Homedics Sound Spa Rejuvenate Review

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Full review and video transcript

Introduction

Hi, I’m Ethan Green from nosleeplesnights.com and in this video I’m going to be doing a review of the Homedics Sound Spa Rejuvenate sound machine. It’s a bit of a long name that one, so I’m going to call it the Homedics Sound Spa for the purposes of simplicity in this review.

Talking of simplicity, that’s one of the key features of the Homedics Sound Spa that I really like: it’s a very easy white noise machine to use that’s not overwhelming in the number of features that it’s got, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you like your devices to have extensive features!

In the photo below you can see what I got when I bought it: a sturdy box, the white noise machine, a power adaptor, and an instruction manual. Batteries were not included.

It’s also a budget machine; I paid just under 20 pounds for this one in the UK, so it’s right at the bottom end of the spectrum of prices for white noise machines. So, let’s pop over to the table, where I’m going to play through the sounds and talk about the features, which won’t take long, and then wrap up with some pros and cons.

How it’s powered

0:43 in the video

The first thing to talk about with the Homedics Sound Spa is how you power it. This one came with a standard UK power adapter and cable. It’s quite long as well, but you don’t need to use that if you don’t want to. And that’s because on the underside you’ll see there’s a battery compartment.

It takes, if I can open it with my nails, there we go it, it takes four AA batteries. And it’s one of very few white noise machines that can be powered that way. So you can have it either with the power adapter plugged in if you want to, or you can just use it with the batteries.

And that’s a great option if you want to use it away from a power outlet and you don’t want it plugged in, or as a backup as well in case you have a power outage – the batteries will automatically take over. So let me close that up, turn it over again, and now let’s have a listen to the sounds.

The six sound options

1:21 in the video

Sound options

• Thunder
• Summer Night
• Ocean
• Brook
• White Noise
• Rain

So what I’m going to do is play through all six sounds and not talk while I do it so you can just have a listen.

(At this point in the video, I play through all six sounds for a few seconds each)

So those are the sounds. Now, my opinion is that it’s a bit of a shame there aren’t more sounds, but at the end of the day, for such a cheap device, you’re not going to get a huge range of sounds generally on a white noise machine.

Now, as for the sounds that it does have, I think that the white noise is kind of okay; it’s quite high frequency as you’d imagine with normal white noise. It would have been good to have pink or brown noise, but at the same time I’m not sure the speaker would have been able to cope with it really.

The rain is good, I like listening to the rain, it’s quite relaxing. The brook is good as well, and the summer night. I think those are probably the best ones on this device really. The ocean’s okay – it has those rolling waves, but you do get used to the sound of the waves with the looping.

There’s no click or break at the end of the loops, it’s continuous, but if you just listen to the same thunderclaps or ocean waves then you will eventually spot them. As for the thunder, again I think that perhaps the speaker can’t really cope with the thunder so well. I think that, really, thunder is best suited to a better speaker.

Volume

3:02 in the video

So now let’s have a listen to the volume controls. I’m going to keep it on thunder, turn it on, and go through the volume up and down so you can have a listen.

(At this point in the video, I play the thunder sound and turn the volume up and down)

And that’s the volume. I think the thunder kind of struggles on the lowest volume (settings) and also on the highest volume (settings). So really, if you’re going to listen to it, you kind of need it on the medium volume settings I think.

The incremental volume controls are good; I think there are around 12 settings, but the buttons are a bit clicky. And I think all the buttons are a bit clicky on this device really.

Auto-off timers

4:11 in the video

Now let’s talk about the auto-off timers because that’s something I do like about this device. Let’s turn the volume down so you don’t have to listen to that while I’m talking!

You can see here that we’ve got a timer button. When there’s no LED indicator, it means that it’ll be continuous all night. We’ve got 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. So it’s good that it’s got those timers.

The LEDs, these blue LEDs, are quite bright. They’re not very big, but they are quite bright so if you’re someone that doesn’t like to have lots of LEDs in the room then perhaps this isn’t going to be one that suits you.

It also has a memory function, so if you turn it off and on again it will start up with the latest settings.

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Pros

4:37 in the video

1. Can be used with batteries

Okay, now let’s talk about the pros and cons of the Homedics Sound Spa. As I see it, the main pro is the fact that it can be used either with the power adapter or four AA batteries. Because not many white noise machines can be used with AA batteries, that’s a really good feature that I know some people will be specifically looking for. So it’s one of the main pros of this one I think.

2. Easy to use

One of the best points about the Homedics Sound Spa I think is the fact that it’s just so simple to use. I think if you’ve got finger sensitivity issues and you need large buttons and you want to be able to easily find the buttons in the nighttime, for example, then this is definitely one to consider. And it’s good that all the sounds are individually labeled. It’s just easier to instantly locate the one that you want to listen to.

3. Good price

It’s also a very cheap white noise machine, so if you’re looking to buy one on a budget and you just want a simple, basic machine – you don’t want to, you know, spend upwards of a hundred dollars or a hundred pounds, whatever it might be, then this is one to consider.

I also like the fact that it comes with a three-year guarantee, which is longer than most white noise machines.

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Cons

5:31 in the video

1. Limited number of sounds

Okay, now let’s talk about some of the downsides. For me, one of the most glaringly obvious is the fact that it doesn’t have a fan sound. It’s just got one white noise and five nature sounds.

So if you’re looking specifically for fan sounds or deeper colors of white noise like pink or brown, which are quite popular these days, then I don’t think this is going to be the machine for you.

If you’re just looking for a few nature sounds and one white noise then perhaps it’s one to consider, but not if you’d like to have lots of variety of sounds.

2. Basic speaker

The second point is that the speaker quality isn’t that fantastic. I mean, if you’re listening to it on the brook or the summer night, I find it’s not too bad – you can kind of tolerate those sounds. But I think the thunder, particularly, really shows up the quality of the speaker. It just doesn’t have a very rich, filling, and bassy sound at all which is, you know, what you would expect from thunder.

3. Short loops

Another issue to consider is the loops. It doesn’t click or stop at the end of each loop, but you can tell the loops with some of the sounds like the thunder just because it only has a few different thunderclaps.

Eventually, you’re going to spot them and think “Oh, it’s the same thunderclap again, and again, and again!” which is pretty much the same with most white noise machines to be honest. It’s something to bear in mind, but if you’re listening to the standard rain or the white noise, you can’t tell the end of the loop really.

4. Size

Another point to consider is that it’s quite large, especially in terms of the width and the length. It’s not too tall, but it’s going to take up a bit of space on a nightstand.

Final verdict

7:01 in the video

My final verdict of the Homedics Sound Spa is that for a budget white noise machine it’s a pretty good one. Just be prepared to tolerate the lack of sound choice and the lack of bass in the speaker.

And that’s about it for my review of the Homedics Sound Spa. I hope you found this video helpful. If you did and you’d like to buy it then you can find a link in the description to do so, and please also subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep in touch and see future videos. Thanks again, this is Ethan from No Sleepless Nights.

Additional Notes

Here are a few additional points I either didn’t include in the video at the time, or have discovered since filming.

• I timed the thunder loop as roughly 20 seconds long. It basically consists of two long thunder claps that repeat. I’m not sure about the exact time of every loop, as you can’t tell on some of them. But the thunder loop is easy to recognise after a few cycles.
• I tested the automatic switch to the batteries if there’s a power cut and it does work. There seems to be a slight drop in volume when the power goes out and the batteries take over. But otherwise, it works well.
• There is another version of the Homedics Sound Spa. That one has the same sounds and timer lengths, and can also be used with batteries. The main difference seems to be the dial knob for the volume and the overall shape/design.
• The device is very light without the batteries in. So despite saying it’s large in terms of the length and width, because it’s relatively flat and doesn’t weigh much, it’s actually quite portable if you want to take a white noise machine in your luggage.
• It doesn’t have a headphone jack, and there is no internal rechargeably battery. You need to provide the four AA batteries yourself, or just use the included power adaptor.
• If you buy it in the US, it will come with a US power adaptor, not the UK adaptor I demonstrate in the video.
• I don’t talk in the video about how effective it is at blocking out noise because that’s a hard one to pin down. The type of noise, volume, and proximity all play a big role. Having said that, the maximum volume is reasonable, so like any white noise machine it will help mask some external noise, but less so with other types of noise. I doubt it will help a great deal if you have heavy bass music coming through an adjoining wall, for example. But it should help mask some noise, such as distant traffic, birds, people talking etc.
• If you’d like to compare it with another white noise machine that can be operated with batteries, take a look at my article on the Big Red Rooster.