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Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

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Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#381

Post by batperson »

trasz wrote: post #206
japanuspus wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has actually changed over the last 10 years: today all but the cheapest on/over ear headphones will come with replaceable cables (2.5mm jack in headphone end). Background: I have a collection of even older "goodish" headphones which I have kept alive with solder over the years. My teenage son recently started buying similar headphones, and they all have replaceable cables. This was me as well until my Yes, this…

Definitely not all - DT770 still don’t. And their cables are terrible.

You vote with your money. I went through a ton of "gamer" headphones in my teens, all of them meeting their doom because of the crappy cables. Then spent a bit more on ones with a replaceable cable that those lasted until the plastic broke. Then I spent decent money on some sennheisers and they've been going strong for like 6 years with so signs of slowing down, too bad they sold off their consumer product division not that long ago.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#382

Post by lobocinza »

makecheck wrote: post #3

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…

> They fall out of my ears, no matter how “snug” they seem. This makes me only want to use them in places where I won’t lose them, e.g. at home but not out for a walk.

In this case wired is just another mode of failure as they will get loose if the cable is tensioned. If you are afraid of losing them you can use one with a wire between the buds (non-TWS).

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#383

Post by soneca »

dugditches wrote: post #330
soneca wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never had a wired in-ear earphone that lasted more than 2 years. My guess is 90% didn’t pass the one year mark. I use it while commuting, going to the supermarket, cleaning the house, etc. Any recommendation of a wired in-ear earphone that could last a decade?

I find it's always the cables that go. Thus buying a set with a removable cable sent me from 6 months to 5 years with a pair of Shure se215's. There's many more options today, as (removable)wired IEM's seem to be abit of a growing niche.

Great tip! It is hard to find removable wired IEM around here, but just found a local e-commerce representative for Shure so just bought exactly a Shire SE 215!

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#384

Post by jmartrican »

nemof wrote: post #245
derefr wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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,…

i've destroyed so many wired headphones by forgetting i'm wearing them and trying to take off my bag and tearing them out of my ears forcefully. it got to the point where i ended up using wired headphones like a consumable. switching over to wireless has been bliss just for this simple reason. my biggest gripe with wireless so far, and this might be specific to galaxy buds+ is that their batteries suck after a years…

It boggles me how angry I get when that happens to me with earbuds. It's so jarring. You feel like u been attacked by the earbuds.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#385

Post by tomiplaz »

To each their own, but I've been enjoying my bluetooth ear buds since the day I got them. Not having to deal with wires has been as great as I imagined. Battery life of 4 hours is more than enough for daily usage when walking between places, and having to charge them and the case is a great trade-off, IMO. I've had mine for more than two years now. I sometimes even shower with them, if I come home and want to continue listening. They're still as good as new.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#386

Post by _fat_santa »

ksec wrote: post #298

I am surprised the vast majority of the 280 comments seems to be about bluetooth connection, fitting, sound quality and not a mention about TCO ( Total Cost of Ownership ). May be I am cheap, but I cant get myself to buy another Wireless Earphone again with non -replaceable battery. They are basically consumables. And Apple expect you to buy a new pair every 1-2 years. And even if you dont use it much the battery wil…

Eh. Wired headphones in theory should have a longer lifespan and a lower TCO than wired headphones, but that's not the experience I've had. The weakest link in headphones is the cord, back when I was in High School I would buy Skullcandy headphones (those $10 ones from TJMaxx or Marshalls) in bulk, because the average lifespan of a pair was less than a month before the cord broke.

Had I just bought wired headphone every month for $10. At the end of 2 years I would have spent $240, which is right around the price of Airpods Pro's.

I will say though the one killer feature for me in Airpods is the handoff functionality. I'm an iOS developer so I work on a Mac all day long. It's so nice to be able to switch off from one Macbook for a meeting to my iPhone with little to no effort.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#387

Post by Poiesis »

Unfortunately I didn't see this on HN until fairly late, but I'd love to hear any recommendations for Lightning connector to audio jack adapters.

We've gone through so many here (Apple, Belkin, no-name...) and they just seem to break fairly easily. Wish there were a case solution but those seem to have fizzled out over time (presumably no demand).

Anyone know of a good adapter that survives daily use?

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#388

Post by _fat_santa »

dugditches wrote: post #330
soneca wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never had a wired in-ear earphone that lasted more than 2 years. My guess is 90% didn’t pass the one year mark. I use it while commuting, going to the supermarket, cleaning the house, etc. Any recommendation of a wired in-ear earphone that could last a decade?

I find it's always the cables that go. Thus buying a set with a removable cable sent me from 6 months to 5 years with a pair of Shure se215's. There's many more options today, as (removable)wired IEM's seem to be abit of a growing niche.

Back in HS I would go through Skullcandy headphones like candy, I would find a place that had them on sale and buy 5-10 pairs at once. Average lifespan with a high school kid taking care of them was like 2-4 weeks.

Many of my friends had their parents get them really nice headphones (Bose, Beats by Dre, etc), I always stuck to the cheap ones because I never had to think about taking care of them. They all broke, I'd toss them out and open up a new pair.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#389

Post by RHSeeger »

atoav wrote: post #170
makecheck wrote: post #3

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…

As someone who worked as a freelance audio engineer I have certain pairs of (chorded) headphones that I just want to use to hear my mixes (or other music) on. I know how they sound and what they do to sounds. Every in-ear solution I had in my ears up to now doesn't even get close in terms of "resolution" (this is not a technical term but it is true, that some monitoring solutions will let you hear more of the recordi…

I can't recommend Sennheiser headphones enough. They are, by a wide margin, the most comfortable headphones I've been able to find; I can wear them for 5+ hours without any problem (whereas most headphones get uncomfortable within an hour, and earbuds just start out being uncomfortable for me).
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