Excellent Tabletop Radio
Written: Feb 14 '04 (Updated Feb 15 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Sound: |
|
|
|
Pros: Very good wide-range frequency response & a very good tuner in a convenient compact package
Cons: Only comes in two colors -- Slate-black and Ivory.
The Bottom Line: In this class, small single box table top audio players, this unit is tops. Certainly an excellent value. And the service from Cambridge Soundworks is great, too.
|
|
|
| shieber's Full Review: Cambridge Soundworks 730I Tabletop Clock Radio |
This is the best sounding tabletop radio I've come across. It is still essentially the same unit the Henry Kloss designed with the goal of making a high quality, great sounding radio in a small table top format.
It has several improvements over the model it replaces, the "Kloss Model 88," including more memory presets and "Bass" & "Treble" tone controls -- the 88 had a single control to adjust the level of the separate amp that powered the "sub" woofer. A jog dial on the front is used to select many of the adjustments (Bass, Treble, Mono/Stereo/Wide, Loudness, Language, Text scrolling & snooze time). This model also includes a two alarm clock as a standard feature. One Alarm setting uses a radio broadcast and the other uses a tone as the alarm.
All the unit's user controls are on the front panel except a Mute button which is about 4" wide by 1 " deep and located on the top of the unit. The Mute button also functions as the Snooze button for the alarm clock alarms -- and this undoubtedly is the reason it's located on top, where most alarm clocks have their Snooze button. The length of the snooze time is adjusted via the Jog dial.
In addition, a credit-card-size remote control allows you to perform all of the functions from across the room.
The subwoofer's is a downward firing driver in the bottom of the cabinet and you will be amazed at the low reach and quality of the bass response in this small unit. I did not hear any cabinet vibrations or buzzing even when driving the unit at high volume with deep string bass passages.
I used several test CDs, a decibel meter, and a number or personal listening favorites to audit the audio performance. Overall response is very even -- the main speaker drivers are high quality and well balanced in tonal response with the subwoofer. One doesn't hear a gap or sudden change in tonal quality from the midbass to bass passages. I played a Tierney Sutton CD (Telarc 83592) with Sony Direct Stream Digital (DSD) processing. The high notes in the vocals were clear without sibilance even when the passages had deep loud bass tones that might drive other amplifiers into clipping and lots of distortion in the upper frequencies.
The tuner is very good and pulls in stations as well as some of my high priced independent component tuners, including a Kenwood, Marantz, and a Sony. I won't bother with the model numbers but they cost much more than the 730.
You don't have to add an antenna -- it can use the neutral wire in the power cord as an antenna, same as the Model 88 and many inexpensive radios. However, better reception can be gotten by adding an antenna, in which case you can switch out the power cord-antenna circuit.
A model with a CD player is also available and it is with CDs that the quality of the sound really comes through. The relative weakness of the radio performance being in the limits of FM radio broadcasting, not the 730 -- FM radio broadcast signals have less dynamic range than CDs and a narrow frequency range (30-15,000 vs 20 -20,000).
You can connect external signal sources, such as a CD player or a computer sound card audio output and one of the connections to do so is conveniently right on the front panel.
Even if this unit cost more than the Bose Wave, which has essentially the same features and functions, the 730 would be a better buy, because the sound is better, especially the bass which is less spongy. Luckily, the 730 costs much less -- you can find it for less than $200 if you shop around. Even less if you want to buy a refurbished unit.
I own or have set up for others, several of these radios. On occasion I've dropped or otherwise abused the thing and it didn't cause any damage -- no marks on the case, no internal damage, no change in performance. I don't recommend abuse but these are very well built.
The 730 won't sound like a $10,000 separate component audiophile system. But it sounds better than a lot of larger systems, including many component systems I've listened to. And because of the small size, this one can be fit into many more places -- put one of the refrigerator, in the den on a bookshelf, etc.
The reason I have more than one is that they sound so good and are so conveniently sized, I have one in several different rooms and in my office at work.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
shieber
|
|
Member: Scott Hieber
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.