There are tons of apps for generating white noise sounds to help you sleep and relax. If those don’t work for you for whatever reasons (phone speaker not good enough, your brain has gotten accustomed to the looping tracks), someone made Snooz, a dedicated “sound conditioner” whose sole purpose is to produce white noise in real time.
Described as an “acoustic white noise machine,” it’s a dome-shaped tabletop device that doesn’t generate white noise using looping tracks or pre-saved recordings. Instead, the sound comes from an onboard fan that spits out live, natural white noise every time it spins.
Why not just use a noisy electric fan? That would work, too, but Snooz comes with a variety of features that might make it more worthwhile, especially if you don’t actually need an electric fan in the room. You can, for instance, adjust the volume of the white noise by simply rotating the stepless dial, allowing you to adjust it from a light stir to the roar of a massively-sized fan at the highest setting. Tone can be adjusted, too, with a simple twist of the outer shell, allowing it to change from a light fan sound to a deep drone and everything in between. It also comes with an accompanying app that you can use for the adjustments, in case you placed the device away from the bed and don’t feel like getting up.
Unlike electric fans, Snooz won’t disturb the surrounding air, with all actions confined inside the acoustic enclosure. It’s also small enough to consume very little energy, using up just as much as a 12-watt LED bulb.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for Snooz. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $59.