An Answering Machine That's Great For Large Families Or Small Businesses.
Written: Feb 16 '05 (Updated Feb 17 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Audio quality, 4 mailboxes, messages kept during power failures.
Cons: Discontinued. Red LEDs can be hard to see in bright sunlight.
The Bottom Line: If you need the flexibility of a 4 mailbox unit, and can find a 1725 for sale online, this may be just what you are looking for!
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| telecomman's Full Review: 1725 Answering Machine |
The discontinued AT&T/Lucent 1725 is a stand alone answering machine that is well suited for large families or small businesses that need the ability to provide multiple users with a voicemail box, without the cost of subscribing to the local telephone company's voicemail service.
This answering machine was made for AT&T & Lucent Technologies by Phillips Consumer Corporation. The unit is shaped like a traditional digital AT&T answering machine. The color of the unit is Dove Gray and it sports on it's top surface 15 push buttons, a rocker switch 4 red LEDs, a 2 digit red LED counter, a microphone and a speaker. The right side panel of the unit sports 3 slider switches. The rear of the unit contains a jack to connect a telephone, a jack to connect to the walljack and a jack to connect the included 9v 900ma power supply.
The answering machine has the ability to record 3 outgoing announcements (2 that allow the caller to leave a message and 1 for announce only without the ability to leave a message). The machine offers a grand total of roughly 24 minutes of recording time (announcements and messages left by callers). The machine offers both audio & visual indicators that there are new messages left. You do have the option of silencing the audible beep and just rely on the flashing LEDs. You can select the number of rings that the machine will wait through before answering an incoming telephone call. All messages will have a time & date stamp added to the beginning of each message.
Connecting the answering machine to your existing telephone is pretty straight forward. Simply plug the AC adapter into the back of the answering machine, then plug the other end into a standard AC walljack, (make sure the outlet us not controlled by a wall switch). Then plug your telephone into the jack marked TEL SET, connect the answering machine to the wall jack using the TEL LINE jack and finally push the ON/OFF button.
As noted above, there are some 15 buttons on the top of this machine. They include a button to access each individual mailbox, a button that will allow you to preview the first 5 seconds of each message, a REPEAT/SCAN button which will allow you to replay a message, a STOP button to stop playback of a message, a SKIP/SCAN button to allow you to skip over a message, a CODE button to allow you to set and/or hear the remote access code that the machine is set for, a CLOCK button to set of check the time of day, an ANNOUNCE button used to record/check the current greeting, a CHANGE button used to change the machine's setting, an ON/OFF button to turn the machine off or on, a MEMO/2WAY button which is used for recording a memo to one of the mailboxes as well as recording an active conversation, a DELETE button used to delete a specific message or all messages in a mailbox and a rocker switch used to increase and/or decrease the volume of the built in speaker. The 2 digit LED counter is used to display the total number of calls stored in the mailboxes, the elapsed number of seconds when recording your outgoing messages just to name a few.
One of the slider switches is used to turn the message waiting beep on or off. The next switch is used to select the number of rings before the machine answers. The choices are 2,4 and Toll Saver (TS). When TS is selected, the answering machine will answer an incoming call after 2 rings if there are pending messages and 4 rings if there are no new messages. The third switch is used to choose which announcement callers will hear (A,B or Announce Only). A & B are standard announcements while Announce Only is used to play a message and then disconnect the call.
Programing the machine isn't all that complicated, but people who are not technically oriented, may need to refer to the owner's manual for assistance. Setting the system clock is done by pressing CHANGE, the CLOCK and lastly SKIP/SCAN or REPEAT/SCAN until the correct day is announced. Press CLOCK again to set the hour then press CLOCK again and you then set the minutes.
Next you can choose which announcement you will want to record and use. Move the appropriate slider switch on the right side panel of the unit to A B or AO. Press the CHANGE button and then press & release the ANNC button. The 2 digit counter will begin to count up. Speak towards the answering machine and press STOP when finished recording. The machine will then play your newly recorded announcement back for your review. The microphone is actually mounted upside down inside the machine, thus it points to the surface below. This is done to help control background noise when recording announcements or memos. Special callers can enter a code while your greeting is playing to signal you that an important caller is waiting. When this code is entered, the answering machine will beep loudly to alert you.
You also have the option of moving messages from one mailbox to another. This is done by pressing the CHANGE button while the desired message is being played. The announcement will stop playing and the 4 LEDs over the mailbox buttons will flash. You simply push the recipient mailbox's button. The machine beeps, moves the message to the new mailbox and them proceeds to play any additional messages in the original mailbox.
The LEDs will flash when new messages are waiting for review, will glow steady if there are old messages in the mailboxes and go out when a mailbox is empty.
Deleting old messages can be accomplished 2 ways. You can empty an entire mailbox by pressing the DELETE button and then the mailbox of choice. You can also delete specific messages by pressing the DELETE key as the message is playing.
You can also check messages remotely. A wallet sized card is included. The remote codes for playing messages, deleting messages, turning the machine on & off are clearly spelled out. A nice feature is the room monitor. You can enter a code and the microphone will activate so you can listen to any noises in the room that the machine is located in.
The quality of the outgoing messages and recorded messages is quite good, when compared to the answering machines of today. Voices seem less digitized on this machine than on the current multi-mailbox model (1726). The flashing LEDs and the LED display are easy to see, except in bright sunlight. I can usually hear the audible message alert and the 1725 will keep all messages and announcements intact even during a power failure.
All in all, this a great answering machine. The 1725 has been off the market for a while, but units can often be found on sale at well known auction websites at reasonable prices.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
telecomman
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 in Electronics |
 in Electronics |
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Member: Paul C.
Location: Arlington, Mass, USA
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 39 members
About Me:
Telecom tech since 1990. Dabbles with electronics, telephone gear, pro audio & pipe organs.
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