With that said, my husband and I are very, very satisfied with the Baby Call Nursery Monitor (27 channel) from Sony. But we didn't choose it first. When our old Sony Baby Call (a hand-me-down from a relative) died on us after having it for about 7 years and using it with our oldest son, packing it away and unpacking it for about 6 more months of use with our newborn son, we were on the hunt for a replacement.

I was at [a store]and picked up the Fisher-Price Sound N Lights With Dual Receivers. It was a less expensive model, there was a whole wall of them at the store, and we were interested in a 2-receiver system because we have a two-story home. We figured it had to be a decent product - especially since it has received above average reviews from Amazon.com reviewers. Well as soon as we plugged it in, all we got was static. Oh sure, we could hear our son crying if we had it cranked all the way to maximum volume, but the additional static noise was incredibly annoying, especially when it's sitting on the night table next to your head and you're trying to find some precious hours of sleep. Also, after one night of use, one receiver's 9-volt battery had been completely depleted - after just one night! What a joke! It was no Sony! So we were on the hunt again.

What we determined (a little too late...we should have done our research before we purchased the first time), was that we were looking for was a product that worked on a 900 MHz signal for greater noise reduction, a sensitive transmitter that would allow us to hear the baby's breathing, a longer battery life, and a 2-reciever system. What's surprising is that there is very little on the market that meets each of these basic feature needs. We did find the First Years Peace of Mind - Two Receiver Monitor, but it didn't get great reviews at Amazon.com. And there were too many left on the shelf when compared to the Sony, which, like I said above, only one was left on the shelf of our local store.

So we decided that we needed to remain Sony customers in this market because of our previous great experience and Sony's reputation. But with that, we sacrificed the 2-monitor feature. Oh well. A little more hauling of the monitor certainly is a sacrifice worth making when you get all of the other critical features - and more. The Baby Call Nursery Monitor (27 channel) is ultra quiet. This is great considering all of the 900 MHz telephones we have, the wireless network in the home, and other radio signals, etc. This product cuts out the CD player in the nursery which plays quiet, soothing music while our son sleeps, and brings his breathing and movements to fore. This is excellent. Just what we wanted and expected from Sony. This product also has a rechargeable battery with an expected 19-hour life on one charge. This is great. When I need to move into other rooms for a few hours during the day, I won't need to worry about the battery. Plug it in at night to recharge the battery and you don't burn through and waste batteries unnecessarily.

The signal strength is great too. We have a large 2-story home and the nursery is upstairs and about 100 linear feet from where I spend much of my day downstairs in the kitchen/family room area. We hear him no problem.

There are plenty of other great features - you can set your own frequency signal (you have 27 to choose from), you can wall mount the transmitter or the receiver, the monitor has a belt clip and an out of range alert, the receiver is water-resistant (great for having next to the kitchen sink) and much more that we're still discovering. Overall, we're very pleased and wish we had purchased this to begin with. It was more expensive..., but you get what you pay for. Well, the baby is waking up - I hear him clear as a bell making his soft, pre-waking whimpering sounds. Gotta go!

190 of 193 found the following review helpful:

Best monitor on the market but can be even better!  Oct 31, 2003

Advantages:
1) Super clear compared to most nursery monitors on the market. There is little to no static or "white" noise in the background.
2) There are two "on" settings. One is the regular stay on all the time setting and there is the voice activated setting. It also has a light monitor that lights up according to the intensity of the sound (i.e., baby crying).
3) Water resistant so that you can place this receiver in damp rooms such as a bathroom or a laundry room. (Note: it's water resistant but not WATERPROOF. In other words, you shouldn't take it into the shower or bath with you.)
4) In addition to an external DC supply, it comes with a 2.4V rechargable battery supply.
5) It has up to 27 potential channels to choose from and is 900 MHz.

Disadvantages:
1) There is only ONE receiver.
2) It is bulky.
3) It is difficult to see the control settings on the side (i.e., OFF, ON, VOICE ACT) and can easily be in the off position instead of on.

Improvement suggestions for Sony:
1) A 2.4GHz monitor would be great for more range and potentially greater clarity. I think people would be willing to pay a little extra for this considering this current product is wonderful already.
2) Two receivers would be wonderful and convenient. Again, I think people would be willing to pay for the extra receiver.
3) You could slim it down a bit or change the design to something a little more ergonomic.
4) The three indicators at the bottom of the face of the receiver is not necessary since there are indicators at the very bottom of the receiver for the selection of channels. I don't think we need to see what channel selection we have made but rather, I would like to see color lights there instead to show that it is either off, on or on voice activation since it is difficult to see what setting we are on.

Conclusion: I wouldn't trade this monitor in for any other one in the market. I have tried many other nursery monitors and they were dismal failures. Sony can make a few improvements to make this monitor even better!

118 of 118 found the following review helpful:

Second monitor tried - A keeper!  Feb 20, 2003
By T. Novak "robandty"
We received The First Years Peace-of-mind baby monitor as a shower gift. Upon testing it out (we haven't had the baby yet...) we noticed you couldn't move the receiver without getting lots of static. It was very annoying! We decided to return it since the reviews for that monitor on this site largely confirm the problem. We purchased the Sony 900mhz 27 channel model because I have always been happy with Sony products (I got a 7 year old Sony TV and 9 year old Sony VCR and they still look/work like new and the Sony 900mhz phone would still be here if I didn't run it over with my truck.) Anyway this monitor is excellent! It is super clear, and with 27 channels you should surely find one that works good. We put it at "red, red and red" (essentially channel 1) and didn't even try any others because it was crystal clear. I really like the "Sound Activated" mode on the receiver. It shuts off the speaker if the transmitter isn't receiving anything. It doesn't take much noise to make it kick back on - we shouldn't miss any baby sounds. For example, with the transmitter in the back bedroom, if I clap my hands in the living room on the other side of the house, it will cause the speaker to turn back on.

As another plus, the receiver uses a rechargeable battery, much like a cordless phone. We will definetely save money on batteries! We wish it came with two receivers but we are sticking with this one beacuse it does job #1 excellently.

PS - When testing baby monitors, remember that these are just a microphone (transmitter) and speaker (receiver). If you move a speaker close to a microphone you WILL get loud feedback. The volume on the receiver must be turned way down (or off) to get close to the transmitter. This is especially a problem with baby monitors because of the extremely sensitive microphones used. Remember to leave the room with the transmitter before you turn on the receiver. The higher the speaker volume (even with no sound coming from it!) the further away you have to be from the transmitter to prevent feedback.

133 of 135 found the following review helpful:

Has its pluses and minuses  Feb 18, 2009
By a reader
About a year ago I read a lot of reviews of baby monitors, then bought a Sony BabyCall monitor. It has some good features, but also some that I think are big drawbacks. This is about my fifth baby monitor, so I have some experience to compare it to.

Things I like:
==============

* When I'm in range of the baby and all is working well, the monitor is very quiet.

* The rechargeable battery works great! Even when I occasionally forget to plug it in overnight, the receiver doesn't run out of juice.

* It's nice to have 27 channels to choose from. Our monitor gets so little interference that we've only ever used the default channel. But it's good to know that we have options if we ever do need to switch.

* It hooks nicely into my pocket or belt, so I can wear it on my hip as I do other things around the house.

Things I don't like:
====================

* It's easy to be out of range in my (average-sized) house. The baby's room is at a top corner of the house. When I'm in the dining room or living room, the monitor makes a lot of badly noisy static, and its out-of-range signal makes endless beepitty-beep noises.

* When the receiver is plugged in but there's no power being supplied to its plug, instead of getting power from its battery -- it just stops working!!! This is a problem if (1) you plug in the receiver incorrectly (I've done that a few times), or (2) during a power outage. If there is a power outage, then the receiver is completely silent. A nighttime power outage is the one time when I *do* want it to make beepity-beep noises, and static, and all kinds of other racket, because I want it to wake me up so that I can go sleep someplace where I can hear the baby.

* I wish it was harder to turn the volume control. I frequently find that it has dialed itself down to the quietest setting, where the only indicator that the baby is making noise is the lights on the display -- you can't hear the baby at all when the monitor is on that setting. I'm pretty sure I've failed to hear the baby when he cried when this happened. I've become fanatical about checking and re-checking the volume setting. But I wish I didn't have to do that. I wish it was harder to turn the dial so that the volume setting would stay the way I set it. Also I would be happy if it were a little harder to turn on and off, because sometimes I find it turned off and I'm sure I left it turned on, so I guess something must have bumped the power switch and turned it off.

Overall:
========
Of the five baby monitors I've had over the years, this is probably the best, because of its quietness and good rechargeable battery life. But the too-easily-changed volume control knob, the beepitty-beep stuff, and the silence during power outages all drive me crazy. I wish someone would design a better baby monitor than this.

------------

October 21, 2011:

An update: My baby is now 3 1/2 years old. We've used this monitor for very nearly every night of his life, and for many naps too. Someone recently let the little guy fiddle around with the wires to the receiver and I think he broke an internal wire in the cord, so now you need to perch the cord in exactly the right position or it doesn't bring power to the receiver. But that's not Sony's fault. The monitor still continues to work exactly the way it did when it was brand new, 3 1/2 years ago. I am impressed by its longevity. Every other monitor we've ever had has faded away after a year or two. The only thing I can add to my earlier review is that I've noticed that it often broadcasts the sound of the airflow of heat or central air conditioning blowing into the room. It sounds like very quiet static, but actually what you're hearing is airflow. You can set the monitor to "voice activated" to avoid this, but then I think I miss sounds from my preschooler, too. So I keep it on the regular setting and put up with hearing the airflow.

It's not much longer now until he outgrows the need for nighttime monitoring.

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