When I was a kid, I could set the alarm on my watch, and it would wake me up. When I was in my 20s, a clock radio would do. Now that I'm in my late 30s, I'm finding even three or four clock radios ineffective - they just irritate me instead of convincing my to get up, and then I get mad, and then the morning is shot.
This clock seems to have been made for deaf, or near deaf folks. It has both audible and vibration alarm modes, and you can have one or the other or both. The audible alarm has both a volume and a pitch adjustment. You can set it high and squeeky, or kind of the annoying mid-range tone you're more used to hearing from an electronic alarm, or anywhere in between. That's kind of a unique feature all by itself, and I'm sure it's intended for folks that can only hear in a certain range of tones.
WARNING: this clock can be LOUD. I would be considered a person with normal hearing, and the volume on this thing at level 8 is PAINFULLY loud. WAY louder than other clocks that may claim to be the "world's loudest alarm". When this thing came out of the box, the volume was set on 8, and when I plugged it in and was setting the time, the alarm went off unexpectedly, and my ears HURT afterwards. I've never heard it on 10, and I never want to. 2 or 3 is about as loud as a normal alarm clock.
However, I generally don't use the audible portion of the alarm at all. The clock comes with a little white pod, a little bigger than a cell phone, perhaps, but round like a saucer. It had a long, sturdy chord that plugs into the clock itself. You can put it under your mattress or in your pillow case. I find this the coolest, least annoying, most reliable way to wake up I've yet run across. Way better than lights that slowly turn on (they don't wake me up). The body seems hard wired to wake up fully alert when something nearby vibrates, but it isn't annoying like an alarm clock buzz.
The vibration pod does not need to be plugged in for the clock and audible alarm to work, so if you don't like the vibration, you're not stuck with it.
A word of caution: if you put the vibration pod in your pillowcase and the chord runs to the alarm clock, I could see potential for getting yourself wrapped up in it. Clearly it's not suitable for use with children, and if you toss and turn a lot, I would definately think about the ramifications of the chord. The easy solution, of course, is to put it under your mattress. The vibration is strong enough that it will wake you either way, in my opinion.