Sangean RCR-22 Alarm Clock Radio In Depth Review

There are lots of radio controlled "atomic" alarm clocks on the market but not many that plug into AC power. And there aren't many that give you the features of an old school alarm clock radio. But here's the Sangean RCR-22, which does those things and so much more. In this In Depth review I go through the functions, features and setup of this alarm clock radio. The model I have is made for the USA market, although there are other variations intended to be sold and used in other countries too.

Sangean has a reputation for making very good radio receivers and this one appears to confirm that reputation. I found that, in areas where there are lots of AM and FM stations available, this one will pull them in as well as or better than any of my other radios. If an FM station provides data through an RDS feature, this radio will acknowledge that data and display it when you press the "Info" button. Also, if an FM station is providing time information through RDS (or RBDS) then this unit can set its time using that data. But it also has a built-in receiver for WWVB which will allow it to set itself to atomic time from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Colorado. Once it sets itself to atomic time it will check itself every two hours to make sure it remains in sync.

The alarm clock functions include two very versatile alarms which can be set to wake you up to a buzzer or to any AM or FM radio station at the volume level you choose for each alarm. Alarms can be set for a one-time alert or to repeat daily or only on weekdays or only on weekends. In addition, there's a separate nap timer which can be set to any number of minutes up to 2 hours. The nap timer will wake you up with a buzzer. The clock has a snooze feature for the two normal alarms and you can set the snooze to repeat the alarm after 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. There's also a "sleep" feature which will allow you to listen to the radio for a specific number of minutes, after which the radio will turn itself off. Because the alarms are so versatile, you can fall asleep listening to one station and wake up to another at a different volume!

Overall, it's a great unit and by far the best alarm clock radio I've ever owned. My only complaint is that the dimmer control on the bottom of the unit is difficult to turn. Perhaps I need a small screwdriver to make it a little easier to adjust. Then again, I suppose that once I get it to the setting I want I will probably leave it there for a long, long time. A small button on the front of the unit toggles between full brightness on the display and whatever dimmer setting you have selected.

The RCR-22 has a 3.5mm jack for auxiliary audio input. Please note that while the incoming audio may be stereo the RCR-22 will combine the channels into one mono signal, as it only has one speaker anyway. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack which outputs a mono signal. If you plug in stereo headphones you'll hear monophonic audio in both ears.

Solid, simple to use and packed with features. This is a great product!