Customer Reviews

Travel Tranquil Moments Alarm Clock Sound Therapy Machine

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When it works, this noise machine/clock is pretty nice. It keeps time and has a few nice sounds to choose from. It's a little pricey at $100, but if it would continue to work, I'd be fine with it.

The problem is that we've had three of these, and every one has died after a few weeks of use!

We bought the first one at a Brookstone in Vegas. It worked for that trip, but only lasted a few days into our next trip. The display went completely out, and it wouldn't respond at all - fresh batteries didn't do anything, plugging it in didn't do anything. I returned it and got a second from the Philadelphia airport - this one lasted a few weeks and died again! We returned that one at the King of Prussia Mall (Pennsylvania), and the same exact thing happened with the replacement they gave us after a few weeks!

I'm baffled that we've gone through 3 of these things, all gotten from completely different locations, and all have died after a few short weeks of use. This really is the worst quality item I've ever had. I would think that every one of these ever purchased would be returned, based on my experience with the three that I've had. I suppose it's possible that we just received 3 bad ones, and the majority are fine, but it seems extremely unlikely. There's no other constant with it - we've used different batteries, and have used them in different locations. We've kept them in their box, and haven't been rough on them at all. It's an alarm clock with noise - it's not like it's that complex of a piece of equipment. I truly am baffled at this piece of junk.

My advice is don't even consider buying one of these. I'm sure there's plenty of other choices out there at this price point that will do the same thing but will last longer than a month.

***EDIT 7/19/11
I've been able to bring this back to life a few times, thanks to a comment on this post from "E. Mead". He points out that there is a small reset button inside the battery compartment that can be pushed in to get it past the issue with the display blacking-out. I've been able to bring my what I thought was a dead unit back to life several times using this button. It continues to "die" about every 3rd time it's plugged in but at least now I can get it back. I bumped it up from 1 star to 2, but it's a close one... Still very unimpressed with this, but I am pleased that I can get some more life out of it. Thanks Mr. Mead for the info on the reset button!

I've had some trouble sleeping and my brother, who is an expert in these things, recommended the Sound Oasis. However, we got a gift card to Brookstone so we decided to give the Brookstone one a try. It's small and good for travel, worked fine out of the box, and is easy to use. I push one button and the sound comes on. I haven't played around with the alarm yet. My only negative points are that the face is a little too bright on the nightstand, but it is very readable. Second, the number of usable sounds is very limited. Pretty much I like the rain, thunderstorm and the white noise. The others are a little too New Age-ish for me, but some people may like them. I would prefer a greater range of sounds. You can also record a 15-second one of your own, which we haven't done. The sound quality is fine. I haven't noticed any distracting repeats in the sounds. It is more expensive than some sound machines out there, but since this is the only one I've ever bought, I can't say if it is better than the others.

I bought this product at the local Brookstone. The first one broke after one week. The second one broke after two weeks. The manager at Brookstone tried to blame it on me rather than accept that they sell junk.

The settings are a bit confusing--could be made easier to set the alarm, turn it on/off, etc. The sound was decent, but not great. But after a year, it just died on me...i changed all the batteries (including the small internal one) and it's just dead. At this price, it should last a lot longer!

Sounds are good. Didn't notice looping in the sounds and they are all distinctive. However, this is a lousy alarm clock. Problems:
1) The snooze timer is 15 minutes long. That means if you snooze a 6:30am alarm, the next time it goes off is 6:45am. This is not adjustable. This is a deal breaker for me.
2) To put the unit in alarm set mode, you hold the alarm set button till it beeps. The problem is that the beep is this incredibly loud piercing beep which alone would wake up anyone sleeping when you were trying to, for example, change the alarm time.
3) If you choose the buzzer for the alarm, you can't control its volume and it is loud.
4) If you choose to wake to a nature sound, you can control the volume but then you can't fall asleep to a nature sound.

I purchased this travel clock to use for, I know this sounds strange, traveling. The first country I travelled to was England. 30 seconds after plugging it in, the adaptor shorted out the clock. The adaptor, it turns out, was only for the use in the United States 110v electrical.

Why would anyone spend $75 for a travel alarm clock that cannot be used anywhere in Europe or the Middle East? Why would a clock that expensive not have an adaptor that works for both 220v AND 110v?

I was extremely disappointed that on my six-week long trip through Europe and Israel, I never got to use this clock.

I owned the predecessor to the Travel Tranquil Moments Alarm Clock for more years than I can remember and relied on it for the white noise (and various other sounds) to lull me to sleep and the alarm to wake me up. When, after many hours of use, its sound quality diminished, I was delighted to see that I could get a replacement.

I was happy to see that this new version works exactly the same way the old one worked. I do remember having had some trouble initially with its predecessor in trying to set it, but once one is used to it it couldn't be simpler - or faster.

My only complaint, and it's a small one, is that when the screen is viewed from any angle other than face-on, it is not readable. But it's a small quibble, and I'm happy to have this reliable little clock to take with me on all my adventures.

We bought this unit at a Brookstone store, brought it home and plugged it in. I was messing around with where I wanted to put it and I unplugged it while the sound was on. When I plugged it back in, the entire thing wouldn't work, the display was messed up and none of the buttons worked. My husband looked up in the book that there was a reset button (which you need a screwdriver to access and a paperclip to push), so he got me on my way and said don't unplug it while it's on. Ok. Turned it on again, decided I wanted to move it again (the quietest setting is too loud, that's why I kept moving it), so I turned it off, unplugged it, plugged it back in, and the same thing happened. I tossed it aside and turned my fan back on (that's what I use for white noise now), and it's going back in the box and back to the store today. And I'm not getting another one after reading these reviews.

Some good things - it runs on batteries so can be taken overseas easily. The sounds are nice and no noticeable repeat loop, though as I said, we thought the lowest volume setting was too loud. It has a home and away clock which is useful for knowing what time it is at home if you're on travel, in case you want to call someone.

Some bad things, other than the obvious: The recordable sound has an audible repeat loop, so is useless as a sleep sound (tried to record the fan). You can't sleep to one sound and have the alarm with another sound. The alarm beep is very loud.

I refer to this as an 'expensive doorstop', but that's probably unfair to doorstops. I doubt it would even work in that regard. Like many have reviewed here, this is undeniably the most unreliable and poorly constructed piece of junk available at Brookstone. Brookstone should be ashamed to sell this. Like many, many others, I have been through FOUR of them, and all of them have failed completely. A couple failed after a few weeks, a couple more after a few days, and my latest one didn't make it through the first night. Don't even think about relying on this as an alarm clock, either it will not work at all, or the time will be hours off by morning. (and I always use the power supply never batteries). The last time I returned this (and that will be the last time I try again, either I will get a refund, or it's going in the trash and lesson learned) the manager of the Brookstone said that they'd been 'having a lot of problems with these'. Really? I would have given it zero stars if that had been an option.... the hassle of returning to the store repeatedly in an attempt to get one that works has cost me more time than the stupid thing is worth even if it worked. Do yourself a favor, and avoid this at all costs.... unless you like to throw money away on useless junk.

Just bought my second one of these. Like this better than even the non travel version also available from Brookstone. Perfect size, easy controls, excellent volume. Nice selection of sounds. Highly recommend this device; very pleased with purchase.