Amazon.com: Ecotones Sound + Sleep Machine, Model ASM1002: Health & Personal Care: "The Ecotones family of Sleep Sound Machines from Adaptive Sound Technologies is designed to provide the most realistic, natural sound environment possible to help people relax and sleep better at night. Each device includes ultra-high quality natural sound recordings for the most realistic listening experience. They use ASTI's patented Adaptive SoundTM Technology that listens and responds to background disturbances. The Ecotones family delivers a relaxing and peaceful environment wherever it is needed."
Ecotones Sound + Sleep Machine, Model ASM1002 review: Noise Pollution Solution, By Jerry P. Danzig (New York, NY USA)
The good news is I live in a rent-stabilized apartment in NYC. The bad news is I live in a rent-stabilized apartment in NYC where I am besieged by every kind of noise.
The worst offenders: a large clanking steam radiator; upstairs neighbors clomping around in hard-sole shoes on a bare hard-wood floor; construction noises next door and down the block; plus the usual assortment of horn honks and blaring sirens from vehicles on the avenue two doors over.
For some years, I have used the Marsonic travel white noise machine (around $80), which was the best unit I auditioned at Hammacher-Schlemmer at the time. It offered excellent sound and admirable volume, especially for such a small device, plus two sounds, waterfall and ocean, with a tone control.
But I was interested when I heard about Adaptive Sound's first machine, the one that sells for $300. Unfortunately that price busts my budget, so I was delighted to discover that their new machine, the Duet, sells for half the price.
What is their exclusive adaptive technology? Well, it is NOT a phase-inversion technology, as used in noise-cancelling headphones. In other words, the machine doesn't make intrusive sounds disappear. What it DOES do is pump up the white noise volume almost instantaneously to mask intrusive sounds, a surprisingly effective technique.
The Duet still couldn't hide the clanking radiator -- at least in waterfall mode -- but I will try again tonight with "Meditation" mode -- a steady midrange drone that a yoga class would appreciate. The Duet did, however, make the footfalls upstairs disappear, as well as the construction and street noises. That beats the Marsonic by a mile!
Otherwise the unit is very well designed and built, with excellent sound provided by a separate woofer and tweeter mounted on top. A microphone in the front panel listens for room sound and makes immediate adjustments. I tested this by dropping an earplug case on the counter by the machine, and it responded instantly with a roar of white noise.
The sounds provided are of excellent quality. Unlike lesser units, which typically use a recording that keeps repeating and soon proves annoying, these recordings -- the manufacturer calls them "sound stories" -- go on for thirty minutes before repeating.
You can spice these aural environments up with "richness" -- random sounds that give the "sound stories" more authenticity, like birds chirping by the brook or sitar shrieks and percussion effects in meditation mode. Fortunately, you can also turn them off when you're sleeping.
I like the selection of sounds provided. They have been well chosen for their restfulness -- I found the brook putting me to sleep as I was sitting at my desk yesterday afternoon -- and the variety allows you to find a "sound story" with frequencies appropriate to the most intrusive noises in your environment.
The one sound that amused me was "city" -- that's the environment from which I'm trying to escape! Maybe if you're a refugee from the city living in the country, however, you would appreciate this one! Otherwise, I enjoy the meadow, the brook, the crackling fireplace, the train, waterfall, ocean -- and meditation. There also is a plain vanilla white noise setting, which I imagine psychotherapists will use in their waiting rooms.
The machine also includes an output that lets you play the sounds through your stereo. It occurred to me that Adaptive could make a less expensive unit that dispenses with its own amplifier and speakers and just plays through your stereo. However, the sound quality of the Duet and the fact that it uses less electricity than my big rig justify a self-contained machine on my nightstand.
So if you need help sleeping or concentrating in a noisy environment, you should audition the Duet. IMO it is the most effective (and cost-effective) white noise machine now on the market.
UPDATE: ah, I tried the brook setting last night instead of waterfall, and -- I didn't hear a thing during the night. NO clanking radiator, NO footfalls upstairs, NO construction noises next doors. I slept like a babe. The moral of the story is: try different sound settings to see which ones mask the intrusive noises in your environment.
The Duet could soon become the city dweller's best friend, surpassing even small dogs and local pizza vendors...
UPDATE NUMBER TWO: the Duet is missing one useful feature: visual or aural confirmation of the volume setting. Because it uses "higher" and "lower" buttons to raise or lower the volume, you can't even tell by the position of a knob where the volume is set.
Because the sound stories seem to play back at different volumes relative to one another, you might want to crank up the volume for one and then turn it back down for another. When you return to your favorite sound story for sleeping, for example, you may not have the volume setting that you know from experience you need.
The solution would be a numeric readout or aural confirmation, like a female voice saying, "Level Five" when you adjust the volume.
At any rate, the Duet is still a fine white noise machine, and I hope Ecotone incorporates volume confirmation into future models.
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