“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!” The captions of a tired mind as it lays awake on the pillow, a prisoner inside the skull not allowed to switch itself off for some badly needed sleep. Maybe it’s the snoring of the person next to you. Or the street noises out your window. Or your loud-ass neighbors. Hell, maybe it’s the tinnitus in your head, and perfect quietude—that unattainable Holy Grail for so many—is a curse for you and you need a gentle noise to drown out the constant ringing that has no off button.
You might call them white noise machines, but sound machines go so far beyond just white noise. The best let you tailor how loud you want it, what pitch you want it, what tone you want it. Ramp up the treble? Sure. Put on some busy café noises instead? Go for it. We’ve rounded up the nine best sound machines on the market for all you nighttime sufferers out there. Relief could very well be in one of the plastic boxes below.
Quick Look at the Best Sound Machines
- Best for white noise – LectroFan Classic
- A slightly different take – LectroFan Evo
- Best for ambient tracks – Sound+Sleep High Fidelity Sleep Sound Machine
- For true analog noise – Yogasleep Dohm UNO
- For a spot of sun, too – Hatch Restore 2
- Sweet overkill – Sound Oasis Deluxe Sound Therapy System
- For the indecisive on a budget – Duoni W03S
- Best for travel – Restnature White Noise Sound Machine
- An actual fan – Vornado 460
How we Evaluated
Sound machines have a habit of looping audio. How could they not? These digital soundtracks have to end at some point, and unless you want the sound machine to shut off abruptly during the night, it has to restart again and again. The problem is, the human brain is awfully good at noticing patterns. I’ve laid awake to too many sound machines, painfully aware of the rhythmic repetition. So our top criteria was how well the looping effect was covered up. The best sound machines will throw in randomly generated noises and changes to mask the fact that the base audio was looping.
Next, notice that we’re saying “sound machines” and not “white noise machines.” That’s because white noise is only one flavor of background noise. So we graded based on the variety of sounds a machine had. White noise, pink noise, brown noise, box fan sounds, rainforests, babbling creeks. As long as they sounded good, lots of options were a plus.
And we graded on sound quality. That came down to a mix of the speaker’s fidelity and the soundtracks. Nobody wants to lay down to a thunderstorm soundtrack and realize it sounds like their neighbor’s wheezing Dodge Neon plodding up a hill.
Finally, being intuitive to use in the dark was a major plus. After all, nothing wakes a person up more than jumping out of bed to turn the lights on and find the right button.
Best for White Noise – LectroFan Classic
Notice those two buttons on the face of the LectroFan Classic: fan sounds and white noises. That’s what you get. Twenty of them, and no fancy soundtracks of ocean swells breaking or birds in dappled forests singing. But as far as white noise goes, the Classic has the rest beat.
Each track sounds so natural, I’d almost forget it was just a digital track. It does this one (or two, if fan noises count separately) and does it very well. The controls are intuitive, and I could easily operate the raised buttons in the pitch black. It also lets you vary the volume from the next closest thing to a whisper all the way to loud as hell. I’ve actually used it to cover up the sounds of an outdoor rave on my building’s roof in order to fall asleep. Multiple times.
There’s a single sleep timer setting for one hour. If you take longer than an hour to fall asleep, you should look at the LectroFan Evo, but it was never an issue for me.
A Slightly Different Take – LectroFan Evo
It doesn’t look like the Classic is going anywhere, even though the Evo replicates many of its sounds in a similar-sized package.
Having the buttons flush and on top of the Evo doesn’t make much of a positive or negative impact on me, although they are harder to use by touch in the dark than the non-flush buttons of the Classic.
There are two more sounds than the LectroFan Classic’s variety of fan sounds and white noise, a pair of ocean surf soundtracks, bringing its total to 22 noises. Most of them are variations of white noise, like the Classic.
Finally, whereas the Classic’s sleep timer can only be set to an hour, the Evo lets you select a minimum of one hour and a maximum of eight. On the flip side, customers say the Evo doesn’t get as loud as the Classic and that the Classic has a bit more deep bass in its speaker.
Best for Ambient Tracks –
Sound+Sleep High Fidelity Sound Machine
Sound+Sleep High Fidelity Sound Machine
The Sound+Sleep has an interesting way of divvying up its 10 sounds. Even though there’s a white noise setting, the stars of the show are the soundtracks such as train, waterfall, city, brook, ocean, meadow, and more. And then for each of the 10, there are three “richness” settings that layer in more or fewer ambient sounds, like deciding how much pepper you want in your salad.
The randomness of these enhancements made it impossible for me to notice any looping or mind-gnashing repetition in the tracks. The sleep timer can be set for in 30-minute increments from a half-hour to two hours. With a sound-setting wheel and all the buttons, it was only semi-intuitive to use in the dark. I could reach over and work the raised buttons easily enough when I could remember what each one did, but there was a bit of guesswork involved in using the wheel when I couldn’t see it.
For a Spot of Sun, too – Hatch Restore 2
The Restore 2 packs 21 sleep sounds into a sunrise alarm. What’s that, you ask? An alarm clock that gently lulls you awake in the morning by gradually brightening in a faux-sunrise light pattern. It can do the same in reverse at night by mimicking a sunset to get you to nod off.
Many sunrise alarms come with a few sleep sounds, but the Restore 2 stands out as having the thickest selection of them among sunrise alarms. All the tracks—from thunderstorms to birds singing—sounded of high quality. Plus, this unit looks damn nice. It comes in three earth tones with fabric covering on the front in a handsome, modernist package.
The Hatch+ membership unlocks curated sleep music, bedtime stories, guided rest exercises, and sound routines for $5 per month, but you don’t really need it. All the important stuff, such as the sunrises, sunsets, and sleep sounds are available for free, so give the membership a pass.
For True Analog Noise – Yogasleep Dohm UNO
Are you a fan of fans? Real whirling blades that twirl and produce that hypnotizing, melodic rhythm? Most sound machines out there, including the ones in this guide, rely upon digital tracks of white noise and fans.
The Yogasleep Dohm UNO is an actual fan inside a shaped cover with various holes and ports. You select one or two fan speeds and then turn the cover, which changes the configuration of overlapping holes and varies the pitch from light and airy to deep and resonant. Customers say the quality of the fan noises is top notch, and you won’t have to worry about noticing any looping patterns that keep you awake as you lay in bed.
But there are no bonus sounds and no sleep timer, although it’s easy to use when the lights are out. It’s a deep and rewarding specialist tool for nailing a particular kind of sound, not a jack of all trades good at offering you a spread of options.
Sweet Overkill – Sound Oasis Deluxe Sound Therapy System
Sound Oasis Deluxe Sound Therapy System
You might suffer from a crowded nightstand with the Sound Oasis, but you won’t suffer from lack of choice. Five “mix” settings for each of 48 soundtracks makes for 288 combinations of noises to fall asleep to. As if that’s not enough, you can adjust the bass and treble to account for any trickery that tinnitus might play on your ears, making it more effective at blocking out the hideous ringing plague.
There’s an included sleep timer that can be set to 30, 60, or 90 minutes, an AM/FM radio, a headphone jack, and an input jack so that you can pipe sounds through its speaker from your smartphone or tablet. It’s a lot more than most people need at a price that’s almost as big as its physical dimensions.
All the knobs and buttons on the front make it difficult to use in the dark, too. But if you’re hard to please and a sucker for choice, sound machines don’t come any more loaded down with features than this.
For the Indecisive on a Budget – Duoni W03S
The Duoni seems to have a fear of commitment, but you know what? That’s OK. Some people like to straddle life’s choices. Rather than committing itself entirely to white noise and fan noises, like the LectroFans and Yogasleep, or to digital soundtracks, like the Sound+Sleep, the Duoni splits them with seven fan sounds, seven white noises, and 13 soundtracks for a total of 27 selectable sounds.
Even the soundtracks are varied, from nature tracks such as campfire and crickets to more esoteric choices like “womb” and shushing. Customers also say the speaker sounds rather full, not at all tinny, and haven’t noticed any obvious looping in the tracks. The woodgrain case looks a bit fake, although the shape of the compact sound machine is pleasant and modern.
Best for Travel – Restnature white noise sound machine
Restnature White Noise Sound Machine
The name is bigger than the actual sound machine. Not much larger than a jumbo egg, the Restnature is perfect for traveling when you don’t want to use your smartphone for sleep sounds.
The Restnature weighs in at a tenth of a pound and won’t hog your suitcase like all the other machines in this guide. There are 16 sounds, including three fan noises, three white noises, three lullaby noises meant for babies, and seven ambient soundtracks.
It runs off an internal battery that recharges via USB-C cable and won’t hog a precious hotel room outlet, and an optional sleep timer that offers 30, 60, or 90 minutes before shutting off. Expect to charge it every day, though, since its internal battery runs down after each night of use.
The trade-off, according to customer reviews, is that its speaker sounds tinny compared to full-size sound machines and doesn’t get particularly loud.
An Actual Fan – Vornado 460
All right, we’re stretching the definition of sound machines (What’s next? Bottle rockets? Cars?), but during the summer months I rely on this fan to lull me to sleep. I’m a big… admirer of Vornado fans and have owned several for years. The Vornado 460 stands out as the best for nighttime use in the bedroom because the lowest two of its three settings bestow just the right amount of noise to cover up snoring and street sounds without being too loud, and it’s small enough to live on a dresser or large nightstand.
The Vornado 630 is excellent, but can be overkill for some bedrooms. It’s also rather large to be placed on a dresser or desk. The Vornado VFAN Mini is awfully charming and small enough to tuck onto the tiniest of nightstands, but it has two fan speeds and thus two volume levels: too quiet and TOO FREAKING LOUD.
Like the unrepentant burglar Goldilocks, the Vornado 460 strikes the perfect balance for nighttime use. Downsides? Well, there’s just one type of noise—fan sounds—so if you want to fall asleep to the ambiance of your favorite cafe, you’re out of luck (unless said cafe is located in a wind tunnel). And there’s no sleep timer, so it’ll be on until you wake up and turn it off. But it’s a very pleasant sound to fall asleep to, and you never have to worry about the distraction of looping patterns.
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