Weighing in at around three and a half pounds, this cube like alarm clock is more than just an alarm clock. Well, it's not really a true cube shape, it's 7 x 7 x 8 but to me that is close enough to qualify to be called 'cube like'. Outside of having the usual functions you would expect from such an item it also has a nice CD player, the ability to preset your favorite radio stations and take a nap without having to change the alarm clock mode. You can easily read the numbers from almost anywhere in the room and the sound from the radio and CD player isn't half bad. You aren't going to be able to really crank it up to massive levels but I can almost guarantee that you will be impressed with the overall sound of it. For the most part it is easy to program and use but since this lacks a battery back up, if you bump the cord or lose power, anything you have saved will be erased in a heartbeat.
Sony Dream Machine CD Clock Radio [ICF-CD843]
The one thing that really sets this apart from other alarm clocks that I've owned is that it shows the time as well as the alarm set time. This is nice if you are one of those anal retentive people that has to check the alarm setting over and over before you go to bed. You can dim the display a little if you find that it is too bright but most of the time I keep it at the highest setting so that if I have to get up in the middle of the night I don't need to turn on the light. The front of it is prone to hazing if you use any type of cleaner on it so make sure you only wipe it with a set paper towel. When I was cleaning I wiped the front of the display with a towel that had some
glass cleaner on it and it left a haze on it. Not enough to ruin it but at night it makes the numbers look a little fuzzy when you look at it from across the room.
Sony really needs to rethink the way that they word things. When you hear 'triple alarm' you think that there are three different alarms ... well, that isn't a lie. You can set this to wake you up with the radio, the CD player or the rather annoying buzzer. The way that they word it on the box makes you think that you can have three modes chosen; there is a way to have more than one alarm set but if you choose CD for the first one, it defaults to that choice for the others unless you specifically choose something else. The buzzer is loud, annoying and guaranteed to get you out of bed to shut it off. I used to have this next to the bed but it was way too easy to hit the snooze button and roll over for another ten minutes. As much as I hate to admit it, I did reach over, grab the clock and throw it a few times when the buzzer wouldn't shut off. I'm not sure if I didn't hit the right button to shut it off or it just had a mind of its own. Even after being launched across the room, it still worked perfectly.
The Snoozinator!
I wonder what would happen if I worked for someone other than myself and I arrived late for work every single day .. could I use this as a legitimate excuse? "The Snoozinator went all wonky on me". Somehow I doubt it. So what is it? It is a nice feature that I abuse way too often. It allows you to pick how much longer you want to sleep; instead of just hitting the snooze button to give an extra five minutes you can pick out how much extra time you want. As you might guess, most people opt for an extra half hour then end up rushing around like a headless chicken. This goes hand in hand with the nap feature. This lets you set a separate alarm if you want to catch a few winks but don't want to have to change the whole alarm set up. The best part is that you can program it to give you up to two hours of sleep without interfering with the normal alarm set up.
Enriched Bass / Mega Bass
You can, with the press of a button, boost the bass on this to get a more intense sound. I didn't think that this would really make a difference until I tried it out and heard it. It isn't something that is going to blow you away or leave you shell shocked but it more impressive than I thought. You will get some distortion and crackling if you jack up the volume with the mega bass on but when played at normal levels, it does give the sound a little kick.
Preset Choices
This has twenty five presets that you can use to select your favorite stations but only ten of them are for FM radio, the rest are divided evenly between AM, weather and television channels. The television station feature sounds nice but it only picks up your local channels between 2 and 13; that's nice if I want to listen to the morning news or catch the afternoon traffic update. With a touch of a few buttons I can switch between my favorite radio station and the news. I never bothered with programming weather channels because, honestly, I have no idea what the weather band channels are in the area or how to go about finding them.
CD Playback
Sony claims that this will play almost all types of CD including R and RW's. I've only had a handful that wouldn't play and they were ones that were burned over two years ago. How does it do with scratched ones? It depends on how deep the scratch is and how bad it is. If it is just a small one it will play with no problem but even badly scratched ones play with a little freezing or skipping. Even so, it plays ones that I didn't expect it to play so I can't say that I am disappointed with it in the least. I did try this out with some CD's that had the
d_Skin protective disc covers on them and it played them perfectly.
Battery Back Up
Sony really screwed up when they skimped on this; there is no battery back up on this one so if you unplug it to clean or move it to another room, all your presets are erased. Even brief power outages wipe out your stored stations. I learned this the hard way when I moved it to the kitchen to listen to some new CD's while I was cooking. It never dawned on me that it would erase everything and I didn't realize that everything was erased until I went to press the FM preset button and all I got was static. Needless to say, if you live in an apartment complex that has a lot of power outages you might want to think twice about getting this model of the Dream Machine. At the very least don't screw around with setting up a ton of favorite channels because the first time the lights flicker, all that hard work is going right down the drain.
Price
I got this at Best Buy about a year and a half ago when they had a bunch of electronics on sale. I wasn't sure at the time what the going price was for this but I figured that thirty five dollars for an alarm clock with a CD player wasn't that bad. I did get curious about the price and start snooping around online. There were a few placed online that were selling it for less than that but they were charging an outrageous amount for shipping. If I had the chance to buy this again the most I'd pay for it would be $40.00 because it doesn't have a battery back up. If I did have the chance to buy this again I would look to see if there were any other Dream Machine products that did have the back up option, it's nice to be able to fall asleep when it's raining outside without worrying that the power is going to go out for a couple of seconds and erasing all your setting and alarm settings. This is a really nice alarm clock but damn it, why did they have to get rid of the cool but often time overlooked battery back up?
Warranty
You are given a one year warranty on workmanship and a ninety day warranty on parts and labor. That means if the CD player fried out within the first three months they will replace it but after that you are on your own unless you can prove that it was something to do with how it was assembled. If you buy one of these locally and it is defective out of the box, take it back where you purchased it and get an exchange. Do
not, under and circumstances, get suckered into playing a restocking fee if you have to return a defective item. If it is going to be written off as a defective item then it won't be going back on the sales floor so there is no need for someone to go through the contents of it to ensure that everything is there and it is in working order. Be sure to contact Sony if you are ever hassled by any store if you return a newly purchased item that is defective out of the box. This goes double if they try to get you to pay a restocking fee.
The Bottom Line
This was a nice replacement for the
General Electric Digital Clock Radio and since this has a CD player it makes it even nicer to have. I don't have to worry about waking up to crappy music on the radio or the annoying buzzer. I can pop in one of my all time
favorite CD's and wake up with a smile on my face. For thirty five dollars I got a really cool little alarm clock that has put up with more than a little abuse. The one year warranty covers you against defects but the ninety days on labor and parts seems a little skimpy. This would make for a great gift for teens and tweens or someone going off to college. Soccer moms will like the ability to program in basic television stations so when they are in Stepford mode in the kitchen they can still stay on top of the soaps. Sony's Dream Machine won't make you fall asleep any quicker but it will make waking up a little less painful.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
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