Wake me up on time!

September 10, 2010 8:05 PM

What is the best alarm clock you can recommend?

Looking for an alarm clock that agrees with these conditions
- good at waking someone up which probably means loud volume(I'm a very heavy sleeper)
- has support for mp3s (but not with aux cord or ipod connector)
- won't break the bank (preferably under 50 dollars)
- has some wow factors.. (touch screen, fragrances, things that make it neat)
- something that will last a long time

Lets see what you can find.

posted by ptsampras14 to Technology (6 answers total)

This one is not exactly what you're looking for (60$, and it would need an aux jack for mp3s) but what i love about it the flexibility in scheduling alarms. To quote: Two separate ("his" & "hers," if you will) 7-day alarm schedules - and each of those 14 alarms can be set to a different time and ringtone (one of 4 buzzers or 20 preset radio stations). Plus another bank of every day alarms. That's 21 alarms in total!

Plus some other neat ones from ThinkGeek
posted by pyro979 at 8:37 PM on September 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Looked around and found this. (It gets better ratings on CNET). Since it is in the store you can try before buying.
posted by eye of newt at 9:27 PM on September 10, 2010

Here's another view at Amazon (I think it is the same unit).
posted by eye of newt at 9:31 PM on September 10, 2010

Tocky, the cousin of Clocky, meets your criteria.

I only have Clocky, but I assume the alarm features are similar. The alarm is hideously loud and annoying. It sounds like R2D2 on speed. Also, here's your wow factor:

it rolls away from you when it goes off, making a mad dash around the room.
posted by zippy at 10:17 PM on September 10, 2010

If we can multiply your budget by roughly 400%, I'm pretty sure the Sony Dash\Chumby are the coolest alarm clock shaped things you can get at the moment.
posted by tracert at 10:28 PM on September 10, 2010

As someone who has historically had to change alarm clocks (even the Neverlate!) every year or so because I become 'accustomed' to their sounds*, I now rely on a combo of my phone alarm for the vibrate, and as a backup, I have this: Sonic Bomb Clock. Most days the buzz from my iPhone is enough, but for when I'm extra tired or have taken something to help me sleep, the Sonic Bomb's bed shake can penetrate my deepest Xanax-induced dreams. Maybe it's because I'm from California and even my subconscious knows that bed shaking = earthquake = WAKE UP but it's the only thing that has worked consistently and with minimal crankiness.
YM, of course, MV.

*Instead of disrupting my sleep, my dreaming brain incorporates the alarm sounds INTO my dreams. I can't tell you how many times I've dreamt there was an alarm going off, getting annoyed by a sound I either can't find or can't seem to turn off, wherein I get progressively more frustrated and violent in my attempts to turn off the alarm only to eventually wake up, completely pissed, and discover my alarm's been going off for an hour and I'm now super-cranky AND late. You remember in The Sims how your sim would throw a tantrum when the alarm would go off? That was me.
posted by ApathyGirl at 12:19 PM on September 11, 2010