Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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84 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best white noise out there - don't balk at the price, July 5, 2007
I travel a lot, and used to often have trouble in my hotel room. First, I'm used to the sound of my house (the a/c, my wife, baby monitor hum, etc). Second, hotel A/C kicking on and off can be loud, people in the hall are loud, city noises, etc. Most white noise generators that make nature sounds fail miserably for a few reasons. First, they use cheap tinny speakers with too much treble. You can easily pinpoint the source of the sounds and it gets annoying. Second (and most important), they use 6 second clips of nature (1 ocean wave, a few raindrops), and then loop it over and over. When you wish to focus on the white noise to sleep, you WILL hear the loop and it WILL drive you crazy. I can tell it's the same ocean wave over and over... I can hear the spot where the loop starts over.
The Marsona white noise generator is different. First, the speaker is really quite good. Nice base quality, and it really fills the room with sound in a non-directional way (I can't tell exactly where it's coming from). Second, the eletronics actually synthesize the rain/surf sound dynamically, as opposed to using a recording. This means no obvious loop point, and each wave sounds slightly different enough to prevent distraction. I couldn't believe I was spending more than $50 for a white noise generator when you can buy boxes that make dozens of different sounds for far less. However, how many sounds do you need other than the one that makes you fall asleep (and stay asleep)? This box produces 1 sound, with a pitch control and a treble/bass control (calling it rain, waterfall, surf--all depends on these controls), and it works tremendously. I cannot recommend it enough. I imagine their larger units must even be better, but for travel, this is great.
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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once you get one, you'll never sleep without it!, November 12, 2007
It might sound crazy to shell out $70 for a machine that's only purpose is to emulate a softly whooshing vacuum cleaner. But once you get one of these you'll never want to sleep without it again!
I used to run a HEPA air filter in my bedroom all night (hey, I figure I might as well breathe clean air for 1/3 of my life, right?) Eventually you get so used to the sound of a running fan that you need it every time you sleep. Besides, my apartment bedroom faced the parking lot, so there was always a lot of noise from people driving in and out and slamming car doors, etc. I'm a very light sleeper, so the HEPA filter helped me get to sleep by masking those sounds.
Whenever I'd travel I'd always turn the room fan on "high" before hitting the sack. In hotels where I couldn't manually turn on the fan, I'd toss and turn all night, distracted by the sound of silence (as contradictory as that sounds).
When I moved in with my wife, her bedroom was too small for my HEPA air filter. So I found the Marsona TSC-330 on Amazon and decided it was worth a try (and a lot less expensive than buying HEPA filters). All I can say is, WOW, I wish I'd bought one of these years ago! The bedroom in our house faces the street, so again I have to deal with traffic noises and cars going by at all hours. The Marsona masks those sounds and enables us to get to sleep and stay asleep.
My wife and I now take this little gizmo with us everywhere we go when we know we'll be staying overnight. We even bought the optional battery pack, in case we go camping or are staying somewhere without an outlet.
My wife calls it the "sleep machine", and when my mother told me that my dad was having trouble sleeping, I told her about the Marsona. She bought one, and now they use it every night too!
PROS
No moving parts to break (sounds are created digitally).
Imitates various sounds like "rain", "waterfall", and "surf". Really though, all you're doing is changing the pitch (high or low), volume (loud or soft) and whether or not the sound comes and goes (which mimics ocean surf).
Really helps you get to sleep (and stay asleep)!
Also helps babies and dogs sleep.
CONS
Might take some people a few weeks until their brain gets accustomed to the sound. But it's well worth the wait!
The controls are on the bottom, which is not convenient but also not too big of a deal because you generally just set it the way you want it and leave it that way every night.
On/Off switch is located in the back, rather than on the top where it would be more easily accessible.
The battery pack is a separate unit, and somewhat bulky. They should modify the device to run off of a 9-volt battery or something. We almost never have a need for the battery pack, though, so it's a minor point.
Calling this a "travel" device is a bit of a stretch, IMHO. It's about the size of a thick paperback novel (think John Grisham). It also has one of those bulky AC adapters with the power brick on the end. It fits fine in a standard suitcase, but if you're REALLY traveling light (like with only a small overnight bag) then it does take up a bit more room than you'll probably like.
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the better units out there, February 8, 2008
I was torn between buying the Marsona TSC-330 or the Marpac 980 Sound Screen. I wound up buying both so I could decide for myself. Both are a big step up from the other looping recorded track systems out there. The TSC-330 has a fairly natural sound but not quite as nice as the real fan sound of the Marpac 980 (the 980 uses a real fan to make the noise).
Bottom line: If you don't need this for travel I would go with the Marpac 980 for it's more natural sound and lower price. If you are looking for a travel unit and don't mind paying a slight premium, the Marsona TSC-330 sound is good enough and less bulky to throw in a suitcase.
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