The Soundcore Sleep A30 Special brings a small but welcome update, making them the best sleep earbuds available right now.

Content

I can’t say that reviewing the Soundcore Sleep A30 exclusive earbuds was too challenging.

After all, about four months ago I reviewed the Soundcore Sleep A30 earphones when they were released. Those were earbuds that added active noise cancellation to the earbuds – a feature not available in any other options on the market at the time. Their performance impressed me enough that I considered them top-rated sleep earbuds, despite their few flaws.

That is, until now. With the exclusive Sleep A30 earbuds, Soundcore isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but the few changes they make are a significant improvement over the original Sleep A30 buds.

The result is that the exclusive Sleep A30 earbuds aren’t just better than their predecessors – they’re legitimately head and shoulders above all other sleep earbuds available. Let’s get into what makes them the best.

What’s new with the exclusive Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds?

The special earbuds were a surprise to me, as the addition of Soundcore’s ANC felt like a big enough improvement to keep up. at least per year, especially given their complete lack of competition in that regard.

Better battery life

Having said that, the ANC did not come without costs. The 14-hour battery life of the Sleep A20 earbuds – a 2024 Soundcore release – dropped to around seven and a half hours when ANC was talking about the Sleep A30 buds.

While that’s more than enough for some people, it’s impossible to imagine a situation where someone whose environment is loud enough to want active noise-cancelling earbuds might want a full eight hours of coverage with that noise cancellation. Mostly if you rely on the earbuds’ built-in alarm at the end of those eight hours. For earbuds that cost $229.99, it felt incredibly restrictive.

Soundcore addresses this issue head on by adding an hour of battery life to the special earbuds, giving you anywhere from eight to 10 hours of battery life. The difference depends on your settings, but in my week testing the earbuds, I found that leaving ANC on and switching to ambient sound (without ANC) or leaving ANC and Bluetooth sound all night got me eight hours, which wasn’t the case when I tested the regular A30s.

The options to automatically switch to playing local audio, pausing Bluetooth audio, and keeping Bluetooth audio on affect the earbuds’ battery life differently.
Credit: Soundcore / Screenshot

Low, very competitive price point

Usually, better features mean a higher price point, but Soundcore surprises again on this front. Instead of going all the way to the $229.99 price point of the Sleep A30 earbuds, the brand dropped the price to a more reasonable $199.99. While this isn’t chump change yet, it’s the asking price that best suits these single-purpose earbuds.

In my original review of the A30 earbuds, I wrote:

I have to admit that $229.99 is a lot to ask for earbuds that are only used for sleeping. Granted, it’s a lot cheaper than the $349 Ozlo Sleepbuds, and it comes with ANC – the price makes sense. However, it’s still steep, and far from your only option for effective soundproofing. The Sleep A20 is still a good (more) affordable option at $179.99.

The $199.99 price point not only widens the gap between Soundcore’s ANC earbuds and the Ozlo Sleepbuds (which don’t offer ANC), but also narrows the gap between the Sleep A20 earbuds released in 2022. While those buds are still a great deal (when on sale), at full price the Sleep A30 Specials cost an extra $20.

Quiet app integration

As a final bonus, the exclusive Sleep A30 earbuds also feature the integration of the Calm app within the accompanying app, giving users the option to choose between 20 bedtime stories and five sleep-focused meditations to listen to as they drift off to bed. Among the bedtime stories, you’ll find options from categories including fiction, train and travel, and nature.

Listen to a bedtime story…
Credit: Soundcore / Screenshot

…or Calm meditation in the Soundcore app.
Credit: Soundcore / Screenshot

This feature is not so remarkable, since thanks to the update, it is also available with the Soundcore compatible app for the regular Sleep A30 earbuds.

As for the content itself, I was a little disappointed that there was no option to change the narrator’s voice. I also found the options repetitive (though that may not be the most pressing problem, as they are meant to help you sleep). The lack of options is even more striking when you look at the partnership between Ozlo and Calm, which offers users a free year of the $80 meditation service. Butalso, the Ozlo buds cost $349 — you can buy the A30 Special buds, buy the Calm subscription separately, and still have about $69 left over.

Minor issues aside, the integration itself feels like a natural pairing between the two brands. And as someone with a brain who likes to think every possible thought the second my head hits the pillow, the addition of white audio style options is always welcome.

Soundcore Sleep A30 Special: Sound, noise cancellation, and performance

Apart from the improvements mentioned above, the Sleep A30 special earbuds work almost the same as the Sleep A30 earbuds. The Sleep A30 buds have had firmware updates since their release in August, which improved the accuracy of touch controls, sleep detection options, and ANC.

All in all, that adds up to two active sleep earbuds a lot well. The triple noise reduction system (Soundcore’s name for the combination of ANC, passive noise reduction, and their snore blocking technology) works well in all directions, the battery life of the case and the earbuds feel reasonable for daily use, they are comfortable with many wearing options, the application is easy to navigate, the white noise is variable, the sleep feature, clean tracking. again the touch controls didn’t fail me once during my week of testing (which I enjoyed even more while snoozing my alarm). The lower price point from the previous generation makes all these features even more prominent.

Are they completely perfect? Not quite yet. It would be nice to be able to set more than 5 alarms, and I find that the sleep tracking doesn’t always work accurately – it occasionally detects an earlier bedtime than I had, or registers an earlier wake-up time if one of my earbuds comes off in the middle of the night (which, admittedly, only really happens when I’m checking the ear tips).

However, those gripes are very minor and do very little to detract from the overall experience of using the earbuds.

Soundcore Sleep A30 Special details

As a final roundup, here’s everything you’ll get from the exclusive Sleep A30 earbuds:

• Active noise cancellation

• Adaptive snore masking powered by the microphone in the charging case

• About eight to ten hours of battery life per use, depending on settings

• About five days of battery life in each case

• Seven total ear tip options (four sizes of silicone ear tips and three sizes of memory foam), and three sizes of ear wings

• Customizable sounds for white noise, including bedtime stories for a calming and meditative app

• Customizable touch controls

• Built-in alarm with snooze

• Sleep tracking

• Two colors: mist lilac and moon white

Should you get the Soundcore Sleep A30 or the Sleep A30 Special?

As much as I love the Sleep A30 exclusive earbuds, there is no need to upgrade if you already own the Sleep A30 buds, unless you are very powerful, a lot I am not happy with the battery life.

Minus their colors, the Sleep A30 and the Sleep A30 special are identical.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

For anyone yet to purchase either pair, both are available for $199.99 (with the Sleep A30 earbuds technically at the bottom of their list price). With that, there is no reason not to choose better earbuds.

All that said, don’t sleep on the sale prices of the Sleep A20 earbuds if you’re looking for an affordable option. Ask yourself if you really need the ANC. If a lot, you are trying to block out the sound of the air conditioning unit or you just prefer to sleep on videos titled “Deep Sleep Music ★︎ SLEEP FAST ★︎ Melatonin Release,” you probably don’t need additional noise cancellation. I personally picked up the Sleep A20 buds on Black Friday as a gift for my dad, and spent a whopping $107.99.

Are the exclusive Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds worth it?

The Soundcore Sleep A30 Specials are, without a doubt, the best sleep earbuds you can get if you need the highest possible noise cancellation. (Though they are the only ones you can choose from in ANC).

Despite offering a unique feature in their ANC, at $199.99, they are reasonably priced, and more competitive than the $350 Ozlo Sleepbuds, another major competitor to the best sleep earbuds.

Even though they have minor negatives here and there, they end up setting other types of sleepers to pass. Although it seems Soundcore’s intentions are to continue to improve on a good thing.