My requirements: This was purchased for use in the kitchen. I wanted a small footprint without a lot of cords and parts. Remote control to allow it to be placed out of the way. Simple cosmetics without distracting cheap scifi look so popular with the popular brands: Sony, Aiwa, et cetera. (who styles these things, yikes!)My review: Sounds great given use and requirements. Exceptional reception even without additional antennas. Easy to use controls on front (as compared to Bose Wave Radio's with controls that are on top!). Cambridge Audio seems to have exceptional customer service.
Aside: I also have an ancient Advent 300 receiver hooked up to a pair of Visonic Davids, this combo dusts the 88, but this is hardly a fair comparison and did not meet my requirements. I think comparing the 88 to small receivers with external speakers is not altogther an apples to apples comparison. Don't think this is a replacement for your main system and you won't likely be disappointed.

As a fellow who enjoys building and tweeking his own audio gear, I was in a quandry when I got out to Providence. Coming from the West Coast for graduate school, I was loathe to drag out all my tube stuff. First of all, my room is not big enough to support my speakers (see my review of the Klipsch Heresies). Secondly, I didn't need any unecessary distractions while I was in school. So I was pretty much stuck with my GE digital clock radio for music. What's a fellow to do? Well, I wasn't even thinking about it when I walked into the local discount audio store. Looking around, I saw a lot of the usual low to upper mid-fi gear, and then I noticed the Model 88. I remembered reading a little blurb about this radio in one of the audio journals, which gave it a good mention. I was intrigued by this little unit. I asked the fellow to turn it on, and it actually sounded pretty good. Add to that the coolness factor of being a modern "table radio" and I was sold. I bought one later that day. I brought it home and put it on the little table in my bedroom.
I have to admit, I was rather taken by this "table radio" concept. Here was a little unit that had no further pretentions than being a good sounding radio that you put on your table. What a humble ambition! None of that would have mattered, of course, if the thing didn't actually sound good, which, in my estimation, it does. The first thing I noticed is that it sounds slightly soft and warm. This is a good thing. I've heard too many mini-systems that sound thin and transistory. Add a disproportionately boomy bass, and you have the typical mini-system sound. No thanks. What the Model 88 does is make music that is engaging to listen to. It's slightly soft on the top, and the bass ultimately lacks punch, but it's a lot of fun to listen to. In fact, it reminds me in some ways of some of the single-ended triode amps I've been working on--a slightly soft but very listenable sound.

The radio itself comes in slate or ivory and is very nicely proportioned. It's design is clean and elegant in that late-fifties "design firm" kind of way...that is, it looks like some of those items that you might see in the Museum of Modern Art - items that were designed in the past and show hints of their vintage, but would look at home in a modern setting. Suffice it to say, the design of the Model 88 won't be classified as "late 90's" design. It seems much more timeless than that. It sports a cool remote control that's about the size of a credit card, only thicker. This remote control is great. It controls almost all of the functions of the radio. This is wonderful when you're lying in bed. In fact, the only thing it can't do is engage the "timed off" function, which requires you to depress the "off" button until the selected count-down time is achieved. Nor can it store station presets. It can do everything else that's on the face of the radio, however.

If you buy this radio, you may notice that the bass may sound too boomy, depending on where you place it. Thankfully, there is a bass attenuation control. This feature is invaluable. Between moving the radio and antenna around for best reception and doing the same to control bass response, this little bass attenuation knob is right on. Depending on your location, the wire antenna may be fine, but I recommend the active Radio Shack antenna that was reviewed a couple of years ago in Stereophile. I forget the model number, but it's the one that's black, tall, and narrow with a selector dial on the front. The Model 88 has a pair of RCA inputs on the back for a cd player and a phono jack as an auxiliary input. All of this can be switched by remote.

One final thing: the Model 88 is NOT a high-end music reproduction device, nor was it meant to be. Anyone complaining about the sound not comparing to their hi-fi or even mid-fi component system is missing the point. For $200.00 you can't get a new piece of gear that's this fun to listen to. You may really luck out and get a nice used NAD 320 integrated, or something like that, but then you'd have to spend even more on decent cables, speakers, a tuner, etc. The Model 88 is a great, good sounding, small, elegant product that's a joy to listen to, especially if you're listening to music in a non-critial manner, as in: in the bedroom, kitchen, office and such. It's great for having music around the house as background music, or for listening to NPR, etc. Most of all, it sounds good and it's fun and simple, unlike a lot of mini-systems and modest component setups.

If you need a cd player, just plug in your favorite. The way I look at it, this may cost more, but I'd rather do this than listen to most of the comparably priced systems that I've heard out there. On an absoulute scale, I would give it less, but for what it is, I definitely give it a fiver. I highly recommend this radio.

The last review seems about right. The 88 is the nicest table radio I've heard and is very convenient. Station acquisition is excellent, not fussy. The sound is quite nice although not on a par with big audio systems with carefully chosen components. I found the radio sensitive to placement. When located on a bookshelf, it boomed awfully because sound was being trapped on several sides. When placed on top of the bookshelf it sounded great. I prefer a bass setting lower than the midpoint setting, but I think that's because so many consumers are fond of exaggerated bass; they think that's what they got by paying more for a radio like this than for a cheap little boombox. This isn't a radio that will knock you on your rear and make you say, "God, that sounds so great!" It's a radio that sits in just about any room and gives you sound so nice you take it for granted and listen to the sound, not the radio. My rating of five stars is based on what I think is a realistic expectation for a table radio. The 88 meets or beats any realistic expectation for a table radio.

Unbelievable price/performance ratio. Adjustable subwoofer gets you perfect, tailored sound. Clear & involving, even in the "wide" mode. Industrial design & physical heft lend an impression of substance and quality. And it's unique, an intangible extra.

Wish I could dim the display. That's about it.

Let me say, at the outset, that I had to classify myself in order to submit this. I chose "Audio Enthusiast" over "Audiophile" only because I lack the proper subscriptions. With that in mind...

I've had the Model 88 Radio for just over a month now, so I've had time to form some objective impressions. For those of you who disagree with my review, I'll be subjective. HiFi.com had a $150 special and, as a first time customer, I got another $25 knocked off. So, it begins as a helluva bargain, even if it didn't sound as good as it does.

And it does. First off, though, is the way it looks, a paradigm of early 60s industrial design, when the last vestiges of the 50s were colliding with the emerging space age. It's heavy, a testament to the quality electronics inside. Right out of the box, on my kitchen table, I was taken with the clarity. There's an excellent NPR station nearby, broadcasting a clean signal. Voice quality is outstanding, with a presence that draws you in. Both music and talk programs are involving, somehow stroking both sides of the brain, simultaneously. And I'm left-handed.

I have a Panasonic SA-PM01 in my home office. Cost me $200, and I've always liked it. Still do. But by comparison it suffers, even though it does play CDs. It has a soft sound, which I hadn't really noticed before getting the Model 88. Turns out it's ideal for a room where you have to concentrate on the work at hand. It has a "wide" mode, as does the 88, but I don't like it. It's exaggerated, making everything overly bright and subtly distorted, so I leave it in the regular "stereo" mode. The Model 88 is cleaner, has a better bottom end, and is, as I've said, very involving, drawing you into whatever's coming out of the (excellent, distortion-free) speakers. Contrary to the Panasonic, I leave it in the "wide" mode, giving me a broad soundstage without introducing a lot of processing artifacts. Artfully done.

It took me a while to get the subwoofer level where I wanted it. It has a center detent, but I found it too boomy. I turned it down, and after a while noticed it was too thin. I finally found the sweet spot, and it sounds terrific. Like finding the right placement for the speakers in your main system, I guess it takes a little time.

I've never heard the Bose Wave, just seen their commercials and heard Rush Limbaugh peddling 'em on the radio. This radio. But I've read some of the reviews and they're not pretty, are they? At any rate, $350 for a Bose, or $125 for this? I'll take three more. A couple of friends might get early Christmas presents.

Yes, I recommend it. Incidentally, the remote is nice, allowing you adjust most everything from the comfort of your beanbag. I noticed the price is back up to $250. Even at that, it's a deal. I got lucky, got a steal.

BTW, I noticed that a couple of prior reviewers gave it minimal ratings. Either you're tonedeaf or work for Bose. Would that be mutually inclusive?

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic SA-PM01.

Infrared remote control, dual alarm, room-filling sound

No dim on clock

I bought the Model 88 after a visit to Cambridge Soundworks, after months of dreaming about a Bose and checking the prices on Ebay (which, even for used models, never drop below $250). You can read a lot of reviews here about the sound, so I won't dwell...it's great. But what really convinced me to buy this unit was the incredible remote control. We've got the clock set up way across the room, and at a different height from the radio, and it works every time...volume adjustment, on off, whatever. My wife and I get up at different times, so being able to set the dual times and then forget about the settings until they go off is great. Being able to place the stereo in the optional room location is a great idea that I'm surprised others haven't copied. Oh yah, it looks nice, too. Highly recommended. My only regret is that I paid the full $250 price...just discovered AudiReview.com today and I see that some discount Web sites have it...But I still saved over the Bose and got a better unit. The Bose is too much plastic from what I've seen. This thing has a heavier, more solid, and retro look and feel.

Similar Products Used:

Cheap clock radios (similar size, that's about it)

Fidelity, Range, Power, Flexibility, Compactness

Marketing. This gem would receive much greater acclaim if it was marketed more aggressively.

At full retail, Cambridge Soundworks' Model 88 table radio is an incomparable value. On sale it is irresistible.

It is a tidy little oblong, no larger than a shoebox, which is capable of filling a large room with balanced, accurate sound at volume. The 88's understated elegance and diminuitive size, however, belie both its dynamic range and supple power. Glissandi wash over the listener as gently as rain. Percussives detonate with urgency and ferocity. High-hats shimmer, and bass and drums resound with uncanny clarity and musicality. In fact, with the 88, the listener hears it all; the fretting, the bowing, the plucking, the breathing, in truth, virtually each note as it lives and dies. To reproduce so much artistic expression with such astonishing fidelity in a package this small is a marvelous accomplishment.

"Rubbish!", the audiophile will howl. To the audiophile, as opposed to the mere enthusiast, less can never be more. Why settle for an exceptionally satisfying quartet of Paradigm Atoms for $400 (and a decent subwoofer at modest additional cost) when you can buy the infinitesimally superior Otiose Afflatuses for $30,000 more? At some point the law of diminishing returns requires the wise man to tuck it in and go home. (The foolish are different than you and me...isn't it so?)

It is this tension between cachet and worth which accounts for the sometimes rancorous debate between the adherents of Amal Bose and the devotees of Henry Kloss. Reading the reviews, one senses that some of those who own the Bose are not defending its intrinsic merit so much as they are defending their own relative affluence, while some of those who assail it are attacking it for the very same reason. This is not helpful in either case. What is needed are more reviews of the thing in itself. That is why the reviews of the 88 generally ring true. They tend to be about the radio, per se, and not what ownership may, or may not, connote about the purchaser.

As for the various criticisms which have been levelled against the 88 on this website and elsewhere, only one has any passing validity. The spoken voice, especially the spoken male voice, booms unpleasantly unless the bass is adjusted all the way down. While this is undeniably true, it is simply irrelevant to Kloss' mission and to the purposes of the vast majority of prospective buyers. Just as one does not buy a Miata to haul firewood, one does not buy the 88 to listen to the news. The lack of an alarm clock has been remedied and in keeping with Kloss' original intent that the 88 not be used at bedside but rather across the room where it has space to compose its soundstage.

Which brings us to the claim that the 88 sounds no better on its "wide" setting than when switched to "stereo" or "mono". Perhaps those who are of this opinion have yet to find, for some inexplicable reason, a source conducive to enhancement, but over time and after listening to an eclectic variety of music, it becomes unmistakably clear that the "wide" mode enriches the sound of some recordings. In some instances, the soundstage broadens so dramatically that the listener is bathed in music and little sonic imps materialize out of nowhere to tantalize and charm. The effect is breathtaking. How Kloss manages this impressive feat of psychoacoustic voodoo ("sleight of ear" as one of the professional reviewers so felicitously puts it) is best left to the technoliterate to explain, but it works and works superbly. (The surest way to know if it is or it isn't is to shuttle back and forth between "stereo" and "wide" with the remote. When it works there is an added dimension to the already excellent "stereo"phonic sound; more fullness, greater nuance, better imaging. When it does not work there is a conspicuous falloff in volume to one or more elements of the music.)

An external antenna is probably unnecessary except for those in the most "signally" disadvantaged areas. The power cord deployed to its full length of roughly seven and a half feet serves as an excellent antenna, and Radio Shack sells packages of adhesive brackets which make it possible to hide the cord beneath a windowsill or behind a bookshelf. It is not recommended, however, that the radio itself be placed within any kind of enclosure, as it needs room to "breathe" for best results.

Kloss' latest masterpiece is no plastic rhombus. Its timeless design and sturdy metal construction exemplify his philosophy of enduring value and love of craft. Witness the prices early Kloss designs command on the secondary market. A Kloss Model Eight FM table radio (the first Kloss, and a tube design) with original box and documentation recently sold for $715 on Ebay. It was built in the early sixties. The 88, like its predecessors, is meant to be listened to for days on end, year upon year.

While the 88 is not an antidote to perpetual dissatisfaction with life, it will brighten anyone's day. There is a great soul in this machine...at the very least, an appreciable part of Henry Kloss' wisdom and generosity. This product is a boon to the consumer, a treasure which will afford a lifetime of enjoyment. Aesthetically, functionally, sonically, it is all of a piece. Most of all it is a rebuke and an indictment of the tawdry, avaricious spirit which pervades our consumerist age. Would that Kloss could live to be a hundred and fifty. What he could do with the godawful boombox, only the angels know.

____________________________________________________________

The 88 is available through Hifi.com; they are in all respects a class "etailer", courteous, prompt, responsive, and single-minded in their pursuit of customer satisfaction.

Similar Products Used:

JVC Boombox, Mid-Fi Stereo Components

It's a Bose killer!

No built in clock. I wish the pre-sets would remember the stereo/wide/mono setting.

On sale at HiFi.com for $150, the Model 88 is being discontinued (for a new model with a built in CD player). Get them while they are hot!

Hi-Fi Sound ! Quality Workmanship. Built-in Sub. Excellent AM/FM Tuner.

None

Henry Kloss designed the Model 88. I know he is an American Hi-Fi icon; KLH speakers, Kloss headphones, ect. The Model 88 table radio is a wonderful stereo electronics. I was amazed of the sound that was comig from this clock radio !

The table radio sounds unbelievable ! It sounds like a $500 system !

No Japanese mini stereo system; Sony, JVC, etc. can't even come close to the sound quality of the Model 88.

Before you go out and buy a Japanese boom-box or mini stereo system listen to the Henry Kloss Model 88 and you will experience hi-fi sound coming from a TABLE RADIO !

Similar Products Used:

Japanese Mini- Stereo System; JVC 7000, etc.

Excellent sound, fine bass, nice remote, will accept 2 components, simplicity in operation, understated good looks, when powering up starts off quiet and works up to last volume level.

Display could use a dimmer, tone controls might be a nice addition, and the addition of an mm phone preamp would be really cool.

I like this radio. It performs admirably well. It is claimed to be a Bose killer. It certainly is as one can adjust the bass of its built-in subwoofer, attach 2 components to it, and its price is phenomenal. It sounds as good as the Bose Wave, perhaps even better.

Bose does have the better marketing. At one time I craved having a Bose Wave Radio. I just couldn't bring myself to pay 300 to 350 bucks for a stereo clock radio. Then along came the Model 88 by Henry Kloss and Cambridge Soundworks. At 200 bucks, it was a deal. At its current price of $150 it is a deal. My ebay auction price of approx. $123 for a refurbished unit is an even better deal. I added the clock radio module with remote capabilities for 40 bucks. What a deal! My wife simply loves it.

This is not an audiophile top end stereo kit. This is just a great table radio. It sounds better than most boomboxes, it sounds as good as many minisystems, and it is an excellent AM/FM radio. I'd use it in an office, in the bedroom, in the garage, and at the cabin as a fine little sound system at modest cost. Just add a cd player and you are have a complete minisystem. Hook it up to the telly for better sound. Buy 'em now while they are on sale and enjoy the music.

Similar Products Used:

Bose Wave Radio (alright but overpriced), Yorx Stereo clock radio (a horrid product, but a thoughtful xmas gift), Radio Shack Short Wave radio (still use), Sony stereo clock radio with built-in cd player (located in my son's bedroom).