Customer Reviews

JBL On Time 400IHD High-Performance Speaker Dock with HD Digital Radio for iPod (Black)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I had bought this for my bedroom, but there are a couple things I don't like about it there. First, the screen is very bright and there is no way to turn it off or really dim it. Second, the lowest volume settings is still a bit loud when falling asleep. It is a digital control, so you cannot manually tweak it.

Otherwise, for a different room it would be a great product, and good sound, and is pretty easy to use.

Like others, I was so excited to receive the speaker system until I plugged it in. I read the reviews and the description on Amazon. It specifies that it is compatible with the ipod touch 2nd g...well, it's not. It does not charge the ipod touch 2nd g and has a hard time trying to play the music from it...it doesn't always register the info and the remote doesn't operate the functions from the ipod. I really don't think it was made for the ipod touch 2nd generation...so be careful. The adapters only specify the ipod touch...I'm assuming only works with the 1st generation.
I was extremely disappointed since that was one of the main reasons I made the purchase last week from the goldbox offer of the day. The remote is worthless...it works when it wants to and sometimes plays other functions not commanded. It doesn't seem to be a battery issue.

I live in the center of a major city and have access to HD radio channels (20 stations) but this player had so much trouble locating the stations and occasionally skipped to other channels when it incurred reception problems without my command. I had both antennas (am/fm) connected into the system so it should have worked. I love the fact that it has so many options but they need to rethink about its functionality...necessary changes. There is no mute button on the remote or interface...bummer. The blue backlight doesn't have an off feature and the font is less than attractive. The manufacture needs to seriously work on improving their system...yikes!

The speakers were the only substantial thing to the system. It has excellent sound quality when you can get the radio to hold a channel...very, very disappointing.

I was very excited to get the JBL 400iHD for Xmas, especially after seeing such great reviews of it. However, I have since had my enthusiasm brought back to earth after experiencing two major problems with the unit.

The minor problem is that once you have created a new alarm time, it is impossible to remove it. So if you, like I did, made 5 or 6 new alarm times when you first started playing around with the unit, you are stuck scrolling through them forever. Now, of course you can turn off all the unnecessary ones, but the lack of ability to delete a pre-set alarm time seems like a real oversight on behalf of the designers.

Second, I have been unable to use the remote to move through the menus or otherwise control my IPod. I have a 120 GB IPod Classic with the latest updated drivers(version 1.1.2), and while the radio will play whatever music is coming out of the IPod, I can't use the remote to pause/play, ff, or move through the IPod's menus. (The remote does work for all other aspects of the radio, volume, etc.) What a disappointment!

Past these two huge flaws, it really is a sleek little unit that sounds great.

Although I agree that the radio is to bright at night, it has cristal clear rich sound, I like the way the alarms are handled, you can program them by weekdays, weekends, to go on once, etc...

I've had no problems at all with my iphone and ipod...

The sync is good, very easy to use, .... it is very intuitive....

Iám very pleased with the performance of this radio and very pleased I decided to go on with the purchase taking into acount all the bad reviews...

I just got the JBL 400IHD Speaker Dock for iPod (Black) the other night and LOVE IT. All these other reviews may be legit on a case by case basis, but I haven't experienced any of the problems mentioned. It is not too bright of a screen (not a lighthouse as someone reviewed) and I slept fine. The volume was a bit loud at first but setting it lower wasn't too hard of a task (just turn it down). The sound quality is phenomenal! I blasted it to test it out and this could easily be used as the source of tunes at a party or whatever. Also, I was skeptical about buying this dock because it didn't mention a remote included anywhere (unless I missed it) and it came with one! Needless to say I was excited about that. It works great with my 80 GB iPod Classic. I should mention too that the remote controls everything on my iPod as well as all of the dock features. For me, this dock is perfect. It's better than some low quality iHome or Logitech one and less expensive and more versatile than the BOSE docks. I recommend it to anyone who wants great sound, a good looking dock, and a really easy to use interface.

I read the reviews, thought it couldn't possibly be that bright, but it's as if I replaced my alarm clock with a lighthouse. I slept with my pillow over my head all night. The brightness control seems to be defective, I set it on the lowest level, it dims for a a moment and then reverts back to the bright setting it had to begin with. I'm going to have to return it.

I like this product a lot it does what it says and provides me both HD radio and Ipod dock in one package and i like the way it produces sounds. I use a Nano 8GB 3G so i don't know if it works with any of the Itouch or Iphone.

I listened to this @ best buys before purchasing including the Altec, Bose, Logitech and various clock radios for the price you cannot beat it. It was on sale on amazon for $126 and well worth it, the altec always seemed not to work and when they did sound more tinny than the JBL. The Bose sounded good if not better but only very slightly and the prices starting @ $299 and up IMO over priced for what you get, Logitech again tinny.

The remote stopped working once and i unplugged the ac unit and it started working again so far so good. the unit has a COAX plug in the back we do receive radio via the cable on our TV but for some reason only the antenna's provided is the only way to pick up any HD station it's probably my misunderstanding about the Radio via cable and HD radio as well???

Before you Bose lovers start bashing this review my requirements were good sound on a budget and the JBL works for me. I have friends who have the $399 bose sound dock and really no radio a huge ac brick and sound only slightly better than my JBL and the Bose is quite a bit larger than my little JBL and yet it sounds bigger than it looks!

Listen for yourself before you buy if you can, your own ears are the best judge for any speaker product.
Thanks for reading my review.

I wanted to trust the JBL name and reputation but was let down...twice.
The first 400IHD I received didn't work from the moment I took it out of the box and plugged it in. No clock, no iPod player, no radio...nothing. Basically it was a $200 paper-weight. To their credit, Amazon.com promptly replaced it with another one in three days. The second JBL 400IHD had major issues right out of the box. While the clock worked fine the alarm didn't work at all. The iPod player worked intermittently and the radio reception was poor.
Third time won't be a charm. I'm giving Polk Audio a try.

Remote and tagging didn't work with current iPod. Spent much time trouble shooting and even took to the Apple Store to try to resolve. Menu difficult to navigate. Also needs individual bass and treble controls.

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my girlfriend to use in the bathroom while she gets ready for work in the morning. Her old radio was a very old Sony analog radio that got poor reception. I wanted to get a small HD radio that would not take up a lot of space. This little radio puts out a surprising amount of sound for it's size. It's not "high fidelity" by any means... but for what it is, it sounds great. The HD radio feature is the number one reason I bought it, and it works wonderfully. Crystal clear with absolutely no static. We love the dual alarm feature as well, which is great since we both wake up at different times. The only drawback to this radio is that the buttons don't always respond when you push them. The indigo blue lights on this radio are always on, even if the radio is off... and they are bright. It has an automatic dimming feature when ambient light is low, but it doesn't dim much. If this is used on a nightstand, be prepared to have a fairly bright night light whether you like it or not. It resides in the bathroom of our master bedroom, so it's not exactly close to our bed, but even still, it's bright enough to annoy me, as I like to have the room pitch dark at night. I generally throw a towel over it before we go to bed.
We don't use the ipod feature or the remote, but it's nice to have in case we do.

All in all, if you're looking for a great sounding HD radio that takes up a small footprint, this JBL 4001HD is for you.