SangeanRCR-5 Digital AM/FM Clock Radio (Black)

This is the best alarm clock I have ever owned. It has all the features I absolutely needed in an alarm clock -- and it offers others that I always fantasized about but assumed would never exist in an alarm clock. This is truly my dream alarm clock come true, and I can't emphasize that enough. It's as if someone who lived my life designed this. I am in my 40s and have used plug-in alarm clocks all my life. I still prefer them over digital devices.I'll just talk about the features that I love most:1. It has an AM tuner, which strangely many alarm clocks today do not offer -- they only do FM, if anything at all. I need AM in order to wake up to my local 24-hr AM news radio. Music, buzzes, anything else just doesn't work for me.2. It has a countdown sleep timer that allows me to fall asleep to the radio white noise of my choice, in increments of 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes. Falling asleep to the radio has been a part of my nightly routine for decades. What is new to me in this clock, and what I absolutely love, is the preset increments. In my old (now dead) alarm clock I still had to manually set a time, from 0 to 60 minutes, and sometimes I'd cycle through the minutes several times because the numbers zip by so quickly, and the buttons only go in one direction. I know that's so anal but these preset times make it so simple: just one or two touches, and you're set! Also if you're extremely near-sighted like I am, when the glasses are off and you lean over to set the timer, you don't have to stare closely at the display to make sure you stopped at the right number -- you don't even have to look at all, because all the buttons are positioned distinctly enough, there is no confusion about hitting the right one.3. That brings me to the buttons. They are all so well positioned and designed. Again, if you're really near-sighted like me and in bed without glasses, you don't think about how useful a thoughtful button design can be until you realize you can figure out everything by touch after a few repeated uses.4. There is one alarm setting for weekdays, and an optional second alarm setting for one-time-only days. THIS is an amazing feature. I know that you can do this on your smartphone already, but I don't use smartphones for alarms, and no plug-in alarm clock of mine had ever had this. I never knew life could be this much easier. Seriously. I used to have to remind myself to turn off my alarm switch on the side of the clock on Friday nights so it wouldn't wake me up super early Saturday morning. And then I'd carry the burden of remembering to turn it back on Sunday nights so I wouldn't sleep in and miss work. This was stressful but eventually became a habit, but when I bought this alarm clock and found this feature, I nearly died and went to heaven.5. When you set your alarms and your sleep timers, you can customize each of them not only for a specific radio station, you can choose the volume! This is mindblowing to me. Okay maybe I'm just old and out of touch. But I always hated that the volume was a manual knob that was stuck there when you went to sleep. So if I turned the volume down lower at night to fall asleep to, the alarm in the morning would be a bit too quiet. So I would be forced to choose my waking volume to fall asleep to, which was too loud, but better than nothing. Now I don't have to choose. Who knew this kind of attention to detail could be so wonderful and amazing. Every night and every morning I silently thank the designers of this alarm clock. Last amazing detail on this: it also has a fade-in volume for the alarm!! So when the radio comes on, it begins quietly, then ramps up to your chosen alarm volume. Just incredible.I can't think of anything else right now, but it's partly because I've been using this alarm clock for many months now and while it is still stupendous and I love it to death, it is now the new normal, so it's harder to remember all the amazing characteristics I was excited about during the first few months that I'm completely used to now. But I love this alarm clock SO MUCH and think back over the years to how much nicer my nights and mornings could have been with it. I have it now, though, and I can't be more thrilled and pleased.

It's a good, basic alarm clock radio with a digital tuner.Pros:- Does everything it is supposed to- Beep alarm starts softly and increases in volume- Digital tuner- Radio is good as long as antenna cord is dangled or raised from radio, station is strong or moderate strength, and the desired volume is moderate for same room use.Cons:- Alarm volume could be louder towards the end of the loudness increasing cycle.- Interface is non-obvious enough that you'll have to read the short manual (10 small pages with big type and some pictures). It is simple enough that you'll probably only need to read the manual once.- Radio reception is poor is the antenna cord isn't either dangled down or raised up. Radio reception experiences bleed over from neighboring stations on weakest stations. Radio max volume is fine for same room use, but don't expect to blare the radio.- Battery backup only lasts 10 minutesNow some lesser published info:- The brightness on the display is adjustable from extremely dim to pretty bright. At the dimmest setting it puts out enough light to just see your thumb in a dark room at 6 inches from the display. In other words, you'll definitely see it if looking at it in a dark room but it will be very dim. At the brightest setting, the display is very bright if you look at it, but not so bright that it lights up the room that much. Basically, it will cast a pale light in the vicinity of the clock (within ~ 3'), but I couldn't even see the effect on the far wall of the room (~ 12' away). The power light in the upper right of the top is also lit red, but it is dim at all times. The brightness of the display goes to max after hitting a button for about 3 seconds and then returns to the set brightness. The brightness setting knob is analog and on the bottom of the unit.- The radio reception works ok for me. It is very sensitive to the antenna position. For the faintest stations it seems to only work well if I am touching the antenna. The strong and moderate stations work fine with the antenna cord either hanging down from the unit or raised up from the unit.- The snooze is fixed at 5 minutes and not adjustable. If the alarm goes off and you hit the snooze twice, it still goes off in 5 minutes. (Just what I wanted)- The human wake system feature starts with a quiet beep and goes to more frequent and louder beeps. It starts off inaudible and goes up to about the loudness of a typical alarm clock over the course of 1 minute. If that fails to wake you, it will be silent for 1 minute, then repeat the 1 minute on, 1 minute off cycle for 1 hour before giving up. The second cycle also starts quiet and builds over the minute. The increasing volume only applies to the buzzer; the radio volume is controlled only by the analog wheel on the side of the unit.- There is a nap feature on the unit that lets you set an alarm for 10-120 minutes from now in 10 minute increments.- There is a sleep timer feature that will shut off the radio after 15, 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.- When you set the alarm, you can chose between triggering every day, every weekday, every weekend day, or only once. The unit keeps track of the year, date, and time. It knows about the days of the week. You cannot set the alarm for any other collection of days, those are the only options, so if you want an alarm for M-W-F then you'll need to look elsewhere.- The display usually displays AM/PM HH:MM:ss, day of week, and which alarms are set. There is an icon for snooze active. The display shows band, frequency, and preset memory slot when radio is on for about 5 seconds then switches to time display as "HH:MM on". You hit a button to see year and hit again to see MM-DD.- The sound quality on the radio is good but not powerful. The audio starts clipping at around 1/2 volume on the knob which is a moderate volume (good in same room only, won't be able to blast your ears at all).- There is an AUX in socket on the radio. It is for playing only, not for alarm.- There is a headphone jack. When headphones are plugged in, the speaker is muted.- The battery backup is only good for keeping the time and settings for 10 minutes.- The display can be switched between 12 hour display and 24 hour display.- There are 5 preset stations per band. The are 2 bands: FM and AM.- The FM tuning step can be switched between 0.2MHz and 0.1MHz for the US version.- The AM tuning step is 9KHz for the US version from 520-1710KHz.- The power adapter is 120V/60Hz only for US version which converts to 6V/0.5A with a standard coax plug into the back of the unit.

For a small unit, speaker tone is quite good, not at all tinny - although there are no tone controls. Display is sharp and clear, backlight is adjustable. Nice size for bedside table and rubber feet provide good skid resistance. Setup was very easy and took only a couple of minutes. Radio presets were easy to set and work well. Power switch is illuminated when off - using for sleep timer function works well. Radio tuner is quite strong in FM mode and brings in stations clearly, frequency lock is quite precise. Overall, a good unit.

Realmente estoy sorprendido por la calidad que tiene este radio. Muy buenos materiales, fácil de programar, y el sonido es bastante bueno. El producto llegó mucho antes de la fecha esperada.

Esta muy bonito!! Me encanta que tiene memorias y así pongo mis estaciones favoritas! Buena sintonía!! Todo muy bien, sin ningún problema!!!

Excellent clock radio about 2" high and 7" wide. The radio speaker is good sounding Mono. The Orange glowing LCD clock is nice change from typical red or blue leds. And its fully adjustable brightness, that adds an orange glow at night.Pros:Perfect size: 7"W, 2"H, 6"D. (1 LB)Good weight with rubber feet, stays put.Variable brightness, from None to very bright. (1"x4")I found the programming intuitive, but some will need the manual.Digital Radio reception is good."Smart Wake" is Excellent !! Starts out very softly.Cons:"Snooze" is non-adjustable 5 min each push.Display contrast could be better or adjustable. And day of week is tiny.Date needs you to push "display" button to cycle.No USB charge portBattery backup in only 10 min (just for moving to new wall plug)Very solid build. Overall its a 4/5 for features. Perfect for the price and function. Excellent Alarm !!

Not a good bedside clock radio. The problem is the display. If you are a little nearsighted you cannot read the time while laying in bed. Secondly the LCD is angled for above viewing so if you are eye level or the radio is slightly above your head the numbers fade. My cheap clock radio is much easier to read. Thirdly the backlit screen is annoyingly bright for sleeping. If they had an LED screen with a black background as seen in most cheap clock radios it would be perfect. Perhaps it interferes with reception. On the plus side FM reception is excellent and locks in to the weak station I could not get with my cheap clock radio. I also like the presets and found them easy to set. The time was easy to set. I did not like the volume control as you have to push hard on the dial for it to work. Sound was better with higher pitch than my old clock radio and voices were clearer. So now I need to have both radios on my night stand.