So the holidays are over, and it is time to get out some quick reviews on some of the presents I received. The Sharper Image Sound Soother with 20 soothing sounds is first up to bat. Normally I like to sleep with some background noise, a humming A/C in the summer, a HEPA filtering device in the winter when it is too cold for the A/C. I just like background noise that is consistent, so that means television does not do it for me, plus who likes to leave on the television when you go to sleep, you may wake up to something horrible, or it may make you have crazy dreams. Well, my sister wanted me to get her a new cartridge for her The Authentic Sound Oasis Machine, so it got me to thinking: is there another sound machine out there that I might like for the holidays? The Sharper Image Sound Soother was the one that I received, so that is what I will be reviewing.
The first good thing is the price. It retails for $49.99, but you can usually find it on sale or even at your local Kohl’s discount store. You also get all 20 sounds to start with, so the good is that you get a lot of sounds, the bad is that you can not upgrade like the Oasis. That is all right by me, though, because, really, at the end of the day, I am only going to be using a few of the sounds. The snooze timer is a great addition so that you can set the sounds to 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, and it also has two alarms so you can use it like an alarm clock. The volume level works out nicely; I was actually able to use it on volume level 1 and be satisfied with it on my nightstand, but not to worry–you can go all the way up to 8. It also self-dims so that you do not have a blaring light going on while trying to relax with your nature sounds. Another good point is that you can either use it by plugging it in with the adapter or go with 3 AA batteries. I have opted for the battery option so that I can move it around or take it with me while I am writing reviews in another room.
Really, there are only a few bad things. You cannot upgrade the sounds to new ones…we already spoke about that, though. The second one is a bit of a subjective type complaint: sometimes with the sounds I feel like the loop is not long enough, like it repeats itself too quickly. I think for me I would rather a machine that has a true 60-minute sound recording of a rainforest with all the quirks rather than a repeating smaller “loop.”
Despite the drawbacks, it has sure helped me deal with my wife’s snoring in a much better manner than having to wake her up each time I cannot sleep due to that noise. My favorite sounds in order – northwoods, rainforest, fireside, oceanside, summer night, surf’s up, thunderstorm. The only problem with thunderstorm is the short loop. Who would want to hear a steam train, though? For the price and the sound quality, though, this is a darned good device and should not be passed up.
