iHome iH5 Clock Radio and Speaker System for iPod (Black)
by Sound Design, Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $39.99 You Save: $60.00 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 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 iH5 Clock Radio and Speaker System for iPod (Black)
Customer Review: mediocre w/o making me angry
Summary: 3 Stars
yes. this is a fully functioning alarm clock. everything works. i wake up to a playlist on my ipod and it AND the radio sound great.
i'll just list the bad things and leave it at that.
1. there are no pre-sets on the radio- you can't program any stations.
2. you can't really turn it off. only by way of turning "sleep" on and letting it turn itself off OR by switching it to "ipod" then taking you ipod out of the unit. it still stays on, but it has nothing to play so..
3. the volume and tuning knobs mean well in their superficial design but are clumsy and don't really turn all that well. and this is flaw that i've seen on all the units i've tested. the knobs are just cheap. *it states on the box that they're "precision" knobs. haha
4. i'd like it to be able to control my ipod with those cheap knobs but it doesn't. the only thing you can do on the unit itself is play and pause the ipod by either switching to the radio or by pressing the ipod button again.
5. the auxiliary plug is a great though, but it can't really handle anything at a moderately quiet to loud volume. it's a shame but really not anything i loose sleep over.
i suppose that's really it. so. maybe save your money and wait for or buy something better. they problem is .. is there?
either way it's not like it's a piece of junk- but for 80 dollars i'd have liked much more.
Customer Review: Not What's It's Cracked Up To Be
Summary: 1 Stars
I wish I'd done more research on this product--it's the first item I've ever returned to Amazon. The basic problem is that it does NOT have a gradual wake or gradual sleep function, no matter what the ads say--as far as I'm concerned they're guilty of criminal false advertising. The wake up volume cannot be controlled by the user, and it ramps to the max level within a couple seconds of coming on--that is NOT gradual. The sleep volume shows no signs of gradually reducing itself at all--one second it's on, the next it's off. As it turns out these are known problems--like I said, I should have done more research--but I'm still quite angry at how this is being marketed as something it isn't. Also, you can't choose different playlists for sleep and alarm modes and I don't know about you, but personally I like rather different kinds of music for those two purposes.
On the plus side, the manufacturer has apparently fixed the complaints many had about the LED brightness--I had no issues there (I purchased the 2nd revision of the product). Sound quality is fine though hardly audio-phile quality, but I hardly expected that for an alarm clock. This product is a perfectly acceptable set of portable speakers for your iPod, but it's a lousy alarm clock being marketed with bald-faced lies about it's capabilities.
Customer Review: I like this littl guy...but not for an alarm clock!
Summary: 4 Stars
To a trained ear this may not be the very best in sound quality. But for a really picky person in regards to sound quality, $80.+ for a piece of stereo/sound equipment would not work anyway.
For the rest of us...or at least my untrained ear, this is great. I don't use it in the bedroom as an alarm clock. I purchased it to go in my kitchen to listen to my iPod and the radio while I am working. I live in a one level home and I can hear it throughout the house. It sounds good to me. I like the ease of switching from iPod to radio is so easy...one button on top rather than on the side looking for a switch! The radio quality is incredible. I listen to a lot of AM stations and that is not always easy on a lot of radios I tried.
I did notice, as with a lot of other reviewers, that the light is incredibly bright! I would get one for my bedroom except that light would have to go. If anyone knows how to dim the lights, I would love to hear how.
As for the looks of the product, it is very pleasing to the eyes. It doesn't look like a cheap radio, so it fits into my decor.
I highly reccommend this little radio/iPod speaker. I am so satisfied with it that I will be looking at the company's other products!
Customer Review: Great at first... breaks down over time
Summary: 4 Stars
I loved this unit when I first got it over a year ago... it had all of the features I wanted, looks good, and dutifully has woken me up with the songs I want for hundreds of days. But, one thing that I noticed in the Apple store when I was looking at different models was that the buttons on the top were all sunken and broken looking. I dismissed it to the fact that it had been molested by thousands of curious fingers in the mall - and figured it normal with so much use. Well, about a month ago, I noticed that my alarm set button (must be pressed every night to set the alarm - if you change it each day, which I do) started to sink down. Now, I have to press it very hard to get it to function... I'm worried it will eventually not work at all. Also, the set wheel on the right hand side (used to roll the minutes forward or backward) has started to malfunction. If I roll it forwards, no problem, but when I roll it backwards, it skips around and takes forever to simply set it back an hour. In short... a word of caution to people looking to buy this unit now that it has been in the market place for a while... don't be surprised if it starts to freak out on you later in its life... and press gently!Customer Review: Save your money, buy something else
Summary: 1 Stars
This thing is a piece of junk. I've had mine for 7 months and it has failed already. As others have complained, the display is way too bright. You could signal outer space with the 500000 lumens display. If that wasn't bad enough, the display started to fail by flickering all night long. I should have sold this thing to some night club. They could use it for the lighting system on their dance floor. Finally the back lighting on the display quit last month and I could no longer see what time it was without the lights on in the room. While that's a nuisance, its better than having the alien blue light shinning from the iHome. Also, it has been mentioned that the wake up volume on the early models is beyond loud(and I like my music loud). I won't have to worry about that either as now my alarm function has died and I've woken up late for work a couple days in a row. In summary, only buy this thing if you want a clock that you can't see, an alarm function that makes your ears bleed (when it works), and only lasts 7 months.