Ge Slim Spacemaker 7-5295 CD Audio Shelf System
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- Number of Discs: 1
- Sound Type: Stereo
- Functions: CD Player
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Sometimes great ideas are still just ideas ...
Pros
Small, counter light, feature packed
Cons
CD player not reliable
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
The CD player just doesn't cut it, if you are looking for a $75 counter light and radio then this is for you.
Like another reviewer the GE Ultra-slim spacemaker found itself a Christmas home and was received with great joy. When I went out looking for an under the cabinet radio and cd player for my wife I looked at a few different places ... Best Buy, Target, Wally World, Circuit City ... a fairly wide variety of places at least in our town. I looked at the GE model, a couple of Sony models, and there was also a GPX model which I didn't spend too much time on. I also checked eBay to see what things were selling for on there, but those of you who have read my other reviews probably already figured that.
The thing which led me to getting the GE was the fact that we do not have a huge kitchen and very limited counter space and unlike some kitchens where there is a good amount of space from the top of the counter to the bottom of the cupboard ours is definitely space deficient. This radio is only 2.4" thick and 12.5" wide ... so it was definitely smaller than any of the other radio's I looked at ... you didn't even have to put them side by side (it was that noticeable). So I figured as long as the features are close to the same and it sounds just about as good as the Sony I might as well go with it. The Sony did sound better, but being as it was a kitchen radio and the GE didn't sound that much different the sound was not a big deal.
So there it sat until it was opened and then later that day installed.
INSTALL
The radio comes with several spacers and two different lengths of screws so it will fit just about any set of cupboards. It comes with a template which will assist you in drilling holes for the mounting of it. The template was fairly easy to use ... it was not a piece of cake but certainly not rocket science either. There are three holes which need drilled for the screws to go through the bottom of the cupboard and hold the radio in place. After the radio is in place you obviously plug it in and there are some cord hooks which help you in hiding the cord on the way to the outlet which is a nice idea. As soon as you plug it in it should already be set to EST time and there is a switch which will automatically turn it to one of the other three continental US time zones.
FEATURES
The radio is feature packed. Here is a list ...
- Digital tuner picks up stations great
- 10 programmable stations
- 3 position counter light (high, low, off)
- magnetic remote with 10 buttons allow most all controls and will stick to you fridge
- display is on larger side compared to some other under cabinet radios
- clock and timer settings
- battery backup
- daylight savings time indicator
- manual and auto radio scan possibilities
- built-in am and fm antennas
- cd loading drawer (display folds down and drawer opens towards you)
- Two 2.5" front-fired speakers
- bass boost ... with 2.5" speakers yep ... don't expect much bass
- various cd settings ... shuffle, repeat all, play, pause, etc
- 1 year warranty
This radio has just about as many features as any of the other ones I looked at ... the Sony models I looked at were the 543, 513, and 553 I believe.
BAD NEWS
Everything sounds great so far and it was. However, after about a month of using the radio and cd player we went to put a cd in it and the 'nd' message popped up on the display ... 'nd' as in 'no disc' so I tried another cd (these were cd's which had worked previously that day and the day before) still the same message. So I took it back to Target where I purchased it and exchanged it for another one. This time it only took me about 2 minutes to install it since I was already familiar from the last one, but that was the only plus. With radio #2 after one week the 'nd' message returned. So after about another week or two we went and took back radio #2 in exchange for radio #3 and I installed it this past Saturday in probably less than a minute and pop a cd in there and yep, you guessed it, ND. Instead of going for #4 we are looking for something else. They have the Sony model at Target but it is probably too big for our kitchen. I am looking at possibly a wireless setup to play the cd's through mp3's on our computer. Target has been very co-operative through this and while I would love to call GE and try to get things fixed, I have since read that there are several others who have had problems with this model as well. I sure wish they would have been epinions members though because I may have thought twice about buying it in the first place then.
The radio works great but you can buy just a radio for a lot less that will suit your needs. If you are buying this for cd capability I would look elsewhere.
Thanks for reading and happy hunting.
UPDATE: 12/07/2006
To be fair in this review I have to say that my parents got one of the newer models of this and have not had any problems that I know of. I believe they have had it for a year now. It seems like the same thing except a more rounded shape instead of the box shape like the one above. This still does not explain why 3 different times the cd player would not function for me, but I thought I should mention it.
The thing which led me to getting the GE was the fact that we do not have a huge kitchen and very limited counter space and unlike some kitchens where there is a good amount of space from the top of the counter to the bottom of the cupboard ours is definitely space deficient. This radio is only 2.4" thick and 12.5" wide ... so it was definitely smaller than any of the other radio's I looked at ... you didn't even have to put them side by side (it was that noticeable). So I figured as long as the features are close to the same and it sounds just about as good as the Sony I might as well go with it. The Sony did sound better, but being as it was a kitchen radio and the GE didn't sound that much different the sound was not a big deal.
So there it sat until it was opened and then later that day installed.
INSTALL
The radio comes with several spacers and two different lengths of screws so it will fit just about any set of cupboards. It comes with a template which will assist you in drilling holes for the mounting of it. The template was fairly easy to use ... it was not a piece of cake but certainly not rocket science either. There are three holes which need drilled for the screws to go through the bottom of the cupboard and hold the radio in place. After the radio is in place you obviously plug it in and there are some cord hooks which help you in hiding the cord on the way to the outlet which is a nice idea. As soon as you plug it in it should already be set to EST time and there is a switch which will automatically turn it to one of the other three continental US time zones.
FEATURES
The radio is feature packed. Here is a list ...
- Digital tuner picks up stations great
- 10 programmable stations
- 3 position counter light (high, low, off)
- magnetic remote with 10 buttons allow most all controls and will stick to you fridge
- display is on larger side compared to some other under cabinet radios
- clock and timer settings
- battery backup
- daylight savings time indicator
- manual and auto radio scan possibilities
- built-in am and fm antennas
- cd loading drawer (display folds down and drawer opens towards you)
- Two 2.5" front-fired speakers
- bass boost ... with 2.5" speakers yep ... don't expect much bass
- various cd settings ... shuffle, repeat all, play, pause, etc
- 1 year warranty
This radio has just about as many features as any of the other ones I looked at ... the Sony models I looked at were the 543, 513, and 553 I believe.
BAD NEWS
Everything sounds great so far and it was. However, after about a month of using the radio and cd player we went to put a cd in it and the 'nd' message popped up on the display ... 'nd' as in 'no disc' so I tried another cd (these were cd's which had worked previously that day and the day before) still the same message. So I took it back to Target where I purchased it and exchanged it for another one. This time it only took me about 2 minutes to install it since I was already familiar from the last one, but that was the only plus. With radio #2 after one week the 'nd' message returned. So after about another week or two we went and took back radio #2 in exchange for radio #3 and I installed it this past Saturday in probably less than a minute and pop a cd in there and yep, you guessed it, ND. Instead of going for #4 we are looking for something else. They have the Sony model at Target but it is probably too big for our kitchen. I am looking at possibly a wireless setup to play the cd's through mp3's on our computer. Target has been very co-operative through this and while I would love to call GE and try to get things fixed, I have since read that there are several others who have had problems with this model as well. I sure wish they would have been epinions members though because I may have thought twice about buying it in the first place then.
The radio works great but you can buy just a radio for a lot less that will suit your needs. If you are buying this for cd capability I would look elsewhere.
Thanks for reading and happy hunting.
UPDATE: 12/07/2006
To be fair in this review I have to say that my parents got one of the newer models of this and have not had any problems that I know of. I believe they have had it for a year now. It seems like the same thing except a more rounded shape instead of the box shape like the one above. This still does not explain why 3 different times the cd player would not function for me, but I thought I should mention it.
