Best Alarm Clock Radio CD Players 2023

Alarm clock radios let you wake up to music, which is much nicer than being woken up by a shrill alarm clock.

Many alarm clock radios have quite limited functions, but a few come with extra features such as the ability to play CDs. If you have a lot of music on CDs, a radio CD player is a great choice.

We’ve researched the market and picked out what we believe to be the 5 best alarm radio CD players currently on the market in the UK.

To learn more about how we chose these products and what to look for in a CD clock radio, scroll to the end of the article.

If you’re ready to see our recommendations, check out the list below.

Best Alarm Clock Radio CD Players in the UK

1. AZATOM Trinity

The AZATOM Trinity is a stereo radio that offers a great range of features for the price. AZATOM is a British brand that makes audio products including headphones, radios and accessories.

Released in November 2019, this product has become a popular choice among people looking for a complete music system for less than £100.

Features

Design, use and performance

The AZATOM Trinity has a neutral, Scandinavian-style design with a wood-effect finish. It should fit well with any kind of décor, and it’s pretty compact at 37 cm wide and 20 cm deep.

The Trinity is packed full of features including a dual alarm clock so you can set two separate alarms. It connects easily with other devices via Bluetooth and USB.

The sound is good for the price, and it offers plenty of volume. However, the front interface feels plasticky, and the overall build quality could be improved.

Summary

The AZATOM Trinity’s impressive combination of features, performance and value for money makes it our number 1 choice for a clock radio CD player.

2. Pure Siesta Home

The Siesta Home is a sleek and stylish clock radio from British DAB radio pioneers Pure. It will fit easily on most bedside tables, and is a good choice if you’re short on space.

Features

Design, use and performance

The Siesta Home has an attractive modern design and is available in either a black or white/grey finish.

It has some interesting features that set it apart from the competition. These include the ability to set 4 separate alarms, so you could have 2 alarms on weekdays and 2 on weekends, for example. There’s also an Auto-Dim feature which automatically dims the display at night so the light won’t keep you awake.

Summary

The Siesta Home is a reliable and stylishly designed radio from an established brand. It is on the pricy side, but it does have some smart features such as display dimming and Bluetooth.

3. Roberts Blutune 200

The Roberts Blutune 200 is a premium radio CD player from legendary British radio brand Roberts.

If you want a beautiful and thoughtfully designed radio that would look equally at home in the kitchen as in the bedroom, the Blutune 200 could be a good choice.

Features

Design, use and performance

The Blutune 200 looks sophisticated and is sure to impress anyone visiting your house! The unit itself is intuitively designed, with a large volume adjuster on top.

Unfortunately, the remote control is small and fiddly, and not so intuitively designed.

This radio has excellent sound quality, so you can really appreciate your CDs. The sound is very bass-heavy by default, but this can be adjusted via the EQ.

Summary

The Blutune 200 is a high-quality product that will appeal to audiophiles and those looking for a reliable product that should last for years.

4. AZATOM Clockwood 2

The Clockwood 2 is another reasonably priced product from AZATOM that offers a lot of features for the price.

If you’re looking for something substantial with stereo sound for a low price, this is a good choice.

Features

Design, use and performance

The Clockwood 2 is a stylish product with a similar design to more expensive wood-effect models from Pure.

It has lots of features including Bluetooth and an aux-in port for connecting things like MP3 players.

The sound quality is good for the price, and it can be turned up quite loud without distorting.

This radio feels cheaply made, and it isn’t the most reliable product. Many users have had issues with different features or buttons not working after a few months of use.

Summary

If you’re looking to get an attractive radio with as many features as possible for the price, the AZATOM Clockwood 2 is a good choice. However, don’t expect it to last forever—this is a budget radio, and it can be unreliable.

5. soundmaster ICD2020

The ICD2020 from German brand soundmaster has a futuristic metallic-style design. What makes this radio special is that it also offers internet radio, so you can stream thousands of radio stations from around the world.

Features

Design, use and performance

The soundmaster ICD2020 is a sophisticated radio with plenty of modern features. You can connect the radio to Wi-Fi and listen to radio stations you wouldn’t be able to pick up on FM or DAB. This can also be useful if you live in an area with bad radio reception, as you can listen to the radio via the internet instead.

While the radio is advertised as offering Spotify, Spotify isn’t actually built in—you can only listen via Bluetooth.

This radio has great sound quality and can go quite loud.

soundmaster is a German company, which may explain why the instruction manual isn’t particularly clear—something must have got lost in translation!

Summary

If you want a cutting-edge product that offers the latest in radio technology, the soundmaster ICD2020. If you’re a bit of a technophobe though it’s not a great choice, as it can be fiddly to set up.

Features to Look for in an Alarm Clock Radio CD Player

Everyone wants something slightly different out of their alarm clock radio CD player, but here are a few useful features to look out for.

Ability to play MP3s

Many radio CD players have the ability to play MP3s, either via CD-RWs or by attaching a USB stick. This is great if you have a large collection of MP3s, or want to listen to things like podcasts through your radio’s speakers.

USB charging

Some radios will let you charge your phone via a USB connection. This is great if you have the radio on a bedside table and want to charge your phone overnight.

Remote control

A remote control is very useful if you listen to the radio in bed and don’t want to have to keep getting up to adjust the volume, change the station or skip to the next track on the CD player.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth will allow you to use the radio as a Bluetooth speaker, so you can play music, radio or podcasts from your phone or laptop through the radio’s speakers.

Dual alarm clock

With a dual alarm clock, you can set two independent alarms. You could use this feature to set one alarm for weekdays and another for weekends when you want to have a lie-in. Some radios let you set more than two alarms—the Roberts Sound 38 lets you set four.

Internet radio

Internet radio gives you a lot more choice than just FM and DAB. You could use internet radio to learn another language or listen to niche music stations. It’s also a good feature to have if your FM and DAB reception is poor.

Sleep timer

A sleep timer lets you program the radio to switch itself off after a set period of time. You can usually choose the time from between roughly 10 and 90 minutes. This is useful if you like to drift off to sleep with the radio on, as it means the radio won’t stay on all night wasting electricity and potentially disturbing other people in the house.

Snooze feature

Many of us find it hard to get up in the morning, so a snooze feature is very useful as it lets you spend a few more minutes in bed before the alarm reminds you to get up. Unfortunately, some clock radios don’t have a snooze function, or it is fiddly to use.

How We Chose the Products in this List

It’s very difficult to choose the ‘best’ product on the market, as everyone has different priorities and tastes. That’s why we have tried to take the most objective approach possible in putting together this list.

First of all, we looked at the most popular alarm clock radio CD players in the UK. We found these products by looking at the top online retailers in the country and compiling a list of their top-selling radios.

Next, we collected data on each product by looking at its price, rating, number of reviews and whether or not each product offered several key features.

We then analysed this data and scored each radio on its ratings, features and value for money, then calculated an overall score for each.

The five radios reviewed here are the top 5 radios we identified after calculating the overall score from this data.

Conclusion

If we had to choose just one alarm clock radio CD player to recommend right now it would be the AZATOM Trinity. It offers the best combination of features and value for money, and is generally rated very highly by users.

If you want something more stylish from a more established brand, we’d recommend the Pure Siesta Home.

If you have a bigger budget and want something that’s really built to last, consider the more expensive Roberts Blutune 200.