Table Radio Review

High-quality radios are cheaper than ever

The trend in table radios over the past few years has been higher quality at lower price. There are still a good number of choices at the luxury price range -- $300 to as much as $1,000 -- but there are also plenty of very strong contenders that cost less but still deliver top-shelf sound quality. Choices include feature-packed table radios with CD players, iPod docks, HD radio compatibility, Internet connectivity and much, much more. You'll also find basic table radios that don't look all that different from table radios from yesteryear but deliver sound quality that puts most of those to shame.

In the luxury radio category, Bose and Cambridge have had a longstanding showdown when it comes to the high-end table radios you see advertised in magazines. Marketed to audio connoisseurs, these table radios claim to deliver superior sound, but are they worth their high price tags compared to less costly options? To find the answer, we looked at professional reviews by sites like CNET, iLounge.com, Macworld and others, as well as user opinions at sites like Amazon.com, Epinions.com and elsewhere.

The tabletop radios covered here are generally more expensive than your average clock radio. Reviews say that sound quality is a big reason why. High-end radios use different tricks to produce deeper, richer sound. For example, Bose uses a tuned "acoustic waveguide" that is folded many times within the enclosure to amplify sound, specifically the bass frequencies, that normally would struggle to make their presence felt given the small speaker size and small enclosures of a typical table radio. Cambridge SoundWorks, on the other hand, includes a built-in subwoofer to help better handle the low end. Other features that separate the radios in this report from their slightly less expensive brethren include higher-quality electronics (including more powerful tuners), more features and more attractive -- or at least more interesting -- styling.