Rating: 
Summary: High standby power consumption
Review: It's hard to find information on the power consumption of many products, even though the cost of energy can sometimes add up to be more than the purchase price. Since parts of this unit are powered up all the time, I was concerned, and asked Cambridge. They didn't have a power measurment, but they did have the standby current draw number measured on a sample: 72 mA, which could mean as high as 7.2 W power draw. That's on the order of $7/year, depending on your electric rate. That's much higher than it needs to be just to run the clock--typical clock radios are 1 to 3 W. I ended up getting the Sony ICF-CD831 instead, which consumes around 1.5 W. Of course, the sound quality (and the price) are much lower so it isn't directly comparable.
Rating:
Summary: Good Sound
Review: Just received this unit, on the whole it is quite nice. However, I also have a Bose Wave Radio CD and I must admit that the Bose edges out the Cambridge when you put them side by side. The Cambridge may be able to put out more volume but for total sound quality the Bose still gets my nod. The Cambridge offers more features than the Bose unit and costs substantially less, and if you can't play the Bose right next to it you may never know the difference, unfortunately, now I do....
Rating: 
Summary: no major compaint
Review: No major complain w/ the unit. For the amount of $ this unit cost, one would/should expect a lot. I'm not blown away by the sound, but I'm not dissapointed either.CD eject is not quite strong enough and I have to 'pull' the cd out every time. Not sure if it's defective or just the way it is. The time it allows one to change alarm setting is really short. I end up having to get into the change-alarm-mode several times in order to make a change. This should get better once one becomes more familiiar w/ the settings. One good thing about the unit is the slot loading. This allows me to pile stuff such as CD cases on top. The bose alarm cd is top loading so night stand space is vertically-challenged.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor engineering,, erratic reception, solid sound
Review: Purchased my first unit and was forced to exchange it due to a defective speaker...
Despite all the hype surrounding this unit, I found it to be a huge disappointment. The unit suffers from a number of engineering flaws, the most frustrating being a CD track search that will only scan in 13-second increments (did it on both units) AND that remains muted during the search.
FM reception is extremely erratic particularly in urban areas, changing drastically from day to night, and seeming to only receive powerhouse FM broadcasters, poor selectivity and lots of images rendering it useless for lower-powered local stations; the use of the power cord as the FM antenna is a huge design flaw. AM reception is also poor due to the lack of a ferrite rod antenna, this unit again relying on the power cord for reception. Sound quality is quite nice for the size.
Overall a huge disappointment, needs to go back to the drawing board. Buy a Tivoli Model Two and plug in an external CD/MP3 player, comparable or cheaper in price, outstanding sound and solid radio reception.
Rating:
Summary: Great sound, but went out in less than a week!
Review: The only reason why I can give this a three is because of the outstanding sound. The QUALITY of sound will blow you away. My unit only worked for approx 6 days! It is now completely dead...nothing even lights up. Worse yet, my Whale Rider Soundtrack CD (great to wake up to) is stuck inside it. The place where I bought it stated that the product is too new to know if there is a quality problem. I was upset when I called and figured that I would return this and buy the Bose. The Cust Serv Rep then told me that he listened to both the Cambridge and the Bose and that the Cambridge was far superior. I have heard that too many times, so I decided to go with a replacement. My guess is that I got one of those rare lemons. I sent mine back this evening and they are sending me a replacement before the other one even gets there. The Bose Wave is time tested reliable. The Cambridge Soundworks sounds much better than the Bose. I am hoping that my replacement will increase my confidence in this product.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Quality Control and Customer Service
Review: The sound quality of this unit is excellent for its form factor. I also own a Bose unit, and I can't stand to listen to it. The Cambridge unit is by far a superior sounding unit. The radio is great, the controls are pretty nice. BUT... the CD player is broken. It appears to be a design defect. I went through 2 units. On both units the CD player failed after a single CD was played and ejected. After that, it refused to accept another CD into the slot. I really wish they had stuck with a lift-top CD design instead of the motorized slot. I sent them both back, but I may still buy the radio-only version and plug in a separate CD player - the sound is that much better than anything else I've found.
Rating:
Summary: Sounds is awesome, CD player is broken by design
Review: The sound quality of this unit is excellent for its form factor. I also own a Bose unit, and I can't stand to listen to it. The Cambridge unit is by far a superior sounding unit. The radio is great, the controls are pretty nice. BUT... the CD player is broken. It appears to be a design defect. I went through 2 units. On both units the CD player failed after a single CD was played and ejected. After that, it refused to accept another CD into the slot. I really wish they had stuck with a lift-top CD design instead of the motorized slot. I sent them both back, but I may still buy the radio-only version and plug in a separate CD player - the sound is that much better than anything else I've found.
Rating:
Summary: This is actually a 4 star review
Review: This is actually a 4 star review. However, I wanted to call attention to a couple of deficiencies in the radio 730 and 740 products that might go unnoticed in a 4 star reviw, but might still influence some buyers. 1. The alarms have no automatic shutoff. Most clock/radios turn themselves off after an hour or so. If I sleep away from home, I often return home the next day to find that the alarm has been playing all day. 2. The display does dim at night by sensing ambient light in the room. I love this feature. However, the indicators that show if an alarm is set do NOT dim, and they can be astonishingly bright. It does diminish the value of the feature somewhat. The Sangean RS-330 implemented this idea better, although I found that clock to have significant quality-control problems. Overall, the clock/radio is a solid performer. I'm quite happy with it, but I can be picky and had I known about bullets 1 and 2 I might have opted for something else. Regarding the auto-shutoff, customer support (who have been prompt and extremely helpful) informs me that the Model 88CD does support an automatic shutoff, and the product manual is available at http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/pdf/manuals/model88cd.pdf . They suggested a work-around to the problem for the 730 and 740, which is to set Alarm 2 to go off an hour after Alarm 1 but with 0 volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Follow up review!
Review: This is my second time reviewing this product (original review was the one where it went out in less than a week). I received my replacement and so far no problem at all and of course the sound is mind blowing. A review from another individual that came after my orginal review sparked my interest to buy a Bose Wave Radio CD player as well. I had heard the Bose and the Cambridge, initially I bought the Cambridge. I must say again after now owning BOTH, the Cambridge still wins. Yes, it is louder and the bass is more impressive than the Bose. I still believe the QUALITY of the sound is better with the Cambridge. I hope my Cambridge replacement will last longer than the first one...I think it will. I am also happy with my Bose, but for $100 more I think I would have preferred a second Cambridge. Hope this helps.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this.
Review: This thing sounds great. You must buy one. That's all I have to say.
| 
