Homedics SS-5500, Best combo of features I’ve..

Overall Rating3.673.673.673.673.67

Best combo of features I’ve seen yet - with only one missing

I’ve searched american innovative, hammacher schlemmer, brookstone, and other types of vendors with creative products to help me wake up gradually. I truly hate the beeping alarm clock standard and think it’s too jarring and unnatural. Most of the ones I’ve tried have terrible, canned nature sounds and the ‘low’ volume of the progression is already too loud.

This clock is easily the best i’ve tested. To the user above who can’t figure out how to make the lamp come on dimly at first, read my comment on that review - there’s a simple switch on the back. When it’s off, the lamp comes on full blast, but when you turn it on, it’s a very gradual brightening.

This is one of the clock’s best features - other clocks have a built-in bulb, but with this you get to use your own light instead of some gaudy towering clock next to your bed. I’ve got mine plugged into a lamp 20 feet away from the bed and it works perfectly. Another nice feature is that while in bed, if I forgot something, i can just press a button on the clock and turn the lamp on remotely, with fully dimmer controls. And at night, you can set it to gradually get quieter and dimmer until it shuts off at a preset time.

If you want a peaceful way to wake up, with either progressive nature sounds or slowly-increasing radio, plus a natural brightening of the room over 15 or 30 minutes, this is the right clock.

The only feature I wish they included is an iPod dock. For some reason you can’t have progressive volume, light control, AND mp3 control in one clock. The ceiling projection is kind of cool, but I still don’t see a reason to buy that feature alone. The one other reviewer who said the blue is too bright - this is true. Despite a dimmer control on the display, even the dim setting is far too bright.

Other than that, this is a great product. Just the remote lamp feature alone is cool enough to buy it and give it a try.

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, Homedics SS-5500 SoundSpa Radiance AM/FM Alarm Clock with Time Projection, Light, Sound and Timer Health and Beauty Aug 15, 2008, was written by K. Moynehan.

The average rating for this item is 3.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.

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Reviews (3)

nathanb131

February 26th, 2010 at 9:27 pm    


Overall Rating55555

Best set of features for the price
I did a fair amount of research on these ’sunrise’ alarm clocks. Found a great deal on this one and decided to take a leap of faith since it got very mixed reviews. After living with it for a few weeks I wholeheartedly recommend it, especially since it’s half the price of anything else I found with these features. I love it’s function of controlling your own lamp. So YOU get to pick the lamp and bulb to wake up to. I’m not sure what’s so great about those orb-style ones, maybe they simulate a gradual increase of natural light better? I know you can buy ‘natural light’ bulbs for any lamp at probably a fraction of the cost of their replacement bulbs.

I have 2 main points about this thing. I was pretty excited to ‘wake up gently’ with the slow increase of light as opposed to a shocking sound where all you want to do is hit the snooze before you are conscious. This helps, but it’s not a life-changing way of waking up I was hoping for. There have been a few mornings where I was comfortably awake 5 min before the sound alarm went off due to the light, but there have also been mornings where I perpetually hit the snooze. This was more due to me staying up too late. So I’m convinced this is an improved way to wake up, but it won’t solve your problems if you don’t manage the hours you give yourself to sleep!

The other point I have is about the negative reviews about the controls and buttons. I love the versatility of this thing. You can get it to do dang near anything! You can go to sleep with the ’sunset’ option and listen to radio or nature sounds. You can wake up to light with or without sound and you have complete control over what sound and it’s volume. I didn’t read the manual prior to using it and was able to easily set it the first time and it behaved exactly as I expected. If you are the type of person who can’t set your VCR clock, then maybe you need a simpler alarm clock with fewer buttons and therefore fewer options. But I love the versatility and have had NO trouble programming it! As far as ‘fumbling in the dark’ for the right button goes, yeah you’d have issues finding the right one since all the ones on the top are indistinguishable without directly looking at them. But the power and snooze buttons are right in front and very easy to hit in the dark, what more do you really need to mess with in the dark?

Yes, the display is a little bright, but I didn’t think it was too bad. I’ve never had a projection of time on the ceiling before and really like that. The radio sounds good and has good reception with that separate antenna wire that’s included.

Also, it is REALLY nice to be able to control your lamp through the alarm clock. So now I can slide the lamp a little farther over and not have to reach to turn it off. No I’m not a lazy toad, it’s just pleasant to not have to reach that lamp when I’m wound down for the day! This machine has a great set of features for the price and has worked flawlessly for me so far!

Update: Ok I’ve had it for several months now and still consider it a great alarm clock. I’ve moved into a new house and sleep in a basement bedroom now. The radio reception is not good at all in it’s new spot, which surprises me since it’s got a separate antenna. I have a stereo in the same room that gets good reception. Also, the volume control is kind of jacked up now. It’s acting like I blew the speaker by fading in and out unpredictably when trying to change the volume. I suppose it’s possible that something damaged speaker on the top during my move. But these things indicate the quality might be suspect. Since I can’t really use the radio now I just wake up to the nature sounds, which I’ve actually grown to like a lot. I set two alarms, this and my cell phone (plays a song). So the light starts to slowly come on…. sometimes that wakes me up. Then in 15 minutes the nature sounds start…. which usually gets me conscious. Then my cell is programmed to blair at me 5 minutes later in case it’s one of THOSE mornings where I actually slept through the sunrise…. This setup works for me.

I’m very happy with it and would never want to be without one again. In fact I’m thinking about ordering another. I’ll add to my button review: After really living with this thing, I can quite easily operate what I need without having to fumble around. The snooze, power, and dimmer/brighter buttons are just where they need to be and can be easily found without looking where your fingers are. Setting the time, selecting a sound type, and setting the alarm are things you’ll have to actually pay attention to doing. But it’s no where near difficult or confusing and I really like the look and feel of the button layout.


K. Moynehan

February 28th, 2010 at 12:02 pm    


Overall Rating55555

Best combo of features I’ve seen yet - with only one missing
Rated 5 stars.


family guy

March 29th, 2010 at 10:13 am    


Overall Rating11111

So poorly designed
I’m a guy who never writes reviews, but I and my wife hated this product so much, I thought I’d make an exception.

The other reviewer who said it is too bright was understating it. I could actually read a book next to it. It’s like having a blue headlight shine in your eyes all night long. Turning it sideways doesn’t help because the walls of my room are glowing in blue. The “low” setting decreases the output about 3%. I actually bought some yellow film with adhesive and placed four layers of it over the face and it was still too bright (yellow absorbs blue light - Yes - I really wanted to use this clock). Looking in my room at night, with my side lit up like a carnival, and my wife’s side, with a cheap clock with red numbers, was literally like comparing night and day. I had to cover it with a shirt or something. Finally gave up.

The other reason it gets one star, every button is flat and indistinguishable from all the others. Did you ever want to change the alarm time while it was dark in the room? Forget it. Want to turn the lamp on because the room is dark? Eventually you’ll find the lamp button. Want to listen to the radio without turning on the lights? You’ll hit the sound effects buttons more often than not. Funny how the LEDs are so bright, but you can’t see the buttons because they are behind the light source. Look at the pictures of this product. They even made the snooze button smooth, blending it in with the case. You will probably press the power button instead of snooze - which will either turn the lamp on or turn the alarm off - more than once. Need to reset or change the time or the alarm time? They crammed those buttons into a 1″ by 1″ square on the back, again making it impossible to change it by feel.

Next time you’re in a store with several alarm clocks on display, notice how they are designed to be adjusted and operated by feel in a pitch dark room. This one needs to go back to the drawing board.


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