Roberts Sound 49 DAB+/FM CD Clock Radio

A mains-powered bedside clock radio built around a top-loading CD player, with DAB, DAB+, FM RDS, Bluetooth, USB playback and two independent alarms.

At a Glance

• Top-loading, with bookmark: CD player
• Station presets: 20
• Output power: 5 W RMS
• Independent alarms: 2

Most clock radios stopped playing discs years ago. The Sound 49 did not: a top-loading CD player sits on the lid, taking ordinary CDs, MP3-CDs and discs full of MP3 files. That makes it a genuine option for anyone with a shelf of albums and no other way left in the house to play them.

Around the CD player sits a complete bedside radio: DAB, DAB+ and FM with RDS, 20 presets with four one-touch buttons, Bluetooth for a phone, and a USB port that plays MP3 files and charges a device overnight at 5 V, 1 A. Two alarms with snooze wake you to radio or buzzer.

The CD player is the reason to choose the Sound 49; the bookmark function, which resumes where you stopped, is the reason you keep using it.

Ideal For

• CD collections: If your albums are on disc, the top-loading player takes CDs, MP3-CDs and MP3 files directly, without ripping anything to a computer or a phone first.
• Bedside use: Two alarms wake you to radio or buzzer, snooze buys another few minutes, and the sleep timer plus a 24-hour clock display cover the other end of the night.
• Audiobooks and talks: The bookmark function remembers where CD or USB playback stopped, so a long recording picks up where you left it rather than starting again from the beginning.

Key Features

• Top-loading CD player: The disc drops in from the top rather than through a slot or tray, and the player handles standard CDs, MP3-CDs and discs of MP3 files.
• CD and USB bookmark: A bookmark function stores your position on a CD or USB stick and resumes from there, which matters with audiobooks, plays and long recordings.
• 20 station presets: Ten DAB and ten FM presets are stored, with four one-touch buttons for the stations that get used every morning without going through a list.
• 5 W RMS output: Five watts RMS is sized for a bedroom, a kitchen or a study rather than a party, giving clear speech and enough level for music nearby.
• USB playback and charging: One USB port plays MP3 files from a stick and supplies 5 V at 1 A, so a phone can charge on the bedside table overnight.
• 2 alarms with snooze: Both alarms can wake you to radio or buzzer, and the clock sets itself automatically from DAB or FM, so there is no clock to set by hand.

• A CD player on the bedside: Disc players have quietly disappeared from small audio, which leaves a lot of people with albums they can no longer easily play. The Sound 49 keeps one. The mechanism is top-loading, so the disc goes in from above without needing clearance in front of the unit, and it reads standard CDs as well as MP3-CDs and discs burned with MP3 files. Playback runs through the same 5 W amplifier as the radio.
• The bookmark makes long listening work: Anyone who listens to audiobooks on disc knows the problem: switch off, come back, and you are hunting through tracks to find your place. The Sound 49 stores a bookmark on CD and USB playback and resumes from it. That turns a clock radio into something you can actually finish a long audiobook on, a chapter at a time, over a fortnight of bedtimes.
• Everything else a bedside radio needs: Beyond the disc player, the Sound 49 does the ordinary jobs properly. DAB, DAB+ and FM with RDS cover digital and analogue, with 20 presets and four one-touch buttons for the stations you want without a menu. Bluetooth pairs a phone when you would rather stream, and the USB port plays MP3 files and charges a device at 5 V, 1 A overnight. Two alarms wake you to radio or buzzer with snooze, a sleep timer runs the other way, and the clock sets itself from DAB or FM.

How It Compares

The Verdict

Strengths

• Top-loading CD player for CD, MP3-CD and MP3
• Bookmark function resumes CD and USB playback
• DAB, DAB+ and FM RDS with 20 presets
• Bluetooth streaming from a phone or tablet
• USB port for MP3 playback and 5 V charging
• Two alarms with snooze and a sleep timer
• Clock updates automatically from DAB or FM

Considerations

• Mains only: there is no battery operation of any kind, so the Sound 49 needs to stay plugged in wherever you use it.
• Presets run to 20 in total, ten DAB and ten FM, which is limited if you save a lot of stations.
• Output is 5 W RMS from a cabinet 145 mm wide, so this is a bedside and kitchen radio rather than a main system.

What's in the Box

• Sound 49 clock radio x1
• Mains adaptor x1