Somni
A UK company claims to have found a better solution for blocking nighttime noise and improving sleep. Somni says its sleep earbuds are the tiniest available and never require charging.I’m intrigued to see if this ambitious crowdfunded product delivers on its promise.
SomniBuds use a thin pad placed under your pillow, mattress, or headboard (within 2–3 feet). The pad connects to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth and sends sound to the earbuds through a magnetic field.
Battery-Free Design with Patent-Pending Magnetic Audio Technology
The earbuds have no batteries or built-in electronics. The company says each SomniBud contains a sensitive magnetic speaker diaphragm in an acoustic chamber, with no coil or electronics. It’s mechanically driven by the voice coil field from the SomniMat, similar to how a speaker cone operates.” This forms the basis of the product’s patent-pending technology.
This eliminates the need for batteries and charging while making the earbuds significantly smaller. Each bud is 3 mm thick, slim enough to stay comfortable for side-sleeping.
Somni
Somni explains that the slim, flexible post inside the foam ear tip allows it to compress as your ear canal shifts during sleep, preventing any hard components from pressing uncomfortably against your ear.
Thanks to their tiny size, the buds fit securely and form a tight seal that passively blocks sound. Without active noise cancellation, Somni says the buds still block up to 37 dB of noise, enough to mask disturbances at low volume.
Somni
In addition to the earbuds, the setup includes two other components: a placemat-sized pad that houses the magnetic coil typically found inside earbuds, and a brick-shaped power supply with a Bluetooth receiver that plugs into a wall socket.
Somni
Somni says its earbuds provide clear audio within the mat’s range, though only in mono. They don’t work well outside of bed, as the volume drops the farther you move from the mat. In short, Somni designed them exclusively for sleep, not to replace regular audio devices.
I’d be especially curious for my partner to try them to see if they help soften my relentless snoring—since nothing else we’ve tested has been both effective and comfortable.
Pricing and Kickstarter Discounts
A single-bud kit normally retails for US$300 but currently sells for $231 on Somni’s Kickstarter. The DuoMat bundle, letting a partner listen simultaneously, costs $251.
Somni plans to begin global shipping in December. As with any crowdfunded project, risks exist, but orders should ship by year-end if all proceeds smoothly.
You can explore the SomniBuds campaign on Kickstarter.
Read the original article on: New Atlas
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