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Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

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Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#271

Post by saagarjha »

grishka wrote: post #259
bradknowles wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Bluetooth sucks. It has sucked for as long as it has existed, and I don’t see that changing any time soon, if ever. I’m sorry to say it, but welcome to the future of wireless audio.

Being a software developer, I keep seeing bluetooth audio as a Rube Goldberg machine. It's using a battery that you have to keep charged, a lot of software, multiple CPUs, lossy codecs, forward error correction, and an entire stack of mind-bogglingly complex protocols (that no one has ever implemented 100% correctly) that run over an inherently unreliable medium so what ? So you don't have to untangle the wire? It ne…

Wait until you see how Wi-Fi and cellular work.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#272

Post by y4mi »

dagmx wrote: post #125
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #94

Wireless headphones suck. I have a good pair (WF-1000XM3) because my phone doesn't have an audio jack and they are always a pain. They connect to the wrong device frequently, the battery life is barely a few hours and the sound quality is ok. Always have trouble with voice quality on calls too. Often only one headphone will turn on but not the other. They are supposedly easier to carry because no cords, but they are…

I had the same Sony's. Pairing and reliability was a nightmare. I switched to AirPods (Pros and Max) and a lot of my issues dissapeared. Honestly it's a shame because the audio quality on the XM3 was better than the Airpod Pro but the software is just not there. The AirPods aren't perfect either of course, but it's a night and day difference between the reliability of them vs the Sony. I found the Sony was extra bad…

i still use my Sony 1000XM (the first gen) and have to say they're by far the most reliable headphones i've used on any android device. hardly useable on anything else though. Pairing is always a disaster on windows/linux and iOS (ipad).

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#273

Post by lagmos »

alleskleber wrote: post #247
atoav wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who buys headphones without replaceable cable?

Wired in-ear headphones are difficult to get with detachable cables. The only ones I know about are meant as in-ear monitors for musicians performing live.

That really isn't true anymore. Chi-fi iems changed the iem market pretty massively and you can get them with detachable cables for less than $20 these days.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#274

Post by pawelk »

Eelongate wrote: post #39
lmm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to mispolarise, not earthed, not safe when partially inserted.

> Easy to mispolarise I've never given polarization any thought and never had any problems, so I don't buy this being an actually a problem in practice. > not earthed NEMA-1 aren't earthed, but NEMA-1 sockets have been forbidden since the 60s, so that fails the "unchanged" part of coldtea's assertion. NEMA-1 plugs may still be used on Class II double insulated appliances, which is fine. And NEMA-5 does have a ground.…

> I've never given polarization any thought and never had any problems, so I don't buy this being an actually a problem in practice.

In my experience polarization has only became relevant once: when mounting a dedicated socket for a gas furnace. For some reason these don't like the live and neutral being reversed and go into an error mode when that happens.

Other than that, most wall sockets in my house are dual, which means polarization in the top socket is reverse of that at the bottom and it has never caused any issues.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#275

Post by darrenf »

dagmx wrote: post #125
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #94

Wireless headphones suck. I have a good pair (WF-1000XM3) because my phone doesn't have an audio jack and they are always a pain. They connect to the wrong device frequently, the battery life is barely a few hours and the sound quality is ok. Always have trouble with voice quality on calls too. Often only one headphone will turn on but not the other. They are supposedly easier to carry because no cords, but they are…

I had the same Sony's. Pairing and reliability was a nightmare. I switched to AirPods (Pros and Max) and a lot of my issues dissapeared. Honestly it's a shame because the audio quality on the XM3 was better than the Airpod Pro but the software is just not there. The AirPods aren't perfect either of course, but it's a night and day difference between the reliability of them vs the Sony. I found the Sony was extra bad…

I had the WF-1000XM2s and my experience was pretty similar. In particular when I used to travel into London for work, they would basically stop working when I entered a busy railway station at rush hour. But for me at least, upgrading to the XM3 solved everything. Had them for almost 18 months now and battery life is still great.

The one thing that really does piss me off about the XM3 is that the buttons are too sensitive - if I'm wearing a hood, the slightest brush against the headphones acts like a push of the button. I have to remember on rainy/windy days to turn the buttons off completely.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#276

Post by mrjin »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #269
makecheck wrote: post #3

I have never really gotten used to wireless buds, and still find myself reaching for wires half the time: - Wireless buds don’t connect 100% reliably; sometimes I get one and not the other, or neither. Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use. - Sometimes the sound glitches out randomly, which is so irritating that I don’t care how good the sound supposedly is the rest of the time. - Gestures and voice are…

if you have more than one device you want to use your high quality headphones on it is a hassle because the headphones are always connecting to the wrong one.

That's exactly the problem I had. Eventually have to connect to one device only. And I just realized now I mainly use wired ones and sometimes even use the wireless ones wired...

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#277

Post by andrewaylett »

throaway46546 wrote: post #248
fho wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a white happy owner of the Nokia BH-503 on-ear BT headphones. Sadly they just recently broke, I had them for like 10 years and. My point is, that they just didn't have any of the problems you mention above (with the exception of random sampling frequency changes that changed pitch minimally, but noticable). Sound quality was ok, I think it was one of the first A2DP headsets. Ok, for what it was mind you, my goo…

>I was a white happy owner Is this some idiom I am not familiar with?

I suspect a typo for "quite"?

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#278

Post by valdiorn »

montag wrote: post #243
jrm4 wrote: post #17

The 1/8th inch RCA stereo jack is the best interface ever created. The fact that it's essentially unchanged from when this 44 year old used it in middle school is pretty good proof.

It's even been adopted as a MIDI jack in smaller devices like Korg Volcas. Only problem is, each manufacturer has chosen their own tip-ring-sleeve pinout...

it's been standardised now in the spec. Type-A is the way to go.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#279

Post by grishka »

saagarjha wrote: post #271
grishka wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a software developer, I keep seeing bluetooth audio as a Rube Goldberg machine. It's using a battery that you have to keep charged, a lot of software, multiple CPUs, lossy codecs, forward error correction, and an entire stack of mind-bogglingly complex protocols (that no one has ever implemented 100% correctly) that run over an inherently unreliable medium so what ? So you don't have to untangle the wire? It ne…

Wait until you see how Wi-Fi and cellular work.

I know how Wi-Fi works, and how it sometimes doesn't, and this is why I'm using ethernet whenever possible. Cellular operates in a much more controlled environment with more stringent certification, it's much more reliable for me than anything 2.4 GHz, but it does still get frustrating at times. The lack of requirement of a low delay also helps both wifi and cellular I guess.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#280

Post by out_of_protocol »

B-Con wrote: post #256

Do people dislike wireless or do they dislike Bluetooth? Because Bluetooth sucks. It's a shame it's the industry standard. Bluetooth support is still spotty on Linux, which to me is continued evidence that the stack is complicated and bug-ridden. Even for my high-end BT devices, there are still lots of problems. In addition to the problems listed elsewhere in this thread, I particularly have problems with: * Easy, re…

* BT sucks

* BT audio codecs sucks. Why cant everyone agree on e.g .opus, gotta be enough for everyone

* BT audio hardware/software implementation sucks

* BT audio hardware/software implementation totally inconsistent across vendors

* OS support is not really great, system mixer adds some mud to the mix

* Headphone's DAC modules sucks, even $400+ ones - tried some Sony's, same headphones via BT and wire, and wired connection felt so much more alive, despite being connected to crappy builtin phone jack.

* BT headphones much much more expensive while providing much much lower audio quality.

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