Radios Reviews

This works great, but the range is a load of bull. It works up to about 6 miles. It might work at 12 miles if you were on the ocean or a lake, but that's about the only way 12 miles is possible. Works great and highly durable.

I read previous reviews for this item and thought I'd found the perfect clock radio for my needs. It arrived--and the clock displays military time, not am/pm. I can't find the way to fix it anywhere in the instructions. So, since there was a big note from Philips enclosed with the item that said "Need help, call us" before you return this product, I called Philips. And I got the worst customer service I have ever received. I was told that although I purchased the clock radio five days ago, the warranty had run out--but I could purchase a new warranty for $15. Then the service rep would reveal to me how to fix the problem. I said "no, thak you" and returned the item. And I don't plan to buy anything from Philips in the future.

We purchased this clock radio because it has all the features we were looking for -except asthetic appeal (i just don't get the squat design.) In any case, if you take the time to quickly review the instructions it's a breeze to set up and it works beautifully. The sound quality is suprisingly good for a clock radio too. If you can handle it's appearance, go for it!!

All the good things people have said...they are true. This is a nice clock radio. I could repeat what has already been said, but why. It is all true. I liked everything about it that everyone else had said.
But..................Yes, it beeps loud when you shut it off. The memory backup is very short, good for a flicker, but not for an outage. If you have an outage and have to reset the whole thing, its a pain, especially when it has been a while and you dont really remember how you did it the last time. BUT my biggest complaint......it is bright! it has 3 level of display brightness. the lowest is still way too bright. it lights up my whole bedroom. i like it dark. DARK! This thing keeps me awake for hours if i dont cover it up......then i cant see it in the morning or cant hear it untill it gets louder......

First of all, I was delighted to find a radio/casssette player on the market, since they have all but disappeared. An added plus was its being a Panasonic brand, which I have always found to be very satisfactory.
In general I am pleased with the product. The radio seems to have a fine sound. I am disapppointed, however, with the sound quality of the cassette player. Scratchy.

This is a nice unit, all analog, good amplification with good room filling sound. Recording off the FM tuner their's almost no degration of playback sound. Sensitive microphone, picks up outside sounds and voice clearly. Tone control works well, uniformly turning down only the treble, which is nice for tapes that have a really sharp treble. Tape transport is smooth and handles tapes gently. I removed the cover, inside is quality and the speakers have large magnets. AM has excellent sensitivity, but slight quircks with FM, occasionally hearing 2 stations at the same time. Their's not much movement on tuner knob. I wish AFC was added to FM, as this would help prevent drift and make for easier "dialing in" of stations. FM static can be annoying, but directing the line cord-antenna carefully gets rid of it for the most part or switching to FM mono for weak stations but then you won't hear the spacious stereo sound. The FM tuner on this all analog unit could have been a little more refined but I can live with it.
Overall a great compact simple low priced boombox. Now if only Panasonic would bring back their beautiful boomboxes of the early 80's? Perhaps a Special Edition? In silver?

I had one of these little guys back when I was 14. I am almost 23 now and I have to say, these things will take massive punishment and STILL work amazingly well. The technology is dated, to be sure (Since we now have handheld video camera's that record on CD-R's in real time) but if your looking for something to take to work and want to be comfortable leaving it laying around and want to just have it on the radio, this is it. I remember they had amazing sound and clarity. I would say if your going to leave it in one place, and wanted to update it, hook it to your CD player with a cassette adapter. It will sound great. Great for work, but bad for home. Why? ITS OLDER TECHNOLOGY! 'Nuff said. But great if you wanna go retro and listen to some old beats and break dance!! :D

When I first purchased this FM Transmitter I thought it worked awesome. But then it started messing up. I have used this in my car for my Mp3 player. Let me just list a couple of things that have happened to me

- the on/off button sticks in one position or the other either making this unusable or simply drains the batteries no matter what you do.
- Also, when the button does seem to let you use it, the wires inside of the cable are broken. Rendering the sound to be terrible.

This transmitter is actually only a couple of weeks old and the store that I bought it at will not take it back so I had to throw it away and am forced to look for a new one.

(...) I took my personal MP3 player and turned it on to play in my car, then I plugged in the SILink while the SILink was turned on. When I plugged it into the headphones port, my MP3 player just shut itself off. Then I unplugged the SILink, and my MP3 player just was totally messed up. It didn't turn on for about 30 minutes, and when I finally got it to turn on, everything was messed up - none of the buttons work anymore on it except the "play" button. So I tried it again, only I had the SILink off when I plugged it in. The instant I turned it on my MP3 player just shut down. (...)

ok.. i know the bad reviews sound really bad but i really tried speakers and so on for my laptop i used this for a few days the volume is great the sound is great the thing is easy to use and flexible which is another great thing. even tho the channels selectable are limited but my radio is rather far from my laptop and i can watch a movie and the radio because it is a decent radio makes the laptop sounds sound great. please dont derate the item because you do not have a good radio or you are using a old style non digital radio. this is a digital thing digital to analog always isnt as good but if its digital to a digital solund output it will be great. im using a timex clock w/ digital radio and its great i used my logitech sound system connected w/ a digital radio and it sounded better so im guessing the results depend on your radio that you are using. anyways this product is great! nothing wrong or bad in my opinion.

Don't believe the last review. I had mine about a month before I tossed it out the window somewhere near Charlotte, NC. Nothing but problems, barely recieved or transmitted and was extremely weak when it did. I actually had truckers ask me to stop transmitting because all they could hear was squealing when I keyed. Tossed it, kept my K40 antenna, bought a Uniden Pro538W and have loved it! Much better radio! Don't buy anything Cobra makes!

I recently bought and installed this radio in my truck, and I have not had any problems yet!!! A few minor details are the noise blanker seems really sesitive (sometimes when it is on I do not receive any traffic) but that is about it. I enjoy Cobra products, this is my second radio (I just traded up from a 25NWXT), I have a Cobra HG2000 Antenna, and I am waiting on a Cobra Mic for my radio. So far no problems with any of it and I hope to have none down the road!!!!!

My is working good for over years now so Please buy one & try them & you will see that RedDog was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A fellow reviewer named Mary L. Stein "TALK SHOW JUNKIE" writes:

>> despite the advertising there is NO AM BAND ON THIS RADIO!!

This is quite untrue. This radio has AM Band, it is however labeled as "MW" (as opposed to being labeled "AM"). "MW" stands for "Medium Wave" and is just another name for "AM" (which stands for Amplitude Modulation). Although labeled differently, it is quite obvious once one uses this radio that MW are the AM stations.

This was my contact with the rest of the world for two years in sub-Saharan Africa in the Peace Corps. It was never a battery hog and it got perfect reception of BBC World Service, VOA and a couple other international broadcasters. Perhaps not the best for someone who really digs shortwave, but perfect if you're abroad and want to stay connected.

This is an "old fashioned" dial and pointer radio, lacking all of the features of a modern digital set... no preset stations, poor indication of the actual frequency that is tuned, no clock, no alarm. Somehow, it is still great fun to use!

Band scanning has been a weak point of digital radios... the sound is usually muted while slewing through the frequency range, leaving just a tuning indicator light to show that a station has been found (most will not stop scanning on weak signals), or if not muted, a loud "chuffing" noise is produced as the frequencies are scanned. With this set you just turn the knob and listen for stations!

If you want to easily find, say the BBC on 5.975 Mhz a digital radio will get you there much faster, but for scanning the band to see what is on, the old dial and pointer still works quite well!

For a similar but smaller and slightly less expensive radio, see my review of the Kaito WRX911. For a more expensive radio with "Double Conversion", which eliminates "false signals" on shortwave, see my review of the Kaito KA1107.