Panasonic RX-DX1 Portable CD Radio Cassette Boombox

Rating:
Summary: Great Alarm Clock
Review: I started looking for an CD alarm clock to replace my old, analog fm/am radio alarm clock. This unit had most of the features that were important to me: Digital radio stations, CD player, fairly small, reasonably priced. I have a Panasonic portable CD player that I have been very impressed with, and decided to give this unit a try.
PROS: 2 alarms, one is the standard beep, the other can be set for the radio or the cd. It has a good sound for such a small unit--it's more like a boom box in shape and sound, than a regular alarm clock. It has a remote. It has three different settings for the clock display, bright, medium and off. So far, the clock has kept really good time (I've had it a little over a month). You can pre-program 12 radio stations. There is a nice sound equalizer.
CONS: The clock display is a little small, and it does not display while the alarm is going off, just the radio settings or CD settings display. I like to lay in bed a while and listen to the radio before I get up, but I like to know what time it is too. You have to push a button to see what time it is. It is necessary to turn the unit "off" for the CD/Radio alarm to go off--this took a little getting used to. You can still listen to the radio or CD player while going to sleep, but you have to use the sleep function. It is tricky switching the alarm to radio, it wants to always be the CD player, and there are no clear instructions on how to do it. I just fooled around with it until I got the radio set, and now I don't touch that part of the alarm setting.
Overall, I really like this alarm clock. The cons are not anything I can't live with, and I have pretty much used this to replace both my alarm clock and my old boombox.

Rating:
Summary: Good Concept, Poor FM Radio, Poor Tone
Review: The concept is great-CD,AM/FM,tape,clock radio with remote-all in one unit.However, the product needs improvement. Despite the 4 pre-set tone controls and spatial equalizer, the tone quality is poor. Very scratchy and shrill no matter which setting is used. Has honky quality to the sound. The FM radio is the worst I have ever heard-noisy background on every FM station. I live in a strong signal area with many stations...any fringe area would be much worse. Only switching to MONO clears it up. I placed a Sony CFD-e75 right next to it-the reception was perfect-totally quiet background. Get the Sony!

Rating:
Summary: Nice CD playing, Nice Tape playing, Poor radio reception
Review: We bought this to replace our 10 year old Sony cassette/radio boombox. The new unit has some impressive features including a nice remote, clock radio functions, stereo enhancer, large backlit display, etc, but the radio reception wasn't as good as our old boombox. Plus, when tuned to our favorite AM station, there was a faint tone in the background. Oddly enough, pressing a button that changed the display would get rid of the tone, but it would come back again when the display defaulted back to the station.
So, sadly, we are going to take it back.
If you would like a compact boombox with a nice sound, and don't listen to AM radio, I would still recommend it.