Really good radio. Speakers up front with above average sound for a dmall radio. Bluetooth connection works very well. Lacks a true AM antenna. I'm old-school and still like to listen to AM radio on occasion. AM reception is ok, but not the best. It would have been nice to be able to plug in an AM antenna even if it wasn'tincluded. (Sometimes I'm able to stream the AM radio through my phone instead but not always).

Originally had challenge of the radio reception being impacted by a nearby cell-phone charger being plugged in about two feet from the radio, but I switched to using the USB port on the radio itself to charge my phone and the problem stopped. Radio reception was clear again. (There was no negative impact when streaming to Bluetooth connection or using auxiliary option in either scenario, only radio reception).

I would recommend this radio.

My 15 year old Sony alarm clock radio broke and I needed to replace it. I've been using the new alarm clock for about a month now.

First, I will give you a synopsis of my thoughts.

My Requirements:
Speaker on top or front
Digital tuning
USB charging port
Dual alarm
Radio used as alarm
Large time display

Desired Options:
AM band
Preset buttons
Bluetooth (functions as BT speaker)

Unexpected Features That I Like:
Dimming of display
Weekday/weekend setting for alarm
Station display info (from RDS)

Negative:
Can't distinguish buttons by feel
Can't get RDS time to work

I was surprised that it was difficult to find the things I wanted in an alarm clock radio. The biggest surprise was how many had their speakers facing to the rear! That was absolutely unacceptable for me.

The Sangean RCR-20 met all my requirements and had the desired options. It was a little more than I wanted to pay, but I decided to invest in it.

The speakers, which face the front, are acceptable. I listen to talk radio and music. The sound is fine. I have the FM antenna strung up the side of a bookcase, so that helps the FM signal come in clearly. I don't listen to AM much, but it comes in fine as well. (I live in metro Portland, OR. So, stations are close.) The presets work well. I set and forget about them.

The USB charging port comes out the back. I don't sleep with my phone by my side, but it's a nice option to have in case I need to charge something and have it at my bedside.

I didn't think I needed the weekday/weekend alarm setting, but I love it. Now I don't have to reset my alarm on the weekends. And, I don't unexpectedly awaken at 6:30 on Saturday mornings because I forgot to change the alarm.

I wanted to have a dual alarm that could use the radio as an alarm as well as a buzzer. I set the radio to come on, then the buzzer goes off 15 minutes later. It helps me wake up more easily that way.

I have played music from my phone through the Bluetooth speaker. It sounds great and was easy to set up.

I love the display. I am starting to not see as well as I used to, so I need a decent sized readout. The display has about 7 brightness levels. I have it on the 4th or 5th level. My husband woke in the middle of the night and thought I was on my Kindle reading when he saw the glow. It doesn't bother me, though. It cycles through the brightness setting using the snooze button, so it's very easy to change.

I also like the station display info. I didn't think that was a big deal, but it's a nice convenience. Some stations just display their call letters, some display the song that's currently playing.

The main negative I have with the alarm clock is that you can't distinguish the buttons by feel. I have put a clear rubber bumper on the on/off switch so I can turn off my alarm more easily. See the photo.

I also had trouble with the RDS time function. I set the clock to the RDS CT time setting. I didn't know if it was working, so I tested it when Daylight Savings Time started. I knew that it wouldn't change unless my radio was on. So, I turned my radio on the morning of the first day to see what happened. I waited about half an hour, and nothing happened. I changed it to 4 or 5 other RDS stations and waited at each one. Still nothing. So, I just set the time manually. I read that the time on RDS stations is sent once a minute. Perhaps that's not true. Regardless, that's not something I'm going to rely on.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I'm hoping this alarm clock will serve me for years to come.

I like to wake up to the radio, and since its 365 days a year, I want decent sound! This one is okay - but a little garbled so it is hard to understand at lower volume. Also, it is rather large for a clock radio...

(My old Sony sound machine had better sound, but finally quit working... and they don't seem to make a comparable machine).

I almost didn't buy this clock radio after reading several of the negative reviews. Two problems I read about were the clock doesn't keep good time, and the device is hard to operate. I ended up buying this unit because it is similar to my old iHome iP87BZ clock radio. The form factor is similar, the controls are similar, and it has good sound quality.

I had to replace the iP87BZ because it died. I thought that the wall adapter broke, so I bought a new one. That didn't fix the iHome device, so I opened it up and discovered to my disgust that almost all the electrolytic caps on the main board had leaked their guts out. Electrolytic caps can fail when they get old, but picking good quality parts and having a good design margin mitigates this. The fact that so many caps leaked on the iHome unit really soured me on the idea of purchasing anything else from iHome"¦ever. So after a long search, and finding not other contenders but iHome products, I crossed my fingers for luck and bought the Sangean RCR-20.

With the negative comments about the RCR-20 clock accuracy, I decided to check it. I set the clock via time.gov. After 6 days, the RCR-20 clock is still within 1 second. As an aside: I initially tried to set the time via the FM radio RDS system. This sort of worked, but the local station I used was five minutes off. My speculation is that radio stations use the RDS technology via some PC which accurately provides the song information, but that never has the clock properly set. Your mileage may vary. I recommend using the RDS to quickly set year, month, day on the system, but then change to manual mode to set an accurate time.

This gets to the second complaint about the RCR-20: it is complicated to operate. If you are not comfortable with computers and/or remote controls there may be some truth to this. I found that I was initially somewhat confused. After I understood that the controls have dual setting modes, things made more sense. What is confusing, is that most controls on electronic devices do something if you press them briefly, and do something more complicated if you press and hold them. On the RCR-20, there are two extended modes. For example, pressing and holding the alarm setting for two or three seconds, results in a beep and then the alarm is toggled on or off. If you keep pressing another five seconds after the beep, another beep occurs, and the alarm enters the settings mode. I oversimplify this in my mind and think of it as the double-tap system, but in truth there is just a double-beep system. I was compelled to deduct a star in my rating, because I think not everyone will be able to easily adapt to this.

Another complaint I saw in the reviews was that having the AC adapter too close results in AM radio interference. My AC outlet is a bit less than two feet from the RCR-20, and I didn't notice any issues with AM reception.

Here are some additional observations with the RCR-20. The unit has a high quality look and feel to it. The tuning and volume dials are particularly nice. The dials are dampened and have a good feel. (For reference, the feel is noticeably better than my dead iHome iP87BZ.) Something I noticed during the unboxing is the wall adapter. Almost all wall adapters I've seen have flimsy wires. It's an easy way to cut cost, and people don't complain about it. The adapter for the RCR-20 has a nice thick cable to the radio. This gives me a sense that the engineering team for the RCR-20 made an effort to design and produce a top quality product.

More good things about this clock radio have been covered in other reviews. The time display is nice and big. The sound quality is as good as you can get for something this size. The alarm buzzer is nice as it starts off soft and then gets louder. It also has a secondary beep pattern, if you haven't turned it off after the volume has ramped.

In summary, this is a great clock radio. It appears to be well built, and it has all the features I wanted. The only minor negative point is the unorthodox setup system. I'm fine with it after getting used to it, but I think it's the only valid complaint I saw in the other reviews.

I purchased this for the sound quality, and the ability to pull in good radio signals, and I was not disappointed. It's rather large, but has a number of worthwhile features. There is too little distinction on the buttons across the top. In order to turn off the alarm I attached a small, clear self stick round "bumper" on top the "off" button so that I could find it more easily by touch.