All the pillow is, is a built in flat speaker. No fancy tech in it whatsoever. It's just down the whatever volume you have the input as, it can be loud enough to hear it from about 5-8 metres away or quiet enough so that only you can hear it when your head is on the pillow. And yeah, you can't wash it, so that is the main problem for it. But for 12 quid, what do you expect!