Marpac 980A Sound Screen Sleep Conditioner White Noise Generator Dual Speed

This is the second sound conditioner that I have owned. It cost more than the first one, however, it is worth every extra cent. It has a much richer and more soothing sound than sound machines that use a digital recording. I live in an apartment that is in a noisy business district with a 16 yr. old that stays up all night, yet, I sleep like a childless person who lives in the country. I love this white noise machine!

I think there is a contest in my neighborhood, that I'm unaware of. I suspect it's designed to find out which homes can produce the most noise. My neighbors are definitely in on it. They're probably in the top five! I surmise that when their dog isn't barking continuously on its own, they're standing in the yard yelling 'speak' and throwing meaty tidbits her way.

In addition, one child is always toting a boom-box, blaring rap, while the other is bouncing a basketball off the side of their house, sometimes for eight hours straight, often running onto my porch to impress me with his dribbling skills. I think the neighbor behind me is in the top five, too. He's taken up drums, and on the weekend he moves his stereo, complete with auditorium sized speakers and sub-woofer, onto his patio for my enjoyment. Ah, yes---this is the good life!

Okay, okay...maybe it is just me, and this is the normal hum of 'daylight living,' from which I've become so removed. I do a lot of 12 hour night shift work, and I can't expect the world to come to a screeching halt because I'd like a little sleep. But, something had to give!

Something did! My new Marpac 980 recently arrived and I couldn't be more satisfied. It is small (and portable), but solidly built, with cushioning on the bottom to prevent vibration, or furniture scaring. The instructions are clear regarding how to adjust the volume quality, with the top rim and collar. It also has a low and high setting switch. I set mine on the highest level...remember, my neighbors are in the top five.

For such a small machine, the sound really fills the room and there aren't any quirky artifacts, or rattles. The sound is consistent and pure. I quickly adjusted to this new, distraction from the madness, and found it quite comforting.

On the very first trial, a water main had broken close to my home. There were Public Service workers with their, noisy Bobcat, digging to China for hours. I could barely hear them. Ah, the sound of success.

If your neighborhood enters the contest, you might just want to consider one of these machines, too. Sleep deprivation is bad for both mental and physical health. Just ask me :-).

Update 11/19/10: My first Marpac unit is still going strong, and I have since ordered a second one. I think I'm addicted! I don't only use them to sleep with, now. I use one anytime I feel like blocking out the outside world---like when reading, studying, or searching for a Zen moment. These units still receive my highest recommendation. I will never be without them, until they are extracted from my cold, lifeless hands.

Do you have a family member who is a light sleeper? If so, this sound machine will be a godsend for you. We purchsed it because my two year-old kept waking every time my husband or I would get up in the night to use the bathroom or get a drink of water.

Ever since we plugged this machine in, he sleeps through all of our noise. This is great for people who have smaller homes with hardwood floors, where the sound of footsteps can be disturbing to sleepers.

My wife purchased one of these white noise generators for a vacation we were going on over a year ago. It is small and very lightweight with an eight foot long cord, which is nice and long. Its small size means that it fits easily into any luggage and takes up very little room on a night stand. The noise it makes is pleasantly "white," which means that it doesn't disturb you while reading in bed and yet it provides enough cover for the little noises that can sound so loud at night. The volume produced can be modulated by turning the top, making it louder or softer.

Overall, we are very pleased with our purchase of this item. We have experienced nothing but trouble free service from it, and we have even purchased a second one for the baby's room. We love this item and give it our highest recommendations!

I experimented with placement of this unit. Too close to the bed and there was a vibration from the fan that I could hear. On the nightstand, the unit vibrated and resonated through the wood. I found that my unit sounds best when it is placed (a) on a pillow across the room from my bed, about 8 feet from the end of the bed or (b) on a wire shelf about 6 feet off the floor and about 5 feet from the bed. In either of these locations, the sound fills my sleeping space with a pleasant white noise that I tune out. I rarely hear my husband's snoring now, and I never hear anything from outside.

Marpac 980 Sound Screen & SleepMate Sound Conditioner

Perfect for Apartment living! It really helps eliminate noises that, otherwise, might keep you from trying to get to sleep.
A very grateful customer!

I have one of these in every bedroom of my home. My guest love spending the night and sleeping well from the relaxation the Sleepmate provides. I also use the Sleepmate 980A in my granddaughter's room while she naps during the day. She...well...sleeps like a baby...smiling. It filters out all the noise outside her bedroom window. Well worth the purchase!!!

Excellent white noise produced - our baby and preschooler both sleep much better now that they have these in their rooms. The look of the product is not intrusive either, and the settings are sensible and easy to use.

My only complaint is that our first machine developed a rattle on the high volume setting, a few months after purchase. The company replaced it free of charge but we did have to pay to ship it back and it has taken them a few weeks to send a replacement, which is not ideal.

My wife works night shift as a nurse and sleeps during the day. We have neighbors who's dogs bark ALL DAY LONG. Cars rev their engines, emergency vehicle sirens, the UPS man knocking on the door...it doesn't matter; she sleeps through all of that now. Sometimes she asks me to come turn it off about a half hour before she's supposed to wake up just so she can get out of bed.

I'm a light sleeper myself, and any little noise will keep me up. This machine has to be in the top 3 purchases I've ever made. Sad right? Who cares, I'm sleeping well...those freakin' dogs can bark all day if they want!

I guess I'll say a few things about the features of this unit. The air ports are adjustable so that you can change the tone of the sound. Between the two fan speeds and the adjustable ports, you can get a wide range of sound depending on your preferences and how much noise you need to block out.

The cord is also very long, which is always a nice feature. The unit is made very well and seems to be of very good quality. We don't use it nightly, but probably 3-4 times per week. We've been using it for over a year now and everything is still working just fine. This machine always travels with us so we can have good sleep no matter where we are.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Marpac Sound Screen...I know we aren't :)

I purchased this unit for my 3 year old son who is a LIGHT sleeper. I opted for the 980 since I wanted it to be effective. Despite having two speeds, it is too loud, even on the lower setting -- he knows it is on and requests it to be turned off!

My son's room is 12 x 14', so I suggest buying a smaller unit for a small room. I do feel it would be effective is sized correctly.

Works well for higher frequencies since it gives the sound of rushing air but I already had a fan for that. It's completely ineffective against what was and is keeping me awake, bass frequencies like helicopters flying over, large trucks from nearby construction, footsteps on the ceiling, etc. If there's a product that produces a constantly, low bass tone I'd love to buy it.

We went form having an air purifier that quite frankly was more of a dust producer, but the white noise was excellent, to the Marpac 980A. It is nice and compact and produces a great white noise however I do not find it loud enough. We have a dog that is very sensitive to outside noise ie: strong wind, thunder, plows in the winter etc...and it does not block that out the way our old "dust machine" did, but the room is actually now healthier apparently and my suggestion would be to get 2 of them to double the noise blocking.

My wife and I love this product, but I did need to adjust it for our smallish bedroom. Even with all of the tone adjustments and the two fan speed settings, it was a little too loud and deep-toned for our needs. For those who find it too loud and who have some basic DYI skills, the product can be made quieter by lessening the pitch of the fan blades. No doubt, this will void your warranty.

First, UNPLUG the device. Second, remove the screws from the bottom that attach the base to the cover. Third, gently pull back the top and tilt it back so that the fan blades are exposed. It is not necessary to remove any wires, but the cover will only partially pull back from the base. Fourth, use a non-serrated tool such as a medium-sized crescent wrench to bend the bottom of the fan blades upward until they are much flatter. Do this to all of the fan blades, making their pitch as uniform as possible to avoid fan vibration. I made the blades about 1/3rd the pitch of their original shape, and the result is a quieter and higher-toned sound.

Here's the thing. I don't write many reviews... I pretty much only review things that I am really in love with, really impressed with, or have something important to say. This sound machine falls under all those categories. (Which is too bad for you because that means I am going to leave a really long review)

I am completely in love with my Marpac dual speed 980a. When I was growing up I don't remember having problems sleeping. Even in college, with people yelling outside and living on busy streets, I remember being just fine. But for some reason after I moved to an apartment with noisy pipes and poor sound proofing in the walls, ever since then I've become a lighter sleeper. (Most likely, I just realized I was a light sleeper after the annoying pipes brought it to my attention.)

Inconsistent noise wakes me up. In the apartments I've lived, I hear my neighbors through the walls, or people opening and closing doors outside, or during the summer months I hear parties in neighboring buildings. I live in a metro area where apartments aren't very well sound proofed and buildings are right on top of each other. Or, at a family member's house where I sleep downstairs, I can always hear everyone else tromping around upstairs.

Once I'm awake, I can find it difficult to fall back asleep. It became particularly torturous at a studio I lived, where my bed was in a little nook right outside my kitchen. The refrigerator was apparently on its dying breath because it would suddenly kick in with this horrific droning and rattling sound, stay on for an unpredictable amount of time, and fall silent again with a groan. It was just inconsistent enough that it kept waking me up.

I tried different ear plugs. They worked alright and I slept alright but I could still hear some sounds through them. In the context of otherwise silence, those sounds became even more aggravating than they would have been without the ear plugs at all. Not to mention ear plugs bugged me or hurt my ears after a time.

I tried an Air Conditioning unit and found that to work fairly well since it was right by my head. I still woke up sometimes but that was okay. The problem was, I couldn't use that during the winter and as the A/C unit got older it started sounding more and more labored. So I got a handheld recorder and recorded the sound of the A/C unit when it was working well. That worked decently during the winter but the problem was it only recorded for 5 hours and 45 minutes at a time and the recording always ended with a click, so that woke me up.

I finally decided to cave and try a sound conditioner, even though I was very leery of them and frankly expected it to be a waste of money. I did a lot of research and ultimately determined that most people seemed to feel that the Marpac Dual Speed 980a was the bee's knees so I decided to make what, to me, is a ridiculously huge purchase for a stupid machine that makes white noise.

Except it's not a stupid machine, it's awesome. And although it's expensive, it's more than worth it.

Ever since I got my Marpac, I sleep so well. I still wake up sometimes if something really loud and abrupt occurs. But, and here's the most important part-- the white noise generated by this machine is so consistent that it lulls me back to sleep.

The best way I can describe it is going to sound really odd, but it's like it untangles my brain. Once I fall asleep using this machine, even if I wake up in the middle of the night I don't have those thoughts racing through my mind that makes it hard to fall back asleep. Even on the nights when my body is more resistant, I just focus on the white noise and it pulls me back down. I always wake up feeling refreshed or fully rested if I actually give myself a decent amount of time to sleep before I set my alarm and there aren't any mitigating factors like an ungodly amount of caffeine in my system. On days off, if I wake up I just let the sound pull me back under and I can sleep for several more hours.

Since I bought this, whenever possible I now bring it with me when I travel. It's the most important thing in my bag aside from chapstick and eye care :) I've used it at my family's home (far superior to using those ear plugs), at another relative's house (it blends in well with the hum of computers running there), and would pretty much use it anywhere. (I sound like a Dr. Seuss book.)

My mom has had troubles sleeping on her own and religiously uses ear plugs. She's slept at my place a few times when I've used it and I personally think it's helped her. However, it's hard to say for certain because one night she didn't sleep well at all, but I think that was because she had too much on her mind. My dad has sleep apnea and has to use a CPAP. He is also more or less an insomniac. I personally think this helps him as well. He's slept for 8 or more hours straight when this has been running, which is a really long time for someone who usually sleeps closer to 5 hours before he wakes up and can't fall back asleep. He doesn't sleep that long every time, though. So the thing with this machine is, I think it can do wonders but it can't perform miracles.

Whenever I hear of someone having difficulty sleeping, now the first thing I do is recommend this. I don't trust all white noise machines and can't speak for any others because I've never used them. But this one has worked fantastically for me-- to the point that I would like to eventually own three. One to keep at home, one for travel, and one to lend out to people to try for a week or two to see if it helps them sleep.

For specs on the unit itself--

It's pretty durable. I'm clumsy and I've dropped it once or twice, although it was swaddled in cloth both times. One of the times it had a slight rattle that wasn't usual when I tried to use it afterward. I was worried that I ruined it, but the rattle went away during the night.

It has little foam pieces on the bottom of the unit, so not only will it not scratch whatever you set it on but it also stays where you put it.

There are multiple ways to adjust the volume. When I first bought it, I had most of the holes opened on the sides and top, and kept it on the lower speed setting. The apartment building I lived in at the time was built in the early 1900's. When I say you could hear everything the neighbors said or did in the hallway, I mean it as in it was like they were standing right next to you talking in their outside voice. That was a studio so I didn't have a way of shutting a door to close out the sound. In that apartment, I found the settings I mentioned to work perfectly well. When I moved to a quieter place, I actually found that to be almost too loud and have changed it so that almost all the holes are covered. I've never had to use the higher setting except possibly once, when we had a family reunion at my family member's house and it sounded like a thousand elephants were doing the mambo upstairs.

It recommends that for optimal use you put it across the room. That was how I used my Marpac for a long time and that worked really well. You should try different locations if you want to play around with how loud it sounds. When I moved somewhere quieter, I changed the Marpac's location to by my head and have found it to work equally well. The thing that's nicer about having it by your head is you can reach over and adjust the levels even if you're half asleep. Having it across the room kind of sucks if the levels aren't right, because if you're like me you're going to be severely unenthusiastic about the idea of rolling out of bed just to fix the machine to optimal levels. Not to mention you can't tell what will work until you get back to the bed and flop down again at which point getting up one more time sounds like cruel and unusual punishment.

Overall, I definitely and without hesitation have to recommend this. I had very few hopes for it and was quite skeptical about white noise machines in general. I'm really cheap about a lot of things and was convinced that I could MacGyver something similar for a fraction of the price. I have learned through the folly of my youth that I was wrong, and in some cases it's better to just shell out the extra money for an item made by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

If you're a marriage and family therapist or something a similar field, this is the perfect tool to place in the waiting room to help insure confidentially in your office, especially if there is several practitioners sharing 2 or more offices. Plus it has a pleasant soft wind sound that's not disrupted for those in the waiting area.

I bought this because I can't sleep without some kind of white noise. I have been sleeping with a fan on for years. I thought this would make a nice addition or replacement for that fan. I have to say I wasn't impressed. Yes, it did make a sound that was pleasing to me (which is the reason for two stars), but it just wasn't loud enough. The outside and top of the unit rotate to change the pitch and to an extent the volume. No matter how I rotated these two "options" it didn't seem to make a significant impact on the effectiveness of the device. It just didn't drown out noise enough to justify the $50 dollar price tag. The device has a switch for two speeds, but I can't imagine that I would ever set it at the lower speed considering the higher speed isn't loud enough as is.

As far as looks go, it kind of has that old-time regal hotel look to it. It isn't really ugly, but I wouldn't build a room around it. It is about the size of an ice-cream bowl. The product I got had a beige color deeper than the one in the picture and a white cord. Don't think it would have killed them to match the color of the device with the cord, but that is a minor thing. The bottom has a filter for dust and what not that the instructions said shouldn't be covered. It seems to be glued on (although you COULD remove it). I don't recall if the manual said anything about changing this filter, but a quick search on Google and Amazon didn't bring up any replacements so is it gets really dirty or ripped you have to call the company and inquire about replacements. I DID say it was quick so I could have missed it.

If this was around $20 dollars and you wanted it to meditate, study or something along those lines, I would say this is the perfect product. If you are a light sleeper and are looking for something to generate enough white noise to drown out outside noises (cars, planes, people talking, loud tvs, etc) you will not be happy with this device.

This product is amazing. I am so pleased. I live in a highrise on the 15th floor in Boston. I can deal with the outside noise but my neighbor above? OMG !! He is one of those people who has no common courteousy with apartment living. Worst of all is his television. He plays it at such a loud volume that the noise resonates down through the vent and walls into my apartment. I can often hear it word for word. I have tried cds of rain and waterfalls but as others have stated, these don't work well. I sleep with a fan on me at night and that helps but I can't have it on all the time. My dear neighbor's clock is reversed and noise runs from about 4 pm till 3 am. It was recommended that I get a white noise machine and I didn't really believe it would help but I knew if there was a place to do my research it was with Amazon.

I know the styles that play soothing sounds like rain etc. would not work for me. But this machine does exactly what it says it does. It provides a constant, steady rush of air. It sounds better than my fan and provides a constant background noise that has removed my neighbors nuisances by 95%. I think this item is an amazing deal. The unit is of high quality, has two settings of high and low and further adjustment can be done by rotating the round collar. The directions explain how it works and it says to place the unit away from you so that the sound will fill the room. I have done that in my apartment and the sound resonates very comfortably. It is a sound that it took only a couple of days to get used to. Now I can play my own music, listen to my own tv, be on the computer in silence and sleep with no disturbances. Before, any time at night I had silence I could hear noise resonating from my neighbor.

I am so grateful and pleased at how well this machine works and easily becomes a comfortable part of your life. I love my apartment but my neighbor has had me thinking of moving. Not anymore. Finally my peace and sanity has been returned to me. Highly recommend this product.

Actually thank the makers. _This_thing_is_GREAT_.
I bought this exact model. There seem to be a bunch on the market that are very similar and some of 'em made by the same company. Another one had hundreds more customer reviews and this one so far only about 30 something. Don't know the differences... All I know now is this one here does exactly what I want it to and I am seriously thinking of buying another one for another room for complete sound conditioning of my place. But the other room benefits already. It is "loud" but in a good way. Reminds me of being on a plane sorta. It's the sound of rushed air, a nice warm, loud white noise sound that absorbs the intrusive noises all around. I want to create a sound shield to protect me from the noise of machines and rude, stupid sheeple.

I HATE noise. Most of us now live in a light and noise polluted world and this is very bad for us. I believe it is taking a huge toll on our quality of life and on our very health. And if you have ever lived in an apartment, my god, it is simply out of control. You have a right to peace and quite. Unfortunately (most) apartment complexes and even neighbors in your own neighborhood, if your a house owner, do not respect this. Well this little machine is one way to fight back for the peace you deserve as a human being.

Probably the best gift I've given my wife in over 37 years of marriage. I snore but she doesn't hear it anymore. My rib cage is slowly returning to normal.

I don't understand how people are saying that it isn't loud enough! Mine is so loud that I keep it in my bathroom (in the master bedroom) at medium speed. Sometimes I crack the door and sometimes leave it open, depending on the situation of the noise makers. I also take it to hotels with me and couldn't even detect the party goers next door. I can't get a good night sleep without it !

I bought this for my husband who is an extremely light sleeper. Last night, his first night using it, he was able to sleep without hearing any of the multiple trains that went by blowing their horns throughout the night. We are extremely pleased with this product!! The sound is much better than any others we've listened to, and covers noise better than a fan.

I just received this yesterday. My husband ordered it for me, because his snoring has gotten out of control and I've developed a sleeping problem because of it, and I also have tinnitus which doesn't allow me to concentrate on anything except the vibrations in my ear. I used it last night for the first time. I set it up right beside my head, to try and drown out some of his nightly tunes. It wasn't as loud as I thought it would be. It didn't help me GET to sleep any faster, but once I got to sleep, I didn't wake up and have to kick him in the shins...again. It doesn't drown out the snoring completely...but it does help a little. It did help with my tinnitis....having a background noise completely took away the vibrations in my ear, and i didn't hear a thing. This thing is wonderful for tinnitus, and decent for snoring....I did notice that my daughter's late night TV watching didn't bother me as much either. I think its a good product!

My roommate in the Cayman Islands had one of these and I found it to be helpful in attempting to fall asleep at night. It is much better than listening to silence in the daytime, so I have it on the lower setting in the daytime and the higher setting in the nighttime. While is emits an excellent white noise and aids a tad bit in cancelling noise, it DOES NOT completely cancel out all noise like earplugs. I was not expecting it to do so, and I didn't buy it for that purpose, (it is also not advertised to say it will cancel all noise), but buyers should be forewarned that if they want to completely cancel out all noise, this is not the machine for that.

I will continue to update this review as the days and or months pass by of me using the Marpac SleepMate. But for now I will give my initial thoughts on the device.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this, I must have read over 600 reviews from several different MarPac sleepmate products here on Amazon (there is another with over 1,000 reviews for the 980 model which is essentially the same thing) and I even scoured the net searching for other reviews. Some would say it is too quite, while others would say it is too loud. And I wasn't sure what I truly needed or what review to trust for 'loudness judgment'.

However what I gathered from most of these reviews is that typically people who use fans as a source of constant 'white' noise to sleep or concentrate, all fell in love with this device. I happen to be one of those people who needs to use a fan every night. Even if it's literally freezing outside I will have my fan running, in my window, all night, just so I can enjoy the constant sound conditioning a fan provides. But a fan really isn't the best answer, it uses up quite a bit of energy if you leave it on for hours upon hours (mind you I am using a big box fan I got from Wal-Mart). Plus when it's cold outside, using the fan will make it cold inside! So the fact that fan people, such as myself, like this product, really gave me incentive to try it out.

Before I go into my thoughts on the device, I will provide some background as to why I wanted a noise generator in the first place. Obviously for the reason stated above, this seemed like a better option than a fan. Less energy consumption, no cold air blowing around, and a more consistent smooth sound (since fans can often rattle, vibrate or cause other annoyances). Another reason I wanted to try it out is because I absolutely CANNOT stand random barking dogs in my neighborhood. It seemed like every night (and day) there was a new dog barking from a new direction at varying volumes, times and tones. And each time one of these dogs barked it resonated back and fourth in my head and I couldn't focus on anything but the barking. Mix that with the fact that there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop the dogs barking (aside from fantasizing about walking to the barking dogs house and punching the owner in the face). So I had absolutely no control over the situation and it drove me insane, as I was at the mercy of these barking dogs. Didn't matter if I was trying to sleep or using the computer, the sound of those dogs barking was killing me. I usually turn my fan on at day and night to drown out any unnecessary noise, but this time of year it is simply too cold outside to use it in that manner, so I just had to endure through all the noise abuse.

Anyway, on to the product. So far I am enjoying it. It is plenty loud for me (much louder than my box fan at the Marpac's highest volume) and is very smooth and consistent. Although when I crank it up all the way there is a slightly high-pitch noise it makes, it's very hard to notice but I have very good hearing and can pick out any little sound within a sound. It's not so much a high pitch sound like you would imagine, more of a plastic-sounding screech/whine noise (imagine blowing on the edge of a bottle that has a small opening). It's hard to explain, but if I listen hard enough I can even hear it on the lower level. It is far from overpowering and I only notice it when I really listen to the machine. Plus this sound seems to only be localized in one part of my room for whatever reason. As for masking unwanted sounds, so far it seems to be doing it's job. It doesn't over up the really loud noises of course, but the noise from all the distant barking dogs in my neighborhood have all been eliminated.

Also take note that this device does not blow out air from the holes, is SUCKS in the air through the holes. It really doesn't sound like a fan, it sounds more like a air conditioner (almost identical in fact). Another note about the device is that mine came with a foam padded bottom (not rubber feet). And while I do hear some minor resonating vibrations from my wooden bed-side thing (not sure what to call it) the 'hum' is no problem at all for me and is barely distinguishable/noticeable. My box fan had at least three times the hum of this device.

Anyway, that is all for now, I will update if I have anything else to add as I use it. Tonight will be the first night I sleep with it on, so we'll see how that goes.

Fantastic for blocking out outside sounds:

-small
-easy to use
-pleasant sounding
-masks out car, pet, hallway, music and a multitude of other city sounds
-cats aren't scared of it
-draws very little power
-looks good too

highly recommended for city dwellers

I bought this product for my baby's room to help her sleep better - both from a white noise perspective and to mask sounds that might disturb her. We live in a small space, and so her room is by necessity very close to our living room/kitchen/etc.

After a month of use, I can say that the device works fabulously as a comforting, soothing white noise generator. However, because the device is just not very loud (even on the high setting), it does nothing to mask our normal household noises when she's sleeping. Although I haven't returned the product, I'm disappointed that it doesn't do a better job at masking unwanted sounds. If I had wanted just a white noise maker, I would have bought something significantly cheaper.

This product performs as advertised. I was a bit apprehensive when ordering because I was afraid it wouldn't be loud enough to park in our hallway between four bedrooms. When you first turn it on, it doesn't sound as loud as a small fan. But it is deceptively loud (if that makes any sense). At night you will realize it is doing a fine job and it is just less harsh that a whirring fan.

An added bonus for those with small children, you won't have to worry about your little one sticking his fingers in to touch a blade. This thing looks to be child-safe. No place to stick a finger and have it lopped off.

We have gone through about four fans in four years. Hopefully this will last longer.

I have a friend who travels almost 100% for his job. One day we had a conversation the various box fans and other noise makers that my family uses for white noise while sleeping. I told him that I wasn't looking forward to packing all of this stuff up when we go on our vacations as it takes up half of our available space in the van. He said that he uses these "Sleepmate" noise makers while on the road and said they are great as the sound is good and they fit into his suitcase.

I bought one to try out and let each member of our family try it out to see if they liked it before I bought more or returned it. They all really liked it. There were a couple of settings to control the intensity of the sound (high or low). You can also twist the outside to expose "fine tune" it to get it more in alignment with what you want to hear. Looks like it open the slits on the side a bit more to expose the sound more/less.

Anyway, we all liked them a lot and they take up waaaaay less space than the box fans and stuff that we were using in our rooms. They are also very inconspicuous and can be hidden very easily. You don't have to have this monstrous box fan sitting around in your room. So, I'm now getting ready to purchase 3 more so that all of us have one. The price is a bit steep, I think. But, I'll sacrifice a little bit in order to save space in the rooms and when traveling. I'm tired of looking at box fans, hitting them when they rattle, having them fall over, etc.

No longer will we have to use a fan in the winter time. This little devise drowns out all 'bumps in the night noises' that can wake us up continually through the night. It does what it says it' going to do.

Perfect for everyone, especially light sleepers ! Finally, my husband is sleeping soundly and waking up rested. In small apartments with thin walls, this is a BIG help for sleeping as well as privacy (conversations are muffled). We LOVE the Sleepmate and plan to take it with us wherever we go.

We tried white noise cd's to calm our son but they would stop after the hour time and restart (even on the restart setting). Fans work good but can't use them year round. We also have a humidifer and it is great! But this is AMAZING. It has tons of different settings. Just plug it in and it goes forever! We use his overhead fan, his humidifer and the white noise machine every night. The white noise is nice because we took it on trips and it was a lifesaver!

I spent an hour reading hundreds of reviews for this product before I bought it. A few people claimed it was too quiet, a few said it was too high-pitched, etc. I use a fan set to high for white noise in my bedroom when I sleep, and it's perfect. I was afraid the Sound Screen would be too quiet, but I figured if it was, I'd just use it in the future in our baby room.

I received it in the mail last week and plugged it in, and even with both the cap and the collar rotated to allow as much white noise as possible...it was whisper-quiet. It says to place across the room from you for full effect, but even when I then moved it to my bedside table, I could hear a pin drop over it. I'm very disappointed with the machine...great concept, but they should have designed it so that the user could manipulate the loudness more effectively.

So...this went right back into the box, to be saved for when my husband and I have a baby and need it in the baby room. What a waste of $40.

My old sound machine was starting to fail after using it for years, so I decided to give this a try after reading all the glowing reviews. It certainly does not disappoint. I am a sound sleeper, but it takes me forever to be able to get to sleep. Any small noise or interruption will keep me awake for hours. The low setting on the Marpac is loud enough to drown out any bothersome noises and I have been able to fall asleep with ease every night since I got it. The best part is that the sound is mechanically generated and is not just some canned recording on loop. Those repetitive recordings do nothing more than make me focus on the repetition and do nothing to help me sleep. I don't have that problem with this sound screen.

PROS: Compact and easy to travel with, loud but not overwhelming, no repeating sounds.
CONS: None! I love this thing!

The design and ability to adjust were fine. However, I didn't really aid in helping my mom (senior) sleep. Might work for a child's room or noise canceling but she still prefers to sleep with the TV on. :-(

This product is a lifesaver. I can hear EVERYTHING the people that live above me are doing. After being woken up at 3am, I got on amazon to order this product. I love it. I have not gotten such sound sleep in years. I am buying a second right now for my husband to use at his work site. Highly recommend!

I love these machines. We own three of them. One in each of our kids' rooms. And one in our bedroom. We never spend an overnight away from the house without bringing them with us.

This machine generates white noise through an electro-mechanical motor that is far superior to any digitally-recorded white noise sounds loops. It's old school. And it feels old school, as if it was manufactured by a bunch of ham radio geeks from RadioShack tinkering around with random electrical parts and pieces. I am a fan of the dual-speed model because it gives you a greater range of white noise frequencies and volumes to find the one that will suit you best. My family cannot live without these machines.

The only reason I knocked a star off is because they are pretty fragile. Our son pulled one off the table and it feel to the carpet and landed on it's side. Some lubricating oil seeped out the side and the unit never really functioned properly again. The cost for the Marpac repairing it is not worth the aggravation, so we had to purchase a new one. And these units aren't cheap at $50+. So be gentle with it.

I bought this for my husband as an early Christmas present. He was using a fan at night as white noise and I was getting too cold. He spent a few nights adjusting the sound to his exact preference and now sleeps like a baby through the night. It was worth the money.

This is an awesome compact sound machine. I bought it for my 8 yr. old and everyone in the family wants one. Soothing sound that blocks out sounds. Will order a few more.