Average Customer Review: ( 97 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
108 of 113 found the following review helpful:
 Far from perfect Jan 15, 2007
By ursadog
I spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect alarm clock for my bedroom and, as you can tell, I am still looking. The Sangean RCR-2 certainly has some attractive features like the atomic clock, which took a few hours to set itself, and the nice styling but it fails in so many areas as an alarm clock. First, and most importantly, the display is unreadable. It is very busy with lots of symbols and numbers but using very thin LCD numerals for the time and the off axis viewing angle is very small; you must basically face it head on. Worst of all, however, is the blindingly bright orange backlight with makes is impossible for night adjusted eyes to read the display if you want to check the time in the middle of the night. It is so bright as to cast shadows throughout the room. I keep it across the room but I can't imagine trying to sleep with this minor sun positioned on the nightstand. Sure, you can turn off the backlight but then the clock is invisible at night. Maybe LEDs are not cool but they make a lot more sense for an alarm clock. Also, it takes at least four button presses to turn on the alarm as opposed to one on my old alarm.
156 of 169 found the following review helpful:
 Best clock radio I've seen Mar 17, 2005
By Paul Jackson
I own several radios and clock radios, including CCrane's
CCRadio (made by Sangean) and the GE SuperRadio. Some of
the negatives given in reviews above have an element of truth,
but are overblown, in my view.
Compared to the CCRadio (the several year old one, I don't
have the more recent CCRadio Plus):
* The RCR-2 is noticeably smaller. It is somewhat narrower,
and half the height. It is twice as deep. It feels solid,
heavy, and polished.
* The extra buttons make it quite a bit easier to use. Sangean
is still no Apple or Timex when it comes to making intuitive
interfaces, so the interface will still confuse some. And
while Sangean has improved on their translation of the
instruction booklet, it still leaves much unsaid. But
the function of each button is clearer and simpler, with
less strange overloading of uses.
* The CCRadio used any button for Snooze, so I could not
switch stations, or just turn the radio OFF in the morning,
without pushing the ON/OFF button 3 times, to get it out of
snooze mode, and just plain OFF. The RCR-2 only uses the
one up/down big tuning button for snooze, so other buttons
continue to function for their primary purpose in the
morning. This is good.
* The front third of the RCR-2 is polished metal, with a
closely fit clear face plate over the front. The buttons
are a very solid feeling, smooth polished round metal nubs
with strong spring loading. This is good for most of the
buttons, though the snooze (big up/down bar) button requires
more focused pressure than I like first thing in the morning.
* The CCRadio buttons are flimsier feeling plastic, and have
some annoying delays -- you have to hold them a major
fraction of a second to take affect (debounce circuitry, I
guess). You hold the CCRadio station selection buttons
perhaps a half second to change station, but not more than
two seconds, or you just reprogrammed the memory. This is
an annoyingly small window between the times required for
the two functions. I have not noticed any such timing
problems with the RCR-2 -- the station selection buttons
take affect immediately, so far as I can tell.
* The 7-day programming, and display, is the first such I
have used since a Sony model, many years ago. Each of the
two alarms gets one programmable time, and can be enabled
or disabled independently for each of the 7 days. Each
of the seven days of the week gets its own button, and
the status of each day is separately shown on the display.
Nice.
* I haven't pushed the radio tuner yet, except to note that
the one weak AM station I like, late at night, which only my
best radios (the CCRadio and GE SuperRadio) can pick up,
also came in just fine on the RCR-2. So I assume this is
another fine Sangean AM frontend.
* The RCR-2 display is _much_ more readable than the CCRadio
display. There is _no_ angle from which I can read the
smaller details on the CCRadio display, except when I hold
a flashlight just right and squint through my good eye.
The RCR-2 display is crystal clear from a range of angles
(and utterly invisible or unreadable, outside that range).
You must view it from straight on or from above, looking
down, but not more than about 20 or 30 degrees above the
horizontal. If you are more than 5 or 10 degrees below
the horizon, looking up, it is _completely_ invisible, with
just an orange lit rectangle. You can look from the left
or right of straight on by 20 degrees and see an excellent
display, or perhaps 40 degrees to the left or right and
still make out the numbers. The backlight is just from
one side (the right), but covers the whole display fairly
well, only mildly less bright on the left side. The
backlight on my CCRadio is utterly dark on the opposite
side, and only marginally useful. The orange backlight
on the RCR-2 is almost bright enough to use for a night
light, which some folks who like real darkness for sleeping
will find way excessive - they will have to turn the light
off. Personally, I can sleep in broad daylight, and rather
like the light.
* I have tried several atomic clocks that set using a radio
signal from Boulder, Colorado. Only two of them were able
to find any signal in my location -- this RCR-2 and one
other higher priced wall clock. The RCR-2 has a separate
antenna for the clock setting signal, which can be hung
off the back of the radio, or placed separately within the
3 foot range of the attaching wire. The cheaper atomic
setting clocks that I have tried, $20 or less, have never
worked for me. The RCR-2 still won't work for everyone,
depending on signal strength, but it's good enough for me,
and better than most.
* I have no comments on audio or speaker quality - I am half
deaf, and only listen to AM Talk Radio and Alarm Buzzes ;).
The RCR-2 handles these two just fine, so far as I can tell.
* Unlike both the GE SuperRadio and CCRadio, the RCR-2 does not
take a big heavy set of D cell batteries. So I suspect when
I lose electric power, I won't be listening to the RCR-2 for
long. It's no emergency radio. The backup power (internal
capacitor) did last the couple of minutes it took me to
move the radio between locations, as I tried out the atomic
time setting reception. It kept time while unplugged, with
the display light off, but the seconds still counting.
* And the RCR-2 is no DX long distance radio tuner. While the
AM frontend seems to be quality, you don't get the fine
tuning and antenna options required for DX'ing.
* The RCR-2 doesn't have the Weather channel that my CCRadio
has -- not that I care.
* The RCR-2 has no bass or treble controls - just a volume
control. Fine by me.
* The Nap function is the first I've seen of such that I will
likely use. Just push the Nap button once for each 10
minutes you want. The display shows 10, 20, ... 120, OFF
in sequence, for 10 to 120 minutes of nap time, and OFF.
The only minor annoyance is that you have to push the
button the remainder of the 12 times to turn it back OFF,
but in normal usage, one doesn't need to do that often.
41 of 43 found the following review helpful:
Excellent design, fails on the basics Mar 09, 2004
My first impression was one of delight, because the RCR-2's controls, programming flexibility, packaging, and sound quality are very well done. But I was ultimately disappointed and had to return the unit because Sangean did not follow through in two important areas: the display and power back-up.The LCD display is only viewable from a limited angle. We placed the unit on a low headboard about 6" above the pillows, and the digits became invisible. The left-to-right viewing angle is also very limited. The RCR-2 is easily viewable only if you place it on a nightstand lower than your pillow and view it straight ahead within arm's reach. The LCD backlighting is weak and uneven. Instead of a uniform electro-luminescent light source (e.g. Indiglo), there is a single bulb on one side. Bright on one side and dim on the other, it looks a lot like a cheap digital watch from many years ago. Not a good first impression in a guest bedroom. The second problem is the limited and/or undocumented power failure backup. The RCR-2 does not use a battery, but does have some internal power storage since I could unplug it for several minutes without losing the time. But the instructions don't say how long an outage the RCR-2 can handle. The radio update can take several hours, so don't depend on the unit re-syncing before wake-up time. Also, there is no mention in the instructions as to whether the alarm times are preserved, even if the clock does re-sync by morning. Without assurance that the clock would wake me after a power outage of 30 minutes or more (which do occur where I live) I elected to return the RCR-2. If power outages are less of an issue in your area, you can solve many of the display problems by moving up to the Sangean RCR-1, which adds an analog clock face.
22 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 Check out the RCR-22 first Apr 13, 2007
By Jose Padilla
I used to have an Emerson CKS2237 Dual Alarm Clock Radio (Silver) (it was a "smartset" that was supposed to be smart enough to "set itself"). After the new DST rules came into effect, the Emerson lost its smart and no longer set itself properly (it was not atomic as many had thought it was). I then found and purchased the Sangean RCR-2. The clock itself was excellent with the one exception that it was nearly impossible to read the clock at night (and also during the day at certain angles). I opted to return the clock and wait for the Sangean RCR-22 to come out.
Sangean RCR-22 AM/FM Atomic Clock Radio
I waited for about 3 months for the RCR-22 to come out. It was really worth the wait. The RCR-22 is an excellent upgrade over the RCR-2. In addition to the features of the RCR-2, below are some of the upgrades that the RCR-22 offers over the RCR-2:
The display screen for the RCR-22 has a dark blue background with white text. It makes for a very easy read from a wide variety of angles (unlike the RCR-2).
The display screen for the RCR-22 has an adjustable display knob to make the background screen lighter or darker (the RCR-2 was lacking this).
The RCR-22 has a wider display screen than the RCR-2 (this keeps the clutter down when trying to read from a distance and at night).
The RCR-22 has aux input so that you can connect your mp3 or CD player.
The RCR-22 has a super capacitor that provides memory and alarm memories for up to 1 hour during power disruptions (the RCR-2 also provided a similar type of protection, however, Sangean never made a claim as to the length of memory time that it had).
The RCR-22 appears to have better atomic reception and better AM/FM radio reception than the RCR-2.
In appearance, the RCR-22 looks much cooler than the RCR-2.
Although I gave the RCR-2 3 stars, I give the RCR-22 a full 5 stars.
22 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Best alarmclock i've owned sofar! Feb 24, 2006
By J. GEERS
I really like this alarmclock a lot! It got the highest rating for alarmclocks by the Dutch Consumer organisation (Consumentenbond) in 2005. So on this score i bought it because my old alarmclock had gotten a bit 'shifty' on me. And i must say i like it a lot. I think it is 'pretty' as far as alarmclocks can be called pretty. It sounds really good for such a small box. I actually like the display, despite other people calling it awful. Sure when i'm standing up next to my bed it becomes unreadable but when i'm lying down in bed on either side it is very clear. The dial has a warm yellow glow and the numbers are black and very clear.
It has a bunch of features, to much to name them all but for example: I can set the alarm for any time, any day of the week and any station that i want. It's time setting and keeping is radio controlled, so it always keeps perfect time, summer and winter. Reception on FM or AM is very clear and free of noise and distortion. The sound is clear and rich actually just plain good, even with classical music :-) Sofar i would call it the best alarmclock i've ever owned or heard before. I give it 5 stars!
See all 97 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
