Sonic Boom Alarm Clock
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List Price: Our Price: $24.72 You Save: $14.23 (37%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Health Care See more product details |
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Customer Reviews of Sonic Boom Alarm Clock
Customer Review: Yowza!
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me begin by saying that I have an issue with the "snooze button." Not the snooze button on the Sonic Alert SB200 Sonic Boom Loud Vibrating Alarm Clock (TM) per se, just snooze buttons in general. I've been known to catch an extra hour of sleep on some mornings . . . all in nine-minute intervals.
I'm probably sleep deprived, but whatever . . . the system worked for me.
It did NOT, however, work for my wife, who sweetly informed me one morning that she knew where I sleep and that I was a very deep sleeper and that if I didn't find some way to get myself out of bed in the morning without hitting the snooze button for an hour . . . something bad COULD (she's too clever to make a clearly threatening statement) happen to me.
So, in the spirit of cooperation, domestic tranquility and my continued well being, I set out looking for a vibrating alarm clock. The thinking here was that, if there were no loud, annoying beeping, my dulcit darling would not have to suffer the slings and arrows of my outrageous morning ritual.
That was the idea, anyway.
What I failed to take into account was the POWER of the Sonic Alert SB200 Sonic Boom Loud Vibrating Alarm Clock.
Whoa nelly.
This thing will practically THROW you out of the bed. Unfortunately, it will practically throw anyone else out of the bed who may be in there with you. So if, like me, you were looking for some way of gently rousing yourself without disturbing the beauty sleep of your partner . . . this may not be the right model for you.
Beyond that, the construction seems to be fairly cheap. The buttons are small and setting the alarm between vibrate AND buzz, just vibrate or just buzz is more difficult than I am willing to settle for for the price. (Not that it's really "difficult" just getting the cheap little plastic slider to click into the right (tiny) notch gets frustrating if I have to attempt it more than once, or, you know . . . LOOK at what I'm trying to do.) Also, perhaps worst of all, the "SNOOZE" button is on the far RIGHT side. The "ALARM OFF" is on the far LEFT side. If you happen to be a bit groggy in the morning and only happen to remember that the "snooze" was on the side . . . this can spell trouble (and has).
But I don't want to criticize this machine too much. As I say, it is QUITE powerful and I'm sure that it will work well for someone who may be hearing impared or what-have-you. It didn't meet my needs perfectly, but then again I don't think MY PERSONAL SITUATION is exactly what this alarm clock was designed to address.
Hopefully this will help someone out there.
Customer Review: Best alarm clock EVER
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was a kid, I could set the alarm on my watch, and it would wake me up. When I was in my 20s, a clock radio would do. Now that I'm in my late 30s, I'm finding even three or four clock radios ineffective - they just irritate me instead of convincing my to get up, and then I get mad, and then the morning is shot.
This clock seems to have been made for deaf, or near deaf folks. It has both audible and vibration alarm modes, and you can have one or the other or both. The audible alarm has both a volume and a pitch adjustment. You can set it high and squeeky, or kind of the annoying mid-range tone you're more used to hearing from an electronic alarm, or anywhere in between. That's kind of a unique feature all by itself, and I'm sure it's intended for folks that can only hear in a certain range of tones.
WARNING: this clock can be LOUD. I would be considered a person with normal hearing, and the volume on this thing at level 8 is PAINFULLY loud. WAY louder than other clocks that may claim to be the "world's loudest alarm". When this thing came out of the box, the volume was set on 8, and when I plugged it in and was setting the time, the alarm went off unexpectedly, and my ears HURT afterwards. I've never heard it on 10, and I never want to. 2 or 3 is about as loud as a normal alarm clock.
However, I generally don't use the audible portion of the alarm at all. The clock comes with a little white pod, a little bigger than a cell phone, perhaps, but round like a saucer. It had a long, sturdy chord that plugs into the clock itself. You can put it under your mattress or in your pillow case. I find this the coolest, least annoying, most reliable way to wake up I've yet run across. Way better than lights that slowly turn on (they don't wake me up). The body seems hard wired to wake up fully alert when something nearby vibrates, but it isn't annoying like an alarm clock buzz.
The vibration pod does not need to be plugged in for the clock and audible alarm to work, so if you don't like the vibration, you're not stuck with it.
A word of caution: if you put the vibration pod in your pillowcase and the chord runs to the alarm clock, I could see potential for getting yourself wrapped up in it. Clearly it's not suitable for use with children, and if you toss and turn a lot, I would definately think about the ramifications of the chord. The easy solution, of course, is to put it under your mattress. The vibration is strong enough that it will wake you either way, in my opinion.
Customer Review: Great for the hard of hearing
Summary: 5 Stars
My hearing has been deteriorating for years, and all of the alarm clocks I've head over the past ten years have the same problem: they're not *loud* enough. On top of that, even if they are, I get used to the sound (and radio alarm clocks don't work for me, either, because music or people talking - or the static of an off-air channel - simply do not wake me up.) and sleep right through it.
This little gem, though? Awesome! The alarm can be set to REALLY LOUD, but the best audible feature is that you can change the pitch of the beeper: just give it a bit of a nudge to the left or right (it's a little spinwheel thingee) before you go to sleep, and you won't know what's going to wake you, so there's a smaller risk of getting used to the beeps.
What makes this alarm clock a winner to me, however, is the vibrating disk. Stuck between the box spring and mattress, it feels like someone is nudging me - which, lately, seems to be the only thing that truly wakes me up on instant. The disk is about 3, 4 inches in diameter, about an inch high, and comes with a 6 foot cord that attaches to the back of the clock, long enough so that I can lead the cord behind my night stand and bed.
The clock can be set to both 12H and 24H with a little switch at the back - being a European, I find it hard to get used to the AM/PM thing here in the US.
You don't need much space for the clock (it's only 2.5 inches deep and 6 wide), but is not as flimsy as some reviewers claim: the 2.5 inch is the total depth of the clock's bottom side. Granted, you can't switch it to snooze with a bang, because the snooze button is the second tiny button on the right top, but that only helps in the waking up process, the way I see it. Switching it off completely is done with a little slider on the left.
The display has two settings for brightness: high and low. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say high would be 8, and low would be 7.999991... but the color of the display is green, which is a lot less bright than the red displays a lot of alarm clocks used to come with, or the fancy blue my last alarm clock had - which illuminated the room like a flare.
The clock works on a 9 volt adapter (included), which tends to get a little warm - as all adapters do. The clock itself, being only 9 volts, stays cool to the touch.
All in all, from my experience so far, I'd say one could do a LOT worse for the price of this little device.
Customer Review: If it awakens my daughter (and it does), it will work for you
Summary: 5 Stars
My daughter is 17 and can sleep like no other. I've stood in the kitchen in amazement as both her cell phone and her escalating volume alarm clock (one of our failed attempts to remedy the situation), blasting out from behind her closed door one story above me and on the opposite end of the house, have gone unnoticed. I've then called her cell number repeatedly. No answer. The escalating alarm clock still at full volume, begging her to wake up. Nothing. Eventually, my wife or I must enter her room and shake her gently to wake her up. It's amazing how little nudging we must do to wake her up, after all of the audible attempts have failed.
So I turned to amazon for an answer. I had to find something so my wife didn't have to set her alarm on her days off just to awaken my daughter (and yes ladies, on days that I'm not out of the house before o' dark thirty, I take my turn as well).
Enter this wonderful alarm clock. I found it by searching for "Loud alarm clocks." Turns out that volume isn't the key. The vibrating pad is. It shakes the bed enough to awaken a very deep sleeper (recall what I said about the relatively gentle nudge it takes to wake her up). My daughter has been using the alarm for about two weeks now and we have not once had to get her up for work or school. The good thing is that she also likes it because although it awakens her, she doesn't feel startled.
The pad vibrates and pulsates, and it's surprisingly strong. Instructions and reviews say it can be placed between the box spring and mattress, or under the pillow. One lady's review noted a concern about getting the hand or arm wrapped up in the cord if it's under the pillow, and I agree that this is not just a possibility, but a likelihood. Credit my daughter - she figured out to place it under the form fitting sheet directly below her pillow. The cord is then routed under the sheet to the floor at the head of the bed, and there is no way it will be hit in the middle of the night.
I highly recommend this alarm clock. I normally wouldn't do that this soon because reliability is an important part of every purchasing decision I make, and it's far too early for me to tell how this will hold up. However, it has done everything I was looking for (and was not optimistic about finding). My daughter now wakes up independently and consistently.
Customer Review: Works for a while, but then just died, for no good reason!
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a very heavy sleeper, so I'm always on the lookout for a more effective alarm clock.
When I first got this alarm, it seemed to work well. It was nice that you could choose to have the vibrate function, beeping function, or both as the wake up alarm. It's definitely loud, but not as loud as they would have you believe. Volume-wise, it's probably not that much louder than my old radio alarm clock.
However, over a week or so, I noticed that I would grow accustomed to the vibrations (feels like a nice massage, rather than obnoxious rumbling or shaking) and could sometimes sleep a few hours with the alarm going off.
That's all fine and dandy... but then... about one month later, the alarm function stopped working altogether! Neither the vibration or beep function worked. I tried unplugging the alarm... turning it off and on... nothing helped fix it. when all seemed lost, I also smacked the alarm a few times... nope that didn't make it start working again either. :-P
I had never traveled with the alarm, so there was no possible impact or trauma on the alarm clock in any way, unless there was some damage during the shipping process, but oh well, I don't have much control over that.
Eventually I just gave away the alarm to someone who wanted a clock to put in the garage.
Now it's time for me to go on a series of trips across the country where waking up on time is crucial. So here I'm on Amazon, about to give Sonic Boom another chance. I ordered another model, in the hopes that a different model might last longer (however, based on the reviews, it seems like every model has problems with durability).
Yeah, desperation makes you do stupid things sometimes. I'll be sure to update if my 2nd Sonic Boom Alarm Clock lasts longer. I'll also keep the box this time, so that there might be a chance for returning it to the manufacturer or something...