clock radios

Bought this clock radio and the companion unit for the sound, and are happy with that aspect of it. Living with the radio has several major ergonomic annoyances:
1) the snooze and the alarm off buttons are both on the top of the unit, albeit at opposite ends. When I'm waking from a deep sleep there's about a 33% chance I'll turn off the alarm for the rest of the morning when all I meant to do was hit snooze -- my mind does not process which button is on which side that early!
2) similarly, the on/off buttons for alarms 1 and 2 are on the top as well. When fumbling for the snooze (or 'your' off button), it's easy to turn off the other alarm (only a tap, not a hard push, is needed) -- resulting in your significant other being late to work.
3) less common, but reflective of the poor interface design, is that to change the alarm time you cycle through changing the display time, alarm 1 wake time, and alarm 2 wake time. Every time you do this, there is a real chance you could accidentally change the main time -- when you should only have to worry about that twice a year.

While Amazon lists this as a Sangean unit, it is actually boxedand labelled as the more familiar and highly reputable Proton brand,model RS-330. (The name Sangean is nowhere to be found.)

This radio is the perfect solution for those who don't want to spend hundreds more on a Bose Wave, but find very little satisfaction from "plasticky" clock radios with horrible sound, analog tuners, and controls unusable by humans. I looked at lots of "junk" before I bought this. Add the companion RS-332 amplified speaker and you have an integrated stereo clock radio "system" with independent alarms and controls for two sleepers. (Each sleeper is awakened by sound from the component on his or her own side, but in normal listening you have stereo.) In my opinion, the extra speaker is a must; without it, you have one speaker monaural sound.

The radio and companion RS-332 each contain a four watt amplifier and 5 inch speaker, together offering great fidelity. The case and controls are extremely well crafted with excellent look, materials, and feel.

Headphone out, power backup (not via battery but deep capacitor), ramp wake volume, light sensitive auto dim, digital tuning, auxilliary inputs, displayed wake time for two sleepers, sleep timer... etc. etc. etc.

FM reception is exceptional with the wire dipole antenna included. In summary, this thing works and sounds GREAT (especially with the RS-332 attached in stereo) as long as you do not expect to blow the walls out at high volume.

The radio didn't turn on when I plugged it in. Pressing the reset button didn't seem to help. Persistence helped by inserting the plug several times.

I had trouble programming the tuning buttons for preset stations. The instructions do not state that the preset buttons must be held for more than an instant. Persistence paid off---I tried over and over.

If a person has been humbled by years of computer problems, he can deal with the the Sangean RS-330 clock radio. But I wouldn't recommend it as a gift to someone who is not computer literate.

I recall the clock radios of the 1960s, which were fitted with levers as sleep switches. If you were still awake at the end of sixty minutes, you could pull the lever again without turning on the light or consulting a manual. And the simplicity of turning a knob to change stations---priceless.