REVIEW – Sleep.  We all need it, but for many of us, we don’t get enough.  Sleeping in hotel rooms is especially problematic. Loud climate control systems, aircraft or traffic noise certainly contribute to the issue.  My favorite are these two: the ever-present “I don’t care that this isn’t my house and I’ll talk as loud as I want to in the hall at whatever time of day I please” idiot down the hall from you and the person in the room next to you that believes that “100” is the proper television volume setting, only because it doesn’t go to “101”.  How can anyone get a reasonable night’s sleep under these conditions?  Many people rely on sleep sound machines.  These machines use digital or recorded sounds to mask other ambient noise, providing a sound environment more conducive to sleep.  This means yet one more bulky thing to pack, usually with its power cord and massive wall-wart power supply.  What if there was another, more portable and flexible solution?

What is it?

The LectroFan Micro2 is a tiny (check the specs!) sleep sound machine that also doubles as a Bluetooth speaker with a microphone for calls from your smartphone. It is battery powered, so you can charge it during the day, and use it at night on the battery while you charge your phone, reducing the number of chargers you have to carry.

What’s in the box?

• LectroFan Mirco2
• User guide
• Note that no power adapter is included – you just use one of yours

Hardware specs

• Dimensions: 2″W x 2.1″H (3.4″H when speaker extended)
• Weight: 3.2 oz
• Recharging port: Micro USB, 5V/1A
• Sounds: 11, non-looping digital sounds
• Battery life: Up to 40 hours in sleep sound mode, up to 20 hours in Bluetooth speaker mode

Design and features

The Micro2 is diminutive. At about 2″ x 2″, there simply isn’t much to it. It is available in three colors. The metallic red, soft-touch white and soft-touch black. I was sent the soft-touch black model. The body is covered in a soft-touch rubberized coating that feels quite nice. The speaker has a brushed silver rim and a black speaker grill.

If you grab the speaker and twist it either clockwise or counterclockwise, the speaker rotates and angles up.

When it hits completely upright, it clicks into place.  This allows you to provide some degree of aim so you can direct the sound in your general direction.

The bottom of the Micro2 is rubber and provides a non-slip grip to keep it where you put it.

It also provides very basic instructions as well as their website address.

The control buttons are along the lower portion of the Micro2.

Taking a closer look, we find rubberized buttons to skip to the next or previous sound, a play/pause button, and volume buttons.

On the other side, near the logo, we find the power switch and USB port.

Again, taking a closer look, we see the two available modes, Bluetooth to the left and sleep sound mode to the right.  The center position is the off position. The USB port is directly below the poser selector.

Setup

The only setup is charging the Micro2. The indicator glows red when charging.

Once charged, the indicator turns green.

Performance

First, I gave the Micro2 a test run as a Bluetooth speaker. When it is connected to a Bluetooth source, the LED indicator turns a familiar blue.

As a Bluetooth speaker, the Micro2 is about what you’d expect from something this small.  The sound is good, not great, and bass is all but absent. When you are playing music, the skip buttons on either side of the play/pause button will skip ahead/back one track.

As a Bluetooth speaker for phone calls, I’d recommend using something else.  While I could hear my caller very clearly over the speaker, they couldn’t hear me well at all.  If I wasn’t yelling, they could barely tell I was talking. I tried it again, but I put my wife on the speaker end of the call and I was on another cell phone.  Like my previous caller reported, I could not make out anything my wife said.  I could tell someone was speaking, but the sound quality was simply terrible. It was essentially unusable for phone calls.

These features are really add-ons for the Micro2.  It is primarily a sound machine, and that’s where it gets more impressive.

The Micro2 can produce eleven unique, non-looping digital sounds. There are five different fan sounds, four brown and pink noises and two synthesized ocean wave sounds.  Most of us have heard the term “white noise”.  But brown and pink?  From their soundofsleep.com website:

White noise, probably the most familiar of these, sounds like a radio tuned to an unused frequency. Similar to the way white light contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum at equal intensity, white noise has equal power across all frequencies audible to the human ear.

Pink noise is white noise, but with reduced higher frequencies. It resembles the sounds of steady rainfall or wind and is often considered to be more soothing than white noise, which some people find unpleasant. Several studies on pink noise have shown that sleeping with it can improve our memories the following day, and potentially even long-term.

Brown noise lowers the higher frequencies even more. It’s a bit “rougher” than pink noise and resembles the roar of a river current or strong wind. Common benefits associated with brown noise are relaxation, improved focus, and of course, sleep improvement.

They provide a variety of sounds because there is no one “right” sleep sound – different sounds work for different people.  For me, the ocean sound is my favorite.  I typically use Alexa’s ocean wave sleep sound and home.  The Micro2’s versions are rhythmic and soothing.  For a hotel, however, a more constant sound like pink or brown noise is probably a better choice.

Still, how loud can a little thing like the Micro2 really be?  I turned on the sound meter on my phone and recorded the ambient sound level in my house.  Then, I turned on one of the louder brown noise sounds at full volume and put my phone about 18 inches away.

As you can see, the sound level jumped from whisper quiet to really, really loud.  Suffice it to say that the Micro2 should pack enough punch to effectively mask any annoying sounds.  And, if you don’t need all that volume, turn it down, or choose one of the quieter sound effects.

This weekend, we are in the Detroit area for our son’s wedding.  Since we are staying in a hotel for the weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to put the Micro2 through its paces.  Here it is sitting on top of the coffee box in our room.

In the afternoon, I had Amazon Music streaming from my phone. While it certainly isn’t top-quality sound, it was more than adequate. Like I mentioned earlier, some bass would really improve the overall sound quality.

When we went to bed in the hotel, I cranked up the Micro2 on one of its synthesized ocean sounds.  It was way too loud for the room, so we turned it down to a level we both liked and drifted off to sleep.  The volume that this little speaker can produce in sleep mode is pretty darned impressive and should be great, no matter how large your sleep space or volume of ambient sounds are. It worked all night and did a great job masking the various sounds that seem to be in all hotel rooms – doors, climate control, voices in the hallway, etcetera. The only thing that interrupted my sleep was the canceled flight home because of that unwanted visitor named Dorian…

What I like

• Tiny size
• Surprising volume
• Good variety of sounds
• Good battery life
• Also runs off USB power

What I’d change

• A microphone that works for phone calls is really needed
• A little more bass would be nice when listening to music

Final thoughts

I really like this little speaker and sound machine.  It’s so small, packing it is a no-brainer.  With its wide variety of sound effects and great volume, nearly everyone should be able to find a sound or two that works to help drown out whatever ambient sounds are disturbing sleep. The fact that it also doubles as a basic Bluetooth speaker is a great bonus. Since it can run off power, or on battery, it offers great location flexibility. If the microphone actually worked for phone calls, it would be nearly perfect.

Price: $33.95 – $34.95 based on color
Where to buy: Amazon
Also available (and on sale as of this writing) for $29.95 direct from ASTI at soundofsleep.com.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Adaptive Sound Technologies Inc (ASTI).

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Sleep

ASTI LectroFan Micro2 sleep sound machine / Bluetooth speaker review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 5, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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REVIEW – If you enjoy the soothing sounds of rain, a fan, the ocean, or perhaps the gentle quiet sound of nature at night, then the Sztrokia Sleep Sound Machine would be a great device for you to have. Whether you like to listen to these sounds while you sleep, study, or just need some kind of distraction in the background, then this sound machine is a perfect companion to achieving that white noise you are looking for.

What is it?

The Sztrokia Sleep Machine is a sound maker that features 10 different sounds from rain to ocean waves to fans to white noise to nature night sounds to help you rest, relax, sleep, study, or meditate. This sound machine also features a USB port on the back of the unit so you can plug in your phone’s USB charging cable. Since you have to plug in the sound machine’s AC adapter into the wall plug you will still have a way to charge your phone or other devices should you need to. Whichever sound you choose, that sound is intended to block out any unwanted noise or just to keep your mind relaxed and focused.

What’s in the box?

• Sound Machine
• Wall plug adapter

Design and features

The Sztrokia Sleep Machine is a small sound maker that allows the listener to choose between ten recorded soothing sounds to help you relax, meditate, or focus. This little sound machine is perfect for when you need a little ambient atmosphere to help drown out any unwanted sound or noise while you study, while you read, put a baby down to sleep, meditate, paint, work on the computer, or any other activity that you would want some white noise sound in the background. The sounds that this machine produces is meant to help you block out unwanted or distracting noise. Even if your environment doesn’t have these unwanted noises, this device can be used just as a standalone peaceful sound maker. The dimensions for this machine is 4.6 x 1.2 x 4.6 inches and weighs 5.6 ounces.

There are five types of sounds to choose from and every sound has two versions each so there are ten sounds in all. The available sounds are rain, fan, night, ocean, and white noise. You can make your selections using the buttons on the front of the sound maker. For each button, you can press it to cycle through the two choices of each sound. It’s nice that the buttons on the front are raised so they are easy to operate. Plus, they have a nice bounce back and sturdy click when you press them. So, you should not have any problems making your sound selection with these buttons. There are also small icons of the corresponding sound on the front of each button so you can tell which button is for which sound.

On the left of the sound buttons is the Power button. The Power button allows you to cycle through three Timer options, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. However, the first press of the Power button puts the Sound Machine into an All Night option, meaning that the Sound machine will stay on until you turn it off. Since I like to listen to the Rain sounds for extended times, the All Night setting is best for me. Just so you know which Timer setting the Sound Machine is on, a convenient green light is illuminated directly above the chosen Timer setting.  Keep in mind that the All Night option doesn’t have any lights illuminated.

On the right of the sound buttons is your typical Volume knob. Turning it to the left lowers the volume and turning it to the raises the volume. Simple. The thing that I noticed about this sound machine is that it only has one speaker. Although the sound quality isn’t bad, I feel that this sound machine could benefit from a second speaker.  It’s hard to get a good sound quality when you only have a mono speaker. I think a second speaker would give more depth and dynamic resulting in a more realistic natural stereo sound.

On the back side is a USB port just above the power plug. The USB port is convenient to have so you can connect the charging cable for your phone or another device that may benefit from the USB port. A bonus to plugging your phones charging cable to the sound machine is that you get extra length added to your charging cable should you need it. Plus, since this sound machine is very light and compact, it is perfect to bring along with you when you travel. It doesn’t take up much space and it’s not bulky at all. In fact, its narrow square shape makes it easy to slip into a small bag or small luggage. And speaking of travel, this would be a perfect companion traveling and you’re staying at a hotel and need to get some sleep or take a nice restful nap. You could skip turning on the TV for the background noise and just turn on this sound machine, select the sound of your choice, and get some peaceful rest.

On the back is a small kickstand to prop up the sound machine so you can position it to the desired angle. The kickstand retracts flushed onto the sound machine for maximum storage and portability. On the bottom of the sound machine is a rubber strip pad to help prevent the sound machine from sliding on smooth surfaces. Plus, the rubber pad helps from scuffing those surfaces as well.

Performance

Although the ten pre-programmed sounds are pleasant to listen to, I found that because there is only one speaker this dulls the clarity of the sounds because after all, the sounds are coming out from a single speaker. I think having two speakers will give the sounds more dynamic range and clarity because it seems that the tone of the speaker is low. So, as a result, you would have to turn the volume up to get a cleaner and crisper sound. The downside on that is that maybe you don’t want the volume too loud because then the sound would become distracting rather than welcoming.

For example, say you want to have the sound of a fan in your baby’s room but the sound is soft because the tone is low, so to get a clearer sound you have to turn it up. But then turning up the volume may get too loud for the baby to sleep to. Although it’s a personal preference to have the crisper cleaner sound, the sounds aren’t half bad considering the single speaker.

What I like

• Pre-set settings of 15, 30, and 60 minutes and all night timer.
• USB port on the back.
• Small in size.
• Convenient sound buttons on front.
• Portable for travel.

What I’d change

• I would add another speaker to produce stereo sound.
• I would make the nature sounds such as the rain, waves, and night noises more natural and realistic.
• Include a rechargeable long life battery.

Final thoughts

If listening to relaxing sounds like rain, beach waves, fan noise, or other white noise sounds makes you feel at ease, helps you sleep better, or if you just need some background noise to replace the environmental noise that you’re in, then a sound machine is a great tool to achieve this. There are times when you need some artificial aide to help combat those unwanted background noises or times when you just want some familiar sounds to help you sleep, Having a sound machine like this one is a good companion to keep in your bedroom, baby’s room, office, studio, or even to bring with you while you travel, thanks to the sound machine’s small and compact design.

I really like the Sztrokia Sleep Sound Machine from Sztrokia. Although there are only ten pre-programmed sounds, I do find that the rain and the beach waves are sounds that I generally like to listen to the most so those are sounds are enough for me. However, having the other sounds available could come in handy and maybe a nice change to listen to.

Price: $17.99
Where to buy:  www.sztrokia.com and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by www.sztrokia.com.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Sleep

Sztrokia Sleep Sound Machine white noise generator review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 30, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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REVIEW – My wife turns into a small furnace when she sleeps. She also likes to be covered by heavy, thick blankets. This is great during the cooler fall and winter months, but becomes problematic during the summer. I also tend to sleep warm and enjoy the embrace of a fluffy, well feathered comforter. With both of us regularly overheating while we slept, our only solution was to turn the air conditioning down to the mid 60’s. Given the power required to cool our house to this degree, we were both very interested in the Ooler Sleep system and the possibility that we’d be able to cool ourselves directly without having to turn our entire upstairs into an arctic wasteland.

What is it?

The Ooler Sleep System consists of a hydronic mattress pad and control unit. It’s designed to help you improve your sleep by regulating your body temperature through the use of cooled or heated water circulating through a mattress pad. Ooler states that by cooling your body it will help you achieve a deeper and more restful sleep. Alternately, the control unit can heat the mattress pad as a way of either as a means of gently waking you up or warming the bed on those cold winter nights (much like an electric blanket).

What’s in the box?

• Control Unit
• Hydronic pad with non-detachable insulated hoses
• App (not technically in the box, but the user is provided with a download code)
• Instruction pamphlet

Design and features

The Ooler Sleep System is designed to keep you cool at night by circulating water through a hydronic pad placed on top of your mattress. The control unit cools the water coming from the pad, sending it back out at temperature you specify (55-110 degrees F). The control unit has a small display on the top that shows the current temperature of the pad, along with a Bluetooth connectivity icon and if needed, a water refill warning light. It also allows you to increase or decrease the set temperature with the plus and minus buttons to the right of the display.

Most of the interacting that you’ll do with the system will be through the app. I should mention that as of this writing, the app is in beta and available only through Apple Testflight, so the final version may differ in functionality from what I’m detailing here. That said, the main screen is where you’ll interact with the most important feature of Ooler: the temperature setting. You’ll see the current temp of the pad and be able to adjust it between 55 and 110 degrees. You can also change the fan speed from silent to regular to boost. We typically left it at silent and it was no more noticeable than our ceiling fan set to a medium speed. Regular was noticeably louder and Boost was significantly louder. We only used Boost when we wanted to cool down the pad quickly. Along the bottom of the screen are icons that allow you to navigate between the device itself (you can have multiple Ooler units connected to a single instance of the app), schedule creation, a sleep rating form and general settings for the device and app.

The scheduler allows you to set the start and stop time of the control unit and what the temperature of the pad should be when you go to bed and wake up. Initially, we set the sleep temperature to 60 degrees and the wake-up temperature to 80. After trying a few colder temps, 65 seemed to be the sweet spot for my wife whereas 60 was perfect for me.

The settings menu along the bottom of the screen allows you access to general maintenance functions such as password resets, Ooler support, firmware updates, and set up instructions. The gear icon on the main screen allows you to turn off the display light, remove or rename a device, enter a deep cleaning mode and displays general device information and logs.

Setup

If you can change the sheets on your bed, you can set up the Ooler system. The pad comes with two elastic bands that wrap from the top to bottom, allowing you to secure it to your mattress. This minimizes the extent to which the pad will shift if you are someone like me who moves around a lot at night. You then attach the two hoses connected to the pad to the back of the control unit. They seat firmly in the unit and you’ll know they’re connected when you hear a click. Once this is done, you fill up the control unit with water (distilled is suggested so as to limit mineral build-up inside the machine). You then turn on the control unit and allow it to cycle the water through the pad. Once the control unit has circulated for a few minutes, you may have to add more water. Aside from connecting the optional app to the control unit via Bluetooth, that’s all you need to do.

Performance

So, with all of the technical details and set up out of the way, how did it perform? Both my wife and I are pleased to say that we definitely noticed a difference in our sleep quality from before using the Ooler Sleep system. I found that I didn’t wake up as much during the night and my wife said she slept much more soundly. As she travels for work quite a bit she was also able to compare it with various hotel room beds and came away impressed with the system. To be fair, most hotels are terrible when compared to the comfort of your own bed. However, the Ooler system made her long for home even more than usual.

One thing that initially concerned me about the hydronic part of the mattress pad was that it might feel like I was lying on a waterbed. Thankfully, the amount of water circulating through the pad is was not enough to make me feel like I was floating. It actually felt like I was lying on a normal mattress pad and once I’d used it for a few days I never really noticed it. The only indication of its presence was the fan operating in the background or when I bumped one of the circulation hoses with my arm (I’d positioned them at the top of the bed as I have long legs and figured I’d be likely to kick them in the middle of the night).

What I like

• Provides a noticeable degree of cooling, creating a comfortable sleeping environment
• Fairly unobtrusive in operation and I hardly knew it was there when I was using it.
• The app reliably connected to the control unit and was responsive to temperature changes and other device input

What I’d change

• You can’t do much from the control unit and have to interact with the system mainly from the app
• Depending on how you have the circulation hoses positioned (either at the foot or head of the bed) you may end up hitting them with your arm or foot.
• As the app connects to Bluetooth, I had to be relatively close to the control unit to interact with it. So, if I was downstairs and decided that I wanted to go to bed early, I’d have to go upstairs to turn on the unit. Wifi might be a better way to connect.
• It’s a tad expensive.

Final thoughts

In sum, both my wife and I were pleased with the Ooler Sleep System. It provided a comfortably cool sleeping environment and was able to maintain the selected temperature throughout the night. The hydronic mattress pad was unobtrusive and the control unit fan, at it’s lowest setting, was quiet enough to not bother either of us while we slept. In the three weeks that we used it before writing this review we didn’t have to refill it with water or run a cleaning cycle. While that may change in the winter when the heating ability is used more often, to date, the unit has remained maintenance free.  Finally, as it costs $699 on the low end, it’s definitely a investment, but if cooler sleep is what you’re after, the Ooler Sleep System just might be the thing.

Price: $699: Half Queen (tested here), $799: Half King, $1,399: Queen, $1,499: King & Cal King
Where to buy: Chili Technology Ooler Sleep System
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Chili Technology

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Sleep

Ooler Sleep System review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 27, 2019 at 9:10 am.

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