This isn't a Vinyl vs CD thing where a clearly inferior technology lives on due mainly to sentimental reasons. There are a number of concrete advantages to wired headphones over bluetooth headphones.
- They don't need charging. Charging may seem like a minor inconvenience, and we're used to charging a lot of devices. However, even a minor inconvenience is still an inconvenience.
- They're harder to lose. When Apple almost immediately started selling accessories to connect their airpods together (i.e. Cables), it was pretty obvious that going completely cordless was not entirely superior.
- For an equivalent price point, wired headphones produce higher quality audio, and the top-end is a lot deeper.
- Wired cans don't need to pair, don't glitch out, don't become laggy, pair with the wrong device, etc.. Bluetooth was never really meant for use as an audio connection, and it's never really become 100% foolproof. With Apple's proclivity for proprietary standards, I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.
Too many android phones copied Apple and ditched the venerable audio jack, but a few kept it, and I've always insisted on it when buying phones. It's old but far from obsolete.
This is it. I have a lot of wireless headphones and every time I need to use one, it isn't charged. It's very exhausting and I don't want to deal with that. So I use them as wired headphone if possible, or dump them in the discard pile if not.
I work with a lot of audio in a professional capacity. You're correct if you're saying that neither tech is universally "teh best".
And you're correct that wired phones have a lot of advantages.
Tack on that they don't have latency, though I've never really tried to track vocals on wireless cans. I have a pretty nice collection of what I consider to be quality mid-tier stuff for my studio (hd280, dt770, mdr7506, k240), and I think they mostly sound better and I can use them longer than I can use the various wireless stuff I use.
And the "real" UHF wireless audio I use professionally (well, to collect rather than listen to audio) is very reliable and good sounding but also, like, $1000/ch once it's cased and cabled and properly accessorized.
However, for almost all of my day to day listening I use either airpods or a some bluetooth'd 3M ear muffs. I even went back to airpods after going through both wired and other wireless solutions.
I don't enjoy having my in-ears ripped out along with my pocket. And universally the cord ends and the physical connector on my phone are the weak spots that have had me replace stuff- I haven't bought a phone in the 5 years since I got one that could charge wirelessly and never has phones plugged into it, and I don't intend to get another one any time soon (knock on wood that my case keeps the screen from breaking and needing me to repair it).
I have a bluetooth receiver with an analog out that I keep in my workbox, which I used for program music at a show tonight. It's nice to start my truck and my podcast just starts playing, too, without having to get out my phone and plug it in.
You're right that wired stuff is better for some things. I still find wireless stuff to be superior in a lot of situations.
This is the big one for me, I hate all that lag with bluetooth, signal interference, and constantly wondering which device my headphones have connected to. So much easier for so many reasons, with a wire!
Vinyls are not necessarily the inferior technology. Given the choice, I'd prefer to play vinyl in some cases. In social settings vinyl's short length and need to be flipped creates a dynamic social environment. Someone has to regularly choose new music to play, acting with intent to do so. Someone has to regularly walk to the machine. These create dynamism and flow. CDs are much longer, and less tactile. There's less of the my turn your turn, who is going to flip the thing.
They sound worse, if clarity is your goal. And they are huge and wear out. I agree with you 99%, I just wanted to point out that across some dimensions they are the superior technology.
This is like saying āCandles are superior to lightbulbs because they burn out quicker and thats an advantage in some situationsā.
Iām not sure how, its an aesthetic choice but an inferior technology by every metric that counts.
Candles still have a place, we still buy them, but we canāt reasonably call them superior either- even if, candles actually would have a real advantage of not requiring power. Vinyl doesnāt even have that.
You have to look beyond the audio engineering on this one.
Using constrained mediums on purpose is often how the best artistic expression is achieved. For example, if the artist knows their channel is noisy and band-limited they can get a lot more liberal with the kinds of samples they use throughout. CD/SACD is kind of like 4K for television. The medium becomes so transparent that it causes upstream shocks in every other part of the process. You can no longer rely on the camera or audio chain to cover it up (unless you hobble yourself intentionally).
With this logic you can argue the best audio medium is dirt because if you made good music with dirt, the music must have been so incredible to have counteracted the flaws of dirt as a medium. Ignore the fact that dirt cannot be used as a music medium. (Vacuous truth)
Yes, but your "IF" is doing the heavy lifting here and it would be your burden to proof how dirt would be a means of artistic expression before anybody could take your argument seriously.
As a musician myself I can assure you that the high stakes releases for any musician are vinyl releases. They also happen to be the ones with which most musicians earn the most money.
Now technologically vinyl isn't superior (and anybody who claims it is is an idiot in the sense of the word), but technology isn't everything. A noisy casette tape can evoke the same (and sometimes more) feelings than the digital recording. A vinyl record with a big cover, an inlay with band info, that you specifically chose to put on the record player while reading the liner notes and examining the design is in a ritualistic sense a thousand times more gratifying than having spotify select a song for you without knowing why, in the background of the daily life. That is like the difference between a candle light bath and getting wet in a rainshower.
Now that doesn't mean people will be binary either 100% vinyl or 100% digital. Vinyl is for the special occasion or for DJ sets, digital is for everything else.
Yes that's my point with the "if"! And in general I largely agree with you.
The parent comment basically argued vinyl is superior because when artists used vinyl the resulting music was creatively better (because of whatever process). Sure, but then you can't selectively ignore the great music that has been made with other recording technologies. I can point to a lot of good music recorded on tape or digital. Unless we are arguing that music back in the vinyl days was broadly better than now? (Different argument then...)
As for artistic choices, I totally agree that vinyl can be a valid choice! Then it's silly to say one thing is "better" than another.
But in terms of raw technology, I say it's just copium to claim vinyl is in any way superior to digital. Digital's recording capabilities are a superset of vinyl's. There is no magic sauce killer feature unique to vinyl.
Rather less-succinctly: I never got into vinyl and have never owned a turntable that wasn't built down to a price. I do still have my shelves of CDs, and it keeps slowly expanding. I usually listen to Spotify because it is convenient and portable and -- these days -- lossless.
But my sister and her old man have put together a quite decent stereo system with a mix of vintage and modern gear in recent years, and also started a a rather serious vinyl collection. While there's certainly no romance there on my end, it's a lovely and deeply-involving experience to hang out with them in their tiny little city-dweller living room and spin records into the wee hours; sometimes for just one track, and sometimes for entire albums.
I definitely prefer the way my own stereo, which I've built over the course of decades, sounds. It's detailed and big and it does all the things; it is by all technical measures very superior. But we have a lot more fun listening to vinyl at their place than we have playing CDs and Spotify at my place. The process -- and indeed, the inconvenience -- of playing vinyl makes it all much more visceral.
The advantages of vinyl are basically making up for lack of self-discipline in humans. (I much prefer vinyl for that precise reason!)
a) Since putting it on becomes more of a ritual - handling the album carefully, brushing off lint, placing the needle &c - I find I make more of an effort to actually _listen_ to the music I put on. I could listen as intently to Spotify or Tidal, too - but, alas, I most often don't.
b) Seeing as you'll get some 20-odd minutes of music before having to make another choice - be it playing the other side or another album entirely - it enforces having to decide on what you'd like to listen to, rather than just letting your streaming service of choice play things it thinks you may like. (That being said, streaming services are a great way to explore new music!)
c) Given the economics of streaming, buying physical media helps both the record stores - a good one is like an excellent library, in which the librarians give you all sorts of curated recommendations for things you may like, in addition to being great social meeting places with like-minded folk - and performing artists alive; I've no idea how many hours I would have to listen to an artist on Spotify before the payout is equal to their takeout from a single vinyl sale...
d) Besides, it is cosy.
That being said, you could easily DSP CDs or streaming to sound like vinyl if that's your idea of fun - just about any playback format is superior sonically to vinyl. However, to many, it is the whole ritual of putting on a record which basically makes it worth the sonic tradeoffs... (Call me a luddite if you like!)
> "Too many android phones copied Apple and ditched the venerable audio jack"
I understand this is a personal preference, but I never understood the anger some people had over the removal when it's as easy as just using a small USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack converter to use wired headphones.
I tried the Apple one for a while but itās badly shielded and picks up interference a lot. I mean really obvious buzzing sounds if near certain sources of RF. Switched to wired ear buds with a lightning connector and no interference issues. So Iām sad I canāt plug in my high quality headphones or hook up my phone to my mixer when I want without having noise.
I agree but stuck with Apple ecosystem. I like the cheap wired lightning headphones they do. The audio quality is acceptable on public transit, theyāre cheap enough to lose and the mic is surprisingly good. Weirdly if Apple stopped making these I would jump ship for an Android phone with 3.5mm.
Wired headphones are infinitely more durable when good. I had a single pair of Sennheiser HD25II for 16 years now and I use them to run 16km a week, often in the rain.
All valid points, but I donāt miss having a tangle of wire in my pocket or that wire failing after a couple of months meaning I have to get a new set of headphones.
What annoys me the most is that the industry collectively decided that 3.5mm jacks are obselete, removing the option of using wired headphones, for no(?) good reason. We could at least agree that wired and wireless each have their own pros and cons, but no, we're shoehorned into wireless because corporate decided it. Here, you must use <NEW TECH> simply because we said so! It's just the peak of trend following bullshittery and represents a lot of what is wrong with capitalist society.
FWIW, Bluetooth LE Audio [0] solves most of these problems in my experience. Battery life is way better, pairing is almost instant, you can connect to multiple devices simultaneously, the latency is almost imperceptible, etc. The sound quality is still worse than wired, but it's close enough that it doesn't bother me personally.
Very few headphones support BLE Audio, and you need to enable some experimental Bluez flags for it to work on Linux, but both of these should improve with time. But it makes such a huge difference that I'd argue that it's worth the effort, even right now.
Just to be clear the parent is still 100% correct that wired headphones:
* Do not need charging
* Are hard to lose.
* Offer better audio
* Never glitch out with pairing.
BLE Audio offers lower need for charging and better (but not equivalent) audio. So 2/4 are not as bad with BLE Audio (and arguably only 1 since you still need to charge). The other two 2/4 are related to the form factor. Wireless headphones have advantages but they are not the decisive winner.
Right, my point was just that "Bluetooth sucks" does not necessarily mean "wireless headphones suck", but since nearly all wireless headphones use Bluetooth Classic (or some proprietary analogue protocol), it can be hard to disentangle the two. But yeah, I agree no matter how good the protocol improvements are, wired is still better for some use cases.
Is BLE the only way for Bluetooth to have multiple connections? I'm no audiophile but in my experience, the audio quality noticeably drops when multiple devices are connected (I've only ever had at most two at a time). I reasoned out that the bits were being divided so `quality /= 2` as well. I've only ever done this accidentally so I can't be certain the connection was really over BLE.
Granted, I've only ever done multiple connections on Linux so maybe it's a Linux problem.
> Is BLE the only way for Bluetooth to have multiple connections?
I think (?) that it's possible with Classic Bluetooth too, but like everything else with Classic Bluetooth, it's kinda buggy and unreliable.
> I'm no audiophile but in my experience, the audio quality noticeably drops when multiple devices are connected (I've only ever had at most two at a time).
I haven't personally noticed any audio quality difference with two devices connected over BLE, but I've never tried to play audio simultaneously from two sources. My phone and my laptop both auto-connect to my headphones, so I usually have two devices connected simultaneously, but I only ever play audio from one at a time.
Yes! You can simultaneously use full-quality source and sink (speaker and microphone) streams [0].
As you've seen, the documentation on LE Audio is rather horrible. The Android documentation [1] is semi-useful even on other platforms, and the official book [2] is also helpful if you're willing to wade through a ton of dense technical details, but there's not really much else available on the internet. I've had to spend an annoying amount of time tracing stuff with Wireshark and reading through the specifications [3] (which are thankfully free) and the BlueZ source code [4] to figure stuff out.
> With Apple's proclivity for proprietary standards, I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.
Can you imagine Europe's reaction? They'd fine Apple to the moon -- no innovation allowed unless it interoperates with other products that don't exist yet.
And they'd be right to do so. The correct approach to creating a new standard is plan interoperability from the start. If a vendor plans lock in by introducing a new standard, they should get shut down immediately and told to do better.
That sounds like a way to not get any progress. The way I'm used to this sort of thing happening is some company brings in a new proprietary standard, makes bank, then all the competition bands together to form an open standard to try and stop them. There is a bit of a tick-tock feeling as consortiums use more open and accessible standards to slowly lever power away from incumbents.
It is interesting to just glance at the history of USB [0] through that lens was originally developed, and it is interesting to see that as I would have predicted the group of companies that developed USB (MS, IBM, Compaq, etc) seem to be disjoint from the companies listed as precursor technologies (looks like that was especially an Apple-led consortium of hardware manufacturers organised around firewire [1]).
> The way I'm used to this sort of thing happening is some company brings in a new proprietary standard, makes bank, then all the competition bands together to form an open standard to try and stop them. There is a bit of a tick-tock feeling as consortiums use more open and accessible standards to slowly lever power away from incumbents.
And that leaves you with two standards (at least), non interoperable between them. In the case of hardware this can be really annoying, constraining and inefficient both for consumers and at large.
That would implement Apple's proprietary protocol. He thinks Europe would think Apple is creating a monopoly for themselves for iPhone headphones since no other company could implement the protocol without Apple's approval.
Perhaps not related to the article but I find it puzzling that Bluetooth in 2026 still sounds like a fax machine when you use the mic too. That and a much too high latency in general.
Audio engineer originally and a current audio software.
In the pro audio, wireless was never a thing with an exception of live shows where youād might want to be free on stage but avoid stage monitors.
Notice that while Apple made everyone ditch the lovely 3.5ā, on the MacBook Pros theyāve actually kept it and *improved* it.
As this is HN, Iāll focus on technical aspects I didnāt notice in the article.
- Active Noise reduction
While the article suggested the battery free magic of analog headsets. Flights are where the active noise reduction headsets shines. Active cancellation isnāt needed for studio environment but on the go it can certainly make your listening more pleasant.
- Hybrid devices
There are several manufacturers with classical headset designs that also includes wired support with all modern features. This is a good balance in my opinion for benefiting from both worlds.
- Latency
Especially Bluetooth, our current consumer wireless is buffered and this latency is too much for creating music. Products such as GarageBand, Logic or FL Studio wonāt be that useful for tracking with Bluetooth.
- Quality
Indeed, analog 3.5ā audio is uncompressed vs Bluetooth. But it doesnāt mean the audio is superior for listening just because of that transition.
Our modern devices are still mostly digital those days so there is DAC that takes those bits and converts them to analog (most of it today is done well as those chips are common) and the other step is the analog amplification. Audiophiles usually invest a lot in the headphones amplifier. Most android devices in the past were mediocre in that sense.
So while wired is a trend, the ādongleā of USB-C to convert the audio is still a major part of the quality we end with.
- Sharing is caring (my personal take)
The biggest frustration I feel with Bluetooth is that itās now nearly impossible to use multiple headphones for listening. In the old days, you had a simple splitter and as long as both headsets were the same impedance, you can even have 4 people listening to the same content easily.
With Bluetooth, only Apple addresses this in a very limited manner with a lock in to specific models and up to 2 devices and no video calls or live audio support.
I'm the trendsetter. I've never stopped using wired headphones and, after being made fun of for years despite much better audio quality, cost, simplicity and reliability, the rich finally decided to imitate me. Never let go of your convictions!
I'm with you! After I lost my gen 1 AirPods a couple years ago, I paid $20 for a pair of Apple's corded EarPods and used them until they failed (1) a few months ago. They had a good mic + music controls, sounded fine, and didn't need a dongle.
Now I'm down to my Shure IEMs (via an Apple lighting-to-3.5mm dongle) and a borrowed pair of old Galaxy buds - wanted to give wireless buds a try, since it's been so long. I don't like them.
1: emitting an earsplitting screech as they did so - the cable must have gone.
AirPods Pro 2 went through a washing machine cycle and still works. Having cables itās a pain, need to pass behind your clothes or outside dangling. Canāt charge phone while using wired headphones
Same. I've been using the same apple earbuds since like 2005(?). I still have the original plastic case for them and use it to store them in my backpack.
> That's why I had kept my pixel 4a for years until is finally kicked the bucket 2 years ago.
RIP I'm sure it was a noble device. My Pixel 3a is currently my wireless router for very German reasons. I worry this will kill off the still-decent battery life, as has happened with my OG Pixel.
I have since allied myself with what I personally consider the devil of consumer electronics just to stay on this boat.
I recently upgraded my 4a to a 10 two months ago. Besides getting security updates again, it feels like a downgrade in every way that matters to me.
Can't lie flat due to camera bulge. No headphone jack. Fingerprint sensor on the front that screen protectors interfere with. No sim slot. Ai bullshit triggers if i keep my thumb to close to where you touch to switch apps. Ai bullshit also replaces the old power menu, which now requires a combo button press.
Sony WH1000XM5 headphones are my daily driver, mainly Zoom calls and music. I'm generally pretty happy with them, but one big gripe I have is when I'm on a call and briefly take off my headphones to e.g. chat with someone in the room, there is like a 90% chance they stop working and I have to reconnect them.
It happens so often I even wrote a script to switch to the MacBook internal speakers then back to the headphones.
I've used wired headphones before (and the Sony even has a wired option), but I didn't like how the cord was constantly getting the the way of my arms.
edit: Another big gripe is with the Bluetooth codec itself, and how the quality changes depending on if the mic is active.
Thank you, this brings me a feeling of relief because after constantly dealing with various wireless bt headphone issues when using linux it frequented my mind that surely on the other side of the fence people don't have this kind of problems.
Maybe I am just old, but I have absolutely no idea what this passage is about -- why would people be fiddling with Bluetooth on a date and why would it cause them to forget their network?
>"Bluetooth does not work," Kravitz said in a recent interview, and it's not just headphones, but Bluetooth connections in general. "It's ruining important moments. Imagine the amount of times that you're with someone on a date, you're trying to set a vibe, and then you have to forget the network. On a date!"
Picnic date with a Bluetooth speaker for some background music, perhaps? I often see that in parks/beaches/etc, and as long as volume is reasonable I donāt think anyone minds.
Lots of good theories here, but none saying "TikTok", which I think is the answer.
TikTok is a big reason wired headphones are popular. AirPod microphone quality is spotty and improving the quality is non-deterministic. With wired earpods, people put the mic next to their mouth and get above-average audio quality.
Like the article says, wired headphones have also become a fashion statement akin to vinyl culture.
I dunno; IME many people who could barely be called a ācreatorā seem to invest in a standalone microphone already, and many of these (the portable ones anyway) arenāt wired.
This is why I use wired for longer calls or video conferences. I've tried so many wireless in-ear things and all of them are more sensitive to surrounding noise and I have to repeat myself more due to dropouts or spotty quality.
It's just much harder to get good sound quality when the mikes are by your ear rather than on a wire near your mouth
Not to mention that it completely removes the risk of running low on headphone battery mid-call
One segment I wish came back are bluetooth inear headphones wired together (untrue wireless, i guess).
There are some models but none really explore their possible advantages (battery, ux, single signal source).
I lost single wireless earpiece multiple times making the rest useless. This won't happen with wire. With wire its also so much easier and quicker to take them off they will just hang around your neck. There is reason why many workers in loud environments prefer earplugs wired together.
My impression is that apple hyped the airpods so well that people forgot about other possibilities. And when Google included cool headphones with cables people thought they have to cut themā¦ that was when industry decided its dead segment.
This is very true. Especially for sport, they are just great. I always found wired headphones annoying when running, because I need to take care of the wire somehow. Wired-together bluetooth in-ears like the Bose SoundSport kind of fill that niche, as I don't need to worry about one of them falling out. Looks like they don't make them anymore.
Yeah sport is main reason companies are making them.
I also have to say i haven't checked this for two years but there seem to be some new models now (under banner of neckband earbuds). So maybe there is something nicer now.
Can someone recommend USBC earbuds with good ANC? Sometimes Iād love to avoid battery and interference concerns of Bluetooth, but noise cancellation became a must-have for me.
All that and they cost a fraction of the price! Wireless headphones are a strictly inferior product to wired, and it astonishes me that Apple convinced anyone to buy them. They're a total rip off.
I can leave my phone on the charger or propped up with a recipe on the counter while I cook and still get signal. Wired headphones cannot let me walk between rooms without picking up my phone.
Wireless headphones take up much less space. I can put them in my pocket trivially.
Wireless headphones can tell me where they are and if I've left them behind.
Wireless headphones don't have a piece of plastic that dangles on my neck, shoulders, and face. As someone with sensory issues, this is genuinely important.
I've never had to spend five minutes untangling the cords for my wireless headphones.
I've never accidentally snagged the cable on my wireless headphones, causing them to snap off.
I can put my phone in a waterproof case in my backpack and protect it while walking. I don't have to do cable management to route the wire.
It's fine to prefer the wired headphones. I fully endorse that for you. Maybe drop the hyperbole about how wired headphones are strictly better?
It's weird, because I absolutely agree in principle, but 90% of my headphone use is wireless now.
And I hate it: latency, glitches, randomly just deciding not to connect anymore, deciding to connect in the lower-quality headset mode when I want to listen to music, and refusing to switch to the high-quality mode, battery running out at inconvenient times, the cat knocking them off my nightstand and under the bed where I cant reach them. So many reasons to be annoyed by them!
But I hardly ever take out my wired headphones anymore, and I'm not sure why. Back when I got my first phone without a 3.5mm jack, I just kept a little USB-C adapter in the little pouch/case that held my wired IEMs, and it was fine. But at some point I bought a new phone, and there was a deal on cheap (or free?) wireless earbuds with it, and I really just stopped using wired headphones for the most part since then, even though the wireless ones really annoy me for so many reasons.
For me, all of my wired headphones and earbuds have died the same way: audio cutting out or completely lost due to cable damage due to storage and use cycles. Wireless has completely fixed this for me.
All that, plus with wires, I can run the cable under my shirt and up through the neck hole. When someone starts to talk to me, I can just pop them out of my ears and let them dangle across my chest without having to hold them in my hands. I also don't have to worry about dropping them on the floor.
This was common for kids in the 00s. Having just one bud in while talking to someone was common. There was also this type that instead of having two equal length wires, one to each bud, was asymmetrical and you would wrap the longer wire around you neck so you could easily "unbud". Sony invented this, I think. In fact there were some pretty crazy designs before Apple made the simple but conspicuous earbuds popular again.
I bought two pairs of premium wireless headphones about 10 years ago. These failed gradually, I patched them up with tape and kept them going. One of them had the Bluetooth electronics fail but still works wired, the electronics are fine on the other one but physically it is a jumbled mess that I can't really tape together anymore but it kinda sits on my head.
I went looking for the state of the art in headphones and bought (1) a set of AirPod Pros and (2) a recent Sony headset.
My feelings about the AirPods are terribly mixed.
10 years ago I think the best reason to spend $250 instead of $25 on a set of Bluetooth headphones was that the $250 device would pair properly with multiple devices whereas it might take you 15 minutes of screwing around to unpair and repair the $25 headphones every time you need them. But hey they are so cheap maybe you can pack one for each device you have and not worry about it.
Today it is the other way around, somehow $25 headphones "just work" with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Steam Deck, whatever. After I disabled the microphone and switched to the microphone on my camera, the AirPods got reliable with Windows. Inside Apple's ecosystem it tries really hard and almost works, yet the $25 headphones "just work" and don't seem to be trying so hard. I don't get messages warning me that somebody else's $25 headphones are following me around but my iPhone tells me that about my AirPods all the time but I think it is a KPI for somebody in Cupertino that I see the word "AirPods" as much as possible.
Now the sound quality of the AirPods is just great, I'll grant that, but I'm not going to be one of those annoying youngsters who is as hard as hearing as the oldest oldsters because I have some genetic polymorphism that makes me produce copious amount of earwax that eject the AirPods from my ears if I move too much. My doc says one of these days my ears are going to plug up and I shouldn't get so excited about it.
I got myself a plastic welder - the thing that melts little pieces of metal to strengthen plastic joints - now I can keep old plastic things in shape almost indefinitely. Cost like 10 usd or so and has prolonged the life of all manner of things.
If you still want to make the old headphones work these welders are a godsend, and with some small amount of diy work of cleaning, sanding and buffing you can easily hide these welds.
I personally like to leave them though since they accent that something that was once broken is whole again, and that it has a long history!
Mine do. The phone's lightning connector socket has become "flaky" (from age, or lint..), and at this point I must hold the phone in hand rather than in pocket while walking, for uninterrupted playback.
Same here. And also unlike airpods, you can't easily lose one that you can't replace. Which also renders the one left useless because you can't pair it with another orphan, what a waste.
Please let this mean that they'll start bringing back the headphone jacks to phones. usb-c is too unstable, and I prefer not having to deal with charging more devices and with pairing shenanigans when switching devices.
You can get phones with headphone jacks still. You have to shop carefully, because it eliminates a lot of options. My current phone is a moto g stylus 5g 2023... to get a headphone jack, snapdragon cpu, and reasonable cost, I had to also accept a stylus that I only use to fidget.
Probably need to start shopping again soon cause updates stop in June.
The moto g stylus 2025 is reasonable. It has some bloatware you have to go through and disable, and it is a bit bigger than I'd like. But it's about the best you can do in today's market.
It'll never happen but I'd love to see a new analog audio connector designed with portable audio and extreme durability in mind make a debut. The old 1.44mm connector is nice for its ubiquitous nature, but its internal footprint is large and it's prone to contact issues over time (I'm sure most of us have had a device/headphone pair where the jack had to be rotated into a "sweet spot".
I'm not well versed in the world of port design, but what comes to mind is a little shallow magnetic nub with a couple of contacts on it. Easy to clean, impossible to break by accidental torquing, not deep enough to get stuff stuck in it.
The cool thing is that whatever the new design is, making adapters for 1.44mm to the new thing is dirt cheap since it's still just an analog connection.
I gave up on USBC headphones because if your port becomes full of lint (say by being in your pocket all day), it doesnāt take much to disturb a USBC connection and cause it to go through the whole handshake all over again for a few seconds.
Compared to 3.5mm where the frustrations I remember were usually limited to sometimes getting a bit of a crackle or one of the audio channels dropping out and worst case scenario you just unplugged it and put it back in and it usually worked. With USBC you have to wait to see.
I'm talking about this specific context, rather than in general. I find that for usb-c earphones and small dongles/dacs, they disconnect more when I'm walking around with phone in pocket. They also tend to wear down with use much faster than normal aux cables. Usually, they last a few months for me before I start having issues.
And when usb-c phones disconnect just a little, usually the phone will pause the music completely and disconnect, whereas the aux headphones will just keep playing. So if the connection isn't perfect, the usb-c cable becomes unlistenable because I can't walk 20 steps without it pausing.
edit: I've tried many cables and dongles, so if you don't have this problem, it might be just that I move around more? Biggest problem for me is commutes and walking around.
That problem might be considered a software problem, not a hardware or physical problem. The instant pausing of the music is the real problem. Software developers probably don't move around as much as you do, and I'd bet if they did, this problem would be fixed quickly with a simple timeout setting or something.
Actually, a week ahead of the BBC, my sister informed me wired headphones are making a comeback. With a smug grin I told her, "Comeback? It never left my side."
I've had to ally myself with a brand I've once sworn off just to get a flagship model Android with a headphone jack. Killing Reader is a greedy betrayal (they were pushing us onto Plus, the whole social web thing) but removing headphone jacks from Pixels is a cowardly betrayal! Eyeing you too there, Samsung. You and Google both have made it extremely difficult to maintain a modicum of principle in today's consumer landscape! You made me justify my purchase with a utilitarian "Better the jacked devil than the blue-toothed one".
(And before you ask, I only generally buy flagships because I upgrade my phone like, every five years, and in my experience flagships are just more bang for buck. YMMV tho.)
Anyway, honestly, wired is not perfect. Wired and wireless each have their inconveniences it's just that I'm more willing to put up with the inconveniences of wired. Wired connections have known failure modes, something which I really value in tech. I have a Sony WH-1000XM3 which can work both as wired and wireless and I love it for that.
Long live wired connections! Here's to a future with cheaper flagship models with a headphone jack!
While using wired headphones, my spouse's car never steals my audio when it starts or pulls into the driveway. Also, I can join a meeting seconds before it starts without spending a few minutes scrambling to verify that my BT headset will allow me to hear/be heard.
This experience of different devices competing for a BT headphone is really the most annoying aspect of BT to me. I pair my headphones regularly with my work laptop, my phone and my private laptop, and when working from home and walking around in my apartment, the headphones sometimes just randomly pick another device, even if the current device has audio going, and the other does nothing. Sometimes the Macbook does that when it's on standby, which is bizarre. I always wondered if that is an implementation bug on one of the sides. I fixed it by forcing the Macbook to shut off BT when going on standby.
A good bluetooth experience requires that both the headset and the audio source device implement bluetooth well, which is hard. That said, I have zero problems with my AirPods Pro pairing with my Mac or iPhone ever, it's pretty nice.
Tbh it may be the host that's causing the problems, not the headphones. I'm using pretty cheap JBLs with a mbpro and iphone and also never have any problems.
AirPods seem pretty nice; but if you use them primarily with Android and connect them to Find My, they will claim to be lost all the time. Seems like you have to choose between annoyance or not being able to find them if you drop them.
I personally prefer wired headphones... they're always charged and ready, even if I only use them with my phone once in a while.
A few companies have demoed wireless cases with screens, and I would be very easy to tap connect on the case while I'm putting in the buds. My earbud was loose in my case yesterday, and it kept stealing the audio of a very important call. I almost threw them across the parking lot.
I have some generic Bluetooth dongle and some anker over the ear headphones and can turn the headphones on after initiating a call and not really have problems. Sometimes Windows doesn't find the microphone right away.
was listening to music while coming with groceries and simultaneously juggling stuff to open the doors and change the track with Siri (the only use for Siri I have)
A wire sitting on a table does not suck.
2 people can gather around that table and still, the wire does not suck.
As soon as 1 person picks up the wire and starts doing something with it....now an interaction with a wire sucks.
yeah I don't have this issue with airpods pro. charge them maybe every other week and never had issues pairing. The case charge should last for ~30-40 hrs of listening.
The auto switching between laptop and phone is pretty great too for taking calls or walking away and not having to fiddle around with repairing
Agree theyāre great but it does fascinate me when there are weird edge cases that Apple mess up.
For example if I have my phone and laptop running, and Iām listening to something on my phone, I pause with my AirPods, and then I unpause with my AirPods, instead of what was playing on my phone resuming through my AirPods, a video that Iāll have forgotten about will instead play through my laptop speakers, and pressing pause on my AirPods will do nothing and I have to interrupt whatever Iām doing to pause on the laptop. Possible theyāve fixed this specific issue though since Iāve learned to not have anything that has media controls open on my laptop.
The cross platform control stuff is probably very hard and usually works though.
I've had a set of Etymotic SR4s for years, I just replace the cable every 1-2 years. I love them to death, they're extremely flat though, so they make a version with bumped bass if that's your thing.
If someone made a cable with a mic on it for them I'd probably buy 10--it's pretty annoying to switch to Apple earbuds for calls, but whatever.
I do wonder if this is in part to Spotify educating people with their very much in your face notifications when you set your player to lossless quality mode. They inform you bluetooth won't pass the signal with enough fidelity and to go wired.
I don't think many people thought their expensive Airpods/Bose/Sony were not capable of handling lossless and may feel left out or missing something.
For phones, I think it's just the Sony and Asus and Chinese brands that support it. Pixels and Samsungs generally don't since they use Tensor/Exynos instead of Qualcomm/Snapdragon SoCs, and definitely not Apple.
Story is even more bleak on the headphones side, Sony prefers their own LDAC codec so they support that instead of AptX Lossless, a pattern shared by many Asian headphones manufactuers. Many western brands only support up to AptX HD and AAC because Apple/Samsung devices have the majority marketshare. Qualcomm's own site only shows 12 headphones that support AptX Lossless.
Now my opinion is LDAC is close enough to lossless that it's probably good enough for Sony and most people (the 1411kbps for uncompressed 16/44.1 CD quality generally compresses to under 900kbps which is below the 990kbps max of LDAC). Bose does have a headphone that supports AptX Lossless. It's just the Airpods that are far behind the competition.
The elephant in the room is "chi-fi". There's been a huge growth in small Chinese companies with unusual names making amazingly cheap, yet great-sounding over-ear headphones, IEMs, and earbuds within the past few years, and the vast majority of these are wired.
Iām by no means an audiophile and it had been years since I owned a pair of wired headphones, but I picked up a pair of Linsoul 7HZ x Crinacle Zero:2 (yes that is actually the name) IEMs after seeing some glowing reviews online and I was absolutely blown away by how they sounded despite costing only 240 SEK (around 25 USD). Back in the early 2010s when I was more interested in hi-fi audio you definitely couldnāt get as great sounding IEMs around this price.
Headphones were a solved problem. I had 20 years ago some high end IEM that i used back in the days on on so called mp3 players - those were pocket sized music players - and since apple released the airpods and bluetooth headphones were the new standard audio quality never recovered to the state we had two decades ago
iPod Shuffle + Shure SE215 was the pinnacle of portable audio. The ritual of maintaining a separate playlist that would actually fit made it intentional. Allowing Spotify to slip into an infinite stream of slop is so easy these days.
I have two wireless sony headphones for handling the battery issue. So yesterday before 5mins to my meeting, I plugged in one and it was out of juice. I plugged in the second one and it was also out of juice. Mind you, I was travelling and hence didn't follow the usual charging cadence I follow.
I charged my wireless headphone for 5 mins and took the call and it went out of juice mid way through the call. I had to run to find a free conference room in the office which was present since it was friday.
I also often connect my wireless headphone through the weekend and not know that it is still connected since friday with my work mac. Wired solves all of this.
Thanks to this article, I just ordered a Apple Earpods USB-C 5 mins ago in Blinkit. It is going to be delivered in another 5-10mins. Good bye wireless. I will use it for work with my Mac and my personal Samsung phone.
I got a pair of AirPods Pro, paid for by a past employer, and it's the only Apple product I like. I'd even give some of my own money to Apple if I had to buy another pair.
When I'm wearing wired earbuds, the feeling of getting the cord caught on something and having the earbuds violently yanked from my ears is one of the most annoying things, like a slap in the face.
Plus I like being able to put my phone wherever I want, when I'm listening to podcasts while doing yard work. The phone stays in the house, or on a patio table, not in my pocket where pruning shears or dirt will get to it.
There are various other situations where having wires going to my ears is annoying or impossible.
Many pro wired comments here about quality which can be classed under the category āmost people cannot tell the differenceā.
You simply cannot compare the considerably greater convenience of wireless to wired when on the go.
Also, any decent wireless over the ear headset allows for wired use when out of battery. Thatās hardly a game changer
Not everybody is using their headphones on the go. 99% of my headphone use is at my desk while I work. Wired is more convenient than wireless since it's one less lithium battery to charge.
It's true that humans are not particularly sensitive to audio quality, but they are very sensitive to audio latency. If all you do is listen to buffered audio sources then latency is not important but the moment you need to use your headphones in an input loop then wired is the superior technology as it offers close to zero variance in latency.
I wonder what percentage of the people driving this trend have either only had AirPods (they make me dizzy, and I think the sound quality is terrible), Beats (even worse) or no-name $20 bluetooth headsets.
I have a nice high-end set of Sennheisers that cost ~ $150, and they're much better than my old wired set (both in-ear, both noise isolating, similar prices).
The bluetooth ones win because they eliminate cable noise. I can actually jog with them. In quiet rooms, they're very comparable, except the bluetooth set has a built in EQ, which works around the fact that iOS / Android still inexplicably do not let you adjust treble and bass.
The bluetooth headset market has been stuck in this weird spot where fashion mostly dictates. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that fashion now dictates wired headsets.
For me AirPods are one of the greatest products Iāve ever owned. I resisted them for years and recited the usual tropes about wired being better. But after being gifted a pair years ago, I realized how wrong I was.
I spend a lot of time at the gym or walking with headphones in and music, podcasts, or audiobooks on. Itās so much better not having any wires when youāre moving. I canāt imagine doing these actives anymore with wired headphones.
Battery life, pairing, charging, audio quality, and other complains are all non issues for me, but Iām also no audiophile. They work incredibly seamlessly inside the Apple ecosystem.
I've got a fairly cheap pair of Soundcores and I use an Android phone. Never really had a problem. Pair them once and they reconnect flawlessly, I only have to charge the battery case like once a month, and the earbuds themselves last more then an entire day. Mine get a lot of use, and I've never had an earbud die on me.
There are a couple of minor annoyances for sure, like the car grabbing my phone when it turns on, but that's not a huge deal. And the annoyance of having a cord dangle around while I'm walking the dog or doing dishes or whatever the hell I'm doing far outweighs it.
All of that said, if I wanted audio quality to sit and actively listen to music, I'd go wired no question. But I don't really care when 95% of my listening is audiobooks and podcasts.
I've never had a pair of headphones with a cable connection that survived more than 2 years. Can't say that about the Airpods Max.
Like, I have opinions about high-end headphones based on how easy the cords are to replace. That shouldn't be the case.
I was a discrete headphone amp guy, just to situate myself in this market. I didn't expect to get good wireless headphones and think "I'm never going back", but that's precisely what happened.
I'm sure that there can be situations where it's better to sacrifice sound quality and reliability for the convenience of wireless but I think the ability to replace cables is a huge advantage and not a pain point at all. The only problem I've ever had was with an old pair from Sony where by the time I needed a new cable they'd stopped selling a replacement cable but I knew I was rolling the dice when I got that pair because the cable wasn't standard.
Even in the extreme case where you're replacing them every other year you could buy a handful of spares right away so you have them on hand when you need them and your headphones will outlast the batteries in your airpods
Same here, I can't imagine adding 2 to 3 (earphones + case) batteries to my life, batteries that most likely aren't user replaceable, most likely will be cycled at least once a day and will inevitable die and take the whole device with them in a matter of years.
I'm not rough, but don't handle them with white gloves either. I usually tend to roll them up in a ball in some pocket when not in use.
The model I have, BT2, is "semi-wired", meaning that the Bluetooth and battery are common to the two earbuds, linked by a cable. And, outside the big heavy cables some big heavy headphones have, this one is the one that has held up best ā I'm pretty sure I got it before Covid. They now have a newer model with no wires, which houses the BT and battery in some over-ear clips [0]. I have no experience with these. In any case, I expect other manufacturers to have similar options.
Before this, I would have to change the (old-school) wire on these IEMs seemingly every other year. But at least it was changeable, as opposed to other cheaper IEMs which would require to break out the soldering iron at best, or end up in the trash at worst if they were a glue fest.
I've considered the move to wired not for quality but for the sad state that Bluetooth pairing headphones has become. Theycan't just be headphones anymore; They require their own app and pairing protocol. They want 19 different touch points and permissions to implement a handful of never used features I get people being frustrated at why they can't just do what copper did for the last century.
For me, using Bluetooth headphones with my (Samsung) phone is smooth and trouble-free. The experience is miles better than wired headphones, and I would never go back. Meanwhile, connecting to my TV with Bluetooth is an exercise in pure frustration.
So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.
And it's not just cheap devices. My TV is a fancy LG OLED. For the price I paid it should handle Bluetooth just fine.
It's a real shame. When Bluetooth works, it's awesome, but a lot of people have had their opinions tainted by bad devices.
> So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.
Perhaps, but it kinda seems to me that there must be some inherent limitation of the standard which make it particular hard to create a high-quality experience?
The latency for instance - in my (somewhat limited) experience audio over BT does not sync perfectly with video.
The channels/codecs is/was so limited in bandwidth that until recently (few years back IIRC) headsets couldn't even send and receive decent quality audio at the same time. Even recent headsets like the Shokz Openrun Pro 2 has this limitation. (Which you could argue is an instance of "shitty implementation" since it was released after the availability of necessary tech (LE/LC3))
Yeah, I'm reading these comments and I would have agreed 10 years ago, but I'm regularly using three different pairs of wireless headphones plus a Bluetooth speaker and have literally zero issues. My Bose headphones are usually even paired with two phones.
Yeah, charging is a bit annoying, but the added comfort is worth it to me and I can't tell that the audio quality is any different.
It's super inconsistent across devices and implementations. I've had so many issues with it over the years.
I've had headphones where a slight change in the environment around me while walking would disconnect audio. Or IEMs not syncing properly the L and R channels.
Even in the best of cases using headphones with multiple devices is just terrible. Also syncing audio to picture rarely works as it should.
>So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.
Yep, but this is a problem that is present everywhere. For example, electric cars are supposed to be simpler, because its one moving part. In reality, you get essentially vertical integration of all the components like battery management, motor controllers, infotainment, gauge cluster and the software that connects all of that, and when bugs are present you can't even get into your car.
An alternative to a wired dongle is a high-quality bluetooth amp, e.g. from Fiio. It's reliable, keeps your phone free from cables, but you can keep using your high quality wired headphones.
That seems a ~~wired~~ weird compromise to me: you get the downsides of Bluetooth (inherent latency, potential codec quality loss, spectrum congestion ā I occasionally experience interference and dropouts in crowded areas) but still have a wire hanging from your head and another battery to keep charged. :/
Except on the go, I donāt see the point for Bluetooth headphones. Due to the built in batteries that are uneconomical to replace they are essentially consumables, even high end ones like AirPods Max. Pairing and (re) connecting is a never ending pain. For less than $200 you can get a set of wired open back headphones that sound so good that unless you are in the audiophile niche they are your forever headphones. Models like Beyer Dynamic DT990 are built to last and very repairable, it just makes sense.
If they want to take them away, they'll have to rip my Sennheiser HD600 from my skull.
Legendary for their neutral, correct and pleasant sound, comfort, effectively forever durability, and being affordable to boot.
I can plug them to current or 40 year old hardware, and they do work. I use them with Topping DX3 Pro+[0] today.
It is no wonder they want us to instead adopt something active, crippled with bluetooth latency and dependent on lossy codecs, with a non-serviceable battery built-in.
It's simple, I can buy some IEMs that sound better, cost less than a third of a barely-even-comparable wireless earbud, and roughly conforms to market standards so I can swap out the cable and tips. And I never have to charge them.
I have a pair of Airpod Pros that I use solely for audiobooks and podcasts when I'm doing chores or shopping, but the audio quality is so garbage that's all they're really good for.
The problem with earbuds is that to have good quality, you need to create a seal, like IEMs do. Most professionals who use IEMs have them custom molded to their ears.
If you are lucky and have a good ear shape, then airpods sound good. Still not as good as IEM because IEMs have more space for better drivers without needing a battery or bluetooth hardware.
But if you are a person like me who has very hard time with any earbud staying in, then its gonna sound like garbage because you are never going to get a perfect seal.
The measure of audio is what comes out of the speakers not what is written on the web.
My Airpod Pros are the most convenient personal audio device I have ever used. Sound wise they pale in comparison to my Sony MDR-ZX100 which I bought on sale for $9.99 at Best Buy...unfortunately the new model is about $15 regular price and maybe not as good (but I doubt it).
Sure the Airpod Pros sound better than ordinary Airpods or the wired Airbuds, but that's a really low bar for an audio device.
here's hoping that someday headphones without pressure (e.g. active/passive noise cancelling) will make a comeback, too. But then again I think there still exist cheap wired ones without such "advanced" technology. As one woman in the article said best: "'I don't like how this feels' and we're all kind of returning to the last place we were comfortable."
For wireless headphones I've gone to bone conduction and open-ear. Started with some cheap models from Ali-Express to see how I liked it. I did.
Shokz had a black friday deal on Open-Run Pros and those are my goto. Admittedly, they are not as convenient as my Airpods were, but my ears appreciate not being bombarded with noise canceling.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 at least just allows varying levels of passthrough. You can have noise cancelling or noise cancelling + sound from the outside mike. You cannot have noise-cancelling off for better battery life or to cope with windy conditions
They're awful in several other ways too, which is sad for what should be their flagship model
I avoid noise cancelling as well; I find that it very rapidly gives me a headache. I prefer a nice set of headphones that physically block outside sound.
The drivers or whatever can influence the wireless experience a lot. Apple has the best bluetooth reliability of any manufacturer I've experienced. I can be out in a field next to my house and somehow the half-asleep laptop finds my headphones instantly unless I remember to switch its bluetooth off. On my windows machine sometimes, for seemingly no reason, you will be left standing around waiting and waiting for it to find the device right next to it.
The convenience of being able to get up and walk around the house, or got out with the phone without wires getting caught makes it worthwhile though. On the other hand for stationary peripherals like mice I would never go wireless. I hate that feeling of complete helplessness to the pairing/connection lottery and the time waste of it.
My daily headphones are the Google Pixel USB-C earbuds, but they seem to be no longer made. Anyone have good recommendations for similar style USB-C headphones w/mic?
For me it's cost. I used to be able to get those JVC gummy earbuds wired, for nine dollars. Now I have to spend upwards of $20 for Bluetooth. And of course, when the battery can't be recharged anymore, I'm supposed to throw them away. Much prefer the wired headphones. Sometimes Bluetooth makes sense, But economically wired makes more sense.
Personally I use wired headphone at home, either open back or closed back depending on the situation and Bluetooth outside when I don't want to be bothered by a cable.
I think it gets the best of both worlds. Couldn't care less if I look 'cheap' because I have Bluetooth headphone.
There's a much simpler explanation. I regularly see boomers with wireless "earpod" type earphones out and about. They're not cool any more.
Fashion is fickle and it's best to not pay any attention to it. Choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes wireless is better, like when running, sometimes wired is better, like doing serious listening in a quiet environment.
Because it's a freaking pain to connect them, obviously! In my experience they work well enough once you have, but consider the experience of "plugging them into a different device".
Barely any devices support being paired with more than one central. So you have to tediously disconnect with the first device in some shitty menu (e.g. on Android the UI is not at all clear), then maybe put it into pairing mode (again usually though some terrible UI because manufacturers think pairing is a rare operation) and then finally pair it on the other device.
Absolutely ridiculous. Oh and what's the Bluetooth equivalent of a headphone splitter? Auracast? It's taken decades to get that and basically nothing supports it.
I do use Bluetooth things and I think the sound quality and reliability can be very good (if you're lucky), but the connection process is miles worse than plugging in a wire.
It's fashionable. Some famous people have been seen with visible wires, therefore everyone needs wires.
All these arguments here about technological superiority are quaint but miss the point. People in the wider world don't have the same concerns the people of HN have here, they're following icons.
As soon as they started talking about celebrities and it being a fashion statement they lost me on this being a real resurgence.
For about a month we had videos of people getting in fist fights over fucking Stanley tumblers of all things, those stupid Labubus popped off too, and God knows how many other things come and go in like a month. Unless theirs a sustained long term resurgence in the market, it's probably just another tiktok fad.
There are two tiers of bluetooth devices. There are the Apple and Samsung devices (and Bose and other high-end brands), which just work. Then there are the rest, which are terrible.
This isn't a Vinyl vs CD thing where a clearly inferior technology lives on due mainly to sentimental reasons. There are a number of concrete advantages to wired headphones over bluetooth headphones.
- They don't need charging. Charging may seem like a minor inconvenience, and we're used to charging a lot of devices. However, even a minor inconvenience is still an inconvenience.
- They're harder to lose. When Apple almost immediately started selling accessories to connect their airpods together (i.e. Cables), it was pretty obvious that going completely cordless was not entirely superior.
- For an equivalent price point, wired headphones produce higher quality audio, and the top-end is a lot deeper.
- Wired cans don't need to pair, don't glitch out, don't become laggy, pair with the wrong device, etc.. Bluetooth was never really meant for use as an audio connection, and it's never really become 100% foolproof. With Apple's proclivity for proprietary standards, I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.
Too many android phones copied Apple and ditched the venerable audio jack, but a few kept it, and I've always insisted on it when buying phones. It's old but far from obsolete.
> They don't need charging.
This is it. I have a lot of wireless headphones and every time I need to use one, it isn't charged. It's very exhausting and I don't want to deal with that. So I use them as wired headphone if possible, or dump them in the discard pile if not.
I work with a lot of audio in a professional capacity. You're correct if you're saying that neither tech is universally "teh best".
And you're correct that wired phones have a lot of advantages.
Tack on that they don't have latency, though I've never really tried to track vocals on wireless cans. I have a pretty nice collection of what I consider to be quality mid-tier stuff for my studio (hd280, dt770, mdr7506, k240), and I think they mostly sound better and I can use them longer than I can use the various wireless stuff I use.
And the "real" UHF wireless audio I use professionally (well, to collect rather than listen to audio) is very reliable and good sounding but also, like, $1000/ch once it's cased and cabled and properly accessorized.
However, for almost all of my day to day listening I use either airpods or a some bluetooth'd 3M ear muffs. I even went back to airpods after going through both wired and other wireless solutions.
I don't enjoy having my in-ears ripped out along with my pocket. And universally the cord ends and the physical connector on my phone are the weak spots that have had me replace stuff- I haven't bought a phone in the 5 years since I got one that could charge wirelessly and never has phones plugged into it, and I don't intend to get another one any time soon (knock on wood that my case keeps the screen from breaking and needing me to repair it).
I have a bluetooth receiver with an analog out that I keep in my workbox, which I used for program music at a show tonight. It's nice to start my truck and my podcast just starts playing, too, without having to get out my phone and plug it in.
You're right that wired stuff is better for some things. I still find wireless stuff to be superior in a lot of situations.
And latency!! Anything that needs to be real time is impossible without wired headphones. Even the lowest latency wireless is noticeable.
This is the big one for me, I hate all that lag with bluetooth, signal interference, and constantly wondering which device my headphones have connected to. So much easier for so many reasons, with a wire!
Vinyls are not necessarily the inferior technology. Given the choice, I'd prefer to play vinyl in some cases. In social settings vinyl's short length and need to be flipped creates a dynamic social environment. Someone has to regularly choose new music to play, acting with intent to do so. Someone has to regularly walk to the machine. These create dynamism and flow. CDs are much longer, and less tactile. There's less of the my turn your turn, who is going to flip the thing.
They sound worse, if clarity is your goal. And they are huge and wear out. I agree with you 99%, I just wanted to point out that across some dimensions they are the superior technology.
This is like saying āCandles are superior to lightbulbs because they burn out quicker and thats an advantage in some situationsā.
Iām not sure how, its an aesthetic choice but an inferior technology by every metric that counts.
Candles still have a place, we still buy them, but we canāt reasonably call them superior either- even if, candles actually would have a real advantage of not requiring power. Vinyl doesnāt even have that.
You have to look beyond the audio engineering on this one.
Using constrained mediums on purpose is often how the best artistic expression is achieved. For example, if the artist knows their channel is noisy and band-limited they can get a lot more liberal with the kinds of samples they use throughout. CD/SACD is kind of like 4K for television. The medium becomes so transparent that it causes upstream shocks in every other part of the process. You can no longer rely on the camera or audio chain to cover it up (unless you hobble yourself intentionally).
With this logic you can argue the best audio medium is dirt because if you made good music with dirt, the music must have been so incredible to have counteracted the flaws of dirt as a medium. Ignore the fact that dirt cannot be used as a music medium. (Vacuous truth)
Early Motown records were tracked in a room which had a dirt floor.
Yes, but your "IF" is doing the heavy lifting here and it would be your burden to proof how dirt would be a means of artistic expression before anybody could take your argument seriously.
As a musician myself I can assure you that the high stakes releases for any musician are vinyl releases. They also happen to be the ones with which most musicians earn the most money.
Now technologically vinyl isn't superior (and anybody who claims it is is an idiot in the sense of the word), but technology isn't everything. A noisy casette tape can evoke the same (and sometimes more) feelings than the digital recording. A vinyl record with a big cover, an inlay with band info, that you specifically chose to put on the record player while reading the liner notes and examining the design is in a ritualistic sense a thousand times more gratifying than having spotify select a song for you without knowing why, in the background of the daily life. That is like the difference between a candle light bath and getting wet in a rainshower.
Now that doesn't mean people will be binary either 100% vinyl or 100% digital. Vinyl is for the special occasion or for DJ sets, digital is for everything else.
Yes that's my point with the "if"! And in general I largely agree with you.
The parent comment basically argued vinyl is superior because when artists used vinyl the resulting music was creatively better (because of whatever process). Sure, but then you can't selectively ignore the great music that has been made with other recording technologies. I can point to a lot of good music recorded on tape or digital. Unless we are arguing that music back in the vinyl days was broadly better than now? (Different argument then...)
As for artistic choices, I totally agree that vinyl can be a valid choice! Then it's silly to say one thing is "better" than another.
But in terms of raw technology, I say it's just copium to claim vinyl is in any way superior to digital. Digital's recording capabilities are a superset of vinyl's. There is no magic sauce killer feature unique to vinyl.
Instead of "Candles are a superior way to light a room" you can say "Candles are a superior way to create a romantic vibe in a room".
Candles/Vinyl can be superior if you clarify the metric you're optimizing for.
That's very succinctly-put. Well done.
Rather less-succinctly: I never got into vinyl and have never owned a turntable that wasn't built down to a price. I do still have my shelves of CDs, and it keeps slowly expanding. I usually listen to Spotify because it is convenient and portable and -- these days -- lossless.
But my sister and her old man have put together a quite decent stereo system with a mix of vintage and modern gear in recent years, and also started a a rather serious vinyl collection. While there's certainly no romance there on my end, it's a lovely and deeply-involving experience to hang out with them in their tiny little city-dweller living room and spin records into the wee hours; sometimes for just one track, and sometimes for entire albums.
I definitely prefer the way my own stereo, which I've built over the course of decades, sounds. It's detailed and big and it does all the things; it is by all technical measures very superior. But we have a lot more fun listening to vinyl at their place than we have playing CDs and Spotify at my place. The process -- and indeed, the inconvenience -- of playing vinyl makes it all much more visceral.
Just so.
The advantages of vinyl are basically making up for lack of self-discipline in humans. (I much prefer vinyl for that precise reason!)
a) Since putting it on becomes more of a ritual - handling the album carefully, brushing off lint, placing the needle &c - I find I make more of an effort to actually _listen_ to the music I put on. I could listen as intently to Spotify or Tidal, too - but, alas, I most often don't.
b) Seeing as you'll get some 20-odd minutes of music before having to make another choice - be it playing the other side or another album entirely - it enforces having to decide on what you'd like to listen to, rather than just letting your streaming service of choice play things it thinks you may like. (That being said, streaming services are a great way to explore new music!)
c) Given the economics of streaming, buying physical media helps both the record stores - a good one is like an excellent library, in which the librarians give you all sorts of curated recommendations for things you may like, in addition to being great social meeting places with like-minded folk - and performing artists alive; I've no idea how many hours I would have to listen to an artist on Spotify before the payout is equal to their takeout from a single vinyl sale...
d) Besides, it is cosy.
That being said, you could easily DSP CDs or streaming to sound like vinyl if that's your idea of fun - just about any playback format is superior sonically to vinyl. However, to many, it is the whole ritual of putting on a record which basically makes it worth the sonic tradeoffs... (Call me a luddite if you like!)
Vinyl is for plebs, hiring troubadours for your party is the way.
Please recommend a troubadour who knows the Neat Records, Guardian Records n' Tapes and Heavy Metal Records singles catalogues and I'm sold :)
Bluetooth also opens your devices up to spying/tracking/monitoring/hacking/fingerprinting.
> "Too many android phones copied Apple and ditched the venerable audio jack"
I understand this is a personal preference, but I never understood the anger some people had over the removal when it's as easy as just using a small USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack converter to use wired headphones.
I tried the Apple one for a while but itās badly shielded and picks up interference a lot. I mean really obvious buzzing sounds if near certain sources of RF. Switched to wired ear buds with a lightning connector and no interference issues. So Iām sad I canāt plug in my high quality headphones or hook up my phone to my mixer when I want without having noise.
Part of it is jack longevity. I've never had a headphone port die on me, but I have multiple old phones with dead lightning or USB-C ports...
I agree but stuck with Apple ecosystem. I like the cheap wired lightning headphones they do. The audio quality is acceptable on public transit, theyāre cheap enough to lose and the mic is surprisingly good. Weirdly if Apple stopped making these I would jump ship for an Android phone with 3.5mm.
But you have wired earpods, both lightning and usb-3. I cannot be happier with those for my iphone and ipad, resp.
They have no latency, which is essential for gaming.
Wired headphones are infinitely more durable when good. I had a single pair of Sennheiser HD25II for 16 years now and I use them to run 16km a week, often in the rain.
All valid points, but I donāt miss having a tangle of wire in my pocket or that wire failing after a couple of months meaning I have to get a new set of headphones.
I have a set of IEMs that I bought at least 8 years ago, and they still work fine. And the wire is even replaceable, though I haven't needed to do so.
If your wired headphones are only lasting a couple months, then likely you're buying at a price point where quality suffers.
Agree with the tangle of wire, though.
I'm looking for long lasting iems myself -- the bunny ears that I recently bought had the cables die on me pretty fast. What are your recs ?
I've replaced wires of my main headphone 2 times over 10+ years. 40 dollars for something I use 8 hours a day, not too bad.
What annoys me the most is that the industry collectively decided that 3.5mm jacks are obselete, removing the option of using wired headphones, for no(?) good reason. We could at least agree that wired and wireless each have their own pros and cons, but no, we're shoehorned into wireless because corporate decided it. Here, you must use <NEW TECH> simply because we said so! It's just the peak of trend following bullshittery and represents a lot of what is wrong with capitalist society.
FWIW, Bluetooth LE Audio [0] solves most of these problems in my experience. Battery life is way better, pairing is almost instant, you can connect to multiple devices simultaneously, the latency is almost imperceptible, etc. The sound quality is still worse than wired, but it's close enough that it doesn't bother me personally.
Very few headphones support BLE Audio, and you need to enable some experimental Bluez flags for it to work on Linux, but both of these should improve with time. But it makes such a huge difference that I'd argue that it's worth the effort, even right now.
[0]: https://www.bluetooth.com/learn-about-bluetooth/feature-enha...
Just to be clear the parent is still 100% correct that wired headphones: * Do not need charging * Are hard to lose. * Offer better audio * Never glitch out with pairing.
BLE Audio offers lower need for charging and better (but not equivalent) audio. So 2/4 are not as bad with BLE Audio (and arguably only 1 since you still need to charge). The other two 2/4 are related to the form factor. Wireless headphones have advantages but they are not the decisive winner.
Right, my point was just that "Bluetooth sucks" does not necessarily mean "wireless headphones suck", but since nearly all wireless headphones use Bluetooth Classic (or some proprietary analogue protocol), it can be hard to disentangle the two. But yeah, I agree no matter how good the protocol improvements are, wired is still better for some use cases.
Is BLE the only way for Bluetooth to have multiple connections? I'm no audiophile but in my experience, the audio quality noticeably drops when multiple devices are connected (I've only ever had at most two at a time). I reasoned out that the bits were being divided so `quality /= 2` as well. I've only ever done this accidentally so I can't be certain the connection was really over BLE.
Granted, I've only ever done multiple connections on Linux so maybe it's a Linux problem.
> Is BLE the only way for Bluetooth to have multiple connections?
I think (?) that it's possible with Classic Bluetooth too, but like everything else with Classic Bluetooth, it's kinda buggy and unreliable.
> I'm no audiophile but in my experience, the audio quality noticeably drops when multiple devices are connected (I've only ever had at most two at a time).
I haven't personally noticed any audio quality difference with two devices connected over BLE, but I've never tried to play audio simultaneously from two sources. My phone and my laptop both auto-connect to my headphones, so I usually have two devices connected simultaneously, but I only ever play audio from one at a time.
I wasn't able to find the answer on that page or with google, does bluetooth LE solve the dogshit quality when using the microphone?
Yes! You can simultaneously use full-quality source and sink (speaker and microphone) streams [0].
As you've seen, the documentation on LE Audio is rather horrible. The Android documentation [1] is semi-useful even on other platforms, and the official book [2] is also helpful if you're willing to wade through a ton of dense technical details, but there's not really much else available on the internet. I've had to spend an annoying amount of time tracing stuff with Wireshark and reading through the specifications [3] (which are thankfully free) and the BlueZ source code [4] to figure stuff out.
[0]: https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2025/11/24/impl...
[1]: https://developer.android.com/develop/connectivity/bluetooth...
[2]: https://www.bluetooth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Introdu...
[3]: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/
[4]: https://github.com/bluez/bluez/
> With Apple's proclivity for proprietary standards, I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.
Can you imagine Europe's reaction? They'd fine Apple to the moon -- no innovation allowed unless it interoperates with other products that don't exist yet.
> Can you imagine Europe's reaction?
And they'd be right to do so. The correct approach to creating a new standard is plan interoperability from the start. If a vendor plans lock in by introducing a new standard, they should get shut down immediately and told to do better.
That sounds like a way to not get any progress. The way I'm used to this sort of thing happening is some company brings in a new proprietary standard, makes bank, then all the competition bands together to form an open standard to try and stop them. There is a bit of a tick-tock feeling as consortiums use more open and accessible standards to slowly lever power away from incumbents.
It is interesting to just glance at the history of USB [0] through that lens was originally developed, and it is interesting to see that as I would have predicted the group of companies that developed USB (MS, IBM, Compaq, etc) seem to be disjoint from the companies listed as precursor technologies (looks like that was especially an Apple-led consortium of hardware manufacturers organised around firewire [1]).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#History
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394#Patent_consideration...
> The way I'm used to this sort of thing happening is some company brings in a new proprietary standard, makes bank, then all the competition bands together to form an open standard to try and stop them. There is a bit of a tick-tock feeling as consortiums use more open and accessible standards to slowly lever power away from incumbents.
And that leaves you with two standards (at least), non interoperable between them. In the case of hardware this can be really annoying, constraining and inefficient both for consumers and at large.
Oh yes, Europe bad, regulation bad. Maybe add some nuance to your thinking.
> no innovation allowed unless it interoperates with other products that don't exist yet
Products that don't exist yet... so, future innovation? No innovation allowed unless it incentivises and streamlines further innovation? Count me in!
> interoperates with other products that don't exist yet.
Are you claiming no other wireless earphones exist other than apples'??
That would implement Apple's proprietary protocol. He thinks Europe would think Apple is creating a monopoly for themselves for iPhone headphones since no other company could implement the protocol without Apple's approval.
Perhaps not related to the article but I find it puzzling that Bluetooth in 2026 still sounds like a fax machine when you use the mic too. That and a much too high latency in general.
Audio engineer originally and a current audio software.
In the pro audio, wireless was never a thing with an exception of live shows where youād might want to be free on stage but avoid stage monitors.
Notice that while Apple made everyone ditch the lovely 3.5ā, on the MacBook Pros theyāve actually kept it and *improved* it.
As this is HN, Iāll focus on technical aspects I didnāt notice in the article.
- Active Noise reduction
While the article suggested the battery free magic of analog headsets. Flights are where the active noise reduction headsets shines. Active cancellation isnāt needed for studio environment but on the go it can certainly make your listening more pleasant.
- Hybrid devices There are several manufacturers with classical headset designs that also includes wired support with all modern features. This is a good balance in my opinion for benefiting from both worlds.
- Latency
Especially Bluetooth, our current consumer wireless is buffered and this latency is too much for creating music. Products such as GarageBand, Logic or FL Studio wonāt be that useful for tracking with Bluetooth.
- Quality
Indeed, analog 3.5ā audio is uncompressed vs Bluetooth. But it doesnāt mean the audio is superior for listening just because of that transition. Our modern devices are still mostly digital those days so there is DAC that takes those bits and converts them to analog (most of it today is done well as those chips are common) and the other step is the analog amplification. Audiophiles usually invest a lot in the headphones amplifier. Most android devices in the past were mediocre in that sense.
So while wired is a trend, the ādongleā of USB-C to convert the audio is still a major part of the quality we end with.
- Sharing is caring (my personal take)
The biggest frustration I feel with Bluetooth is that itās now nearly impossible to use multiple headphones for listening. In the old days, you had a simple splitter and as long as both headsets were the same impedance, you can even have 4 people listening to the same content easily.
With Bluetooth, only Apple addresses this in a very limited manner with a lock in to specific models and up to 2 devices and no video calls or live audio support.
I'm the trendsetter. I've never stopped using wired headphones and, after being made fun of for years despite much better audio quality, cost, simplicity and reliability, the rich finally decided to imitate me. Never let go of your convictions!
I'm with you! After I lost my gen 1 AirPods a couple years ago, I paid $20 for a pair of Apple's corded EarPods and used them until they failed (1) a few months ago. They had a good mic + music controls, sounded fine, and didn't need a dongle.
Now I'm down to my Shure IEMs (via an Apple lighting-to-3.5mm dongle) and a borrowed pair of old Galaxy buds - wanted to give wireless buds a try, since it's been so long. I don't like them.
1: emitting an earsplitting screech as they did so - the cable must have gone.
AirPods Pro 2 went through a washing machine cycle and still works. Having cables itās a pain, need to pass behind your clothes or outside dangling. Canāt charge phone while using wired headphones
Same, but I made the switch to usb-c headphones as needed for my phone without complaining about it. I still use 3.5mm headphones on desktop.
Same. I've been using the same apple earbuds since like 2005(?). I still have the original plastic case for them and use it to store them in my backpack.
Yep, same boat. That's why I had kept my pixel 4a for years until is finally kicked the bucket 2 years ago.
> That's why I had kept my pixel 4a for years until is finally kicked the bucket 2 years ago.
RIP I'm sure it was a noble device. My Pixel 3a is currently my wireless router for very German reasons. I worry this will kill off the still-decent battery life, as has happened with my OG Pixel.
I have since allied myself with what I personally consider the devil of consumer electronics just to stay on this boat.
I recently upgraded my 4a to a 10 two months ago. Besides getting security updates again, it feels like a downgrade in every way that matters to me.
Can't lie flat due to camera bulge. No headphone jack. Fingerprint sensor on the front that screen protectors interfere with. No sim slot. Ai bullshit triggers if i keep my thumb to close to where you touch to switch apps. Ai bullshit also replaces the old power menu, which now requires a combo button press.
Such a let down.
Not following trends guarantees you'll be the trendsetter every 5-10 years.
Sony WH1000XM5 headphones are my daily driver, mainly Zoom calls and music. I'm generally pretty happy with them, but one big gripe I have is when I'm on a call and briefly take off my headphones to e.g. chat with someone in the room, there is like a 90% chance they stop working and I have to reconnect them.
It happens so often I even wrote a script to switch to the MacBook internal speakers then back to the headphones.
I've used wired headphones before (and the Sony even has a wired option), but I didn't like how the cord was constantly getting the the way of my arms.
edit: Another big gripe is with the Bluetooth codec itself, and how the quality changes depending on if the mic is active.
Thank you, this brings me a feeling of relief because after constantly dealing with various wireless bt headphone issues when using linux it frequented my mind that surely on the other side of the fence people don't have this kind of problems.
Maybe I am just old, but I have absolutely no idea what this passage is about -- why would people be fiddling with Bluetooth on a date and why would it cause them to forget their network?
>"Bluetooth does not work," Kravitz said in a recent interview, and it's not just headphones, but Bluetooth connections in general. "It's ruining important moments. Imagine the amount of times that you're with someone on a date, you're trying to set a vibe, and then you have to forget the network. On a date!"
Picnic date with a Bluetooth speaker for some background music, perhaps? I often see that in parks/beaches/etc, and as long as volume is reasonable I donāt think anyone minds.
I found this confusing as well. She probably meant to "Forget" the device when the Bluetooth pairing with the headphones is lost.
I've just been putting wired headphones on my date's ears. It makes it harder for her to run away too.
Lots of good theories here, but none saying "TikTok", which I think is the answer.
TikTok is a big reason wired headphones are popular. AirPod microphone quality is spotty and improving the quality is non-deterministic. With wired earpods, people put the mic next to their mouth and get above-average audio quality.
Like the article says, wired headphones have also become a fashion statement akin to vinyl culture.
I dunno; IME many people who could barely be called a ācreatorā seem to invest in a standalone microphone already, and many of these (the portable ones anyway) arenāt wired.
This is why I use wired for longer calls or video conferences. I've tried so many wireless in-ear things and all of them are more sensitive to surrounding noise and I have to repeat myself more due to dropouts or spotty quality.
It's just much harder to get good sound quality when the mikes are by your ear rather than on a wire near your mouth
Not to mention that it completely removes the risk of running low on headphone battery mid-call
One segment I wish came back are bluetooth inear headphones wired together (untrue wireless, i guess).
There are some models but none really explore their possible advantages (battery, ux, single signal source).
I lost single wireless earpiece multiple times making the rest useless. This won't happen with wire. With wire its also so much easier and quicker to take them off they will just hang around your neck. There is reason why many workers in loud environments prefer earplugs wired together.
My impression is that apple hyped the airpods so well that people forgot about other possibilities. And when Google included cool headphones with cables people thought they have to cut themā¦ that was when industry decided its dead segment.
This is very true. Especially for sport, they are just great. I always found wired headphones annoying when running, because I need to take care of the wire somehow. Wired-together bluetooth in-ears like the Bose SoundSport kind of fill that niche, as I don't need to worry about one of them falling out. Looks like they don't make them anymore.
Yeah sport is main reason companies are making them.
I also have to say i haven't checked this for two years but there seem to be some new models now (under banner of neckband earbuds). So maybe there is something nicer now.
Can someone recommend USBC earbuds with good ANC? Sometimes Iād love to avoid battery and interference concerns of Bluetooth, but noise cancellation became a must-have for me.
Is in-ear ok? With IEMs, you'll get passive noise canceling that I've found more than enough for most situations.
I have a pair of IEM with the usb-c converter attached most of the time for use with phones.
Give Truthear Hexa a try.
My wired headphones never run out of battery. They also don't drop the connection if my pocket is at the wrong angle from my ears.
All that and they cost a fraction of the price! Wireless headphones are a strictly inferior product to wired, and it astonishes me that Apple convinced anyone to buy them. They're a total rip off.
I can leave my phone on the charger or propped up with a recipe on the counter while I cook and still get signal. Wired headphones cannot let me walk between rooms without picking up my phone.
Wireless headphones take up much less space. I can put them in my pocket trivially.
Wireless headphones can tell me where they are and if I've left them behind.
Wireless headphones don't have a piece of plastic that dangles on my neck, shoulders, and face. As someone with sensory issues, this is genuinely important.
I've never had to spend five minutes untangling the cords for my wireless headphones.
I've never accidentally snagged the cable on my wireless headphones, causing them to snap off.
I can put my phone in a waterproof case in my backpack and protect it while walking. I don't have to do cable management to route the wire.
It's fine to prefer the wired headphones. I fully endorse that for you. Maybe drop the hyperbole about how wired headphones are strictly better?
It's weird, because I absolutely agree in principle, but 90% of my headphone use is wireless now.
And I hate it: latency, glitches, randomly just deciding not to connect anymore, deciding to connect in the lower-quality headset mode when I want to listen to music, and refusing to switch to the high-quality mode, battery running out at inconvenient times, the cat knocking them off my nightstand and under the bed where I cant reach them. So many reasons to be annoyed by them!
But I hardly ever take out my wired headphones anymore, and I'm not sure why. Back when I got my first phone without a 3.5mm jack, I just kept a little USB-C adapter in the little pouch/case that held my wired IEMs, and it was fine. But at some point I bought a new phone, and there was a deal on cheap (or free?) wireless earbuds with it, and I really just stopped using wired headphones for the most part since then, even though the wireless ones really annoy me for so many reasons.
For me, all of my wired headphones and earbuds have died the same way: audio cutting out or completely lost due to cable damage due to storage and use cycles. Wireless has completely fixed this for me.
All that, plus with wires, I can run the cable under my shirt and up through the neck hole. When someone starts to talk to me, I can just pop them out of my ears and let them dangle across my chest without having to hold them in my hands. I also don't have to worry about dropping them on the floor.
This was common for kids in the 00s. Having just one bud in while talking to someone was common. There was also this type that instead of having two equal length wires, one to each bud, was asymmetrical and you would wrap the longer wire around you neck so you could easily "unbud". Sony invented this, I think. In fact there were some pretty crazy designs before Apple made the simple but conspicuous earbuds popular again.
I bought two pairs of premium wireless headphones about 10 years ago. These failed gradually, I patched them up with tape and kept them going. One of them had the Bluetooth electronics fail but still works wired, the electronics are fine on the other one but physically it is a jumbled mess that I can't really tape together anymore but it kinda sits on my head.
I went looking for the state of the art in headphones and bought (1) a set of AirPod Pros and (2) a recent Sony headset.
My feelings about the AirPods are terribly mixed.
10 years ago I think the best reason to spend $250 instead of $25 on a set of Bluetooth headphones was that the $250 device would pair properly with multiple devices whereas it might take you 15 minutes of screwing around to unpair and repair the $25 headphones every time you need them. But hey they are so cheap maybe you can pack one for each device you have and not worry about it.
Today it is the other way around, somehow $25 headphones "just work" with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Steam Deck, whatever. After I disabled the microphone and switched to the microphone on my camera, the AirPods got reliable with Windows. Inside Apple's ecosystem it tries really hard and almost works, yet the $25 headphones "just work" and don't seem to be trying so hard. I don't get messages warning me that somebody else's $25 headphones are following me around but my iPhone tells me that about my AirPods all the time but I think it is a KPI for somebody in Cupertino that I see the word "AirPods" as much as possible.
Now the sound quality of the AirPods is just great, I'll grant that, but I'm not going to be one of those annoying youngsters who is as hard as hearing as the oldest oldsters because I have some genetic polymorphism that makes me produce copious amount of earwax that eject the AirPods from my ears if I move too much. My doc says one of these days my ears are going to plug up and I shouldn't get so excited about it.
I got myself a plastic welder - the thing that melts little pieces of metal to strengthen plastic joints - now I can keep old plastic things in shape almost indefinitely. Cost like 10 usd or so and has prolonged the life of all manner of things.
If you still want to make the old headphones work these welders are a godsend, and with some small amount of diy work of cleaning, sanding and buffing you can easily hide these welds.
I personally like to leave them though since they accent that something that was once broken is whole again, and that it has a long history!
Have you ever tried bluetooth wearables like the Bose SoundWear? Off topic but they are awesome
Mine do. The phone's lightning connector socket has become "flaky" (from age, or lint..), and at this point I must hold the phone in hand rather than in pocket while walking, for uninterrupted playback.
Headphone jacks.
Sony experia, Asus zenphone, Motorola Moto G, and a few others
They're rare nowadays, but they're inherently superior when it comes to audio just working
Same here. And also unlike airpods, you can't easily lose one that you can't replace. Which also renders the one left useless because you can't pair it with another orphan, what a waste.
Please let this mean that they'll start bringing back the headphone jacks to phones. usb-c is too unstable, and I prefer not having to deal with charging more devices and with pairing shenanigans when switching devices.
You can get phones with headphone jacks still. You have to shop carefully, because it eliminates a lot of options. My current phone is a moto g stylus 5g 2023... to get a headphone jack, snapdragon cpu, and reasonable cost, I had to also accept a stylus that I only use to fidget.
Probably need to start shopping again soon cause updates stop in June.
The moto g stylus 2025 is reasonable. It has some bloatware you have to go through and disable, and it is a bit bigger than I'd like. But it's about the best you can do in today's market.
Wired headphones are the top reason I've bought Moto phones the last two times.
Totally agree, as an iPhone user itās literally the only āinnovationā that would make me lust after a new device.
It'll never happen but I'd love to see a new analog audio connector designed with portable audio and extreme durability in mind make a debut. The old 1.44mm connector is nice for its ubiquitous nature, but its internal footprint is large and it's prone to contact issues over time (I'm sure most of us have had a device/headphone pair where the jack had to be rotated into a "sweet spot".
I'm not well versed in the world of port design, but what comes to mind is a little shallow magnetic nub with a couple of contacts on it. Easy to clean, impossible to break by accidental torquing, not deep enough to get stuff stuck in it.
The cool thing is that whatever the new design is, making adapters for 1.44mm to the new thing is dirt cheap since it's still just an analog connection.
Whatās 1.44 mm connector in this context? Common sizes for headphones are 2.5, 3.5 and (lately) 4.4 mm
Please, it's the one thing I miss on my Pixel 10
> usb-c is too unstable
Would you share more? I've never had an issue with a USB-C cable. Helps to buy well constructed ones with legit specs.
I gave up on USBC headphones because if your port becomes full of lint (say by being in your pocket all day), it doesnāt take much to disturb a USBC connection and cause it to go through the whole handshake all over again for a few seconds.
Compared to 3.5mm where the frustrations I remember were usually limited to sometimes getting a bit of a crackle or one of the audio channels dropping out and worst case scenario you just unplugged it and put it back in and it usually worked. With USBC you have to wait to see.
I'm talking about this specific context, rather than in general. I find that for usb-c earphones and small dongles/dacs, they disconnect more when I'm walking around with phone in pocket. They also tend to wear down with use much faster than normal aux cables. Usually, they last a few months for me before I start having issues.
And when usb-c phones disconnect just a little, usually the phone will pause the music completely and disconnect, whereas the aux headphones will just keep playing. So if the connection isn't perfect, the usb-c cable becomes unlistenable because I can't walk 20 steps without it pausing.
edit: I've tried many cables and dongles, so if you don't have this problem, it might be just that I move around more? Biggest problem for me is commutes and walking around.
That problem might be considered a software problem, not a hardware or physical problem. The instant pausing of the music is the real problem. Software developers probably don't move around as much as you do, and I'd bet if they did, this problem would be fixed quickly with a simple timeout setting or something.
Actually, a week ahead of the BBC, my sister informed me wired headphones are making a comeback. With a smug grin I told her, "Comeback? It never left my side."
I've had to ally myself with a brand I've once sworn off just to get a flagship model Android with a headphone jack. Killing Reader is a greedy betrayal (they were pushing us onto Plus, the whole social web thing) but removing headphone jacks from Pixels is a cowardly betrayal! Eyeing you too there, Samsung. You and Google both have made it extremely difficult to maintain a modicum of principle in today's consumer landscape! You made me justify my purchase with a utilitarian "Better the jacked devil than the blue-toothed one".
(And before you ask, I only generally buy flagships because I upgrade my phone like, every five years, and in my experience flagships are just more bang for buck. YMMV tho.)
Anyway, honestly, wired is not perfect. Wired and wireless each have their inconveniences it's just that I'm more willing to put up with the inconveniences of wired. Wired connections have known failure modes, something which I really value in tech. I have a Sony WH-1000XM3 which can work both as wired and wireless and I love it for that.
Long live wired connections! Here's to a future with cheaper flagship models with a headphone jack!
While using wired headphones, my spouse's car never steals my audio when it starts or pulls into the driveway. Also, I can join a meeting seconds before it starts without spending a few minutes scrambling to verify that my BT headset will allow me to hear/be heard.
This experience of different devices competing for a BT headphone is really the most annoying aspect of BT to me. I pair my headphones regularly with my work laptop, my phone and my private laptop, and when working from home and walking around in my apartment, the headphones sometimes just randomly pick another device, even if the current device has audio going, and the other does nothing. Sometimes the Macbook does that when it's on standby, which is bizarre. I always wondered if that is an implementation bug on one of the sides. I fixed it by forcing the Macbook to shut off BT when going on standby.
A good bluetooth experience requires that both the headset and the audio source device implement bluetooth well, which is hard. That said, I have zero problems with my AirPods Pro pairing with my Mac or iPhone ever, it's pretty nice.
Tbh it may be the host that's causing the problems, not the headphones. I'm using pretty cheap JBLs with a mbpro and iphone and also never have any problems.
Incidentally the same goes for bluetooth mice.
AirPods seem pretty nice; but if you use them primarily with Android and connect them to Find My, they will claim to be lost all the time. Seems like you have to choose between annoyance or not being able to find them if you drop them.
I personally prefer wired headphones... they're always charged and ready, even if I only use them with my phone once in a while.
A few companies have demoed wireless cases with screens, and I would be very easy to tap connect on the case while I'm putting in the buds. My earbud was loose in my case yesterday, and it kept stealing the audio of a very important call. I almost threw them across the parking lot.
I have some generic Bluetooth dongle and some anker over the ear headphones and can turn the headphones on after initiating a call and not really have problems. Sometimes Windows doesn't find the microphone right away.
I never got on board with wireless headphones.
* Having to charge them is a PITA
* Having to pair them is a PITA
* Having more points of failure is a PITA
* Paying more is a PITA
On the other hand:
* Wires are fine
>* Having to charge them is a PITA
The equivalent PTIA for wired would be having to untangle them everytime you want to use them.
>* Having to pair them is a PITA
How many devices do you have that this is an issue? This is an issue that pops up a few times a year, at most.
>* Having more points of failure is a PITA
It's unclear which has more PoF. Wires can break, not to mention randomly catch on stuff and sending your phone flying.
It's hard to lose one or both of your wired earphones.
Counterpoint: wires really suck and are not fine. AirPods Pro are great, I can afford them and they improve my quality of like quite a bit.
Different strokes I guess.
was listening to music while coming with groceries and simultaneously juggling stuff to open the doors and change the track with Siri (the only use for Siri I have)
counter counterpoint:
A wire sitting on a table does not suck. 2 people can gather around that table and still, the wire does not suck. As soon as 1 person picks up the wire and starts doing something with it....now an interaction with a wire sucks.
But that's not the wire's fault.
>now an interaction with a wire sucks.
>But that's not the wire's fault.
So... "it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden deceleration"?
yeah I don't have this issue with airpods pro. charge them maybe every other week and never had issues pairing. The case charge should last for ~30-40 hrs of listening. The auto switching between laptop and phone is pretty great too for taking calls or walking away and not having to fiddle around with repairing
Agree theyāre great but it does fascinate me when there are weird edge cases that Apple mess up.
For example if I have my phone and laptop running, and Iām listening to something on my phone, I pause with my AirPods, and then I unpause with my AirPods, instead of what was playing on my phone resuming through my AirPods, a video that Iāll have forgotten about will instead play through my laptop speakers, and pressing pause on my AirPods will do nothing and I have to interrupt whatever Iām doing to pause on the laptop. Possible theyāve fixed this specific issue though since Iāve learned to not have anything that has media controls open on my laptop.
The cross platform control stuff is probably very hard and usually works though.
I've had a set of Etymotic SR4s for years, I just replace the cable every 1-2 years. I love them to death, they're extremely flat though, so they make a version with bumped bass if that's your thing.
If someone made a cable with a mic on it for them I'd probably buy 10--it's pretty annoying to switch to Apple earbuds for calls, but whatever.
I do wonder if this is in part to Spotify educating people with their very much in your face notifications when you set your player to lossless quality mode. They inform you bluetooth won't pass the signal with enough fidelity and to go wired.
I don't think many people thought their expensive Airpods/Bose/Sony were not capable of handling lossless and may feel left out or missing something.
Isn't aptx lossless an old and very standard thing?
I haven't bought headphones in years, and my current set support it.
Old yes, but hardly standard.
For phones, I think it's just the Sony and Asus and Chinese brands that support it. Pixels and Samsungs generally don't since they use Tensor/Exynos instead of Qualcomm/Snapdragon SoCs, and definitely not Apple.
Story is even more bleak on the headphones side, Sony prefers their own LDAC codec so they support that instead of AptX Lossless, a pattern shared by many Asian headphones manufactuers. Many western brands only support up to AptX HD and AAC because Apple/Samsung devices have the majority marketshare. Qualcomm's own site only shows 12 headphones that support AptX Lossless.
Now my opinion is LDAC is close enough to lossless that it's probably good enough for Sony and most people (the 1411kbps for uncompressed 16/44.1 CD quality generally compresses to under 900kbps which is below the 990kbps max of LDAC). Bose does have a headphone that supports AptX Lossless. It's just the Airpods that are far behind the competition.
The elephant in the room is "chi-fi". There's been a huge growth in small Chinese companies with unusual names making amazingly cheap, yet great-sounding over-ear headphones, IEMs, and earbuds within the past few years, and the vast majority of these are wired.
Iām by no means an audiophile and it had been years since I owned a pair of wired headphones, but I picked up a pair of Linsoul 7HZ x Crinacle Zero:2 (yes that is actually the name) IEMs after seeing some glowing reviews online and I was absolutely blown away by how they sounded despite costing only 240 SEK (around 25 USD). Back in the early 2010s when I was more interested in hi-fi audio you definitely couldnāt get as great sounding IEMs around this price.
Can you recommend some brands with good quality over-ear headphones?
Headphones were a solved problem. I had 20 years ago some high end IEM that i used back in the days on on so called mp3 players - those were pocket sized music players - and since apple released the airpods and bluetooth headphones were the new standard audio quality never recovered to the state we had two decades ago
iPod Shuffle + Shure SE215 was the pinnacle of portable audio. The ritual of maintaining a separate playlist that would actually fit made it intentional. Allowing Spotify to slip into an infinite stream of slop is so easy these days.
The trick is to use Google music. The recommendation algorithm is so bad that your brain rejects the slop it thinks you will like.
I have two wireless sony headphones for handling the battery issue. So yesterday before 5mins to my meeting, I plugged in one and it was out of juice. I plugged in the second one and it was also out of juice. Mind you, I was travelling and hence didn't follow the usual charging cadence I follow.
I charged my wireless headphone for 5 mins and took the call and it went out of juice mid way through the call. I had to run to find a free conference room in the office which was present since it was friday.
I also often connect my wireless headphone through the weekend and not know that it is still connected since friday with my work mac. Wired solves all of this.
Thanks to this article, I just ordered a Apple Earpods USB-C 5 mins ago in Blinkit. It is going to be delivered in another 5-10mins. Good bye wireless. I will use it for work with my Mac and my personal Samsung phone.
Edit after 4 mins: Earpods Delivered!
I went back all the way to tape. Itās surprising how well it still works 30 years after it became obsolete.
Obviously with wired headphones, because tape players donāt do bluetooth.
Will wired speakers make a come back? Stereo separation vs mono pods?
Dear Sony, please start making the MDR-XB450 again. Lovely wired headphones that for some inexplicable reason Sony discontinued a few years ago.
Aye, add to that the XB50 in-ears too. My current pair is ~8 years old.
I got a pair of AirPods Pro, paid for by a past employer, and it's the only Apple product I like. I'd even give some of my own money to Apple if I had to buy another pair.
When I'm wearing wired earbuds, the feeling of getting the cord caught on something and having the earbuds violently yanked from my ears is one of the most annoying things, like a slap in the face.
Plus I like being able to put my phone wherever I want, when I'm listening to podcasts while doing yard work. The phone stays in the house, or on a patio table, not in my pocket where pruning shears or dirt will get to it.
There are various other situations where having wires going to my ears is annoying or impossible.
Many pro wired comments here about quality which can be classed under the category āmost people cannot tell the differenceā. You simply cannot compare the considerably greater convenience of wireless to wired when on the go. Also, any decent wireless over the ear headset allows for wired use when out of battery. Thatās hardly a game changer
Wireless is convenience on the go and when you don't give a shit, like work calls.
Wired is for when you want to listen to music you really like and it's too late to use the speakers.
Not everybody is using their headphones on the go. 99% of my headphone use is at my desk while I work. Wired is more convenient than wireless since it's one less lithium battery to charge.
It's true that humans are not particularly sensitive to audio quality, but they are very sensitive to audio latency. If all you do is listen to buffered audio sources then latency is not important but the moment you need to use your headphones in an input loop then wired is the superior technology as it offers close to zero variance in latency.
You can have low quality, low cost and very portable wired headphones, as well.
You can also go for moderately priced cans and just feel your ears tingling the first time you listen to something through them.
I wonder what percentage of the people driving this trend have either only had AirPods (they make me dizzy, and I think the sound quality is terrible), Beats (even worse) or no-name $20 bluetooth headsets.
I have a nice high-end set of Sennheisers that cost ~ $150, and they're much better than my old wired set (both in-ear, both noise isolating, similar prices).
The bluetooth ones win because they eliminate cable noise. I can actually jog with them. In quiet rooms, they're very comparable, except the bluetooth set has a built in EQ, which works around the fact that iOS / Android still inexplicably do not let you adjust treble and bass.
The bluetooth headset market has been stuck in this weird spot where fashion mostly dictates. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that fashion now dictates wired headsets.
I personally think people who jog with anything more intrusive than earbuds are bonkers.
There's a guy who runs around my neighbourhood with airpods max, I don't understand it, it's a literal brick on your head.
For me AirPods are one of the greatest products Iāve ever owned. I resisted them for years and recited the usual tropes about wired being better. But after being gifted a pair years ago, I realized how wrong I was.
I spend a lot of time at the gym or walking with headphones in and music, podcasts, or audiobooks on. Itās so much better not having any wires when youāre moving. I canāt imagine doing these actives anymore with wired headphones.
Battery life, pairing, charging, audio quality, and other complains are all non issues for me, but Iām also no audiophile. They work incredibly seamlessly inside the Apple ecosystem.
I've got a fairly cheap pair of Soundcores and I use an Android phone. Never really had a problem. Pair them once and they reconnect flawlessly, I only have to charge the battery case like once a month, and the earbuds themselves last more then an entire day. Mine get a lot of use, and I've never had an earbud die on me.
There are a couple of minor annoyances for sure, like the car grabbing my phone when it turns on, but that's not a huge deal. And the annoyance of having a cord dangle around while I'm walking the dog or doing dishes or whatever the hell I'm doing far outweighs it.
All of that said, if I wanted audio quality to sit and actively listen to music, I'd go wired no question. But I don't really care when 95% of my listening is audiobooks and podcasts.
I've never had a pair of headphones with a cable connection that survived more than 2 years. Can't say that about the Airpods Max.
Like, I have opinions about high-end headphones based on how easy the cords are to replace. That shouldn't be the case.
I was a discrete headphone amp guy, just to situate myself in this market. I didn't expect to get good wireless headphones and think "I'm never going back", but that's precisely what happened.
I'm sure that there can be situations where it's better to sacrifice sound quality and reliability for the convenience of wireless but I think the ability to replace cables is a huge advantage and not a pain point at all. The only problem I've ever had was with an old pair from Sony where by the time I needed a new cable they'd stopped selling a replacement cable but I knew I was rolling the dice when I got that pair because the cable wasn't standard.
Even in the extreme case where you're replacing them every other year you could buy a handful of spares right away so you have them on hand when you need them and your headphones will outlast the batteries in your airpods
Wired headphones are also 1/10 of the price of airpods. So they still come out ahead on the cost of ownership front.
I bought a pair of IEMs. A while back, the cable broke, and I was able to repair by just buying a new cable.
Also, I enjoy not having another device to charge. I recently have been wearing a traditional Casio watch more often instead of my smartwatch.
Same here, I can't imagine adding 2 to 3 (earphones + case) batteries to my life, batteries that most likely aren't user replaceable, most likely will be cycled at least once a day and will inevitable die and take the whole device with them in a matter of years.
I love my IEMs but I actually want a Bluetooth version. Heck a dongle that made them act just like AirPod Pros would be my dream gadget.
Fiio has a couple of adapters that work with many IEMs and there are probably others on the market https://www.fiio.com/utws3
Shure makes some for their IEMs. I have an older model which has worked great for several years.
I may have had the same. Wasn't impressed. But I'm rough on my electronics and it lasted less than 6 months.
I'm not rough, but don't handle them with white gloves either. I usually tend to roll them up in a ball in some pocket when not in use.
The model I have, BT2, is "semi-wired", meaning that the Bluetooth and battery are common to the two earbuds, linked by a cable. And, outside the big heavy cables some big heavy headphones have, this one is the one that has held up best ā I'm pretty sure I got it before Covid. They now have a newer model with no wires, which houses the BT and battery in some over-ear clips [0]. I have no experience with these. In any case, I expect other manufacturers to have similar options.
Before this, I would have to change the (old-school) wire on these IEMs seemingly every other year. But at least it was changeable, as opposed to other cheaper IEMs which would require to break out the soldering iron at best, or end up in the trash at worst if they were a glue fest.
[0] https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/accessories/rmce-tw2?va...
I've considered the move to wired not for quality but for the sad state that Bluetooth pairing headphones has become. Theycan't just be headphones anymore; They require their own app and pairing protocol. They want 19 different touch points and permissions to implement a handful of never used features I get people being frustrated at why they can't just do what copper did for the last century.
For me, using Bluetooth headphones with my (Samsung) phone is smooth and trouble-free. The experience is miles better than wired headphones, and I would never go back. Meanwhile, connecting to my TV with Bluetooth is an exercise in pure frustration.
So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.
And it's not just cheap devices. My TV is a fancy LG OLED. For the price I paid it should handle Bluetooth just fine.
It's a real shame. When Bluetooth works, it's awesome, but a lot of people have had their opinions tainted by bad devices.
> So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.
Perhaps, but it kinda seems to me that there must be some inherent limitation of the standard which make it particular hard to create a high-quality experience?
The latency for instance - in my (somewhat limited) experience audio over BT does not sync perfectly with video.
The channels/codecs is/was so limited in bandwidth that until recently (few years back IIRC) headsets couldn't even send and receive decent quality audio at the same time. Even recent headsets like the Shokz Openrun Pro 2 has this limitation. (Which you could argue is an instance of "shitty implementation" since it was released after the availability of necessary tech (LE/LC3))
Yeah, I'm reading these comments and I would have agreed 10 years ago, but I'm regularly using three different pairs of wireless headphones plus a Bluetooth speaker and have literally zero issues. My Bose headphones are usually even paired with two phones.
Yeah, charging is a bit annoying, but the added comfort is worth it to me and I can't tell that the audio quality is any different.
It's super inconsistent across devices and implementations. I've had so many issues with it over the years.
I've had headphones where a slight change in the environment around me while walking would disconnect audio. Or IEMs not syncing properly the L and R channels.
Even in the best of cases using headphones with multiple devices is just terrible. Also syncing audio to picture rarely works as it should.
>So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.
Yep, but this is a problem that is present everywhere. For example, electric cars are supposed to be simpler, because its one moving part. In reality, you get essentially vertical integration of all the components like battery management, motor controllers, infotainment, gauge cluster and the software that connects all of that, and when bugs are present you can't even get into your car.
Wired headphones just work, unlike the bluetooth ones.
An alternative to a wired dongle is a high-quality bluetooth amp, e.g. from Fiio. It's reliable, keeps your phone free from cables, but you can keep using your high quality wired headphones.
That seems a ~~wired~~ weird compromise to me: you get the downsides of Bluetooth (inherent latency, potential codec quality loss, spectrum congestion ā I occasionally experience interference and dropouts in crowded areas) but still have a wire hanging from your head and another battery to keep charged. :/
Except on the go, I donāt see the point for Bluetooth headphones. Due to the built in batteries that are uneconomical to replace they are essentially consumables, even high end ones like AirPods Max. Pairing and (re) connecting is a never ending pain. For less than $200 you can get a set of wired open back headphones that sound so good that unless you are in the audiophile niche they are your forever headphones. Models like Beyer Dynamic DT990 are built to last and very repairable, it just makes sense.
If they want to take them away, they'll have to rip my Sennheiser HD600 from my skull.
Legendary for their neutral, correct and pleasant sound, comfort, effectively forever durability, and being affordable to boot.
I can plug them to current or 40 year old hardware, and they do work. I use them with Topping DX3 Pro+[0] today.
It is no wonder they want us to instead adopt something active, crippled with bluetooth latency and dependent on lossy codecs, with a non-serviceable battery built-in.
0. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...
Backlash is probably wrong. There was some hype around wireless technology, but that always fades eventually. You can see this in other electronics like "smart" home appliances: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/half-of-smart-applia...
It seemed cool, people bought it, and then eventually many realized they didn't care about the fancy feature(s).
Every phone has a Type-C port, so why aren't headphone manufacturers following the trend?
every headphone and phone had a 3.5mm connection, why did phone manufacturers fuck it up?
Are Google one of the last holdouts ?
I've been on cheap Android phones and just moved from Samsung to Motorola and both have headphones sockets.
No, the Pixel dropped the headphone jack ages ago. It's why I don't have a Pixel any more.
It's simple, I can buy some IEMs that sound better, cost less than a third of a barely-even-comparable wireless earbud, and roughly conforms to market standards so I can swap out the cable and tips. And I never have to charge them.
I have a pair of Airpod Pros that I use solely for audiobooks and podcasts when I'm doing chores or shopping, but the audio quality is so garbage that's all they're really good for.
Airpods Pro audio quality "garbage"? That is beyond harsh, and a quick search will find countless reviews extolling their audio quality.
e.g. https://www.soundguys.com/apple-airpods-pro-3-review-close-t...
The problem with earbuds is that to have good quality, you need to create a seal, like IEMs do. Most professionals who use IEMs have them custom molded to their ears.
If you are lucky and have a good ear shape, then airpods sound good. Still not as good as IEM because IEMs have more space for better drivers without needing a battery or bluetooth hardware.
But if you are a person like me who has very hard time with any earbud staying in, then its gonna sound like garbage because you are never going to get a perfect seal.
The measure of audio is what comes out of the speakers not what is written on the web.
My Airpod Pros are the most convenient personal audio device I have ever used. Sound wise they pale in comparison to my Sony MDR-ZX100 which I bought on sale for $9.99 at Best Buy...unfortunately the new model is about $15 regular price and maybe not as good (but I doubt it).
Sure the Airpod Pros sound better than ordinary Airpods or the wired Airbuds, but that's a really low bar for an audio device.
here's hoping that someday headphones without pressure (e.g. active/passive noise cancelling) will make a comeback, too. But then again I think there still exist cheap wired ones without such "advanced" technology. As one woman in the article said best: "'I don't like how this feels' and we're all kind of returning to the last place we were comfortable."
> here's hoping that someday headphones without pressure (e.g. active/passive noise cancelling) will make a comeback, too
What do you mean? There are tons of wired headphones that don't do noise cancelling at multiple price points.
I can still pick up a new pair of headphones that I started using 10 years ago (AudioTechnica m50x if you want the recommendation).
For wireless headphones I've gone to bone conduction and open-ear. Started with some cheap models from Ali-Express to see how I liked it. I did.
Shokz had a black friday deal on Open-Run Pros and those are my goto. Admittedly, they are not as convenient as my Airpods were, but my ears appreciate not being bombarded with noise canceling.
Every headphone that has noise cancelling also gives you the option to turn it off, and also to enable audio pass through.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 at least just allows varying levels of passthrough. You can have noise cancelling or noise cancelling + sound from the outside mike. You cannot have noise-cancelling off for better battery life or to cope with windy conditions
They're awful in several other ways too, which is sad for what should be their flagship model
Yep.
I prefer other technologies over noise cancelling in my ordinary use anyway. And my ears feel healthier. But thatās me, not you.
I avoid noise cancelling as well; I find that it very rapidly gives me a headache. I prefer a nice set of headphones that physically block outside sound.
The drivers or whatever can influence the wireless experience a lot. Apple has the best bluetooth reliability of any manufacturer I've experienced. I can be out in a field next to my house and somehow the half-asleep laptop finds my headphones instantly unless I remember to switch its bluetooth off. On my windows machine sometimes, for seemingly no reason, you will be left standing around waiting and waiting for it to find the device right next to it.
The convenience of being able to get up and walk around the house, or got out with the phone without wires getting caught makes it worthwhile though. On the other hand for stationary peripherals like mice I would never go wireless. I hate that feeling of complete helplessness to the pairing/connection lottery and the time waste of it.
Every blue tooth audio thing I've had sucked... and then stopped working altogether.
My daily headphones are the Google Pixel USB-C earbuds, but they seem to be no longer made. Anyone have good recommendations for similar style USB-C headphones w/mic?
For me it's cost. I used to be able to get those JVC gummy earbuds wired, for nine dollars. Now I have to spend upwards of $20 for Bluetooth. And of course, when the battery can't be recharged anymore, I'm supposed to throw them away. Much prefer the wired headphones. Sometimes Bluetooth makes sense, But economically wired makes more sense.
Tldr: that's a fashion trend. Couldn't care less.
Personally I use wired headphone at home, either open back or closed back depending on the situation and Bluetooth outside when I don't want to be bothered by a cable.
I think it gets the best of both worlds. Couldn't care less if I look 'cheap' because I have Bluetooth headphone.
There's a much simpler explanation. I regularly see boomers with wireless "earpod" type earphones out and about. They're not cool any more.
Fashion is fickle and it's best to not pay any attention to it. Choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes wireless is better, like when running, sometimes wired is better, like doing serious listening in a quiet environment.
I like my EarPods, except that the wires keep tangling up. T for that I want to try those zipper hacks
They have a good mic and fit properly.
AirPods, nope nope nope. I could throw them away after one year and the multi device ādreamā s was a nightmare.
I still have my HD580, but I donāt want to have the big cups on anymore
Because it's a freaking pain to connect them, obviously! In my experience they work well enough once you have, but consider the experience of "plugging them into a different device".
Barely any devices support being paired with more than one central. So you have to tediously disconnect with the first device in some shitty menu (e.g. on Android the UI is not at all clear), then maybe put it into pairing mode (again usually though some terrible UI because manufacturers think pairing is a rare operation) and then finally pair it on the other device.
Absolutely ridiculous. Oh and what's the Bluetooth equivalent of a headphone splitter? Auracast? It's taken decades to get that and basically nothing supports it.
I do use Bluetooth things and I think the sound quality and reliability can be very good (if you're lucky), but the connection process is miles worse than plugging in a wire.
It's fashionable. Some famous people have been seen with visible wires, therefore everyone needs wires.
All these arguments here about technological superiority are quaint but miss the point. People in the wider world don't have the same concerns the people of HN have here, they're following icons.
As soon as they started talking about celebrities and it being a fashion statement they lost me on this being a real resurgence.
For about a month we had videos of people getting in fist fights over fucking Stanley tumblers of all things, those stupid Labubus popped off too, and God knows how many other things come and go in like a month. Unless theirs a sustained long term resurgence in the market, it's probably just another tiktok fad.
There are two tiers of bluetooth devices. There are the Apple and Samsung devices (and Bose and other high-end brands), which just work. Then there are the rest, which are terrible.
I wouldn't lump the high-end audio brands in with Apple.
They often produce models that cost 25% as much and perform much better than the comparable Apple offerings.
I think Apple is in a "fashion tier" that's distinct from "high quality" or "high end".
Wired headphones is the style these days.