Dreamegg D3 Pro Sleep Sound Machine Review

What attracted me to the Dreamegg D3 Pro is that in addition to white noises (7) and fans (7), it has 15 nature sounds, including plenty of water sounds. It is also compact and light and has a built-in battery, and it is not too small to house a good speaker.

I have now used the D3 Pro for a couple of weeks and am ready to post my review.

Summary of my impressions after having used the Dreamegg D3 Pro for a couple of weeks

The speaker quality and volume range (from quiet to very loud) of the Dreamegg D3 Pro are very good. Many of the nature sounds are even in stereo; you don’t hear this through the speaker, but if you listen to the sounds via the headphone jack, this is nice.

The battery life is great too: playing the machine at about 50 percent of maximum volume, the battery lasts me more than 30 hours before I have to recharge.

This is quite a surprise, given that the company advertises 12 hours on a single charge.

So as far the hardware goes, I like the Dreamegg D3 Pro.

The quality of the built-in sounds varies widely though:

I like the birds, thunder rain, camp fire, and train sound. Also, the two included lullabies (lullaby and music box) sound great.

All of the nature sounds, and the fans and white noises appear to be recordings that are set on repeat (looping).

With nature sounds this has to be expected, and if the recordings are of sufficient length and repeating seamlessly, this is fine with me.

Unfortunately, many of the Dreamegg’s recordings are a too short for my taste, ranging from only a few seconds to less than two minutes (the longest ones).

With some sounds (e.g., sea wave and gentle surf), there is a clear break in continuity and with others (e.g., rain and brook) a lack of variety because the loop is too short.

In two lowest-pitched white noises, I don’t hear any loops, but in the higher-pitched ones (most pronounced in #7), I notice artifacts every couple of seconds. It sounds a bit as if a bird was making a chirp every 5 seconds or so.

Read on (and listen) for more details on each of the different sounds to help you decide whether the Dreamegg D3 Pro white noise machine is for you.

Operation

The control panel of the Dreamegg D3 Pro is well thought-out. Each sound category (nature sounds, fans, white noises) has its own dedicated button, making it easy to cycle through the sounds.

The buttons are well separated from each other and operation during the day is easy. Ideally, the buttons should protrude a bit more for operation in the dark.

During normal operation the machine’s buttons are not lit, which I like.

Three faint LEDs indicate whether the timer is set to 30, 60, or 90 minutes (all LEDs off=continuous play), but they are just noticeable, without being obtrusive.

The power button glows red while the machine is charging and green when it is fully charged, but again this LED is so dim that it doesn’t bother me at all.

The D3 Pro remembers the last selected sound and volume, and restarts right from there when you switch it on.

Also, the volume can be finely adjusted across a wide range.

Power supply, dimensions, and portability

The Dreamegg D3 Pro can be powered via the built-in rechargeable battery or the USB travel power adapter (100-240 V) that comes with the device.

The battery life is excellent: I get >30 hours of play time at 50 % volume.

The power cable has a USB connector on one side and a round plug on the other. This means that while you can connect the machine to other USB power sources, you won’t be able to use your phone’s micro USB or USB-C charging cable.

“Don’t forget that cable with the round plug or you may be out of luck.”

The sound machine is all in black and looks sleek, but both the power cable and the adapter are white. To me, this is not a big deal, but should nevertheless be rectified.

The Dreamegg weighs 11.6 oz. (330 grams); it is 4.1 inches (10.5 cm) in diameter and 2.4 inches (6 cm) tall, which to me makes it very portable. Weight and dimensions are comparable to the Lectrofan and other machines with a similar speaker size.

If you need to minimize your weight, the lightest white noise machines weigh less than 3.4 oz. (96 grams), but they also have much smaller speakers and less sound power.

Because the D3 Pro has a built-in rechargeable battery, I would generally put it in my carry-on luggage. If you want to put it in your checked luggage, I recommend checking with your airline.

Review of the 15 nature sounds of the Dreamegg D3 Pro

The D3 Pro has 13 nature sounds and 2 lullabies (lullaby and music box). You can cycle through these 15 sounds via a dedicated nature sound button.

To get an idea of how they sound, listen to these short samples of all 15 sounds:

To give you an idea of how the Dreamegg’s speaker sounds, I have recorded the speaker’s output rather than  headphone jack’s.

For this reason, you don’t hear that many of the sounds are actually in stereo.

All the sounds are repeating recordings, ranging from a few seconds to nearly two minutes. Some sounds are spliced together almost seamlessly while with others there is a break in sound continuity and the start of a new cycle is obvious.

If the machine is played at a low volume, I don’t notice the looping as much as when it is played louder.

*Birds

• I like this sound.
• Enough variation for me and looping works well.
• Stereo.

Sea waves

• Good sound quality.
• Stereo.
• Enough variation, but at a louder volume the loop is obvious.

Gentle surf

• Good sound quality.
• Stereo.
• Enough variation, but looping is very obvious.

*Lullaby

• I like this lullaby.
• Good sound quality and length.

*Music box

• Very nice song. I consider this the second lullaby.
• Stereo.
• Good sound quality and length.

Rain

• Good sound quality but too short.
• Stereo.
• The sound is on a loop of only a few seconds, and there is not enough variation; I hear the same drop patterns repeating over and over.

*Thunder rain

• I like this sound.
• Stereo.
• There is enough variation for me.

Brook

• OK sound quality; too short.
• The sound is on a loop of only a few seconds; the looping is well done, but there is not enough variation.

*Campfire

• I like this sound.
• Stereo.
• Looping is well done, but there could be more variation.

Cricket

• Sounds decent when played through the speaker.
• Stereo.
• When played via the headphone jack, a low-frequency hum is very noticeable. (ca 60 Hz; perhaps mains via the recording equipment?)
• I don’t enjoy listening to that hum.

*Drip

• Good sound quality.
• Good for people who like the sound of a dripping tap.

*Pendulum

• Good sound quality.
• Sounds more like a metronome or a wall clock to me, but well done.

*Train

• I think the train sound is great.
• Looping is well done but the recording could be a bit longer and have more variation.

Sushing

• Due to the nature of the sound on a short loop.
• Annoying low frequency component (around 50 Hz) when played through headphones.

Fetal tone

• Sounds like a stamping machine to me.
• Contains a very noticeable low-frequency hum (ca 50 Hz) when played through headphones.

Review of the 7 fan sounds

The fan sounds also have their own dedicated button, making it easy to cycle through them.

I find fan number 5 (starting from 00:37) the most soothing. I quite like that one. The other fans are a bit harsh for my taste, but they may appeal to you.

I was not able to hear loops in any of the fan sounds. Analyzing them, they do appear to be looped recordings, but as long as I don’t hear it, that’s OK with me.

Review of the 7 white noises

The white noises appear to be on a short loop of only a few seconds, and in particular with the higher pitched white noises, the restart of the recording leads to some noticeable artifacts (chirping sound?).

It took me a while to notice these artifacts, but once I did, my brain kept looking for them.

The second issue with the white noises (starting from number 3) is that their sound spectrum is somewhat V-shaped. In other words, they all have bass and high treble (the hiss you hear with the higher-pitched white noises), but there isn’t enough sound power in the mid-range.

As a consequence, they are OK but not great for masking external noises.

In my opinion, the two lowest-pitched white noises sound nice. While they too appear to be repeating recordings (looking at the waveform), I don’t hear it, and I haven’t noticed any artifacts.

All in all, IMO the white noises should be equalized better to fit the speaker’s frequency response and preferably they should be generated dynamically (or use much longer recordings) to avoid patterns and artifacts.

Conclusion

The Dreamegg D3 Pro sleep sound machine has some very promising features, including a good speaker and great battery life. The operation is well thought-out and a headphone jack (stereo output) is available.

It also has some pleasant nature sounds. I like the lullaby, music box (also nice as a lullaby), birds, thunder rain, camp fire, and the train.

Several other nature sounds have issues such as noticeable looping, a lack of variety, or a low frequency hum.

With the fan sounds, I would say it depends on your taste. I like fan #5. (Listen to the samples above again if in doubt).

If you are looking for white noises (such as pink noise) but not nature sounds, I would go for a different machine.  In that case, take a look at this comparative Lectrofan review.

If you are just looking for a soothing natural fan sound, also read this review.

To me the Dreamegg D3 Pro is a 3-star (out of 5) sound machine.

Most suitable for:

• Helping a toddler fall asleep

Suggested improvements:

• Memory isn’t expensive anymore; I would suggest making much longer recordings of the nature sounds to create variety and avoid short loops. Also better care needs to be taken that loops are not noticeable and no hums are inadvertently being recorded.
• In some of the white noises, I notice repeating sound artifacts every couple of seconds. Perhaps consider creating them dynamically, or, alternatively, use much longer recordings. Optimize equalization for the speaker.