Comparison radios & Table Clocks

— Radio receiver. In this case, we mean classic receivers designed to listen to music through an external speaker. Such devices can be of different shapes — from stationary to pocket. A characteristic feature of most receivers is a telescopic antenna. But the functions may differ from model to model.

— Pocket receiver. Small size self-powered receivers. Such devices, due to their size, have a small built-in speaker power and are often equipped with a headphone output. Portable solutions of this form factor are more intended for individual use, and not for mass listening. The list of functions of the respective models is limited to the basic capabilities.

— Radio clock. As the name suggests, they are actually electronic watches with a built-in tuner. Without fail, they are equipped with displays and an alarm clock function, they can also have a variety of additional features. Clock radios are usually designed for home use within cities, close to transmitting stations, and are poorly suited as portable devices — although they are often quite small, only a few models are equipped with autonomous power supply. The capabilities of their acoustics are also quite modest: the clock radio speakers, compared to conventional receivers, have low power and low sound quality.

— Table clock. The essence of a table clock i...s to show the time. They also serve as a decorative element of interior decoration, often have a built-in calendar, alarm clock and room temperature measurements. Desktop form factor clocks are available in both electronic and pointer dial versions, and hourglasses fall into the same category.

Dial type — the field on which the time itself is displayed (as well as other data, if such a possibility is provided).

— Digital. The name of such dials is due to the fact that the time on them is displayed on the LCD screen directly in the form of numbers — for example, "03:12" or "14:45". Watches with such dials are often referred to as "electronic": in terms of the basic principle of the mechanism, they do not differ from quartz watches with hands (see "Type of movement"), but electronic circuits, not mechanics, are responsible for the operation of the dial. The main advantage of LCD screens is the abundance of features: in addition to numbers, they can display almost any auxiliary data, and the main block of numbers can be used in different modes — for example, switch from clock to calendar or other standard time (for more details, see "Functions / features”), change the time display format (see below), etc. Therefore, this option is considered optimal for watches with extensive additional functionality. It is also worth noting that the digital dial allows even a simple model to look like an advanced electronic device. This option, in fact, has no global practical disadvantages — except that some users may consider it less aesthetic and stylish than an arrow dial.

— Arrow. The traditional dial with arrows, which are responsible for displaying the...time; the set of hands includes at least an hour and a minute, but a second is often provided as well. Pointer dials are found among both mechanical and quartz watches (see "Type of mechanism"). They are not as versatile as the digital ones described above: the dial itself can only display time, and additional functions require auxiliary equipment (for example, a calendar is most often made in the form of a characteristic window with a date display). In addition, some features in such watches are not implemented as well as in digital ones — for example, the alarm clock cannot be set to the nearest minute; and some are not available at all (for example, switchable time format, see below). On the other hand, pointer dials are highly valued by lovers of "watch classics".

— Flip-flop. The dials of this type are similar to flip calendars: they are based on sets of separate “pages”, which are responsible for displaying the time (only in this case, the “pages” are made not of paper, but of hard material, such as plastic). Time is displayed in numbers, as in digital options (see above); and when changing numbers, the corresponding plate falls down, revealing the next number. Watches with such equipment have an original appearance and stand out noticeably among most modern models, but from a practical point of view, they have no advantages even over analog models (not to mention digital ones). In addition, each change of numbers, usually, is accompanied by a characteristic click; and if it is quite easy to get used to the uniform ticking of ordinary watches, then problems can arise with every minute clicks. With all this, the design of the dial turns out to be quite complex and expensive. As a result, this option has become widespread mainly among fashion models of the elite class.

— Mixed. A dial that combines a digital LCD display and traditional hands. Each of these options is described in more detail above, and their combination allows you to provide an abundance of possibilities, while preserving the classic look of the watch as much as possible. On the other hand, for a number of reasons, this option is not very popular among desktop models — in most cases it is more convenient to provide one version of the dial and focus on one thing (on functionality or design), rather than combine two types.

Clock face shape. This parameter affects only the appearance of the device and is practically not related to the functionality. Therefore, you can choose a watch according to the shape of the dial only for aesthetic reasons.

Note that although the traditional shape for a pointer dial (see “Dial Type”) is round or rounded (oval), this is not limited to square / rectangular options. With digital, the situation is similar: in addition to the classics in the form of a rectangle, other forms are also used.

A type of tuner used in radio receivers.

- Analogue. Tuning to the desired frequency in such tuners is carried out using the wheel. This scheme is considered more convenient than digital trim (see below), but the accuracy of analogue regulators is lower. This can make it difficult to use the receiver with numerous stations in a small frequency range (especially for FM broadcasts in large cities). In addition, the analogue tuner "does not know how" to memorize stations.

- Digital. The direct tuning of the tuner in such receivers is performed by an electronic circuit; the user only sets the desired frequency using the increase / decrease buttons or, in advanced models, from the numeric keypad. These tuners are somewhat less convenient for manual tuning, but they do a good job of fine tuning. Also, many receivers with digital tuners have the function of storing stations (see "Station Memory"), automatically searching for all available stations, etc.

— FM. The most popular broadcasting range among radio listeners today is primarily due to the fact that the vast majority of music stations broadcast in it. This is due to its features: FM uses frequency modulation, which makes it possible to broadcast sound with a fairly high sound quality, and even in stereo format. In the frequency band, the term "FM" usually refers to the 87.5 MHz to 108 MHz portion of the VHF band, although the range of individual receivers may vary. The disadvantage of FM is the limited range — within the line of sight (up to several tens of kilometers), which has secured the reputation of "urban" stations for FM stations.

— AM. Formally, this designation is not a range, but a type of modulation: "amplitude modulation" — amplitude modulation. In consumer radios, AM most often means the medium wave range of about 520-1610 kHz. Such waves have a propagation range of hundreds of kilometers, but the sound quality in this case is somewhat worse than that of FM, and therefore the AM band is mainly used by radio stations of the “conversational” genre (for example, news or journalistic).

— SW. Broadcasting on short waves (short wave) in the general range from 2.5 MHz to 26.1 MHz, divided into a number of separate sub-bands. Sound quality is average. Short waves are able to reach the opposite side of the Earth, but immediately outside the line of sight of the transmitter, a “dead zone” is formed, several...tens of kilometers wide. As a consequence, SW is commonly used for overseas broadcasts.

— DAB. Abbreviation for Digital Audio Broadcasting, i.e. "digital broadcasting". This term describes the key difference between this range and those described above: broadcasting in it is carried out not in analogue, but in digital format, the MP2 codec is used for transmission. This gives a number of advantages over traditional transmitters — in particular, a greater range with less power and high quality of the broadcast sound. In addition, this sound is practically not subject to distortion: weak interference does not affect its quality, and when the transmitter power is critically reduced, the signal is not distorted, but disappears entirely. The latter, however, can be written down as disadvantages; but the really significant drawback of this option is perhaps its low prevalence (so far) in the CIS countries. Technically, such broadcasting can be carried out in any band above 30 MHz, but in fact several options are used (depending on the country) related to the VHF band.

— DAB+. An updated and improved version of the DAB standard described above. It has all the characteristic features of digital broadcasting, and differs from its predecessor in higher sound quality at the same bit rates — both due to the use of a different codec (HE-AAC v2), and due to the use of more advanced noise correction algorithms. DAB+ broadcasts cannot be received on DAB receivers: at best, this will require a firmware update, and at worst, you will have to change the receiver itself.

— USB port. The presence of a USB connector allows you to connect a USB flash drive, mobile phones, MP3 players and other similar peripherals. Accordingly, such models have a built-in player and allow you to use connected gadgets exclusively as a drive.

— Card Reader. Like the USB described above, this item implies the presence of a built-in player. And the card reader also allows you to use memory cards as a drive on which songs will be recorded.

— Line input. Analogue audio input. Through such an input, you can connect an external signal source to the radio receiver — for example, an MP3 player — and listen to music through the receiver's speakers. Despite the development of digital standards, line-in is still one of the most popular connection interfaces.

The maximum power output of the receiver speaker(s) in normal operation, without overload. The higher the rated power, the higher the sound volume, but louder devices and energy require more.

A connector for connecting headphones in radio receivers, most often a standard 3.5 mm mini-jack. Headphones can come in handy when the sound from the main speaker might disturb others, or in noisy environments where an external speaker doesn't do well.

The format in which the time is displayed on the clock face.

— 12 hours. A format that enumerates individual hours (time intervals) from 1 to 12. Since there are 24 hours in a day, this numbering covers only half of the day. This option is traditional for hand dials (see "Dial type") — historically, the full circle of the hour hand corresponds exactly to 12 o'clock, and it is from this principle that both watchmakers and watch users around the world today proceed. However, it can also be found in other types of dials. Theoretically, this option may require clarification — roughly speaking, "7 o'clock — in the morning or in the evening?" — however, in the vast majority of cases, the answer to such a question is clear immediately, from the context of the situation. But when using an alarm clock (see "Functions / Capabilities") in such a watch, you have to be especially careful: if, for example, at 6 pm you set the signal time to 8 am, the alarm clock will go off at 8 pm, because the clock itself "does not distinguish" between morning and evening.

— 24 hour. A full 24-hour format, provides numbering of hours from 1 to 24 (more precisely, from 0 to 23, because exactly 24 hours are considered zero of the next day). Thus, when looking at the clock, in principle, there is no question whether we are talking about the time of "morning" or "evening": for example, 7.00 will unambiguously correspond to morning, and "7 pm" will be designated as 19.00. At th...e same time, we note that such clarification can be provided in other ways — namely, the 12-hour scale, which has additional indicators AM (ante meridiem, "before noon") and PM (post meridiem, "after noon"). Therefore, models with such modified 12-hour scales are also classified as 24-hour models in our catalog. This format is used in all types of dials, except for arrows.

— 12/24 hour. This category includes watches that have the ability to switch between a full 24-hour clock and a 12-hour clock with "AM/PM" qualifiers. Formally, both of these types of scales are 24-hour scales (and are described in detail in the relevant paragraph above); the same designation is used to emphasize the possibility of switching formats.