Homedics Envirascape Sound Spa Alarm Clock Radio

• Wake to AM/FM radio, alarm or soothing sound
• Powered by AC adapter (included) or 3 AA alkaline batteries (batteries not included)
• Six natural sounds - choose from Wind, Brook, Night, Rain, Falls or Ocean
• Selectable timer modes - choose to play sound for 15, 30, 60 minutes or continuously
• Easy to read - large-digit LCD display is illuminated by a glowing backlight

I've had more than my share of these things over the last couple of years. Either they're badly designed (I had one that looked like a flying saucer. Another looked like something you'd use to slice vegetables.) or unreliable. (The vegetable slicer went haywire within six months.) This time around, assuming the worst, but still wanting the option of some nature sounds, I chose this unit for the price, and I'm frankly glad I did.

It's far more compact than the flying saucer or the slicer, which is great when space is at a premium. There's a retractable antenna, so you don't have to fool around with those long wires that I find so annoying. The controls are very simple; you can be operating this unit right out of the box without a moment's hesitation. The sound quality is decent; it's not going to be great with any tabletop unit, but it's as good as most of the other, more expensive tabletops. If I have a quibble, it's that the display is hard to see in the dark. Not impossible, just a little small and dim.

If you're looking for an inexpensive AM/FM clock radio with a handful of "natural sounds" you could do far worse. Believe me, I have done. Recommended.

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I've had the Sound Spa for a couple weeks and there's good and bad to report. The good: The antenna allows it to pick up stations that my old clock radio could not get reliably. Also, the rotary dials used to select the station and volume are faster and more direct than other radios, where the station dial moves a little selector bar through a separate display window and the volume dial has no feedback mechanism to tell you how loud it is set. I also like that the clock uses batteries so that you don't have to reset it if the power goes out. (I live in California, after all.)

The radio and nature sounds are what you would expect for $20 -not great but sufficient to drown out the crazy guy next door who makes chicken sounds all day.

The bad: First, I could not figure out how to turn the alarm off until I emailed Homedics. The little booklet doesn't tell you anything about it. If you do nothing, the alarm will go off at midnight! Homedics replied to my email and I now know that you push the AL Mode button until none of the options (Buzzer, Sound, or Radio) are displayed. But be careful...that's classified information that cannot get into the wrong hands (like customers).

Second, the speaker points out THE BACK of the unit, so my neighbor has an easier time hearing All Things Considered than I do (well, when he isn't clucking and cooing ). Third, forget about checking the time in the dark unless you get up close and personal with it. The LCD display is too faint to be any good. Finally, it's cheaply made. The stand broke as I tried to attach it to the unit.

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Like most sound machines, the sounds choices are limited and most have a very noticeable cycle. The brook sound actually had a click at the end! However, the ocean and white noise had a good cycle.

Unfortunately, only after a year, it broke. Now, I'm looking for a better one with more sounds.

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I suppose this clock is ok for the price, but the repetitiveness of the sounds makes it useless for relaxation while falling asleep. With the lights out and nothing else going on, it takes surprisingly little time to realize that the sounds repeat every six seconds or so. A real babbling brook may be relaxing but the same glub-glub-gurgle-BLOP--glub-glub-gurgle-BLOB--glub-glub-gurgle-BLOP over and over again isn't.

On the other hand, I do like this clock as a part of my waking-up routine. I have this thing start up a half-hour or so before my regular alarm clock. It's a nice, gentler way to wake up.

Another thing -this clock must be plugged in to use most of the features, but it uses batteries to keep the time. It's nice to have one clock in the house that isn't flashing 12:00 when the power goes out!

This clock radio has the expected features:snooze button, wake to alarm,to music,to sound of choice,timer to fall asleep to music or to sound. The sounds quality is not good; fair to poor. I like rain and ocean best. Radio quality is good on am and fm; I like the telescoping antenna which gives the compact unit a feel like a radio-remote control device. There is a removable piece on the back so unit can stand upright or lie flat. Only the clock will run on battery so the power cord is needed for radio and sound making the total weight impractical for an overnight bag. There is an area for AA batteries, but no mention in the literature as to why. Instructions are for AAA batteries and power cord only.