Philips docking system for iPod/ iPhone DC290 Aluminium
3.6
5
15
16
Absolutely love it
I have had this for about 10 months now and I love it. For the price the sound is super and it is easy to use. It looks great and I love that you can close the docking area for sleekness and to keep the dust out. I listen to music, books on tape and the radio and have no complaints about this product.
11 March 2013
Plays music but keeps doing the beep for disconnect and reconnect while its charging.
Looks and sounds great! But it keeps not getting enough voltage or something. Keeps showing charging then not constantly.just purchased today and will unfortunately return tomorrow.
21 January 2013
We call it the "devil radio"
This docking system looks good, but it has been nothing but trouble for us. The radio turns on in the middle of the night for no reason. This usually happens several time a night. We unplug it and then in the morning it works fine again for a few weeks then in the middle of the night BAM the radio turns on again and wakes us up. I could never recommend this docking station. I think ours is possessed. We can go several months with no problems then once again for unexplained reasons BAM it turns on in the night and wakes us.
27 December 2012
It sounds great
The Philips docking system is compact and sounds great but playing the iPhone or iPod, after 5 minutes of play it stops and you have to press the source button again to keep listening... Why does that is a mistery. Other than that, it's a great buy!
16 December 2012
Great to wake up to
I love how the music comes on at a low volume and works up to the volume you choose to wake you up in the morning. The sound is great. It looks bulky and sterile on my nightstand. It is time to change the time for daylight savings and I can't figure out how to do it??
4 November 2012
Lasted a year
I have had this alarm clock for a little over a year and for most of that time it worked fine: I could never get it to play the right playlist, but the sound was good and I liked many of the features. Then, out of the blue one day, it stopped charging my phone. I generally expect an alarm clock, which never leaves my night stand, to last longer than a year. I was pleased with the device when I first purchased it, but now its pretty much useless.
1 October 2012
Excellent Product
Purchased to replace an older iPod docking clock radio from another manufacturer whose alarm1 had been behaving erratically. Had read the reviews on this product and was a little concerned by some of them while others simply displayed a lack of understanding, as far as I could tell. The key features I was looking for were (a) waking up to a user defined playlist on my iPod and (b) good quality sound. Meets both of these.
With respect to its other features these are the things I appreciate
1) Ability to set time by hour and minute separately -- much better than having to turn a dial to run thru the time sequentially.
2) Ability to set the date! (totally unexpected..)
3) The richness of the sound produced - especially with the bass boost on. You can actually feel the resonance produced by it.
4) Ease of tuning the radio, i.e., no effort at all after it searches and programs 20 stations. Read the complaints about only playing FM and not AM. View that complaint as trivial; previous iPod docking clock radio played both AM and FM but unless you were willing to dedicate nightstand space to the somewhat weird AM antenna provided, it was pretty useless. And the quality of the reception even then was not so great. FM is much more reliable; better quality ALWAYS over AM.
5) The functionality provided by the remote control -- really really nice. VERY easy to use. Replicates nearly everything that one can do with the controls on the main device.
Things that I think still need some work:
1) Control of the Ipod. As far as I can tell, it's impossible to move from track to track within an album . Pressing the skip track doesn't just skip a track ... it skips to the next album and the next track in THAT album. Not sure if what's happening is that the DC290 views the Ipod as a sorted collection of tracks ignoring the fact that those tracks are organized by albums or what. But it's annoying. One can use the MENU button to work thru the menu on your iPod to start playing an album or playlist but then.. you can't skip to the next track in the album or playlist -- it goes off and plays something else. The only rationale I can think of is that it's seeking the next track alphabetically by track name (track number would make even less sense). Is this a fault of the DC290 or simply a fact-of-life given the level of interaction possible between the DC290 and the Ipod? (I have an iPod Classic btw).
2) Would appreciate the ability to set the doze/snooze time at a time OTHER than just after the alarm has 'sounded' and I activate the "repeat alarm" mode (aka doze, snooze). Would like to be able to configure that at the same time that the alarm is set up .
3) Would there be any way to control the time spent fading in the source before reaching full volume when the alarm time is reached? The volume does rise gradually to full volume starting at the set alarm time. Trying to adjust how long that process lasts and perhaps control when the process starts (e.g., n minutes before the actual alarm time)
4) Crispness of the response of the buttons on the remote control. When the buttons are pressed.. the tactile response is a bit squishy. And the lag in response between pressing a button and seeing its effect can seem significant. Especially true sometimes when interacting with the iPod Menu.
Overall... like the product very much. Compact footprint on my nightstand. Clean sharp appearance. VERY glad I bought it.
12 May 2012
Good sound, but ...
This unit has quite good sound quality. Not user friendly to me however. The alarm cannot be disengaged without a thorough review of a user manual. I would much prefer a simple push/pull knob. No instructions as to dimming the display. Probably good for a techie, but not for the likes of me ...
2 April 2012
