I just got this SoundSpa today for my 8 month old son. He fights falling asleep every night, and tonight I had this on and he fell asleep in 5 minutes. I think the key is having the lights out, but typically he would cry if I turned out the lights. With this, he was so busy watching the images on the ceiling that he didn't notice-plus I had it on the brightest setting, so it made the room not completely dark. I had it on with "Rock A Bye Baby" playing, and I sat in the rocking chair for 5 minutes and he was out. Then, after I put him in his crib I switched the music to "rain" and turned off the projection, and he is sleeping soundly! The music is wonderful, it sounds better (more clear)than I thought it would. It is very relaxing and soothing. And the rain and ocean sounds will be good, too, because I usually turn on a fan in his room in the morning to block out the noise that my husband makes when he's getting ready for work. Now it's too cold to have the fan on, so the other noises will provide the same effect and my son can sleep in peace. I highly recommend this item... After watching the images and listening to the music, I am actually relaxed and ready to sleep myself! Maybe I'll buy one of these for my bedroom, too! ha ha..
We've had this product since our daughter was born 18 months now. I like it enough to buy another one for my sister's first child.
In the beginning the heartbeat mode of the sound is perfectit seemed to comfort our daughter. We have yet to use twinkle-twinkle, but 'beach' and 'white noise' are used constantly (it's even playing in the background right now). As a side note, if you listen to the beach carefully you'll hear two seagull calls. You're not insane.
Only in the past 2 months (14 months old) have we started to use the projector. It has had a calming influence on our daughter while she plays in her crib before going to sleep. Unfortunately it also seems to keep her up, and this unit does not offer the ability to dim or turn/off the projector independent of the sound.
The projector is squeaky. The brightness knob has two settingsdim, and slightly less dim. I'll admit at night when there is no sunlight/late evening light coming in it's bright enough... but it's very hard to see when even a mediocre amount of light comes in through the windows.
The volume control knob on ours goes in and out. Sometimes it works, other times (usually in the winter and late late at night) it starts cracklingloudly. Adjusting the position of the knob has permitted us to keep using it.
This unit is VERY sensitive to cell phonesit'll pick up the cell phone tower identifier code (ack-ack-buzzzzzzz)but it hasn't seemed to wake or disturb anyone.
The plug is a standard two prong. I wish it were flat for easy of securing against the wall.
Overall, this is a good product to have. To recap:
Pros:
A multitude of sounds to choose fromone will work, and perhaps many will work over it's life.
Projector lamp is dim during daylight hours, but more than sufficient at night.
Portable and robustsurvives being yanked off the changing table.
Cons:
Weak volume control.
Dim lamp for projection.
Poor EMI shielding. (if you have cell phones)
Update: The projector finally broke. With the little girl crying and saying "Moon Stuck Moon Broke Daddy Fix" I disassembled the entire unit. Turns out that there is no metal-to-metal spacer or bar to hold the two spinning shafts apart. A motor is belted to another reduction gear which is cantilevered into the plastic. This causes the smooth chrome shaft to basically bury /drill itself through the material. I was able to form a small metallic epoxy ball and insert it into the hole then ream it out with the shaftwe're hoping it holds.
All in all still a good unit, but very annoyed at that one cheap spotthe manufacturer reinforced the other side of the shaft but not the thrust side.
Edit: It broke again, and required 2 days of dis-assembly to fix. Finally got it all back together and it started working again. Stupid design, stupid gearing, and all in all a very annoying product. The unit now picks up AM radio stations and any metal acts as an antennaso nothing but wood can be around the unit. While adjusting the volume I hear various talk-radio shows come in and out. I will not be buying another one.... and consequently am dropping my rating.
Update 10/31/2012
My wife bought another pair to replace the bad one for my son. They have subsequently been returned and replaced 6xand the ones we have left are still broken. I took the final star away after this go round. 8 hours a day at night and they barely last a month. Will post photos of the disassemble steps when I get around to fixing these.
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Like others have said, this product is great while it lasts. We've had ours about 2 months and the projector is starting to go. About every other time we turn it on, it doesn't work. If we fidget with it for several minutes (remove the disc, put back in, again and again) it eventually starts again but there is no "magic" trick. We just keep trying the same thing over and over and eventually it works. I am so disappointed as my daughter has loved this for the 2 months we've been using it. I know pretty soon it will stop altogether.
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I had bought this product for my daughter when she was 3 months old. It worked great for about a month then the projection quit spinning. It's great for sound but if your looking for something with projection more so than sound I wouldn't invest in this product. If you do decide to invest in this product make sure to fill out the warranty.
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We have purchased two of these and both have had issues. the first one worked well for about a month and it was great. The little nightlight portion with the graphics that turn on the ceiling were wonderful bright enough to help us see in the middle of the night without waking up the kiddo, and he seemed to enjoy watching them and the sound machine portion had several options from music to nature sounds. We loved it! Then after 4 or 5 weeks, it started making this awful clicking sound when the graphic nightlight element was turning it got louder and louder until that was all we could hear on the monitor. Because we liked it so much, I ordered another one, thinking this one might have been defective and they weren't very expensive, so replacing it seemed like no big deal. The second one worked great and we were very glad that the noise was gone. then after about 4 weeks, the exact same problem started happening again loud clicking/thumping noise as the graphic turned. On top of that, this one has started having problems with the volume control knob as well sometimes it will not turn down and will actually turn UP the volume when you are trying to turn it down, so we end up just turning the whole thing off. I am currently looking for something else that has a nightlight and music/white noise feature to replace this one. Don't bother buying it!
After many, many years of ill-health and without a diagnosis from a 'conventional' medical practitioner I finally contacted a naturapathic doctor who after undertaking a saliva test for various hormone levels (cortisol and DHEA, and known as the Adrenal Stress Index test), suggested the initial use of Seriphos. Almost immediately after first using this product the acute anxiety I had experienced for so long suddenly ceased. Further research on my part and on-going support from my naturapathic doctor revealed that with a sub-clinical form of adrenal gland insuffiency (otherwise now known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or sometimes ME), other parts of the endocrine system (hypothalamus and pituitary glands) attempt to compensate by constantly stimulating the exhausted adrenal glands for the production of more hormones. This produces a quite appalling and apparently unique combination of anxiety, sleeplessness and extreme fatigue that fails to allow the adrenals to ever rest and eventually recover. Seriphos seems to work by convincing the hypothalamus and pituitary glands that they don't need to keep up their incessant stimuation of the adrenal glands and for the long time CFS sufferer a wonderful calmness is experienced for the first time in years. This is only the first stage to recovery, however, as the adrenals now need to be worked on and supported via other means. A really wonderful product for the CFS patient.
