As a shift worker in my day job, sleep is a constant challenge. Finding quiet during the day generally means foam ear plugs, but Anker are offering another option with their Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds and they’re available in Australia so I gave them a whirl.

The Soundcore Sleep A30 first showed up as a Kickstarter where it hit its funding goal before a broader launch, meaning you can now simply buy them for $319.99 on the Soundcore website. 

These sleep focused earbuds are the third generation in the Soundcore  Sleep Series, and the ‘World’s First Smart ANC Sleep Earbuds’, but there’s other updates to make updating from their A20 series a good idea.

The Sleepbuds A30 now also include memory foam tips and the charging case now also monitors and adjusts for snoring from you, or your partner. The A30 also includes more detailed analytics, and there’s also a microphone to power the ANC, but also expanding their functionality to more than just sleep buds and letting you take a call. 

The earbuds come in two colour options: Moonlit White or Mist Green, with Anker sending over the white option for me to try out. 

I’ve been trying them out – and stealing them back from my wife – for a couple of weeks now and here’s how it went. 

Setup

Opening the SoundCore A30 Sleepbuds box you’re presented with a pretty standard looking round charging case. It’s got a nice matte texture and a rubberised base, with a USB-C charging port in the rear and a button you can use for syncing.

Under the case you’ll find accessories, in this case a USB-C cable for charging, and an array of tips and wings to help make the earbuds comfortable. 

You get four Silicone eartips, with one medium set already pre-installed, as well as three pairs of memory foam tips – a new and welcome addition to the SoundCore range.

There are two additional sets of wings in slightly different sizes, as well as a pair pre-installed on the buds out of the box. 

While I appreciate the choice, the buds fit my ears nicely first go. I did end up switching to the memory foam tips and found them far better than the silicone ones pre-installed but your mileage may vary, so there’s enough variety to keep anyone happy.

The buds themselves fit slightly less flush than your outer ear, so when you lay flat, they really do not interfere or dig into your ear in any way shape or form. In fact the silicone wing tips actually feel quite good. 

The SoundCore A30 charging case is light, and has a nicely slim profile – and while they’re sleep buds, you could definitely slip this into your pocket when you head out for the day.

Of course you can simply pair the buds as Bluetooth earbuds, but you’ll need the Soundcore app – available for Android and iOS devices – to get the cool stuff.

Setup is relatively simple, follow the bouncing ball type setup. You are asked when you first open the app if Noise, Stress or both are a factor affecting your sleep, so you can go from there. The settings allow a large amount of options, including updating the firmware, finding your buds and more.

How do they go?

I have to admit I was a little skeptical of the SoundCore A30. For shift workers, sleep is one thing you don’t really mess with once you’ve found something that works. I was pleasantly surprised by the SoundCore A30 sleep buds.

The buds themselves fit comfortably in your ear. They sit slightly less flush than your outer ear, so when you lay flat with your ear on a pillow, they really do not interfere or dig into your ear in any way shape or form. In fact the silicone wing tips actually feel quite good. 

I did lose an earbud one night, which led to a slightly frantic search through the bed in the middle of the night before quickly using the Find Device option in settings which started the bud beeping, making it easy to find. Other than that, the wing tips keep them fairly well locked in your ears. 

Audio options

In terms of the sleep sounds, I was never one for ambient noise however I found the range of audio available to contain a few options that suited me – and there’s quite an array to choose from. 

The audio library is split into three sections: Brainwave Audio, Snore Masking and White Noise. 

The Brainwave Audio is made up of scenes: Starry Sky, Forest, Ocean etc. with each scene consisting of a mixture of ambient music with background sounds. You can select through the carousel checking options for Spatial Audio and more.

Snore Masking appears to be more intense scenes – think Rainy Alley, Campfire Crackle or Storm Fall but without music. They go above and beyond simple repetitive white noise for anyone who enjoys, say falling asleep listening to the waves at the beach or a storm rolling in.

My personal favourite though was the array of White noise which had me switching back between Rain, Spaceship and Wind noises. There’s also an interesting choice of ‘Cat Drinking’….so if that’s triggering, avoid that one, or if that’s your jam, go nuts!

The buds can actually detect when you fall asleep – and you get the option to either have the buds stop playing noise, or switch to local audio and continue playing – the option to switch to local audio does turn off ANC, so be careful if you’re a light sleeper. 

I have looked at the Bose SleepBuds in another life, and that was one thing I found I couldn’t stand. My brain was actively listening to the music/white noise/ambient noise and couldn’t switch off, so while I ‘Slept’ I often didn’t feel rested. The Anker SoundCore A30 had no such issue, easily detecting sleep and switching off and leaving me to rest.

The other great trick of the SoundCore A30 buds is the alarm. You can have it wake you up with no-one around you the wiser.

Inside the buds are 4.6 mm Drivers, a slight decrease from the previous model, however you’re now also able to take calls on them due to the mic.  

You CAN take calls on the SoundCore A30 sleepbuds, but you have to enable the setting in the SoundCore app.  I chose to only enable it to test before disabling the option and let the buds simply ignore phone calls coming in, because phone calls should be ignore by sleep buds.  

In terms of sound quality they’re pretty decent and playback all the noise profiles with excellent clarity – the campfire sounds like a campfire with snapping, popping and crackling, and frankly they ARE the most comfortable buds I’ve worn and with sleep, that’s what counts, so having good quality audio to boot is a bonus

Sleep Report

I’m a little skeptical of sleep reports, but there was some decent tracking in the SoundCore A30.

The sleep report gives you a lot of information, starting with your sleep score. You then get a breakdown of stats for how long, wake times, etc. It is a little off, with some periods not registering but overall it’s pretty darn accurate. 

The Details tab shows a visual graph, with a break down of the type of sleep, while a snoring tab can show you how affected you were by snoring around you – CPAP for the win! I found the Sleep Mover tab to be supremely interesting, breaking down how often you turn. 

The only downside to the sleep data is that there doesn’t appear to be a way to export the data to another platform so you can centralise your health data with other devices. 

Battery Life and Charging

Anker says you’ll get 9 hours of use from the SoundCore A30, with the case allowing up to five nights – 45 hours in total of sleep using it. 

To check the battery, there’s three LEDs on the front of the case to give you a quick idea, or you can look at the top of the app when you connect to the buds – or check your Bluetooth settings.

The buds certainly got me through a full night of sleep, with the case reporting 70% charge after a night’s sleep and then recharging the buds. It’s a decent range of time, and most people will generally have a charger beside the bed to charge the case while sleeping – if not, a battery bank can top it up if you go off-grid for a while as well.

The takeaway is unless you’re achieving levels of sleep only my teenager can achieve, the buds themselves have a decent amount of charge before needing to pop them back into the case to recharge. 

Final Thoughts

I’m a big fan of the SoundCore Sleep A30 earbuds. 

They’re supremely comfortable to wear, blocking out any noise with the ANC, and the audio options to fall asleep to are excellent. 

At $319.99, they are a little pricey for use only as sleep buds, and while you can use them as bluetooth buds which include ANC, there are better options available.

Ultimately though, the SoundCore Sleep A30 earbuds block out the noise around you, while being very comfortable to sleep in. The audio, sleep reports and even the snore blocking are just very neat bonuses on top of some very comfortable sleep buds.

If you want to check them out or place an order, you can head over to the SoundCore website.