GE 74897 Clock Radio Stereo CD player with Dual Alarm

by General Electric

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005MNSJ
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,780 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 24, 2001

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Alarm Clock, October 14, 2001

By 

"sellmen" (OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GE 74897 Clock Radio Stereo CD player with Dual Alarm (Electronics)

If you are looking for an alarm clock/cd player combo, this is an excellent model to choose. I have been completely satisfied with my purchase, for the following reasons.

First, let me discuss appearance. For the most part, cd player/alarm clock combos are large, relatively heavy, and boxy. However, this model has none of those characteristics; it is relatively light, and not at all boxy. I am extremely pleased with it's appearance - it has a very sleek look to it.

Next, let me focus on the alarm clock. This unit has dual alarms, each of which can be set to wake you up with either a normal alarm, or music (cd or radio). This clock has a "gradua-wake" system - instead of the alarm/music turning on at full volume, they start quietly and then slowly get louder. I really appreciate this feature - it allows one to be woken slowly and gently as opposed to suddenly. I also like the LCD display - the large green digits are very easy to read from most angles.

Soundwise, the unit is decent, though not spectacular. The radio and CD player both deliver good sound. Obviously, you won't get the pounding bass you would on a stereo system, but this is to be expected. There tends to be some hissing when the volume is turned way up, and for some reason, the volume switch does not go extremely high. For most people this should not be a problem, but if you have hearing problems or like listening to music LOUD, it could cause some trouble. The CD lid seems a bit flimsy to me, though I haven't had any problems with it.

Overall, I highly recommend this alarm clock/cd player.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product for the low price - get two!, October 30, 2002

By 

Bradley P. Lehman (Dayton, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GE 74897 Clock Radio Stereo CD player with Dual Alarm (Electronics)

We have two of these (so far)...one for the bedroom, another as a simple general CD player and clock for the kitchen! The one from the kitchen goes along in the suitcase whenever there will be an overnight in a hotel. It's been bashed around that way, but holds up solidly.

Sure, it could sound better...the cheap speakers tend to overload at maximum volume, which isn't very loud anyway. But it's easy to see the time, easy to reach the snooze button, and the low center of gravity keeps the unit from getting knocked around. It sits on the bedside stand firmly. I use it to go to sleep to music, and wake up to alarm. It works very well for that, playing a CD quietly.

There are some quirks: sometimes I have to open and close the lid to make the machine realize there's a CD in there. (Even then, it freaks out sometimes spinning the disc in both directions: we had to take one of our two back for a replacement as it had trouble playing discs.) It holds the CD very firmly: to remove one most easily, push down on the center spindle with one finger while lifting the edges of the disc. The time set buttons can be used to move the CD tracks forward or backward...but be sure you're not hitting the "sleep" and "nap" buttons there, else it will wake you up at a strange time! If you do hit the Nap button by mistake, it's tricky to get it turned back off before the 20 minutes are up. Every month or two I have to run the volume dial back and forth a few times to clear the static it's built up, and then it's fine. There's a lot of mechanical noise whenever a CD starts or stops.

All those quirks are sort of endearing, considering that the main function is the dual alarm clock, where it's solid and reliable. The gentle wake feature is nice: the alarm begins quietly, then gets more insistent.

Better combo machines with all these features are available, but not at this price.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This thing is flawed on so many levels ..., July 15, 2002

By 

WorknMan "worknman" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GE 74897 Clock Radio Stereo CD player with Dual Alarm (Electronics)

Since many reviewers have already talked about this clock's good points, I'm just going to rant about its bad ones:

1) As some have already pointed out, the green LCD display is WAY too bright. If I look directly into it in the dark, I have to cover my eyes!
2) The 'grad-u-wake' feature doesn't work with the CD player, and with the alarm clock, it starts out too loud to actually be useful for what it was intended for.
3) If you wake up to the CD player and are a habitual Snooze button presser .. When you hit Snooze, the clock will simply flash the CD track number it was playing, so after the 2nd or 3rd time, you have absolutely NO idea what time it is
4) Also, when the Snooze time is up, the CD player will simply continue with where the song left off the first time, instead of starting the song over again. So if you had picked songs with silent intros to wake up to, once you hit the Snooze button, you're probably going to be blasted out of bed anyway the 2nd or 3rd time around.
5) Button placement is horid. The Snooze button is right in the center of the clock, and isn't as big as it should be. The OFF button is located around 3 other buttons of the same size, and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in the morning like it needs to.

It's really a shame that engineers can't put their collective heads together and design better alarm clocks than what we're currently stuck with :(