Don't Dream Machine it's over - Sony's last clock radio (ICF-C1)

I have one of these, I've had it for years and years and I hate it. But I haven't found anything better as I really like the gentle orange glow. Even though the time drifts really quickly, it loses time until it's 5 minutes behind correct time. The alarm is super loud and shrill. Sometimes the radio turns on in the middle of the night, the controls are hard to use, impossible in the dark. But. It's still better than cheap no-name Chinese junk I've tried to replace it with!

Dual-alarm version arrived in the mail today.
For those curious, the second alarm is the same rhythm but a slightly lower pitch.

This is really weird - My family have 4 of these, except for the fact that they're the ICF-C1T version with 2 alarms and the mirrored finish, bough all in 2016 after all our other battery powered clocks stopped working. Amazing, reliable and simple clocks, that are modern, easy to use and wear really well. Sitting right next to it whilst writing this!

"0.35" glorified mp3 players? It shows you don't know what are you talking about. Those players can reporduce music with a quality beyond CD quality, with dedicated circuitry and compatibility to Sony headphones and earphones with a precise tuning made in house. Chi-fi is good, but they don't make all of their parts like Sony.

So I have this and an FM radio from Sony and I bought it off of eBay and it was in almost mint condition. The buttons were little dirty but that’s not my problem. Kind of sad to get rid of those clock radio And those other radios

They don't want circuit boards to last 30 years anymore.

I just got this at Goodwill for $5

I have this exact model. Love the radio alarm, does the job of waking me up everyday.

it's $29 on Sony website now. :(

it makes perfect sense for sony to drop it's more mature products.
after all these years why should they have to compete with the cheapest of manufacturers?
Instead they should concentrate on new products that are more profitable rather than go by the wayside because they didn't 'Move On' !
(p.s. I own more than 130 different 'Dream Machines' from flipclock to DAB !)

According to my information, Sony is discontinuing the production of radios. At the Sony Center in Budapest, I was informed that the current flagship model, the XDR-S61, is no longer available for order. I managed to get the last unit today from Slovakia. What’s your opinion on this? Will there be a video about this topic?

X, I love your videos!!!

I have a CFD-S70 boombox right here at home, and it's been put to good use.

Think of everyday photography, time telling, the alarm clock. These days, even going online, filling out forms, listening to music, and watching You Tube hardly requires a laptop. Watching television is fast becoming a thing of the past. Sat Nav does not require a dedicated unit. I still wear a mechanical wrist watch because it makes me feel human to have a proper machine, but smart phones have simply obliterated so many of the everyday items that we once took for granted.

Damn, thought for sure we would get to watch you pull the film off the front of it. One of those cheap trills of life.
Thought I would like that clock. Do not like those small hard to read setting buttons.

The C1T had not just the mirror finish, it also has a synthesiser tuner, nature sounds and projection window, which projects the time on a ceiling, upside down. It also consistently runs 9 minutes ahead. You can also turn the display off.

It's sad to see a big Japanese company like Sony stagnate in the consumer market. This alarm clock radio is most likely being in use by those who are confused with today's tech and and are mentally stuck in the 80s / 90s. Alarm clock radios have been killed by smart phones and smart speakers. Sony could probably keep alarm clocks relevant if they evolved it to have better sounding speakers, added USB-C PD charging ports, Bluetooth speaker capability, etc.

I have a 20-year-old somewhat smaller long model of this radio with a blue display, and what I like about it is it has external antenna contacts so I can attach an AM antenna and an FM antenna and the footprint is very small, great product!

A feature I look for in alarm clock radios that most people never consider...I like having the radio run all night (it helps me sleep), but I also want the alarm buzzer to go off in the morning. Does this radio have that ability?

I recommend a Sony ICF-C470, there is two versions. The U.S version has FM, AM and LW, versus Europe version, it has FM and AM. No other differences. I have four of those Sonys.

Next review, the Nintendo Alarmo.

Sad demise . Used to make lovely hi fi separates.
Nothing Japanese made any more.

I've got the projector version, and it's always 8 minutes behind. The thing is, you can't adjust the time, because it daoes it in automatic, so it'll always be 8 minutes behind. Very disappointing

While Sony may be ending their clock radio linage, Philips is also another big name brand that does clock radios and in South East Asia, they are still going strong. I've got my Philips AJ3112 running almost continously for the past decade., thought it is now starting to go a little faster a second or 2 each day on the time.

Can you do a teardown

I bought a used dream machine with cd player, those things were wild! When tech was fun.

This video came with a sleep button

I’m begging V, can you please do a review on the oneodio headphones? I heard that they are pretty good for the price and finally got a pair, and was wondering what you thought.

I have the mirror-front ICF-C1T. The serial number starts with 5B (2015?). It has two alarms on the top, A and B. It does not have the gradual alarm. My only complaint is the time drifts about 1 minute per month.

I just found out my Dream Machine ICF-CD7000 can play MP3 CDs! This video inspired me to look up the instruction manual... Thanks, VWestlife!

They not selling the items because most of them are obsolete

I saw this at Best Buy back on Friday, and I didn’t get it, but it was really cool to look at a little clock radio. So I have to give it a pass, because I already have my Amazon Echo Show.

My guess is they will probably keep making it until some part goes obsolete at which point they will decide it isn't worth redesigning. I recall in the late 1970s Sony having a big advertising campaign suggesting their Digicube was an ideal Christmas Gift. They were about £30 back then, back when average earnings here were £80 a week.

My brother has that alarm clock. My parents were still using a sony fm radio clock from the 80s up until a few years ago. Still worked

I've got one of these and I've found the time drifts forward and is about 5 mins ahead after about 4 weeks

I have the same clock, and I love it!

Curious, is your video shot on a camcorder? Has that look to it :)

Great video! I actually own and use this exact model everyday since 2016 it’s a good product.

👍👍👍👍👍

All the product categories you mentioned them no longer filling just don't exist as a product category any more. Most of those things are handled by your phone. And if you want a more advanced camera with video capabilities you just get a regular camera which does video just fine. So camcorders got swallowed by two markets...

Bluetooth speakers and a phone killed the boombox as well.

I got one from my Dad's estate and it started acting up. I fixed it and then found another at a thrift store. I use them both to wake up. The alarm is a little to subtle for me. I will try the radio alarm from now on. Yest the automatic DST and time setting is wonderful . I have a $2600 Tag Heuer watch that cannot calculate the calendar correctly and must be manually set back for DST. I have a $175 analog/digital Seiko from the 1980's that is smarter than the Tag.

I still have a dream machine from the 80’s and one from the early 2000’s. I wish they would still make them with a cell phone charger. I would upgrade if they did.

I used a white Dream Machine from the 90s for about 20 years (I dropped it at one point and the slider for the alarm broke, rendering that function unusable). I later picked up an ovoid version of the Dream Machine at the thrift store and later found this very black one also at a thrift store.
All that to say that every single one of these units have had slow time/lost time. I know they read the time from electric signals ~in our wires~ or something which makes my residences/power supplier to be the likely culprits. I'm not totally convinced though. I just thought it was interesting that every single model of Dream Machine from over the years has had this issue. After a while of letting the time get behind, I just started to adapt and would add X number of minutes in my head to get the approximate time.
I don't know why I care so much about this but I do.

I owned a dream machine clock radio and the controls were the most unintuitive imaginable.

Its like the Panasonic brand, product range and selection severely stripped down since the 80s/90s.

Have the DAB+ version of this one (the XDR-C1DBP. Only sold in Europe I believe). I've had a lot of clock radio's through the years. This is by far my favourite.

well having watched this I ordered two of these in white, hoping the display is as dim as you say as my current clock no radio is like sleeping under stadium flood lights. I did have a dream machine back in the 90's but it had to flaws, 1 the if was broken by aircraft5 radio and i lived under the flight path to heathrow.. and two the angle of the fluorescent display ment it was not visible when lying down.. i have a feeling it was your fault i got the sony icf-p26 a while back last sony analog tuning am/fm radio the am is amazing for dx on a pocket radio, fm not good in the city

Don’t take his word for the black on black lettering. I have this exact model and it’s actually easy to read.

And read the manual it does tell you how to set things properly. He’s trying to make it look harder than it really is.