Sony PSYC ICF-CD831 Clock Radio

Pros: Easy to operate, big numbers, decent sound
Cons: Analog tuner, manual volume, no battery-backup option, no headphone jack

It was time to replace my old clock radio (a Sanyo). I wasn't looking for a CD Clock Radio, but I found this one on sale, and thought it might be nice to have a CD player on my nightstand, especially since the radio reception where I live is not so good. ...

Pros: clear sound, many alarm options,
Cons: analog tuning, no battery backup

A while ago I gave my nearly perfect RCA alarm clock with digital tuner to my wife to replace her buzzer-only alarm clock that annoyed the heck out of me since she wakes up an hour before me, and she has a habbit of hitting the snooze. I figured I'd just ...

Pros: Very cool design, good sound and easy to use.
Cons: Analog radio tuner with marginal station selectivity paired with a high-gain antenna.

This is the kind of consumer product that may one day find its way to the Museum of Modern Art. It not only works and sounds great like a Sony product, but will also functions as a great design element to a room. The digital dial is easy to see and ...

Pros: Easy to read display, easy to use, reasonable standby power consumption
Cons: Analog volume, tuning -- can't be set for the alarm, independent of the last use.

It's hard to find information on the power consumption of many products, even though the cost of energy can sometimes add up to be more than the purchase price. Since parts of this unit are powered up all the time, I was concerned about that before I ...

Pros: Dual alarm, wake-2-CD, good speakers, easy to read display
Cons: no battery backup, analog tuning dial (should have done digital, Sony)

I bought the Sony Dream machine for several reasons; dual alarms, the wake to CD function (which let ...

Pros: Good looks, cute body, sound, everything!
Cons: I lost the little keychain it came with :(

I had originally gotten a Curtis, but all the functions were on the back. I went to Best Buy and got this little thing.

Whatever people tell you about "this thing sucks air" DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! I have had this for years and it hasn't given out. If it would give out or have a problem, I will try to remember to update this. The analog dial for tuner takes (such a little bit) of getting used to but it is highly accurate.

Do buy this.

Pros: Style, packaging
Cons: Poor quality, failure with a few hour of use. Difficult,unintuitive controls.

I bought this clock radio for my daughter's birthday. The cool styling and bright colors along with the Sony name made it seem a good bet. Within 2 months of giving it to my 9 year old the CD started malfunctioning. We never did get it to work right again. Alas we left it in the room to use the clock feature which is a large LED style display. One of the elements of the display went out shortly thereafter. This is within 3 months of buying the product.

We then took it back and Walmart gladly exchanged it. The new unit was white but identical in every other aspect. Within a couple of weeks the LED went out. It now sits as a testament to the third Sony small appliance that failed miserably (the first being a boom box where the CD player died shortly after purchasing).

I will never buy a Sony brand small player or appliance again. Sony used to stand for top quality products but now they are just cheap and over priced. You can get superior quality and a much lower price from any number of other manufacturers.

Pros: Hey! It looks great!
Cons: My third Sony CD player to go out in ten years.

I loved it when I bought it.

Now I hate it.

Why? It's now a giant clock radio that won't play CDs.

In 1994 I bought the most expensive Discman. It stopped playing CDs 6 months later, when it began making clicking whirring sounds that I never forgot.

Ten years later, the same clicking and whirring sounds are telling me my $50 CD clock radio is junk. I think Sony put the EXACT same ancient CD player mechanism in this thing.

Maybe a dozen CDs were played for less than four hours (I kid you not) before this thing died. Original receipt? I threw it out months after I bought it.

AVOID THIS MACHINE like the plague.

Pros: sound
Cons: tuning

This has been treating me fine for the past 6 months. Only thing that I didn't think would bother me as much as it does is the analog tuner. You think, 'no big deal', I can turn a dial. Well...it is a big deal. Once you've become accustomed to digital tuning and pressing a button for presents it's a hard habit to break. Also, it doesn't get reception for the station I bought it to listen to. It's alright. Dont' think I'd buy it again.