Sony ICF-C1

Do not buy- only fit for the rubbish bin – Don't bother! Bought Sony because of the name but this alarm clock has been the worst I've ever bought! I've had issues all throughout (alarm not giving alarm noise- isn't this what alarm clocks primary function!!??) Now it's given up the ghost already. Wish I'd seen all the bad reviews before I had wasted my time with this machine. Only fit for the bin. Terrible Sony!!

DANGEROUS - caused headaches, DO NOT sleep next to this thing – I purchased one brand new, started o have bad sleep, waking up with big migranes... So one day I run Electromagnetic Radiation Tester on this thing and it was going crazy ! more than my microwave, tv, router... the Tester maxed out !!!! It was absolutely shocking even at 1.5m away there was so much coming out from this thing. Emailed to Sony and showed them, they couldn't care less. DO NOT BUY ! ! !

Terrible constant buzzing sound – This clock radio is worst i have ever bought. It makes a constant buzzing sound. That annoying sound never turns off. It’s horrible you cannot sleep. Do not buy this. I hope i can get a refund !!!!!!

Humming noise is a deal-breaker – This clock radio is a simple device, an attractive little 10 x 10 x 10 cm cube in the manner of Sony's classic Dream Machine units. It has single alarm and an analogue radio. SETTING THE ALARM Clock radio controls have barely improved since the 80s and many others on the market have the major flaw of not having any easy way of setting the time in… Read more

a backward direction, but this model does it right. The alarm is set with two "+" and "-" buttons on the top of the unit. Pressing either button shows the current alarm time and lets you change it; there's no need for a separate switch to enter "alarm setting" mode. Holding down either button increases or decreases the time, initially by one-minute increments and then it changes to 10-minute increments. Setting the alarm is exceptionally easy.

SETTING THE TIME Setting the current time is done in a similar manner to setting the alarm, but with a separate set of buttons on the back. There's no way to choose between 12-hour and 24-hour time; this is predetermined by the country in which the product is sold and Australian and NZ models are in 12-hour (AM/PM) format. There's also a handy DST button on the back, which adjusts the hour for daylight saving time.

ALARM SOUND A sliding switch on the top selects the alarm mode between off, buzzer and radio. The switch isn't very well designed and is a bit fiddly and hard to grip. The "buzzer" is actually a pleasant-sounding "bip-bip-bip-bip" sound which starts softly and gradually gets louder and more insistent over the course of about a minute. There's no way to manually adjust the buzzer volume, but I found the design of the buzzer sound satisfactory.

SNOOZE AND BRIGHTNESS The snooze function is a bit unusual in that you can choose how long to snooze for. Every time you press the snooze bar, the snooze time increases by 10 minutes. This can have unintended consequences if you're the type of person to press buttons multiple times without thinking (or "just to be sure"). For example, if you reach over in a semi-conscious state and press the snooze bar 4 times when the alarm goes off, you'll have snoozed the alarm by 40 minutes. To turn the alarm off, there's a separate, slightly-recessed "Alarm reset" button. The snooze bar is also used to control the display brightness, which has three levels.

RADIO The analogue radio is very poor and the speaker is of the lowest possible quality. A tiny, barely-legible window on the top of the unit shows the radio frequency "as a rough guide" (according to the manual), which is being generous. Tuning is fiddly and imprecise and FM reception is poor. AM reception is even worse and I could hardly pick up any stations at all in the Sydney metropolitan area. It's best to think of the radio as a bottom-of-the-barrel, FM-only affair.

BATTERY BACKUP The backup battery is a CR2032 lithium button cell, which is a lot less convenient than standard AA or AAA batteries. A battery is supplied in the product carton and it is installed in the clock via an unusual plastic clip.

BUILD QUALITY The unit looks quite nice and the front display panel has a reflective, mirror-like finish which unfortunately shows fingerprints clearly. The build quality overall is average though. The plastic is lightweight and feels cheap and the buttons are small and fiddly.

HUMMING NOISE Many other reviews have mentioned the humming noise, but I decided to give it a go anyway, hoping that I might get lucky and not have the same experience or that Sony might have actually fixed the problem in the meantime. No such luck: the humming noise is definitely audible even during the day let alone in the dead of night. This alone is a deal-breaker; who wants an electronic appliance next to them making a humming noise all night? It's hard to believe Sony engineered this, and hasn't bothered to fix this flaw in the last 7 years that this product has been released.

CONCLUSION The constant humming noise, along with the poor quality radio, makes this product unacceptable. I do not recommend this product and will be returning mine for a refund.

Humming noise in unbearable – Constant humming noise is a huge design defect. SONY should be embarrassed that this alarm clock passed quality control- it is absolutely worthless to me now as kept me up the first night of use

Power supply Hum will Keep you awake – Cannot believe a company like Sony would accept this in quality control, as other reviewers have said here there is a constant 50Hz hum coming from the internal power supply. Kept me up all night. Do not buy unless you are planning on using it in a very noisy environment!

Humming noise – Such a shame great features and easy to use but with the 3rd one exchanged because of a continuous humming noise coming from the radio it went in the bin there won't be a 4th do yourself a favour and walk straight past this product

Great if you like a humming in your ear all night! – Purchase Sony as our previous clock radio was a Sony. Plugged it in and had a loud electrical 'Hum' coming out of it. Could hear it from the entrance of the bedroom. Took it back and swapped it for a new one assuming it was just faulty. Got the new one home and it was worse! Now I have to take this one back.

Persistent 50Hz hum - not for my bedside table – I can't help leaving a review for this clock radio. I really hoped it would be better than it is. While the clock/alarm/radio bit is fine, I can't get to sleep with the constant hum/buzz from its internal power supply (I guess). I tried plugging in to other outlets, power boards etc, fiddled around with brightness, AM/FM switches but it didn't make a difference. It's going back to the retailer tomorrow :( Disappointing.

Awful – Radio tuner is very fiddly and difficult to set on a station. The worst part however is it drifts off station so I wake to a soft hiss of static.

Too bright at night! – The item is compact and fits where I want it. The downside is the figures are much too bright and I keep waking up during the night. The lower setting of brightness is still too bright. I have persisted for seven months - tried covering it, putting it on the floor both inconvenient options until I had to remove it from my bedroom.

Don't buy it if you want one with easy to adjust settings without glasses and a torch! – buttons are small cannot read what they do in dim light,, reception not too good on some stations, the light display is a bit bright which is not an issue for me but maybe for some. I just think Sony should have thought through the design a bit more carefully, most of the time you are trying to make adjustments to the time/ alarm/ station… Read more

settings etc. in the dark or dimmed light in the bedroom so it needs to be clear and straight forward surely designers don't need to be told this!

It looks rather neat but I wished I bought something with a bit more easier to adjust settings without turning it sideways upside down like a rubiks cube with glasses and a torch to work it out.

Nice gadget with clear sound and good sized clock display – I like the gadget for its utility and design, and that its AC powered and doesnt need batteries. The electronic clock display is bright and clear even on the dimmest setting. But the fact that it does not have digital tuning was a bummer! Would have been nice to be able to tune and store radio stations without having to scan for them each time.

Disappointing – It is disappointing to see a company like Sony, who have been making this type of product for many years, put out such an impractical product. The main operating buttons are so small (not really suitable for a mans fingers) and they are not in a logical place. The "on" button is on top of the unit but it is toward the back and amongst the other… Read more

tiny buttons, so it's a fiddle to find it in the dark and the "off" button for some reason operates as a reset button as well. The dimming light on the clock is a nice feature but it doesn't dim enough, so I have to turn the clock away as it is too bright, which defeats the purpose of having a clock. Setting up the clock was a bit of a fiddle too. Good features - the cube style clock looks nice and the clock numbers are a good size. As it was a gift I'm not in a position to return it.