Excellent mobile (Symphony in Motion Remote Control Mobile)

Member Name: zerub

Product:	Symphony in Motion Remote Control Mobile
Date:	29/09/08 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Music you can stand to listen to

Disadvantages: Hard to set at the right angle; remote control is a bit useless

I had the older version of this mobile for my first 2 children, and used it so much that we wore it out. So I bought the remote control version for my 3rd baby.

This is a lovely mobile.

It plays 3 classical tunes - 5 minutes each. You can choose the tune or just have it play through all of them. So the unit has 4 buttons - one for each tune (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven) and a big one for "play the lot". There is also a volume switch - soft or loud. "Loud" is not too loud and the tunes are not too bad to listen too. They are quite high-pitched because that is what babies like. I found the newer version of the mobile had a gentler tone to it.

The overhead part is very busy - I wouldn't use this in a cot to send a baby to sleep. We had it downstairs for entertainment - my babies watched this while I cooked dinner! There are three spokes, each with a primary-coloured animal and a ball hanging from it. The thing they hang from has a geometric pattern on it. Then the spokes have little plastic shapes on that slide up and down as the mobile turns - making a slightly irritating but very quiet clacking sound. It is a lot to watch and my babies all loved it.

You can take the overhead part off and just use the music box - this is useful once the baby can sit, and grap the mobile. At 9 months my son is no longer interested in lying and watching the mobile but we still play the music for him.

The music box has a bar on the back (at right angles to the box) which needs to poke through the bars of a cot or a chair back (or a stair gate). Then there is a big plastic screw that clamps the box to the cot/chair/gate. You can push the mobile to one side or the other. It is a bit tricky to get it fixed at the angle you want.

The remote control part wasn't that useful. You need to switch it on at the main unit and it switches itself off after 15 minutes. If you're going to walk over and switch it on, you may as well operate it from the main unit! But my son did like to play with the remote.

Summary: I wouldn't choose any other