Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought a model similar to this (the Philips HF3470, still available on Amazon) in December of 2010 and still use it at least every workday. I remember thinking "geez, this is pretty pricey for an alarm clock" and this one is even pricier, but I don't regret buying the HF3470 and this one has some noticeable improvements. First, it doesn't look like a partially decapitated Conehead (for SNL fans from back in the day). It looks more like The Orb from Woody Allen's "Sleeper" but that's an improvement, style-wise. It unfortunately doesn't have all the features of The Orb but that's another topic. This model has three "nature" sounds to wake to vs. two on my older one, plus an FM radio if you prefer to wake to that (same as the older one). One of the "nature" selections sounds a lot like a piano to me but the sound is pleasant. Maybe they recorded the piano in a rainforest. The other two are wildlife sounds. A huge improvement is that all three sounds don't have nearly the repetitive feel that the earlier version did, which I'm used to but still find a little annoying. The sounds on both models are just repeating loops, but either the sound snippet loops are much longer on the newer model or they're more artfully edited or both. It may sound silly to complain about subtleties like this but at this price for an alarm clock, I expect things like that to be well thought out. They are much more polished on this model. This can be used as a bedside lamp; the older one couldn't be. That doesn't work for me because (1) I like my bedside lamp in a switchable outlet so I can turn it on/off when I enter/leave the room without interrupting power to the clock and other settings, and (2) if the snooze button is anywhere near me I will whack it while still asleep and never know I did it. But the feature is there. It can also be used as a tableside FM radio with better sound than I expected. Classical and news/talk stations sound surprisingly good; anything with substantial bass sounds not so good because there's no real low-end response. If you are liking that hippety hoppity thing first thing in the morning, this is probably not your device. That's not a gripe, this is an alarm clock. This model "uses durable LED technology" and "the lamp should last a long time" according to the manual, but it does not appear to be user-replaceable. The older one uses replaceable halogen lamps. Not a big deal to me. I like this and think I'll enjoy it as much or more than the HF3470. I'm torn between four and five stars and I'm going for four because of the high price...this is really, really expensive for an alarm clock! But I think I paid about $100 for the earlier model and yes, I would buy it again. This really is a much easier and more pleasant way to wake up than BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. UPDATE same day: the new one has an outlet-hogging transformer/power brick (boo!) where the old one had a plain old 110/120V power cord (yay!) with the transformer inside the device body. OTOH, the new one kept ALL settings when unplugged for at least five minutes while moving it from the Review Room to the Bed Room where it will now live. So it's still pretty much all good.