soundcore Sleep A30 by Anker, Ultra‑Comfortable Earbuds for Side Sleepers,Dedicated App, Sleep Monitoring, Soothing Sound Masking Technology for All‑Night Rest (Mist Green)

I waited for the price to drop before buying these but now that I know they work I would have gladly paid the full price. If you can't get a good nights sleep, the health cost outweighs the monetary cost . If you share a wall or ceiling with a neighbour, and that is most people, this is a lifesaver. After downloading the app, the first update went through. Testing it for the first time, I tapped the earbuds but the tap function wasn't working. I wasn't too concerned, then a few moments later a second update appeared, and this fixed the issue. Make sure to let the app update to the latest version to fix any issues. This is actually the first time I've used Active Noise Cancellation earbuds. I've had to wait patiently for the tech to appear in a earbud designed for sleep as it knew would offer the perfect solution to those living in a noisy enviroment. I've not used the A20's which doesn't have ANC , so I was excited to discover that this is the first time ANC has ever been used in a sleep earbud. The ANC is a game changer. While it doesn't elimate noise it does once heck of job of reducing it. Suddenly the slamming, banging, shouting and stomping of the neighbour has faded enough to no longer disturb my sleep. The charging case also has a microphone built in which detects noise levels such as snoring and will alter the strength of the ANC to counteract the noise. I find by placing the case right next to my pillow this makes the ANC more effective in cancelling out noise. Anker is a well known battery company, they sell battery packs on Amazon. ANC is battery intensive. When solid state battery becomes mainstream this should put to bed the shortcomings of current lithium-ion battery technology. However, setting the listening mode to "Local mode" with ANC on, and with sounds to stop once sleep is detected with ANC left on, I easily got through the night. But as charging in the case is superfast a five to ten minute charge is all you need when going for a pee in the middle of the night to get through a longer sleep. (After 3 weeks of use, I've found that I don't need any white noise at all and have turned this off, leaving only the ANC on. In my case, the white noise was acutally preventing me from going to sleep. In local mode, I just stopped the playback and set the ANC on. This gave me 7 hours of perfect sleep, according to the app's sleep report - and I felt it too, with exactly 30 percent battery left in both earbuds. I've noticed that when I had the white noise on, the battery consumption is heavier, and also greater in one of the earbuds. ) The earbuds themselves are super comfortable. I use the silicone ear tips. The material is ultra soft and I felt no discomfort when wearing them. Unlike earplugs, I don't think these are supposed to be fully inserted into the ear. At first, the medium sized earbuds preloaded seemed to big, but I think that they are meant to partially inserted to work best. My right ear canal is slighly smaller than my right so I have small earbuds in that ear with medium size in my left ear. As per instructions I bought some alcohol wipes/swabs to clean the metal charging contacts. It dries quickly so avoidng the possible damage if using water to wipe it clean. There is a 18 month warranty nevertheless. Also can order offical replacement eartips and wings from Anker's website, I wouldnt trust copies from third party sellers. I've suffered from sleep problems due to noise for years and after trying many passive earplugs without success I even considered spending lots on soundproofing my walls, these came along just in time to save me the money. This is a superb and highly effective device to enable good quality sleep. Future iterations of this product will no doubt be even better, but for now this is the best sleep device I've ever used.

These are one of the first wireless earbuds designed for sleeping and on the whole they work pretty well. The fit pretty flat in my ears which means I can indeed side sleep comfortably with them in. They come with a decent selection of earbuds and wings to fit most ears but I would guess they would not fit someone with a smaller ear. With ANC switched off they make it through the night pretty easily, but with it switched on, it's touch and go. I've had them go flat by morning on occasion, however they are designed to mostly not need ANC on. There are a couple of design problems, which I think are mostly software and so hopefully fixable. You can start the earbuds in bluetooth mode and then when they detect you've fallen asleep they switch to local mode where they play a chosen white noise effect. Local mode then raises and lowers the volume of the noise to mask background noises like snoring. It also recommends the noise config to choose based on the frequency distribution of the background noise. The first problem is that if whatever you're listening to on bluetooth as you go to sleep, runs out before it detects you've fallen asleep then it doesn't turn on the noise in local mode. The sleep detection is looking for now movement for 70 minutes. This means that if your content (say a podcast) isn't longer than 70 mins then the noise won't automatically kick in. Most of what I listen to is less than 15 mins which means no automatic switch. If I wake up, I double tap on the left bud twice and it comes on. IMO it should always switch on the noise when the bluetooth track finishes or it detects you're asleep. The second problem is with the sleep onset detection feature of the app - ie to tell you how quickly it thinks you went to sleep. This doesn't work with bluetooth mode at all crazy as that sounds. Again, you should just tell it you're going to sleep and it should work independent of mode. Otherwise the headphones work as you'd expect, they do not have top of range audio, ANC or battery life but then they have to be very small and slim so not surprising. I have found them very effective for the main reason I bought them, for use while sleeping to help with background noise etc.

TLDR Summary at the bottom of this overly long review! See the video for the charging issue. I got extremely lucky and these started to charge the third time I put them in the case, but even when they show the charging light slowly blinking to indicate a charge, I would still find at least one of the buds completely dead when I went to use it that night. REVIEW: Overall I'm pretty disappointed with the A30 Sleepbuds. I have the A20s and I use them pretty much every night. I was intially put off by the cost of the A30s as they are double what I paid for the A20s (which have had a 20% prike hike since release as well), but I thought that if they truly helped me have a better night sleep than with the A20s then I could probably just about justify the cost. To save you reading through this whole essay I'll just tell you - they're not worth the cost. Even less so if you already own the A20s. If I didn't own either and tested both, I'd probably still chose the A20s. Let's talk about the good stuff first, because there's less good than there is bad. Comfort - They are comfortable. Size wise they're slightly bigger than the A20s, but they are actually a bit more comfortable. Using the A20s, when I sleep on my side the bud on the side that my head touching the pillow presses into my ear and blocks the sound from reaching my eardrum. This doesn't occur on the A30s. The range of tips and earwing things keep them in the ear better than the A20s, although this could be solely down to the Memory Foam tips. There's a light on the case to tell you when they're charging, which is useful to know when the buds are charging, but they don't charge properly, so I can't really talk about that in the good section of this review. For more info on that, see below. Ok, on to the bad stuff/what I dislike about these or I'm unhappy with. The biggest disappointment for me is the ANC. or lack of it. I wanted the A30s because the ANC is an important feature for me as there is a low frequency noise in my neighbourhood that becomes disturbingly loud at night when the city quietens down. I don't think the mic in the earbuds/case is good enough to pick up on the noise, as I can still hear the hum that sounds like a big heavy engine running in the distance. Even with the headphones in and ANC turned on. In fact, the ANC is so mild it's honestly hard to tell if it's functioning. A test I conduct with all of my earplugs/sleepbuds/headphones etc is to have the buds in my ears, hold my fingers close to my ear, and then rub my thumb and first finger together like the hand gesture for money. If I have a good seal/decent ANC I cannot hear my fingers rubbing together at all. Unfortunately I can still hear my fingers with the ANC on and using the memory foam earbuds, so the seal could be better, but I cannot really tell much difference with ANC on or off. I tried the A20s again as that has no ANC, and the hum is not any better or worse and that doesn't have ANC at all, making me think that the ANC is not very good or strong. The battery life is especially poor. I've recorded my useage over the first 3 nights. Here is how much I slept each night according to the sleep tracker (which ties up to the time I went to bed and woke up) and even with these low numbers, at least one of the buds has been completely dead and turned off when I woke up: - Night 1: 5 hours 35 minutes. ANC on, Bluetooth. - Night 2: 6 hours and 33 minutes. ANC on, Bluetooth but turning to local after sleep detected. -Night 3: 6 hours 44 minutes. ANC on, Local Audio only. When I woke up during the night and checked the battery life I would regularly see the left earbud between 10 and 30% lower battery than the right earbud. Since then I've not manually recorded the useage, but pretty much every single morning when I've woken up at least one of the earbuds have been dead, usually the left one. This isn't great as I rarely sleep more than 6 or 7 hours and they don't even last for that. There's something wrong with the fact that the left bud always seems to have much less battery but it's not specific to my pair, as I've seen other reviews here commenting on the same issue. The only time the A30s have managed to last all night with ANC on has been when I've had them on local mode (so not using bluetooth) and the volume turned down so low I can't hear the sounds. Not that there is a great deal of point to the ANC anyway, as it seems to make no difference at all to sounds I can hear, from what my comparisons with the A20s is anything to go by. There is a light in the case, which is useful for removing/inserting your earbuds to and from the case. The light is good because it allows you to easily remove or insert them in the dark, and this is essential as the buds frequently don't make a decent connection to the case and charge them, so in the short period of time I've had them I've already had three nights where I couldn't use them at all because one of the buds was dead. They fit in magnetically but even with this, and the it sounding like the contacts connect, but it still doesn't connect that reliably. The third night I was very annoyed by this because after 2 nights in a row, I had spent the time to ensure that the buds were 100% charging. Typically though the charging light displayed for a very short period of time and then went out. Now I have to watch them for several seconds to make sure the light wasn't actually lying about charging the buds and I have to be very careful not to nudge the case or move it too much as that seems to disconnect a bud frequently too. This may be to do with the ear wing rubber that fits around the bud and is cut out around the battery contacts. I occasionally had this with my A20s and would have to remove the wing and put the affected bud in the case naked after removing the wing and eartip (which you have to remove to get the wing off). This definitely seems worse with the A30s based upon how many nights I've been unable to use these even after I thought I was being careful and had confirmed they were charging. TLDR Good: Comfortable, even for side sleepers, memory foam earbuds are nice (but don't seem to improve the noise isolation), light on the inside of the case and to tell if the buds are charging is useful (particularly due to the charging issues) and lying on your side no longer presses the earbud against the inside of your ear, which stops you hearing the audio (the A20s do this). Bad: As far as I can tell the ANC does absolutely nothing, the price is excessively high, 80% of the time I have to mess around with the earbuds in order to have them actually charge and not be dead. Also hard to trust these, since my A20s have stopped working less than a year after I bought them and I basically had to throw them away. 90% of the time I couldn't get the right earbud to charge at all, and when it did it would only charges to 40%. Considering I'm already getting charging issues with the A30s and they are brand new, it does not bode well for the future. The A30s already have a significantly lower battery than the A20s, so they really can afford to not charge fully, if you're even able to get them to actually charge. CONCLUSION: I have returned these. I would have given them 2, maybe 3 stars had they been the price of the model they're replacing. Sure they have ANC but it doesn't work even remotely well enough to justify the increase price in my opinion. You're basically paying £200 for a slightly more comfortable fit and memory foam ear tips. If they can't even fix the charging issues with the A20s and they barely last a year, then Edit: You can see from the video that I have to remove and reinsert the headphones into the charging case more than once before it starts charging. I actually got lucky on this one as often I'm trying over and over to get both of the headphones to display the slow blink of the charging indicator light. EDIT AGAIN: Even after this video showing that the charging light came on, when I went to use them that night, the left earbud was dead. I am returning these. They have been out of charge more often than they've had charge even when I'm very careful to make sure the charging light blinks to indicate charging.

Update: I have 2 pairs now, wouldn't be without them, they are the best out there for what they are trying to provide, my sleep is much better. My expectations were far too high for such a tiny comfortable product. I get quality sleep now because of Sleep A30 buds, might only be 4 or 5 hours but that's a lot more than before. Changed rating to 5 stars. I’ve noticed that many of the reviews (about 5,000) are actually for the A20, but they’ve been combined with those for the A30. This inflates the overall rating and can be misleading. It’s disappointing to see the brand resort to this tactic. A30 – My Experience The A30 works well for my needs and is comfortable to wear, especially as a side sleeper. Since I started using it, my sleep quality has noticeably improved. The built‑in alarm is a nice touch, and I’d gladly purchase it again at a substantial discount. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) Unfortunately, the ANC isn’t up to the standard I expected for the price. Compared with the Soundcore Liberty Pro 4, the A30’s ANC falls short. If I wanted stronger noise cancellation, I would probably choose the A20 and pair it with a separate white‑noise source instead. Workaround I’ve been streaming Bluetooth white‑noise alongside the A30, which helps compensate for the weaker ANC. This setup has made my sleep much better than before. Final Thoughts Overall, the A30 is a solid product but not at this hefty price tag, and the ANC could use improvement—perhaps a future software update will address this. Be aware that the product descriptions may be misleading, especially regarding the A20’s specifications. If ANC is a top priority for you, consider other options or wait for an update. My expectations for this product were far too high in regards to the ANC based on other Soundcore products I use constantly on a daily basis. I do appreciate how complex it must be to squeeze the tech required for ANC in such a small form factor. Soundcore remains my favourite brand.

I’ve struggled with sleep for a long time and I’ve tried all kinds of remedies, but never something like this. So when I heard about the concept and saw and heard many testimonies about the efficacy of this product and others like it I felt that I had to try it. I picked these up on sale for £116. I felt this was a risk but probably one worth taking. I gambled, I lost. The buds themselves feel very well made and you get a range of sizes of silicone and memory foam bud attachments in the box, for different ear sizes and to help with comfort and the passive noise cancellation. This is a plus. The memory foam buds are better, I found, for blocking external noise and I actually found them more comfortable too, despite the silicone ones being labelled for comfort. Unfortunately what neither of them do is prevent the hard plastic of the buds themselves pushing into my ear. I have to shift around to find a position on the pillow that doesn’t hurt, which is fine while I’m still awake but I lose it once I’m asleep and so get up the next morning with painful ears. The case lid slides back and feels a little flimsy but should be absolutely fine if you are careful handling it. I’ve worn these every night for the last 10 nights and my case is still on 20% battery with both buds at 100% so battery life is pretty good. Please note that I haven’t used them very much in Bluetooth mode, setting them to switch to local mode (and therefore with no active noise cancellation) once they detect I’m asleep. I’ve had one instance of the right bud not charging when back in the case and I stayed up longer to give it time to charge before sleep. I’ve also had one instance of waking up to no sound and on investigation realised that the volume had, by itself, turned right down during the night. In terms of sleep quality since starting to use them I can honestly say that I’ve experienced ten of the WORST nights’ sleep that I’ve had in years. I’ve been trying different sounds to see if others are more conducive to sleep than others but it cannot be a coincidence that since I started using these my sleep has been terrible. Each morning the Anka app tells me I either woke once during the night or not at all, but my own experience and my Apple Watch actually show over a dozen instances of waking up through the night so the sleep detection isn’t really doing its job. I’m within my 30 day return period but I don’t feel comfortable returning something I’ve been using that I use in my ears so I guess I’m stuck with them. Maybe I’ll persevere. At the moment I feel like I’ve wasted £100+ and I cannot recommend these.

On the one hand I like them and they work, on the other hand I am disappointed with some aspects. Firstly they are a very good fit and stay in the ears through the night with no discomfort. I like the sounds you can download and play "locally" without the need to have your phone on. I have found the "noises" eg water running down a stream or rain in a lane very good and helpful for a good nights sleep. I select the snoring mask settings. With respect to the ANC I found this very disappointing and hardly noticed any difference and on that basis makes the buds quite expensive. Hence one star deducted for the ANC and one deducted for the cost. I like the feature whereby the calming noise switches off when sleep is detected, however it doesn't switch back on if i wake up during the night. I like the gentle wake up tone in the morning (user set). I have had trouble with the App despite having several other pairs of Soundcore Buds. They look great and the case is very good. Update - The sleep anlysis is quite good and interesting, although not totaly accurate eg on occasion shows it shows i got up once when in fact i got out of bed twice. The right ear bud battery goes flat long before the left one. Also very disappointed that now £60 cheaper than a few weeks ago.

Completely changed my sleep, these are amazing! The noise cancellation paired with one of the local in-built sounds (I find the ‘engine hum’ the best’) makes for a perfect 8 hour sleep. I don’t get disturbed if my partner gets in/out of bed while I’m sleeping or snores, and they’re comfortable enough that I can sleep on my side. I do wish the battery life was a bit longer, because sometimes I’ll wake up and realise they’re dead, but that’s only if I’m sleeping longer than 8 hours. The battery life for the case itself is good though, and will re-charge them 3 or 4 times before needing to be plugged in. Highly recommend!!

They're really good. They recently partnered with Calm to release these Sleep Stories things shortly after I bought mine so you can fall asleep to stories read to you by famous actors with really soothing voices, which is usually something you'd need to pay a subscription for. There's one that's basically Steven Fry ASMR and one that's a story about the Greek Gods read by Alan Sklar which put me to sleep instantly. It also has a feature that let's you pick white noise to fall asleep to, which includes the ability to mix together your own custom sound from a combination of others. The house I grew up in had a very unique noise of water running through the pipes in the walls and I was able to recreate it near perfectly. The noise cancellation is really good and they're very small so they sit inside your ear and let you sleep on your side, just make sure to read the manual which tells you how you're supposed to put them in because it's not like similar earbuds. The build quality is really good which you'd hope for considering how much they cost. I have a couple of other Soundcore products and they're clearly more of a premium item. They're really expensive but that's mostly because they're a niche product, but anyone who suffers from sleep problems is probably willing to pay that. I suffer from Type-1 Narcolepsy so I've bought a lot of sleep aides and this combined with a manta sleep mask has helped me fall asleep and more importantly stay asleep more nights than not. I got mine on offer for £160 but I may have gotten them at full price if I knew they'd never go on sale. The only issues are that the touch controls are a bit difficult to use, like the default option to turn the volume up is to tap the right earbud 3 times and it goes up by like a fraction of a decibel which is insanely slow. You can change it in the settings so that the volume is adjusted by a double tap but it's still not great. Also it can lose connection to Bluetooth sometimes but it's only ever when I'm already asleep so that's fine. Basically the downsides don't outweigh the positives imo. A lot of people also say the battery life is bad but it's honestly not, it'll last about 9 hours if you're playing sound or using the noise cancellation feature all night, which is honestly fine because who plans to sleep longer than 9 hours? They had to make the batteries small so they'd be small enough to wear comfortably at night so it's a decent trade off.