Customer Reviews

Philips AJ3940 CD Dual Alarm Clock Radio

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

 

 

I have had this for about 2 weeks and love it! The ability to choose so many different ways to wake up is great! Also, a great feature is that the light over the numbers can be changed from very dim to quite bright.

The sound quality on this is very good, although out in the middle of nowhere like I am, it is hard to pick up any AM stations very well, but it isn't the radio! :)

The buttons are a little hard to push and awkward to get to when you are lying down almost asleep. It also took a little getting used to figuring out how to turn on the alarm, but after a few tries, it got much easier.

All in all, this is a great compact cd/radio/alarm clock for the price! The only thing I would change would be to add a tape player, but I guess you can't have it all!

I got this clock over a week ago, and I really like it! I'm just thrilled with all its features (3 different ways to wake up, 2 alarm sets with the ability to assign days of the week, great sounding CD player and radio- all in one small package) that I can overlook the few complaints I may have about it's design. Since most people look at these reviews to hear about the bad points, I'll elaborate on my complaints, however small and few.

As has been stated in other reviews , the numbers on the clock display are a little small and tend to fade out at extreme angles. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I often have to crane toward the clock to figure what time it is because the lower angle from the bed tends to make the numbers fade a bit.

The buttons are a little hard to push- or more accurately, it's hard to tell if you actually pushed them because they don't give much (no tell-tale click or anything). However, I do NOT find I need two hands to push a button. The system is heavy enough not to slide unless the user is being over-aggressive.

My last complaint is that you DEFINITELY need the manual to set the clock and alarms. It's a little confusing and I found it a waste of time to try to figure it out on my own. Most of the settings need to be made pushing down 2 buttons simutaneously. The up-side to this is that you will never mis-set the alarm while half-asleep. And it turned out that it wasn't so bad because there are so many alarm features (automatic reset, weekend settings) that after the initial set, you many never have to touch the settings again.

Overall, I really like this system and all its features, and I would recommend it. However, if you're looking for a simple alarm clock and don't care about the features, I would probably pass this one by.

Seems like most clock radios over $50 use LCD numeric displays. Somewhere, at some company, there's a person who thinks this is a good idea. We should all team up and shine flashlights in this person's face at 2:00 AM.

Once and for all: LCD's do not work on clock radios. For one thing, the viewing angle is too limited. I actually had to get a lower nightstand, 'cause my old one placed the clock to high, and the LCD faded out of view from pillow-level.

And much worse: unless the LCD is backlit, the contrast is much too low to be viewed. Do you wear glasses/contacts, but not to bed? Then keep looking, because this unit is NOT for you.

Philips solution (and Timex's, and every other LCD-clock maker's...): backlight the LCD. Well, to make it readable, the display has to be made extremely bright. We're talking shadow-puppet-bright, here.

It seems so simple. The user-testing of these clocks is either being skipped or ignored, or does not mimic how these products are actually used. Sure: if you're in a brightly lit room or store, the LCD is quite viewable; perhaps more so than an LED. But these clocks are mostly viewed AT NIGHT, during and around the time when people are trying to sleep.

The Bose Wave Radios at least gets it right with green LED's, but at that price point they should have all of this unit's features. And that's the frustration: this unit has all of the OTHER features of a high-end clock radio. Weekend alarms is probably my favorite...

Plus, the button layout/usability of this unit was laid out with some common sense: hold "Time", then click the buttons to change it. Unlike the Bose, where some random, early morning, fat-fingered fumbling can easilly change the clock's time while hunting for the Snooze bar.

Other good things: the sound quality is pretty good (it's no Bose, but then again it's not as bad as the $300 price difference would imply). The radio has great reception, the CD player has a core collection of features, including the ability to wake you to any track on a CD (this was a nice little surprise...).

So, my solution (embarassed to say...): this unit, with the LCD turned all the way down to minimum brightness, and cheap LED, big-numbered clock next to it.

Is this really such a difficult product to design? I admit: I would've bought the Bose, if it had weekend alarms and a user interface that wasn't moronic. But this is a close second, and the price is right. We'll see how the hardware & plastics hold up over the next few weeks...

I would rate this product 5 stars for sound quality, 1 star for workmanship. Also, product box within the shipping box appeared to be slightly crushed at one corner upon receipt. Within one hour of first use, the spring loaded CD lid broke. A small piece of plastic that seemed to have retained the spring broke off some time after the second CD was inserted.

The buttons on this are the most unintuitive things I think I have ever seen. Some functions are hard to do even with the instructions. DON'T LOSE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS!! I did, and I can't figure out how to set the day of week. Terrible, terrible interface. Can't imagine the stupidity of the people who designed this. I'm going to replace mine with something else.

No big loss, since the sound is pretty poor, too. Of course, most clock radios have lousy sound, and this is no exception.

I felt the unit had good looks and good sound. I killer was the bright display that lit up the whole room. I addition, the unit was very difficult to use even with the manual. It had some silly programming button that took two hands to opperate. Much to difficult to adjust the setting for a clock radio.

I was looking for a compact cd alarm clock that didn't take up too much space but still sounded good... and I found it. This alarm clock sounds great for the size and the digital display doesn't glare out at you while sleeping. It has 3 levels of brightness also in case you do like it bright. Overall great sounding cd player for the size and good-looking as well.

I am, for the most part, very pleased with this cd alarm. As other people noted, the button layout is awkward to use. The CD player is pretty quite, reception is good. I can dim the clock down so it doesn't bother me. But WHY would they make it so when you turn off the alarm (and reset it), it BEEPS a loud beep (to confirm you turned it off) and you can't adjust the volume on this beep. It makes no sense to me. I try to slip out of bed without disturbing my wife (we are both light sleepers). The only way around this that I found is to turn the volume down and after an hour it will reset without beeping. This beep sort of makes the second alarm function useless, seeing the second person is already awake from the beep and the volume is down.

I've had this clock for a few years now.. it's.. well.. awesome.. I love that I can wake up to any song I want to.. with it and my cd burner I can wake up to anything under the sun.. Putting up with traditional radio alarmclocks through my life was pretty hectic.. I never knew what stations were good in the mornings.. At one point in time I was jarred awake by the last 6 notes of the national anthem.. "DA DA DA.. DA DA.. DAAAAAA".. with this clock thats no longer a problem..

Allthough if I ever want to get nostalgic the radio function on it does work better than other alarmclocks I've ever had..

It's nice and small.. fits in lots of places.. and has big sound.. if I turn it up loud enough I can wake my whole house up.. lol..

After several months, I am very happy with this Clock Radio. Especially useful are the dual alarms, and the great feature that automatically silences either or both of these alarms on weekend mornings. There are back-up batteries to save you if the power goes off overnight. The speakers are better than most bedside radios, and waking up to any specific CD track of your choice is a treat. Or you can choose a radio station or one of several (all too electronic-sounding) melodies. You can also easily adjust the brightness of the dial, from barely readable to a good nightlight.

The trade-off for the cool features is this: it has approximately 19 buttons! So it's complex and a bit counter-intuitive to set up, and you need both hands. If you buy it, don't lose the instructions! Keep them in a bedside drawer, because you will want to check them any time you need to reset anything.