Customer Reviews

RCA RP3740 AM/FM Dual Wake CD Clock Radio

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

 

 

Not everyone cares about AM reception. I do. I am a die hard fan of Coast to Coast with George Noory and Art Bell. I lie awake nights listening to their fascinating tales of UFO's, conspiracy theories and guests who predict the end is near. I ordered this alarm clock to listen to them. The display dims to no light at all, excellent. There is a cheesy CD player, but c'mon, this is a clock, not a stereo system. I figured I'd be safe as the station I listen to I can be heard 300 miles from here (Omaha) as it broadcasts at 50KW from a few miles away from my house. I was wrong, not only does it not pick up that station, but it doesn't pick up ANY stations. Everything else is great, but what were they thinking advertising it as an am/fm? Why not just make it an FM radio (which isn't much better) not everybody listens to AM radio. I contacted the company the day I received it.

after doing a little research, i settled on this rca.

1) the cd/cdr wake option was desirable (nature sounds cd included!)

2) it has a dual alarm (one for each or two for you).

3) it has a nap function

4) it has the weekend cancel function

5) it has battery backup (battery included!)

the only fault, noted in previous reviews, is that the radio reception is bad. so, if you prefer waking to radio, i would go with something else...not a problem for me.

i'm very pleased now after two weeks and wanted to share my experience after some of the bad reviews given here. it's an outstanding product at this price point.

I was very happy when I found this in the store. I had been shopping for one for some time and had cut back my requirement list to the following: radio presets, sleep timer for radio, wake up setting for radio, price inexpensive (not looking for a $100+ mini stereo system), headphone jack to hook up old computer speakers to compensate for the price inexpensive requirement.

Growing up, I had an old old radio alarm clock of my father's. It had a manual dial am radio (digital not even being in existence when I was using it, let alone when my Dad bought it), but unlike the many, many inexpensive clock radios I see today, even it had presets.

When I found this product I was very happy. It cost a little more than I had planned when I started shopping, but it had the features I required, plus the CD player, battery backup, and the ATOMIC CLOCK! I really, really wanted the atomic clock but was surprised at its lack of inclusion in even many higher-end alarm clocks, and had dropped it off my list of requirements.

When I tried out the clock-radio at home, I was pleased with how easy it was to set up - just select the time-zone with a switch on the bottom before plugging in, plug it in, then select daylight savings if that is wished. The interface for the settings was a little different than what I'm used to, but with the well written little user manual, it was easy to figure out.

I was a little taken a-back when I opened the package because there was no little wire antenna dangling from the back. I had given up on a telescoping antenna, let alone antenna inputs, but the two previous clock-radios I had tried (no head jack outputs and crummy speakers, therefore to be returned) at least had the little wire antenna and acceptable reception. Is it so difficult a feature to include in this radio? The reception of this radio makes it practically useless. Why have a radio if the stations to which you want to listen are unintelligible?

I was desperate enough for this to work that I even tried stretching out the power cord and putting the alarm clock in locations not at my bedside, but this proved to be of no avail. If you are expecting the radio of this product to work, I do not recommend this radio.

Upon discovering the reception problem, I did not further explore or use the product so I cannot further attest to its quality or usability.

I have an old Sony "Dream Machine" that needs replacing. I thought this RCA would do the trick. Wrong! The AM radio reception is the worst I have ever had in a radio. I live in San Diego so signal should be no issue. My Sony picks up LA stations with no problem. Also the sound is more like a tiny screach coming from a tin can. Another thing is that the little buttons are in the front. Try laying in bed and pushing one. The stupid thing has to be held with one hand while fumbleing with the buttons so it won't fall off my table. Back it goes and the search is on..

Thought this would be the perfect Clock radio/CD...great design and lots of features...but my exprience with these features has been less than perfect. The reception is terrible...(note: the instructions say your power cord is your antenna) so you have to wiggle the power cord or pull it straight to get any reception. Thought maybe it was just my area but plugged in a JVC CD boom box that my daughter got for X'Mas right next to it and it picked up stations beautifully without the "regular" antenna even being raised. Hmmmmm... So instead of listenting to the radio i thought, well try the CD player. What a fiasco that was! The CD's quit in the middle of songs and skip to the next song. These are new CD's that play perfectly well on other players. So i will give this item 2 stars because the 2 things that are nice are the design and the features...but RCA needs to keep working on this on before sending it out to the stores. In RCA's defense i have not contacted them on this..but with all the problems it has and the price i paid ($39.99 on sale). I thought why bother...i will spend more time on the phone pushing buttons to get to the right person and with Tech support as well as any shipping costs to send it back for repairs...and i bet that is what they are banking on too!

If you want to listen to a particular station, I don't recommend this item. I tried to find a number of popular radio stations, but none of them came in clearly. I got a spanish station in clearly, but I don't know spanish and wouldn't really enjoy listening to that station. I just wanted to wake to some music I'm familiar with. That wasn't possible with this item.

I also had trouble with the CD stopping in the middle of songs and not starting again. Also, sometimes, it wouldn't even start the CD. This happened and I exchanged the unit for another and it happened on the second unit as well. The digital tuning on the radio was terrible, too. I bought a Sony Psyc with an analog radio and I love it. Way better than this RCA which was more expensive than the Sony.

I just received this little gem. It comes with a nature CD so you can wake up and fall asleep to nature sounds (maybe useless for many who'd rather listen to their own music). You can even use your recorded CDs. Upon arrival all you need to do is set the time zone and if it's day light saving time, click a button. The clock sets itself automatically. I played radio and CDs and they sound fine. The display light is adjustable and I found it just big enough and bright enough. This machine has weekend alarm cancel and nap feature, all can be activated by pressing a little button - no fancy programming required. The machine is in silver color with black accent. All buttons are laid out nicely so it's easy to navigate - of course, I always read manual ahead of the time. The manual is small and easy to read and I just keep it inside my night table drawer in case I need future reference. All in all, it has everything I am looking for in an alarm clock and still fits in a small-enough footprint. I haven't used it long enough so I cannot say about duribility. So far I am happy with it and hope it will last a long time.

I really thought that, even though it's very expensive, this item would have all the features I needed. Guess I was wrong. I like falling asleep to quiet music, but I need loud music to wake me up, so I thought the Graduwake ramp-up alarm would be perfect. But the ramp-up feature is only for the Tone alarm, not the radio or the CD. And even if I could stand waking up to beeping noises, they start out way too loud. The other problem I had with this item is that there is no external antenna, it's built into the power cord. I thought having a digital radio would be great because I hate waking up to static when the station "slips" when you turn the radio even an inch. But I can only receive three stations and two of them aren't English and the other is a VERY lite Muzak type station. My old radio with the wire antenna hanging down the back of my bed table worked a lot better. I have to say, though, that the weekend alarm cancel, nap feature and three dimmer settings are very cool and really helpful.

If you desire, this clock will only wake you up during the week and not the weekends, or have it wake you up all week. Kids need only to push the off button and it resets itself for the next day. The display lights can be dimmed. The display tells you what time the 1st and 2nd alarms are going to go off at, and if it is going to be cd, radio, or alarm that wakes you up. Read the quick easy to read manual, and set it up, then you won't have to touch it again except to turn it off. This is my second order for this clock, because I am going to replace my current alarm clock with it!