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Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

theguardian.com

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Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#191

Post by LegitShady »

Aachen wrote: post #163
Uvix wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noise cancelling only really works for constant sounds (like airplane engines), not for background music/chatter.

Why is that btw? When I first heard of noise cancelling a few years ago, I figured electrons travel faster than sound waves (by a few orders of magnitude), so they'd just have a mic on the outside and speakers on the inside, amplifier in between and connect plus and minus the wrong way around to create an inverse signal. No chips with delay needed, just an analog signal going directly from mic to speaker. Shouldn't t…

the sound travels through the air, hits the microphone, gets transmitted to a cpu that creates an inverse signal, and is then transmitted to your ears. No matter what the cancellation signal is always later than received sound. The received sound arrives first. noises that don't change much have the most similarity between the sound from a couple milliseconds ago to the sound now, and so are most effective.

But I will say my sony wf-1000xm3 do seem to do a pretty decent job muffling most noises.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#192

Post by gnicholas »

Saris wrote: post #103

No 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.

Even if they didn't supply numbers, it would have been nice if they'd compared them against different competitors, instead of just saying they're not as good as the best in the business from Sony/Bose.

Those headphones cost a bit more, and not everyone springs for the "best in the business" models anyway. Are these comparable with an older model? How do they fare against the AirPods Max or top-of-the-line Beats? More data points would have made this article much more useful.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#193

Post by recursive »

jlg23 wrote: post #146
gizmo wrote: post #123

The "sustainable" and "environment friendly" choice for headphones are wired headphones that are built like a brick. A good pair will last basically forever. Of course that isn't the market these headphones are in, but that's also the problem. New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won't get them. Even if these headphones are great (which I doubt) they're still destined for the garbage heap.…

> New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won't get them. > Wireless headphones last a couple of years, where wired headphones last decades. Those wired headphones that last decades also won't get any advances made during their lifetime...

I've had a pair of Sennheiser HD280s for at least a decade. Honestly, they don't need advances. They still work perfectly. The foam wore off the band, but I replaced it. For my application, batteries and bluetooth would cause a lot more problems than they solve. For my use case, they're basically perfect.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#194

Post by recursive »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #176
gizmo wrote: post #123

The "sustainable" and "environment friendly" choice for headphones are wired headphones that are built like a brick. A good pair will last basically forever. Of course that isn't the market these headphones are in, but that's also the problem. New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won't get them. Even if these headphones are great (which I doubt) they're still destined for the garbage heap.…

My phone doesn’t have a port for your 20 year old headphones

Mine does because I considered that when I bought it.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#195

Post by KerrAvon »

FieryTransition wrote: post #160
scns wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like 5 pin DIN connectors (MIDI) but different. If you take a lot at old electronics you will see things for the first time.

Wouldn't that be too big? A typical failure point of all my wired headphones/buds has been the connector or whatever the connector plugs into. A bigger connector creates more leverage, which in turn creates more force, which has been a problem. So for mobile usage, wireless audio seems to just eliminate a whole range of problems and failure points, so it's not all good to use physical connectors?

Connectors break because the materials are cheap, not the force per se. Size doesn’t really matter.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#196

Post by lmm »

tylerritchie wrote: post #183
FeistySkink wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairphone 4 doesn't have a 3.5 mm jack beacuse reasons. So much for sustainability.

what's the issue here? if you buy large headphones from the same company you buy the your phone from, in a future where fairphone no longer exists (which playing the odds, is likely) at some point your also no-longer-supported phone (which functionally becomes slower every year because mobile application hardware requirements appear to double every year) might advance to support new fancy bluetooth things your headph…

If the headphones are meant to be used with the phone, then the idea that the headphones are future-proofed because they have a 3.5mm jack is pretty meaningless if you can't connect them to the phone with that jack.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#197

Post by Dwedit »

gizmo wrote: post #123

The "sustainable" and "environment friendly" choice for headphones are wired headphones that are built like a brick. A good pair will last basically forever. Of course that isn't the market these headphones are in, but that's also the problem. New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won't get them. Even if these headphones are great (which I doubt) they're still destined for the garbage heap.…

Ancient outdated bluetooth standards will still play the sound.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#198

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

gizmo wrote: post #123

The "sustainable" and "environment friendly" choice for headphones are wired headphones that are built like a brick. A good pair will last basically forever. Of course that isn't the market these headphones are in, but that's also the problem. New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won't get them. Even if these headphones are great (which I doubt) they're still destined for the garbage heap.…

All true. I buy some of the cheapest Bluetooth headphones available. After all, what's the selling point of Bluetooth. Audio quality. Protocol quality. No, it's convenience. That's it.

Encouraging to see some auto manufacturers calling out touchscreens. The marketing for so-called "tech" is some of the worst I have ever seen. The "technology" is half-baked.

There's technology and then there's just data collection and surveillance, aka "tech". The later needs non-stop hype. No wonder it's goal is planned obsolescence. The stuff is not high quality. Never was and never will be.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#199

Post by hammyhavoc »

lmm wrote: post #196
tylerritchie wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's the issue here? if you buy large headphones from the same company you buy the your phone from, in a future where fairphone no longer exists (which playing the odds, is likely) at some point your also no-longer-supported phone (which functionally becomes slower every year because mobile application hardware requirements appear to double every year) might advance to support new fancy bluetooth things your headph…

If the headphones are meant to be used with the phone, then the idea that the headphones are future-proofed because they have a 3.5mm jack is pretty meaningless if you can't connect them to the phone with that jack.

In 2023, most people who give two shits about running wired headphones are using a USB DAC, even if their phone has a 3.5mm socket as the onboard AD/DA chipset is usually mediocre and struggles to drive most high-end cans.

Re: Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix

#200

Post by Gigachad »

FeistySkink wrote: post #164
fgeiger wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at Fairphone but am not at all involved with the headphones. Still, I know that this is an issue that we thought about and address. Headphones should keep working even if the manufacturer goes bust and stops providing software support. And even if your battery dies and spare parts are unavailable. That is precisely the reason why we also sell a cable with a 3.5mm jack for these cans. That way, this product is…

Fairphone 4 doesn't have a 3.5 mm jack beacuse reasons. So much for sustainability.

Generic usb-c to 3.5mm adapter for a few dollars, stick it on the end of the cable and leave it there. Problem solved.
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