At a glance, you may be mistaken in thinking this speaker is just like any other Bluetooth stereo. It certainly looks the same, however it comes with an added twist: a white noise feature to help lull you into a natural sleep. The included 4GB microSD has 10 pre-loaded nature sounds that rise and fall in volume to help your mind relax at night, plus you can also use the Bluetooth connection to stream your own favourite white noise track or music. If you don’t want to disturb your partner there is an auxiliary input jack for headphones (or to connect non-Bluetooth devices), and obviously when you’re trying to drift off you can play music, TV and movies though it too.

It features 2x10 watt speakers with >80 dB volume and is compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 with a range of 30 feet (9.1 meters) and can be used for hands-free calls. The BST-400 uses a built-in rechargeable lithium battery (3.7 V, 4,000 mAh) that won’t break any records, but it will provide you 8 hours of playback time from a single charge - enough to get you through the night. Ideally, I would have liked to see a ‘sleep feature’ which automatically turns the speaker off after 1-2hours to help preserve the battery life for the next night.

As Bluetooth speakers go the aluminium construction makes for an attractive piece. With clean lines and curved edges and physical buttons, it is easy to connect and use: the mode button lets you flick between Bluetooth streaming and the white noise SD, whilst the sound button lets you skip white noise tracks. The BST-400 will remember what mode you were last on when switched ‘on’ and also what track you were playing, so you don’t have to fuss about with it before settling into bed.

The sound quality on the white noise tracks is good, I enjoyed the white noise feature to this stereo, but I can’t see what makes it specifically a ‘sleep’ sound therapy device. You could easily pop some white noise tracks on an SD, bang it in any speaker with a microSD slot, and you would have the same product but for a much lower cost. All in all, I like the idea behind the speaker, but it lacks features to make it stand out from the crowd, whilst its weak sound quality means it just isn’t worth the money. RRP $129.99

2.5 out of 5

Buy now

Pros

Sleek design

10 preloaded white noise tracks

Easy to use

Cons

Expensive

Lack of features (doesn’t automatically switch for example)

Flat sounds

Weak bass