Sangean RCR-1 Advanced Atomic Clock Radio (Classic Black)
by Sangean
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sangean RCR-1 Advanced Atomic Clock Radio (Classic Black)
Customer Review: Almost the perfect clock radio....
Summary: 4 Stars
I struggled for a long time to find the perfect clock radio that had everything I wanted, and then this one came along.
Dual alarms - check!
Disable the alarm on weekends - check!
Daylight savings mode - check!
Battery backup - check (sort of)!
Digital tuner - check!
Nice design - check!
Some other reviewers mentioned that setting the alarm was a complex process...I didn't find it all that bad to be honest.
The radio is quite good, with plenty of presets.
When I first turned it on, I noticed that the screen could display AM/PM, yet there was no way to switch from the default 24-hour time to 12-hour time. I've since learned that only the 24-hour version is imported to Australia...which sucks, and it seems a waste to have an AM/PM indicator on the screen that you can't use.
This won't be an issue for other countries that actually can get the 12-hour version.
(The atomic clock also doesn't work in Australia, but I knew that before purchasing anyway so I'm not too concerned about it.)
But the real problems are the Humane Waking System (HWS), volume controls, snooze timer & backlight.
HWS is supposed to gently wake you by gradually increasing the volume, rather than turning on suddenly. For starters, it not gradual enough. Yes, it does start soft and get louder; but it only takes around 2 seconds to go from one extreme (no sound) to the other (full sound).
For the first 1 second, the sound is imperceptible (so its really only 1 second - after 1 second - that it goes from no sound to full sound).
They might as well ditch HWS altogether, as it acts more like a standard 'instant on' alarm, only with a 1 second delay. For HWS to work, they need to either extend the time that it takes to get louder, or better yet make it user configurable so that I could choose, say 10 seconds, from nothing to full volume)
Regarding volume, the unit has 2 volume controls: a rubber dial on one side that controls the radio volume, and small dial under the base that controls the volume of the alarm.
The important point here is that like most clock radios, you can choose to be woken by a buzzer (it has a nice buzzer, by the way) or by the radio. The volume dial on the side ONLY affects the radio when you manually turn on the radio, ie. not when it is activated by the alarm. You must use the dial on the bottom to set the radio volume for the alarm.
I have this turned down to it's lowest possible setting, yet the radio is still too loud for my liking.
I can see the benefit of separate volume controls if you prefer the buzzer for your alarm; but when you have the radio as the alarm I would have preferred to have one single volume control (the one on the side).
At the very least, the dial on the bottom should allow a bit more sensitivity so that the volume can be lowered more.
Others have mentioned the snooze function, and I agree...5 minutes is too short for my liking, so it would have been nice to be able to configure a longer snooze period.
My final gripe is with the blue backlight. A button on the front toggles the backlight between "on" and "off" (where "on" is full brightness, and "off" is your personal brightness setting).
You can set how bright "off" is by using the dimmer under the base of the unit.
I have this turned down almost as low as it will go (any further and the backlight is off altogether), but the glow is still quite bright when there are no other lights on in the room (so if you're someone who needs pitch black darkness to get to sleep, you're in trouble). At this setting, the LCD is quite hard to read; so it's a catch-22 between brightness and readability.
If you turn dimmer fully down so that the backlight is off altogether, the room glow is gone but you also can't see time anymore. If you wake in the middle of the night and need to know what time it is, you would need to hit the backlight toggle (ie. full brightness), which is so bright it almost blinds you.
I would have preferred to see the time itself (i.e. the numbers) highlighted rather than the background (or better yet, toggling the backlight "on" lights the background, and "off" lights the numbers).
All in all, its the best I've found; but there are enough niggling issues that my search for the ultimate clock radio is not yet over.
Customer Review: Overall a good clock
Summary: 4 Stars
This clock is just a couple of items away from a 5 star rating.
Pro:
- Plastic, but very high quality construction. The unit feels solid.
- Great radio, with tone and volume control.
- 7 Presets for AM and FM stations. Automatic preset scan.
- Atomic time synchronization. The clock can also be set manually.
- Alarm volume can be changed separately from the normal radio controls via a dial at the bottom of the clock.
- Dual alarms can be set to individual days, using either beep or radio (though I'm never quite sure which one will be used - see summary below).
- Humane Waking System - gradually increases the alarm volume, up to the set maximum alarm volume.
- Convenient button on front that switches the backlight to full power. Low power setting can be varied from full to no light at all via a dial at the bottom of the clock.
- Analog dial is easy to read at night.
- When the alarm goes off, the backlight is set to orange (at full intensity). The normal backlight is blue, with a variable intensity.
- Nap functions (I haven't used them yet)
- Sleep timer (I haven't used this one either)
Con-
- Very expensive. I purchased the black one, but the silver is definitely a better bargain.
- Buggy software.
- LCD hard to read.
- Somewhat complicated to set the alarms.
- Only 5 minute snooze period. Should be at least 10 minutes.
- No battery backup. There is a capacitor in the clock to maintain the time for a period, but I don't know how long it would retain settings, or if the alarms would work if the power remained out. It really should have a battery backup.
Summary:
The software used to set the alarms is buggy. Most of the time this clock ends up using the "beep" alarm. It is not nasty or anything, but I prefer that the radio be used as the alarm. As near as I can tell, the alarm switches to beep after the "snooze" is used. Thereafter it beeps. However, when I check the alarm later, it still says it is in radio mode. After hitting a lot of buttons again, I can sometimes get the alarm back to radio - until the snooze is used. I don't really mind it switching, but I DO mind that the alarm setting says "radio" when it is really "beep".
The LCD panel has a limited range of viewing. My clock is slightly higher than my bed, and I can't easily veiw the text with the backlight. If I use an external lamp, the LCD is easily readable from almost any angle. I would say that this clock LCD is best read from directly in front when using the backlight.
Setting the alarms is a multi step process, and is not as simple as other clocks. One has to:
a) Select which alarm is to be set
b) Select the "SET" button, use the snooze rocker switch to change the hour
c) Select the "SET" button again, use the snooze rocker switch to change the minutes
d) Select the "MODE" button to set the type of alarm (beep or radio)
e) Select the days of the week the alarm is to operate (using the "PRESET" buttons 1-7).
f) Select the alarm button again to end the process.
WHEW!! After all that, I AM sleepy. You have to (at least) use the "SET" button, or the alarm won't be changed. The situation is somewhat confused because all of the top buttons are "dual use", i.e., each button has both an "alarm setting" function and an "operate radio" function.
Overall I am pleased with this clock, and would buy it again.
***UPDATE****
After three months, I have adjusted to the strangness of the clock. The biggest issue is that I never know if it will wake with a beep or the radio. Actually, I now view this as a "feature", it's kind of interesting to see which one will happen each morning.
No other problems with the clock.
Customer Review: Good, but not perfect...
Summary: 4 Stars
I like it. It is a keeper.
However, I agree with other reviewers concerning the tricky nature of the controls. My solution: I kept the user manual on the night stand, by the radio, where it was easy to find and refer to. After several weeks, I found myself no longer looking at the manual, nor having to experiment, nor grumbling to myself about the poor design. It's all natural to me now. That said, for forcing me through such a training exercise, I down-graded the thing by one star.
I also agree with comments that the LCD's contrast could be better. However, back-lighting intensity is NOT a problem because it is fully adjustable with a small knob on the bottom of the radio, and switchable between bright and dim by a button on the front. Some reviewers may have not scoured the user manual sufficiently to find those tid-bits of info.
Another complaint I have seen in reviews concerns the presumptive lack of battery back-up and how that makes no sense on a higher-end clock radio. I consider that complaint to be misguided. In fact, it DOES retain settings in a power failure and it does it without requiring user-supplied batteries. I have not dis-assembled the thing to determine the exact method used, but I can guess. These types of electronic devices typically store a small amount of back-up power on an internal gizmo known as a "super capacitor". An alternative, sometimes used, is a very small internal NiCd cell. Whichever it is, this radio demonstrated its stuff during an 18 minute power failure that occurred a few weeks after my purchase. It retained all of the programming and the mechanical clock display spun itself around to the correct time within a minute or so of power being restored. On another occasion, I un-plugged the radio to move it to a different location and noticed that the LCD clock display continued running while un-plugged for that short time. For my money, that's good enough and preferable to having to pay attention to AAA cells that can go bad and leak.
Another complaint I have seen concerns the effectiveness of the "Atomic" aspect of the clock. That can be a problem because the Atomic clock signal is a radio signal that can be interfered with by household appliances, metalic materials in a building and atmospherics. However, of the three Atomic clocks in my house, this radio's clock is the only one that I have not seen get off track on the night of the switch to/from daylight savings time. I believe it is better than most because Sangean made the radio pick-up antenna separable from the radio itself (look at the back of the radio- see the detachable bar?). My antenna is detached and positioned away from 110V power cords and other electronic devices (such as cordless phone, cell phone charger, etc.) that can locally radiate interfering signals. That works for me.
Finally, I like the radio's sensitivity on both AM and FM. It's sound quality is a cut above others in its price range. The rear-firing speaker works better than I might have guessed- sound reflection off the wall works fine. The unique tone control seems to adjust nicely from wide response for decent high and low note rendition on music, to narrow response centered around voice tones. I find the latter to be useful when listening to talk-radio on distant, noisy, weak AM stations.
Summary: I don't think Sangean is very good at human factors engineering, nor are they good at english language technical communication, but I think they do an above average job of designing the innards of a radio.
Customer Review: Great Radio But Follow My Advice For Programming It
Summary: 5 Stars
This radio is great. Check the other reviews for the features, which are wonderful and for a reasonable price. The biggest issue is learning to program the thing. It is difficult, but not imposssible. The instructions are not well written and the lack of illustrations on the same page for setting the alarm don't make it better.
Here's how to think about it and it actually makes some sort of sense if you do think about it this way, I think. You need to push the alarm 1 or alarm 2 button 2 button in the front to "indicate your interest." The screen will show you the "status" of the current settings. If you press the button on the extreme left of the top during the status display you have indicated that you want to actually change some settings. At this point, you can change the time with the rocker switch on top (pressing the button on the extreme left again moves the setting from hours to minutes and back). You can also press the day selections by pressing the other buttons on top. Then, push the alarm 1 or alarm 2 buttons again to lock in your new settings. Really, not too bad.
Now you have to actually turn the alarm on or off (you've only changed some settings so far), if you want to actually turn the alarm on or off, then after pushing the alarm 1 or alarm 2 buttons, you have to push the button on the top extreme left (or you may have already gone through this part as described above). Now, you have to push the button on the extreme right of the top to cycle through alarm off/on/radio positions. Then, push the alarm 1 or alarm 2 buttons again to lock in your new settings.
To set one of the alarms to a different station, just tune in that station (radio on) and hold in the alarm 1 or 2 button for a couple of seconds until the beep. That alarm now has a new radio station associated with it (again, it's just a setting for when the radio alarm is really turned on with the button on the upper right hand side on top).
To turn off the alarms when they are ringing, push the radio on/off button on the front face upper right.
I hope this helped more than hurt, but it really does work. I'm going to rate this a 5 star based on the fact that I think it is a great machine once you learn how to work it, but seriously if you don't like fairly complex interfaces, this is not the clock radio for you. Be honest with yourself, but if you don't mind a bit of a learning curve, this radio is great (price, features, performance).
Lastly, the analog clock is more readable than most clocks, but I secretly long for it to be even larger, as I have really bad eyes without my glasses. To be honest, if it had better instructions (and maybe a wi-fi enabled version for internet radio, I'd go bonkers and buy the new one, too! Well, maybe next year, but seriously, if you don't mind a learning curve, this is an amazing clock radio at a very good price. Have fun! :-)
Customer Review: Excellent Features, Good Sound Quality
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm the type of guy that is fanatical about my electronics. This clock radio offers nearly all the features I want in a clock radio with only a few draw backs. I love the flexibility of the alarm's. You can set it up to wake you only on certain days of the week. It also features what Sangean calls Humane Waking System which is basically a way of gradually increasing the volume of the alarm tone or radio. This allows for a gentle wake up as opposed to a sudden jolt when the alarm sounds.
One reviewer on this site claims that he was unable to wake to an AM station. My unit wakes me to AM stations just fine so I don't think he understood how to set the station while setting up the alarm. The instructions don't really explain that very well so here is the easy way to set the station you want to wake to. Simply turn on the radio and tune to the desired station. Then press and hold either Alarm 1 or Alarm 2 for more than two seconds and wait till you hear a beep. Then your wake up station will be stored into memory.
Turning on either alarm requires several key presses but it is not overly difficult to master. My take on this is that it is a safety feature so that you don't turn on/off an alarm by mistake. The radio also features a basic power failure feature. It will retain it's settings for up to 4 hours in the event of a power failure. However, the alarm will not sound at the designated time if the power is out. I see that as a critical oversite and I hope that Sangean corrects that in the next model. I have mine plugged in to a APC Battery Backup so I don't worry too much about power failures.
What I don't like about this clock radio. The LCD display is is very hard to read. I have good vision and I find it difficult to read the display. The contrast could use an adjustment knob but sadly there isn't one.
A clock radio of this caliber should have an automatic dimmer. I hate having to manually set the brightness before I go to sleep.
It should have a programable snooze function. It does snooze but only 5 min. at a time. You cannot tap the snooze bar repeatedly to add more time.
Overall I'm very pleased with this clock radio but as always the search continues for the perfect clock. When I find it, I'll buy but until then I'm happy to use this one. BTW, the sound quality is very good. Not Bose or Tivoli quality but good nontheless.