I have what I consider one of the best possible alarm clocks. Of course, Sony appears to have discontinued this model ...
It is a combo AM/FM clock radio, with CD player. Stereo speakers.
Sony Dream Machine Model ICF-CD830
The controls are easy to remember and manage, even for someone with excrutiatingly bad vision who might be compelled to try to set the clock at night. In the dark.
It can be set to wake by radio, buzzer, or CD. Each of these three choices has an INDEPENDENT time setting. So, you can tell it to turn the CD on at 7:30 AM, the Radio at 8:00 AM, and the harsh obnoxious buzzer at 9:00 AM to let you know you missed whatever was so fucking important to begin with.
One push button allows you to determine which permutations of Radio/CD/Buzzer you wish to have active. You can select one, two, all three, or the blessed silence of none.
The snooze button is cumulative. If you push it once, you get 10 minutes, twice for 20 minutes, and so on.
Either the CD player or the radio can be turned on manually, and the sleep timer works for either.
It does have an external antenna, but I don't have pets, so that's not an issue for me.
Not a bad little toy, considering that I told my mom that I wanted a boom box for Christmas that year.