Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips AE5900/05 - DAB Clock Radio

I bought a Philips AE5900 because of the reviews here. In spite of some negative comments, everyone was very pleased with the sound and design. After living with it for a few weeks, I emailed Philips to express my dismay that, when I switch to standby (it's in the bedroom), I can't activate the dimmer (more like blackout!), so I have to leave the radio switched on, activate the dimmer, turn the volume down to 00, and basically leave the radio powered on all night. This solution works okay, but it's a pity that it's necessary. Also, I can't get the snooze function to work and I asked Philips for advice, and asked what the snooze button on top of the unit is for because there is no mention of it in the manual instructions. They replied, but gave no answer to either problem. They just said my radio had a fault and I should return it to the supplier. Since the problems don't affect the quality of the output and I can live with them, I shall keep the radio, mainly because from the various reviews here I can't see a replacement of the same model would be any different.

At first this product seemed brilliant; the sound and look are great. But for some reason the dimmer doesn't work as effectively as I'd hoped and the display's too bright without it. Also the alarm volume is so loud and there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust it, which I expected to be a basic option.

I bought this radio for the kitchen and I have been very impressed with it. The sound quality is great and very bassy for a radio its size and price. It also comes with the 3.5mm jack input which is really useful to play music of your mp3 player. The radio also looks impressive, with a leather surround and chrome buttons/highlights. A useful feature is a timer function as well which comes in very handy in the kitchen.

Overall I am very impressed. Having seen a lot of other radios in this price range it undoubtedly comes out top for me. Would recommend!

This is a great radio. I unpacked it yesterday and yes those presets are impossible. I thought i'd tried holding down the button last night but i'll try again later!

I've only picked up a few stations so i'm not sure if i'll have to move it around a bit.

My gripe is that it's difficult to read the display from an angle. If you keep it on the kitchen work surface, you have to bend down to read it.

I was going to buy it when it was 30 quid but I thought i'd scout around and look to see if there was anything better on the market, I shouldn't have waited! The price went up to 47 quid but it's still great value.

The sound quality is awesome, the finishing is near perfection and it also comes with an aux in socket very useful for my Iaudio.

The controls are all easy to use, the preset thing was confusing but kudos to who posted the solution.

The only "improvements" I could make would be to be able to change the settings without having to turn the radio on - if you're setting the alarm just before you go to bed and don't want to wake people you have to quickly turn the volume down. And equally it would be nice if the auto dim function worked when the radio was off the display is very bright and i've already got a clock in my room so have no need for wanting to see the time displayed. But thats just me trying very hard to find a fault with it.

Simply, If you want a DAB radio you can't do better than this.