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Wired headphone sales are exploding

bbc.com

441–450 of 752 posts

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#441
post #83

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 a…

> Wired cans don't need to pair, don't glitch out

Cables can wear out. You can get a wire break.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#442
I never understood the appeal of AirPods. To me, it just seemed like an inferior product at a much higher price. You now have to worry about charging them (not to mention charging the case), you have three things that are easy to lose vs one that is hard to lose, and finally, to my taste, they are somehow gross to look at - like hearing aids from the 1950s. The product just seems like a manifestation of complexity for the sake of complexity.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#443
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And latency!! Anything that needs to be real time is impossible without wired headphones. Even the lowest latency wireless is noticeable.

I’ve been using AirPods on audio and video calls for many years now, and I notice no latency. Same with my bluetooth mouse.

Try using them to play a twitchy game and you'll notice.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#444
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- they last forever . I still have sennheiser hd380 pro cans from 25 years ago that sound great. - cannot overstate lack of lag and simplicity. You plug in and it works, perfectly, every time, forever. - easily switch devices. I use my headphone on my phone, tablet, laptop, Synthesizer, Groovebox etc without a blink. And my phone never stops playing music and connects to our car my wife just started the way bluetooth…

I’ve used many pairs of wired headphones over the years, cheap and expensive, and never had ones with a cable that didn’t eventually fail, unless they mostly stay plugged into a single device. The article prominently highlights mobile usage, in which case wireless headphones easily win on longevity.

For me it was worse, the headphone port on my phones always eventually failed. Maybe these rich people replace phones too quickly to experience that.

I use wired at home, where I'm not cycling the connection very much.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#446

I never understood the appeal of AirPods. To me, it just seemed like an inferior product at a much higher price. You now have to worry about charging them (not to mention charging the case), you have three things that are easy to lose vs one that is hard to lose, and finally, to my taste, they are somehow gross to look at - like hearing aids from the 1950s. The product just seems like a manifestation of complexity fo…

Their size is nice. You can easily take them wherever you go without questioning if you need them. It's not all bad.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- they last forever . I still have sennheiser hd380 pro cans from 25 years ago that sound great. - cannot overstate lack of lag and simplicity. You plug in and it works, perfectly, every time, forever. - easily switch devices. I use my headphone on my phone, tablet, laptop, Synthesizer, Groovebox etc without a blink. And my phone never stops playing music and connects to our car my wife just started the way bluetooth…

They also lack any and all useful features. Even just the ability to tap for pause is critical to my daily life. I just wonder if wired fans just never skip forward a song, or adjust the volume. Or even use active noise canceling.

> I just wonder if wired fans just never skip forward a song, or adjust the volume.

This has been a thing in wired headphones since at least 2007 lol

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#448

Both wired and wireless headphones of all types fail for me between 10-13 months. Something breaks no matter the price or brand. The only wireless headphones worth the hassle of using Bluetooth (which never connects on the first try, disconnects randomly all the time, and is generally far too unreliable for daily use) are shockz bone conducting. If shockz made a wired version I’d only buy those

This is a you thing. I had the same pair of Sony wireless headphones for years and I only replaced them because the ear cups started disintegrating. Their replacements (also Sony) have already lasted me a couple of years with no issues. I also have absolutely no problems with Bluetooth either, the headphones are paired with maybe 6 devices across iOS and Linux and they never fail to connect.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, vinyl records make the unit of music an album , and I like it in situations where the artist has created "an album" rather than "a collection of ten-ish tracks". I listen to most of my music on phones or computers and when I do, I like to pick out a track at a time or put together a playlist or just shuffle the whole damn thing. When I purchase or put on a record, it's because I think the album is…

> In a similar vein, vinyl records make the unit of music an album, and I like it in situations where the artist has created "an album" rather than "a collection of ten-ish tracks". I don't see how this is different between a record and a CD.

The killer feature of CD players is shuffling and skipping tracks.

Heck, it used to be all the rage to get a three or five CD changer and shuffle the whole thing, comfortable unpredictability, forty or fifty songs you like but never knowing which is next.

You could likewise just listen to an album on your phone, in order, but it's too easy to let your distraction kick in and switch it halfway through.

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