Sound Oasis S-550-05 Sound Therapy System

I bought the Sound Oasis S-550-05 nearly two years ago from Amazon. As a light sleeper, I need something to block out street, hotel and noise from guests that get up earlier than I do. My husband has also found that he sleeps deeper if we have white noise running in the bedroom. We’ve had a white noise machine at home for years, but as a vacation was coming up, and we needed a unit for our lake home, I did a lot of research before purchasing the Sound Oasis S-550-05.My criteria in choosing this unit were the following: It had to be lightweight, a shape that made it easy to pack, must be able to use batteries, able to run continuously, loud enough to hear, and the most important thing to me were that it had to accept headphones.We only use the white noise setting on our machines, so extra sounds didn’t mean much to me, but the opinions of other customers were important. This unit was rated highly by other consumers and had every feature that I needed. Honestly, it was the perfect choice for us.Since purchasing the Sound Oasis S-550-05, it has stayed primarily at the lake house.It keeps my husband and me sleeping through most of the noises, such as cars and trucks driving by. However, neither it, nor any machine out there can block the neighbor’s chain saw very early in the morning, nor the crazy blackbird that kept hitting every window each morning, trying to fight his reflection. But we don’t hear our guests when they get up to use the bathroom or their grandchildren playing in the sunroom.I’ve packed the unit up and taken it along to hotels and to Hawaii and it has helped immensely since I don’t normally sleep well in hotels. If my husband gets up early and wants to watch TV, I plug in the headset and go right back to sleep. So far, I haven’t had to use batteries in it because the cord has reached an outlet everywhere we have been.Some people complain about noise loops in various machines, but I have not noticed that at all.I recently had to stay in the hospital for 3+ days. Since I expected to have a roommate, I brought along my headphones. Every hospital stay I’ve had has been noisy with fire doors slamming and all the noise from people in the halls. I’d forgotten about the beeping machines, so I was very happy that I brought the headphones along. There were plenty of nearby outlets, so I sent the batteries home with my husband. During this hospital stay, I was in a great deal of pain the entire time, and every time I moved, machines beeped. My Sound Oasis S-550-05 and headphones kept me from going off the deep end. The surgeon gave me a cassette player with meditations to listen to, but it was no help when I tried to sleep, while my Sleep Oasis got me snoozing.I highly recommend the Sound Oasis S-550-05 Sound Therapy System. If I were scoring the unit on a 1-10 scale, I’d give it a 9.5. For me, the only complaint about the unit is that it will not hold your last selection when you shut it off. So when I turn it on, I need to hit the white noise button selection. It’s a small thing, but since I only use white noise, I wish that it would stay set.A couple of weeks after returning home from the hospital, I unpacked the bag that had my unit in it, and realized that the base to hold it upright was missing. I contacted Sound Oasis to ask if I could purchase one, and Tina in Customer Service shipped one out to me at no charge and it arrived in less than a week from my original email. Now that’s Top-Notch Customer Service! You can bet that the next time I need another white noise machine, it will be one made by Sound Oasis.

Overall, I recommend this product. Just a few complaints....Normally I am hypersensitive to noise and prefer "peace and quiet." But, at night I prefer sleeping with the fan on to drown out other noises, the television in the other room, etc. Unfortunately, this is not possible in the winter, so I purchased the Sound Oasis S-550-05 Sound Therapy System. It arrived in good time, well-packaged, and with all components in place. But, what struck me first, was that it appears smaller and more cheaply made than in the pictures, and has a small plastic cheaply made stand that could easily be lost or broken, so I use the unit laying down on its' back on my headboard.The Buttons: The on/off/volume and timer buttons are easy to operate for the most part, but the sound buttons must be pushed firmly to change sounds and this tends to be difficult to do with one hand in your sleep without moving the whole unit. (Just a little pet-peeve of mine for this unit).The Sounds: There are six built-in sounds; Ocean Surf, Stream, Rain, White Noise, Summer Night and Wind. The Ocean Surf is okay and probably would be the choice for most people. The Stream and The Rain are harsh. Rather than being like a babbling brook or gentle rain falling against the roof or window, they should be labeled "Niagara Falls," and "Downpour."I bought the machine primarily for the "White Noise," sound, but the white noise as well seems too harsh and irritating.And, the "WIND????" Well, that's downright obnoxious.Surprisingly, I use the sound that would most likely be annoying to all other human beings on the planet and that is, "Summer Night." Basically it is the sound of crickets chirping repeatedly, and believe it or not, I find it so relaxing that I've had the best two nights sleep that I've had in a very long time. (Hence the four stars in spite of all my complaints!)Sound Cards: There is the option to use additional sound cards on this machine which is another reason I purchased it. I have not tried this yet, or figured out how to do so, which would require reading the instructions, but I do plan to in the future and hopefully will be able to find other sounds not quite as harsh or obnoxious.So, do I recommend it? Yes! Just be aware of some of the downfalls I have pointed out and if you are looking for a decent sound quality in a lightweight, fairly easy to use machine, then this is the one!

I ordered this unit with a couple extra sound cards. I was a little concerned on the size, but was happy to see that it was not overly large and did not take up much space on my nightstand. I prefer to use 4 AA batteries (not included) instead of the AC power cord because I already have so many other power cords criss-crossing everywhere. I really like the idea that it has the option to choose a shut off timer of 30, 60 or 90 minutes so you don't waste the battery life. The front silver large rectangle is actually the on and off button.The sounds are soothing and the options are great. However the volume can be heard better if you turn the unit around and have the back facing you. That is where the speaker is located and there are no cut-outs or speaker holes in the front. The other issue I had was placing the other sound cards into the cassette holder. It took some force to get them in there. I was scared I was going to break it, that is how much force you have to use to make the card go all the way down and make a connection. This whole sound card idea needs to be easier to use.However even with those couple of design flaws, I really like the Sound Oasis unit and how you can use different sound cards. It is very relaxing and assists me in falling asleep faster.

This system is attractive and has good quality audio. I also like the fact that I could program it to play up to 90 minutes . I was , however, disappointed in the sound selections. The unit I had previously, incorporated related sounds into the main selection -eg - the sound of seagulls in the ocean waves, the sound of crickets intermittently in the babbling brook item. I found I was listening for these occasional sounds and was focused on the selection until I fell asleep. My mind wanders more with these monotones and when I listened to the cricket chirping it irritated me so much I just wanted to get out of bed and go find it or shut the window - which was already shut. I am looking into the sound card mentioned in the Manual.I also found the unit unstable on the stand provided. Perhaps I didn't use it correctly but it kept coming off when I picked it up to turn the unit on or adjust the sound level.

I'm a white noise user, so I wasn't too concerned with any other sound but the white noise. I saw a review someone did on YouTube playing all the siunds and it sounded good, but it's even better in person.All the sounds are good, just a small amount to choose from.The ability to have the machine on all night and you press the centre button to silence it was good feature for me, however that centre button is hard to press if it's not backed up against something like the wall.The best stand out feature about this whole unit to me is the fact there is absolutely no light. No power light, no time to flicker, it keeps the room pitch black the way I like it.Would buy this unit again in a heartbeat.

I bought this for my 1 year old. We were using the Sleep Sheep noise maker. But at a maximum it lasts 45 mins and this wasn't long enough. So we used two of them, one after another. Finally we made the switch to the Sound Oasis. We use the continuous setting on rain (like Sleep Sheep) for nap and 90 mins setting at bedtime. It drowns out my neighbours pool, their loud friends, slamming gates, barking dogs and loud conversations and music. Nothing is perfect but it definitely helps. I love the multiple length settings and the "fade to off". The Sleep Sheep just stops and sometimes it cued a wake up. Our baby is a light sleeper, but a good sleeper. The Sound Oasis allows baby to get the sleep thats needed and the rest we love!

Lovely unit and it is quite small so it fits nicely on the bedside table to create relaxing sounds while we are falling asleep. And, because it is so small, we can easily move it to another room to create ambience while reading or working in the kitchen. It is not quite powerful enough to wash out loud, daytime industrial sounds around the apartment building, still it does the job we got it for. It's also nice that you can buy a sound cards without other sound effects. From the looks of it, sound cards would be easy to change.We definitely recommend it.

This replaces an older model. The newer digital files used here are sharper in their sound and tone, and the variety is better. One can just press the middle bar to re-engage the sound, versus turning it on and off, which is nice. The unit is thin and easily packed for travel. There are also other sound cards that can be purchased. Sound can be set for an hour or ongoing, and can also be used for white noise or calming when trying to go to sleep. Highly recommended.