White Noise Without the Fan

Marpac Dohm-DS Sound Machine

Because she's had a case of chronic tinnitus for several years, the woman of the house often finds it difficult to sleep without a low-to-medium level of background “white noise” in the room. Years ago, we tried some of those “sound machines” that have settings that are supposed to mimic waves or rain, but they seemed intrusive and the variations in pitch and volume seemed to make it harder to get to sleep, not easier. For years, she’s used a fan on a low setting. That’s no big deal in summer or during what Houston calls “winter,” but when the Midwestern temperatures drop below 0°F you don’t want a fan running in the bedroom at night!

The solution turned out to be simple: I bought her a “fake fan.” With her new Marpac Dohm-DS Sound Machine, she’s happy as a clam and sleeps like a baby. Believe it or not, this machine actually is little more than a fan inside a cylindrical housing; a cylindrical package about six inches in diameter and six inches tall. This model (Marpac has several) has a two-speed fan, plus the outer casing rotates to adjust the volume. Best of all, there’s no moving air around the machine to stir up dust or chill the room. That's because the company, which has been making these machines (or something like them) for more than 50 years, designed the fan blades to pretty much cancel each other out.

We having our unit sitting across the bedroom from the bed, set on low, yet it’s still as loud as the floor fan we had been using. The motor draws a measly 18 watts, so you can run it for about a week and only use one kilowatt-hour. It sounds almost exactly like a fan except that the tone is slightly “hollow,” which only took a night or so to get used to. Oh, and if you’re worried that it’ll clash with your décor, the little guy comes in white, black, or tan – ours is black.

We’re sold – so much so that we might get the Marpac Rohm for travel use!

copyright 2018 scmrak