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Strengths: Battery life, range, security, indicators
Weaknesses: Too quiet, no hysteresis or fade in sensitivity circuit, cost
Summary: As the parents of many children, we've been through a number of baby monitors. We've had 46/49 MHz Sony monitors, 900 MHz Graco monitors, etc. The Philips SCD590 is almost perfect and is certainly the best monitor we've ever owned.
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Digital monitors are better than analog simply because there is either a signal or there isn't, versus the degraded, mostly static weak reception all too common with analog monitors. However, the range and ability to penetrate walls, etc., of a digital monitor is still a function of the frequencies used. The Philips SCD590 uses a new frequency range that works extremely well.
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Another consideration with baby monitors is security. Few actually want neighbors listening in on private conversations simply by using a baby monitor receiver in their house. A digital monitor transmits information in a way that requires a receiver that can correctly decode the digital content. That reduces the chance of eavesdropping. Even having the same baby monitor isn't enough since most digital monitors encode the content. The SCD590 uses DECT to encrypt the content, so even another SCD590 cannot be used to eavesdrop.
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With many monitors, one must listen carefully, with the receiver to one's ear, to know whether the signal is good. The SCD590 has a green "LINK" indicator on the front that shows, at a glance, that there is a signal. (Since the monitor is digital, that means there is a good signal.) While the SCD590 doesn't use Digital Spread Spectrum, it does automatically switch among 60 different frequencies to ensure clear communication between transmitter and receiver.
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The receiver cannot be set loud enough -- for our tastes, anyway -- for a noisy environment. With a radio or TV on, other kids making noise, etc., it is too easy for the sound from the receiver to be overwhelmed. The lowest volume setting is nice for a quiet night's sleep, but the highest setting is a bit too weak.
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The sensitivity setting permits adjusting the monitor to emit no sound until the transmitter detects a sound over the selected threshold. Thus, when all is quiet with the baby, the receiver produces no sound. When there's enough sound from the baby, the receiver activates. Unfortunately, that also leads to loud sounds abruptly escaping the receiver. Furthermore, if the baby is making just enough noise to exceed the threshold, but only momentarily and periodically, the receiver intermittently emits the loud sounds and is otherwise quiet. A better design would be for the sound to gradually become louder when the baby's sounds exceed the sensitivity threshold to avoid the abrupt, loud activation. (Fading out would also be good.) The other improvement would be for the sound to stay on or off longer than otherwise required by the sensitivity setting. Together, those changes would smooth the on/off transitions when a baby is making some sounds just below and some just above the sensitivity threshold, thus being less disturbing to sleeping parents. (One wants to wake when there's a problem, but the child will be persistent in those cases, so the sensitivity threshold, and these improvements in its use, won't matter. These change would simply make the almost-loud-enough conditions friendlier to tired parents.)
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While this monitor is extremely expensive, it is almost perfect. With the suggested improvements in the sensitivity threshold behavior and maximum volume level, its only drawback would be price.
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