Home > Consumer Reviews > Emerson Clock Radio with CD Player - CKD9901T

Now here's a real machine! The speakers are correctly placed, the sound is good, and the features are simple but sufficient.

There are some design flaws. Too many of the buttons are on top, and they are too similar in placement and size. That leaves more room for error in an instrument whose users are typically half-asleep, at one end of the night or the other.

But if you can train your thumb to hit the right alarm settings, or if your wakeup time doesnt vary often and what you really want is good sound and a reliable instrument, this Emerson more than suffices.

I've had this for a few years and it has a few good features. For example, you can wake up to CD, radio, or buzzer, and you can pick the song you want to wake up to. Also, the snooze timer can be changed to however long you want and it is not just a standard time.

There are a few faults too. The most annoying thing about it is that it is VERY sensitive to cell phones. It clicks and buzzes when anyone nearby's cell phone is about to ring. It gets very irritating living in a dorm full of cell phones going off. It also only has one alarm setting, which is okay, but if you want to take an afternoon nap, you have to change your morning alarm.

My recommendation is to continue to shop around before you settle on this clock.

Well, pretty much what everyone else said about this unit has happened to me: the CD player stopped working after about six months, it buzzes whenever someone with a cell phone is nearby (even when my cordless phone is next to it!) and now *none* of the buttons works at all, rendering it a useless hunk of metal and plastic. For a while, I actually resorted to plugging it in at midnight so at least I'd have a clock even if it flashed all the time. Horrendous disappointment. (Looking for a replacement just now by reading amazon reviews, it's amazing how few quality CD clock radios there are on the market. It's shocking.)

Pros: the price and the cd player
Cons: way too many tiny buttons with small print to function well as an alarm clock; small radio dial makes it difficult to hone in on stations close together; to turn off alarm, you move the switch away from you, which takes some getting used to. Also, I use to have a dual alarm and miss the ability to set alternative wake up times.

The speakers on this unit sound tinny and the radio reception is not good. Spend a little extra money and get the Sony version instead--it will be worth it.