Emerson Dual Alarm AM/FM SmartSet Clock Radio (CKS9031)

Summary: A *very* well-designed clock that is worth every penny of its price.Pros:- It automatically sets itself, but you can tweak it if need be.- The dual alarms are very easy to set.- Daylight Savings Time adjustments are automatic.- The display is easy to read.- The buzzer is actually fairly pleasant-sounding. Here's the kicker: instead of suddenly going off full-volume and scaring the daylights out of you, it starts off very quiet and gets louder with each successive beep until it reaches full volume, taking probably 10 beeps or so to get there. I don't generally get past about the first 4 or 5 before I'm getting out of bed. Quite nice.Cons:- The speaker doesn't exactly sound great, but, then again, this isn't a Bose or anything, either.Other:- For an alarm clock, it has a pretty decent size footprint, roughly 5"x8". If you have a small or cluttered nightstand, it may be something worth considering.- The display is really bright even with the dimmer switch set. With the dimmer turned off, this clock could very easily double as a night light. Turned on, it's still pretty bright. If you are someone who needs near-complete darkness to sleep, this may not be the best choice for you, but for most people it shouldn't be any problem whatsoever.This is my second Emerson SmartSet. I got rid of the first one because it had been made before the changes to Daylight Savings Time made in 2007. Otherwise, I'd probably still have that one.

Replaces my ~8 year old Emerson Smartset so I have correct DST times finally. Radio reception is fantastic. Easier buttons made it actually easier to set than the old one. Works great. But my goodness, even on dim the blue light is overwhelming at night. I'd give 3.5 stars if I could because functionally the clock is great and does exactly what it's supposed to do.

I had an older / similar clock to this one, same brand, with all of the same features, for many many many years. Back when I bought the older one, I had gone through many other alarm clocks and wasn't satisfied with any of them before settling on the older Emerson. Well, fast forward to a few months ago when lightning struck and blew out many electronics in my house, and i found myself in need of a new clock. I was going to get the exact same model Emerson that I had before but it is so old now that i couldn't not find one, or even find reference to it on the web... so... I figured I am back to the drawing board.So I tried other clocks again. A sony from amazon and an off name clock from a local store. Returned them both. The Sony wasn't reliable and made me late for work more than once, and the off-name I just didn't plain like. So here i am back with an Emerson again, and i feel like i am home again, back in my comfort zone with my trusty and reliable, not unpleasant to wake with, Emerson cock that is new but acts just like my old one.The good: Everything basically. It's an alarm clock, so there really just isn't that much to write about in a such a simple device. The "beeping" (as opposed to buzzing) alarm, pleasantly (if such a word can even be used for an alarm!) starts out low and gradually gets louder. It has two. I use both consecutively. The second alarm I use as a backup to the first in case I groggily shut it off and oversleep which i have been known to do. The led screen is not too bright on dim mode, which is an improvement over the old Emerson. I had to put several layers of shading film over the old clock's screen and still it lit up my room like a xmas tree at night. This one is perfect.I don't know what else to say. It's an alarm clock. It's reliable, and does it's job well.The bad: Very little. The biggest knock, and the reason i dropped one star from it is that the thing arrives looking like a customer return right out of the box. I can't understand why but mine came scratched and not packaged neatly the way you would expect something new to be. Mine came completely disheveled to the point where i almost returned it without even plugging it in. But I first went to my local chain store which happened to have them and opened the boxes for a half dozen other units and much to my surprise, they were all like that!! what the &_*(&*()? Sooo weird. So after testing mine and seeing that it worked fine i decided to keep it. I thought my eyes would constantly focus on the scratches every time I looked at it but frankly i don't think i've noticed the scratches even once since I put it on my night stand.Another knock, and it's a stretch, but the description of this clock leads you to believe it's atomic but it really is not. You need to set the time once, if the battery comes dead anyway like mine did. However, once you set it, you can forget about it. It works like clock work (no pun intended!) from there. DST changes work perfectly. By the way, if your battery does arrive dead that will be an extra expense which i wasn't thrilled with. Cost me another $8 for the wafer shaped battery. Which by the way is another improvement over the old clock by the way which used a 9V which had to be changed more often.Last knock is the placement of the sleep button. Too close to the snooze button. Not sure what the manufacturer was thinking with that design. It has been a problem for me once or twice with hitting it by accident but not nearly as much of a problem for me as i feared it would be. I've become trained not to over reach when hitting snooze.The only other comment i would like to make is that i do NOT use the radio at all (never have) so i cannot factor that in to my review as good or bad...

I needed to replace an alarm in a spare bedroom and was impressed with the Emerson I use in my room. This is a different model and slightly larger than the one I have which was discontinued. The dual alarm feature is very nice to allow separate weekday and weekend times. I did lose power once since having this and the clock did re-set with no problem to the approximate time (may be a minute off from my phone, but close enough). The blue color display is calming, easy to look at and a nice not-too-bright light to have in a dark room. I really like the look overall, though a little bigger than the clock I have.My son liked the look so much (black with blue lighting) that he swapped out his older Sony alarm clock with this one. So far I have had no problems with the clock or the alarm function and would recommend this to anyone that wants a clock that re-sets after a power outage and has the 2 alarms. This clock was also much better priced than many of the clocks I had looked at in the local big box retailer stores (as much as half the cost). It came well packaged and arrived timely via UPS.

I purchased this clock for a gift for my boyfriend as a replacement for his ancient clock radio that he had in his bedroom. It appeared to be a decent product while setting it up....loved the auto set feature! It was a nice size as well-not to bulky and the numbers were easy to read.Having said this, too many issues have prevented him from using the clock. The radio was an important feature for him, yet the clock radio only picked up ONE radio station, no matter where you set the dial. This was an instant drawback. Also, the display is super-bright, even on the lowest setting.If you will be using this clock primarily as a clock, and don't mind the brightness, but right now this clock is sitting in a box and he is continuing to use his old clock.

The Emerson SmartSet clock is an excellent product. I love that if the power goes out it always resets itself and you will still hear the alarm in the morning. It's easy to operate too.