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

I own both this model and the Sangean K-200 (and this review is cross-posted). The K-200 has superior sound quality and a smaller footprint on a bedside table, but this model is better in nearly every other way that's important to me; it's so much better that the K-200 got demoted to our office/sewing room and I now use this one as my daily alarm clock and go-to radio. Here's my take on why the RCR-5 is much easier to use...(1) Physical raised buttons for on & off and preset-changes. The RCR-5's buttons are easy to feel in the dark and work great. The K-200 has those flush under-the-skin membrane buttons and they do NOT work well; to the point that I have to press the on & off button several times to get it to work. So frustrating, especially when trying to turn off an alarm quickly -- I just gave up on snoozing it entirely.(2) Amber backlit display. This is SO critical for a good night's sleep if this alarm clock is going in your bedroom. Blue light triggers the "awake time" chemicals in our brains and amber light triggers the "sleepytime" ones; I found the K-200's blue glow to be difficult to fall asleep next to. I have a much easier time falling asleep with the RCR-5's amber light by my bed instead.(3) Weekday alarm. Both Sangean models offer this awesome feature (set an alarm to ring at the same time only on weekdays), but the RCR-5 is much easier to set. The K-200 makes you use the tuning dial to set the alarms (turn, then push to set), and it's hard to advance to the next thing without throwing your current setting off with an accidental twist of the dial as you push.(4) Fade-in alarm. Love this feature, both for the easy wake-up for myself and because it makes it easier for me to snooze or turn off the alarm before waking my husband earlier than necessary. RCR-5 has it, K-200 does not.(5) Volume set for alarms. One of the things you can set per alarm on the RCR-5 is the volume it will turn on to -- this is FABULOUS!! With the K-200, you have to physically turn the volume knob to the level you want the radio to turn on to in the morning; this is a pain if you also listen to the radio at a louder volume during the day. Or if you have a toddler...see below...(6) Volume control is a wheel on the side of the RCR-5, not a big glowy dial on the front (as it is on the K-200). This is particularly important if you have a toddler in the house! With the K-200, my daughter would wander by and randomly crank the volume all the way up while the unit was off, just to play with the big fun dial...so the next time I turned it on, BLASTING SOUND! Ouch. I finally learned to turn down the volume before turning the K-200 on, but it was a hard-won lesson. The much more subtlety-placed wheel on the RCR-5 doesn't look like a shiny toy, so she hasn't messed with it yet. Hooray.All in all, the RCR-5 has the best functions & features of any clock radio I've ever had. I wish it had the nicer sound of the K-200, but the RCR-5 just works better for me in every other way.

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.

I love these radios, this is my third one. First off, this is a small unit best for personal listening near your chair or on a nightstand. Don't expect room filling sound. But at reasonable volume levels the sound is exactly the way I like it, articulate and clear. Best of all, this radio is not grossly bass heavy like the Tivoli Audio and the Bose. Once you become familiar with the controls and settings they are easy to set. The first one I bought has been running continuously out in the garage for about ten years now so they seem to be reliable.I may just be lucky, but I get all of my favorite AM and FM stations very well. Experiment with the location of the FM antenna wire. And with the AM reception it helps if there are no other wall warts or AC/DC transformers on the same 110 volt circuit. I have my main music system and other bedroom devices on a surge protector with an on/off switch. So on those occasions when I listen to AM, like sporting events, I just click off the surge protector and this cleans up the AM reception on the little radio.This is my first one in black and it is certainly very stylish. But the white one doesn't show the dust and cat hair as much. Just something to consider.UPDATE: I just received another one of these radios for use by the pool. The AM stations were mostly static and I could only get two FM stations at all. I plugged it into an outlet in the house and it worked perfectly. The problem, warts......wall warts. If you are having reception problems it could be because you have other AC/DC transformers (wall warts) on the same circuit as the radio. Try the radio on a different circuit and see what happens.