Now & Zen Tibetan Digital Zen Alarm Clock (Walnut finish) E-Tone

Product Details

• ASIN: B002OS6E56
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,594 in Home & Garden (See Top 100 in Home & Garden)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Seriously, these clocks break., December 10, 2009

By 

Mallo Bennie "Mallo" (Iowa City, IA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Now & Zen Tibetan Digital Zen Alarm Clock (Walnut finish) E-Tone

I bought one of these a couple years ago. It quit working after a few months. I mailed it back (at my expense) for a replacement. The replacement quit working after about 8 months. I mailed it back for another replacement. This third clock quit working after about 14 months, two months past the warranty. The company refused to replace it, and was quite rude about it. I can't believe they can get away with this level of unreliability for a $140 dollar alarm clock. The previous listing for these clocks had dozens of complaints about the clocks breaking. For some reason, Amazon allowed the company to simply reset their entries for these clocks, and start over with all the fake reviews seen here. (If it wasn't obvious from reading the reviews that they're fake, check out the way each new "reviewer" goes through and recommends every other positive review, and dis-recommends every negative one. Or, witness the fact that none of the positive reviewers have ever reviewed any other product. Amazon, will you get on this? This company is a scam.)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nearly flawless as an alarm clock & meditation timer, October 20, 2010

By 

J. Morris "photo_jeff" (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Now & Zen Tibetan Digital Zen Alarm Clock (Walnut finish) E-Tone

I use this clock as my morning alarm and as a meditation timer, and it works well as both. There are only 2 negatives that I have found in the last 5 years of ownership:

1. The bell has two loudness settings: quiet & loud. However, even the quiet setting can jar me out of an otherwise solid trance state. Currently I have a piece of tissue lodged between the bell & striker to make the chime quieter (and with a softer attack). Something I would like to see in a future revision is another, even quieter, setting. That, and a rubberized striker rather than the metal-on-metal which you get with the current model.

2. My first clock broke. You see, the wiring for the display runs through the hinges. I like to close the clock at night due to reason #1 (makes the alarm quieter). However, after about 9 months of closing it at night, and opening it in the morning must've caused the wires to give way. Luckily I was within the warranty period and exchanged it without any problems.

My current clock stays open, and I just muffle the alarm with a small pillow for meditation. If a new & improved model comes out, I'll surely buy it.

---- Edited original post:

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention that I LOVE about this clock is the progressive alarm. It's a great way to be awoken subtly and gradually rather than a nonstop alarm like a traditional clock. The alarm goes something like this:

First bell rings when it's time to get up
3:48 later, the bell rings again
2:21 later, "
1:28 later, "
and so forth until eventually the bell rings every 5 seconds. It's a great way to wake up a light sleeper like me, because the first bell usually does the trick. I believe this also conditions your internal clock to start waking up. The first few nights I used this I was afraid I wouldn't hear the alarm, so I actually started waking up on my own a few minutes before the first alarm went off.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great idea. Worst quality, December 21, 2009

By 

greenT (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Now & Zen Tibetan Digital Zen Alarm Clock (Walnut finish) E-Tone

For some reason my previous post was erased so I post it again.

I admit their concept of the clock is great (real wood box, real metal chime, the programmable timer, progressive chime etc). Plus they look all so classy in photos. But my excitement for the product lasted only until I received it. It's just very cheaply made. Quality of the wood and the metal chime were fine, but their attention to quality stopped right there. All the rest was very cheaply made plastic. I am OK with plastic if the quality of it was good but it all shout "Made in China". The buttons were very flimsy, control panel was very thin, and backlight was so dim. I didn't mind this lack of quality if I had spent $30 or so but this is not acceptable for over $100 clock.

The thing was that it made really annoying grating sound (of plastic gears?) right before every time the chime sounded. So I always woke up to the grating sound not the pleasant sound of the chimes. (They might have fix that problem with newer clocks, I am not sure.)

To be fair, the one positive thing was that the program part of the timer and clock worked as advertised and was relatively easy to use.

The worst thing was that mine broke right after one-year warranty was over. It just quit working. It just stop turning on. Since it was after the warranty I could not do anything about it. Actually I sent an email to the company owner about the issue but I didn't hear from him. Even if he wrote me back, I wouldn't bother wasting another $70 on the lifetime half price replacement he promises now.

This was the worst purchase I have ever made. If you want to believe all the other "positive" reviews, good luck. You will see what I mean with your own eyes and with your own money. If I were going to spend this much money on a similar product next time I would try one without mechanical parts that could easily break.

If you just need an alarm clock with pleasant sound and don't need a meditation timer, you can get a CD alarm clock instead. It gives more flexibility of the sound you wake up with. You can even download bell sounds on-line from some meditation websites and burn them on a CD.