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Review on ClearClick Classic Vintage Radio Bluetooth Cell Phones & Accessories by Cristina Gonzalez

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Cool looks and good sound. Bluetooth/FM works. AM is not.

Good sound from this little bluetooth radio. quite clear and complete. I ordered this for the retro look, not the sound, but I would say I was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. Aesthetics are good too with two caveats: 1. It's smaller than I thought it would be. I didn't pay attention to the dimensions so I was surprised that it's a lot smaller than I had hoped. I would call it a "mini retro radio". Instead of putting it on my desk as planned, I put it on my bedside table where it looks much better.2. I HATE the fact that they put a bright blue LED on the tuning pad. It completely ruins the vintage look of the stereo and it's bright! The blue light only comes on when bluetooth is playing which is why I bought it. There's no way to put even a small piece of tape on it because it's behind glass. As with the backlight settings, even if they made it orange, it would be much better. For that reason alone I probably wouldn't buy it again. Those aspects aside (and the fact that the chord is a lot shorter than would be practical), it feels like a well-made device. It's heavy and the wood texture and color are great. The loudspeaker zone is also kept in a vintage style. Bluetooth sound quality is excellent. I had old radios from the 1940's and they sounded similar. It's not a modern sound, so it's bass-heavy, but it also has enough "power" not to sound tinny and heavy in the high frequencies. The sound is full and balanced via Bluetooth. It also has good range. Your phone must be within 15 feet of the device. I wanted to record a video clip with sound, but my phone doesn't play music in camera mode. Whatever it is, the sound/tone is impressive. The FM radio also has a clear and rich sound and can pick up a decent number of stations. The tuning wheel is a bit clunky and requires less resistance when turning. My favorite NPR and Classic stations had some clicks and pops in the 87-92MHz range. The VHF antenna is a long, chord-like string that can be a little unsightly, and this antenna isn't detachable, so it can be a little unattractive from an aesthetic point of view. The AM radio function is completely useless. There's no AM antenna option, so every transmitter hums loudly, making the AM feature completely unusable. Overall, the sound and quality is the upside of this. Pour yourself some Ray Noble, Al Bowley or Frank Sinatra and pour yourself a bourbon and you'll feel like you've been transported back to the 1930s or 1940s. I played Winston Churchill's WWII speech over bluetooth and got goosebumps. Too bad they didn't put that stupid blue lightbulb on the tuner panel, made the FM antenna detachable, and added 2 feet to the power cord. Otherwise it's a great little unit.

Pros
  • Authentic style radio light (also in bluetooth mode)
Cons
  • Frequency