Sony ICF-C7IP Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone with Hidden Sliding Dock Tray
iPod & 3G Certified iPhone Compatible, Hidden sliding dock tray, Wake to iPod, iPhone, Radio or Buzzer, Dual Alarm, Digital FM/AM Tuner with 15 Presets, Preset Alarm volume for iPod, iPhone, Radio, Auto Time Set & ADST, Charges iPod & iPhone, Remote Control
Sony ICF-C7IP Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone with Hidden Sliding Dock Tray Accessories
Sony ICF-C7IP Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone with Hidden Sliding Dock Tray Reviews
When my ancient clock radio wore out a few months ago, I chose this as a replacement becasue 1) it would charge and play my itouch, 2) it was small and wouldn't take up much space on my nightstand, and 3) I liked the round design. All things considered, I'm very happy I bought it.
Pros:
DESIGN. Space-saving, and not another boring black box. I like how the tray sits to the side, flush with the bottom of the clock, and slides out of the way. I thought I might knock my itouch on the floor while digging around on my nightstand (covered with all kinds of stuff) if it was sitting up high.
EASY TO USE. No trouble for me to figure out how to set alarms, preset radio stations, or play the itouch. I have it on radio wake up, and there've been no problems with tuning or reception. (BTW, I live in a small town, and most of the stations I listen to are many miles away.) I've used it as a speaker for the itouch a handful of times, and never had trouble. The volume is more than loud enough for me. (The sound quality is fine considering the size of the unit/speaker. I rarely have the speaker on more than 30 min., and have no complaints. If I want to spend hours listening to the itouch, I'm not gonna be in the bedroom, anyhow.)
ALARM SETTINGS. It has two alarms that can be set for weekend, M-F, the whole week, and at different volume settings. I'm glad it automatically adjusted for our detestable DST.
Cons:
DISPLAY LIGHT: Comes with three settings, and they're all too bright for me, so I put a washcloth over the clock when I'm ready to go to sleep. Actually, this has been a good thing, because I used to have a tendency to watch the clock when I'd wake up...and then start worrying about one thing or another, including how much sleep I was going to miss. I've dropped the when-do-I-have-to-get-up worry as a result, and fallen back asleep faster. If you want to use your clock as a night light while heading to the kitchen or bathroom, you'll love it.
PRICE: I think all these alarm clock radios with an ipod dock are over priced. I was tempted to buy a similar sized model for $35 at a discount store, but liked the design of this one SO much better, and it had a few more features. I might've found something cheaper, but like I said, my other clock broke, and I was waking up to an annoying cell phone (too bad it doesn't have a more peaceful ringer option). I picked out this model pretty quick at Best Buy. Since the reviews here were good (on the features I wanted), and the price was $10 cheaper, I decided to wait for the mail. No regrets all around.
First, I will say that I do not own this Sony iPod dock.
I am still searching for a dock and looked at this model
last nite at Fry's Electronic. After looking at it, I
am glad I didn't pay $60 for this one. The sound is not
much better than my HP laptop's speakers and it looks sort
of cheap. I think that at most, it should sell for
around $39 TOPS.
I'm still looking, but it won't be this one.
JMO
I bought this for my son, and he loved it, and so my daughter demanded one. It is very space efficient, and plays iPod songs fine. Adjusting the alarm time is a little complex and my kids couldn't figure it out independently; i had to do it for them at least at the beginning.
FM reception seems to be ok but perhaps we have very strong signals in our area.
I love this thing! It's sleek, it's small, and it's easy to set up and use. The alarm-setting functions are simple - you can opt for buzzer, radio, or iPod wake-up calls, and both the snooze and off buttons are large and accessible. My favorite feature is the remote. I've had other iPod-docking stations whose remotes were confusing or simply not practically functional, but this one is great. The menu button does exactly what the iPod's menu button does, making switching tracks/artists as easy as using the iPod itself.
The sound quality is excellent as well. A nice feature is that when the iPod is docked, its volume control is overridden by the clock unit's. Sound great at full volume, too - perfect for impromptu dance parties!
I keep it in my office, but I'm probably going to end up buying one for home just because I love it so much.
I originally bought this from Best Buy because I'd finally had it with my Griffin iPhone amplifier and decided that I needed a real speaker system for my office. I use several of the binaural beat/ambient music applications as productivity enhancers at work and required much better sound quality as well as the ability to charge my phone. Anyway, I read the Amazon reviews and decided to go to Best Buy to determine whether my phone would fit while still in the case. Well as with all other iPhone speaker systems (I also have a very expensive Altec Lansing Speaker/Dock), you cannot use the dock adapters if you want to keep the case on your iPhone 3G (I use the Sena Dockable red leather case). Although I'd rather be able to use the adapter, this isn't a major problem for me since the phone seems to stand up fine without it. You just have to make sure that you dock it correctly to avoid going into Airplane mode or receiving a non-compatible accessory error. The bottom line is that the fit isn't perfect but isn't any worse than any of the other top of the line speaker systems.
Once again, I digress: onto the product review. I love it. It is small and takes up very little desk space (9"x5") and it has a clock radio. This is very cool since I can't get good enough AT&T 3G reception in the office to run any of the Music streaming applications. I also like being able to see the time without looking at my watch. Anwyay, I was so impressed with this product after buying the first one two days ago, that I ran out and bought another one last night for my nightstand at home. My Altec Lansing 612 space guzzling monster speaker system (apartment dweller) still works fine but isn't compact enough to sit on my nightstand which is where it should be if I decide to use one of my many sleep inducing music applications. As for sound quality, I don't have the best hearing in the world so I might not be a good judge. For me, the sound quality on the Sony is equivalent to that of the Altec Lansing; however, someone with more sensitive ears might hear a difference that just wasn't apparent to me. Since it is less than half the price of the Altec and a third of the price for a Bose system, it is probably worth buying to see for yourself.
Regarding cost, I needed my systems quickly so I bought them both from Best Buy. The Best Buy price was approximately $20 more per unit than the price shown here on Amazon. If you can wait a few days to receive your system(s), I recommend purchasing from Amazon.
|
