I was frustrated with the ease of use with my $20 alarm from Walmart. I wanted foolproof Snooze and Off buttons, digital tuning, dual alarms, decent sound, and ease of use. I hoped to also get the HWS and USB charging, and auto time sounded neat. I poured through many sources, reviews, and comparisons, and settled on this. A little more than I hoped to spend, but worth it if it met my needs. What a pleasant surprise!

Out of the box, I plugged it in and concluded it was "˜dead' - nothing came on, the display was black. After trying a few things, I found that the dimmer was set to off - one click on the snooze bar and I was in business! The Snooze button is easy to hit, the Off button is lit and easy to find to turn off the alarm. It was easy to tune stations and you can get up to 10 presets on AM and FM with the remote. Dual alarms with weekday and weekend options and separate options for desired station and volume on each alarm. Both types of alarm (buzzer, audio) have the HWS (gradual volume) for a gentle wake up. The dimmer allows a good nighttime brightness for sleeping.

Morning one, my wife said it really sounded nice. Haven't tried the louder volumes yet. Did I mention that it has Bluetooth and NFC pairing for audio input? That's from the phone that can charge on the USB port. There is also an AUX input.

One disappointment - the auto time from radio stations seem to be 15 or 30 minutes fast. The instructions say that if it doesn't work, the problem is the station. I set it to manual. That was not a requirement FOR ME, but might have cost a half star except ...

People said this was hard to set up - it was not easy until ... I started using the remote control - much easier and can do everything the radio buttons can do, including snooze. Guess I could put the radio across the room and do everything using the remote. That made it a solid five stars for my needs, wants, and hopes. I love it!

Easy to set up and sounds great. I can't stand waking up to a radio that sounds like a bee in a tin can. I searched for a clock radio that has good sound and this delivers a warm, rich tone. It has loudness control and separate bass and treble adjustments. It also has white noise settings to fall asleep to and very adjustable brightness settings. It seems to be well constructed too. Very happy with this purchase and recommend.

Using lateral dials for volume and tuning is a little quirky, but they work well. Sound is decent and the range of volume is nice. Set up was not bad, but the warning for auto set on the clock was good to know... after resetting to what seemed like GMT, I reset and went manual.Haven't used it for alarm yet (but the time is set). There are just alternatives.

I am so pleased with my new Sangean RCR-20 clock radio, I wondered what others were unhappy about. The biggest complaints were poor AM reception, and low Bluetooth playback. I compared the RCR-20 with two AM radios and found it generally comparable. Radio-Locator.com lists six AM stations I should receive in my zip code, and the RCR-20 picked up five; the sixth came in when I rotated the radio for the best reception. However, only four were noise free enough for regular use. For AM, you'd want to listen to a strong local station.
The low Bluetooth complaint is justified. I needed to set the RCR-20 and my Galaxy smartphone near maximum volume, but then got clean, room-filling sound.
Another complaint was difficult programming. I am very sensitive to that and returned another model because it was too confusing. The RCR-20 is digital, and therefore more complex than older radios. You need to hold some buttons down, and that is not intuitive, but I learned the pattern quickly.
Some complaints are personal opinions about appearance and sound quality. I find the radio good looking for any room, and the sound exceptionally clear for a small radio, even at maximum volume.
The RCR-20 does not have an atomic clock--it does not receive the government time signals from Fort Collins or Hawaii. Instead, it receives less reliable time and text signals from some local FM stations. If you tune the RCR-20 to one of these FM stations, you will see text under the time on the display and the clock and calendar will be set. The setting is retained if you then tune to AM or to an FM station that does not transmit these signals. The time will be wrong if you tune to a station in another time zone or to a station that does not transmit time signals when Daylight Saving Time changes. For more information, read the Wikipedia article on Radio Data System. An advantage of the RCR-20 is that it displays RDS so you can read the station name, programming type like Rock Music, and the title of the song.
To explore complaints about backup I did some experoments and came away very pleased. The RCR-20 wakes you up on time even if the power is off and has been off for hours. If you set it to wake up to radio,and the power goes off, it buzzes instead (beeps really). One quirk: It the radio is playing when the power goes off, it won't turn on until you press the On/Off button.
Finally, some users complained that they could not locate the buttons by feel. Three suggestions: use the remote control buttons, don't touch any buttons and the radio will go off in an hour, or fasten a small shirt button on top of the RCR-20 button (but don't let any glue get inside).
In conclusion, no buyer's regrets--I'm very satisified with the RCR-20.

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.