QuietOn 3 sleep earbuds review: For the sound-sensitive sleepers

I’m the kind of sleeper who might end up not sleeping the whole night because of the sound of a working air conditioner. If you are anything like me who just can’t fall asleep due to snoring, or other environmental noise like loud music from the other room, the QuietOn 3 sleep earbuds are the solution you've been waiting for. But are they worth the hefty $269 price tag?

QuietOn 3: Price and availability

The QuietOn 3 sleep earbuds are available through the company’s website in the U.S. and the U.K. These cost $269 in the U.S. and 239 euros in the U.K. As of writing this review, the QuietOn 3 aren’t available through major online outlets like Amazon, Walmart, or Target.

QuietOn 3: What I liked

The QuietOn 3 sleep earbuds are a very focused set of products. They do one thing, and are pretty good at it. That can be good or bad — depending on the way you look at it. The advantage of doing just one thing is that the company can focus on one feature and be exceptionally good at it. 

The earbuds themselves are the smallest pair of earbuds I’ve ever used. They sit in my ear perfectly. There is a particular way to insert them in your ear canal; by twisting the buds to get the seal right. If the twist doesn’t fit them snuggly in the ear canal, you need to pull your earlobe a little and try again. These should seal right into the ear canal. They are labeled L and R for ease of use.

You get instructions on how to use them on the packaging, so you need not worry about learning the ways. It could take a couple of nights to get used to a piece of tech sitting right in your ears while you sleep, but it’s there for a reason, so I’m fine with it. 

The foam also expands, which feels a bit weird at first, but you get used to it. They won’t fall out even if you are a side-sleeper like me. I’ve inserted them in my ears before sleeping and woke up with them in my ears the next morning, which is unusual for a pair of typical earbuds. 

The QuietOn 3 block the noises I’m mostly bothered with — my air conditioner, and the traffic. In general, most of the sounds that keep us awake at night are of low frequency, such as noise through walls, distant traffic or construction, etc. 

Like the other best noise-canceling wireless earbuds, the QuietOn 3 use the active noise-canceling tech to reduce the continuous low frequency sounds. They cancel out noise with a combination of passive noise cancellation and ANC. The noise cancellation is one of the best on any pair of earbuds that I've used, even including the Sony WF-1000XM4.

They won’t cancel out all the noise, obviously. You can still hold a conversation with them in your ears. But the low frequency cancellation makes a real difference. The AC noise is gone, and so is the distant traffic sound. You won’t hear the music from the other room or the snoring of your partner. In short, the QuietOn 3 work, and work amazingly well. 

The other thing I also like about the design is that there are three LED lights on the rear of the case above the Type-C charging port. These indicate the number of full charges left on the buds. 

This is a feature I’d like other manufacturers to take note of, as it’s one of the most useful parts of the design on the QuietOn 3. Like the rear, there is a pair of three LEDs at the front, which indicates the number of charge cycles left on each earbud. Again, an extremely useful feature to know if the earbuds are going to last the whole night.

As for the battery life, the earbuds can last up to 28 hours on a trot, with three more charges left in the case. The earbuds lasted me nine nights easily before I had to charge the device again. 

While you can have trouble getting used to the fit, the company provides four different sizes of foam ear tips to choose from. I had no problem with the ear tip the QuietOn 3 came with out of the box. But every ear is different, and you might need to replace them. 

QuietOn 3: What I didn’t like

Like I said in the previous section, doing just one thing “can be good or bad — depending on the way you look at it.” I believe QuietOn can work on these earbuds and build an app around it. 

The app could maybe detail the kind of sleep I had the previous night with sleep detection, the amount of deep sleep I got, and more statistics like you get on the best Android smartwatches. An app with subscription service that helps you sleep better with data analysis could potentially be under development, and play a huge part in QuietOn's future products. For now, the absence of sleep detection and data analysis is a miss.

On the other hand, spending $269 for a pair of ANC earbuds that don’t play music or do anything else other than canceling noise might not appeal to some people. It is a pricey pair of earbuds for one sole purpose, but again, handles it quite well.

Should you buy the QuietOn 3 sleep earbuds?

You should buy this if…

• You want to improve your sleep
• You are a sound-sensitive sleeper
• You want good battery life on a pair of sleep earbuds

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You don’t have $269 to spend on sleep-dedicated earbuds
• You want dedicated app support with sleep stats 

The QuietOn 3 sleep earbuds are a very niche product that appeals to a specific set of people. But once inserted in your ear canal, these will cancel out the snoring of your partner, loud music coming from a distant party, and even noises from far away traffic. All of this combines for a better sleep experience. 

However, the absence of an app or sleep detection bothers me personally, because there are potential features that could be unlocked and make the product much better. The presence of sleep detection could also make them worth the price tag.

That said, if you are bothered by the distant traffic noise or the sounds from the house of your neighbors, and you are in the market for a pair of ANC earbuds under $300, the answer is a solid yes. You should absolutely buy the QuietOn 3 if you’ve got $269. 

These cancel out continuous low frequency noise superbly. They are expensive, there is no denying that. But if you spend your money on the QuietOn 3, you aren’t going to be disappointed.