So I bought the earlier version of this Munchkin sound machine and projector on a whim for my first baby 8 years ago. Of all the baby registry stuff, no ever tells you how important of a decision the sound machine is. Once your baby gets used to a particular sound or feature, that’s it, there’s no changing it. And if you have more than one kid, they all have to have the SAME sound unless you want dueling monitors in your room all night. With my first baby, I was desperate, and this was available at Walmart, so decision made. Fast forward to now and two kids later, we have purchased this sound machine 6 times. The first one flat out died, the projector broke on the second one which was unacceptable to my toddler, the third is currently working (cross your fingers) in my oldest’s room, the fourth was for my second baby but again the projector broke (we tried not introducing the projector to avoid this but you can only hold strong so long against the will of a toddler), the fifth and sixth were the “new and improved” version listed here. New? Yes. Improved? No. They changed the nightlight so it has multiple colors to choose from. For the love of all that is holy why?!?! Because I need one more reason for my toddler to drag out bedtime with his indecision and/or tantrum throwing before bedtime. And something else super fun about it, every single time you push the button to turn the light on, it automatically starts scrolling through all the colors, so you have to push the button at the exact right time to catch the color your toddler wants or you have to go through all the colors again. The other “improvement” is the claim that they fixed the projector motor. This would have truly been an improvement! But purchase number 5’s motor slowly got louder and louder over the first few weeks making it unusable, and we returned it for purchase number 6. (I will say the customer service through Amazon was excellent to make the exchange. Helpful and speedy.) So purchase number 6’s projector motor doesn’t turn smoothly; it slows and jerks in two spots on each rotation, but it’s quiet and it’s mostly working, so we’re dealing with it. The absolute worst soul crushing part about the newer version is that they got rid of the “rain” sound. Ya know, the one and only sound my kids have had their entire lives and will sleep to. So now I have two sound machines on my toddler’s dresser, the old version with the broken projector for the rain sound, and the new one for the projector and stupid color changing nightlight. Things that remain the same from the older version: all other sounds, the projector cartridges. In conclusion, if you’re looking for a projector that spins like this, I haven’t found anything else similar, but beware, and maybe go ahead and buy one for as many kids as you plan on having times 3 so you don’t fall victim to unfortunate “improvements” from the manufacturer. If I had it to do all over again, would I pick this sound machine? No.
