I see the point of the "fair" and "repairable" advertising for smartphones that usually have far more proprietary and limited-production parts, but headphones aren't exactly in the same situation. Almost all parts of them are already widely available, so much that you can easily make your own: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32375128
Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
111–120 of 239 posts
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#112No frequency response testing? Mic response testing? Head pressure measurement? Kinda hard to take this seriously as a review when they don't even show anything about performance of the product.
It's a review in a general interest newspaper for the average headphone buyer. Almost no one who buys headphones knows what any of those things are.
I get that but they didn't even compare to other common headphones, I'm not sure how this helps anyone buy them.
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#113No frequency response testing? Mic response testing? Head pressure measurement? Kinda hard to take this seriously as a review when they don't even show anything about performance of the product.
It's a review in a general interest newspaper for the average headphone buyer. Almost no one who buys headphones knows what any of those things are.
You are on a site called Hacker News
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#114One of the problems with headphones is that the cups tend to deteriorate over time - maybe sweat or the oil from the skin or something reacts with it and it starts to peel. After a few years, the cups are no longer available for that model and so you end up having to buy a new one.
Have you looked at 3rd party replacement pads? I've never seen a pair of headphones with removable pads that I couldn't get an aftermarket replacement for-- usually better quality than the factory ones. Big round ones, smaller ovular ones, memory foam, leather velour or whatever finishes... always managed to get something that fit. Just measured and looked for something close. They mostly seem to attach the same way.…
+1 to the Wicked Cushions suggestion. The pads on my Bose 700s split, and the Wicked Cushion replacements were thicker and had better isolation than the OEM pads. They seem to have held up really well over the last 12 months as well.
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's good as a starting point though. It inspires similar ideas to hit the market and gives consumers a taste of sustainability.
Absolutely! I guess I am not the target market. I’ve had the same Bose headphones for four years and other than an easy earpad replacement, nothing has broken. I can’t imagine needing to replace the battery. This seems somewhat like a solution looking for a problem. Probably the price surcharge for these headphones would be better spent on right-to-repair lobbying or even spent at ifixit.
There's nothing more sustainable than keeping the product you already own!
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know what leather is. I’ve no idea what “vegan leather” is. Plastic, some sort of plant material, something else?
You can't charge nearly as much for "plastic" as for "vegan leather" though.
It’s funny how that works. I remember when fake leather was generally thought of as a bad thing, granted at times it could be really plastic like and brittle…. but at some point it clearly became both cheaper and really durable.
I wouldn’t mind if it just said “plastic” or “imitation leather”. It’s not a bad thing to my ears.
I’m remodeling my house and all the flooring I’m looking at looks like wood…. but it is not wood and I like that.
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#117Not buds; disappointed.
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#118> €249 It would be interesting to know if t would be viable to make these for the lower end market…. Or would consumers just replace them anyway?
Owner of a 50€ Bluetooth headphones pair, bought 10 years ago. Had to resolder a connector, and the head strap got cracked while in my backpack but works good as new again after wrapping a single piece of tape around the broken spot ~five years ago. Kinda waiting for something unrepairable to die so I can finally get headphones that can pair with more than one device at a time. New fabric would also be nice, I'd love…
I also have replaced the earpieces on my inexpensive headphones multiple times.
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a review in a general interest newspaper for the average headphone buyer. Almost no one who buys headphones knows what any of those things are.
You are on a site called Hacker News
We're on the site that mocks the guy who suggested a homemade alternative to Dropbox. People here are more product-focused than tech focused, generally.
Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a change then because the WH-1000XM3 microphone is really crap.
The XM5 have 8 microphones, that’s one of the major improvements over previous versions.
NC headphones typically have multiple microphones, the more there are, the better the NC can be. This is because the first part of NC is detecting ambient noise, the second being generating soundwaves to cancel out what's picked up by the mics.
With more mics it's possible to get more accurate NC, especially for directional sounds.
However more mics won't necessarily mean better call quality, they may not even be used at all for voice.
For example my Jabra NC pair has really good microphone quality for calls, this is done by having a dedicated boom microphone, in this case nothing to do with the multiple NC microphones.