Polk iSonic Review (1st Gen)

I'm starting a review section, only I can't figure out how to make a section (as opposed to them showing up as regular posts) so if you have any suggestions please let me know!

I bought this about 2 years ago when Tweeter was closing down several stores in the Boston area and was selling stuff at a substantial discount. What I like about it - the pros - and the reasons I bought it are:

• HD Radio - I love this feature. I like to listen to a lot of music on the radio (yes I also listen to NPR and PRI) but I really don't like listening to ads. In the car that isn't a problem because I can easily change the station; at home it is a pain. HD Radio is great because there are no ads, better quality sound and you get additional channels. 89.7 for example has 3: 89.7-1 is the regular channel that you get when you listen sans HD Radio, 89.7-2 generally has classical music and -3 has shows playing at different times than the regular channel. The best part is that it's free, unlike satellite radio where you pay 10-12.00 every month.
• Sound quality, in general is supposed to be good, but the sound quality that you get from HD is noticeably different and I had to put that in a separate bullet
  
• It's not a Bose! Bose had captured the market for high-end, 'satellite' radios, but they were expensive and hadn't changed much in years. Polk out did them by adding dvd capability at a price similar to the Bose which did (does?) not have dvd or HD Radio.
• It got excellent reviews from high-end audio magazines for sound and video quality
• I like being able to play my iPhone/iPod through it
• You can set 3 'banks' of preset radio stations, with 10 to a bank, or 30 total
  

Cons:

• The UI (user interface) is poorly designed. I can't give you any examples because i don't have it in front of me and I rarely use it. Apple, imo, has the gold standard for UI especially with the iPhone, and this is nowhere close to it, which is why I don't use it.
• I do have to use the remote, unfortunately. Unfortunate, because the remote is poorly designed. They felt compelled to copy the Bose remote, which I think (can't remember) is well designed. One example is that the preset button is next to the power button, so frequently I'll turn the device off when I meant to change stations. The volume buttons are also not logically located and the remote as a whole is not the least bit intuititive.
• One, very frustrating, example is setting presets. When I first got it I set several presets up the way I wanted to. Subsequently I wanted to add a new preset, and I couldn't figure out how to do it! It's very annoying that a basic function like that should be so hard to figure out.
• While the display is quite large, the size of the text is very small, so that you have to come within 4 or 5 feet to read it, which is annoying, because you have to go very close to it if you want to read which song is playing.

Conclusion: at the time this was the only option that had everything, but I think they rushed it to market to be in time for the Holiday Shopping season and as a result it wasn't well thought out. I know they have since introduced a new version which has an iPhone/iPod dock and is about 3-400.00, which I think is a great deal, because I think it still doesn't have any serious competition if you want HD Radio and DVD in addition to the usual radio, CD player etc.