I did some research on what I would get to replace it and found that many of the options involve some sort of ipod or mp3 player doc. I neither have an ipod nor do I think that the clock radio that is basically used to inform me of the time when I wake up at night needs to have internet connectivity, a digital picture, soothing rain forest sounds, CD player or the miriad of other feature that I will never use.
One feature that stood out was an auto dimming for the numbers. Many of the newer models the light is soo bright it illuminates the whole room. Another that is becoming more common is auto time set. Standard necessities would be a dual alarm and snooze. You think that it would be easy to find but as I said your options are limited.
Some words of advice:
- Get one with larger numbers that light up. Yes I'm getting old and need glasses to see but it's easier to see in the middle of the night as opposed to a backlit one that has black numbers.
- The autodimming then becomes a good feature as the 3 inch blue numbers will light up the neighbourhood if you don't do it.
- If you can get two speakers good for you as one small one usually makes the sound very sharp. Not that bad when all you listen to if for is 5 minutes in the morning.
- Battery backup for when the power goes out. Which makes the auto time set even better. How will you know if the power went out? Check the flashing clock on your stove or microwave.
Now this is a far cry from my first clock radio I got I think when I was around 11 or 12. One I like to refer to as a schlock clock, more commonly known as a flip clock. These were the ones where every minute the numbers would flip over with a loud schlock. Much to my surprise there was one similar to the picture below available at Wal Mart.
