Sangean RCR-40 Wooden Clock Radio with AM FM Bluetooth AUX Digital Tuning and Battery Back-Up

The important thing to know is that this little radio/alarm clock does so many things well. The negatives really are minor. The sound is rich and silky smooth, not bright and punchy. I listen to mostly classical music radio or digital files, and so this is perfect. It is not all that powerful, but is adequate for listening at a moderate distance. It won't fill a large room, but in the bedroom, it is an improvement over almost anything out there. The radio is wonderful. I haven't hooked up any outboard antenna, and I get good reception on FM and AM. The rotary tuning and volume dials are nice. I listen quite a bit through the bluetooth feature which pairs quickly and intuitively with my phone. No setup necessary. The controls are not exactly intuitive, and i wouldn't drop this on your 95 year old grandmother, and expect her to get the most out of it without a tutorial. That being said, it is not exactly difficult either, and most people will be able to get it up and programmed how they like it with only a little trial and error. The specific combination of features, that includes bluetooth and AM radio, is difficult to find out there, trust me. Add to that a dimmable display, multiple alarm buzzer options, separate treble and bass adjustment, etc. is amazing. To Find it under $80 at this quality is astonishing. It is truly more than the sum of its parts. It is a great value, but also a great product easily comparing to machines at multiples of its price. Read more

Got the Sangean brand for sound quality and product quality. Got the RCR-40 instead of earlier models for Bluetooth 5.0 upgrade, dial-driven user interface, and real wood veneer. Very solid-feeling unit with perfect fit and finish. Sound is excellent for this classical/jazz musician/audiophile! It is only a bedside clock radio, so don't expect to host a dance party with it. Tone is a bit "boomy", but bass and treble controls go from +5 to -5. I have treble at +5, bass at -3, and turn on loudness to boost both. The sound is far superior to my cherished (and broken) Sony Dream Machine of 30 years. If the RCR-40 lasts for even 5 years it will be well worth the high price tag over cheaper off-brands. You can listen to radio, Bluetooth, or aux. Two convenient front charging USB ports (not for USB input - charge only). I imagine there are USB-to-aux adaptors out there if you really must hardwire a USB source. Wake to buzzer or radio, two separate alarms with daily, weekdays, weekends, or once - plus individul wake-up volumes and station selection. Sleep to radio or blue tooth (or aux I assume). Cautions: 1. The "buzzer" is actually a chirp, and pitch is kind of high, so may be too high for some seniors to hear even at full volume. If so wake to radio at loud volume. 2. User manual is excellent and extensive, so plan to spend at least 2 hours with your unit on the kitchen table getting used to the interface and many great functions. Keep the manual handy - you will need it for reference. The large top knob is volume control in normal mode, but acts like a mouse in menu mode (press down on knob to "click" an item, rotate knob to scroll through items and settings - be sure to click to cofirm a setting or it will revert). If you are impatient or easily frustrated learning new things then be prepared - but it's really impressive once you get the hang of it. 3. "Sleep Timer" instructions are misleading. You have to press and KEEP HOLDING DOWN the Power button. While you hold it down, the power will switch off, then it will enter sleep timer mode, then it will scroll through 60 mins, 45 mins, etc. Only release Power button when it at long last gets to the sleep time you want. Kind of a pain to figure out and use, but I'll get used to it. 4. Two AA backup batteries are not included (not necessary for operation, but to hold settings and time in power outage). Two AAAs not included for remote (again not necessary for unit operation, only if you want to use the remote). 5. The large display is very easy to read, although the dimmest setting is a bit too dim and the next step a bit brighter than I would like. Read more

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. Read more