Hi, I'm Ethan Green from nosleeplesnights.com and in this video I'm going to be doing a review of
the Homedics Sound Spa Rejuvenate sound machine. It's a bit of a long name that one, so I'm going
to call it the Homedics Sound Spa for the purposes of simplicity in this review. Now, talking about
simplicity, that's one of the key features of the Homedics Sound Spa that I really like:
it's a very easy white noise machine to use that's not overwhelming in the number of features that
it's got, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you like your devices to
have extensive features or not. It's also a budget machine; I paid just under 20 pounds for this one
in the UK, so it's right at the bottom end of the spectrum of prices for white noise machines. So,
let's pop over to the table, where I’m going to play through the sounds and talk about the
features, which won't take long, and then wrap up with some pros and cons. Okay, the first thing to
talk about with the Homedics Sound Spa is how you power it. This one came with a standard UK
power adapter and cable - quite long as well - but you don't need to use that if you don't want
to. And that's because on the underside you'll see there's a battery compartment. And it takes,
if I can open it with my nails - there we go it, takes four AA batteries, and it's one of very few
white noise machines that can be powered that way. So you can have it either with the power
adapter plugged in if you want to, or you can just use it with the batteries. And that's a
great option if you want to use it away from a power outlet and you don't want it plugged in,
or as a backup as well in case you have a power outage - then the batteries will automatically
take over. So let me close that up, turn it over again, and now let's have a listen to the sounds.
So what I’m going to do is play through all six sounds and not talk while I do it so you
can just have a listen. [White noise sounds]
Okay, so those are the sounds. Now, my opinion of those is that it's a bit of a shame there aren't
more sounds, but you know, at the end of the day for such a cheap device you're not going to get
a huge range of sounds generally on a white noise machine. Now as for the sounds that it does have,
I think that the white noise is kind of okay; it's quite high frequency as you'd imagine with normal
white noise. It would have been good to have pink or brown noise, but at the same time I’m not sure
the speaker would have been able to cope with it really. The rain is good, I like listening to
the rain, it's quite relaxing. The brook as well is good and the summer night. I think those are
probably the best ones on this device really. The ocean's okay - it kind of has those rolling waves,
but you do get used to the sound of the waves with the looping. There's no click by the way
or break at the end of the loops, it's continuous, but if you just listen to the same thunderclaps or
ocean waves then you will eventually spot them. As for the thunder, again I think that perhaps
the speaker can't really cope with the thunder so well. I think that, really, thunder is best
suited to a better speaker. So now let's have a listen to the volume controls. I’m going to
keep it on thunder, turn it on, and go through the volume up and down so you can have a listen.
[Thunder
sound]
And that's the volume. For me, I think the thunder kind of struggles
on the lowest volumes and also on the highest volumes. So really, if you're going to listen
to it, you kind of need it on the medium volumes I think. The incremental volume controls are good;
I think there's around 12 settings, but the buttons are a bit clicky.
And I think all the buttons are a bit clicky on this device really. So now let's talk about
the auto-off timers because that's something I do like about this device. You can see here…
…turn the volume down so you don't have to listen to that while I’m talking.
You can see here that we've got a timer button, and we've got - when there's no led indicator that
means that it'll be continuous all night - we've got 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. So
it's good that it's got those timers. The LEDs, these blue LEDs are quite bright. They're not
very big, but they are quite bright so if you're someone that doesn't like to have lots of LEDs in
the room then perhaps this isn't going to be one that suits you. It also has a memory function,
so if you turn it off and on again it will start up with the latest settings. Okay,
now let's talk about the pros and cons of the Homedics Sound Spa. As I see it, the main pro is
the fact that it can be used either with the power adapter or four AA batteries. Because not many
white noise machines can be used with AA batteries then that's a really good feature that I know
some people will be specifically looking for. So it's one of the main pros of this one I think. One
of the best points about the Homedics Sound Spa I think is the fact that it's just so simple to use.
I think if you've got finger sensitivity issues and you need large buttons and you want to be able
to easily find the buttons in the nighttime, for example, then this is definitely one to consider.
And it's good that all the sounds are individually labeled. It's just easier to instantly locate the
one that you want to listen to. It's also a very cheap white noise machine, so if you're looking
to buy one on a budget and you just want a simple, basic machine - you don't want to,
you know, spend upwards of a hundred dollars or a hundred pounds, whatever it might be,
then this is one to consider. I do like the fact that it comes with a three-year guarantee,
which is longer than most white noise machines. Okay, now let's talk about some of the downsides.
For me, one of the most glaringly obvious is the fact that it doesn't have a fan sound. It's just
got one white noise and five nature sounds. So if you're looking specifically for fan sounds or
deeper colors of white noise like pink or brown, which is quite popular these days, then I think
this isn't going to be the machine for you. So really, if you're just looking for a few nature
sounds and one white noise then perhaps it’s one to consider, but yeah, not if you'd like to have
lots of variety of sounds. The second thing is that the speaker quality isn't that fantastic.
I mean, if you're listening to it on the brook or the summer night, I find it's not too bad - you
can kind of tolerate those sounds. But for me, I think the thunder particularly really shows up in
the quality of the speaker. It just doesn't have a very rich and filling and bassy sound at all which
is, you know, what you would expect from thunder. [Sound of thunder playing]
Another thing to consider is the loops. It doesn't click or stop at the end of each loop, but you can
tell the loops with some of the sounds like the thunder just because it only has a few different
thunderclaps. And eventually you're going to spot them, and go “Oh, it's the same thunderclap again,
and again and again!” which is pretty much the same with most white noise machines to be honest.
But yeah, it's one to bear in mind. But if you're listening to the standard rain or the white noise,
you don't tell the end of the loop really. [Sound of a brook playing]
Another point to consider is that it's quite large, especially in terms of the width and
the length. It's not too tall, but yeah, it's going to take up a bit of space on a nightstand.
So my final verdict of the Homedics Sound Spa is that for a budget white noise machine
it's a pretty good one. Just be prepared to tolerate the lack of sound choice and the
lack of bass in the speaker. And that's about it for my review of the Homedics Sound Spa.
I hope you found this video helpful. If you did and you'd like to buy it then you can
find a link in the description below to do so, and please also subscribe to my YouTube channel
to keep in touch and see future videos. Thanks again, this is Ethan from No Sleepless Nights.