Sony ICFCDK50 Under Cabinet Kitchen CD Clock Radio

First of all, the reason I checked reception quality as only 3 stars has to do with my area.. my last device (an expensive radio/cd player) didn't have the terrific reception as this piece of electronics. It totally outweighs my earlier piece of equipment.. but I do believe I'm in a mediocre reception area. I took the advice of the instructions included (as well as the reviews here on Amazon) to install it away from the fridge. I am happy with the reception considering how poor my last piece of equipment performed. I am able to receive AM/FM NPR well. The CD player is perfect, with a choice of "repeat" the single play, shuffle, or the complete run of the music disc itself. Easy to understand the programming (I'm not the brightest crayon in the box) .. good, VERY good sound quality. The MP3 player ditto.. great sound! For the price this guy is a great bargain. I didn't have a power drill so ended up having to order one from Amazon to install it.. but I needed that little guy anyhow, so I don't mind the expense.. the schematic included (paper layout) for installation worked perfect for a 71 year old female intimidated by anything of this nature.. smooth as glass. I'm in a 549 sq ft loft.. space at a premium here.. installed under a kitchen cabinet it takes up NO room at all.. may be the best purchase of my LIFETIME!! I'll post a picture to the web page on Amazon. Hurrah!

I was pleased at the sound and features of this unit. It picks up FM really well and does good on the distant stations. On AM, it does well. It picks up the locals well, and the distant ok. Great sounding for talk-radio- not too much bass. Can be heard well enough to listen through the hums and static. The presets set easy, and is quite simple to run the whole thing. The CD player lacks a little for me. Just plays, and fast-forwards. No random, or repeat or program. When it plays to the end of the CD, it shuts off. Strictly plays CD's. No MP3, or anything else like that.From inserting a CD to playing, it could play a little quicker. The line-in feature is really cool. The cradle would hold most players. It does have a timer that plays louder than the music. Good if you like it loud. As far as the sound in general, it really will surprise you how well it sounds. I had an open mind the first time I turned it on, not expecting to have my hair straightened or anything. It has plenty of volume- enough to hear in several rooms or over the kids at least. The only equlization it had was a bass boost. That gave it a more full sound. I do wish there was at least a treble/bass setting to adjust. I had the location of mine down to two places when I bought it. I turned on the FM radio and held it in one place that was in a corner. Ok, but it sounded like it was in a cave. The next place was from hanging cabnets with no walls around it. GREAT! I recommend doing the same before actually drilling the holes. The cord is 5 feet long. The local hardware store had the tracks to hang/hide the cord to make it look classy. Make sure to test the radio and CD player before installation. My first unit had a defective CD player. No problem returning it- good job Amazon! They supply a template of paper to get the holes right. The best way to do it is to lay the paper in the bottom of the cabinet. Its a great radio/ CD player. If you want to feel the music around you in 6.1 Dolby, then get a system like that. This is a great space saver that sounds great.

I received this radio today and am very happy with it. It comes with a template that was very easy to use to drill the mounting holes on the bottom of the cabinet. I took my time and the total time to decide where to mount and actually mount took me about an hour. I tested it in a few different locations around the kitchen checking reception. Everywhere I tried it reception was decent. The audio in works well with my cell phone. I may add a Bluetooth receiver at some point so I can play music from google music or Pandora remotely. The sound is very good for a radio of this size and it plays both burned and regular CDs nicely. I love that it has both am and fm. I listen to NPR and classic rock on fm and in the summer I'm looking forward to listening to baseball games on am. There is also an option to turn off stereo and just listen on mono if the signal is not that strong. This was a pretty pricy option compared to some of the other kitchen radios, but Sony usually makes a pretty good product and I figured if I was going to drill holes on my cabinet for mounting I didn't want to be disappointed with an inferior product. I'll be recommending this product to friends and family if they are in the market for s kitchen radio. One small thing is that it didn't come with batteries for the remote. For a product in this prince range I think they should have included 2 AAA batteries. Not a big deal, just make sure you have batteries if you want to use the remote.

This replaces a larger counter-top Sony unit which had larger speakers and had pretty good fidelity. I mention that because it was a big contrast; the sound of this new unit is merely OK. It isn't bad, but because it is compact, it has to have small speakers. It isn't a good setup for music. I don't know if there can be an under-counter device with better fidelity for music, so I'm not knocking points off for that. The thing is only 2-3 inches deep and the speakers are tilted out, as much as possible, so the sound does not drive straight down into the counter. The reception on this is much better than the counter-top unit and that unit had an adjustable telescoping antenna. Your particular location may produce a different experience. I'm really happy with the radio reception on this one. Installation is pretty standard for any under-counter unit. That means that you will drill holes through the bottom shelf. The screw heads will then stick up, so plates and glasses can be tilted where the screw heads are. After drilling the holes for the screws (you don't need as large a hole as they say, check the size of the screws and widen with a larger drill-bit if you need to for alignment,) I countersunk for the heads. The screw heads are flat and not made to be countersunk. Screws made to counter-sink are wedge shaped with a flat head, and there is a nice cone-shaped tool for that. These screws are not like that. If you are daring, and, like me, you do not have a proper tool for this (if such a thing exists) and you do not hold me responsible for any bad outcome: Use a drill-bit large enough but DO NOT use the drill in normal/forward or the drill-bit will catch and you'll have no control over the depth. Instead, reverse the drill motor and that will let you use the drill-bit as more of a scraper to slowly do the counter-sink with better (not perfect!) control. Of course this assumes your shelf is thick enough to allow for this and still retain enough strength. I'd rather that they provided a bracket that screwed into the bottom of the shelf without having to drill clean through the bottom shelf and have those intrusive screw heads in your cabinet. That is, after-all, how computer keyboard trays attach and they are subject to far greater stresses. THAT I'm giving points off for. And finally... DON'T DO THIS: I, of course, pulled out the little holder for the backup battery, looked at it and pushed it back in... OK it pushes back in just fine, it just won't latch! It is on the bottom so, gravity being what it is, it won't stay! It is perhaps the worst and most useless bit of engineering I've ever seen by a major manufacturer. It is just to let you use one of those big flat round batteries to hold the time/stations settings if your power ever goes out. OK, so like how often are you going to change that? A small screw on a door would have been just fine but NO, they have some elaborate clip-in-battery-holder that, according to the instructions, you need to use a screwdriver on anyway! Not only that, you need a screwdriver of an almost perfectly customized dimensions to fit in the slot they have in mind. When I pulled the battery holder (there are indents for your fingers,) it came out easily, it also presses back in easily, it just does not latch back into place. Now what? It operates without the battery. Some day I'll put in a little screw or something to hold it.

I like this one. I needed a replacement for my old boom box, which won't play MP3's, and boy, it's hard to find one that's big enough to sound good, and inexpensive enough to afford. I intend to use mine in a sewing room, so under-cabinet mounting is not an option for me. I was worried about that, but after looking it over, I found I can mount it to the wall or desk, sideways, too. Not sure if the CD will play sideways, but I don't use CD's, so not a biggie to me. GOOD: * Surprisingly good sound. I'm not saying it's "good for the price", I'm saying it's just good, with plenty of volume. * Nice Size. Not so big as to be obtrusive, but not so small as to be difficult to operate. * Easy to operate, and see. Buttons are clearly marked, and logical. * The Remote works well, tho limited function. Well marked, also. * Love the auto Clock. No more fooling with setting the clocks all the time. Yay! * Multiple functions, and accepts MP3's, as well as IPODs. (Be sure your MP3 player is playing, before you send back the radio for not working - as I almost did. Think of it as an external speaker, rather than an MP3 player.) * LOVE the Digital radio presets. We have poor reception, so it's great to not have to search every time. * Easy to install guide, & long screws and spacers included for under cabinet mounting. * Nice looking, and doesn't look or feel cheap. BAD: * Overall sound is very good, but the Bass is not perfect. Not sure why they even have the Megabass button, as I can't imagine anyone wanting it off. * I'm going to mount mine sideways, but it would be nice if they offered a version that would sit on a table or mount on a wall in this price range, with this functionality. (They don't, & believe me, I've looked.) * Would be nice if you didn't have to use the long mounting spacers, included. Unfortunately, they only have really long screws for mounting, assuming you will want the long spacers. I'll have to work around that. * Remote control is a nice add on, but it needs line of sight, so that's a drag. Better if it would work on a bounce too, as mine won't be in line of sight. Overall, I like this very much. I don't need it in the kitchen, but if you do, this is a great unit. I've had the kitchen under-mounts before, and loved them. Great for keeping the counters clear, and this one is sleek enough not to cheapen the looks of your kitchen. I have one in the garage, too, and it's great out there, as well. It plays plenty loud enough to blow you out of the room.

SONY ICFCDK50 UNDER CABINET KITCHEN CD CLOCK RADIO We have had this unit in our kitchen for years. Our daughter liked it so much that she asked for one for Christmas. Ask and you shall receive -- Kim likes this radio/CD player as much as we do. It has a good, strong signal, allowing you to preset 15 radio stations. You can mix/match between AM and FM stations. The CD player works very well and accepts burned CDs. When playing a CD the sound is also very strong and pleasing. There is a plug in for your I-phone allowing you to listen to music stored on your phone or from your Pandora app. The signal on this is also very strong and much louder than when listening from your I-phone. Our daughter did say she wishes the audio input cord was longer for her I-phone. But, still, it works well for her.. Other good features include a remote control that is magnetic and can be stored wherever you wish to keep it. The distance factor is good on this, although I have found I need to be in the same room as the radio. It sure comes in handy while sitting at the table working, wishing you had some good tunes to listen to, and using the remote, you don't even have to get up from your comfortable seat. If there is a disruption in electrical service, once power is restored the radio will work immediately and the time will automatically return to the correct time thanks to the Lithium battery. Also, the time is preset so once you have installed the unit, the time is right or can be changed to your specific time zone. Installation is also easy, both of our families mounted ours under a kitchen cabinet. The men in our lives handled this with little or no problems. Thanks, guys. There is also a cooking timer that comes in handy if you place the radio in your kitchen as we did. It's so nice to do your kitchen chores while being able to sing along with the radio, listen to your favorite CD or music stored on your phone, or perhaps listen to an audio book while making that next fantastic meal. All in all, a great little unit that fits and is hidden well under any cabinet anywhere you would like to have some music in your home. And you can't beat the price either! Thanks. Pam

I installed this in my kitchen underneath a cabinet and it looks great. It's only about 4 inches in height or seemingly less, and was easy to install with the paper hole alignment guide provided. You put the paper guide into the cabinet and then you use a drill to make the holes through the bottom of the cabinet. I countersunk the screws into the wood by using a slightly larger drill bit to make small areas for the screw head. I didn't use the provided spacers, and instead just mounted the unit flush against the cabinet, and it looks great! Now about the unit, the sound is great for our kitchen. I always leave the megabass setting on, without it it does not fill them room as well. I can crank this unit way up and hear it in all the rooms of my house, and it does not sound bad or like the speakers are going to break. So that's great, you can crank this baby!!! The CD player works great, just like you would expect. Clock is fine. Timer is fine. Also hooked up to my ipod through the audio-in cord provided and that worked great as well. Five presets buttons (actually 10 FM and 5 AM) make it really easy to switch around. The remote controller is neat, but don't really need to use it as I can reach the unit just as easily. Controller does not reflect off walls or anything like that, so you need a clear line-of-sight to make it work. Overall, this is a great product and my wife and I love it!

I have been looking for an inexpensive radio for my work bench for quite a while. What I really wanted was an AM/FM radio that I could mount out of the way and that also supported an input for my MP3 player. I was starting to think that no such item existed until I came across this radio - so I bought it and mounted it under my work bench. The sound quality is good for a radio in this price range and there is a handy battery backup for whenever the power gets cut momentarily (which is fairly common out there just because I'm always dinking around with stuff). I also love that my MP3 player hooks up so easily, which gives me acces to pretty much all my music when I don't feel like listening to the radio. I kind of doubt I will ever use the CD player. Unfortunately, I immediately found that the quality of the FM reception was so poor I couldn't stand to listen to it (AM was fine). After a couple of days of playing around with the position of the power cord, I realized that the problem was feedback from the battery charger for my cordless drill that is plugged into the same outlet. Once I realized that, I changed how everything is plugged in and now the FM reception is very good :). It's too bad this doesn't just have an external FM antenna so people don't run into this problem - I docked a star just for this reason. I'll make one more comment about the more expensive version of this radio, the ICF-CDK70. When I was having all the reception issues, I thought I'd go give that one a try and I realized that this model (ICF-CDK50) is better in pretty much every way as long as you don't care about the CD changer. The ICF-CDK70 is bulkier, it does NOT have a battery backup, it still has the FM antenna in the power cord, it uses the same speakers, and it doesn't have the handy preset buttons for radio stations. In some ways, I can't believe they call it an upgrade! If you are considering one of these, I highly recommend sticking with this model. Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase.

When I saw this in a friend's kitchen, I had to have one, too! It is the perfect tool for anyone that spends a significant amount of time in the kitchen, but doesn't want to be tripping over a large, bulky getto blaster, whether it's on the floor or the counter top. Plus, with the way this mounts under your cabinets, it doesn't take up any additional space! The remote is great, as you can carry it in your pocket in case you need to quickly turn the sound down or off and aren't within close reach of the system. And it has a great range of volume. You can easily turn it up and hear it throughout your house! Haven't yet plugged in an iPod or MP3 player to it, but that is a great feature to have. Local radio stations don't pick up any static either, which is nice. All in all, this is a great little unit. And was a great early Mother's day present!

Das Gerät wurde schnell geliefert. Das Vorgängergerät in der Küche war auch von Sony. Dennoch waren vier neue Löcher im Schrank nötig - jetzt hat er halt acht. Der Einbau war dank Bohrschablone problemlos. Ein echtes Highlight ist der Kurzzeitwecker. In meinem Haushalt gibt es fünf Personen, davon sind zwei weiblich. Alle können diesen Wecker dank Dreh-Drück-Knopf und guter akustischer und visueller Rückmeldung problemlos bedienen. Diese für ein Küchenradio wichtige Funktion hat in meinem vorigen Gerät ICF-CD513 gefehlt - mein vor-voriges Gerät ICF-CD533 hatte sie noch. Ich war schwer beeindruckt von der Ingenieursleistung der Entwickler bei der Uhrenfunktion. Die automatische Einstellung der Uhrzeit wurde trotz vorhandener MW-Antenne nicht mit Funkuhr gelöst, sondern viel komplizierter mit Quarzuhr, eingebautem Kalender, Pufferbatterie und manueller Zeitzoneneinstellung. Trotz dieser herausragenden Ingenieursleistung war die Uhrzeit bei Lieferung um eine Stunde daneben. Die automatische Sommer/Winterzeitumstellung funktioniert immerhin. Einziger Wermutstropfen dieser Lösung ist die Gangabweichung der Quarzuhr, die bislang nicht auffiel, mit einer Funkuhr auf lange Sicht aber nicht mithalten kann. Ach ja - das FM-Radio hat besseren Empfang als das alte Gerät, und der Klang ist auch viel besser. Ich bin zufrieden, deshalb fünf Sterne.

Brilliant piece of kit- Easy to fix beneath wall unit. Practice with spacers first to understand how they work. Not cheap! but sound quality is good and tuner is precise.

Dieses Gerät habe ich gekauft, weil es das einzige war, das fast nur positive Feedbacks hatte und ich muß sagen, daß ich angenehm überrascht wurde. Die Montage war supereinfach, allerdings sind zwei Leute dafür erforderlich, das steht aber auch in der Anleitung. Die Antenne ist im Stromkabel integriert, endlich keine häßliche Wurfantenne mehr. Der Klang ist sehr gut im Vergleich zu anderen Geräten, alle meine Lieblingssender empfange ich störungsfrei, habe auch schon Klassik-CD's damit gehört, bin rundum zufrieden und kann dieses Gerät nur jedem empfehlen, der etwas Wert auf Qualität legt, jetzt kann ich nur noch hoffen, daß diesem CD-Radio ein langes Leben beschert wird.

clear and precise tones and verbals easy to operate would strongly recommend C/D has good sound and easy to operate Attractive piece of equiptment