Customer Reviews

Homedics Envirascape Sound Spa Alarm Clock Radio

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

I've had more than my share of these things over the last couple of years. Either they're badly designed (I had one that looked like a flying saucer. Another looked like something you'd use to slice vegetables.) or unreliable. (The vegetable slicer went haywire within six months.) This time around, assuming the worst, but still wanting the option of some nature sounds, I chose this unit for the price, and I'm frankly glad I did.

It's far more compact than the flying saucer or the slicer, which is great when space is at a premium. There's a retractable antenna, so you don't have to fool around with those long wires that I find so annoying. The controls are very simple; you can be operating this unit right out of the box without a moment's hesitation. The sound quality is decent; it's not going to be great with any tabletop unit, but it's as good as most of the other, more expensive tabletops. If I have a quibble, it's that the display is hard to see in the dark. Not impossible, just a little small and dim.

If you're looking for an inexpensive AM/FM clock radio with a handful of "natural sounds" you could do far worse. Believe me, I have done. Recommended.

I've had the Sound Spa for a couple weeks and there's good and bad to report. The good: The antenna allows it to pick up stations that my old clock radio could not get reliably. Also, the rotary dials used to select the station and volume are faster and more direct than other radios, where the station dial moves a little selector bar through a separate display window and the volume dial has no feedback mechanism to tell you how loud it is set. I also like that the clock uses batteries so that you don't have to reset it if the power goes out. (I live in California, after all.)

The radio and nature sounds are what you would expect for $20 -- not great but sufficient to drown out the crazy guy next door who makes chicken sounds all day.

The bad: First, I could not figure out how to turn the alarm off until I emailed Homedics. The little booklet doesn't tell you anything about it. If you do nothing, the alarm will go off at midnight! Homedics replied to my email and I now know that you push the AL Mode button until none of the options (Buzzer, Sound, or Radio) are displayed. But be careful...that's classified information that cannot get into the wrong hands (like customers).

Second, the speaker points out THE BACK of the unit, so my neighbor has an easier time hearing All Things Considered than I do (well, when he isn't clucking and cooing ). Third, forget about checking the time in the dark unless you get up close and personal with it. The LCD display is too faint to be any good. Finally, it's cheaply made. The stand broke as I tried to attach it to the unit.

Like most sound machines, the sounds choices are limited and most have a very noticeable cycle. The brook sound actually had a click at the end! However, the ocean and white noise had a good cycle.

Unfortunately, only after a year, it broke. Now, I'm looking for a better one with more sounds.

The Sound Spa Clock/Radio is an all-around great product. It's 6 soothing sounds, Falls, Wind, Brook, Rain, Night, and Ocean, are very relaxing. I didn't really enjoy the Falls, it sounded like static to me, but the other sounds were great!
I use Ocean or Rain to help me fall asleep, and since there's a timer, it doesn't have to be playing all night. Then, in the morning I wake up to the Radio. You can also wake up to a generic alarm buzzer, or a soothing sound.
This product is one I'm really glad I bought, and at it's affordable price, it's definitely worth purchasing.

I suppose this clock is ok for the price, but the repetitiveness of the sounds makes it useless for relaxation while falling asleep. With the lights out and nothing else going on, it takes surprisingly little time to realize that the sounds repeat every six seconds or so. A real babbling brook may be relaxing but the same glub-glub-gurgle-BLOP--glub-glub-gurgle-BLOB--glub-glub-gurgle-BLOP over and over again isn't.

On the other hand, I do like this clock as a part of my waking-up routine. I have this thing start up a half-hour or so before my regular alarm clock. It's a nice, gentler way to wake up.

Another thing -- this clock must be plugged in to use most of the features, but it uses batteries to keep the time. It's nice to have one clock in the house that isn't flashing 12:00 when the power goes out!

This clock radio has the expected features:snooze button, wake to alarm,to music,to sound of choice,timer to fall asleep to music or to sound. The sounds quality is not good; fair to poor. I like rain and ocean best. Radio quality is good on am and fm; I like the telescoping antenna which gives the compact unit a feel like a radio-remote control device. There is a removable piece on the back so unit can stand upright or lie flat. Only the clock will run on battery so the power cord is needed for radio and sound making the total weight impractical for an overnight bag. There is an area for AA batteries, but no mention in the literature as to why. Instructions are for AAA batteries and power cord only.

!! I was given one of these from my best friend several years ago when I moved away from living right smack on the ocean of Hawaii up to the mountain elevation of almost 4000ft and so dearly missed the ocean roar to sleep to at night...Well not anymore, I have it again, and the sounds are very pleasant. I think all six of them are soothing to listen to, fall asleep to or wake up to. I am also very hard to waken at times, and this functions terrifically as an alarm, or a clock radio. The alarm buzzer really works for me along with setting the snooze to assure that the alarm function will repeat, and the radio quality of both AM and FM are surprisingly superb. Again from the rural locale that I use this from, the Tuner part of it must be fairly strong to receive as many stations as it does for me. I have been thoroughly pleased with this unit, including the double battery back up system it uses, even in the event of a blackout, I know that I will be able to tune in a radio station, have a wake up alarm that will assuredly get me out of bed, and fall to sleep gently with the ocean waves roaring off in the distance....(seemingly). It is due to the success of this product by HoMedics that I am here at this review site, as I decided to find this as a gift for someone, and see what other neat items were available. I highly recommend this particular unit if you are looking for a white noise producing or natures sounds producing appliance.

Just received my spa clock today, and must agree the "sounds" could be cleaned up better. The "wind", sounds like what it is - a mike held outside with all the backgound hissing to go with it. The "rain" could be more clear and a little less repetive. The best are the "ocean" or the "brook". The unit comes with a stand to set it upright, but I found the sound is improved if the unit is flat on a soft surface, like a cusion or a pillow; improves the base a bit. The clock is still easy to see.
The radio, however, has great sound quality. It picks up stations my stereo won't get! The clock requires 2 AAA's all the time, and are included to get you started. The unit can be used with the adapter, or with 4 AA's. With it's great travel size,(think paperback) and battery feature, it can go overseas with me as well. Overall, it's 20 bucks well spent.

I like the nature sounds on this product, and it's a nice size to pack when traveling. Setting and activating the alarm, however, is very confusing. The alarm mode (sound, radio, buzzer) always displays on the clock, however, there is no indicator to tell you whether the alarm is set to go off or not. I changed the alarm mode from sound to buzzer for future reference, but didn't think I had set the alarm (it was still at 12:00 midnight) or activated it.

So what happened? The buzzer woke me from a sound sleep at midnight. I hit the on/off button, but I still have no idea if the alarm is activated or not. Is it going to go off again at midnight? Hard to say. Most clocks have a little symbol or indicator to show that the alarm is set. I wish this clock did, too. If the alarm mode is the indicator, then I can't get it to turn off.

The instruction book that came with the clock isn't very helpful. Setting the alarm isn't hard, being able to tell if it's actually going to go off is.

After I had this for awhile, I noticed another small annoyance: when I turn the nature sounds on, the numbers on the clock no longer display. Not very helpful.

Our first clock broke within two weeks and would play the cricket sounds over and over until you finally unplugged it. We bought a second and the clock display burned out within a week and not one sound worked. Don't buy this unless you want a big hassle, it is junk.