...which isn't really saying much, when you consider how pathetic the five hundred dollar Bose Wave radio is.

People, it's not rocket science: if you want quality sound you, miniaturizing and cramming together all your components into one tiny little box is NEVER going to do the trick---don't fall for all the advertising snake oil about "revolutionary technology," "virtual surround sound," etc.

At the very least a compact stereo system like the one hundred eighty dollar Sony CMTHPX9 has *detachable* speakers so you can get proper stereo separation and proper speaker placement. Or the Sony MHC-GX450 for an extra twenty dollars has a detachable subwoofer as well, not the ludicrous what, 3-inch subwoofer this Cambridge radio has? Either of these would blow this thing clear out of the water!

Even better would be to browse jandr.com for something like a cheap receiver (Sherwood 7108, $130), cheap CD/DVD player (Toshiba 3960, $50), and speakers (Polk R15s, $100/pair) which would still cost less and would easily deliver five times better sound.

Ah, form factor---yes that's about the only thing that this Cambridge and that Bose Wave has going for it: I suppose if you live in a tiny five by ten foot closet (a NYC apartment perhaps?) it might be useful to have something this small.

Otherwise you are much better buying one of those compact stereos and a cheap clock radio for your bedside, which would probably cost you about half as much for far better sound quality!

I purchased this radio and exchanged it twice before finally returning the unit.

The first unit kept bad time (2-3 minutes a week) and had a display that wouldn't dim. The dimming was fixable without exchange, but the time remained an issue, so I exchanged it.

The second unit wouldn't dim at night and kept me up. The time was fine. The dimming was not reparable so I exchanged it. New unit (side by side with old) dimmed much more and was great in that respect.

The third unit kept horrible time, litteraly lost 1 minute or more a day. I reset the clock a number of times over a month and compared to the BBC time tone (which my watch was always in sync) and it was consistently off by more than 7 minutes a week. This unit was manufactured in August of 2004.

I returned it because, for me, it was a clock radio and the clock part was important. I couldn't figure out why it kept poorer time than my $15 timex wristwatch.

Great features:
- For the two alarms, the mode, volume, and stations could be set independently and these did not depend on what the radio was set to last. So you could go to sleep at a low volume radio and wake up to a higher volume CD or a higher volume radio set to a different station.
- Great sound.
- Plays MP3's, has AUX jack
- Adjustable sleep timer


It is doubly dissapointing because this is so close to being perfect, but three strikes and they're out.

By the way, customer service was always excelent and they bent over backwards to help me even after they knew I was reuturing the unit in the end.

After reading so many comments about how great the Cambridge 740 sounds, I bought one. Well....it sounds lousy. I was appalled by it's sonic inferiority. My twenty-five year old Advent radio still sounds much, much better. The 740 sounded lousy in the Cambridge store, but I chalked that up to poor store acoustics. When I got it home, it sounded just as lousy. Don't be conned by all the advertising and published hype; this thing reproduces music very poorly. This expensive boom-box is an insult to anyone who has the slightest appreciation for audio fidelity. Moreover, the FM reception is unbelievably poor. In San Francisco, it receives about four stations. Many major stations don't come in at all.......incredible! If this junk is all that Cambridge can come up with, I will not be surprised if they're gone in a few years. Bad, bad product. You've been warned.

I almost sent this back, because it wasn't as good as my Bose AM-5. Hah! It doesn't claim to be. Normal setting has a good bass boost, possibly too much for the classicist. Real boost is for people who don't mind going deaf before they're 30 yrs. old.

I've learned to enjoy it as a bedside unit, secondary to my better-balanced Bose.

I'm both a music fanatic and a surgeon who works in many different places in the hospital - I sometimes like listening to the radio, but more often like to listen to my own CDs. Even better, I like to listen to my own custom-made CD's with music of my choosing because doesn't it seem like almost EVERY album recorded comes with at least a couple of "dud" cuts?

With the Cambridge SoundWorks Radio/CD I get to go even one better: I get to pick and choose from among the 1,700 albums worth of MP3 living on my 160 GB external Hard Drive (all legally recorded from my personal CD collection) and record customized MP3 CDs. This way I get between 150 and 190 songs on a single disc. My ears can't tell the difference between the MP3's and the original CD.

How does it sound? Well - it sounds fantastic - the powered bass speaker system gives a foundation to Bach, Beethoven, Buffet, the Beatles and Bill Monroe that the Bose Wave system simply doesn't have: at the SAME PRICE I'd have no problems recommending the Cambridge over the Wave. Now... since the Cambridge checks in at about half the price of the BOSE - well that makes it an easy choice, doesn't it?

It's a good-looking, compact unit. It reads the files easily. The remote control is intuitive and fast.

If you've been waiting for the right "boom box" to play MP3 CDs, THIS IS IT!