- CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS RADIO CD DRIVERS
- CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS RADIO CD MANUAL
- CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS RADIO CD PLUS
My first review unit did not have a functioning CD drive. I thought of an alternate use: If you've got his and hers nanos, you might keep both connected simultaneously, using the back slot and auxiliary minijack for the second player. There is a slot behind the dock Cambridge put it there as a parking place for the remote. Neither of the adapters fit my first-generation iPod nano. Cambridge only supplies two docking adapters. You can set the sleep delay in 15-minute increments up to two hours.Īt 19 inches, the docking-station cable is just long enough to allow for placement on top of the unit or perhaps on an adjacent shelf. It dims in the dark, which actually makes it easier to read in a darkened room. The display can show text from RDS (Radio Data Service), from CDs, or from tagged MP3/WMA files. The headphone and auxiliary line-in minijacks are located on the front panel for easier access-you needn't grope around the back of the unit when you want to plug in another source (like, say, my SanDisk player).
CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS RADIO CD PLUS
On the back panel are only AM and FM antenna inputs, plus a 3.5-millimeter minijack and a 2.5-mm minijack that serve as line and power connections for the iPod dock. The control layout is shrewdly asymmetrical and uses background shading to group functions together, such as volume, transport, navigation, alarms, and presets. Here is where Cambridge's design sense kicks in. The supplied membrane-type remote control has 29 buttons. A traditional snooze bar is the only top-panel control. Two more pairs of buttons, relating to clock radio functions, flank the backlit white fluorescent display. They also have alternate uses, such as CD mode and folder navigation.
To the left of the volume knob are eight preset buttons. The legends that surround the controls spell out their alternate uses. Unfortunately, they are not distinguished in any other way (that is, by size, shape, color, or layout). To the right of the knob are transport controls identified by icons embossed into the buttons. Also in the jog menu is a three-position control that switches among standard stereo imaging, "Wide" stereo, and mono.Ĭentered horizontally on the front panel, there is a CD slot at the top and a large volume knob on the bottom. The closest the user interface gets to intricacy is the jog button, which cycles through bass, treble, and loudness controls, the latter of which provides further boosting to both bass and treble at low volumes.
CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS RADIO CD MANUAL
The manual is only 35 pages long, and that includes vast acreage of white space. At first glance, there seem to be a lot of buttons, but sometimes that makes a product easier to use. My review sample came in black with a gray center panel the white version is all white. Each of the main channels receives 4.5 watts. A "frequency-contoured" amplifier that delivers 13 watts powers the sub. A port is underneath the hard plastic grille centered at the bottom rear. A 4-inch "powered subwoofer" is built into the bottom-you can see it through its hard plastic grille beneath the right speaker. Their grilles are detachable, although the product's appearance doesn't improve if you remove them.
CAMBRIDGE SOUNDWORKS RADIO CD DRIVERS
This "2.1 speaker design," as Cambridge calls it, places a pair of 2-inch, full-range drivers at the edges of the front panel. The unit sports some curves at the sides but otherwise makes little attempt to prettify itself. The power supply is built in, so there is no wall wart hanging from the power cord. My first impression when I lifted the CD 745i out of the carton was, "Wow, this thing weighs a ton"-if a ton were 12 pounds. But look elsewhere (and prepare to spend more) if you need Sirius, XM, or HD Radio. Analog AM and FM radio have a long future in store-there is no digital transition underway in radio, as there is with digital television broadcasting. That doesn't make it a bad investment by any means. It does not support satellite or digital terrestrial broadcasting. The retrofit brings an already successful product family closer to being up to date.ĬD and iPod aside, the CD 745i's radio section is strictly AM/ FM. And it accommodates the iPod, although it keeps the latest audio revolution literally at arm's length, in a separate docking device that plugs into the back of the system. Its parents are of the CD generation, a 1980s format increasingly viewed as archaic by the latest generation of listeners. Its grandparents are the high-end radios of the 1950s. More than half a century of audio evolution has produced this modest box.
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