Customer Reviews

Timex T309T Alarm Clock Radio with Nature Sounds (Titanium)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

This is a nice little item. It has good sound quality and three types of alarm: radio, buzzer, and nature sounds (there are 3 or 4 of these to choose from). You can specify whether an alarm setting works every day, only on weekdays, or only on weekends. Each alarm setting has its own radio station or nature sound (and volume) associated with it. It's got a nice big snooze button on top, which doubles as a display dimmer (my favorite feature).

I've come across just a couple disappointments in the week that I've had it.

- I thought I'd be able to create a radio-alarm setting for weekdays and another radio-alarm setting (same time, but different station) for weekends. Can't do it. You get one setting for each type of alarm.

- The radio preset buttons are arranged in a line across the front of the unit. The band setting button is in that line too, to its left. So if you want preset #1, you've got to punch the second button. Hitting the first button switches you to AM.

All in all, though, it's worth the [money].

The digital tuner and stylish look drew me to this clock -- I was tired of the drifting AM stations on my old analog-tuned radio. To my disappointment, I still get lots of AM drift on this Timex, but I admit it may just be a weak station that is to blame. Some may appreciate the ability to set different alarm times for weekdays and weekends with this clock -- but I think it makes setup complicated, and holidays a frustrating anomaly -- so I don't think it's any more convenient than the simple old-fashioned method of setting one alarm time and changing it when necessary. The nature sounds on this unit sound pretty awful -- they range from vaguely artificial to unpleasantly harsh, so I don't use them. All in all, this clock has good speakers for its size, a fine digital readout, and features that you should only go for if they're worth the added complexity to you.

(...) After 9 months, I've decided to sell this alarm clock and buy a different model. Why? The main reason is that the snooze bar is located near a smaller button which turns the alarm off completely. During the first week of owning this clock, I somehow trained myself to hit the smaller button and fall right back asleep. Which is my fault more than the clock's, but still -- it's a design problem in that these buttons should not be close together! I offered the clock to my wife but she found it too complicated to bother using. Too bad. The sound quality of the radio is very nice, but otherwise, there's no reason to hang onto this.

It's a good clock. The display is easy to read, and the settings for the display light range from a dim light that is just enough to read the time to a bright night-light.

The radio is very good too. I live near a radio station that doesn't happen to be one of my favorites, and this little radio actually picks up other stations. Until now, the only other piece of equipment that could pick up anything but the closeby station was the big stereo in the living room.

The battery back-up is excellent. It had its test this morning after my power had been out all night. The buzzer alarm still went off as usual! 5 stars for the battery back-up!!!

Now, there are only 2 drawbacks. First, it is kinda complicated to program. I've had to reset things a couple of times now, and both times I had to get out the instruction book to complete the process. But the instructions are well written and easy enough to follow. Just don't lose that booklet. Second, all the "nature sounds" just sound like white noise. "Thunderstorm" or "ocean".... I can't tell the difference.

All in all, it's an excellent clock. Very reliable and it looks nice, too. I would recommend it to anyone.

I did a lot of research to find a quality alarm clock for a decent price. I decided against one that played CDs because I already had a CD player and those tend to take up a lot of space (I have a fairly small bedside nightstand). While reading reviews on Amazon for a SONY alarm clock model, one reviewer recommended the Timex T309T instead, so I checked this one out on several websites. Most of the reviewers seemed pleased, so I asked for it on my wishlist and received it as a gift. My impression is definitely positive!

It was actually fairly easy to set up and program, nothing too high tech. My only little peeve is with setting the clock: the hour and minutes are not independent of each other, but rather you have to hold down the "forward" button until it passes 60 minutes to advance one hour. It's a minor technicality that is easily overcome, but still...

Other than that, I can't think of much else that I would change (though other reviewers had a couple of good suggestions). The battery back up is certainly a nice feature that's not found on other alarm clocks of comparable price. Another nice little feature is that the radio alarm setting has a sleeper mode that can be adjusted for 90, 60, 30 or 15 minute blocks of time. The nature sounds are not so natural, but the buzzer and radio work just fine.

Overall, a wonderful little alarm clock for a decent price. Definitely recommended!!

I purchased this for my husband who likes to sleep with some sort of noise. I thought this might work. Well, the nature sounds are the WORST I have ever heard. The LCS is not that big or bright and the snooze button is very close to the OFF button which is not good. I guess for someone who really likes gadgets and studies their new electonic toys may like this clock, but personally I found it confusing. This is not a pull out of the box and use clock. I swear you couldn't figure out how to set the alarm without the manual. You have to push 3-4 buttons to accomplish it. What we wanted if for was useless and there was WAY too many stupid extras. We ended up selling ours at a yard sale.

Most of the poor reviews here refer to the difficulty in setting the time/alarms on this clock. They say you need the instruction manual every time, yada yada yada. Here's the difficult sequence required to set the time: 1)Hold the "Time" button until the time flashes 2) press "Up" and "Down" until you reach the proper time. I did not use the instruction manual at all in my operation of this clock--it was totally self evident. As far as having to press up or down a million times, like one reviewer noted, try HOLDING it, it starts moving very quickly. The alarms are set similarly, and are turned off by touching one button, e.g. to turn off the buzzer alarm, press "buzzer" (reviewer "Jonathon Shakes" said it took several minutes with the instruction manual to figure this out??!!) I mainly wanted to refute these claims as they made me hesitant to buy the clock, and they are totally groundless.

Other than that, I would say it is a very good clock radio. I like the digital tuner, I like the three alarms and the ability to set each independently for 7/5/2 days. It has a good antenna and good speakers for a clock radio. It is small and loud and has a lot of features. The main drawback is that the "nature sounds" mostly sound like static, and repeat themselves like every three seconds. But that's not why I bought the thing, and I just don't use them.

Give this clock radio a try--it's really not as bad as everyone here is saying!

As others have mentioned, one of the most annoying features of this "alarm clock" is, in fact, it's ability to set alarms. I would go so far as call their "triple-alarm" naming of this alarm clock false advertising...or at the very least misleading.

There are only two buttons to adjust the alarm and as opposed to most clocks that have hour and minute, this has forward and backward. Furthermore, it increases or decreases the time at a constant rate, never getting faster the longer you hold down the button...and it's pretty slow to boot. I didn't think this would be a problem due to the "triple-alarm" feature (weekend, week-day, all 7), but unfortunately as another reviewer pointed out, it's one alarm...you can just configure it to go off on those specific days.

So anytime I need to change the alarm more than an hour or two, it's a pain.

It's been about two years since I bought this alarm clock and I'm finally looking for a new one...it's just too much of a pain for me as I still change the alarm time pretty frequently.

And don't buy this clock for the nature sounds, either...they're pretty weak.

First of all, the nature sounds are horrible and completely unrealistic. If you're considering getting this product just for the nature sounds, you're better off buying something else. If you're an audiophile and are easily annoyed by poor sound quality of radio stations and plan on using this as your primary radio, then get something else.

Otherwise, it works okay as an alarm clock. The light is dim enough not to be annoying when I am trying to sleep, and I am really sensitive to light in my bedroom when trying to fall asleep. The alarm goes off on time. I can set one alarm with the buzzer and one with the radio for a backup alarm if I fall asleep after turning off the first alarm.

I'm sure there are better alarm clocks out there, but I have a hard time finding alarm clocks without annoyingly bright digital time displays that keep me awake at night.

I just picked up this clock today after purchasing at Amazon. This was a great pick. I looked at clocks for awhile, but didn't find anything I liked for around $30 bucks. That is, until I stumbled upon this Timex on Amazon.com.

There are soo many good things about this alarm clock/radio.

First of all, since it's a upright clock, the space it takes up on my nightstand is minimal.

Second, this is a very easy to use Alarm clock. It took me about 5 minutes to set up everything, the time, the date, the alarms, and the preset radio stations.

Third, the reception for the digital tuner is exceptional!!! It picks up basically everything that I would want to pick up(since I live in Central New JErsey), it's picking up signals for my favorite stations from both Philly and NYC.

Fourth, I tested out the alarms, and they are great. Not too loud and not to quiet. Just enough to wake me up. Plus, it has 3 alarms!!! One of nature sounds, one radio and the buzzer alarm! I couldn't ask for anything more.

The only thing I wish Timex could change would be the size of some of the buttons, namely the radio preset buttons and I would like it better if they could move the volume control knob to the front of the alarm clock, instead of in the back.

After reading a lot of online reviews and visiting Target to take a look at their range of clock radios, I decided to go with this for several reasons. One, it has a battery back up which you would think most electric clocks would have but they don't. This one backs up all your settings except that the alarm goes to buzzer instead of to radio or nature sounds. It won't let you oversleep though which is the important thing. Second, it does not have a bright light display. I am very, very light sensitive when trying to go to sleep at night. The display is back-lit (amber) with a dimmer button, but as I discovered, it doesn't allow it to go all the way off. I'll have to face it away from me and turn it around when I need to, I guess. Still, the dimmest setting is extremely dim and does not light up the whole room. Third, it is small and fits on my nightstand, but it is heavy enough that I'm not going to keep knocking it down. My clock arrived today and I must say I am happy with it. It looks really nice, is made of good sturdy materials, and the radio sound is not bad at all for a clock radio. Setting the alarm is not intuitive but the directions in the manual are clear and I've been able to figure it out. A previous reviewer said that holding down the button to advance the minutes does not make it go any faster; it actually does make it go faster but not as fast as I would have liked or expected. (There's no button to advance the hour; one button does it all). The radio pre-sets are like that of a car radio. There are 6 buttons but it allows you 18 pre-sets if you press the "band" button for another set of 6 FM stations to add to the first 6, and press it again for a set of 6 AM stations. Amazon allows you to download the manual (on this web page) before you buy it, which demystifies anything that the customer reviews don't touch on.