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

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.

I am of a seemingly rare breed that is only interested in an "FM Alarm Clock Radio" for one thing - that it will wake me up to my favorite radio channel without static. I don't care about different buzzers, that it projects or not, that it can recharge my iWhatevers... I don't care about the sound quality of said radio, how stylish it looks, if it can set its own time, if it has "Humane Wake," etc.I just need it to keep time and wake me up to my station without static. And my 28 year-old analog radio I probably bought at Drug Fair (antecedent to Rite Aid) stopped doing that. I am happy to say, this clock does what I need... with an annoying quirk that isn't a deal breaker for me, but could be for you.For the people that complain about it being too complicated or too difficult to program.... you either didn't read the directions or you are an idiot. I found it perfectly user friendly so long as I read the directions. A machine doesn't have to be "intuitive" if it comes with accurate directions. It comes with adequate directions. Read them.The FM clarity was perfect - but I did have to fully deploy the little white antenna cord (I was hoping this was amazing enough that I could keep the cord discreetly coiled up next to the machine. I don't care though... clarity was my goal here. No static.I'm not going to write about all the other bells and whistles because I don't care about them and will likely never use them. I will say it IS cool that I can set two different alarms, because it just so happens that I wake up at two different times during the week, depending on the day... that is nice.Here's the thing that might drive you crazy and be a deal breaker for you (it's not for me) - if you are nearsighted, and don't wear contacts or glasses while sleeping (who wears glasses while sleeping), you will not be able to see the time in the middle of the night unless you have the screen dimmer cranked up to flashlight-level bright and then it's about 50/50 you will see it.The good people at Sangean were smoking crack when they designed the opticals of this clock radio. Viewing the digital readout is a function of how much contrast there is between the numbers and the background - not brightness of the entire viewing area. You can adjust brightness but not contrast. If you amp up the brightness to improve the contrast, it's too bright. If you dim it, you lose contrast.So in order to see the time at night if you are nearsighted, the clock must be no more than 2-3 feet from your face on the pillow no matter how bright you have it. Period. You will not see the time with it any further away, so don't even think about it. If you think you will read the time from across the room, forget about it. Now, with it that close to your face, unless you like sleeping like you're under interrogation in a Viet-Kong prison camp, you're gonna want to turn the brightness down to its lowest... then you can barely see the screen BUT ALSO THE TIME ALONG WITH IT. You are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. This ultimately works out for me, because my clock sits about 2 feet from my face and as long as I squint at it in just the right way, I can still make out the time on it's lowest dim with my nearsightedness (I am -5.25 in both eyes).So it works for me... I'll update if something goes wrong. If you have perfect eyesight, you have no reason not to buy this clock, so just buy it.