Choosing the Best Sound Machine for Travel

In our last blog post, we highlighted what we think is the key to keeping your cool while traveling: sleep.  To this end, one of the tools we recommend is a white noise machine. 

But when it comes to travel, all machines are not created equal.  Here are a few factors to consider when choosing a sleep-saving travel companion:

• If consistency is super important to you, we recommend using the same sound machine at home and while traveling. Many people travel with their Dohms, but please be aware that the motor and fan do not enjoy international travel.  The Dohm is also a little bulkier than its electronic cousins.  Therefore, if you travel frequently and want to keep your sound environment exactly the same, you may prefer to use a “travel” model like the Rohm or Hushh at home, too – just don’t forget to bring along the USB cord for recharging!

• It’s worth noting that many people DO sleep with the Dohm at home, yet travel with a Rohm. Yes – the character of the sound is a little different – but both machines produce a high quality white noise which is sufficiently soothing to most.  We take great pride in the quality of our speakers and in the fact that you can’t hear loops or crackles that so commonly plague machines of lesser quality.  You’re in good hands (er… ears?) with Marpac.

• Are you especially sensitive to noise? If so, you may wish to have a little more volume “oomph” at your disposal when traveling.  Hotel hallways can be notoriously noisy; for this reason, we suggest placing the machine between your door and the bed, and then cranking up the volume.  While we love the Dohm, the travel models do have more volume range to play with, despite their more compact size.

• Finally, because we know some of you are wondering… here’s our take on apps: they are best reserved for emergency use only. Your sleep is important enough to warrant the best toolkit possible, and smartphones just aren’t able to produce the kind of robust sound a purpose-built machine can.

 Power your travel with sleep; you'll not only fight the frazzle, but will also find that you have more energy to take full advantage of your waking hours. Whatever the purpose of your trip may be - business or pleasure - sleep helps you make the most of it.