QuietOn 4 Sleep Earbuds: Small Upgrades Make These the Best Yet

I’ve been reviewing and using QuietOn’s noise-cancelling sleep earbuds for over half a decade now, and each new version has been just a little bit better than the last.

Battery life improved, earbuds got smaller, foam tips got upgraded. The focus has clearly been on incremental improvement rather than radical updates, and that’s no different with the latest model even though the company itself has changed hands in the meantime.

In fact, when I first took them out of the box, it felt like there was very little difference between the previous 3.1 model and the QuietOn 4. While testing the new version out for the last couple of weeks, though, that opinion started to change.

Here’s why.

Features and Technology

If you’re not familiar with QuietOn’s approach to better sleep, it’s worth a quick discussion here. These earbuds, like all of the models before them, are focused on just one thing: reducing the amount of noise entering your ears when you’re trying to sleep.

Think of them more like noise-cancelling earplugs than traditional earbuds. There’s no Bluetooth, no pre-loaded music or sleep sounds, and in fact, no ability to play audio at all. That’s the main reason that they can remain so small while still easily lasting the night on a single charge.

It also helps that there’s no need for physical buttons or touch sensitive controls. There’s no app, no configuration, and no need to have your phone nearby. You literally take them out of the case and stick them in your ears. That’s it.

The company is quite open about the fact that they’ve tuned the noise cancellation to focus mainly on low-frequency sounds like snoring, bass-heavy music and TV, and the drone of traffic and aircraft engines. That’s where these earbuds work best; higher-frequency sounds like conversations or your alarm going off aren’t blocked as much.

Design

The most obvious change between the previous model and this one is simply its colour. QuietOn seems to go backward and forward between black and white cases and earbud stems: version 2 was black, version 3 was white, and now we’re back to black again.

I prefer the black, which looks a little sleeker and means you get matching earbuds and foam tips, but it’s not like I’d make a buying decision based on it.

Other than the colour, there are no other changes to the case, inside or out. It’s the same size and weight, with six LEDs on the front to show the charge level of each earbud and three on the back to show how much juice is in the case itself.

It charges via USB C, with a short USB-A to C cable in the box in case you don’t have a dozen already.

Turning to the earbuds themselves, they’re still very small, and barely visible when you’re wearing them. They now have a more oval design, however, and are angled slightly differently to help them fit more comfortably in your ear canal. It’s a subtle but noticeable difference.

As before, the earbuds connect magnetically to their charging pins. They move around a little in their holder, but it hasn’t affected charging in my testing.

The tips are new as well, and this change is more obvious. The old, firmer memory foam tips are gone, replaced by Comply foam tips that are noticeably softer.

If you’ve ever bought a set of Comply tips for a normal set of earbuds (I usually do), you won’t be surprised to hear that these are an improvement. Their extra “squishability” made it easier to get a good fit once they expanded inside my ear canal, and because they’re softer, they’re a lot more comfortable for extended wear.

There are four different sizes, XS through L, so you should be able to find a set that fits. That’s important, since noise cancellation is far less effective if the buds don’t seal properly inside your ear.

These ones apparently have some kind of wax guard built in, which helps stop gunk from building up inside the tips. I didn’t particularly notice any difference compared to my usual Comply tips during my testing period, but hey, a bit of extra hygiene can’t be a bad thing.

Testing

Fortunately or otherwise, I live in an inner-city neighbourhood near a popular pub. That’s great when I want to have a pint in the sun on a Friday evening, less great several hours later when everyone stands around outside bellowing at each other as they wait for their Uber to arrive.

That gives me plenty of opportunity to test ways of keeping noise out of my earholes, and I sleep with earbuds or earplugs every night. For two weeks, I switched over exclusively to the QuietOn 4.

After experimenting with different tip sizes and settling on medium, I started by testing out the earbuds while working during the day. It’s the middle of summer here in Australia, so I have a fan running continually in my office: it’s the kind of white noise that the QuietOn should do well at reducing.

Sure enough, it did. After squeezing the tips, inserting the earbuds in my ears, and waiting 15-20 seconds for both the foam to expand and the noise cancelling to turn on, there was a sudden and very noticeable drop in ambient sound. I could still hear the fan, but it was extremely quiet; a far cry from the dull roar it had been moments earlier.

Given that these earbuds are meant to be worn for 8+ hours at a time, the next test was comfort levels. I wore the QuietOn 4 for the rest of the work day, only taking them out once while eating lunch. They stayed comfortable throughout, without any of the sweating, itching, or ear pain I’ve had from extended wear with other buds.

So far, so good. The real test of these earbuds, of course, is whether they actually helped me sleep. I’ve struggled with many different sleep-focused tech aids, including earlier models of the QuietOn: either they don’t block out enough sound, or they aren’t comfortable enough for a side sleeper like me to wear all night in the ear that’s touching the pillow.

Thanks partially to the updated design and I suspect more to those new Comply tips, the QuietOn 4 immediately felt more comfortable than any of the previous versions. While still not quite as unobtrusive as my best set of foam earplugs, they’re the closest I’ve found so far.

I’ve had issues in the past with the hard plastic of the earbud stalk pressing uncomfortably into my ear and amplifying small noises and vibrations when I moved my head even slightly on the pillow.

Both of those problems had got better in the previous model, but were still noticeable. They’ve improved again this time around: I wouldn’t say either issue has disappeared entirely, but this is the first time I’ve been able to put QuietOn earbuds in both ears when going to bed and keep them there all night.

In terms of blocking out sound, they continue to do a very good job with the kind of low-frequency noise they’re optimised for: traffic, the hum of the air conditioner in my bedroom, and my partner’s fake snoring when I asked her to be an unwilling test participant last night.

Sudden sharp sounds like slamming car doors and shouting drunkards are dulled but not entirely eliminated; with the QuietOn’s in, those kind of sounds register in the background if I haven’t fallen asleep yet, but don’t jolt me awake once I’ve nodded off.

Even though the noise cancellation technology hasn’t changed, the QuietOn 4 cuts out a bit more external sound than the previous models: I strongly suspect that’s because it’s easier to get a snug fit with the new Comply tips.

Battery life lives up to QuietOn’s estimates, with the earbuds easily lasting the night and then some. In the real world, as long as you drop them back in the case when you get up in the morning and charge the case itself once every few days, you shouldn’t have any issues with suddenly losing your noise cancellation in the middle of the night.

After completely draining the earbuds, it took about 2.5 hours to fully charge them again. The case itself took slightly longer to charge from empty, just over three hours in total.

Verdict

I’ve really liked the QuietOn earbuds I’ve used in the past, but they’ve always come with a caveat: if you sleep on your front or side, you may find them uncomfortable in the ear that’s pressed into the pillow.

While this latest version doesn’t completely eliminate the chances of that happening, the tweaked design and improved foam tips has made a noticeable difference. These are the first QuietOn buds I’ve been able to wear in both ears throughout the night, not just once but several nights in a row.

Little else has changed about the product, including the underlying noise cancellation tech, but those new Comply foam tips still help cut out more noise than previous models.

In short, I sleep better with the QuietOn 4’s than any previous version of the product, and they’re more effective at reducing most types of background noise than anything else I can comfortably wear to bed. They easily last the night on a single charge.

That only leaves one question: are they worth the money? The exact price will vary depending on where you live, since QuietOn now sells through a network of resellers around the world rather than direct from its website, but they aren’t cheap anywhere.

For some people, they won’t be: if you can sleep well enough with a normal set of foam earplugs or some other way of keeping unwanted noise out, there’s no need to pay extra for a set of QuietOns.

If you’ve tried everything else, however, and still find yourself being kept awake every night by a snoring partner or noisy neighbourhood, it’s a different story. As someone who struggled with insomnia for years, I know just how desperate I was for any kind of solution when I hadn’t slept properly in weeks.

For some people, at least, the QuietOn 4 will be that solution. Recommended.

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