Like many Americans, I’m constantly overwhelmed by stress. It leads to restless nights, unproductive afternoons and overall feelings of dread. When I was introduced to Tersa’s $10,000 Sava immersive sound therapy pod, I was intrigued—especially because the Sava Sound Pod looks more like a spaceship than a wellness device.
We tested the $10,000 Sava Sound Pod to see if it delivers on its promises of healing and serenity.
It promises “profound moments of healing and serenity” through harmonizing body vibrations with immersive music to elevate users to a higher state of consciousness. Skepticism was my knee-jerk reaction to such claims, especially given the hefty price tag. However, I can never seem to shut off my brain through traditional meditation, and I know depriving myself of legitimate mental downtime leads to burnout. I was willing to give it a try.
I visited Tersa’s New York City Showroom to try the Sava Sound Therapy Pod to see if it could help me accomplish what other mindfulness techniques and products could not. I also sat down with Tersa’s founder and CEO Ray Kelly to learn about the development of the Sava Pod. In this Sava Sound Pod review, I’ll share my testing experience and who I think this product is best for.
What Is The Sava Sound Pod?
Kelly is an injury, rehab and pain management practitioner who’s worked with celebrities and musicians worldwide for over two decades. Throughout his career, Kelly said he noticed many of these influential and high-functioning individuals have trouble effectively managing stress. When left unmanaged, stress can disrupt your sleep and your overall wellness. Of course, this issue isn’t limited to the rich and famous: Nearly three in five adults in the U.S. struggle to develop healthy coping mechanisms for stress, and the general attitude is to “just get over it.”
In 2022, Kelly founded health tech startup Tersa. After five years in development, the Sava Sound Pod launched for preorder in October 2023. This human-sized womblike pod is designed to send people into a higher state of consciousness through vibrational sound.
Trying out the Sava Sound Pod.
Design And Features
According to Kelly, the Sava Sound Pod is a wellness product that looks “like Apple and Tesla had a baby that was into Blade Runner.” (Take one look at it, and you’ll probably nod your head in agreement.) Kelly says he wanted to develop a product with “high design” and a “refined elegance” and turned to science fiction books and films for inspiration.
Here’s a closer look at the Sava Sound Therapy Pod’s design and features:
- Vibroacoustic Sound System: This human-sized pod features 10 high-powered bass transducers underneath the legs, hips, back and shoulders, plus four surround-sound speakers situated by the head.
- Memory Foam Pad: A 4-inch memory foam topper makes you feel like you’re floating. It’s specially engineered to allow sound and vibration to pass through, while traditional memory foam is known for dampening movement and muffling noise.
- Cocoon Design: It’s winged at the sides so you feel you’re being hugged. (“The two most calming touch points of the human body are lateral touch,” Kelly says.)
- Emotional Intelligence: Sava’s AI chooses frequencies to boost your mood and well-being.
- Companion App: With the Sava app, you can tailor your experience to match your goals.
- Side Panel Controls: These borrow design elements from Braille, allowing you to adjust the volume or intensity easily mid-session.
The Sava app is designed to personalize your experience and goals.
The Sava Sound Pod comes with a 15-pound weighted blanket and a weighted eye mask to further ease anxiety. Kelly deliberately went with an open-top design, as he found that even the idea of being in a small, enclosed space could trigger a subconscious threat of claustrophobia that could impede the ability to let go and relax fully.
While you can pair the Sava Sound Pod with your favorite pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones, Kelly strongly recommends using the built-in surround sound system for the best experience.
Sava Sound Journeys
As to why he’s chosen to create a sound pod as a vehicle for recovery and healing, Kelly says, “There’s so much history in every culture of how we’ve used music to help people heal. [With the Sava Pod], we’re blending modern technology with ancestral wisdom.”
The Sava Sound Pod features an exclusive soundtrack composed by Australian musician Nick Littlemore, known for his work with Empire of the Sun and PNAU. After studying music’s healing properties, Littlemore developed custom Sound Journeys, incorporating patented sound vibration technology, solfeggio frequencies and binaural beats.
“It’s not generic meditation music you may experience on [other] meditation apps,” says Kelly about Littlemore’s Sound Journeys. ”It's more alive [and] feels like it's moving through you.”
Can The Sava Sound Pod Be Used For Sleep?
Chronic stress can raise cortisol levels and leave you in a perpetual state of fight or flight, making it more difficult to fall asleep. Ideally, your cortisol levels are higher during the day when you’re awake and active, then drop in the evening when you wind down for bed.
The Sava Sound Therapy Pod is a holistic approach to wellness that targets stress, which can contribute to many health problems, including insomnia. While it’s not designed exclusively for sleep, the Sava Pod can help improve your sleep quality by emitting frequencies known to promote better rest, particularly the so-called solfeggio frequencies between 432 Hz and 528 Hz.
With an ergonomic design and a memory foam topper, what about using the Sava Sleep Pod as a bed? “You can certainly sleep in it, but it's essentially designed as a tool to help optimize your sleep,” Kelly says, adding that you can use it at any time of day to reap the benefits at bedtime.
Who (And What) Is The Sava Sound Pod For?
Do you find it difficult to meditate or shut your brain off for just a few moments? The Sava Sound Pod could be your key to finally releasing your mind from constant flight-or-fight mode and into a higher state of consciousness.
However, it’s not cheap. It retails for $10,000 and requires a $500 deposit, which is refundable.
But Tersa’s focus isn’t on consumers…at least, not yet. At this stage, the Sava Sound Pod is primarily being marketed for commercial and professional use, such as wellness centers, clinics, luxury hotels and professional sports leagues.
That doesn’t mean you can’t buy one now if you really want to, but Kelly says a “more lightweight, portable version” of the Sava Sound Pod for home use is expected to launch within the next two years. (It’ll likely be a little easier on your wallet, too.)
My Experience With The Sava Sound Pod
When my Uber dropped me off in front of a nondescript building in Manhattan’s Lower East Side one March afternoon, I thought I might have been given the wrong address. There was no signage, let alone a way for me to enter the building. A couple of hectic text messages later, I was greeted by Ray Kelly, who came down from Tersa’s fourth-floor showroom to meet me outside.
(I later learned that the Tersa showroom occupies what was once the Beastie Boys' home, recording studio and party venue. “The Beastie Boys were pioneering mad scientists of sound, and this felt so fitting for us as we look towards the next generation of sound and technology,” says Kelly.)
The Sava Sound Pod's futuristic design stood out from its serene environment. With its wood floors and exposed brick walls, the Tersa showroom looks less like a showroom than a yoga studio or reiki retreat, complete with tealight candles, bundles of sage, slabs of selenite and lush greenery.
The Sava Pod looked like it would launch me into space, but I suppose astral travel would suffice.
Before My Sava Sound Pod Session
As I lay in the contoured embrace of the Sava Pod’s top foam layer with a 15-pound blanket draped over my body and a weighted mask over my eyes, Kelly advised me to turn off my analytical reporter’s brain—a tall order for someone like me whose brain is always thinking. This would truly test how well the product could ease anxious, overactive minds into calmness.
I requested a frequency to help me sleep better. I was visiting New York for a few days and missed the comfort of my own bed. Kelly queued up a 22-minute Sound Journey designed to help me relax and have sweet dreams in my hotel bed later that night.
During My Sava Sound Pod Session
The bass's booming vibration caught me off-guard. Although I had anticipated it, I wasn’t expecting it to be so intense. It took me a few moments to get used to it. Eventually, I let the beats wash over me like waves in the ocean.
My body sank into the memory foam, and the pod's curved design felt good against my back. I could have lain there for the entire afternoon. Naturally, my mind took longer to unwind, but it too ultimately surrendered to the allure of the Sava Pod.
Kelly is right when he says this isn’t typical meditation music. It sounds large and theatrical, but instead of amping me up, it put me into a trance. I didn’t fall asleep during my session, but my mind gradually shut itself off and focused exclusively on the music. After a point, it felt like the music emanated from my body instead of the speakers underneath me.
I did find the Sava Sound Pod to be quite soothing.
To cap the session, a five-minute spoken word meditation played to bring me back down from my ascension into a higher state of consciousness. The hardest part was getting up, as I felt so relaxed. Upon re-entering the busy streets of Lower Manhattan, I realized that the session had helped to take the edge off, as I didn’t seem as aggressive as I normally do when navigating crowds. (Maybe everyone in New York City should get in on this.)
After My Sava Sound Pod Session
After a restorative afternoon in the Sava Sound Pod, I enjoyed a good night’s sleep that evening. Just thinking of my time on the Sava Pod put me at ease. Plus, it inspired me to unwind with some meditation music instead of the usual mindless YouTube surfing I indulge in before bedtime. Unfortunately, I had to settle for a tiny smartphone speaker.
Final Thoughts
My words won’t do justice to my Sava Pod experience. Once I surrendered myself to the sound and vibrations that enveloped me, I didn’t want to be anywhere else. The Sava Sound Journey is unlike anything I’ve heard from a meditation app. It’s powerful and soothing at the same time.
That said, the Sava Pod isn’t a quick fix. Ideally, you’d use it regularly to decompress and prime your body for sleep. In the weeks that followed, I slipped back into bad habits, all while wishing that I had the space (and capital) for a Sava Pod of my own.
Shelling out ten grand for a wellness pod isn’t feasible for most; assembling a DIY relaxation kit with a weighted blanket, eye mask and over-ear headphones is much cheaper. But the Sava Pod isn't just any relaxation tool, it’s a totally immersive sound experience that’s rooted in years of development and research. I think it simply can’t be replicated.
Whether you’re totally burned out or curious about emerging wellness tech, I highly encourage you to try the Sava Pod at Tersa’s New York City showroom or at one of Tersa’s upcoming pop-up events across the country. Do so with an open mind. Even if you’re totally skeptical of the “woo woo,” you might leave feeling enlightened…or at least deeply relaxed.
My Expertise
Professionally, I’ve been sharing buying advice and product reviews for over 15 years. For the last five years, my attention has been on sleep: testing mattresses and pillows, tinkering with wearables and asking experts for advice on achieving our best rest.
Personally, I’m on a continuous quest to achieve total mindfulness, but that’s hard to do when smartphones and deadlines exist. I’ve been an infrequent student of yoga, meditation and reiki throughout my adulthood, but have been practicing martial arts for more than 11 years.
Where Can You Buy The Sava Sound Pod?
The Sava Sound Pod is available for preorder at Tersa.co for $10,000, with a $500 (refundable) deposit required. The official launch is slated for October 2024.
Note that this is the “pro” version of the Sava Pod, marketed for commercial and professional use, although you can still order one for your home. A sleeker model designed for home use is expected to roll out within the next two years.
How Can You Try The Sava Sound Pod?
You can visit Tersa’s New York City Showroom (by appointment only) or attend one of its pop-up events this summer in Los Angeles, New York or Miami. The Sava Pod makes its official public debut at the BOF Business of Beauty Global Forum in Napa Valley in June 2024. For more details, visit Tersa.co.
What Are Tersa’s Return Policies?
The Sava Pod has a 2-year limited warranty and a 30-day return policy once installed. A $500 deposit is required to secure a preorder, but it’s refundable. Tersa says you can cancel your preorder at any time and receive a full refund of your preorder fee.
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