Sony Digicube VFD Clock. Still going strong after many years.

[steve30]

I've had a Sony Digicube (model ICF-C11L) in my possession for the last 20 years or so. Before that, my Dad had it. I'm not entirely sure of its age, as I can't find any date codes, but a Google search suggests it could be from around 1980 ish.

I'm not sure what sort of use it had before I got it, but it has been in use for the vast majority of the last 20 years.

The radio tuning knob and volume knob are quite crackly, but these don't get used very often. What I find impressive is the VFD. I'm amazed that it is still so good after all these years of use. I had the clock set to Maximum brightness for many years, but due to my poor eyesight, a few years ago I removed the blue filter which was in front of the VFD. This brightened it up considerably and I now have the brightness on Minimum, and its still very bright. Now, instead of blue digits, I get nice clear turquoise digits .

The 'Auto-Dimmer' on the front seems to be an LDR, and works fine. I've no idea where the Wakey Wakey sticker came from . The knob from the FM/MW/LW switch broke, but the switch is fine.

I've attached some photos of it. I don't have any teardown photos yet, but I'll try and get some sometime.

[Bicurico]

This is from the mid/late 80ies.

Back then I dreamed of having one: it was the best bedroom radio clock you could buy back then!

- Digital numbers
- Radio
- Timer to fall asleep listining to radio
- Alarm: beep or radio

And from a time, where the brand SONY meant:

- premium quality
- innovation
- miniaturisation
- design
- unfortunatly: high price

Regards,
Vitor

[LaurentR]

I remember moving from Europe to the US with a slightly different version of the Sony cube in the 90s and realizing the time was going 20% faster on the US 60Hz grid 
That made it a lot less useful.