Conair SU7 Infant Sound Therapy with Clock Radio  Product Reviews

"Conair's Sound Therapy & Relaxation Clock Radio, model SU7, is packaged for infants -- stating it "Soothes babies to sleep!" -- yet is identical in sound makeup to its more expensive cousin marketed to adults: the Obus Forme Sound Therapy Relaxation System, which retails for considerably more. 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, including the mediocre SS-7000 Sound Spa iPod docking station, 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 bad: For one, it would appear that the only nature sound the unit allows you to wake to is the default "running stream". Another significant downside 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 faddish world of consumer electronics 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! Finally, there is a tendency for some control buttons to be require more pressure to activate than others -- although they all work and it appears to be solidly built otherwise. Sound quality is also a strong point in comparison to like-priced competitors such as the HoMedics Classic Sound Spa SS-4000. For a single speaker, Conair did a good job reproducing near stereo sound. As a result, I would put this somewhat above the HoMedics natural sounds line. While the SU7's sound samplings are more distinct than HoMedics and more varied than those offered by Timex nature sound machines, they are also somewhat higher pitched. Additionally, some sounds, such "songbirds," are misleading because a lapping water sound competes for attention in the foreground. Other sounds, such as "thunder," have an obvious loop that some users may find annoying. Likewise, "rainforest" has a couple of cuckoo birds in the background that may be noticeable at higher volumes. (If looping is likely to annoy you, a better choice would be an air purifier for white noise at night, or the value-priced "Echos of Nature" five-disc, music-free nature CD collection also offered on Amazon.) HoMedics "sound spa" models, in contrast to the Conair SU7, provide non-distinctive, relatively low-pitched sounds, which are more akin to white noise. Looking at it another way, this may not be the audio drawback it would appear at first "listen". Less distinctive nature sounds lend themselves to sleep too -- if only because the loop is less obvious when the sound stage is somewhat muted and flat (or the speaker is poor quality, whichever is the case). By the same token, however, 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 (or the speaker is better quality, whichever is the case). The SU7 is also a better value given its AM/FM and dual alarm clock features, which are missing from the stripped-down Obus Forme, a similar model marketed to adults. 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!"