Soundcore Sleep A30 by Anker Sleep Earbuds

Full disclosure - I have smaller ears and canals, and I am a side sleeper and I have been using these for the last 7 days. I am moving to a new town and decided to rent an apartment for a year to help me decide where to buy a house. Well, the apartment walls and floors are not well insulated. I hear footsteps, creaking floors, snoring through the wall, and sometimes can hear the tv shows they watch. Needless to say, I was having serious trouble sleeping. I could fall asleep pretty well (go to bed early), but I would be awakened at some point, or several points, in the night by all these noises, banging, walking, creaking, and snoring and was not able to get back to sleep. I needed something to help. I tried Mack's foam ear plugs. They work pretty good for noise reduction, but my ears would hurt and throb making my sleep difficult in that way. I even had the small ears size. They were comfortable to side sleep with. I bought some fake Loop alternatives as just ear plugs. They were comfortable, did not throb like the Mack's in my ears, but did not block out enough sound. When I tried a bigger ear plug piece, I found the throbbing ear syndrome again. These were comfortable to side sleep with though. I then bought a cheap knock off brand of "sleep buds". They were the most comfortable thus far. They would bluetooth to my phone so I could play either music or some white noise from my phone. They claimed to have ANC. They were helpful to block out some sound because of the ear fit, and because they could bluetooth to my phone for music or white noise. However, with the ANC on or off, I did not detect any difference in sound reduction. These were kidney bean shaped sleep buds and did not stick out much from my ear. The ear plug piece was comfortable, but the harder plastic part would start to be annoying after a few hours when on my side. They were ok. Sound quality was decent. Maybe a C+ for an overall grade for these. However, they didn't stop all the sounds and I still woke up occasionally. I hesitantly tried the A30's. This is no small investment! With the rubbery ear plug piece and ear fin, these buds were comfortable. While on my side, they have been the most comfortable thus far. I can sleep well with them in actually. I still have a little bit of pressure while on my side, but some nifty pillow management helped relieve the pressure. I am using the attachments they came with out of the box. I really like the white noise sounds. I have Still Lake as my favorite. It is a sutble sound that helps my brain drift off. With the fit of the A30 alone, I can block out most of the noise for the night with these standard size pieces without using ANC. Last night, I had both my wife snoring and banging on the ceiling above. (To be honest, my wife's snoring is not super loud but enough to wake me up). Then I realized I didn't have the ANC on. Well, i turned the ANC on and WOW what a difference. It was almost like I had over the ear headphones with ANC on. All that noise disappeared. I was very impressed, at least I recall being impressed. I was asleep!! The sound quality is perfect for night time sleeping. In reading other reviews, I agree that these are not your everyday all day ear buds, they are really designed for sleeping only. The ANC works really well and I noted quite a difference between on and off. Last night I set them to use ANC until I was alseep and then go to local mode. After 8 hours, I still had 30% of the battery left in each ear bud. So far, the battery life has been great. I have yet to spend a whole night with bluetooth and ANC on, however. I haven't needed to. I know at $200 it seems like a lot to spend for ear buds that you only use for sleep and that aren't designed for super high quality audio sounds. However, this week has been the best sleep week I've had in two months since those neighbors upstairs moved in. You do need several nights to get used to the fit and feel. Not because they are uncomfortable, but because when something new is in your ear and you aren't used to it, it can feel funny and weird which may keep you awake instead of helping you sleep. But, give it a few nights, and if you are like me, they get more comfortable the more you wear them. I can sleep on my side with these but I need a soft pillow. A really firm pillow would hurt my ears after a few hours, as it would everyone else with anything in their ear. Everyone is a different size and shape, but I have found these A30's to be comfortable, and of high quality. The app is full of options to help customize the experience, and they do what they claim they will do. After this week, my wife (who is very thrifty) is asking if she can try these out and maybe get a pair because she notices such a difference in my morning wakefulness. Hope this helps those of you out there like me needed something to help get your sleep back. I would definitely buy again and am grateful for this product.

These are non-functional for their intended purpose unless you require very little sleep. First, the volume level of these speakers seems very low by default. Compared to my other earbuds (an older set of Space A40s and a set of Bose QuietComfort 2024 earbuds that I tried), these required a much higher volume level across all types of listening scenarios. The volume issue is relevant because it affects the earbuds' noise masking/cancelling capabilities as well as how much battery life you can expect from one full charge. I wanted earbuds that I could use with ANC on for at least 6+ hours to block my partner's snoring. I also wanted to be able to stream ambient sounds/music/white noise over bluetooth the whole night as a sleep aid. (I tried the built-in noise masking options, including the option to customize your masking sound, and disliked how low-quality and harsh they all sounded.) These earbuds only last 6.5 hours max when brand new in my preferred mode of use. I need more sleep than 6.5 hours most nights, and because lithium ion batteries degrade, these buds would only be even partially functional as a sleep aid for me for a few months, if that. These buds thus seem like a poor value for the money for how I want to use them. The A30s also seem overpriced, even by Anker's standards, because they just announced an upgraded version of these buds (advertised to have a longer battery life than these regular A30s) that will be sold for $20 less than the launch price and advertised MSRP of the original A30s. I also strongly dislike the shoehorning of AI bloat in the updated soundcore app. The "brainwave audio" tracks are all quite annoying/distracting, imo, and it looks like Anker generated a bunch of non-cohesive AI slop images to accompany the sleep tips portion of the app. Sucks that Anker would rather generate cheap visual soup than hire designers or artists who could create cohesive and relevant art. The transition from bluetooth audio to the noise masking sound in local audio mode, which can be triggered when sleep is detected to preserve battery life, was abrupt enough (due to how much louder the the noise-masking sound with no ANC seemed compared to the volume of bluetooth audio + ANC) that it woke me from sleep several times, which was also pretty annoying. I don't care about or even really trust the accuracy of the sleep tracking features in the soundcore app/these earbuds, so I didn't test or even set up that part of the app. As far as positives go, the buds really are small and lightweight. I struggled to find a good combination of ear tips and wings that would lead to a secure, noise-blocking fit in each ear, but that's not unusual for me. The silicone material seemed nice enough, and I liked the sliding case lid. Overall, I cannot recommend the Sleep A30s as a sleep aid. The set I tried is being returned due to the short battery life when brand new and the lack of good app features or built-in noise masking sounds.

These were my second brand of sleep earbuds I've tried. I've used this for 2 weeks now and figured out how to use it. Its going to sound really weird but you need to let it stretch your earholes out. For the first 3 nights it was really uncomfortable and weird, it felt like a foreign object in my ear and the lower inner part of my ear got sore. Every night I was testing different configurations and landed on small silicone plugs and medium wings. On the 4th night onwards my earholes were stretched out to the point where I didnt feel any uncomfyness inside and ouside my ear. I can still listen to my airpods just fine btw, stretched earholes arent bad. The ANC works much better when you sleep on your side and Id 100% recommend this for side sleepers. If you are a back sleeper the ANC is just ok and you are better off wearing foam ear plugs if you want to block 100% noise out. The white colour is cream coloured fyi not pure white like the image. The purple one looks more white than the white one haha. The case feels nice to open and close, theres a little tactile part for where to open which is really thoughtful especially when Im searching for it at night and theres a rubber base to prevent it slipping off the desk. I recharge the case once a week based on my configs. This is my configuration as I use these only for sleep - default local audio mode, storm audio + ANC, audio to stop when I fall asleep and ANC is kept on. I sleep for 8 hours and wake up to 20-30% battery. The ANC, like all ANCs is good for covering low noises like moving traffic/highways, annoyingly loud exhausts etc but not as good for high noises like people yelling, trucks backing up etc. Thats why I always pair the ANC with audio, it cuts the noise out for me 95% when side sleeping which is more than enough to fall asleep. Only thing Id ask Soundcore is to have more audio sounds in the app. The app works fine for me btw.

I was looking for something that would distract me from nighttime noises, be a pleasant experience to sleep to, and to replace my foam ear plugs - I was excited to have come across these. It was a choice between the Ozlo sleeping ear buds and these A30s from Soundcore. At a cost above $200, the Ozlo's seemed too pricey - both brands did the same thing and at a sub $200 price point, the A30's seemed to offer everything I was looking for so my choice was made. The first thing I noticed on the box before opening the product was an alarming sticker - a warning about BPA and cancer. This was not a good start but an email to the company revealed this was in the packaging and NOT the product that goes in your ears so this was a relief. Still, I don’t understand why companies knowingly put this crap in their packaging…cost, I suppose. I was super impressed with the circular charging case which houses the ear buds - it fits in your hand and has a top that slides back, revealing LED lights that light up the ear buds so if you're trying to be discrete around others who may be sleeping, it's easy to see your buds in the dark. This case uses USB-C charging and has a few LEDs on the front to indicate charging status and battery power - however, there are only 3 of them that blink in a linear mode so don't count on a precise reading half way in. I have no opinion about charging time as I just plug in the case to charge during the day and it's easily ready at night upon needing to use the buds. One of the main reasons I wanted these was a capability that allows you to upload sounds to the actual ear buds so they are not on a bluetooth mode, which would require a constant connection to the app on your phone in order to hear anything. This was perfect - a self contained set of buds with memory, built in - HOWEVER, I was majorly disappointed and have yet to use this feature ever again as I found you must use Soundcore's sounds, you can only upload one at a time, the sound must be installed from the Soundcore app and worst of all - they are in mono, not stereo. This was a huge bummer and doesn’t make sense to me and when I mentioned having the ability to use your own sound loops and in stereo to Soundcore, they reacted as though they’d never thought of it before. That would be the first thing I’d think of. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to feel transported or immersed into my audio if it’s a limited library of mono sounds. To be fair, these ear buds are quite compact and fit very well into the ear - that is a common point of feedback I’ve seen from many, many users. I am a side sleeper and to have a bud pressed up into your ear means it must be as flat as possible and these succeed well at that - very comfortable. That said, I think this probably limits the memory that can be on board the buds, thereby allowing only mono sounds - however, could the app, before uploading the sounds to the buds, take a high quality stereo sound and just lower the bit rate on it instead and also make the sound loop shorter to accommodate such a memory limitation? Battery life was exceptional for me, after about 7.5 hours of use, they still had 40% charge. This is without using the noise cancellation mode which will shorten the battery life but if you have white noises around you (hums of fans, air conditioners, etc.), I found this mode to be quite good. I always leave it off since I don’t have a problem with these kinds of noises but I have switched the noise cancellation on by accident throughout the night and woke up to find the ear buds were silent as they ran out of battery sooner than expected. This mode and others (volume, play/pause, etc.) are activated by tapping a designated number of times on either the left or right ear bud and the resulting actions of these numbered taps can be changed in the Soundcore app. You may now understand why a mode might be triggered accidentally as there are times where I’ve needed to adjust the bud in my ear or I brush my finger across the bud a couple times to scratch and itch….it happens. However, there are tones you’ll hear that indicate a mode has been turned on or off. The sound quality, I felt, was adequate for sleeping - stereo separation was really good - there just doesn’t seem to be enough bass though - the speakers in the buds tend to favor the mid - higher registers of sound and I certainly wouldn’t have these be my go-to for listening to music. This, again may be a limitation based on keeping the buds small. For those of you used to having ear plugs in your ears throughout the night, this may just be a transition. Ultimately, I found them comfortable but on warm nights or if you tend to sleep favorably on one side and are keeping an air tight seal around your ear with the pillow, it can get pretty humid inside the ear, causing some moisture or wax build up. I’m getting occasional tinnitus from wearing these every single night (due to wax build up) so I need to take breaks and make sure I get the build up resolved before using them again. Much of this may have to do with the bud tips that you use and Soundcore does not disappoint by offering you a healthy selection of tips and “wings” that help to stabilize the buds in your ear. I personally found the wings that were already installed worked just fine for me. I really debated keeping these after I learned I couldn’t upload my own sound loops and in stereo, it’s not really preferred I have a Bluetooth signal from my phone transmitting to my head all night - however, I’ve researched bluetooth transmission many times and it appears safe but long term studies have yet to be conducted. I’m glad I kept them though, I actually use a sound looping app on my iPhone to play my own loops that I’ve created. I wish the Soundcore app would allow more personalization by having a built in looper where you could load in your own sounds and it would maybe use AI to loop them throughout the night. I barely use the Soundcore app. The app does have a neat little sleep analysis feature that records when you’re sleeping, when you’re snoring, etc. How it figures out this data from you wearing a set of ear buds, I have no idea and I question its accuracy…unless you’re hooked up to some electrodes monitoring all of these activities, I don’t think I would rely heavily on the app’s data - seems more like a gimmick to me - my 2 cents. I had two rounds of emails to Soundcore’s support regarding questions and feedback about the product. I’ve seen other reviewers who have trashed Soundcore’s support. I have had a very pleasant experience with them as they were cordial and professional in their responses, however, they took forever to get back to me in both instances.

I bought the Soundcore Sleep A30 Special earbuds by Anker because apparently I have reached the stage of adulthood where “sleeping peacefully” requires tiny ear technology, noise cancellation, app settings, and a small collection of silicone accessories that look like they belong in a dollhouse medical kit. First of all, these are the smallest earbuds I have personally ever used. They are specifically designed for sleep, so they sit flush with the outer ear instead of sticking out like tiny plastic doorstops. As a side sleeper, this matters. A lot. I included pictures showing how they sit in my ear, along with size comparisons next to a U.S. quarter and penny, and even sitting directly on the coins because they really are that small. The A30 Special comes with a huge variety of fit options: different wings, silicone ear tips in XS, S, M, and L, and memory foam tips in S, M, and L. The memory foam tips are only included with the A30 Special version, and they are considered consumable, meaning they need to be replaced periodically. I have small ears, so I’m using the silicone sleeve without wings and the XS silicone ear tips. I do like the extra cushion of the memory foam tips, but even the small memory foam size is a little too bulky for my tiny, dramatic ears. The ANC works fabulously. With nothing playing, I can barely hear my fan. With audio playing, the fan disappears completely. Poof. Gone. Fan who? These are excellent for masking outside noise, including snoring, general house sounds, and whatever mysterious nonsense happens at night when you are trying to sleep. The Soundcore app is also a big strength. Anker offers app support with their earbuds and headphones, and these are no different. The app includes a generous selection from Calm’s audio library with sleep stories, meditations, relaxation tracks, white noise, and similar sleep-friendly options without needing a separate subscription. That is a major win. The app also has snore masking settings, and you can use either local sleep sounds or Bluetooth mode. Personally, I like falling asleep to a podcast, because apparently my brain needs one last creepy pasta before shutting down, so I appreciate being able to use Bluetooth. There are a few downsides. These do not have an equalizer, and there are volume limitations. But when I look at how small they are and remember that they are designed for sleep, not for dramatically pretending I’m in a music video while cleaning the kitchen, I get it. You could use them as everyday earbuds, but that is not really what they are meant for. They also do not have a built-in microphone, so you cannot use them to take calls through the earbuds. They will pause if a call comes in so you can answer on your device, which is fine. I mean, hopefully you are not taking conference calls in your sleep. If you are, please seek help or a new job. The sound quality is clear and pleasant, which is what I’ve come to expect from Anker. It is not “full-size headphones with booming bass” sound, but again, these are tiny sleep earbuds. They are doing their tiny best, and honestly, their tiny best is pretty good. Comfort-wise, they are better than any other earbuds I’ve tried for sleeping. That said, I do still feel some pressure on my tragus and antitragus when I’m lying directly on them. Small ears plus side sleeping equals a very specific Princess and the Pea situation. It is not a deal breaker, but I would not call them completely invisible-feeling either. Battery life is excellent. They last a full 10+ hours for me, which is exactly what I need from sleep earbuds. I do not want earbuds giving up at 3:00 a.m. like, “Good luck with your thoughts.” My other complaint is the alarm in the app does not have a snooze option. This feels rude. Some of us need a gentle negotiation period before becoming people. Overall, I would give the Soundcore Sleep A30 Special earbuds 4 out of 5 stars. The strengths are the tiny sleep-friendly design, lots of fit options, clear sound, excellent noise masking, strong battery life, ANC that actually works, and the included Calm audio library selections. The downsides are no built-in microphone, no equalizer, no snooze option, and comfort that is very good but still not perfect for my small side-sleeper ears. Would I buy them again? Yes. Absolutely. They are not perfect, but they are the best sleep earbuds I’ve tried so far, and they make my nightly attempt at unconsciousness significantly more peaceful.

I wanted to like the Soundcore Sleep A30 because the noise cancellation is genuinely excellent. Once I found the right ear-tip size, the ANC became even better and did a great job reducing fan noise and other sounds around me. The Soundcore app is also useful, with sleep tracking, alarms, sleep sounds, and other sleep-focused features. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is that the earbuds simply do not stay in my ears while I sleep. I tried every included ear-wing size, multiple ear-tip sizes, different positioning, and several nights of testing. They can feel completely secure while I’m awake, even when I roll around or move my head against the pillow, but after several hours of actual sleep they still work themselves loose and fall out. This is especially frustrating if you move around a lot in your sleep because you wake up having to carefully locate the earbuds so you don’t accidentally roll over or step on them. I also had a charging issue with the left earbud. It stayed at a very low battery percentage while the right earbud and case were fully charged. I eventually discovered that one of the ear wings was interfering with the charging connection, even though the earbud looked like it was seated correctly. The included charging cable is another weak point. It’s extremely short, and the USB-C connection doesn’t feel very secure. My Chromebook USB-C charger actually fits the case more reliably than the cable Soundcore included. There are definitely things I like about the A30. The ANC is impressive, the app has a lot of useful features, and they’re comfortable when they stay positioned correctly. But for something specifically designed to be worn while sleeping, reliable overnight retention is extremely important, and that’s where these failed for me. They may work perfectly for someone who doesn’t move much during sleep or whose ears match the shape of the earbuds better, but they weren’t reliable enough for me.

I did not like these at first. I knew would take time to get the right fit, but had quite a few nights waking from ear pain. That was with the silicone buds, the memory foam that they list as "not as comfortable" is far more comfortable for me. Once I got the fit right, these have been life changing. And I do mean that, and will explain - I work on a ship, which is running 24/7, and full of inconsiderate @sssholes. Working night shift and sleeping during the day? People will slam door, yell in hallways, etc. Add in loud PA announcements on top of that. According to my Oura ring, I was getting woken an average of 10 times a night/day. 5.5-6 hours broken sleep a night. I was miserable, always tired, in a job where being tired and unaware is horribly dangerous. Try as I might, the inconsideration of others never got better. For awhile I managed with silicon earplugs and a manta sound mask, along with white noise. Still would get woken up. Brought these A30s out, figuring even some ear pain was worth it. After a few nights I got the fit right and getting 8 hours sleep a night. I don't wake with ear pain, sometimes a tiny bit of soreness. The battery life is good enough, be nice to be better. I find that once I get to my room I want to put these on, as I am then in my own world, with calming rain sounds. If I get 8 hours sleep, these have 10% battery left when I wake up. Id prefer longer so I could have a chill, quiet morning before the sounds of chaos wreck my mood. The ANC is actually really good. Those that complain did not give it time. Obviously if you do not have a good fit, you wont get as much noise cancelation, but the ANC starts minimal and increases over next few minutes. I think its learning the noises and slowly adjusting. I keep a fan running at night, and when I just put the buds in I can hear it, but after a few minutes, its cancelled out. Sound quality? I don't have the sound very high but sounds good to me. Very clear. These are meant for sleeping, not raging out to some metal while lifting weights. These do track your sleep, I don't know how accurately it does thought. I would compare with Oura Ring, but my sleep was so bad I got rid of my ring cause I only saw disappointment. The issue with the sleep tracking is you need to connect to the earbuds to open that part of the app. App isn't all that great in my opinion. I have not tried any of the sounds in the app, it uses Calm though. I can't speak for how it gets rid of snoring, or much of the options. There is an option to have the music turn off once you fall asleep, that one irritated me, as it got turned on somehow and I woke up 30 minutes after falling asleep and couldnt get music playing through the earbuds. Played out phone speakers instead. Trying to sort that out while half asleep not so fun. I learned to check the settings before sleep. I just use it to play continuously, then put on a 2 hour playlist of sleep sounds, and it keeps the ANC going after music stops. One other minor complaint is the foam buds they say are consumable, yet they only sell full set. Would be nice to sell a set of one size so you dont have to buy a set of all sizes just to get the size you want. Also, not sure how long the foam will last but been a month and still look new. I am a side sleeper, which probably helps some of you out. If you arent a side sleeper, these would be insanely comfortable. As a side sleeper expect to play around with sizes, and know that what seems comfortable testing may not be comfortable sleeping. Im stubborn and know I have big ear holes, but shockingly after plenty of sizing I found smaller ones worked better. I would give 4 stars, due to the app and some small annoyances, but these have been so life altering, I cannot give less than 5 stars. These have helped me so much, I'm tempted to get a second pair as a backup as I couldn't go a night onboard without these now.

I really like these ear buds. My apartment is quite load so I need to wear ear plugs at night to sleep. Problem is that I also like to listen to podcasts to help fall asleep. So I’ve always had to decide between ear plugs or podcasts, and sometimes switch between the two, which is annoying. Well these solve both my problems! As ear plugs: I would say these give you about 85% of the noise blocking capabilities of regular ear plugs when you have them seating correctly and the noise cancellation turned on. Not bad at all imo. Sound quality: honestly better than I expected. Not the best but probably about 75% as good as say AirPods Pro, maybe a little better than the old school AirPods. Totally fine for sleep. You could use them in your daily commute or at the gym too but these aren’t really meant for that. But you could do it and be fairly satisfied Comfort: I have no issues as a side sleeper sleeping with these in all night. I’d say about 85% as comfortable as regular ear plugs. And waaaay more comfortable than AirPods. All in all, I highly recommend these. They’re pricey but the quality is noticeable immediately when you open the packaging. Overall exceeded my expectations despite the high price.

I’ve been using it for a month now, and it’s the best purchase I’ve ever made! I’ve been sleeping so much better, the noise cancellation is absolutely amazing, it’s comfortable to sleep with, the app is super easy and super cool. I also use as normal earbuds to listen to music and specially for audiobooks, when I don’t want to be distracted by the outside noise. Absolutely amazing product!

Bra ljud och ANC. Bekväma att använda. Bra programvara med rikligt med alternativ att välja på. Toppenprodukt helt enkelts.

100% satisfied with the product... No connectivity issues. ANC is good Comfort in ears is good Value for money

Absolute game changer for me. I am someone who struggles sleeping due to noise disturbances in my neighbourhood, so always wear earplugs or headphones to sleep. These have changed my life - the comfort level is faultless — I am a side sleeper too. They block plenty of noise even without noise cancelling; with noise cancelling on you are in your own silent universe, or nature, if you’d prefer the nature sounds. Don’t waste your time comparing these to regular headphones: it’s like comparing apples on oranges. These are designed for sleep, not audio quality or phone calls, and they deliver on their promise as incredible sleep headphones. The sound quality is totally passable for music, nature sounds and podcasts, but of course they’re not audiophile grade. I am a music professional so will always keep other headphones for if I just want to listen to music, but I will never use another pair in bed again other than my soundcores. Hardware, design and comfort are all exceptional. Touch controls require a firm tap, which can be improved imo but are fine; the app is passable but could be better. I love the setting where, when my audio selection (eg a podcast) ends the Soundcores automatically switch to ‘local mode’ and plays my nature sound selection. This ensures a magical sleep, but also conserves battery. Love these and highly recommend for anyone hard of sleeping due to noise sensitivity like me. Btw, I’ve tried the regular pair too - the noise cancelling is totally worth the extra money. Can’t wait to try these on a plane today

Very comfortable to wear at night, they block most of the noises around and help me sleep better