I purchase the Sharper image sound soother ec-b100 to drown out background noise and to help with the ringing in my ear . prior to that I have be use a small room size air purifier to do the job . oh , the purifier still work it be I figure a sound machine would do a better job . now this sound machine have a lot of great feature , sleep to sound or run for as long as you choose . you can wake to a select sound or the beep beep of a alarm . the selection of sound be great , however , I like the rain and the White noise sound . Problem with mine be the volume . if I turn the volume on level `` 1 '' , it be way too quiet and hardly audible . if my wife be watch tv in the other room I could easily hear it . nor do it mask out the ringing in my ear . it do not mask the tv out nor any other background noise . but if I turn the volume to the next setting , `` 2 '' it be way too loud . I could hear it in the other room and be not able to sleep by it . it be like go from Level 1 to Level 5 with no in between . sadly I have no choice but to return it and I 'll just use my purifier or a floor fan in the summer .