Customer Reviews

Cambridge SoundWorks 740 CD/Radio (Black)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I purchased this for my office. As soon as I lifted the 12 lb. box, I knew this was serious stuff in a small package. I ran my computer sound output to the aux input so that even my Windows startup tune now thrills me. Now as I work I stream digital, high-quality radio from the free RealAudio player to the radio. There are dozens of stations available. The audio quality (surprisingly good bass) is about the same as a midlevel, three-piece PC speaker set. Setup of the Cambridge radio and RealAudio are trivial.

I have two of the high-priced (about $100 more than Cambridge) Bose radios (one with CD, one without) at home. Sound is great from the Bose and the Cambridge systems; I cannot choose between them. However, the Cambridge does have bass and treble adjustments while my Bose systems do not have these adjustments. I also am pleased with the FM reception for both the Bose and the Cambridge and wish the AM were better in all.

I was disappointed in the looks of the Cambridge system. The Bose system, in its plastic case, has a high-tech, modern look, although the control pad on top is perhaps not as easy to access as the front-mounted controls on the Cambridge. The Cambridge wooden case (black on mine) is solid enough but unappealing in appearance, with a big volume knob sticking out dead center and small, cheesy control buttons around it. A huge snooze-mute button sits on the otherwise unblemished top.

I have ten radios in my office. Most are small portables that I purchased for their design. My favorite is the Grundig Yacht Boy. Good design in consumer products seems important only to Italian and German firms.

No major complain w/ the unit. For the amount of $ this unit cost, one would/should expect a lot. I'm not blown away by the sound, but I'm not dissapointed either.

CD eject is not quite strong enough and I have to 'pull' the cd out every time. Not sure if it's defective or just the way it is.

The time it allows one to change alarm setting is really short. I end up having to get into the change-alarm-mode several times in order to make a change. This should get better once one becomes more familiiar w/ the settings.

One good thing about the unit is the slot loading. This allows me to pile stuff such as CD cases on top. The bose alarm cd is top loading so night stand space is vertically-challenged.

I was suprised when I read reviews of this item which were anything less than 5 stars. I have been looking for ages for a decent, small sized radio. This item far exceeds Bose for sound quality, and it plays MP3's in addition to CD's so you can put in one CD with 8 to 10 hours of music. You can also adjust treble and base which you cannot on the Bose. It also displays the radio station playing and the current song and artist and the upcoming song and artist when playing the radio (again, Bose doesn't). But beyond any of the "features".. its just sounds great. I have a Onkyo stereo with Bose cube speakers and a Bose subwoofer and this blows it away. Its not just my opinion, but everyone who has come over and listened to it has been amazed. I will be keeping this for years to come I can already tell you. Its also great becaue if you need to move it its just one piece.. no speakers to connect or anything else. I'd give it 10 stars if that was a choice. Zero complaints and many suprises.

This is actually a 4 star review. However, I wanted to call attention to a couple of deficiencies in the radio 730 and 740 products that might go unnoticed in a 4 star reviw, but might still influence some buyers.

1. The alarms have no automatic shutoff. Most clock/radios turn themselves off after an hour or so. If I sleep away from home, I often return home the next day to find that the alarm has been playing all day.

2. The display does dim at night by sensing ambient light in the room. I love this feature. However, the indicators that show if an alarm is set do NOT dim, and they can be astonishingly bright. It does diminish the value of the feature somewhat. The Sangean RS-330 implemented this idea better, although I found that clock to have significant quality-control problems.

Overall, the clock/radio is a solid performer. I'm quite happy with it, but I can be picky and had I known about bullets 1 and 2 I might have opted for something else.

Regarding the auto-shutoff, customer support (who have been prompt and extremely helpful) informs me that the Model 88CD does support an automatic shutoff, and the product manual is available at http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/pdf/manuals/model88cd.pdf . They suggested a work-around to the problem for the 730 and 740, which is to set Alarm 2 to go off an hour after Alarm 1 but with 0 volume.

At first I couldn't understand the negative feedback on this product. As I read the reviews I realized that many of the reviewers were placing a high value on such features as AM radio reception and alarm clock functionality. Well, I personally would rather spend $10-20 each on one of those dedicated products and focus my $300 on a radio that (a) sounds great; (b) plays all the new media formats in addition to CD's; and (c) can be hooked up to an MP3 player or wireless access point to play my entire music library. If you want an easy to use, great sounding mini stereo, this is a truly great product for the money. If you want an AM radio or alarm clock, go to Walmart with your pocket change.

This is a great system! I bought this player as a gift, looking for a tabletop system comparable to my Bose. It's priced $200 less so I decided to give it a try. We played the systems side by side and the Cambridge Soundworks blew away the Bose. It has deep, full bass from the built in subwoofer and doesn't distort when you crank it up, unlike the Bose. The sound is rich and powerful, in fact, we don't turn the bass up higher than the zero setting because it would probably disturb our neighbors. This product has no competition. DON'T BUY THE BOSE - overpriced and inferior sound. Buy this product from a reputable dealer, that way you won't have problems like the previous reviewer had. You'll be happy you bought the Cambridge Soundworks!

These table radios can be expensive! There are three in the lineup I know of, the Bose, this one and the Boston Acoustics one. This one is the cheapest- about $150 less than the competition, but right alongside in terms of performance! While the Boston one is the only one I haven't tried, since the Bose and this one are very similar I'll assume the Boston one is also. Although this one isn't as elegant looking as the Bose, it sure stands up to it in other ways. While Bose relies on lower octaves and air movement to produce bass, this one is simply equipped with a built-in subwoofer. I mean, it doesn't take a huge subwoofer to produce a lot of bass. So, this idea is a simple one, yet not one that others have used a lot. All Cambridge had to do is make it a non-cube shape, add two speakers for treble, and voila! You have a compact unit that produces big sound! The bass is quite prominent. The wattage confines it a bit, but the range of it allows you to play any song without compromise to sound. I've always said that a subwoofer produces the best bass. I don't care how powerful a competing woofer would be to it, the subwoofer just sounds better, plain and simple. This system somehow produces more audible bass than a 440W system I have, with only woofers. A subwoofer produces punching bass, and a woofer only produces spreading, dissipating bass. I'm trying to illustrate what kind of sound comes out of this unit. It won't shake the whole house, but it is uniquely powerful for such a compact piece of machinery. Well worth the money! I usually listen to music at moderate volumes, but still desire prominent bass. This was perfect for me. I was also going to buy a huge component system for more bass, but cancelled that order and now have found my main unit.

Purchased my first unit and was forced to exchange it due to a defective speaker...
Despite all the hype surrounding this unit, I found it to be a huge disappointment. The unit suffers from a number of engineering flaws, the most frustrating being a CD track search that will only scan in 13-second increments (did it on both units) AND that remains muted during the search.
FM reception is extremely erratic particularly in urban areas, changing drastically from day to night, and seeming to only receive powerhouse FM broadcasters, poor selectivity and lots of images rendering it useless for lower-powered local stations; the use of the power cord as the FM antenna is a huge design flaw. AM reception is also poor due to the lack of a ferrite rod antenna, this unit again relying on the power cord for reception. Sound quality is quite nice for the size.
Overall a huge disappointment, needs to go back to the drawing board. Buy a Tivoli Model Two and plug in an external CD/MP3 player, comparable or cheaper in price, outstanding sound and solid radio reception.

It took three attempts to finally receive a unit with a working CD player. Never before have I had to go to a third shipment to have a working product. Furthermore, their customer service department had a "so what" attitude. Keep sending them back and we'll keep shipping out product till you get lucky. Absolutely no consideration for the time and effort expended to deal with the hassle of unpacking, testing, repacking and sending back multiple defective units.

Bottom line: Go with anything else.

I came across this model about year and a half ago when a friend of mine purchased it in a cambridge soundworks factory sale for USD 200. For the features it comes with I think USD 200 is a good price. Following are the points to consider when you are looking at Cambridge Soundworks 740

-Best thing about 740 is it has RDS, Radio Data Service, a feature only this radio/CD has in its category. Radio Data Service provides useful information about a show or song being aired. for e.g. artist, name of the song and this information actually displays on the LED panel. This is really nice so many times I come across a real good song on radio but the artist of ths song is still unknown to me. Of course you will be able to see RDS information only if it is being aired by the radio station. Not many radio stations provide that information in the United States. However in UK/Europe it seems many do. Remember the Bose Wave Radio/CD does not have RDS.
-Good sound quality, good sound reproduction at higher frequencies. Lower base frequencies also sounded very nice and crisp not to the level Bose Wave/CD though
-Good make and construction, Neat white neon display LEDs
-It would have been nice if the display was little more polished, what I mean is if you see the display from close the LED edges are visible and are not asthetically smooth.
-Overall functions of radio and clock etc were not really as easy and impressive as Bose Wave Radio/CD.
-I felt the button placement, organization of functions etc is much better and intuitive on Bose Wave Radio/CD
-740 has a powerful subwoofer which is good. So even though its table radio/CD it can also be used as a mini music system for a reasonably larger room or hall.
-One very important point about this player - my friend used this player for about 1.5 years now, one thing he noticed was this player is not forgiving on bad CDs or MP3 cds or recordings. Anytyhing that is not upto the mark, is not played. In short it is sensitive to the quality of media.

Whether its Bose Wave Radio/CD, Cambridge Soundworks or Boston Acoustics, I think they are still little overpriced.

Good luck with your purchase.

HTH