It all began when we were at Costco, doing errands, and noticed a nifty little alarm clock with CD player for 40$. We had been looking to replace our old alarm clock for some time, but never actively searched for the perfect one. This one seemed suitable enough, so we bought it and were content with it… until three days later. Since then, we have been buying and returning alarm clocks every week. Here’s our « forced » comparison tests, so far:
Koss KS7322-2 – 40$ – Bad
Dual Alarm AM/FM Stereo Clock Radio with Compact Disc Player
This was the first one we tried. The sound was nice and the features were ok. The real annoying thing about this one, though, is that there is no random button for the CD player. The only way to « mix » a cd is to program a new order for them, but that doesn’t even work with the alarm! Result : you always hear the first song of the cd, every morning, every snooze. So unless you have like 365 cds, it can get very annoying, very fast – not to mention destroy your appreciation of a song.
RCA RP3740 – 50$ – Bad
I got the next one at WalMart. Unfortunately I didn’t note the model. This one was really nicely set up. Features were cool and the nobs, icons and stuff were cute. It had a random feature which didn’t work with the alarm, but there was a « Alarm CD Track » option that let us choose which song the alarm should play in the morning (and the then next ones would be random). Plus, the snooze button remembered where the music cut, and started back there. We could also program the length of the snooze, and all kinds of nice little gizmos like that. We really liked it, but the display was bit hard to read and… mighty bright!! Even on the low brightness setting, I could clearly see Frank’s face in the dark. So it had to go.
Magnasonic – 50$ – Bad
We got this one at Futureshop. It has a random feature… that just doesn’t work with the alarm! We’re back to hearing the same song over and over again. We’re returning it.
RCA RP3755 – 99$ – Bad
We went to exchange the Magnasonic for another one – a bit more expensive this time. It’s another RCA, and has all the nice options the other had. Cool icons, nice style (blueish and silver, with a vertical CD you can see spinning). It even came with a real nice nature sounds CD! There is the « Alarm CD track », which is nice, and it doesn’t have the mighty bright display the other RCA had – although its black-on-green display can be hard to see if you’re not sleeping next to it (ie. I sleep on the other side of the bed). But the main reason we’re returning it is because the CD sometimes skips/jumps.
In conclusion…
Frank went to return the RCA, and didn’t buy another one. We’re keeping the old red-display fake-wood alarm Frank has had since he was a teen. Maybe some day we’ll find the one…
Retour de ping : Temecula mortgage refinancing.