REVIEW – Years ago my wife and I got to the point in our life when the slightest sound in the middle of the night would wake us up. (Insert old person joke here) So we started turning on the bathroom fan every night, and the constant noise helps to block out random noises like traffic, doors slamming, dogs barking, and so forth. I know there are studies out there that say having a constant noise like that can help you sleep better, but I don’t need a study to tell me that. I am a believer! The problem for us is that now when we travel we usually don’t sleep well because hotel bathroom fans leave a lot to be desired. So for us, the Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine appeared to be the perfect solution because of its great price ($34.50) and its portability. Let’s talk about what we discovered!
What is it?
The Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine is a sound machine to provide you with numerous soothing sounds to have in your house, your baby’s nursery, or perhaps in your bedroom while you are sleeping.
What’s in the box?
The Dreamegg D1 sound machine and a USB power adapter and cable that is almost 5 ft long.
Hardware specs
- Model: HFD-W02
- Size: 4.1 x 4.1 x 2.5 inches
- Weight: 1.2 lbs
- Speaker: 5W output
- Included 5V/1.0A AC power to USB adapter and 5 ft cord
Design and Performance
The Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine is fairly small, and shorter than a coffee cup (as you can see from the picture above). The white version I have looks nice in any of the settings I have used it… the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, and my office. The top of the unit is a rubberized surface, soft to the touch. The button in the middle is for turning on the night light and it is slightly raised. (see picture below) The other buttons encircling the light button are slightly concave, so in complete darkness, you can still use the machine just by feeling when you are familiar with what each button does. The sound comes out of the bottom edge of the unit, through narrow slits all around the edge.
When you press the light button on the unit face it turns on a soft white light that emanates from a circle around the top edge of the unit, and it is constant. Pressing it again will make the light softly pulse on and off, in rhythm with your breathing. I found the light too dim to read a book by, and too bright to sleep with. So I never used it. But I could see how you would use the light if you were using the D1 in a nursery. When my children were infants we had to constantly go into their room in the middle of the night for one reason or another, so a night light was a must for us. The D1’s light serves that purpose great, in my opinion.
The Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine has a timer function that you can use, giving you 30, 60, and 90 minutes of use, then the unit turns off. You set this by pressing the timer button in the upper left of the unit face. And each time you press the button it cycles through the 3 indicator lights (for 30, 60, and 90) at the top of the unit face. I should also mention that when the timer goes off it slowly fades out to silence in about 10 seconds. It would be nice if the ‘fading out’ took a little longer, perhaps a minute or so, but maybe I am being picky. In any event, you can skip using the timers and simply turn the unit on to let it run all night. That’s how we use it most of the time.
There are increase and decrease volume buttons, and the D1 can get pretty loud. We normally place it in the bathroom and because the sound bounces off all the walls, we don’t need it to be very loud.
When it comes to sounds to choose from, the Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine offers 24 choices. You access them by pressing 1 of the 3 buttons on the unit face, corresponding to Fan, White Noise, and Nature Sounds. There are 7 fan sounds, and 7 white noise sounds. And then there are 10 ‘nature’ sounds. I didn’t care for most of them, but you can choose from birds chirping, ocean waves, a thunderstorm, a bubbling brook, a steady rain, crickets, a fetal heartbeat, and 3 different lullaby songs. When you press one of the 3 sound buttons, you simply keep pressing the button to cycle through all the sounds for that button and stop at the one you want.
On the back of the unit is the power connection. It uses a little round power connector that connects to the unit, and on the other end of the power cable is a standard USB connector, which plugs into the included power adapter with a standard 2-prog AC power connection. I like this feature because if I ever wanted to plug the D1 into a portable power brick (of which I have plenty!) I can do that. I could also plug the D1 into my laptop’s USB port if it came to that. So there are multiple options for using the power cord.
Right above the power port on the back is a 3.5MM audio-out headphone jack. You can use a wired set of headphones, for example, in an office setting perhaps if you wanted to block out some noise while you concentrated. Or if you wanted more sound output you could connect a portable speaker to really crank out the sound!
Probably the best feature of the Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine is that it has built-in memory that remembers that last sound you played, even when you unplug it from the power. This is great because you don’t have to remember which of the 24 sounds you like. You just turn it back on and it starts playing the last one you used.
And finally, for you power nerds out there who like to know about these little details, the D1 comes with over-voltage protection. So if the external power source you are using spikes over 5.5V, the unit will automatically shut off. Nice.
What I like
- Great price
- Great portability
- Great sound
What I’d change
- When using the timer, I would like for the fading out process to take a little longer than 10 seconds. It seems too abrupt.
Final thoughts
The Dreamegg D1 Sound Machine is a great product, at a great price. The 24 different sounds can provide a sound for just about everyone. It’s portable and can easily fit in any bag or suitcase for your trips. It looks good enough to sit around in your kitchen, office, bedroom, or nursery. It remembers the last sound you used, so you don’t have to worry about finding that one sound you like the most. The USB cord with the included power adapter means you have several options for powering the D1. This product doesn’t have a rechargeable battery to use without the power cord, but Dreamegg sells a version of the product with that if you want one. I do wish the timer would fade out a little longer at the end, but I usually use the D1 all night so that issue isn’t really a deal breaker for me. For a price of around $35, this is a great gadget to have, so I highly recommend this product!
Price: $25.49
Where to buy: Amazon or Dreamegg.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Dreamegg.
