Noise machine comparison
Six machines on the specs that actually decide whether you keep using one — whether it loops, how quiet it goes, and whether it can reproduce brown noise at all. These are the numbers product pages leave out.
Try free first. Run a browser generator nightly for two weeks. It never loops and covers every noise colour. Buy hardware only if you end up wanting your phone out of the bedroom.
LectroFan Micro 2
Pocket-sized and battery powered. Thinner sound than the full-size unit, but the best thing to travel with.
- Sound generation
- Digital
- Loop-free
- Yes
- Noise colours
- 5
- Brown noise capable
- No
- Minimum volume
- ~38 dB
- Runs continuously
- Yes
- Lights fully off
- Yes
- Physical controls
- Yes
- Battery powered
- Yes
LectroFan Classic
Digitally generated rather than looped, with a volume range that goes genuinely low. The reliable default.
- Sound generation
- Digital
- Loop-free
- Yes
- Noise colours
- 10
- Brown noise capable
- Yes
- Minimum volume
- ~35 dB
- Runs continuously
- Yes
- Lights fully off
- Yes
- Physical controls
- Yes
- Battery powered
- Mains only
Marpac Dohm Classic
An actual fan in a housing, so it cannot loop by definition. One sound only, and not true brown noise.
- Sound generation
- Mechanical fan
- Loop-free
- Yes
- Noise colours
- 1
- Brown noise capable
- No
- Minimum volume
- ~45 dB
- Runs continuously
- Yes
- Lights fully off
- Yes
- Physical controls
- Yes
- Battery powered
- Mains only
Sound Oasis Tinnitus Machine
Purpose-built for tinnitus masking, with high-frequency profiles the general-purpose machines do not carry.
- Sound generation
- Digital
- Loop-free
- No
- Noise colours
- 6
- Brown noise capable
- No
- Minimum volume
- ~35 dB
- Runs continuously
- Yes
- Lights fully off
- No
- Physical controls
- Yes
- Battery powered
- Mains only
Hatch Rest
Built for a nursery: sound, night light and a time-to-rise indicator the child grows into. App controlled.
- Sound generation
- Digital
- Loop-free
- Yes
- Noise colours
- 3
- Brown noise capable
- No
- Minimum volume
- ~30 dB
- Runs continuously
- Yes
- Lights fully off
- Yes
- Physical controls
- App only
- Battery powered
- Mains only
Hatch Restore 2
Sunrise alarm, reading light and sound machine in one. You are paying for the light, not the noise quality.
- Sound generation
- Digital
- Loop-free
- Yes
- Noise colours
- 4
- Brown noise capable
- Yes
- Minimum volume
- ~30 dB
- Runs continuously
- Yes
- Lights fully off
- Yes
- Physical controls
- Yes
- Battery powered
- Mains only
↳ Prices are indicative and move. Links are affiliate links. Full disclosure
What actually matters
Reviews tend to compare sound counts and app features. Neither predicts whether you will still be using the machine in six months. Three specs do.
Looping
A machine that plays a recorded file repeats, commonly every 30 seconds to a few minutes. You will not notice for a week. Then you will notice permanently, and the loop becomes the thing keeping you awake. Digital generation and mechanical fans cannot loop, which is why both beat mid-range machines that cost more.
Minimum volume
Almost no product page lists it, and it is the spec that decides whether a machine works in a nursery. AAP guidance is under 50dB measured where the baby's head sits, with the machine at least 200cm away. A machine whose quietest setting is already 45dB leaves you no margin.
Low-frequency capability
Brown noise concentrates nearly all its energy below 500Hz. A 2-inch driver in a plastic case cannot move enough air down there, so what comes out is brown noise with the bottom two octaves missing — thin rather than enveloping. If brown noise is why you are buying, check this before anything else.
The fuller version of this reasoning, including when to skip hardware entirely, is in the buying guide.