Nice unit and support but sunrise too bright and fast for me
The idea is great but not satisfactorily implemented for my particular needs.  This newer model seems to be built reasonably well for the price, although I can't comment on the longevity since I'm returning it after just a few uses.  I found the following to be issues for me:<br />-- Too bright too quickly (the dealbreaker for me): This is very subjective but it gets too bright too quickly for me, even at the 60 min (highest) setting.  The 30 setting was linear but too fast and the 60 setting *seemed* (as I did not follow up with later verification) to have a sudden uptick in brightness, as if the sun just came up over the horizon.  My main complaint here is that there is not enough lower-intensity ramp up time.  Again, this is subjective on my part, based on my specific needs which weren't being met in this case.  I didn't verify this perception with a light intensity meter.<br />-- Low volume &#34;warbling&#34; sound in speaker:  This could have been a defect in my particular unit.  From a technical view, it sounded lime poor power supply filtering.  This artifact manifested only when the alarm button was enabled.  After about a 1-2 second delay, a low whirring sound could be heard from over 6 feet away with good hearing.  If the clock is far enough away or your hearing around 200 Hz is not too good, it may not be objectionable.  I called customer service on this and in all fairness they said they had not heard of this complaint before.  The person did seem to be genuinely surprised so it may have been a genuine defect and not respective of other units.  I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt on this issue.<br />-- Size of Clock Digits:  The size of the digits is too small for my almost 60-year old eyes.<br />-- Clock dimming feature:  The clock only dims when the alarm button has been activated.  The brightness cannot be adjusted otherwise.<br />-- Sleep Sounds:  I only tried the ocean surf sound.  What I found is that it was too loud on the lowest setting.  Over time I could have adapted to that.  However the unique portion of the recording was so short that I found I was caught in a &#34;brain loop&#34;, like anticipating when the scratched part of a record would come around again for the skip.  Very subjective on my part and may not be an issue for others.  If I had chosen to keep the unit, I would have just disabled the sleep sounds.<br /><br />Otherwise, the unit seems well-built.  The customer service person was very patient and congenial.  If you like a faster, bright sunrise, this clock may be for you.
Rating: 3 stars