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Cheap but not a bargain

I bought this so I could wake to my own commercial-free music. After three days, the unit stopped playing CDs altogether so now I have yet another clock radio. During the brief period it worked, the CD sound was so terrible it startled me the first time I tried it: crackly, tinny and thin. The radio sound is slightly better, but not even close to my old (also cheap) clock radio. During the three days it worked, the unit woke me every day with the first track of the CD. You cannot adjust the alarm to start with a random track, or pick up where it left off the day before. The unit accepts a battery to keep time during an outage; however, the manual says the time will not display until power is restored, and I’m guessing that means the alarms won’t work either.
Other negatives: Time-setting is uni-directional, so if you pass the hour you wanted when clicking through, you have to cycle around the clock again. My cheap RCA clock radio has spoiled me with bi-directional clock setting and digital radio tuning.
The Coby’s buttons are flat, stiff, and hard to press. The radio is tuned via an awkwardly placed thumb wheel at the bottom right side of the unit, and it’s difficult to lock on the station you want. The clock numbers are nice and large; however, like most clock radios, they are way too bright and cannot be dimmed (except by throwing a sock over the radio, which is what I had to do).
Since I dawdled a month before opening and using the radio, Amazon’s 30-day Return window has expired. I’m going to try to return it anyway–without the CD function, it’s useless to me. I’m going back to my old clock radio which was just as cheap, but has much better sound. Anyone know a Philadelphia-area radio station that plays fewer than 4 commercials between 5:45 and 6 am?
Positives? I like the rounded shape. And I was able to set the clock and alarm times initially without reading the manual, something I’ve never been able to do with other clock radios. It arrived promptly and was securely packaged. It was my mistake not to immediately set it up for use.

Update (5/20/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.

The featured review for this product, Coby CDRA147 Digital AM/FM Dual Alarm Clock Radio/CD Player Black Electronics, was written by C. Mckee.

The average rating for this item is 0.5 out of 5 stars, according to 2 reviews.