The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends using a quiet (less than 50 decibels) infant sleep machine to mask ambient noise, which can help your baby fall asleep faster and sleep longer. The best baby stereo is safe and reliable, with adjustable volume, varied sound, high sound quality, battery or wall plug use, and comes with an automatic shut-off timer. Some even have Bluetooth for smartphone connections! Dr. Harvey Karp, author of the best-selling book “The Happiest Baby on the Block,” also highly recommends using a white noise machine to help babies soothe themselves. We agree! But which one is the best?
1. Hatch Rest Sound Machine & Night Light
It’s a truly impressive multi-purpose baby voice machine with some amazing features. First of all, it works as a white noise machine, with adjustable volume and multiple sound options, including the white noise itself, but also forest sounds (like crickets chirping), birds, ocean waves, dripping water in streams, rain, laundry!), as well as some melodies. Studies have shown that white noise is most effective at helping babies fall asleep and stay asleep. That’s not to say that your baby won’t appreciate other sounds and find them soothing, just that research tends to check the effectiveness of white noise rather than the effectiveness of other sounds. Secondly, the Hatch Baby Rest can also be used as a night light and sleep trainer. The night light can be white or basically any color of the rainbow and the brightness is adjustable. The sleep trainer aspect is a wake-time indicator for your child that can be set to change the color of the night light after a certain time in the morning (e.g. turning green at 7 a.m. to tell your child that it’s okay to get up). We find that this feature, especially its preset colors and brightness, can be a lifesaver in the morning!
Thirdly, it has a lot of other cool features besides a noise machine, a night light, and a wake-up time sleep trainer. It connects to your smartphone via an iPhone or Android app so that you can operate it remotely from the comfort of your bedroom or living room. You can choose to do it manually using the buttons on the bottom of the device, or remotely via a smartphone app. You can also choose from a variety of preset sleep routines designed by sleep experts – you set your time to fall asleep and wake up, and let the system do the work for you! Additionally, while there are baby noise machines that turn all devices on or off at the same time, this system allows you to turn the night light and sound on or off independently – so you can turn the night light on only, turn on the sound only, or the light and sound on at the same time. The latest version of their app has a “toddler lock”. This helps prevent your child from pressing the button and changing the settings, which is a nice touch. The system plugs directly into the wall, so you don’t need to worry about changing the battery every month.
2. WavHello SoundBub White Noise Machine
The WavHello SoundBub portable white noise machine comes with a variety of excellent features. First, it can be used as a basic white noise machine, placed on any surface and plugged into the wall; It includes not only white noise, but also heartbeats, boos, campfires, babbling creeks, and more. Secondly, it can be used as a portable white noise machine, which you can attach to anything you want using the flip ring: we attach it to our stroller, travel crib, bassinet and headrest in our car! Third, it can be used as a Bluetooth speaker to connect to your mobile device in one of two ways – either as a simple Bluetooth device to stream music, or with the SoundBub app (free on Google Play or the iTunes store, it’s called “VoiceShare”). That’s a lot of functionality for a baby stereo under $40! These are not the only features. It also has a timer switch on the side that automatically turns off after 30,60,or 90 minutes; You can also set it to infinite, which will only turn off when you turn it off or when the battery runs out! The switch at the top allows you to turn it off, turn it on in manual mode, or turn it on in Bluetooth mode. The speaker in the front belly of the owl is actually a button that you can change your preferred sound settings by simply pressing it (there are 6 options). In addition to that, there is a simple volume knob on the left side.
It’s easy to use, lightweight (weighs only 5 ounces), easy to connect to Bluetooth, and the sound quality is very good relative to the price. No, it’s not a pure white noise machine, and you won’t get the white noise sound quality like a LectroFan or Marpac system, but it’s pretty good overall. It has a built-in rechargeable battery that lasts for about two hours when connected to Bluetooth, and the charging time is about the same. It’s perfect for driving, pushing a stroller to the store or lulling your baby to sleep. When you’re ready to jam, you can use it as a portable Bluetooth speaker to play them (or you!). Favorite songs.
3. LectroFan Kinder Sleep Sound Machine
LectroFan has made one of the best monolithic white noise machines on the market, the LectroFan High Fidelity White Noise Machine, which is extremely reliable, versatile, and has accurate sound simulation. But the white noise machine is not designed for children, has no night light, and cannot be connected to a smartphone. The LectroFan Kinder Sleep is an overall smaller electronic white noise machine with a night light and connected to a smartphone app (iPhone or Android). We love it! It’s very simple to use and it’s all manually controlled through the app. Out of the box, you can plug the Kinder unit directly into a standard wall outlet, similar to a night light. You then install the LectroFan app on your smartphone and pair your phone with your Kinder device (via Bluetooth). The same goes for the setup of the Hatch Baby unit. Then you can go to the competition. In the app, you’ll notice that you can control the sound and music with the night light using the simple and intuitive music volume and night light brightness sliders, respectively. There’s a ton of (about 70) sounds, including white noise, lullabies, fan noise, and more, and there’s an adjustable volume that covers those ranges well. The brightness of the night light is adjustable, and you can set it to white or several colors of the rainbow. The light is soft and soft, shining from the top of the device onto the wall, emitting a soft glow on the wall above. The white noise is excellent, and it all seems to be dynamically digitally generated, rather than simply repeating the track over and over again. You can leave the white noise and/or lights on all the time, or you can set a timer on the app so that it turns off automatically after a certain amount of time (probably 20 minutes or so after it is done to help your baby fall asleep).
4. Yogasleep Hushh White Noise Machine
Yogaasleep (formerly known as Marpac) manufactures a wide range of white noise machines, only some of which are marketed to babies. The complete range ranges from cheapest to most expensive including Yogasleep ROHM, Yogasleep Hushh, Yogasleep Whish. These models range in price from $30 to $70 and vary widely in features. When you upgrade from Whish to DOHM, the system uses actual fan-based white noise, which is the most natural and highest-quality white noise technology on the market. In other words, no speaker tries to electronically replicate the sound – instead, it uses the actual fan mechanism inside to produce pure white noise. If you’re looking for accurate and super-consistent (i.e., no loops or subtle background noise) white noise, then you should consider the Marpac DOHM Classic or Connect (Connect can be controlled via a smartphone app and allows you to set a sleep schedule). But DOHMs are also heavier, less portable, and can be more dangerous for curious little fingers (considering there’s actually a fan inside). We’re biased towards Hushh, which is a baby-friendly version of ROHM Yogasleep. Yogasleep Hushh vocalizers are comparatively small, measuring only around 4 inches in size. wide, and quite light. It uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which makes it more portable than most of the other options on this list. When it is used in a nursery, you can plug it into a power source. Then, if you want to take it on a car trip or in a stroller (it comes with a cute little clip so you can attach it to a stroller or car seat), you have the flexibility to unplug it and run it through its internal battery.
It doesn’t have a ton of sound options, but it does have important options: two white noise settings (bright or deep), or soft beach surf sounds. We think the sound is very good for an electronic (as opposed to a fan noise machine) system, and the recording loop is not easily detected. The sound is nowhere near as clean as the Marpac DOHM system or even the LectroFan system, but it’s pretty good for such a small system. It also has a nice night light and locking feature to make sure curious toddlers can’t change settings by pressing a button.
5. Dreamegg Portable White Noise Machine
We’ve never been big proponents of portable white noise machines, as we don’t think the sound quality is great, the battery doesn’t last long, and they’re not as built as big baby audio machines. Well, over the past few years, we’ve seen some great portable speakers hit the market, including this awesome Dreamegg system! This versatile device is ultra-small (only 3.5 inches wide!), light weight (only 6 ounces!)and portable, just plug in the included USB cable to use in your nursery (you’ll need to provide your USB cable). Your own adapter plug (like the one you use for your phone), or with the help of its built-in battery and ring clip on the go. At home, Dreamegg has a handy auto-off timer that you can set (30, 60, or 90 minutes), or you can let it run continuously, as well as a great adjustable intensity night light with nice warm tones. When you’re out with your baby, you can secure it in a stroller, diaper bag, car seat, or wherever you want your baby to relax! This is a great option for babies who are sitting in the cradle attachment of the stroller through the noisy streets. Speaking of noisy streets, this white noise machine makes more than 70 decibels of noise when the volume is turned up to its maximum, exceeding the AAP’s recommended limit of 50 decibels. This can be fine when you’re on the go, such as in a noisy vehicle or in a noisy area of town, but it can also be harmful to your child’s hearing. When using this system, be sure to keep the volume at a low-to-medium setting.
The battery life is about 12-16 hours, depending on the volume (the higher the volume, the shorter the battery life). When you’re at home, you can plug it into a power source. When you’re out and about, you’ll need to recharge, which will take about 1.5 hours. The sound quality is pretty good for such a small audio machine, and there are so many different sounds (11 of them!), such as ocean, heartbeat, and vacuum cleaners.