Customer Reviews

Boston Acoustics Horizon Trio Clock Radio w/ CD Player (Midnight)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I already own one Boston Acoustics Clock Radio and decided to purchase another which plays CDs.

Unfortunately, there is a manufacturing glitch by which the audio mutes briefly at the end of each track when playing a CD straight through. This might not be noticeable on CDs where there is some silence between tracks. But on many classical CDs where there is continuity of music between tracks, this results in missing about a second of music at each track change.

This was confirmed by BA (because it always "searches" for the next track) and I found it unacceptable. So I had to return it.

However, if you are not into classical CDs, then this is otherwise an excellent CD/AM/FM clock radio. The sound quality is superb as one would expect from such an expensive item. I did find the snooze bar for the alarm a bit too sensitive, which on two occasions caused it to snooze for 15 minutes instead of 10.

I really wanted to keep this radio - it looks and sounds great! The issue I had was with cd playback. As one reviewer stated, there is a one-second silent gap between songs as the player searches for the next track. This is not noticeable most of the time, HOWEVER it disrupts playback on cds where one track follows another without a gap. For example, the one-two punch of ZZ Top's "Waitin' for the Bus"/"Jesus Just Left Chicago" is interrupted as the first second of the latter song is omitted. Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker"/"Living Loving Maid [She's Just A Woman]" would be another example. There are enough instances of this in my cd collection to make this unit sadly unusable. The sound is fantastic, but for the money, I really needed it to play cds as the artist intended.

I have had this product for about a month now and in this time I have used it long enough to try most of its features and to break in the speakers.

The construction of the Horizon Trio is very solid, with quality materials and the device has a sturdy, yet stylish industrial design. It has a fairly small footprint, even though its width makes it looks a little bit bulky.

The sound quality is good, at all levels of sound, BUT bear on mind that even though the speakers have integrated woofers, they will not defy any laws of physics, therefore the sound is proportional to the size of the equipment.
That said, the sound quality is good enough for filling a small to medium room, like a bedroom or kitchen, which I guess are the intended spots for this kind of radio.

Even at the top volume (50) you get a well balanced and pleasant sound, with well defined treble and bass. I specially like the sound for jazz recordings and classic rock.

The three knob controls are pretty intuitive and really easy to learn to operate. You can control treble and bass, set the two alarms, select radio, cd, or any two input sources.

Radio reception on FM is good in general, in some stations I have to move the provided cord antenna to get better reception. I don't use AM much, but they sound average.

CDs sound is excellent. I can play my MP3 burned Cds in the unit. Three issues here with CDs:
They get really hot when playing for a while.
I have problem with one comercial CD that the unit does not read and expels from the cd slot, I get the message E36
(I have played that cd in a Bose Lifestyle and a Panasonic CD changer without problem).
As some reviewers wrote, when playing CDs with continous tracks the unit skip one second between tracks, making a weird pause in the music.
Also, once when playing a CD, the unit stopped out of the blue and none of the controls allowed me to change it, so I had to disconnect the cable from the electrical outlet.

The alarms have worked fine, with the small exception that the alarm 1 seems to have a tendency to loose the programming, even though it is set to a time (an it appears in the setting) sometimes when I activate it it shows that it is set for "12:00".

I don't have any problem with the the digital display at night; it adjust appropiately to the darkness level of the room, so I have not lost any sleep about it, literally.

The remote is compact, well laid out. The only thing is that you need to make sure you align it correctly with the unit to be able to set the commands, if you aim to much out of the right angle it will not accept the commands.

I have been unable to test the HRD-I dock (I ordered it later) to test the system with an iPod. The unit has a port in the back where the dock can be connected to play iPod music.

Al in all, I like the built and features of the unit up to a point, but the fact that I have found several flaws in the performance, make me to advise to any prospect buyers to wait until the price goes down or BA addresses those bugs.

Everything about this stereo is amazing. It produces an unbeatable sound not to mention a compact size. I have been looking for years to find a compact radio that didn't sound like a tin box. This one does the job.

I purchased this for my bedroom, and I had two issues with it:
1) The LCD display was so bright, even with brightness set to zero, that it lite up my room
2) I compared it to my bose wave system, and the sound quality was not even close

The quality of the product is excellent. It is moderately complex to set up because of all the features. You actually have to read the manual to get it right.

Sound quality is absolutely great. I compared this side by side with a Bose Sounddock Series II in my own room and the Trio beats the Sounddock hands down.

I have also listened to Bose Wave and Tivoli units in hotel rooms when traveling. Tivoli now seems to be foocusing on hotels and their units ship pre-set in hospitality mode. While this quality comparison was not side by side with the Trio, at least loosely speaking, the Trio is as good as, if not better than, Tivoli and Wave. For the size and price, the sound quality is definitely among the best. I also tried out a few of the Sony and Panasonic models at a local store and the Trio is much better, for comparable size.

One reviewer has complained that the sound is sterile. I beg to differ - the sound is very rich. Now one should not expect to compare this sound with full size speakers, as the laws of physics do matter.

The functionality - combination of CD, radio, alarm, and the optional iPod dock (which was deeply discounted on the Boston Acoustics website when I bought it), is also better than comparable brands in the price range. Both Bose Wave and Tivoli CD+rdio models are significantly more expensive.

The control knobs are pretty straightforward to understand. I could set the time, alarm, bass, treble, etc. without reading the manual. While I have nothing against reading manuals, I do not like having to search for the manual if I need to change a setting that I have not touched for months. That is not a problem with this unit!

A key function for the Trio is as a CD alarm, at least for me. That was a big reason why I wanted to change from the Sounddock to something with a built-in CD player (for the Sounddock, one needs to rely on the alarm app of the iPhone and thats not so nice). The Trio remembers the time and alarm settings in case of power loss. I tested this by pulling out the power chord for a few minutes. The manual says it will hold the settings for 24-48 hours without power. That is of course a very nice feature.

However, there are some very important flaws:

1. If there is no power at the time the alarm is supposed to sound, this unit has NO BACKUP BATTERY AND BEEPER alarm. Now, even the cheap radio alarms have a backup battery and beeper, so at least something makes a sound at the set alarm time in case of power loss. That is a serious omission here. And that's the reason I took off one star.

2. The issue of alarm-1 resetting to 12am after sounding once, that another reviewer had, also shows up in my unit. Basically renders the alarm useless. Took off another star for this.

3. The clock is very rudimentary. It does not auto-synchronize to the radio time synchronization signal (the atomic clock signal). It seems it does not automatically adjust for daylight savings time either. I am not a supporter of daylight savings time but now that we have it, I think it should be illegal to sell a clock that does not adjust for it. The size of the time display is smaller than even the most inexpensive clock-radios. I have not taken off any stars for this as these features are also missing in the competing brands, but I would be willing to pay slightly more for improved clock functionality.

Am I sorry I ever bought this device. Yes. The sound is very clear but that is all I can say. The sound has no depth, no life, no color. It's like a musician who has mastered all the technical details but has no genuine feeling, no real talent for music. I had an old Panasonic analog clock radio that I bought in the 1970s that used to amaze me at times with the beauty of its tone and the vibrancy of its sound. It was a lot better looking than the BA too. If it hadn't died after 20 years I'd have it today. I keep trying to find a replacement but keep getting disappointed.

As a clock, it is worthless at night. The brightness of the display diminishes so much that the clock is impossible to read.

Ease of use? Difficulty of use is a better term. Simply setting it to play for a hour at bedtime requires a lot of twisting and punching of knobs. My last clock/radio only required punching a button on the remote a few times to do the same thing. You can't set the sleep timer on the BA using the remote at all. As for setting the alarm clock, it takes so much twisting and punching of knobs and buttons that I have abandoned the BA for this use. No I have a battery powered $6.50 clock on my bedside table to tell time at night. Setting the alarm requires only twisting a knob and flipping a lever.

If this is representative of BA quality it will be the only BA product I'll ever own.

The sound is OK when it works. The first one I received was DOA. The second one burned up the CD player and was sent in for repair. (Out of warranty, of course.) Not a very good track record.

I've had a Boston Acoustics clock radio for years and am frustrated enough to move it to the kitchen and look for another clock radio for the bedroom. I find it very difficult to receive a variety of stations clearly at night, as well as the inability to adjust the bass/treble. The base on this is strong and find it almost impossible, when lying in bed trying to hear people talking, to hear them clearly. I also loose pre-set stations when changing them at night to others. The bass is great for music.