Sound + Sleep White Noise Machine, Black

The only thing that worries me about this machine is that some reviews say it can stop working suddenly after a few months. This machine has been so great, I would hate to have to be without it while a new one was shipped. Hopefully, mine is OK and will work for a very long time. We have been married for 40 years. My husband snored on and off for most of the time. But it was never a real problem and a nudge would get him to turn over and the snoring would stop. However, over the past year, his snoring has gotten very loud and is very constant. He snores every night and a lot of the time it is 'buzz saw' in loudness. Turning and changing position does not do anything to help. He tried the nose strips, but that did no good. It was a difficult situation as although he was the one snoring, it really was my problem as I was the one who could not sleep with the noise. I researched various snoring solutions such as mouth pieces and other devices that might help snoring. But even though he appreciated that I could not sleep, he is not the type to be gung ho about finding a solution or purchasing and trying some of these devices. His basic 'answer' to the problem was that some day his snoring would stop. After a year, I really doubted that was going to happen. I don't think he appreciated how totally his snoring kept me awake with so many totally sleepless nights! He was the snorer, but it became my job to find a way to deal with it. It came to the point that we had to sleep in separate bedrooms most of the time. Our kids are grown, so we did have a couple of empty bedrooms to use. Although I could get a good night's sleep, a separate room was not a comfortable solution overall. Also we travel a lot and have to use the same bed when guests come to our house. So I had to find a way to deal with his snoring when traveling and at home. I researched the white noise and sound machines. This one got such high ratings I figured it was the one to try. From what I had read, I thought the actual 'white noise' would be the best. But I am so glad I bought this one that had many sounds. The machine has done it's job almost from the first night we used it. There was one big adjustment however. The first night I put the machine on my nightstand. It helped somewhat, but since the snorer was on the other side of me, I could still hear him quite a bit. I read about these noise machines and it said to work best, the machine should be between you and the noise. Thankfully this machine is not very large. So I actually placed it on the mattress up against the headboard between my husband and myself. Now the sound is truly between me and the source of the noise. I placed it so the controls are at the top of the machine and I can easily push the buttons to adjust the level of sound. It only takes up a little more than 4 inches of space and on a king size bed, that does not bother us. In testing out the various sounds, I actually found the basic white noise to be rather irritating. I like the rainfall sound the best. I put the richness setting at level one as it adds a little diversity and a rumble of thunder once in a while. I have awakened at night several times to think it was actually raining before I realized it was the machine. I play the machine all night long. I think your mind adjusts better to listening to the sound when it is on all the time. I start out at a minimum level. But when the 'buzz saw' starts, I crank up the sound until it drowns out the snoring. It does take a little adjustment to get used to the rain sound constantly and especially when I have to make it very loud. But the adjustment has been quick and relatively easy and allows me to get a good night's sleep. Part of the problem with the snoring was that it could be extremely loud one minute and moderate the next. The constant change in noise levels really had me edgy and nervous as when the snoring was quiet, I kept mentally waiting for it to get loud again. My nerves were always on edge wondering what level of snoring loudness would be next. With the constant level of the rain fall noise, it helps me to not worry about the level of snoring noise. If the snoring gets loud enough to wake me, I now just amp the rainfall level up a few notches (sometimes more notches than than 'a few') and I can go back to sleep. I read some of the reviews that said the machine was not loud enough. I can't help but agree with other posters that those machines must have a defect of some sort. When I put my machine on the loudest level, it is extremely loud. Even with my buzz saw, I never need to crank it up to the loudest level. I am happy that this machine is small as we will need to take it with us when we travel. I do hope my sleep machine lasts a long time. But whenever it does stop working, I will be getting a new one. It really has been a wonderful device to help with my noise problem. I don't think I really thought it would work as well as it has and solved our situation so easily.

I received my EcoTones Duet in the mail yesterday, and I was unbelievably excited to try it out in light of the overwhelmingly positive reviews it received here. I tried it out last night--and this thing seriously came through for me in a time of pretty desperate need. I live in a great vintage apartment on the first floor, which means that I have great but very noisy and squeaky hardwood floors...and so does my upstairs neighbor. He moved in about a month ago and has loves to a) stomp around louder than I've ever heard anyone stomp (both barefoot AND in his hard-soled shoes), b) have loud sex with a loud (and usually high-heeled and stomping) female visitor, and c) talk loudly on speakerphone for hours at a time (usually well into the small hours of the a.m.). Add to this the fact that I'm a shockingly light sleeper and a musician, so I wake up later than he does, AND add the radiators in my apartment that sound like someone is standing in the room hitting them with a hammer, AND add the fact that I live above the boiler room in my building into the mix, and you have a pretty miserable sleeping situation. I've been running on about 2-3 hours a night for the past month or so, and it's been ruining my productivity! I finally hit a breaking point yesterday, so this machine couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I ordered it on a Friday and it came on Sunday...totally amazed by Amazon Prime! My boyfriend left to hang with his dudes for the evening, and I went to bed early...before my upstairs neighbor and before the radiators came on. I was worried that the machine wouldn't be all it was cracked up to be, and I'd find myself unable to fall asleep AND woken up by my boyfriend coming back in after a night with the guys. I'm happy to report that I slept through it all, which is pretty much a life-changing miracle. This company and this product REALLY understand people who have a hard time sleeping, and I love that the display lights can be turned off. The sounds are really high-quality and don't lend themselves to obsessing about hearing patterns (although the meditation sound is too distracting for a musician to listen to). The volume is impressive, although you need to make sure to check your volume when you go from sound to sound, because they aren't consistent across the board. Rainfall is louder than Brook, for example. Big pluses: - It's super small and compact, and there's a nice cord keeper. - The adaptive sound feature does a great job of screening out the really disruptive noises. I slept with my window open last night (yay spring!), and I really liked that I could still hear the nice outside noises, like a breeze and some distant intermittent cars going by, but not the noises that I find irritating or disruptive to my sleep, like loud motorcycles or people walking outside or talking in the yard right next to the apartment building. For example: the adaptive feature made it so that I didn't hear my boyfriend flush the (industrial strength) toilet in the bathroom right by the room or the really loud stomps from upstairs, but I could hear some creaks and some of the quieter footfalls. The noise from the machine made it so that the noise from upstairs didn't dominate my consciousness, so I didn't get angry about it, and I processed it as simple background noise. - The sounds are really great to hear...I love the fireplace one. They're all super-relaxing, and the machine is easy to use. One note to consider: - I've tried the rainfall and the brook sounds for sleeping; I used the rainfall all of last night. I had it in adaptive mode, and sometimes the swell in sound as it covered a big noise was a little abrasive, so I'd kind of surface from my sleep (but I'm a CRAZY-light sleeper). I solved the problem this morning by switching to brook. You may need to experiment with what sounds work best for you in adaptive mode; don't just assume it'll be disruptive if one sound isn't working for you. I'm hoping to buy another one for my living room soon (since it's right under the neighbor's favorite speakerphone yelling spot). I got the best sleep I'd had in months last night, and I didn't even hear my boyfriend come in (that never happens, ever, even with the previous white noise machine I had). To be clear, though, this machine DIDN'T cancel out all of the upstairs noise entirely, but it took all of the edge and irritation off of it, kind of helping my brain incorporate it into a background noise, rather than leaving it out in the open for my tired mind to fixate on. I bought it after a reviewer said that it had stopped him from plotting against his upstairs neighbors, and I'm SO glad I did...I no longer feel like I'm a prisoner in my apartment. Give this a try; you'll be glad you did!

I highly recommend this sound machine and am giving it five stars even though I had problems with it almost immediately — want to know why? Please read on. Before buying ASTI's Sound Sleep machine, I did my homework. My goal was to find the best sound generating machine on the market, hoping it could help my boyfriend who has bad tinnitus, frequent insomnia, and on top of all that, noisy neighbors. I also thought I might like it too, since I also have mild tinnitus, and insomnia sometimes, and I use a CPAP machine so any distraction from that is welcome, and also a construction project just started across the street from me (I also snore when I'm not using my CPAP machine, so I thought it might help with that noise, too). So, I researched professional product reviews of sound machines, and hands-down the Sound Sleep machine was the clear winner. The reviews placed it as the best, noting its superior sound quality, its realistic and nonrepetitive sound stories, its amazing adaptive sound technology that instantly responds to noises in the environment, its gradual soft fade out on its sleep timer, and its many other great features. I studied the website of the manufacturer (Adaptive Sound Technologies Inc.), which is "soundofsleep" dot com, which by the way holds a wealth of useful information, and from there I was directed to Amazon to make my purchase (you can't buy directly from ASTI). So, my next stop was Amazon. I read many great reviews, but I also made sure I looked at the "most helpful critical review," and its comments — I find that often the most helpful information is buried in all the comments to critical reviews, and in this case it was a gold mine of very useful information. In a nutshell, it was determined that a batch of the sound sleep machines had a bad memory card installed, and this was the cause of the small number of bad reviews. The manufacturer immediately responded to each bad review, offering to resolve each problem free of charge and replace each defective machine with a brand-new one, and also they unilaterally decided to extend their warranty to guarantee all of their memory cards for the life of the product, for all machines they have ever sold. They corrected the technical problem, and all the ones they ship to Amazon now have a good card, and they believe they've cleared out all the bad stock from Amazon now. Well, that seemed perfectly reasonable to me — even the best companies and the best products have problems now and then, and what really matters is how the company responds to it and takes care of it, and it sounded like they addressed the problem and were doing a great job with customer service. So, I bought one — ordered it last Monday, and it arrived the next day (Tuesday, November 3). I was delighted with it and slept like a baby with it on ocean setting that night, however I did notice a faint, brief crackle in ocean mode, on low richness setting, that I almost thought at first was just one of the sound effects. But then I noticed it for sure the following night, Wednesday, so then Thursday morning I listened to it carefully, and sure enough, there was an intermittent crackle. I realized then that I must've gotten one of the bad ones that hadn't been cleared out of stock yet, so that morning I emailed ASTI customer service (Jack Conway) and told him my problem. He responded to me right away and told me he would replace my machine with a new one. Now, I happen to be lucky in that I work not far from ASTI headquarters, so the next morning (Friday) I brought the machine in to work with me, called Jack and arranged a meeting, and that morning drove over to see Jack in person to get my new machine. I must say that he and everyone else there were so nice! Jack greeted me like Santa Claus emerging from his workshop, and immediately took my defective machine, and handed me a brand-new one, and then asked if I'd like to test it out. So right then and there, we opened the box and he plugged in my new machine and we tested it and it sounded great. He said they stand behind their product, and if I have any problems in the future, he said "you know where we are, and just let us know and we will take care of you." Now that's great customer service! So now, some words about the machine itself — and please note that I plan to come back and update this review as time goes on, especially after my boyfriend has a chance to use it, which he hasn't yet: When I got back to my office on Friday with my brand-new machine, I plugged it in at my desk and left it on for the rest of the day, and it performed brilliantly — no problems whatsoever, and not once did I notice any sense of repetition or looping. I think I had it on for about six hours, and it was just as if someone had gone out into nature and recorded six hours of sounds just for me. I tried out every single sound story and every richness setting, and the sound was so lifelike, so clear and amazing. Everyone who stopped by my desk wanted one! And, it responded well to surrounding noises — even a door slamming which I thought was pretty far away. I also found that it was very relaxing while working, which I hadn't even thought of before; it really made work more pleasant, so now I'm even toying with the idea of getting one for my office, too! At home, I find it's very nice to have on while I'm working at my home computer; it makes for very pleasant background noise, and I find it amusing when it tries to shush me if I sneeze or cough. :-) At bedtime, it is indispensable. I set the sleep timer and float away on the ocean waves, my favorite sound story for bedtime. I fall asleep before it shuts off, so today before writing this review, I set the timer so I could check how it turns off: a couple minutes before shut off time, it starts to gradually get quieter and softer, until it gently fades away to complete silence by the time it shuts off. Perfect. I also love how I can turn off the display lights at night, so it's completely dark. And I also love how the speaker is on top, so no matter which way you face the machine, you are never turning the speakers away from you. But the adaptive mode is its most amazing feature, besides the incredible sounding sound stories: it literally responds instantly to sudden rises in volume in the room, and it doesn't just turn up the volume — it also dynamically can throw in things from its collection of sound story sound effects to create a natural sounding reaction that's very helpful in masking the sudden disturbance (for example: in rainfall, it might raise the volume of the rain and add a clap of thunder). Some tips on operation: if it seems to be having trouble hearing and responding to a sound disturbance, turn the unit so the microphone faces the sound, and if possible move it closer to the sound source. Also note that, if it doesn't seem to be masking a certain sound enough, try a different sound story, and/or try turning the volume up. For example, the other night a train went by rather loudly, and at first the machine didn't seem to respond to it, so then I turned the microphone so it faced the window, and I turned up the volume, and then it responded to the train so well, I couldn't hear the train at all. As for the sound stories themselves: Waterfall: at level I, this sound story is an electric fan, which is pretty intense and sounds more like a biplane to me. At level II, it's a thundering waterfall, very similar to white noise. At level III, they add in things like wind, splashes, and just a richness of sound to give it more depth and dimension. You really do feel like you're standing next to a thundering waterfall in the wilderness. Fireplace: one of my favorites. At level I, it's a steadily crackling fireplace, with the occasional sound of a log gently collapsing. At level II, it has more crackling and more logs falling, and the occasional soft distant sound of a tea kettle whistling, or cats purring. At level III, it switches to a roaring campfire in the woods, with lots of crackling and logs falling, and occasional sounds of wind whooshing through the trees, and occasional birds. Ocean: my hands-down favorite for going to sleep. At level I, it's ocean waves. At level II, they add in occasional birds and seals. At level III, they add on top of that occasional fog horns and buoy bells. Meadow: this sounds like a stream gently flowing through a meadow at night with lots of crickets chirping. (Note: when I met with Jack Conway, he said the crickets were recorded in his own backyard!) That's mostly what you hear, at all the richness levels, but with more richness they seem to add in wind through the trees, occasional birds, and rain, I believe. This one is great if you like to fall asleep to the sound of crickets, and of course the water sounds are very soothing, too. Train: you hear all the normal train click clack sounds, and with more richness they add in things like lonesome train whistles and bells. I find this sound story kind of ironic, since trains might be a noise you are trying to cover up! But it's a nice steady mechanical sound if that's what helps you relax. And I can vouch for its realism, because I hear real trains pass by my house day and night (as mentioned above). City: like Train, this one seems like a sound you would be wanting to cover up, and again like Train it is very realistic, with the steady hum of the city and other realistic noises thrown in. I'm not fond of this one myself, but then I have a coworker who grew up in the city, and when he heard this one he said it would definitely be one of his favorites, and would help him sleep. So, to each his own. Rainfall: this is a definite favorite (and Jack Conway's favorite, he said). The recording of the rain is so absolutely crystal clear, you feel like you're standing outside in a rainstorm. It is so realistic, with the rain, the occasional thunder, and other storm sounds like the rushing of wind, that it will be loved by anyone who loves the sound of the rain and a good storm. With increased richness, you get more depth and thunder, and vice versa. You can tell they used primo equipment to record all their sounds, especially the rain: my boyfriend is a professional musician with a home recording studio, and once he made a recording of rain outside his door, and he has the best recording equipment you can get, and I swear the quality I hear in this sound story is on par with the quality of my boyfriend's recording. Outstanding, and great for sleeping, and great for masking a wide variety of sounds. Brook: this is the wonderful sound of rushing water in a brook in the woods, with the occasional sounds of water splashing and birds and other nature sounds. This is one of my favorites for during the day. Could also be a great one at night, if you like that steady rushing and babbling water sound. My coworker friend who liked the City recording actually said that Brook would be his top favorite. It is very soothing and relaxing. With that steady rush, it would also be good at masking a lot of sounds, similar to Rainfall and Waterfall, but perhaps not as intense as those two. Meditation: this is the steady drone of some kind of musical instrument, with sitars and other musical sounds thrown in with added richness. Personally, I am not fond of this one, but again everyone is different. Another friend at work said that her husband would like it, not for sleeping but for use in actual meditation, and she commented that the sitars sounded like whale song to her. So, I'm sure someone might like this for meditation and/or sleeping or relaxing. White noise: this has three different settings with different pitches: brown noise at level I, pink noise at level II, and white noise at level III. I am not fond of this one myself, but it would be perfect for someone who likes blank white noise, such as falling asleep to the television when it's just static. I'm thinking it might be good for tinnitus masking — I'll have to wait and see what my boyfriend's experience with the machine is. And there you have it — my first week's experience. In summary, I highly recommend this sound machine, and believe it is indeed the best one on the market, and great for a variety of uses, and the company itself has outstanding customer service with satisfaction guaranteed. I will update my review after I've had more time with it, and after my boyfriend gets a chance to use one, too.

7/17/19 Updated Review. The replacement machine arrived and failed to work properly out of the box. Neither of the richness settings worked for any of the sound stories. I tried the factory reset procedure but still the richness settings wouldn't activate. I've tried a total of 4 of these machines over the past couple years. One failed to work properly out of the box and three stopped working properly in less than a month. Buyer beware! 7/15/19 Updated Review. I ordered another one of these after reading positive reviews. It worked flawlessly for about a month. Then both richness settings stopped working. The machine is plugged into a surge protector and I haven't moved it, so I doubt the problem is on my end. Luckily I had one day left in the return window, so I have requested a replacement. I love this sound machine but so far, unfortunately, it is still my experience that these things only work properly for a couple weeks. And it's too bad. This sleep machine would be the best on the market if it worked for a reasonable length of time. ----------- This machine is great...when it works. I sent it back for a refund because it developed static and buzzing after a few weeks. I had it on a surge protector, kept it free of lint or dust, and kept it in one location instead of moving it around. I believe it is a defect in the machine and not something caused on my end. Positives- Sound quality was excellent before it degraded. Random sounds (richness settings) prevented detection of looping sound tracks. The adaptive feature was instantaneous and worked as described. Compared to the 3 other machines I own (Marpac Dohm, Homedics SS200, and Homedics HDS 2000 Deep Sleep II) the ecotones had the best sound quality for relaxation and sleep. Negatives- Static/buzzing developed after a few weeks, just as other reviewers have reported. The only other negative aspect was that some of the random sounds for added richness triggered the microphone to increase volume, which was somewhat jarring. The solution was easy though. Just turn off the adaptive feature if you want to sleep. For anyone interested in the train sound story (that’s why I bought this machine), there is a squeak in each “clickety clack.” I didn’t notice it when I listened to sound samples online so I wondered if it was a defect in the sound card. I called the company and the person I spoke with checked my machine’s serial number and said my machine wasn’t among the batch of machines with known sound card issues. Therefore he concluded what I was hearing was probably part of the sound story. I eventually grew accustomed to the squeak, but for anyone who anticipates using the train sounds, please know that mine had a repeating squeak. And it was more prominent than any recurring sound loops on either of my Homedics machines. This was the sound story that developed the worst buzzing so perhaps the squeak was a defect after all. [Deleted the part about the slit on the bottom of the machine as I have been informed this is not a defect. Please see D Haggerty comment below.] Conclusion- I hated to send back my ecotones. I miss it because the looping sounds of Homedics machines are very noticeable. But my Homedics are more reliable to use for sleep because they don't emit static or buzzing like the ecotones did. A refund seemed like a safer option than risking more problems with a replacement. Had my machine come from a batch with known problems, I might have tried a replacement. But since my machine came from a batch without known problems with sound cards, I was concerned about a design flaw and recurrence of static/buzzing with a replacement. I have enough problems sleeping without a sleep machine waking me up with buzzing sounds! If AST can tweak the design to eliminate corruption of sound stories, I'll gladly buy another. I think ecotones has potential to be the best sound machine on the market. It just isn't there yet. I've never returned an Amazon purchase before. Thank you, Amazon and AST, for making it so easy!

If you have little patience for a long winded review, here is the bottom line: this machine does what it is supposed to do in terms of blocking out ambient noise, but it's overpriced for the quality of the sound and construction of the unit. I wouldn't call it high def, and the sound "stories" you hear in the richness mode often seem nonsensical and even jarring to my ear. More on this in the "cons" section. Several of the sounds occasionally put me into a trancelike state and drown out ambient noise at night when I am trying to sleep, like the mysterious garage band that starts jamming loudly at 2 am. Every. Single. Night. Since I bought the Sound + Sleep I'm never disturbed by that anymore. Now for the pros and cons. The pros - It drowns out ambient noise Each sound has three levels of "richness", adding more dimension to your chosen sound story (from no richness, in which mode you don't hear additional sounds, to the highest richness level, where other sounds are sprinkled randomly in - this is also the biggest of the cons for me. It does not live up to it potential on this score). It has a small footprint and is very lightweight It's easy to operate by selecting sounds with a turn of the dial A simple press of the "display" button turns all lights off so you can sleep in total darkness The manufacturer's customer service is very responsive The cons It doesn't sound high def. I thought many of the sounds, especially the water-based ones (rainfall, waterfall and brook) sounded decidedly low def, with more emphasis on white noise than clear water rushing or raindrops falling. The anticipated nature sounds took a back seat in almost all of the sound options. I contacted the manufacturer about this and they pointed me to a link on their website where I could compare sounds on the unit to the samples, which I played on my laptop. I found several of them, mainly the water based sounds, did sound somewhat crisper on my laptop. The company said my unit was probably just fine. I think that is likely true, and as I had nothing to compare it to, perhaps I was expecting a little too much. So if you are anticipating high def, crystal clear ocean waves and raindrops, or clear sounds of nature in any of the settings, you might be in for a letdown. In fairness, the fault might simply be that this is, after all, a white noise machine, and expecting to hear less overpowering white noise was my own folly. There is no volume dial. Instead, you press a button repeatedly to control the volume in any sound mode, but you can't determine when you reach the maximum. After two or three presses of the button in either direction, it doesn't seem to alter the volume level at all. The chrome colored knobs look and feel like cheap plastic. Considering the price, I would expect a higher level of quality in that detail. The richness mode might be a perk to some people, but I find it more annoying than helpful. This is probably the worst of the cons for me. Hoping to completely lose myself in immersive, realistic sound, instead I find....weirdness. Just awkward, randomly implanted bits of sound that are often more jarring than anything else. For example... One of my favorite modes is "meditation". With richness off, it just delivers a constant drone that does seem to relax my mind before falling asleep. However, once the richness is turned on, things swiftly go downhill. For starters, on the lower level of richness, you hear the random twang of an instrument that is apparently supposed to pass for a sitar. Unfortunately, it sounds a lot more like one of those kid's party favor horns that unravels itself when you blow into it. Just as I begin to come unraveled whenever I heard it, lying there and thinking....really? It isn't as if I was expecting Ravi Shankar (I'm dating myself now) but this is not a pleasing sound. In the higher richness levels, you begin to occasionally hear things like Native American flutes and drumming randomly dropped in. This sort of thing is at the core of my complaint with the sound stories. The sounds they choose to add in just don't seem to mesh well with the overriding sound story. They feel carelessly tossed into the soundscape without much thought as to how the whole composition will work together. It's like putting a teabag in your coffee. Sure, they are both hot beverages, but that doesn't mean they WORK together. (Btw, I'm no musician, but this really jumped out at me from the minute I turned the unit on). When I'm hearing a soundscape that is supposed to be reminiscent of all things meditative, conjuring up images of Buddhist temples, with an underlying Indian influence (as in, deriving from India, not Native America), I'm thrown off hearing an entirely different cultural influence, with Native American instruments drizzled in. It's coffee grinds and tea bags in a bizarre mishmash of discordant noise. It really makes me wonder what the creators of this story were thinking. Native American and Indian musical soundscapes aren't the same thing. In other sound stories, some of the "richer" sounds are downright annoying. In the fireplace mode, which is the one I was really looking forward to listening to, the sounds of the smoldering fire lack both crispness and forcefulness. Instead of the sharp crackling of burning embers, you hear an occasional SNAP sound that might wake you up if you choose this sound setting for sleeping. In ocean, there's the occasional, sadly pathetic yelping sound of what I think is supposed to be a sea lion. An injured sea lion. Whose flippers were tragically gnawed off by a great white before he got caught in a fishing net. It sounds as out of place to my ear as that kid's party favor horn impersonating a sitar. In train, I found the constant clack clack clack clack of steel wheels rumbling over rickety rails unlistenable. I think you get the idea. This could really be great if it was executed better, which might then justify the high price, provided much more attention was paid to the clarity of the sound and the kinds of random sounds being added into each sound story to make more believable, realistic soundscapes. My advice. If, after considering all of this, you'd like to give this unit a try, hold out for the sale price. As an added enticement, if you open up an Amazon Visa with this purchase, and buy it on sale, you probably won't regret your very minimal investment.

After two back-to-back sea deployments, I have a lot of trouble sleeping without some kind of "white noise" in the background. You spend every moment of the deployment with some kind of noise going on in the background, and I haven't been able to let that go. The sound of complete silence when I'm laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, means I won't fall asleep for a long time! I can't stop focusing on every little noise I hear. In all honesty, the background sound is quite comforting. I enjoy not being able to hear every little creak the house makes. For anyone else who feels this way, I recently came across the most amazing bedside white noise machine I've ever used. This one. For a long time, I used Marpac's Dual-Speed Sound Machine based upon a recommendation from a friend. It worked as designed for several years and was a great product! However, I was recently looking for a change--specifically, a white noise machine that can also mimic rhythmic sounds of nature and everyday life. The biggest problem with devices that offer features like this is that the human brain quickly detects and desires to find sequence and order in nature. Many sound machines suffer from the problem of repeating sounds--your brain will quickly discover where a sound stops and repeats, and once that point has been found, the background sound is totally useless at that point. Enter the SOUND+SLEEP system. The product is not cheap, but it's well worth the investment. The sound system offers not only simple white noise, but a wide variety of sounds found in other settings--a cross-country train, laying on the beach listening to the ocean, the crackle of a fireplace, the whooshing of a windy waterfall, the background bustle and hum of city life. In addition, it offers an Adaptive Sound feature that enables you to change the intensity of the sound. For instance, the train setting--at the lowest adaptive level, it's the sound of a train quietly going down the tracks. Enable the highest adaptive level, and you'll also get the occasional squeal of the train wheels on the track, the sound of a road train-crossing bell dinging, and some low-level engine noise. On the ocean setting, you can go from quiet wave sounds, all the way to hearing loud crashing waves mixed in with quiet waves, along with seagulls, seals, and ship foghorns blowing. The most amazing part of the device is how they've managed to prevent your brain from detecting a sequence in the sounds. Every time you turn on the sound machine, it never plays sounds the same way twice. The variation is completely random. Overall, I have had some of the best nights of sleep over the past few days, aside from having to get up super-early for work. My favorite settings so far are the ocean, the train, and the meadow. The meadow sounds almost like you're camping in the woods, complete with frog singing, whooshing of wind through pine tree needles, and owl sounds. Five BIG STARS! Highly recommended! smile emoticon

I have purchased many products with problems over the years. For the most part calling customer service when dealing with these problems is usually a frustrating and difficult experience. It begins with a series of listening to prompts to press various numbers, followed by a long hold period, followed by either a) a person in another country reading from a script that often takes you through motions such as unplugging and plugging in the machine. When you deviate from pre-scripted phrases or questions you often wind up being answered in a pleasant but often illogical and unhelpful manner. The second scenario is basically the same as the first, however the live human being never actually speaks to you and after 15 minutes of being on hold either forget about it and discard the item and/or stick it in the pile of things that might start magically working again on their own someday. If you are the type to write reviews you might logically post a negative one at that time and swear to not buying another item from the company again. I really loved this product - I have tried about 6 over the years from cheap to expensive and never felt completely comfortable with one. Either they were too quiet - that circular one with the slats, or too monotonous and harsh sounding - a quite expensive Brookstone model. The looping of sounds was very obvious and became annoying after awhile - felt kind of like listening to a skipping record for those who remember those days. Anyway - got a great deal on this over a year ago in one of those Amazon deals. The machine was just what I wanted - a lulling, soothing soft noise (I use "white noise") that although gentle was loud enough to drown out sounds around me like dog barking downstairs, husband snoring, doors closing, etc. It didn't necessarily obliterate the sounds with a loudness of its own, it muffled the noises enough that they either didn't wake me up or bother me enough to poke my husband or pull a pillow over my head to try to sleep. Unfortunately it broke a couple of months after having the warranty expire. Just stopped working for no apparent reason. I was unhappy that my little black box would not be helping me through my nights anymore and that because it was out of warranty I probably had no recourse. Unfortunately, I'm pretty used to products lasting or needing repairs just a little past the warranty period. Started reading some reviews on Amazon to see if I had a shot with customer service and saw that although a number of people had issues with the machine, customer service seemed pretty responsive. I called to give it a try, not expecting much. When no one answered I hung up without leaving a message and planned to call later. A man named Ira called a few hours later and asked if I had called earlier and if there was anything he could do to help me if so. Again, this is without even leaving a message - new one for me. I told him my machine wasn't working and he asked for the serial number. He told me a certain batch seemed to be having problems with an easily replaced card and when replaced should be sure to work. In the interest of being fair and honest I told him my product warranty had expired in May and he nicely told me he hadn't asked about the warranty and it wasn't a problem at all. It is being sent out first class mail from California and should arrive in a few days. Ok - so why five stars for a product that malfunctioned? Because of the customer service. If manufacturers and companies would only see that a consumer will generally have loyalty to a product if they are treated fairly and with respect when an item does not work, instead of just hoping a new tide of consumers will respond to the newest ads, I believe the American economy would be a lot better off. I understand that some customers can be a huge pain and will take advantage of generous return policies with fraudulent acts, but I also believe the vast majority of people just want a fair deal on a good product, and respectful and effective treatment if things go wrong. The fact that this company proactively called me about a POTENTIAL problem, took full responsibility for the issue, and was completely friendly and polite, led me to write this lengthy review in support of the product and makes up for any difficulty I experienced - and again could be the winner of my "Most Positive Customer Service Award" ..... Ever.

I am extremely surprised by how popular this device is. The number of glowing reviews praising its rich sounds, smart features, and overall quality make no sense to me, because I experienced essentially the exact opposite. This noise machine puts out very low quality sound, and I can't imagine anyone actually choosing to use it. To start with... Device design/ergonomics When I received the item, I immediately realized how light it was. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when audio is concerned, in general the heavier the device the better the sound. Amplifiers, speaker magnets, and insulation materials are rather weighty, so a lightweight product probably doesn't have a lot of those. The buttons and the dial on the front are of very low quality. When you press the buttons, the entire front face caves a bit, and the buttons don't pop back out evenly. There is a lot of play when pressing the individual buttons, and it makes it sort of difficult to have a tactile idea of when the button has actually been pressed. This is a problem for a device that you'll be using in the dark when you're sleepy. Turning the knob to change the 'Sound Story', you can feel a large amount of play between the shaft and the receptacle, and there isn't much delineation between the choices. I would have preferred a snap-to feel on the knob so that it's obvious that you've made the choice, but instead you really just get a light pressure to tell you to stop turning. These complaints may seem nitpicky (and they are), but the reason I'm bringing this up is because this device costs $100. For that kind of money I expect high quality. I would have been OK with the above sacrifices if they were made to get better sound quality, but... Sound Quality The sound quality of this device is downright awful. I cannot put into words how let-down I was when I first fired it up. The sounds themselves are well recorded and of high quality, but the hardware on the device is just not up to the task of playing them. The manufacturers of the device like to point out that the device has a tweeter (speaker designed to play high notes), and a subwoofer (a speaker designed for low notes) to help replicate real-life sounds. However, one look at the dimensions of this product should have told me that the 'subwoofer' is far too small to be of any use. There is positively no bass sound coming out of this device, which is a problem for three reasons. The first reason is that bass sounds are what add richness to what you're hearing. When you remove the bass, you remove the depth and immersiveness (probably not a real word) of the sound. You're left with a sound that doesn't sound authentic, and is missing key areas that convince your mind that you actually are next to a babbling brook or a real thunderstorm. The second reason is that most of the sounds you'll want to block out have bass components to them. If someone is walking around above your apartment, you're only going to hear the low, bass-y sounds of the footsteps. Since this device has no ability to make low noises of its own, the bass noises from outside sources will flow right into your ear without any impediment. Idling cars, loud music, footsteps, people dropping things, people bumping into walls, etc, are completely unhindered by this device. Finally, the worst offender is that fact that the recorded sounds themselves are almost all bass-heavy! Playing the babbling brook 'Sound Story', you hear a lot of rushing water along with the 'plunks' of the current. Unfortunately, those 'plunks' are almost entirely bass, and they are WAY outside the range of what this device can handle. The 'subwoofer' in this device bottomed out every time that those sounds played (and they played maybe 1-2 times a second). I could almost hear the poor speaker wheezing 'Why... are... you... doing... this... to... me...' as it tried (and failed) to reproduce the sounds on the 'Sound Story'. The result was a pitiful and extremely annoying clunk that occurred nearly constantly, which completely overshadowed the rest of the story. The tweeter itself is also a problem, but for the opposite reason. The tweeter is hyperactive and incredibly shrill, so the sounds of the water on the Babbling Brook or the drops of rain on the Thunderstorm are extremely intrusive, and truly sound terrible. Furthermore, high-pitched sounds are very easily deflected and very directional, so if you move our head at all, the entire profile of the sound changes dramatically. I was listening to the Thunderstorm while lying on my back, and I was acutely aware of the fact that my right ear was getting much more sound than my left ear. After a few minutes I managed to acclimate myself to this, and it went from 'annoying' to 'nearly ignorable'. However, I rolled over on my side, and the sound profile instantly changed! Now my right ear was getting the full force of the sound and my left ear was almost completely blocked by the pillow. This dramatic change in sound profile shocked me awake, and it took a few minutes before I had acclimated to the new sound profile and was able to try to sleep again. If I moved or turned AT ALL, this process had to be repeated. Had the device had a strong bass component, and had the tweeter been turned down 20-30 notches, this would not be a problem. The sad thing is... The Sound Stories The 'Sound Stories' are actually all very high quality... when they work. You can attach headphones to the device if you want, and when I ran the sound through a decent amp and into some decent headphones, the 'Sound Stories' came alive. The deep bass is there, the highs are nicely muted and vibrant without being distracting, and the mids are immersive and clear. The sound quality is just not reproduceable by the low-quality components used in the product. Also, I must add that my unit had 2 definitely defective 'Sound Stories' and a few more that were likely on their way out. The Waterfall story was completely unusable. There was a loud hum present throughout the entire story, and it oscillated in a way that completely drowned out the actual waterfall. The 'Brown Noise' sound also kept getting infected with the cricket noises from the Meadow story, which was mildly amusing as well as distracting and unusable. I also had a few stories that sounded like they were going to have issues sooner or later. The Train seemed to buzz and hiss at random intervals, and the ocean had large periods of silence (sometimes 2-3 seconds) in the middle of playing. Finally, the sound stories themselves don't seem to be particularly well suited to a sleep machine. Many of them have large gaps in their frequencies that make it very easy for intrusive sounds to come in. As above, not having bass means that eternal bass sounds can come in. However, many of the sounds are missing large chunks of the mid-range frequencies that make them almost completely unsuited for blocking out any real noise. The Train story has almost nothing in the frequency range of human voices, so even relatively quiet talking cuts right through the story. The Meadow has nearly nothing between the asthmatic bass and the sharply shrill cricket chirps, and I honestly do not see how that would ever help anyone get to sleep unless the room was already silent. The Richness setting allows you to add additional sounds to each story, but instead of filling out the frequency range, it just adds random sound effects to the story. For instance, the Ocean story has a foghorn and seals. Maybe this helps some people, but to me it just made the sound story busier and more difficult to get lost in, which again completely goes against the purpose of this machine. The last thing about this machine is... The adaptive volume This was just comically bad. It's advertised as a way to have the device automatically increase its volume in response to external sounds, and it does technically do that. But the effect is that the device sloooooooooooooooooooooooowly fades-in the volume, meaning that the intrusive sound is going to do its damage and be done long before the device has had time to react. I had a loud diesel truck drive by my window, and the device didn't even start increasing the volume until the truck had passed and jolted me awake. Then, the instant it got to full volume, it realized the truck was gone and then slooooooooooooooowly brought itself down to regular volume again. It's like those videos you see where a parent pitches a ball to their small child to hit, and the ball whizzes past the kid a full 3 seconds before they swing. To be fair, I'm well aware of how hard it would be to make a device that can detect a sound, calculate it's volume, and increase it's own volume all before the original sound had time to reach the listener. However, just because something is difficult, doesn't mean we have to accept it when it's done poorly. Final Words The device was one of the most disappointing things I've ever purchased. The quality, quality control, design, output, capabilities, and overall ergonomics were nearly universally bad. I guess maybe sleep machines just aren't made for people like me, but it is truly surprising to me how positive the overall opinion of this product is. I would have expected the average person to be turned off by a device like this. At best, I would assume the overall impression would be grudgingly accepting. Instead, it seems like everyone genuinely loves this product. Granted, mine did have defects, but the defects themselves were only a small part of the problems that I saw. Most of my complaints are endemic to the device design, which is going to be the same for everyone. My advice would be to try to listen to this device in real life before you buy it. I'd wager than within 15 seconds you'll know without a doubt if you'll like it or not.

I wasted years thinking that I didn’t need to resort to a white noise generator, and that I could just deal with changing my sleep schedule to accommodate neighbour-noise, but I’m glad that I finally bought this one nine months ago. It doesn’t always completely cover unwanted noise, but even when it doesn’t block it entirely, it does take my attention away from those noises that used to keep me from sleeping (loud talking / dogs barking). It creates a blanket of normalized sound, the volume of it rising or falling naturally - it’s never jarring. Considering my comment about how it covers noise, I should mention that I’ve never used the sound machine at maximum volume. It would be too loud for me to sleep through at maximum because I keep the machine right beside my bed, just slightly lower than the level my head rests at. Since the sound comes from the top of the machine, instead of the sides, maximum volume would be too much for me. When I need the brook setting to ease me into sleep, it sounds just like I’m resting beside a real brook, and when it’s about to time out, it reduces its volume gradually until the sound fades away completely and the machine shuts itself off. When I need to use the machine again, it starts out with the same settings I choose for it on last use. The machine seems to have been designed to be stress free, and I really appreciate that. Paradoxically, I’ve also found it useful in helping me to concentrate. When I’m reading, and want to shut out any possible distractions, I use the train setting. It works.

Ich hatte das Gerät bereits schon einmal bestellt, musste es nach einigen Wochen leider zurückgeben, da es defekt war. Die Rückabwicklung lief problemlos, schnell, unbürokratisch, sehr guter Service. Nachdem das Gerät nun wieder verfügbar ist, habe ich es noch einmal bestellt. Die Geräusche sind natürlich, vielfältig und laufen in Endlosschleife, keine Cuts, keine abgehackte Unterbrechung. Ich habe im Haus noch drei weitere Geräte im Einsatz, aber zu meinen Bedürfnissen passt dieses Gerät am besten. Aufgrund einer Hörsensibilität bin ich sehr geräuschempfindlich. Störende Geräusche kann ich mit Hilfe der Sound Maschine ausblenden.

Tenía muchas ganas de escribir una reseña a la Sound+Sleep, porque creo que no se entiende del todo bien la finalidad de este aparato. Hace ya cerca de un año que la tengo y ya no quiero que me falte nunca. La uso tanto para dormir como para concentrarme al trabajar o en actividades creativas y creo vale cada euro que cuesta. Me costó acostúmbrame, porque venía de usar sonidos digitales de todo tipo y durante mucho tiempo para dormir (que nunca me habían funcionado, por cierto), pero es de las mejores compras que he hecho nunca. No sólo para conciliar el sueño, sino para cuidar mi disautonomía y mi sistema nervioso en general. Elegí este modelo, aunque hay uno superior con más ruidos (rosa, gris, etc.) por la función sonido de fogata que para mi era importante y porque tiene más sonidos "naturales" que la otra, aunque tenía dudas, y fue un acierto. Si la vas a utilizar para tapar sonidos ambiente desagradables (obras, vecinos ruidos, etc.), entiende que no se trata de que los tape por mayor volumen o por cancelación de ruido, como hacen unos auriculares. Funciona "engañando" al cerebro para focalizarse en el sonido que emite de manera no consciente. Te puede resultar raro, porque no son los sonidos digitales nítidos a los que estamos acostumbrados: Y justo de eso se trata. De no escucharlos conscientemente y para eso, necesitas sonidos analógicos preparados justo para relajar la mente. El cerebro es muy plástico y logrará acostumbrase, pero tiene una curva de aprendizaje, que será más larga cuanto más bombardeado tengas tu día a día con estímulos digitales. Por eso, me parece perfecto para niños, problemas nerviosos, insomnio y ansiedad. Los primeros días te concentrarás mucho en el sonido que sale de la máquina, pero la idea no es esa: Es que el cerebro se acostumbre a tenerlos de fondo, tu sistema nervioso abandone el modo lucha/huida y te relajes de manera no consciente. Si la quieres para conciliar el sueño (mi caso), el sistema es el mismo. Esto no es tu app 4k digital. Se trata precisamente de que es analógico, imperfecto y relajante para el sistema nervioso, no para los oídos. Con los sonidos digitales aunque no te des cuenta, estás pendiente todo el reto de qué aparecerá en la pista sonora, qué nuevo cambio habrá, como evolucionarán, que es justo lo contrario de lo que se pretende con esta máquina. No es un dispositivo para meditar o tener "sonidos relajantes" de fondo, tal y como los entendemos ahora, nada más encenderla. Es para provocar un cambio en el sistema nervioso y endocrino. Reeducarlo, para entendernos. Y luego sí, ya relajan como ningunos. Dale una oportunidad y apura toda la ventana de devolución, antes de darte por vencido. Un día tu cerebro dejará de estar pendiente conscientemente sin darte cuenta y entones es cuando hará su función y te ayudará. -Tiene una función para quitar la luz completamente de todo el dispositivo y no tener luces nocturnas que perturben el sueño. - Puedes también activar la función micrófono para que detecte el sonido ambiental y suba o baje el volumen automáticamente para camuflar mejor sonidos ambientales desagradables, aunque yo no la uso mucho. - Por último, puedes elegir que cada pista de sonido tenga más o menos "riqueza" de sonidos. Nuevamente, no se trata de que sean sonidos perfectos y fidedignos. Sólo añade algún ruidito diferente de vez en cuando, para las personas que aún no están acostumbradas a los sonidos monótonos analógicos y los necesitan hasta acostumbrase. Lo dicho, esto tiene curva de aprendizaje y hay que dar un tiempo para que nuestro cerebro hiperestimulado se acostumbre pero, una vez que lo hace, no hay vuelta atrás. Además, te permite no tener pantallas ni teléfonos en el dormitorio, que fue la razón que me hizo volver a las viejas máquinas de sueño.

Abbiamo acquistato questo oggetto come ultima spiaggia, dopo mesi di discussioni con i vicini (studenti) che non avevano il minimo rispetto degli orari e del rumore prodotto. Sinceramente è abbastanza spiazzante le prime volte, in quanto è difficile credere che un rumore del genere riesca a favorire il sonno. Invece è miracoloso!! Il trucco è partire con il volume basso ed alzarlo giorno dopo giorno, alla fine vi abituerete a tenerlo abbastanza alto e non sentirete più i classici rumori da vicinato (gente che parla sotto casa, vicini, ecc). L'unica pecca è che il timer per lo spegnimento arriva solo a 2 ore (e per questo non ho dato 5 stelle), quindi se uno va a letto abbastanza presto c'è il rischio che si spenga prima che cali il silenzio, però basta riaccenderlo (non mi fido molto a tenerlo sempre acceso, ho paura di non sentire la sveglia). EDIT 19/01/2021 - Ormai sono quasi 4 anni che lo utilizziamo tutte le notti! Nel frattempo abbiamo avuto 2 bambini (uno nel 2018 e uno nel 2019) e, nel periodo che stavano in camera con noi, era ancora più comodo! Il sonno dei neonati è delicato e grazie a questo rumore di sottofondo potevamo tranquillamente fare due parole, tossire, girarsi, russare (:D) senza svegliare i piccolini. Quando li abbiamo spostati in cameretta abbiamo comprato per loro un'altra macchina del sonno di marca diversa, ricaricabile e a prezzo più basso, ma il rumore è più fastidioso. Per i miei figli va bene lo stesso, una volta accesa capiscono che si avvicina l'ora del sonno e già si calmano un po' (e la mattina cominciano a svegliarsi quando la spengo). La nostra macchina continuiamo ancora ad accenderla tutte le notti fino a mattina con volume più basso. Francamente avrei fatto a meno di tutti gli altri rumori disponibili, non li ho mai usati, in ogni modo al rumore bianco "classico" ci siamo così abituati che a volte mi sveglio la notte pensando di non averla accesa perché non la sento ed invece è sempre lì presente! Il cervello ci si "abitua" e non la sente più (il motivo per cui invece non ho problemi a sentire la sveglia). In definitiva sono ancora contentissima dell'acquisto, sia per coprire i rumori del vicinato, sia per coprire i nostri con un neonato in camera.

I’m very happy with my purchase. The sound quality is clear, crisp and very natural. I love that the volume gently increases and decreases with ambient noise changes. The buttons work well and are easy to use - I can easily feel the power button in the dark. For a fairly small machine, it actually does a better job at blocking out noise than I anticipated. Highly recommended.