It's about time some one released an mp3 alarm clock that's not dependent on the iPod!There are many good looking and great sounding alarm clocks out there created for iPods -- this is not one of them. It has no special dock for iPod. It does have an audio Line IN port though.
Who is this meant for? And why is it better? First, there are people that don't have iPods out there, who will appreciate ability to wake up to your own mp3 sounds or music. The reason I was looking for a non-iPod mp3 alarm clock is not because I don't have an iPod but because I don't want to mix my music and alarm clock. What if a song that starts playing is too quiet or corrupt? I need reliability when it comes to waking up. What I want to do is copy a few songs or sounds onto the thumb drive put it into this unit and pretty much forget about it.. maybe I'll get tired of those eventually and then I would put new ones, although of course you can fit a lot of music on an SD card or a usb flash drive.
You can select a particular mp3 that you want to wake up to. One reviewer said that an mp3 can lock up the alarm. I suspect this is due to a bad mp3 file that he used. This hasn't happened to me. But I always select the mp3 song that I want to wake up to, and not leave it to random, potentially bad mp3. So I know for sure if it works when I'm selecting it (Timex made it such that it has to play for you to select it). A bad mp3 can lock up any player.
Remote is great. It has a wide beam as I can "snooze" it from another room by pointing at the ceiling.
The clock backlight has several levels, from bright to completely off. When in off, it still shows time but you'll need light to see it (like digital wristwatches).
Sound quality:
It has one speaker. You can not have great sound from one speaker, simply because it's mono. But if you have one cheap speaker, the quality will suffer and will sound harsh. This unit has one nice speaker, so it makes it very pleasant to wake up to the music that has good clarity and smooth sound. When the alarm goes off, the mp3 music gradually fades in until it reaches the set volume. My previous alarm clock just fired up the "ocean waves" sound at the set volume (and I had to look in the manual to figure out what the heck that sound was)
Weakness: This one is present in majority of alarm clocks I've used. The time setting feature. You have a + and a - button, no hour/min switch, not even an AM/PM switch. If it's 2:00 and you want it to be 3:00 you'll need to cycle through 2:01, 2:02, 2:03... when you hold the button for about a second it goes quicker (on my old Timex alarm you had to hold it for like 5 seconds, so guess it's an improvement) I only need to use alarm to wake up to work so usually if I do need to change alarm time it's within an hour or so. If I need to set an alarm for something less important I usually just use my iPhone (which has the best method of setting time/alarm ever) This is a big weakness, but I'm not taking a star off for this, because well, "everybody's doing it".
More nice features:
The picture doesn't have it, but if you use the usb flash drive and lower it into the hole there's actually a removable cover that comes with this alarm clock and it completely covers the hole that you see on the picture.
A+ on aesthetics in general. I read somewhere that this unit looks cheap on close inspection, this is not true. It looks very nice from afar or close up. The sides are silver color but they blend in nicely with the rest of the unit. Snooze button on the top does not stick out like on most alarm clocks, but blends in with the rest of the design. This is one well shaped solid unit. You can put it in most places and it won't ruin the view. It's like some one at Timex decided to actually hire a designer this time. (Just type in "alarm clock" into any search engine to see some ugly beasts... uhh, 99%?)
Bottom line:
At this time I'm not aware of any other non-iPod alarm clock that can play mp3 files other than this. But other than being unique, it is very well designed, visually pleasing, and very nice sounding alarm clock. In other words, it's everything I wanted in an alarm clock so I'm glad I bought it.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Timex Dual Alarm Clock Radio for Mp3 Songs (Black)
Product Description:
Dual Alarm Clock Radio for MP3 Songs
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