Top deals on CNET here
- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 51 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Overly ambitious, falls short"
Pros: Beautiful sound, HD radio, flexible
Cons: Byzantine menu structure, "XM ready" tuner additional
Summary: The I-Sonic attempts to offer everything but falls short in many crucial ways. It is compact and attractive, and the audio quality is superior to its Bose Wave counterpart; base/treble can be controlled by the user. However, the convoluted menu hierarchy to access the myriad of features is very frustrating, and most of the menus cannot even be read without closeup scrutiny. The remote hardly simplifies things, as it recreates the the same organization. What were the designers thinking - is this still 1973? The sound quality trumps Bose, but to have to push many buttons to access sleep mode makes me long for the clock radio I-Sonic replaced. The convenience of having three banks of preset radio frequencies is lost in the shuffle of button pushing to access them. It is easier to tune the radio manually! Who are they kidding about being "XM Ready"? You need to buy a $60. tuner and antenna to hook up to your $600 machine. Any other system with an Aux input can do the same or better. Since my big financial investment, I am going to enjoy the music I-Sonic puts out, until Bose improves their sound, since they are still aces when it comes to intuitive design.Updated
The tuner function of the I-Sonic no longer works, and Polk Audio has offered to replace. After two months of use!!
Polk Audio I-Sonic:
