Soothing, and exotic even to an exotic like me! You know how you would get annoyed if it were chimes going off & on and soon enough you get tired of it? Well I have this downstairs close enough to my bedroom window upstairs that at night I fall asleep to it. My neighbor has a wind chime one which I never heard till after I installed mine, and I hear it now and then. Almost feels like the neighbor takes theirs down sometimes and puts it back other times because even during high winds when this one is going off theirs isn't. I also saw this at xxxxxx in San Fransisco for $40 which was this exact one.