Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot Quite What I Expected After Reading Reviews
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2020
I read a ton of very enthusiastic reviews for this white noise machine. I still was not quite convinced to buy it given the high price. Finally, I saw it go on sale, and as I was just about to order yet another bottle of foam earplugs anyway, I decided to give this machine a chance instead. I am tired of the earplugs. They do not help much, and they tend to pop out once you put them in and they expand. Then, you start jamming them in as hard as you can to keep them in your ears, and you end up hurting your ears. If this machine would work without that aggravation, it would be worth it.
The unit arrived this afternoon. I immediately plugged it in and listened to all of the fan sounds and the white noise sounds. I used the volume key to see out loud it would go. Listen kids, "loud" is a very relative word. I do not find this to be especially loud except at some of the more high pitched white noise sounds. They are so obnoxious that I cannot imagine using them. They would keep me awake instead of helping me to sleep.
I will not have a chance to test this unit until tonight once I retire for the evening, but I have a terrible feeling this is NOT going to work for my purposes/ I bought this to drown out my neighbour's three little yapping dogs as well as my own dog who does not bark but "huffs" very loudly if he is bored during the night. He sleeps in the other room, but our home is quite small---roughly 740 sq ft, so he is not that far away from my bedroom at all even though he is in the other room. With my earplugs in it sounds almost as if he is in the same room with me. I do not think this machine is going to change that.
People say this unit is loud, and whilst I can agree it is "loud" compared to a lot of other things, it is not as loud as one would have thought. I already feel disappointed. I will edit this review after I have given it an overnight test. I truly hope I am wrong because I need to get better sleep, and so far, earplugs have not worked, and I am at my wit's end.
This machine looks reasonably well made. It is compact which is good because there is never enough table or shelf space around here. Now, whether or not it works is another issue altogether. Loud, you say? Compared to what?? The speaker on my MacBook Air is not very loud, but compared to the speaker in this machine, the speaker in my laptop is loud. Really, reviewers should say "loud compared to ________."
I will edit this review as soon as I am able to give this unit an overnight trial. I am trying to be hopeful.
ETA: Okay, I have used this unit for a few nights. It does help to drown out smaller, fairly far away street noises. It does NOT drown out my dog's huffs, grunts, and whines in the other room. It helps a tiny bit with the noise he makes, but it is not loud enough to drown him out. Also, I noticed something weird. If he huffs whilst this unit is running, now I not only hear him, but I also feel a vibration that runs through the floor. I do not not why this happens. Perhaps I dream it? It is really difficult to say.
I am not sure whether or not I will keep this unit. I have been using foam earplugs for a very long time now, and they hurt my ears. Even though I have not used them in a few nights now, my ears are still sore. I really do not want to go back to the foam earplugs. I love my dog, and I feel an huge obligation to him because he is bonded to me and loves his home, and I know I would miss him terribly if he were not here, but adopting him out has occurred to me. If I lived in a much larger home, and if he slept in a room much farther away, this unit would probably drown out his noises. I do not know what else I can do. I do not want to go back to foam earplugs for sure. :(
