JBL On Time 400IHD High-Performance Speaker Dock with HD Digital Radio for iPod (Black)

[EDIT] 2010-19-02I sent my first JBL On Time 400IHD to JBL because the weekday alarm kept going off on Sunday. Unfortunately, the replacement unit arrived with the same problem. Here is the response from JBL when I inquired whether I should send it back or if all units were defective...JBL: "Thanks for your e-mail. Unfortunately, this was a flaw in the unit. Sundays count as weekdays. Instead of setting it for weekdays, you should set it manually for each individual day."Thar's right, you read that correctly. JBL is selling an alarm clock when they know the alarm doesn't work correctly! Yeah, I'm pissed.[ORIGINAL REVIEW]It comes with clear plastic universal dock adapters. While the box and documentation don't mention the iPhone, it does come with a dock adapter made for the iPhone. It sits on top of the radio and includes a one inch tall support tab behind the phone when docked.The iPhone charges as expected but is otherwise not recognized by the 400iHD. iPods are supposedly accessible from the radio, with the ability to browse playlists and control playback, even from the remote. This functionality doesn't work with the iPhone. The iPhone's screen can still be used though so it is possible to control playback from there and have it come out of the speakers. With a first gen iPhone, cell traffic has yet to be audible while listening to HD Radio. While not listed as being iPhone compatible, it appears to have adequate shielding to prevent the typically audible cell activity.HD Radio tuning seems good but I don't have any other models to test in the same location. There are spring clip connectors for an included AM loop antenna. It has a F-connector for either the included FM single-pole or di-pole antennas.The screen is a blue-backlit monochrome LCD with adjustable brightness and contrast. Even at the lowest setting, it illuminates my bedroom at night. I can't yet decide if I'll be able to keep it next to my bed as my alarm clock as originally intended. The light is noticeable through closed eyelids.The screen simultaneously displays: station frequency and FM-HD# extension when applicable, station call letters and HD# extension when applicable, an iPod connected status indicator, an HD radio indicator, and HD radio signal strength bar graph, time in either 12 or 24 hour format, artist, song name, and date. With all this information, the time is a only about 1/3" high, visible from 2 feet or closer at night without my glasses.The buttons on the radio and on the remote are... horrible i'll have to admit. They don't always respond even when pressed fully and deliberately. It behaves like a lagging computer that doesn't always recognize input. At least 25% of all button presses are completely ignored. Sometimes I'll press the button again only to have the clock catch up and quickly perform the action twice rather than just once.When setting the time this is especially aggravating. It doesn't let you hold down the up or down button, instead every minute has to be a separate button click, some of which don't register. Manually tuning the radio is also not possible by holding down a button. Instead each .2 frequency change must bee clicked separately, with some of the clicks not registering. Quick button clicks are less likely to work.Other functionality is inconsistent as well. The radio seek is a great example. Sometimes it'll land on a station and exit scan mode, other times it'll stay on the station momentarily and then scan again. I'll hit the station I want, check if the scan is still on, and hit the scan button again to cancel the scan. Sometimes this causes the radio to scan again, sometimes it stops scanning. The same is true with HD radio scanning.The button layout is horrible at best. One of the most commonly used buttons is the right arrow button (labeled with the 90 degree down and left arroww commonly used on querty keyborads for enter). However there is a seperate enter button that is more prominently labeled on the remote but never used in the clock interface, only by the iPod interface. On the clock, this most commonly used button is arranged as the right button in basically a pad of four directional arrows. Yet this pad of direction arrows isn't used to initiate much of the functionality for which the button is used in conjunction with. On the remote this button is placed it in the middle of 24 identical buttons arranged in a perfect grid. It isn't in the corner, isn't a different shape or size, and is completely counter intuitive. It's hard to explain, but it feels like if someone moved the "enter" button on a normal computer to a random and inconvenient location, like where the "7" key key is located. Imagine how inconvenient that would make computer usage. That is what the using the 400iHD feels like.Otherwise, the onscreen menu system for setting the clock, alarms, and other settings is quite logical. If only the buttons to access it were located more logically.Alarm functionality is nice. You can choose: everyday, weekdays, weekends, day, or once. Four seperate alarms can be set seperately, each configured for a particular radio station or iPod playlist (allegedly, i haven't got it to work with an iPhone).But unfortunately there is a MAJOR flaw with the alarm. This radio forgets what day of the week it is for some months. Weekday and weekend alarms don't work as intended because of this. Since this is dependent on the date, I double checked the date including MM/DD/YYYY format considerations. Everything checked out... except for the alarm working reliably that is. Some months the radio just gets the day of the week wrong. That is until you go and re-enter today's date (without changing it). All of a sudden it know which day of the week it is again.Sleep functionality is present but the interface is clunky. You can't just press it to turn the radio on for the configured time period. Instead you must power up the radio and then click the button and choose a time duration with the non responsive up and down arrows and then the hidden enter button. Certainly not as convenient as hitting the button and getting an hours worth of sound.Switching between AM/FM/iPod/Aux is cumbersome as well. Instead of individual source buttons or a single button to toggle between them. You have to invoke a source selection menu, then use the up and down keys, then use the right arrow key. Once again, because the buttons are not reliable, this makes changing sources ridiculously complicated.Sound quality is reasonable for a clock radio. It uses something called "COE" and "OCT". "COE (COMPUTER OPTIMIZED EQUALIZATION) The JBL On Time 400iHD system equilization is computer optimized to provide rich, complete sound stage." and "OCT (OPTIMIZED COMPRESSION TOPOLOGY) a proprietery compression technology to ensure clean, accurate sound at high output levels."The power chord is three pronged and includes a AC/DC transformer. The radio can be detached from this so that the cord can be fed through a pencil sized hole drilled in a headboard if need be.Battery backup is provided by 3 AAA batteries. Too bad the backup doesn't actually work. I've tried numerous sets of batteries that are confirmed to work. But the battery backup just doesn't work on this radio.The HD Radio has a "tag" button, allowing you to tag the currently playing song. It transfers the info to the docked iPod and is intended for later purchase/download in iTunes. Since it doesn't work with an iPhone, I was unable to test this functionality.

I bought this product mainly for the HD clock radio and in this area the product delivers what I expect from a JBL: good sound and a unique well built design. It is expensive for a clock radio but at least you can feel and see the qaulity of the materials. It just feels good to the touch. The comments I've heard about the buttons not working except for when they want to is a little misleading. It's just that other than the on/off switch none of the buttons are "classic" buttons in that they toggle something on and off. The buttons are more like direct paths to a sub-menu that you could also access from the "home" screen. But either way it is an electronic command going through a processor and it can only process one command at a time, so it ignores what it considers an extraneous selection (say you're setting the clock and want to change the station, it will make you wait). It's different but I wanted different after the same boring turndial for 20 years. It will fill a bedroom with full rich sound, which is refreshing to hear coming out of an alarm clock. It's not loud enough to thump for a party, but it has good tone (and that's good cause you can't change it). On the plus side it won't distort even at full volume and also too the unit itself doesn't begin to resonate and chatter like a cheapo. It does have a bright display which could bother a pitch dark sleeper but it doesn't bother me and I actually find it cool. I think the alarm problems possibly stem from the date not being set correctly. I have one alarm for weekdays and one alarm for weekends and I love not being disturbed at 6:15 on a Saturday because I forgot to turn my alarm off. But if the date is off you're going to be all screwed up. Here again too you are turning the alarms on with a menu not a hard switch and I had to read the manual to figure out how to confirm an alarm is on. But after they're set you can forget them. I don't know about IPOD functionality. All and all I say If you like the unconventional go for it. I took the time to write this review because I only started reading the reviews after I had made the purchase and then needlessly fretted with buyer's remorse for 3 days until it got here.

I like this product a lot it does what it says and provides me both HD radio and Ipod dock in one package and i like the way it produces sounds. I use a Nano 8GB 3G so i don't know if it works with any of the Itouch or Iphone.I listened to this @ best buys before purchasing including the Altec, Bose, Logitech and various clock radios for the price you cannot beat it. It was on sale on amazon for $126 and well worth it, the altec always seemed not to work and when they did sound more tinny than the JBL. The Bose sounded good if not better but only very slightly and the prices starting @ $299 and up IMO over priced for what you get, Logitech again tinny.The remote stopped working once and i unplugged the ac unit and it started working again so far so good. the unit has a COAX plug in the back we do receive radio via the cable on our TV but for some reason only the antenna's provided is the only way to pick up any HD station it's probably my misunderstanding about the Radio via cable and HD radio as well???Before you Bose lovers start bashing this review my requirements were good sound on a budget and the JBL works for me. I have friends who have the $399 bose sound dock and really no radio a huge ac brick and sound only slightly better than my JBL and the Bose is quite a bit larger than my little JBL and yet it sounds bigger than it looks!Listen for yourself before you buy if you can, your own ears are the best judge for any speaker product.Thanks for reading my review.