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CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

consequence.net

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Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#201

Post by 999900000999 »

Kirby64 wrote: post #185
999900000999 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine. I don't feel like having to charge two devices. On long international flights a traditional headphone jack beats Bluetooth every time. Bluetooth headphones last as long as their batteries do. Wired headphones, particularly ones with replaceable cords, last forever. I'm not sure why your being argumentive here, it's a known fact that Bluetooth has to compress everything down and sacrifices quality to do so.

> On long international flights a traditional headphone jack beats Bluetooth every time. Current gen over ear ANC headphones have battery life in excess of any international flight. Most in excess of a round trip, even. True wireless ones don’t, but that’s not typically what you use on a plane. If you’re using the in flight infotainment, you’re corded anyways… so it’s a bit of a moot point. I can’t possibly imagine f…

ANC gives me headaches.

You know the neat thing about phones with an audio jack, you can use Bluetooth or wired headphones.

Apple figured out they could print money by selling AirPods and now every phone brand has some crappy Bluetooth headphones they want to sell.

Thus most phones don’t have jacks anymore. I don’t see any advantage to the end consumer.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#202

Post by Kirby64 »

999900000999 wrote: post #201
Kirby64 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On long international flights a traditional headphone jack beats Bluetooth every time. Current gen over ear ANC headphones have battery life in excess of any international flight. Most in excess of a round trip, even. True wireless ones don’t, but that’s not typically what you use on a plane. If you’re using the in flight infotainment, you’re corded anyways… so it’s a bit of a moot point. I can’t possibly imagine f…

ANC gives me headaches. You know the neat thing about phones with an audio jack, you can use Bluetooth or wired headphones. Apple figured out they could print money by selling AirPods and now every phone brand has some crappy Bluetooth headphones they want to sell. Thus most phones don’t have jacks anymore. I don’t see any advantage to the end consumer.

> ANC gives me headaches.

Sorry that occurs with you. I know some people are much more sensitive to it than others. Also, lower quality or older ANC products have a much stronger “head pressure” effect which is definitely undesirable. Modern high end stuff from Apple, Sony, or Bose basically have all eliminated that effect in my experience.

I’m not sure what your vendetta here is against phones without jacks. There’s so, so, so many decent USB to 3.5mm jacks that are nearly free these days. Same with ones that also offer pass through charging.

The fact is today Bluetooth headphones are 99% of the market for phone users, and for the rest of folks the dongle is a perfectly suitable solution. In fact, dongles are a way to offer superior performance to most phone 3.5mm jacks. If you really care about the audio performance of your headphones, most phones offered mediocre or even outright bad audio quality out of their headphone jacks.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#203

Post by 999900000999 »

Kirby64 wrote: post #202
999900000999 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ANC gives me headaches. You know the neat thing about phones with an audio jack, you can use Bluetooth or wired headphones. Apple figured out they could print money by selling AirPods and now every phone brand has some crappy Bluetooth headphones they want to sell. Thus most phones don’t have jacks anymore. I don’t see any advantage to the end consumer.

> ANC gives me headaches. Sorry that occurs with you. I know some people are much more sensitive to it than others. Also, lower quality or older ANC products have a much stronger “head pressure” effect which is definitely undesirable. Modern high end stuff from Apple, Sony, or Bose basically have all eliminated that effect in my experience. I’m not sure what your vendetta here is against phones without jacks. There’s…

>I’m not sure what your vendetta here is against phones without jacks.

There's literally no benefit to the end user.

Dongles are a great way to put stress on a single point of failure. If your USB c port stops working your phone can't be charged anymore and is useless.

I have more Bluetooth earbuds then I can count. At 30$ a pair they almost always go bad within 6 months. My wired headphones work for years.

It's not like my opinion matters that much. Literally the only flagship phone with a jack is a 1300$ Sony Xperia.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#204

Post by Kirby64 »

999900000999 wrote: post #203
Kirby64 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ANC gives me headaches. Sorry that occurs with you. I know some people are much more sensitive to it than others. Also, lower quality or older ANC products have a much stronger “head pressure” effect which is definitely undesirable. Modern high end stuff from Apple, Sony, or Bose basically have all eliminated that effect in my experience. I’m not sure what your vendetta here is against phones without jacks. There’s…

>I’m not sure what your vendetta here is against phones without jacks. There's literally no benefit to the end user. Dongles are a great way to put stress on a single point of failure. If your USB c port stops working your phone can't be charged anymore and is useless. I have more Bluetooth earbuds then I can count. At 30$ a pair they almost always go bad within 6 months. My wired headphones work for years. It's not…

> There's literally no benefit to the end user.

The benefit to the end user is lower cost, fewer parts that can break, more area for other components, and potentially improved form factors from not having to have a 3.5mm cutout. Maybe all of those don’t immediately translate to tangible benefits from consumers, but there’s quite a few phone form factors that have existed that would not be possible with 3.5mm jacks.

> If your USB c port stops working your phone can't be charged anymore and is useless.

Pretty much all phones have wireless charging in some form now. That’s your backup, or potentially primary if you’re in the wireless charging ecosystem. Also, most phones have a method of repairing/replacing the USB-C port. Not convenient of course, but this is no different than damaging a phone from yanking the charging cable or whatever.

> I have more Bluetooth earbuds then I can count. At 30$ a pair they almost always go bad within 6 months. My wired headphones work for years.

Then… don’t buy cheap products? I’ve never had a battery go bad in over ear Bluetooth headphones, and even if they did I’m pretty confident a replacement set of batteries would be widely available. I’ve replaced parts on extremely old Bose headphones without an issue.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#205

Post by dylan604 »

maccard wrote: post #200
dylan604 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've not seen a case where shipping was more expensive than vinyl but; Maybe you have the fortune of being on the same continent the item is being shipped. Your use of pounds is a big clue there. Shipping it across the pond is routinely doubling the price of the album plus taxes on top of that

Ah - shipping pretty much anything transatlantic is expensive, doubly so if you want it to actually survive. It’s never going to be worth shopping a $40 item from the US to the UK unless it’s tiny.

> It’s never going to be worth shopping a $40 item from the US to the UK unless it’s tiny.

That's bold. Who are you to say what is worth something to someone you don't know. I've already stated that I have done this, but it is a limiting factor on how often I do.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#206

Post by justsomehnguy »

CalRobert wrote: post #168
21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone else remember the superb manuals that used to come with games? The starcrat and warcraft manuals. Drawings and lore. Diablo. Those old games came with books.

TIE Fighter even had a novella that worked in-came commands in to the story. I recall SimEarth having a multi-hundred page spiral-bound manual (though my memory is hazy) I pored over them obsessively.

https://archive.org/search?query=SimEarth+manual&tab=all

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#207

Post by 999900000999 »

Kirby64 wrote: post #204
999900000999 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I’m not sure what your vendetta here is against phones without jacks. There's literally no benefit to the end user. Dongles are a great way to put stress on a single point of failure. If your USB c port stops working your phone can't be charged anymore and is useless. I have more Bluetooth earbuds then I can count. At 30$ a pair they almost always go bad within 6 months. My wired headphones work for years. It's not…

> There's literally no benefit to the end user. The benefit to the end user is lower cost, fewer parts that can break, more area for other components, and potentially improved form factors from not having to have a 3.5mm cutout. Maybe all of those don’t immediately translate to tangible benefits from consumers, but there’s quite a few phone form factors that have existed that would not be possible with 3.5mm jacks. >…

If you don't see the connection between a phone brand removing the 3.5mm jack and selling overpriced branded Bluetooth headphones I don't see a point in continuing this conversation.

As I started this thread Nothing doesn't include a jack on their phones because they want to sell you a 300$ pair of Bluetooth headphones that I can guarantee are inferior to my 70$ Fiio headphones.

You'd have a point if *every* single phone oem wasn't trying to sell Bluetooth headphones.

>and even if they did I’m pretty confident a replacement set of batteries would be widely available.

Airpods , which are above and beyond the most popular Bluetooth buds don't have user replaceable batteries. You have to ask Apple to do so at 50$.

Apple did this as an outrageously anti consumer move. And they've made billions of airpods in doing so. Then they brought Beats which sound worse than 30$ sennheiser HD201s.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#208

Post by hazbot »

krogenx wrote: post #151
21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone else remember the superb manuals that used to come with games? The starcrat and warcraft manuals. Drawings and lore. Diablo. Those old games came with books.

I remember fondly spending countless hours looking through the Icewind Dale manual. Unfortunately, I purchased Baldur’s Gate 1/2 many years later with no manual. I’m sure it had an awesome manual as well.

Can confirm the Baldur's Gate 2 manual was an endlessly fascinating tome.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#209

Post by Kirby64 »

999900000999 wrote: post #207
Kirby64 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's literally no benefit to the end user. The benefit to the end user is lower cost, fewer parts that can break, more area for other components, and potentially improved form factors from not having to have a 3.5mm cutout. Maybe all of those don’t immediately translate to tangible benefits from consumers, but there’s quite a few phone form factors that have existed that would not be possible with 3.5mm jacks. >…

If you don't see the connection between a phone brand removing the 3.5mm jack and selling overpriced branded Bluetooth headphones I don't see a point in continuing this conversation. As I started this thread Nothing doesn't include a jack on their phones because they want to sell you a 300$ pair of Bluetooth headphones that I can guarantee are inferior to my 70$ Fiio headphones. You'd have a point if *every* single p…

> As I started this thread Nothing doesn't include a jack on their phones because they want to sell you a 300$ pair of Bluetooth headphones that I can guarantee are inferior to my 70$ Fiio headphones.

Nobody is forcing you to buy their most expensive headphones. Also, the cheapest Bluetooth earbuds that Nothing offers are literally $25. I don’t get your point here. They’re offering a range of competitive headphones and you’re free to choose other brands. There’s also nothing forcing you to buy the same brand of headphones or earbuds.

> Airpods , which are above and beyond the most popular Bluetooth buds don't have user replaceable batteries. You have to ask Apple to do so at 50$.

I said over ear headphones. Pretty much all of those have user serviceable (without destroying the device) batteries. Even the AirPods Max you can do it.

And for true wireless earbuds, form factor makes that difficult. Nonetheless, there exist earbuds that do actually have user serviceable batteries. I’ve personally replaced a pair of batteries in Sony WF-1000XM3s. At a cost of $10… hardly a lot for the original price of these things.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#210

Post by edbaskerville »

herrh wrote: post #107

In order to make my kids (2 and 4) be able to play music on their own without having to use a smart device or screen i bought an old boombox for like 10 dollars a couple of years ago. We buy a lot of records, though exclusively in goodwill-like stores, and they love it. They have a lot of audiobooks for kids but also cd:s with music. A favourite right now is Aquas debut album Aquarium (the one with Barbie Girl) I thi…

Exact same story here. Same age kids (well, one just turned 5). I wonder how many CDs are being sold just because of parents trying to protect their kids from device addiction.
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