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The iLuv iMM178 main unit is oval measuring 25x10x9cm, the bed shaker unit is also oval at 11x6.5x2.5cm. The lead that connects the shaker to the main unit is 2metres long and this I found was adequate. The mains lead ending in the power adapter plug is 1.7metres and this to me is a tab short unless the electric socket is the same side of the bed as the table/stand. The extra 30cm that the shaker unit has just gives that extra amount to allow easy placement.

The front of the unit has a 10x4cm white on blue display, either side of this are the speaker grills that wrap round to the ends of the oval. The rear of the unit has the inputs for the shaker and the power and a slider button to select speaker layout.

The base has a Philips screw to secure a door behind which you can insert a clock type battery (not supplied) that can keep the time if the mains power is removed such as with a power cut. Surely it could have been a standard ‘AA’ or ‘AAA’ battery to do the job and if it was rechargeable then you really should never need to change it.

See also: Alarm/Radios

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The rest of the controls are on the top, either side has a turn wheel (looking like an eye) the left one mode and the right one select, between these is the iPod/iPhone dock in front of these are seven well marked buttons, finally on the front edge the dual purpose snooze/dimmer button the latter action controls in ten stages the brightness of the display. For instance level five in daylight is fine but in a darkened room is far to bright, I myself settled for level one at night which still allowed me to read the clock to see the time day and date.

The unit has a hard wired (90cm) wire aerial that I found needs to be placed with care to get decent reception, just like the mains lead a little bit more length would allow placement to give better reception over the spectrum.

There is a small 32 page Instruction Manual that sort of covers most things with text and illustrations. However certain things such as turning off scrolling text do not seem to able to be done – at least I could not find out how – little things like that which are normally available on most DAB radios do not have options available.

You can of course set a sleep timer and this is well described in the Instruction Manual. There are a whole load of Alarm options both with and without the bed shaker option. There are two alarms the default setting is everyday but if you want Monday-Friday or Saturday-Sunday they are available. If you really are a heavy sleeper then set both alarms for say 30 minutes apart in case your finger hits the alarm off button rather than snooze.

As an iPod/iPhone unit it will of course charge your device as long as it is in the dock I found sound levels lower than either the FM or DAB stations but still enough volume to listen happily by your bed, no earbud/headphone output could be a problem if your partner wants silence. Not having input from a 3.5mm jack (MP3 player) might also lessen the desire from those who have both an iPod and an MP3 player to purchase this.

When the aerial is the right place sound quality was fine and if you delve into the Instruction Manual it is possible to set treble and bass to get the exact sound that you want. Little things that I would have liked surely are not beyond as they are available in other DAB radios. The shaker is a plus for the heavy sleepers around.

Doing my Internet searches found the iLuv iMM178DAB at £59.99 with free delivery.

hhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003WE972S?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.i-luv.com/product_detail.asp?idx=1463