No longer my shower companion - Jensen JCR-550 Clock Radio

If you are like me, you cannot resist the urge to sing along with a good tune. In the car, while jogging with my iPod, at my desk at work…. Unfortunately, this Jensen Clock Radio left me hanging in the shower!

Description of the Jensen Shower Clock Radio

The JCR-550 Clock Radio has an AM/FM Stereo receiver and the ability to play CDs. It’s a white plastic player with a round mirror over the CD compartment, an LCD clock/radio display in the middle, and speaker on the bottom. 4 knobs allow for you to change from AM to FM, Radio to CD (or OFF when none are inserted), adjust the volume, and tune in to different stations. The entire thing is pretty big, measuring 13.5”H x 7.125” W x 6.25” D.

This clock radio is both battery (4 C batteries) and AC compatible. It also has a headphone jack, but I’ve never used it. It’s very basic and doesn’t have bass/treble adjusting functions. The CD player is front loading, and the compartment door swings out with the press of a button on the side. The CD player has button options for Play, Stop, Pause, Repeat, and Skip Ahead or Back. A smaller LCD screen shows which track the CD is currently playing.

We purchased our Jensen Clock Radio at Target for $39.99 about a year ago.

Using the Jensen JCR-550

There are multiple ways in which to use this radio/CD player in the bathroom, which could be convenient for all types of people. It can be hung by its nylon hanger from the showerhead or the curtain rod in the shower. The nylon rope is very strong and easily snapped into a mount that must be screwed onto the back of the player. However, the player swings freely on the rope, so it’s difficult to hang from a curtain rod because it would require 2 hands to work at all times. In addition, it’s hard to hang it from the showerhead because it’s very bulky and there isn’t enough room between my head and the shower wall not to have it hitting us all the time in that position.

The wall mount can also be used to install the player directly onto the wall, but that doesn’t work for most showers with all tile walls. I suppose you could install it on a wall directly outside of the shower if you wanted, but we were not inclined to do that in our bathroom. Finally, it comes with a round base for the ability to just set it on a countertop, which is what we ended up doing after trying it in the shower for a few months and finally giving up on it either hitting the backs of our heads or swaying from the curtain rod.

It’s easy to use the actual radio and CD player in the shower because each of the knobs has several small grips on them so that wet hands don’t slide off. The instructions do warn against immersing the player into water or getting the inside of the CD compartment wet. But the outside of the player is “splash-resistant,” and it handled typical shower spray just fine for us. We never had any water seep into the CD compartment, nor did it affect playback quality (no skips).

We never had trouble with radio reception in the shower or on the countertop. But the sound itself leaves much to desire. While the volume has quite the range on the knob, it seems that turning it up louder just increases the “background noise” rather than the treble (or bass, for that matter). And when it is not cranked up high, the music just sounds like a lot of garbled mumblings. This is the case for both the radio and CDs. In the shower, with both the water and the fan running, I’m lucky to make out the lyrics to a song that I know well. And with the radio on the countertop a few feet away, you can imagine it is only that much worse trying to hear.

The mirror, true to its product description, is “fog resistant.” So, for those who like to take HOT showers, it will not be fog free. But it did a fine job in average shower temperatures. I’d imagine that’s not the primary feature one would purchase this for anyway.

Final Thoughts

I can’t recommend this Jensen Audio player because there are so many out there that look much better. It needs to be smaller, have better mounting options (suction, possibly, or a hook instead of a rope?), and MUCH better sound. I don’t mind that it is basic, but I still require that I be able to comprehend music coming out of it or it is pretty much worthless.