Anker’s latest Soundcore Sleep A30 sleep buds do what its A20 buds promised but couldn’t deliver: mask snoring. It accomplishes this with the inclusion of Active Noise Cancellation in the buds and a microphone inside the charging case that actively adjusts masking audio to cancel out the sound of sawing logs.
Of course I want that! said my monkey brain when I first saw those specs attached to slightly smaller earbuds, which should make them even more comfortable for side sleepers. But after testing them every night for the last month, I’ve come to a different conclusion. Then again, my bedtime buddy doesn’t usually snore.
$230
The Good
- Masks light to moderate snoring
- Good for side sleepers
- Smaller than last generation
The Bad
- ANC kills the small batteries
- More expensive than predecessors
- Unresponsive touch controls
First, I should explain how poorly I sleep. I listen to podcasts to quell my busy mind, and that means earbuds – Apple’s AirPods Pro, usually – to avoid disturbing my wife when falling asleep. To complicate matters, I wake up frequently each night, anywhere between one and about five times, requiring a podcast rewind and restart. And if I roll over I have to switch out earbuds since the AirPods are too big to sleep on. It sucks, but that’s my routine for years now.
Anker advertises 9 hours of battery life per charge with ANC enabled (extended to 45 hours with the case), but that’s only when you’re primarily listening to white noise or snore-masking sounds like rain, wind, and campfire crackles stored locally on the buds. If that works for you, then the A30 buds will easily make it through the night.
However, they last closer to 6.5 hours per charge if you’re primarily streaming audio over Bluetooth. At least twice a week, I’d wake before dawn and attempt to restart a podcast on dead earbuds, especially on nights when I got sucked into a doomscrolling session before falling asleep. I didn’t have that problem with the passive A20 sleep buds.
No wireless charging, these are USB-C only.
The buds can emit a stream of beeps if lost.
Next to my trusty AirPods Pro.
The buds really are small making them good for side sleepers.
The smaller A30s are more comfortable than the A20s when sleeping on my side. I still have to adjust my pillow just so to make sure the pressure isn’t too acute and that the audio isn’t muffled. And so far, I haven’t woken up with any soreness. Side sleeping with AirPods or any other popular earbuds just isn’t a possibility, so this is a major win for Anker.
To test the adaptive snore masking, I took advantage of Alexa’s ability to play snoring sounds on my original Amazon Echo speaker placed about a meter from my head. With the Soundcore charging case nearby, I tested the A30 buds with ANC turned on, with local snore-masking audio, and with podcasts streamed over Bluetooth. I did the testing with the Echo at volume levels of 3 (akin to my wife after too many glasses of wine), 6 (time to seek relationship counseling), and 9 (divorce!).
At volume level 3, the A30 sleep buds blocked the snoring 100 percent, or 90 percent with just ANC enabled and no masking sounds or podcast playing. It was so good that I had to remove the buds to make sure the snoring sound effects were still playing from the speaker. The buds with masking audio did a reasonable job at level 6, blocking about 70 percent of the sound — but I was able to clearly hear the repetitive drone next to me. At volume level 9, well, you can’t expect miracles.
Anker’s bedtime buds also offer a sleep tracking feature that gives a general sense of how well you slept, but with far too much confidence, enthusiasm, and specificity. For example, on one particularly restless night — I felt like shit after waking up 4 or 5 times over an eight-hour span, including a stretch from 4am to 5:15am where I listened to a podcast from beginning to end. Yet Anker congratulated me on an 87 sleep score, with a “Wow, you slept like a baby! Start your day in the best shape possible!” It also said I spent 29 percent of the night “prone,” even though I never sleep on my stomach.
The buds can supposedly detect when you fall asleep. However, I wonder if this is just a timer — they repeatedly shut off after about an hour of continuous use when watching a movie, for example.
I also found the touch controls to be unreliable. The buds respond to single or double taps to switch from Bluetooth to local modes, skip tracks, adjust volume, etc. Yet they fail frequently enough that I never expect them to register on the first attempt. And battery life is such that when the taps don’t register after a few tries, I just assume the buds have gone dead, only to launch the app and see they’re not. This isn’t what you want to deal with when trying to fall back asleep.
The buds can also be set to playback a wide variety of white noise and other audio soundscapes, with enough bubbling brooks and loon calls to make a spa operator swoon. The “AI Brainwave Audio” feature promises restful sleep by delivering different frequencies to each ear, which supposedly “helps sync your brainwaves with calming patterns to promote relaxation and restful sleep.” I found it pointless, but that bullet point sure looks like gee-whiz tech to investors and wellness nerds. I’m envious of you if these features can calm you and help you fall asleep, as Anker claims.
- The Soundcore app offers personalization features like sleep reminders and alarms. I didn’t find them compelling enough to use or supplant what’s already available in iOS.
- The case doesn’t offer wireless charging; it’s USB-C only.
- Volume for local mode audio can’t be controlled from the phone’s volume buttons, only via the Soundcore app (or the tap controls on the buds if configured).
- The sound emitted from the Find Device feature is loud enough to help find a bud lost in the sheets or under the bed.
- The buds now include a microphone for making calls.
If, like me, you’re a side sleeper who likes to fall asleep listening to white noise or podcasts, then you can save a few bucks with the excellent Soundcore Sleep A20 buds, which can still be purchased for $179.99. Paying a $50 premium for the $229.90 Soundcore Sleep A30 buds will be easy to justify if they help restore sanity to anyone partnered up with a light to moderate snorer, assuming those tiny batteries last through the night.
All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
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