Very Decent, Compact Unit
582424
When I first pulled this unit out of the box I thought, "Oh gee, it's so small, how good is the sound quality going to be on such a small unit?"  But I was pleasantly surprised.  It's really quite decent and certainly good enough to fill a regular sized room with nice sound.  When purchasing a docking unit, I think what you have to decide is what, exactly, are your requirements.  This is an iPod Docking Clock Radio.  If you're needing to fill a concert hall with sound, then don't buy a clock radio.  I feel that a lot of reviewers fail to understand this and underrated this product.  It is compact, nice looking, tells time, wakes you to music from your iPod, and has nice sound.  In other words, it does exactly what it purports to do, and does it well.
4030547
I've been using the Pure Link in my house for a little over a week now, and so far I'm quite happy with the results. The unit assembles in less than two minutes, and comes in two parts. The base has the filter pre-loaded, and the top clicks onto the base. It's a compact design, at only about 10 inches in diameter, and about 3 1/2 feet tall so it can fit in more narrow spaces around the home. Linking the unit to my phone took less than 5 minutes.

When I first turned on the purifier, the air quality on my phone read fair. I lit some incense to see what would happen, and within a few minutes it dropped to poor. After an hour or two of the incense going out, the air quality read good. After having done that, I do trust the readings. The app also allows you to control the purifier, track past readings, and compare the air quality inside your home to the outside. It also records moisture so you can keep it a good level.

The other bonus is that this also functions as a oscillating fan. When on the highest setting it does provide a decent amount of airflow, cooling the room. For light sleepers, there is a night mode which dims the display and lowers the fan speed. You can also set up a schedule for every day of the week for when the unit turns on and off.

Yes, it is expensive. But what you're paying for is the trust behind the name, and quality. That, along with the ability to track and schedule when to purify make it worth the price in my opinion.
1897258
I recently purchased this unit after looking for a replacement for my 15-year old Panasonic telephone-alarm-clock-radio.  Strangely, there don't seem to be many of these multi-function units out there anymore.  Having read reviews on several GE models and others, I was not encouraged.  Eventually I came upon this Northwest Bell unit which was very reasonably-priced and seemed to have all the features I was looking for.

Having used this unit for a couple of weeks now, I can say that I'm very happy with the purchase.  The unit is very attractive and compact, perfect for a bedroom night-table.  I was especially surprised by the remarkably good radio reception (which probably owes to a small antenna wire on the back of the unit).  I have only two minor quibbles with the unit:  the telephone key-pad doesn't illuminate in the dark (a bit of a drawback since the unit is designed for and used in a bedroom), and the fairly loud ringer volume is not adjustable - you can only turn the ringer on or off.

Those two negatives aside, I definitely recommend this unit for anyone looking for such a multi-function unit.
1750101
If you want a basic 7.1 (or 5.1 in my case) receiver that fits in small places, this is a solid choice. Useless EQ settings aside (the usual Movie, Concert, etc settings that sound horrible), you can simply adjust the bass/treble and individual channel settings and get fairly clear, well-rounded sound from this amp. I don't have a high-end setup but it easily drives my large-ish bookshelf and center channel speakers.

There are a few caveats, besides the bright blue LED lighting:

1) it runs hot. don't stack any other components directly on top unless you've got a fan blowing over it (the receiver will start overheating with telltale pops/clicks coming from each channel).

2) mine's a refurb, but the auto-room calibration didn't work. it's supposed to use the mic (provided in box) to calibrate the distance and volume settings for each channel, but I couldn't get it to successfully complete. You can fine-tune the settings manually but I just ended up doing basic bass/treble/loudness adjustments.

3) there's no fine-grained EQ control - bass/treble and that's it (besides the manual calibration settings mentioned in #2).

4) surround detection can be dodgy. Sometimes I have to manually toggle between stereo and DD5.1 output on my xbox for surround to engage, sometimes I don't - and it only works when directly connected via HDMI. DD5.1 is passed through when I'm watching over-the-air HDTV, but not if I'm routing my xbox through my TV's optical/toslink output.

I have no comments on VuNow or whatever the built-in media player is called, I just use my Apple TV and Xbox for media viewing. The remote is fairly clunky but gets the job done - keep the manual around because there are three or four submenus you have to navigate if you're setting things up manually.

All in all, it's a very good value if you're space and budget-constrained (i.e. I have it situated in an IKEA TV stand, so I'm not exactly spending thousands on my system). If you can spend the money, the Marantz slim-line receivers are almost certainly better built and designed. If you have the space, larger receivers will perform better for less.

[update Mar 2014] it's been about a year since I bought this receiver. Over the past month the pops and clicks that usually accompanied the receiver getting hot became more frequent, even when I mounted cooling fans over the vents. Now the speaker amp dies after about an hour of use - the video still comes through, but there's no sound. Power cycling usually fixes it for another hour. I'm going to open it up and see if something's come loose, but there are definitely better receivers for the money.
276105
This a great unit for the price! FM comes in great, Bluetooth connected to my phone without any problems. Nice power for factory speakers, Line Out included if you want to add an amplifier. USB charges my phone while I'm streaming Pandora, etc. I did not want to pay for a CD player and due to the mech-less design, it is shallower than other radios. This leaves plenty of room for the adapter harness. Menu is intuitive and not a lot of options. It doesn't have RDS, fancy color changing displays or other frills. Built-in EQ settings are decent, remote control works from the back seat. I have yet to try the SD card & USB for music. Lifetime warrantied from BOSS.
1550625
A beautiful, effective unit at a remarkably low price
3942795
I have had an easy time using this compact system and highly recommend it.  It does a great job with a minimum of fuss.
Small enough to carry with you if the need arises.
3321275
Terrific little unit.  I've had it a little over a month at this point and really have no complaints other than some minor quibbles about the DVR interface, which to be sure, is as good as what you'd expect to find on a Dish or DirecTV DVR, but could be improved even more.  The entire system is very solidly built with a robust and well-organized remote control and the DVR unit itself which is in a metal case.  That's more important that you might realize since the primary cause of failures for this type of electronic device is torque on the motherboard due to insufficiently rigid plastic casements.  Mine operates off the WIFI and has an external drive, which I prefer because a failure of one doesn't crash the entire system.  It's a little expensive, but as a cord cutter, I'm saving a hundred bucks a month, so some capital investment up front is still saving a lot of money over time.
912028
I just bought this DVD player, and right out of the box it does what it claims to do.  It's a simple unit, made for no frills use.  I partly wanted this as a replacement for our old Philips DVD player of 7 years (which continues to work fine despite my past issues with other Philips electronics).  But the main reason for buying this is to use it with my stereo system (by the TV, also) to play MP3-coded CD's.  Overall, for the price, this was a fair purchase.  Here's why:

Pro's:
-low cost
-excellent sound quality of audio and MP3 discs
-mulitple sound and video settings to choose from
-simple operation and set up
-easy navigation of features
-slim design

Con's:
-narrow remote range; must point remote deliberately and carefully
-slow response time between operations (selecting chapters, etc.)
-lack of sync between audio and video
-no tray-open control from remote (negligible complaint, really)
1756845
I spent a considerable amount of time poking around for some kind of inexpensive "in-line" EQ solution, and this device is IT. The intended use for the unit is car audio, but it can also be adapted to many other uses. In my case, I'm using it to put some basic EQ control into the "aux" input of one of these small, bookshelf stereo systems that has pretty decent power (30W/side), and nice little speakers, but really poor/limited audio controls in the head unit.

While it is a "passive" EQ (that is, it provides no amplification of the signal being run through it), it nevertheless does provide a modest signal boost when any of the individual frequency sliders are pushed above center. I suppose everyone's results are going to vary based on their unique system/use, but I found the "X-Bass" feature to be a marvel ... push that thing, and POW ... speaking of "signal boost" ... it's like you kicked your system into a whole different gear. The sliders are nice and firm, and work very effectively on their designated frequencies, but the unit is also very compact, so the transits are small, and require careful/patient adjustment. Once you've got that figured out, though, they're great.

The case is all steel ... only the faceplate is plastic. The rear RCA connectors are a bit flimsy (they're not bolted to the case, but just situated on the inner circuit board so they stick out their corresponding holes in the rear plate), so you need to be careful when connecting/disconnecting your RCA plugs, and should probably avoid frequent placement/removal of the plugs. No surprise there ... the unit is designed to be installed in a car, and then pretty much left alone. I didn't mess with any of the external wires that allow front/rear fader control of an auto system, so can't comment on that function. The fader knob is nothing more than a pretty decoration in my application.

I came back and edited this review to include a comment about the reference to a "sub out" (e.g., subwoofer control) in the product description.  Several users have complained about this reference being "misleading," and rightly so.  There is no such control/out on this particular EQ.  The reference is an error on the manufacturer's part, because it also appears in the user manual that comes with the unit.  I'm guessing the mistaken reference to a "sub out" came from Boss' product description for their different version of this EQ that DOES have a sub out/control:  Boss AVA-1204.  I informed the manufacturer of the error, and hopefully, they and Amazon will finally correct it.  If you want/need separate subwoofer control, don't get this EQ ... take a look at AVA-1204.

Fortunately, I didn't need any subwoofer control for my application, so overall, I'm REALLY happy with the looks, function and price of this unit. A superb value.
3976100
Great portable unit thats not always listening!
3894717
I hesitated to buy this, despite all the glowing reviews here and elsewhere online, simply due to the cost. However, I was tired of the cheap junk you buy at all the local retailers, which always seem to die out after a year or two of use. Finally bit the bullet a while back and can confirm this is definitely a great unit. Only time will tell if it actually lasts longer than the other cheapo units, but it definitely offers a lot more in terms of functions/modes, so I'm hoping for the best. The only (minor) complaint I have is that the spring tabs that contact the battery seem a bit weaker than they should be, a couple of them bent beyond the length of the battery and I had to bend them back to make contact. I'm pretty gentle with my stuff, so I don't think it was mishandled. It's no problem to bend the tabs and I'm hoping that it's not a bad omen.
1488948
Not the fastest, but compact and easy to use.
923597
Really great and compact, only wish I got a larger capacity.
815028
It's not the brightest LED out there, but it does its job.  I like it for being compact, and foldable into an egg-like unit the size of a small coconut.  It's a little difficult for reading, if you are to use it as your reading light.  However, if you look for a lighting unit that is small enough, and provides you bright enough daylight white light to look for things in the dark without turning on the main lighting, then it is for you (sufficient for small room).  A bonus feature to this unit is that if offers a mono speaker, not a bluetooth one, with aux input for your music device.  The sound is just basic, not a fancy one with bass (I don't use this because I have a bluetooth speaker).  I give it four stars because it does what I look for.  The light is just right for me (well, a little less than I expected to be exact) but I did not spend a lot for it (around $10), so it's OK for me.
2215663
Exactly what I wanted, compact and decent quality.
2363560
This is a great little reciever!  It has a nice high quality look and feel to it, and its power is far more than adequate for even high-ish level listening in most rooms (unless you're driving very low efficiency speakers in very large rooms).  Most speakers are around 85-90dB/watt efficient, so for most reasonable listening you'll likely only use 1-5 watts per channel.  I'm only mentioning this as many will likely overlook a small unit like this simply because of it's low power output compared to full size recievers.

The only reason I didn't rate this a perfect 5-star is because I feel it needs to offer an internal crossover and sub-out.  Most people will likely use a reciever such as this to power a set of bookshelf speakers, and anyone wanting full bass with such a setup will opt to use a sub.  Also, its modest power rating would mean much less if an internal high-pass crossover kept the bass frequencies from being amplified and also kept them out of the smaller bookshelf speakers.

Another nice-to-have would be an iPod docking port, but this is starting to get pushy...  I feel this unit offers quite a lot for the price.

As far as sound quality goes, I'm not a serious audiophile with tons of high end equipment to compare this too, but I do have a high end Pioneer home theater reciever and some excellent Energy Reference Connoisseur speakers (RC-70 fronts) for a reference.  Using the TEAC reciever to power a pair of Energy RC-Minis and an ESW-V8 sub (high level inputs), the sound is excellent.  I live in a townhouse so I have not pushed it too hard, but believe me there is PLENTY of power in this unit for listening.  My setup may not rival a night club in output, but that's not the intention (and it sure sounds a heck of a lot better!).

I would reccomend this reciever to anyone needing a compact unit for average listening levels.  One word of caution; the unit is quite deep, be sure to read the size specs and make sure wherever you intend to place it will have enough room.