I’ll admit, I’m a little skeptical of sleep earbuds. How good could they possibly be? They’re often uncomfortable when lying down, particularly for side-sleepers like me. Plus, they can fall out, roll under the bed, and get lost easily. Yet after personally trialling the new Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds, I’m a fully-fledged convert (with some caveats).
Billed as the world’s first sleep earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC), the A30 earbuds are a third-gen product from Soundcore.
Soundcore seems to have a reputation for cranking out solid products while undercutting more premium rivals, and the A30 sleep earbuds seem to fit this mould to a T (or more fittingly, a Z).
Packing not just ANC for the first time but also a three-stage snore masking system with AI brainwave audio, the A30s promise a better night’s sleep.
And that’s a big challenge in our household of heavy snorers, small children, and a chatty Bengal cat. I tested the A30s for two weeks to see if they really did help with my sleep.
Looking good
You get a fairly light, matte case to house the A30 buds. It’s plastic, but the base is rubberized, the material feels reassuringly solid and, more importantly, non-scratchy.
The top features an embossed Soundcore logo in a matte silver effect. It’s also handy to have the triple-light battery indicator on the side, rather than the single light denoting either green = good or red = dead that other manufacturers bake in.
There’s also the requisite USB-C port on the rear, next to the microphone, but more on that later.
The earbuds themselves are remarkably svelte — they sit pretty much flush with my tragus and antitragus — the bumps just surrounding the ear canal. They’re actually so small I’m concerned about losing them, and they don’t have the Find function that my daily driver Galaxy Buds Pro 2 have.
Custom Zs
Right off the bat, before even opening up the earbud case, I’m impressed with the range of ear wings and ear tips Soundcore provides to secure that all-important ear fit.
There are three sets of ear wings, silicone ear tips, and memory foam ear tips, labeled small, medium, or large. The ear wings feature an extra silicone nub for you to nip and remove easily from the case and your ears — without them, you’d probably need to gingerly pinch the buds and likely have them slip out of your pesky digits due to their slim profile.
The standard silicone tips are for optimal comfort, while the memory foam versions no doubt provide a more solid seal with minimal sound leakage while minimizing the risk of a rogue bud making a bid for freedom mid-slumber.
The A30s feature a three-stage snore masking system. Firstly, the charging case’s microphone monitors for snoring within a range of 5 feet, analyzing the specific sound level and frequency. Next, the earbuds whip up some broad-spectrum audio to cover up the snores. Lastly, the ear and wing tips of the buds themselves serve as passive noise cancellation, with memory foam tips for enhanced sound insulation.
The A30s feature a three-stage snore masking system.
There’s also some impressive sleep brainwave audio, which reportedly helps sync your brainwaves with AI-generated calming patterns for better relaxation and sleep. These patterns revolve around six themes, such as Starry Sky, Ocean, Forest, and Inner Peace. Within these, you can further customize their audio density, audio space, and audio brightness.
The snore masking section has more traditional background sounds, with Rainy Alley, Whistling Winds, Neon Bustle, and Plane Engine Hum available to stop you from smothering any noisy partner.
Finally, for those who just want some good ol’ fashioned white noise to fall asleep to, there’s a huge range here, including white noise, pink noise, green noise, the slightly sus-sounding brown noise, warbling birds, and even keyboard clicks.
You can also mix and match up to three and customize the levels of each sound source, creating your own peaceful little cacophony to cozy up to.
I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer options, but I’m looking forward to seeing how these buds can help me sleep.
I tend to be a heavy sleeper, but often struggle to get to sleep if there’s excess noise getting in the way of my 40 winks. Add to that two kids who like to co-sleep, and you’ve got an oft-noisy bedroom.
First night
There’s not much snoring going on, but I’m taking the A30s for their first flight test.
I immediately make a beeline to fit the medium memory foam eartips, as they have a satisfying suishiness to them. The seal feels fairly firm against my ear, and I can already sense that the passive noise cancellation is doing its thing from the lack of outside noise.
On waking, however, I realized I forgot to switch from Bluetooth to local mode, which can kill the earbuds’ batteries. While the case allows for around 45 hours of runtime without needing to be plugged in, the earbuds themselves last for 9 hours in local mode — if you’re lucky to get that much. However, this time drops considerably when you leave ANC and Bluetooth on — they were completely dead upon rousing.
Week one
I’m getting more used to the app and its tips. It’s bursting with sleep data, including total sleep time, sleep efficiency, how much time I spent in light and deep sleep cycles, how much I rolled over during sleep, and how much snore masking my earbuds had to carry out.
I’m still not quite sleeping as much as I should — the perils of being an absolute night owl — but getting down into the land of nod is at least a fair bit quicker thanks to the relaxing white noise the buds are churning out.
I’m also experiencing some unresponsive touch controls when flipping the ANC on or off, which is a little frustrating. It needs at least one or two further attempts before sorting itself out.
Week two
I’m impressed that the A30 case can analyze previous snoring patterns and suggest the optimal masking profile to help cancel them out. The snore masking has been very effective, though it doesn’t cancel out 100% of those external snores.
I also find the volume of the masking needs to be at least 50%, else some snoring comes through. Generally, though, it’s relaxing listening to a Himalayan downpour (the soundtrack recommended for me), and I don’t need it too loud to drown out my partner’s snoring.
On one of the later days, I woke up needing to use the toilet, and the buds felt a little uncomfortable, so I decided to put them back into their case. This was the only time out of nearly two weeks of use.
One morning, I woke up and panicked when I realized one of my earbuds had fallen out, and I couldn’t find it. Thankfully, the Find Device could play a loud beep in either earbud for me to locate it (folded within the sheets). It’s plenty loud, too, so remember never to try this if you’re wearing your buds.
Also, thanks to an update, I’ve noticed that the earbud responsiveness has been largely improved, though you have to be fairly firm with the double and triple taps, which can grate on the ears.
Daily use
Naturally, I wanted to test out the A30 with my daily tunes, and I’m pleasantly surprised. From bass, mids, and trebles, the clarity is excellent. EJAE’s breathy vocals on What It Sounds Like are crisp and clear. Even its bass response is punchy and clear after a listen to Seven Nation Army, and it was never thrown off during Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
Some mid notes lack that richness and depth that more expensive buds offer, but overall, the entire repertoire is more than adequate. My usual daily drivers are the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 2, and while the clarity of the A30s might be better, they just can’t compete with the detail and engaging atmosphere the former deliver.
Sadly, the controls are limited for regular headboppers. You’re limited to just two inputs per bud: either double-tap or triple-tap. So while you can customize the controls to use two taps for volume up/down and three to skip forward or back, having to tap your ear so many times to execute these basic commands quickly gets tiresome. I realize the A30s are primarily sleep earbuds, but they’re missing a trick not having a long-press function as the volume slider by default, which my Samsung buds offer.
The app also lacks an adjustable equalizer, so there’s no way to bump up the bass or increase clarity in the treble.
Final thoughts
The A30s have no doubt enhanced my sleep (and getting to it), and I’m a fairly heavy snoozer. That said, lighter sleepers will get much more from them than I do, particularly if there’s late-night rock grinding performances from a partner keeping you from your 40 winks. The ANC and noise-masking are particularly effective at minimizing noise, while the earbuds’ comfortable fit also helps reduce outside noise.
Their uber-slim and flat profile helps minimize the pressure on your ear, particularly for side-sleepers. Though you undoubtedly can still feel them as they press on the ear canals, they’ll rarely outstay their welcome.
Seeing my sleep reports was fascinating and quite revealing. However, at $229.99 a pop, they are on the expensive side. That said, on the other hand, you might argue that’s a cheap price to pay for good sleep, particularly if you’re full of tomorrow’s worries in your brain and the din of snoring in your eardrums.
One other thing — due to their limited control setup, they’re not really designed to replace your daily earbuds, even if their sound performance is fairly decent. Treat the A30s as if they’re an addition to your product ecosystem and lifestyle, not as a substitution.
I’ll be keeping them in the bedroom rather than my desk, and I’ll keep using them. I find the sleep insights genuinely novel, and they may help me get some better shut-eye.
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