iHome iH4 Alarm Clock Speaker System with Dock for iPod (Black)
by Sound Design, Inc.
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Our Price: $59.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $19.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of iHome iH4 Alarm Clock Speaker System with Dock for iPod (Black)
Customer Review: Fat I-Pod = Lower Star Power
Summary: 4 Stars
I have a 160gb I-Pod classic (I hate it when you don't know what type of device is being used) and found this for a good price some time ago. My wife has an 80gb I-Pod classic and i bought her one of these as well, and the two have some interesting differences. First, the bigger the storage the fatter the I-Pod and the fatter the device the more room one needs. This means a few things when the device is being used, and it does impact one major thing - sitting. While sitting doesn't seem like it would imact all that much, the device can slide around on the little "dishes" (they are these little plastic prefabs that fit over the connection slot) and this can impact the charging, the playing, and the alarm. The vibration of the clock itself can set the thing into a spiral, killing it slowly with its own songs. Also, the way it sits makes a world of difference in the world of sound - its the difference between being plugged in all the way and partially tapping into the device. So, here is a problem.
The good stuff here is that the thing works like it should almost all the time, it works really great with the small devices, and it increases in volume as the device goes off. You can also set it to go off for a length of time, hit a specific volume, tap into certain songs, and so on. I also like the fact that it can charge - a feature that cannot be overstated since a lot is riding on the bell, buzzing, or McLachlan going off at the right time.
A dead I-Pod is esentially bad business.
Personallu, I put this thing to price and to the size of your device. If you find it for a good price, it is really good. You can get great deals on these, too, and you can fit them to all kinds of small devices. So, you make the call there. most places carry them if you want to see one, to, so you have that luxury.
It makes the difference between a 3 and a 4 star love affair.
Customer Review: Jury is out
Summary: 3 Stars
I had a difficult time getting the thing to work and had to call customer service and play around with it for awhile.
The issues I had were:
1. My 80g Ipod doesn't fit one of the docks that come with it therefore you have to be extra careful when docking it that you don't bend the pins.You can buy a dock from their website.
2. The IPod must be in pause or un play mode to work. If it is in play mode, it won't work. So you listen to a song at night, then hit pause on the Ipod, then in the mornng the ih4 will wake you up to that song.
3. It will play to a playlist. The only thing the ih4 does really is start your Ipod working. It doesn't do anything else and doesn't program anything. So if you have a playlist, it will play the next song on the playlist after the song you ended with the night before.
4. Because of No.3 above, I recommend making a separate "alarm" playlist so you can wake up to the songs you want to wake up to.
5. The ih4 alarm was delayed by 24 seconds before it would play. Not a big deal. So instead of turning on at 7 am , music comes on 24 seconds later.
It does make for a great small dock to play music in a room. Now that I have it sort of working I'll see about it's alarm function. I plan to keep a regular noisy back up alarm for 15 minutes later and would suggest that to anyone.
Customer Review: Just an "OK" product
Summary: 2 Stars
Overall, I don't recommend this product. It has respectable sound (considering there is only one speaker, and the price is relatively low), but I have too many gripes about it to recommend it.
Cons:
1. The vertical blue lights on the left and right are on all the time. They can't be turned off without unplugging the unit. And they are kinda bright...at least for my tastes.
2. The volume cannot be turned down sufficiently. The quietest volume really isn't that quiet. And, if you try to turn it down further, it is mute. There is no in between. It's like the volume can only be adjusted in "notches", not an infinite adjustment control like must radios.
3. The dock does not feel very solid, at least with my 8GB iPod nano. It comes with several "adapters" for the different iPods, but none of them gave a secure dock for me.
Only one Pro that I can think of:
The sound is decent, even though there is only one speaker. And it can be turned up fairly loud without distortion. Again, the sound isn't great, but for the price you can't expect too much.
Overall, I give this a thumbs down. Maybe the more expensive iHome products are better than this one.
Customer Review: Didn't charge my iPods
Summary: 1 Stars
I got this for my son for Christmas to go with an iPod Nano 5th gen (8Gb) which was also a Christmas present. He was excited as he opened it as he expected it to have a remote -- sorry, that is an extra-- I should have gotten the H11. The issue I'm returning the unit to Amazon is that it does not charge any of the iPods we have. We have a 4th gen Nano and a 2nd gen Nano and neither they or the new 5th gen charge in the unit. We also have a Bose SoundDock II and it does charge the new nano, so my unit was defective.
A second issue is the side lights are very bright and only have four settings: very bright, bright, not as bright, off -- also it won't play the iPod Nano radio as the nano complains that there are no headphones attached --not a real big deal but still an issue to watch out if you are considering this unit.
So, I'm returning this one and getting the iH1BR for $10 more -- as the H11 has no side lights and includes a remote.
iHome iH11BR Alarm Clock with Dock for iPod (Black)
Customer Review: Great choice!
Summary: 5 Stars
I received my iHome4 a few days ago and I love it already! I really wanted speakers to play my iPod so that I didn't have to use earbuds when I'm in my bedroom, and the fact that the iH4 plays my ipod AND functions as an alarm clock is great! You really can't beat it for $50. The sound quality is great as long as you don't enable the extended bass. Like the others have said, the dimmer switch is still a little bright on it's lowest setting, but it can be turned off for those who like to sleep in complete darkness like myself. Setting the time & the alarm is very easy. The instructions are very simple and easy to follow. The design is nice as well! I have a new iPod 3G and it fits just fine. The fact that the ipod charges while docked is great, and the handbook makes it clear that the clock does NOT overcharge the ipod. It has a battery back-up for power outages. This product is great. Like I said, you can't beat it for $50!