I like 'Rain' best. The 'Ocean' is a little too bold for falling asleep -- surf sometimes pounds -- but it is a nice one if you wake up in the middle of the night. 'Meadow' is very good, but hearing the bugs whir keeps me away. 'City' is probably my second favorite after 'Rain'.The compensating volume works just as described in the documentation and elsewhere here. Could hardly be better. It does not (I'm given to understand) help my wife with my snoring, but I will not blame the machine for that.Sound quality is quite good. The 'Richness' switch I would describe more as a 'Presence' switch. In position one the treble is rolled off, position three the sound is quite forward and almost a little brash. I was thinking I kept it in the middle position, but I just went and checked and found it is at the highest-treble third position.Quality seems very nice. Layout of controls is as natural as you can get, and the essentials (on-off, 'sound event', volume) are easy enough for the middle of the night.

I have been living with a fan for noise to help me sleep. I unfortunately wake at the slightest noise and I live with cats in the house. Just the noise of their nocturnal adventures, not to mention the other people in the house, prevent me from getting a good night sleep. Once I set this product up, I was amazed how quickly the sound masked even a cat meowing in my room. The product is well built and the controls are easy to use. I don't use all the different sounds, but I am impressed.The only drawback is that it is a large device and doesn't fit in a suitcase for travel.I highly recommend this product.

I have 5 sound machines around the house from various companies. I've tried the cheap, basic ones and the expensive, 50+ sound option models. The cheap ones never worked well for me because my neurotic brain would always focus on the repeating 2 - 5 second sound loop and the tinny, low bass noise coming out of the cheap speakers. My 2 expensive versions have MUCH better speakers, but I found myself always going back to my 2 or 3 favorite scenes. I didn't like most of the options, just couldn't sleep to 'horse and buggy' or 'heartbeat'. The scenes also repeat, though the sound samples were usually long enough that it didn't bother me too much.The Ecotones Duet is just what I needed. The sounds are rich and non-repeating. I like that you can reduce the 'richness' if you don't enjoy, for example, a screaming bird in your ocean noise. The speaker seems to be good quality, though it could use a bit more bass ( minor complaint ). The adaptive feature is cool if there are kids yelling at spongebob or dora when you are trying to get some sleep.Just an excellent piece of technology. I highly recommend it.

I live in a high noise area presently and have tried several sound / sleep machines for background noise. I would rate the Ecotones Duet as the best one I have had experience with so far. Easy to use, great sound quality, the sounds themselves are probably the most easy to relax to I have experienced so far and there is plenty of volume, something that many machines are lacking, I recomend this machine to anyone who is frustrated with tere present machine.