My wife and I like to sleep with some "white" noise at night. The sound of a slow fan would be just about perfect, except, having allergies, it affects us to have it stirring up dust throughout the night.
I bought a sound machine at Brookstone, that cost about $175. It sounded okay, but we couldn't really pick a sound out of the selections it had, that was just right. (I've tried cheaper ones, but they had such poor quality audio, that it was irritating.)
Does anyone know of a good sound machine/sound generator that works well? I've also thought about sound CDs, that have sounds of rain, etc. Most of the ones I've found also have music, which I don't want for this application. I have a couple that have either the surf or a thunderstorm, but they aren't quite what we're looking for, either.
I've often wished I could find some sounds on the Internet that I could burn to a CD, to play at night, but don't know of any.
As a side note, I remember the relaxing sound of an A/C window unit at home on summer nights, when I was a child. That was always a great sound to sleep to. Man, if someone could bottle up that sound in a machine...
If I could think of someone with a window unit, I would even record about an hour of that sound and make a CD or put it on a flash-based MP3 player, connected to a stereo.
I think people that live next to a river, have one of the greatest sounds to sleep to that I can imagine. The thought of having the window open on spring nights, with a river running nearby, almost makes me sleepy, just thinking about it...
Hmm... Here's an idea. The next time there is a HEAVY rain, I might record about an hour of it and put it on CD. That might be a good one. (By the way, I always thought a funny joke would be for these companies that sell "mood CDs/relaxing CDs", to sell one called gentle rain or some such. Then, at about 50 minutes into the CD, have a LOUD THUNDER CRACK. Imagine the folks that have been sleeping peacefully to that CD being startled out of bed... I know, I know - warped.)
Anyway - anyone have ideas or suggestions? I'm open to any innovative ideas, too.
Thanks.