Sangean RCR-5 Digital AM/FM Clock Radio, White

Wonderful overall size to sit on a nightstand or dresser edge next to your bed.Quality overall is better than I expected. Fit and Finish is perfect. Buttons depress with a fairly solid click-feel. Little rubber feet underneath keep it nicely planted on any hard surface (wood, glass, stone, countertop,...). Display is crystal clear. Display brightness is easily adjusted with a dial peg underneath the unit (I don't know how the lowest setting could be too bright for anyone.....the highest brightness setting still doesn't pass for a night lite in my opinion). The Display can be read perfectly clearly viewing at wide angles from left and right, or when looking down at it from above. The Display fades from sight pretty quickly when viewing up from a head position below the unit.The manual is more than adequate. As others have noted, some words are poorly chosen. That said, it is not that bad to get through. When I saw the owners manual for the 1st time before opening it I kind of cringed a little since it was fairly thick, and I thought I was going to have a lot of reading for what seemed like should be a fairly simple alarm clock/radio. But after opening it I realized it was actually minimal reading and straight forward. 13 of the 70 pages make up the English language portion. Plus it's all in Giant easy to read print and well spaced. Of those 13 pages, most will only care about 9 pages, unless you really need to be told not to take a bath with it or other stuff relating to other countries.The alarm is not super loud. That said, for any light-normal sleeper it will be more than adequate. Even for most heavier sleepers I think it's probably adequate since if it jives with you you can set one alarm for the buzzer and the other to go off on radio set to MAX volume. If you only prefer to use the buzzer for an alarm setting, then even for regular heavier sleepers you'll probably want to pass on this unit. For pretty much all SUPER heavy sleepers out there, you will more than likely need a louder alarm. General FYI; The buzzer setting for the alarm(s) does not really "buzz" at all, but rather "beeps". Many will appreciate the HWS (Human Wake System) for the buzzer alarm setting (does not work for the radio alarm setting). With HWS, the alarm buzzer starts out almost inaudible and progressively gets louder during the course of a minute, as which point it begins again and continues for another minute, and repeats the process for an hour (I didn't test it for an hour, so I am relying on their word, though if you are still sleeping after an hour from the time you set the alarm to go off I'm guessing you're day is pretty much ruined anyway).When using the radio as your alarm setting, whatever volume you have the volume control for the radio set at is the volume it's going to wake you up with. Here's the potential problem with that for some; If you choose to use the radio as an alarm, BUT you want to use the radio Sleep Timer to fall asleep, whatever volume you set the radio Sleep Timer at is the volume your radio alarm will sound off at. In other words, if you set the radio sleep timer volume really low, that's the same volume the radio alarm will sound off at which may not be loud enough for you to reliably wake up when you need to. Hope that made sense. The snooze function (nonadjustable 5 minute interval for buzzer alarm) does NOT work for an alarm set to radio. For an alarm set to sound with the radio station you have it set to, you must use the radio power button to turn it off. Ultimately what's going on is the alarm set to go off using the radio simply automatically turns on your radio without you pushing the radio power button to turn it on yourself. Therefore to turn off the alarm that sounded via the radio, you're simply pushing the radio power button to turn it off, just as you would turn it off when generally listening to the radio.The manual is WRONG on how to shut off either or both of the alarms set on buzzer. The manual says to press the appropriate alarm button (Alarm 1 or Alarm 2 buttons) and hold it down for 2 seconds at which time you'll hear a beep and the alarm should be deactivated. At least on my unit this is NOT true. On my unit when an alarm buzzer goes off, neither the alarm 1 or 2 buttons will beep or deactivate the alarm. The only button on my unit that will turn off any alarm on any setting (buzzer or radio) is the general radio Power On/Off button. I have no issue with this in general.Radio Usage; sound is good virtually all the way up to MAX volume. I'm not saying it sounds like a Bose system but that's not what it is, and only a fraction of the cost. Overall it has more than adequate sound quality. I'll give radio reception a 4 out of 5, not because I really find issue with it as it pulled in all 3 stations (2 local, 1 not local) perfectly that I cared about, but that I've never owned a radio that I didn't want to have better reception for outlying areas (can't get the out of town AM station I was hoping for, but even my car will only pick it up sometimes). MAX volume is enough for general radio listening throughout an attached kitchen/living room area. In a garage where you may also be doing some banging around and whatnot, you may want something with higher volume than this unit is capable. For the vast majority that aren't interested in cranking up the music extra loud, volume levels will be more than acceptable in the home or out on the patio.Little Things: Love that it always shows the day of the week. Wish it also always showed the date, but rather you have to push the display button twice, once for the year and a second time for the month/day of the month. General FYI, the radio power button is nicely backlit when the radio is OFF, no other button is, but when the radio is ON (generally or as an alarm) it is not backlit. It does have a plug in space for headphones. It does have an AUX IN plug-in space like for to plug in a portable CD player where you can then use the units speaker for sound. It does not have any AUX OUT plug-in space which I wish it did to be able to plug in better right left speakers for those who want a little more sound, and that you could then aim directionally. The unit is NOT stark white like the pictures imply (in my opinion) but is rather an off-white. The gray on the rest of the unit is exactly as the pictures imply. It came nicely packaged. It has a built in battery backup that's good for 10 minutes of power outage. I wish it had either a longer lasting (3 hour) built in battery or a space to put accessory batteries that would last much longer regardless (I live in Arizona where during the monsoon season it's not unusual for the power to be out for an hour or two a couple times a year or so).Bottom line: I feel this clock/double-alarm/radio is worth more than the money asked for. I would highly recommend it for anyone to themselves or given as a gift, unless whoever is going to use it mainly as a wake-up alarm is a very heavy sleeper (where there's a good chance the alarm isn't loud enough) or simply needs a louder radio (for areas with lots of ambient sound or very large areas overall like a small warehouse environment...). For anyone still sitting on the fence toward making the decision to buy or not, outside of possible given limitations I've noted, I would add a couple things; 1) I could not find another product that remotely compared for the price (other than similar but different units from the same manufacturer), and 2) It is not as difficult to initially set up as some make it out to be.One last comment on turning off the alarms. As noted earlier; At least on my unit you do have to use the radio Power On/Off button (a single quick press) to turn off either alarm, whether they are set to go off on Buzzer or Radio. What I don't like when an alarm uses the radio to wake you up is that when the radio is on, the radio main Power On/Off button backlight goes out. So if it's still dark in the room at the time the radio alarm comes on you may have to search for the button till you get used to it's location to shut the alarm off. It would be nice if it always stayed lit up whether the radio was on or off so it could still be clearly seen in the dark. Also, some reviewers complained that they accidently pressed the main Radio On/Off power button twice to turn off an alarm which on the 1st press turns off their alarm, and on the second press turns on the radio just as if you wanted to listen to it, which they didn't. I don't see what the big deal is, as one more press of the same button turns the radio right back off again. And, you have to press the button with firm pressure to completely depress it at all which makes it surprising to me that anyone is having issues double pressing it in the first place.Sincerely hope this review helps you make an informed buying decision!

The display went bad on my 15 year-old Panasonic alarm clock radio. I chose this as a mid grade replacement without spending a lot of money on a Bose. I have this clock radio plugged into the same outlet that I have my USB phone charger plugged into. The radio has lots of static while charging my phone. In order to have clear reception I have to have my phone unplugged. I didn’t have this issue with my old Panasonic.

I didn't necessarily need a new alarm clock, but I came across this little gem. I bought it because it has electronic digital tuning. My old Sony Dream Machine works great, but I go to sleep every night listening to AM talk radio. I live 75 miles from the radio towers and getting clear reception to my favorite station is tricky. It's never perfect, but close enough. Occasionally when I reach over to adjust the volume, I would bump the tuning nob just enough, and getting the station tuned in again can be a pain in the butt. Now I don't have that problem at all with this Sangean RCR-5. The station (and all the other surrounding stations) come in crystal clear. FM, AM, I get all the stations for 100 miles around. I also like that it lets you set the alarm for weekdays only. Nice feature. Two thumbs up for this clock radio!

I read several reviews praising the RCR-5's sound quality, and one review even recommended it as a budget-friendly alternative to the Bose Wave radio. That's pretty ridiculous - the RCR-5 just isn't in the same league as the Bose, and honestly is outclassed by many other clock radios I've heard. It actually manages to fall short of Sangean's own H201 and H202 battery-powered waterproof shower radios (my own positive experience with those radios led me to choose the RCR-5). Oddly, while the bass is as good as I'd hope for in this form factor, the high end is largely absent. My wife described the sound as "muffled", akin to having put a towel or folded washcloth over the speaker. That's bad enough for music, but it's really problematic for news, talk radio, etc. A simple "Tone" control here might do a world of good.Pondering the many positive reviews regarding sound quality, I can only guess that there's some confusion here between audio quality and the quality of reception, which is excellent. The RCR-5 easily and clearly tuned in some weaker stations that every other clock radio we tried had trouble playing, so no complaints on that account.Build quality is also very good, as I've come to expect from Sangean.I'd ignore the comments regarding difficulty of setup. Just read the brief manual, or if that's too hard to follow, look up a brief demonstration video on YouTube. Setting time, alarms, and station presets was straightforward.The clock display is another weak point. It's a bit on the small side, a backlit LCD that's not really visible from much distance or off-angle. Given that, its utility as a clock is limited to bedside-only use. Backlight brightness is controlled by a small knob on the *underside* of the radio, so I think intended mainly to "set and forget".Given the good radio reception, easy controls, and solid build, I wouldn't warn people off this radio - in many ways it's quite good. The weak treble of its speaker really hurts for all kinds of listening, negating to some extent its strong performance in tuning in stations. For background music or perhaps just to fall asleep or wake up to music it should be fine, but at this price I'd hoped for so much more.