I guess I just got tired of my 15 year old Sony Dream Machine. It worked, but, somehow, I thought maybe someone would have built something better. All clock radios seem to be pretty much the same. So I searched, and was willing to pay good money to find something that at least tackled how to make a clock radio better. Seemed like almost every clock radio was cheap and basic. The Sangean is what I came up with. Better, but could use a few improvements to be perfect.

Pros:
1) Atomic clock. Finally! Accurate time! I want the radio to go off at just the time the 6:30 news starts. For one reason or another, over the course of a year, there are least a couple of periods when the clock has to get reset and the time ends up being either too early or too late. Then you get too lazy to do all the button pressing and watching your other clock, assuming it's right, to get it set to the exact time, if you can, and you end up saying to yourself every morning, I've got to set the clock right!, until you finally do it and it never seems to be exact even then. This thing has a detachable antenna thing that catches the correct time by radio waves, or something. I don't know, or care. It works. You may need to move it around, though, and it may take a long time to actually update, but you don't have to do anything once it starts.
2) Radio reception. Probably as good as it can be for me, in my bedroom. One of the main reasons I started looking for a new clock radio was the frequent "fuzzy" reception periods my Dream Machine would go through (must be because of weather conditions). No matter how much I moved it and the antenna (electrical cord) around, the radio would stay fuzzy for weeks at a time. This one has better reception and the separate cord for the radio antenna is easier to position. Also, the tuning wheel is a fine tuner, so it is easier to zero in on a station.
3) Set alarm once and forget. I am not going to complain about how difficult it may be to learn how to set up a new clock radio. They are all hard; too many things to do with too few buttons. Clock radios are something you will learn to use over time. That being said, once I did figure out how to set up my alarm schedule, I haven't had to touch it since. I don't have to turn it on or off each day. It can be set up by days of week and then works according to the schedule you set. After the alarm goes off, you can either hit one button to turn it off for that day, or do a snooze. It has a lot of customization options, too. Nice not to have to think about it. Eliminates days I forgot to set my Dream Machine alarm and got up late. (Even though I don't use it, the buzzer has a pretty cool sound and varying loudness pattern to wake you up more gently.)

Cons:
1) Brightness. The face is bright, but you can turn it down. Even at the lowest setting, though, it is relatively (and I mean it is only at night it seems bright) bright. I do not consider this a deal killer, though. You get used to it. It isn't like you left a light on. I still go to sleep just fine. Still, some people may find it too bright.
2) No tone adjustment control. This is something that would make it closer to perfect. I don't know why they didn't include bass and treble adjustment control. The default radio is good, but some people like it adjusted differently, especially for waking up in the morning. Again, not a deal killer. I only use the radio to wake up to.
3) Instructions could be better. They cover the needed settings, but it doesn't talk about other things, like how long it takes for the clock to actually pick up the correct time (I called customer support, a number they don't seem to want you to find, and the guy told me it usually takes hours for it to set), and it doesn't give you much info how to contact them.

Overall, I like the way it looks and works. The feet are sticky enough so that when you push a button, it doesn't slide. When you look at the face it has a bunch of information to look at: Hour, minute, second, whether the alarm is scheduled and when the next one goes off. When the alarm isn't scheduled it shows the month, date and year, something I wish was displayed all the time (and make it closer to perfect). It displays when daylight savings time is active (and you can turn that on and off depending if you follow it where you live). It shows the radio station.

To me, it is at least an attempt to advance the state of clock radio design. From what I read, Sangean has been improving their offerings with each new model, so I will keep an eye on what they come out with and hope they eventually create something more perfect.

Like other reviewers, I agree that this is a very solid radio!

Pros:

Small, great looks, beautiful display, adjustable night light, does the basics well

Cons:

User manual, fixed snooze time, AM reception is good, but I was expecting great

I did a fair amount of research and read all of the Amazon.com reviews before deciding to purchase this radio. As I soon discovered, I am not the only guy looking for the perfect nightstand alarm clock/radio. Unfortunately, no option appears to be perfect, but this radio does a very good job with all the basics.

I plugged the clock in the evening I received it and the atomic clock set itself by the next day. I did need to move the clock' s antenna closer to a window, but once the clock set, I was able to move the antenna back to its location on the back of the unit.

There are many buttons on the unit, however they are fairly intuitive. It is pretty easy to operate after a while.

The display is very sharp and very bright. It was a concern of mine as I occasionally battle insomnia. I need my bedroom to be as dark as possible to help fall asleep. When I have trouble sleeping, I hate being able to see what time it is! I don't want to know that it's 2:30 am and I have to get up at 5:30. Thankfully, the unit has an adjustable alternate display setting. At the touch of the display button, you can make the display as dark as you want!

As a heads up, if you turn on the radio while the unit is in its dimmed mode, it will automatically shift to the standard bright setting. I'm sure they did this to make it easier to see what you're doing, but it can be rather jolting. On the plus side, the display will automatically return to its dimmed mode after a few seconds. However, if you change stations or search for a new station, the display will again shift to the bright mode each time for a few seconds. It's a bit annoying, but not terrible.

It has a fixed 5 minute snooze timer. I wish the snooze period was adjustable like on some cheaper alarm clocks. On the plus side, you can hit any button on the top of the unit and it will activate the snooze, rather than having to search for a specific button.

As others have noted, clearly a lot of thought went into the radio and almost no thought into the manual. Not much in the way of detailed information.

The sound quality is OK, but it certainly does not compete with the Boston Acoustics Receptor radio in this regard. Not a huge issue for me as I was mostly interested in the AM capabilities. I would use my stereo if I wanted to listen to music. On the plus side, it has an auxiliary input for an mp3. The AM reception is good, however I expected GREAT given the reputation of the company in this area.

I wish it had a battery back up instead in the internal charge noted (2-3 hours of back up capability). However, we don't usually lose power for too long where I live, so I'm hopeful this won't be an issue down the road.

Overall, a very nice alarm clock/radio. A battery back up and higher fidelity sound would have made it PERFECT!

I was looking for a high-quality alarm clock after about 12 years with an unimpressive Sony Dreammachine. This clock delivered on that front, and unlike most consumer electronics devices I've purchased in the past several years, it is clear that lots of thought was put into this device (and very little into the manual).

PROS:
There are tons of little nuances that the manual does not detail that I've discovered using the clock for a few weeks. For example the display can be dimmed with a dial on the bottom (which on my unit did not take effect until my alarm goes off the first time). The clock remains dimmed at your preset level, but goes to full brightness when the alarm goes off, making the clock easier to find. Combined with the pleasing blue light and the HWS (makes the alarm bell go from soft to loud) it's really nice to wake up to.

Another thoughtful touch is that alarm indicators only light within 24 hours of your alarm. Either alarm can be set to go off on particular days, with any combination of Su-Sa set for each alarm (i.e. alarm1 can be set for Monday, Thursday and Sunday, no weekday/weekend restrictions like some others). The alarm indicators however only light up when your alarm will ring the next morning. Very nice.

Other functions like the snooze, nap timers, etc. all work well. Like most alarms you need some time to figure out how it works, but after a few mornings most functions were intuitive.

The radio functions well, and pulls in way more stations than the Dreammachine. The speaker is fine, that is to say neither exceptionally good or exceptionally poor. If I want the ultimate music experience, I have an expensive stereo for that.

The clock is a true atomic time clock (not just a "preset" clock like many others). I don't know all the nuances of atomic cock synchronization, but the weather and location of the antenna seem to affect the two atomic clocks I have at home. Try moving the antenna towards the window if you have problems.

CONS
It is nicer than average plastic and construction, but still not going to win any design awards. I can't figure out why all alarm clock designs are frozen in 1992.

The manual was clearly written by a bunch of engineers. It is no nonsense, and explains how to set/use everything, but does not mention any of the usability features I noted above. For example if it's Monday and you set an alarm for thursday, You might wonder why the alarm indicators do not all light up. No mention at all in the manual. I thought the clock was broken since the dimmer did not function until the first time an alarm went off. Again, no mention in the manual of what turned out to be a very nice feature, and one I almost returned the clock for!

Another example is the unwieldly "Time Machine" antenna for the atomic clock. It is big and odd looking, but fits nicely to the back of the clock. Again, no mention in the manual save for a single line drawing.

When I initially plugged the clock in, all kinds of crytic numbers flashed on the display while it synced the time, again, no mention of what was happening or why in the manual. The manual does tell you how to DO everything, but does not explain WHY certain things work the way they do, or explain the various nice features someone clearly took time to think through.

Overal a great buy, especially for something you'll likely use every day for 5-15 years. I would like to see a better manual, autodimming of the display (it is BRIGHT when set to max), Sangean using a designer that is somewhat current, and perhaps a user manual rewrite, other than that, this clock works very well and will be on my nightstand for years to come.

I agonized over what to put on my nightstand (everything from Bose to Timex) and am very happy with my choice.

This Sangean replaced a 25 yr. old Emerson. I purchased based on 1) the Radio-controlled clock and 2) the great reviews. I am very pleased; it is a well-made product with good sound. But there are a few hiccups to know about relating to the instructions and use.
Instructions start with "fully extend the wire aerial..." (see instruction picture from booklet). The booklet drawings with control identifiers in are a bit misleading (see booklet drawing picture).
The booklet does not show the thin white radio antenna wire. Moreover, while it starts with "extend the aerial," I believe that is in reference to what the booklet labels "Time Capsule," which is shown in the booklet pictures. The Time Capsule can be affixed to the back of the radio, which I first did. I then extended the thin white antenna. (Maybe the booklet is differentiating between aerial and antenna, but it isn't clear and the white wire is never mentioned or shown)
After waiting an hour, no radio time signal was located, so I set the clock manually. Then it occurred to me to try unfastening the Time Capsule and extending it, as it has a long lead line. Bingo, the radio time signal was located.
Some reviews disliked the display brightness. I have it on low and find it perfect. High is very bright.
I like to soft "on" when the alarm is triggered, slowly bring up the volume, whether set to radio or buzzer.
One additional instruction booklet glitch; it states: "To deactivate a sounding alarm, press the Standby button...." Yet there is no button labelled "Standby." To deactivate, you press the "Power button/Sleep button."
I offer these nit-pick details not as a detraction to the product, but to clarify for future buyers. I highly recommend the device and offer my observations to ease set up.
I would definetely buy again.

UPDATE 2022-10-24: The super capacitor has long gone sour. The function buttons are bouncy and cause errors; even the ON/OFF button requires multiple operations and sometimes does anything but. It's life is nearing end.

As of this writing, I have had the RCR-22 for over two months. These days, our product range of offering is limited by crowd-driven selection, based on an uninformed, undiscerning public dictating a mundane choice for those of us who know what we want. Once in a while, something shows up that makes me say; "where did that come from?" Looking at the available clock radios was underwhelming based on what I knew I wanted and what I could find. These times, every product is the same as the other.......or worse. It's either common or excellent.

When I found the Sangean RCR-22, it stood out way above the plethora of "me-too" clock radios. I won't go over all the features here as they are already published. I did find a few pluses that are not listed in the features as well as a few of my own items I wish it had. What I wanted was a clock radio that had a quartz time-base that was reset by the time radio signal transmitted from Boulder Colorado, which is connected to the world-standard atomic clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. A good quality AM/FM radio, runs off AC with a battery that only serves as a backup during power outage. A large enough display that was lit at night but very dim, preferable amber in color (warm colored light in a dark room is more conducive to sleep than the blues and greens). Of course, I didn't quite get everything I wanted.

With the RCR-22, I found most of what I wanted, then some. It's an "atomic clock" radio. It runs off AC, without one of those "wall warts". The AM/FM radio is above average quality with "phase locked loop" FM tuner. The sound coming out of the speaker is above average for a clock radio. It has a headphone output for stereo headphones but it only has mono audio out. It has a lot of buttons to access lots of functions. Some buttons are on the front, some on top. One thing I found convenient is that when pressing the front buttons, there is a post on top at each side to place a finger behind to stabilize the unit while pressing a front button. It does not use a back-up battery but instead has a "super capacitor" to keep clock running for an hour or so during a power outage. Some outages last longer. If it goes beyond the power stored in the capacitor and your wake-up time, the alarm will not sound. Even if power is restored before your wake-up time, it may take a while to reset to the atomic clock signal. That's why I would prefer a back-up battery. We recently had a 2-hour power failure and when the power returned, the clock had lost its time. All other settings (alarm and radio presets) were still intact. The clock will reset automatically by radio control but that will take a while depending on reception.

The clock face illumination is blue LED. You have a choice of bright or dim. The dim choice is fully adjustable by screw-head adjustment on the bottom. You can adjust from nothing to bright as the standby setting. That means that even with be color being blue, you can adjust it so that it is barely visible in a dark room. That's what I did and I can still read the display in a lighted room. The snooze can be silenced by ANY of the top buttons. The snooze alarms every 5 minutes. I would have preferred 8 to 10 minutes.

If I try to write all my thoughts of this product, I never will get this review in. I will just say in conclusion that I am very satisfied with this Sangean clock radio. Instead of warming over a product to compete with everything else, they innovated and put thought into a product that rises above the rest. Of course, it's too early to discover how long it will last. I do know that my previous Timex atomic clock radio lasted 13 years until the function buttons lost their conductive film inside.

UPDATE 2016-11-06: The clock does NOT automatically reset for changes between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time. It has an add or subtract an hour setting. Some people prefer this, some don't. I have other radio controlled clocks that automatically reset. I would prefer the option instead, to choose between automatic DST setting or not automatic. The DST/ST code is already sent along the radio signal from Boulder Colorado and if the dates change, the radio signal contains the change.