191–200 of 496 posts
Nothing signals "don't talk to me" like plainly visible earbuds. I used to wear a pair, with nothing playing, when walking around the city. Worked like a charm + more portable than over-the-ear headphones.
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 has some very significant design flaws. The ground pin is connected last, and while a plug is being inserted or removed the connections get all jumbled up and even shorted together. This causes all sorts of hums, crackles, and pops while inserting or removing a plug, which may be only a minor annoyance for headphone users but can be extremely loud and/or damaging when using large amps & speakers. (It's also very e…
It got chosen because it was compact, it can be repeatedly plugged and unplugged, sockets can be through-hole soldered, and double-ended cables are widely available. There is no obvious alternative with those characteristics, and they outweigh the bad.
I'm always amazed that more people aren't bothered by having to constantly charge wireless headphones. Wired ones never run out of battery.
I have a high end over ear pair for when I'm working. It blocks out the noise and the neighbors. It's on my head pretty much all the time when I'm at home. 16 hours is not unusual. Having the freedom of movement is very nice. For outdoors, I have a cheap set of bluetooth earphones (25 euros). Not the greatest quality but plenty OK for listening podcasts. Surprisingly comfortable and they have a soft plastic handle that wraps around my ears to keep them in place. They supposedly last about 6 hours. And the case allows me to charge them 3 or 4 times or so. They only need to be plugged in once every two weeks or so.
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…
My problem is I lose them. I bought the Bose QuietComforts earlier this year and have lost one or the other a couple of times already. Right now one is sitting in the console of my truck and i can’t find the other one. No clue where it could be and of course the batteries are dead. It would be nice if they all had Tile or similar tech, but if their batteries go dead just sitting there (super annoying thing about the…
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…
> Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use. FYI, that's interference. Wi-fi "randomly" disconnects for a few seconds due to interference just as often, but you don't notice, because 1. the OS hides short disconnects, and 2. most protocols you use are TCP-based, and so use retries. (If you were doing something involving UDP streaming, you'd notice.) Bluetooth audio, on the other hand, is a realtime protocol,…
That’s false. If it happens to you, get better wireless equipment.
Yes, they aren't a novelty anymore, they don't screen from other people effectively, cheap clones are almost identical, too many people use them and the cool factor dropped, yadda yadda yadda. ...or maybe most users after some years realized the true costs of having non replaceable batteries. Making them replaceable on the AirPods would be very easy; and a nice move that would also bring them some more customers incl…
Personally I never had wired headphones last longer than a year before the cable gets damaged. For how much utility I get out of my AirPods, I think replacing them every 3 years is excellent value.
This is what I call value.
I haven’t found comfortable tips for my AirPods Pro. None of the ones in the box fit properly and the foam ones I bought are pretty painful. Despite constantly pushing them back into my ears, I prefer them to wires getting snagged on door knobs and the awful rubbing sound against my coat. I still grab my AirPods over my great old IEMs which sound way better and were only $80.
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…