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(More customer reviews)Conair's Sound Therapy & Relaxation Clock Radio, model SU7, which bills itself as "Soothing to babies," is misleadingly packaged for infants yet is identical in sound-selection makeup to its more expensive cousin marketed to adults: the Obus Forme Sound Therapy Relaxation System (which retails nearly double sans the grownup features). In what would appear to be a marketing mix-up, the infant version of this Conair-branded device offers a dual alarm, AM/FM tuner and a LCD readout, whereas the model marketed to adults has no clock, no radio tuner and no alarm. Go figure.
The good: ten sound choices, including rainfall, running stream, waterfall, songbirds, heartbeat, white noise, ocean waves, summer night, thunderstorm and tropical rainforest. What sets this apart from other clock radios that use batteries to back up the clock and alarm settings is that it is entirely functional on four AA batteries alone (although the AC power adapter is included).
Another strong point: This unit has good AM/FM reception -- better than a number of HoMedics, which I also tried.
Better yet, the unit was easy enough to operate that I didn't have to pull out the manual to figure it out. It should be noted, however, that the implementation of the alarm is somewhat different then other alarm clock radios. Snooze provides a 10-minute extension, but you cannot hit it more than three times without deactivating the alarm. To turn an alarm off, simply hit the alarm button OR your choice of the Radio or Sound Therapy button, which are placed to the right and left of the large round snooze button. (Fortunately the remainder of the buttons on the surface will not result in accidentally disabling the alarm.) Rounding out the feature set is the sleep function, ranging from 15-90 minutes. Last but not least, you may opt to wake to radio, nature sound or buzzer. There is a headphone jack, but no line-in by which to connect an MP3 or CD player.
The only significant downside unique to the Conair SU7 is the blue backlight. At certain angles/distances it is difficult to see the black LCD digits on the clock. I don't know who in the "high fashion" world of consumer product development decided it was cool to have nearly all today's digital clocks backlit by a blue or amber light instead of providing the high-contrast green-, blue- or red-on-black numeral readouts, but those product developers should be forced to squint through the nightlight-like light emitted from their products to try to read their poorly conceived black LCD digits across a darkened room -- no easy task even for someone with 20/20 vision!
As for sound quality, I would put this somewhat above the HoMedics natural sounds line -- although you shouldn't expect it to rival CD-quality audio. The sound samplings are more distinct than HoMedics and more varied than those offered by Timex nature sound machines, but they are also higher pitched. By contrast, the HoMedics models provide nondescript, relatively low-pitched sounds, which are more akin to white noise. Consequently, it should be noted that less distinct nature sounds are probably easier to sleep to if only because the loop is less obvious when the sound stage is somewhat muted and flat (or the speaker is poor, whichever is the case). On the flip side, the HoMedics nature sound generators are not quite as pleasant on the ear during the day. To create a daytime oasis, Conair receives my vote because the sound samples are somewhat more realistic (not to mention the fact that Conair offers the most natural sound selections in the sub $60 price range). Insomniacs, nevertheless, should consider the tried-and-true option of running an air purifier, which is a good year-around white noise generator (one that won't chill you like a fan or a running air conditioner in the winter, toast you like a forced-air heater in the summer, wear out your television set prematurely, or drive your electricity up like a running clothes dryer). Similarly, audiophiles should look to a CD for authentic, non-looping, stereo-quality nature sounds. (Consider "Echos of Nature", a five-CD set, also sold on Amazon. The great thing about this boxed set is the fact that there are no New Age soundtracks mixed in to detract from the outdoor/wilderness ambiance.)
Poorly legible LCD clock aside, the price of the Conair SU7 relative to the number of sound choices and the portability offered by the battery or AC operation really can't be beat. Don't allow the mother-and-child packaging or Amazon's product description fool you: There's nothing inherently "infant" about this unit's design. Because this product has the appearance of being a "baby item" that is not positioned in the baby section of most retail stores such as Target, it is seemingly a slow seller, which may explain why I found mine on clearance for half the $20 list price. If you have been considering the newly released $40 Obus Forme Sound Therapy Relaxation System, take advantage of Conair's marketing mistake and pick up the SU7 instead. At $20 it is a deal, but at $10 it is a steal!
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Conair SU7 Sound Therapy and Relaxation Clock Radio
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