Salubrion enso pearl clock

I was delighted with this timer although it was expensive. After a year of constant use the batteries became tired and instead of the beautiful bell or other tone a loud crackle sounded.I though it was a fault but referred to the instuction leaflet. The battery-low sign was not showing but I changed the batteries and everything functioned properly again. I practice meditation regularly in various combinations of timed intervals, depending on the particular practice I am doing. This timer was exactly what I needed. It is very versatile with three sets of interval timings, each of which can be set up in many specific ways. At the end of each interval a sound is made, the choice again is vary variable. My favourite is the Tibetan bell, a very authentic mellow sound. At the very end of the session, the sound repeats twice. I took this timer away on a solitary retreat and found it invaluable. I set the timer up before a practice and did not have to interrupt the flow of my meditation at all, ending gently with the two rings of the bell. The timer also served as my alarm clock which was avery pleasant way to wake up if necessary in the morning. The numbers are very clear,easily visible from some distance. The timer has an arm at the back to stand it up and comes in a sturdy padded travelling case. Setting up the timer initially requires careful reading of the instruction booklet, but it did not take me long to master it. Keep your instructions! You will need them if you change the battery and have to reset the clock.

Surprised to realize I've only had this timer for a couple of weeks. Feels like it's always been there. The instructions are a little sketchy, but the architecture of the chip is intuitively obvious and I've had no difficulty setting it up for my various practices. I dreamed of my perfect meditation timer and did a search. This is it... almost! The only one on the market that came close. The enso circle is a feature I hadn't thought of, but find it particularly useful in qigong posting. The sounds are superb. The appearance is aesthetically appealing, reminiscent of Lyra's Alethiometer in 'His Dark Materials', which could be a problem if you have children around, as the flip out stand seems a little flimsy and produces a very satisfying 'click'. Shame that the back of the unit is plastic rather than a metal casting and, at this price, it does rather seem to be cutting corners on what is otherwise a superb instrument. A potential heirloom. Only other niggle is the setting buttons, holding them down the display goes slow... slow... very very fast! And you overshoot. Go back, slow... slow... very very fast and overshoot the other way! Minor point but it could be improved. Couple more improvements would add to my delight. The alarm clock function is a standard travel alarm, set it for when you want to wake up. My cheap talk and text mobile phone allows five alarms. Pity this doesn't do something similar, if I were a Muslim I could set it for call to prayer. I'm not, though I'd have other uses for such a function. But there you go... and the back light button, though marked with a small bump, I find difficult to locate in pitch darkness when I'm half asleep. Better if that were linked up to the display face I think. But these are quibbles and I give it five stars as a well designed, functional thing of beauty.

Bought one of these a couple of weeks ago as part of my renewed commitment to meditate on a regular basis. I figured that an audible indication of elapsed time would be useful, both in terms of tracking where I was in the session, and also bringing me back 'into the moment' if I happened to be wandering at that point. This clock fulfills those requirements perfectly. I particularly like the circular design, with the all the key functions immediately visible and the circular progress indicator. The clock functions well as a standard desk clock and alarm clock in addition to its countdown functionality. There are 3 configurable countdown timer buttons (labeled T,T2,T3 on the clock) which should, I would imagine, be sufficient for most peoples' needs. Although pre-set with factory set functionality, each of these buttons can be changed to your preferred mode (very easily once you've read the instructions). The fact that you can set up three different timer 'sequences' and store them under their own button means that you're not forever changing things. For instance for my main meditation sessions I have the T1 button set up to start with a 3 minute period, followed by three further periods of 10 minutes. This gives me the opportunity to get myself settled during the first 3 mins, then indicates when each of the next 10 mins sessions have finished. So, I get a single chime at 3 mins, then another 10 mins later and so on, until the end of the third 10 mins period at which I get a double chime telling me my sitting session has finished. I've also a repeating countdown timer set under T3 which gives a single chime every 15 mins which I use if I'm trying to remind myself to be 'mindful' whilst working. I think you can set this to repeat up to 99 times. The sound quality of the chimes is excellent, the one I use is just like what you'd expect from a real 'singing bowl'. Perhaps the only criticism I would have is that once you've selected a chime and the volume (I think there are two metallic chimes, a wood block sound, and a regular alarm clock type sound), that sound plays for ALL notifications, including the alarm clock. Not sure a temple bell chime would wake me, and I sure as heck wouldn't want an alarm clock sound between meditation periods!! If anyone knows how to get around this I'd be very interested to hear from them. All in all it's a great little gadget, although I do think that at £60 or there abouts it's a bit pricey. Just need to make sure that I make full use of it now!!

This is an excellent meditation timer. It does everything I want of it. The Enso Pearl features Interval Timing which means you can create sequential timers starting from as little as a second apart that run one-after-the-other to compose an overall session. It was easily set to suit my standard sitting but can be changed in a moment if I want to sit for a longer or shorter period or decide, for one period, to insert chimes every few minutes to "bring me back" if I've wandered. The sounds on the timer are excellent (it is true that "the Enso Pearl's reproduction of the singing bowl chimes is of the highest quality and virtually indistinguishable from the original"). The volume of the chimes can be changed too. The Enso Pearl also functions as a clock and alarm. Dharma Cat in their review has said that the alarm is best for light sleepers. However I found that, depending on the chime I have set (one of which is a standard alarm clock type sound), if I have the volume right up and use the stand so as not to muffle the speaker, it is probably as loud or louder than my normal/standard alarm clock. It is, of course, the case though that each individual is different, so you might want to experiment with it (for example set it five minutes before your normal alarm to see if it does the job. If not your normal alarm will get you up and you won't be late for work etc..!). I did notice however, that the clock seemed to loose a couple of seconds each day (I have a radio signal controlled alarm clock which enabled me to notice). This causes me no problem. I just mention it so that if you are considering using it as an alarm clock you are aware that occasionally you may need to adjust the time to correct for it's slight drift, assuming this is not simply a quirk of my individual unit. The only drawback I can see is the price. Though this is an excellent item it is not cheap. It is, I believe, worth the money but the price will, I suspect, put some people off.

As others have said, this is a nice looking unit with a clear display, although I feel it's a little 'plasticy' for a product of this price. The chimes are nice and include a struck low pitched bowl/gong (?Tibetan?) a higher pitched struck Japanese-style bowl and slighter higher pitched version of the Japanese bowl (which to my ears sounds like the previous one that's been a digitally pitched up) and finally a repeatedly struck mokugyo wooden 'block' played with ritardando. They are well sampled with very little quantisation noise unless you listen really carefully! The reason I've given this three stars is because the instructions require a lot of guess work because they refer to buttons that are not present on this unit. It's clear they've that these are from a previous incarnation of this product. They have Inadequately tried to remedy the situation with an additional insert that tells you how to set the clock and set the alarm, but with everything else you have to make multiple guesses and attempts to utilise its feature. What is particularly frustrating is trying to work out how to get the normal clock to synchronise with an external time piece: it seems impossible to stop the seconds moving on so you can set it off when required. This is very, very frustrating and Salubrion really should sort out the instructions issue-this is just shoddy! You have been warned!

As I'm an 'Instant Meditation' person when it comes to meditation (i.e. I'm lazy - I use an electronic device which induces the necessary brainwave pattern changes), when I bought this clock over two years ago it was as an alarm. I wanted an alarm clock which would be silent in operation (I like the bedroom to be completely quiet), where I could see the time easily if I woke up during the night but wouldn't give off a constant glare (I also like the bedroom to be completely dark), and which would wake me up gently and not propel me into a staring-eyed panic. This clock does all that beautifully. The passing of time is unregistered with ticks, tocks, clicks or electronic hums. There is no light coming from the clock unless you push the relevant button (easy to locate in the dark because it's raised), and the time is - as you can see from the picture - very easy to read. Finally, the soft but clear chimes are excellent for gentle, but definite, waking without stress. The Enso Pearl functions, as other reviewers have mentioned, very well indeed as a travel clock. It's light, its stand folds flat into its back, and it doesn't take up much room. If you are in a room with other people, the alarm will wake them but not disturb them so they can easily return to sleeping (although if you yourself wake to small sounds you can turn the volume right down so other people simply won't hear the alarm). The soft, padded protective case stops the Enso Pearl from becoming scratched in your suitcase or backpack. I have dropped the clock during its time with me, knocked it over, etc. as happens with alarm clocks, but (touch wood) it's fine and undamaged. When the battery runs low the alarm sounds crackly, so you know to replace the batteries but are still woken up - you aren't left to start the day by discovering that you are an hour and a half behind schedule. Over the years I have tried numerous alarm clocks and been dissatisfied with them all on one or more of the above counts - but this one, for me, is perfect. 26 October 2016 - Still going strong, and I still love it!

A well thought out timer ideal for using when doing your personal yoga practice and also when teaching a class. There is an alarm which can be turned on from quiet to loud or you can decide to turn it totally off - your choice. There are three timer buttons to the right hand side of the alrm which means that when doing a set of exercises you can pre record the times you need, i.e. 2 mins, 3 mins, 30 sec (or whatever is required) and you don't need to mess around with the timer much more than to press the particular button corresponding with the time you need and to press the start button. It is on the pricey side (but still within reason), however like most things in life: you get what you pay for.

So glad I bought this, I've had it for 2 years now and I use it as my bedside clock and as a yoga/meditation/Reiki timer. I love having the gentle chimes as an 'alarm clock' (rather than the hellish feeling of being woken up by something that sounds like a fire alarm), without having to use a mobile phone - which I always switch off at night and don't want to incorporate into any form of holistic therapy either! The two AAA batteries last for a full year for my usage, I use rechargeable batteries, so even though the initial outlay for the clock is quite a lot, there isn't much to pay for after that.