Customer Reviews

Sony ICF-CD543RM Kitchen CD Clock Radio (Silver)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I tried other radios in the kitchen, but none could compare to the sound of this unit. FM reception's pretty good too. The "kitchen friendly" controls are easy to clean. Mounting is done by drilling three holes, for which it has a paper template, and it has adjustable spacers to accommodate cabinets with recessed bottoms. It's about 11-1/2 inches deep and just an inch or two wider.

I don't seem to get any weather band channels, and the TV channels I get are very quiet so I have to remember to turn the sound down before switching to FM or CD. The timer's a nice feature for the kitchen but seconds can't be set and it takes a lot of turning to get to longer bake times, like an hour or more. The magnetic remote's also nice but you have to be able to see the sensor and stay within about 45 degrees for it to work.

Overall I'm very happy with it. The sound is great and makes spending all day around the kitchen less lonely, plus it doesn't take up any counter space. I do feel like I paid a small premium for the name Sony though.

We went through 5 (yes, five) of these within a year. The CD mechanism was very poor and would eventually stop playing CDs. Luckily Target exchanged it every time for us. I kept exchanging it out of spite until Target got an updated model, the Sony ICF-CD553RM Under Cabinet Kitchen CD Clock Radio (Silver), which I paid 20 bucks more for and have not had a problem with it at all.

Maybe it was just a bad run, but it seems from other reviews that Sony quality control was sleeping when these went out the door.

Definitely spend the extra $ and find the upgraded Sony ICF-CD553RM - it's slightly bigger, but it works and the sound is better, too.

I live in an urban area with generally good radio signals. The radio reception for this system is very poor. The AM antenna is internal and the power cord acts as the FM antenna. The reception is horrible. The unit does not accept an external antenna, so options are limited. All other features of the system work well but the radio is unusable.

Like other reviewer's, the CD player stopped working after a couple of months of use. It took several months to get my unit fixed. It was very hard to deal with their uneducated customer service reps. Fortunately, it has been working since the repair.

AM/FM reception is poor. Most stations are unpleasant to listen to due to the high level of noise. What Sony suggests for optimal reception is rotate the unit horizontally, stretch the power cord and reinstall the unit.

For the four months we've owned this cd player, we've loved it. Love that it's off the counter. Love the remote on the fridge. Love the sound and ease of use. Then, the cd player just stopped working. When we contacted Sony we were informed that our only option was to mail it to their repair center at our cost and have a refurbished model sent back. Shipping set us back about $25 (not including the cost of packing materials). It doesn't speak well for Sony that they wouldn't send a UPS label to cover the cost of shipping, particularly on a product that broke with only a few months of standard usage. We are very, very disappointed.

Reviewer: Trisha Saxon "Trish" (Wilmington, NC) - See all my reviews
Am getting ready to return my second "under counter kitchen cd/radio"--my Christmas gift from my husband, too!! Both the GE and the Sony sound great with the radio, but produce only a small hissing sound when the cd player is on-the cd player doesn't work at all. You can get a radio anywhere; it's the cd player I was looking forward to. Incredibly frustrating; am suspecting they're all made in the same factory in China and all have the same defects. At least I tried this one before drilling more holes in the bottom of my cupboard!! In any case, am not sure what I'll do next, but this is really disappointing and annoying. I'm envious of the few reviewers here who have had a great experience, but am not willing to invest more time in this quest!!

We bought this for our kitchen around Xmas 2003. We loved the idea of a compact unit for our kitchen and were excited to install it. Once done we tried to play a CD - nothing !!! We took it back for a replacement. Second one worked great and the system was exactly what we wanted.
Forward on 11-12 months...........the CD again has stopped working. We no longer have the receipt and plan to buy a non-Sony system (once we can find one !!).
We had a home mini-stereo that went the same way. My advice - Sony are good for TV's and Video camera's. Any other appliance - buy a different manufacturer.

I was willing to live with the poorly designed volume controls (two press-and-hold buttons for increasing and decreasing the volume), but the CD player stopped working after 4 months of light use.

The product was easy to install and works as expected. The sound quality is good, but not great. We use it a few times a week, but mostly for talk radio as it's not really a HIFI system. Still, the sound is pretty good. The remote is a nice option.

I bought this for my wife. We use it a lot. The sound is remarkably good. It is straightforward and easy to use. I would recommend it. BTW it sounded FAR better than the other brand in the store. (Of course I don't remember what that one was so I don't know why I mention it...)

However, I do think Sony was half asleep when they designed this. One, there is no external antenna jack. My kitchen is filled with, well, appliances. All that metal simply *ruins* FM reception. This unit uses the line cord as the antenna, and quite frankly, I don't know what you're supposed to do when the optimum location isn't parallel to a wall behind something so it doesn't show. As is, the FM reception is terrible (*but* read on) unless you are in an urban location with good signal strength, and/or your kitchen wall just happens to be in the "best" direction, and/or your appliances are all plastic and wood ;-). Damn you, Sony!

Number 2: (again, the head of engineering must've been drunk) -- the volume is all over the place as you change bands. AM and FM are noticeably LOUDER than the other bands. I like to listen to the NOAA weather and TV, which requires a volume of about 30 or so. But then switch to FM and it's BLASTING -- I have to turn it down to 15 or so. This takes about 10 seconds to do.

There are other little things that get annoying -- the FM tuning is by 0.1's so you have to do twice as many presses as you should need to -- e.g. to go from 96.3 to 96.7 takes four presses, even though there's never an FM station on 96.4 or 96.6 (at least in the U.S.).

However, I do have to recommend this for its sound. The Mega Bass is nice but not all *that* dramatic. I turn it all the way up but it's still pretty similar to the un-megabassed sound IMHO. (But then again, I really like bass... ;-)

I see lots of complaints about the CD unit. I have had no problems. I'd recommend keeping the unit absolutely clean. No handling CDs with food on your hands. Grease/etc. from cooking can easily end up on a CD and then onto the laser diode that reads the CD. That will cause real trouble. When the CD door is open, you can clean the diode/lens surface with a cotton swab. Use water and a tad of mild soap ONLY! (I wonder how many of the complainers would've benefited from this.)

Anyway, I'm an electrical engineer, so I opened it up and installed a coax jack, and run it from an external antenna on my roof. Now my reception is terrific on all bands ;-). Not that anyone will actually do this, of course.

But it sure sounds great!