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Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

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Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#471

Post by tinus_hn »

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…

If you consider AirPods to be environmentally safe to recycle, which is not unreasonable given that Apple will take them back and promises to recycle the parts, the only downside to a disposable device like this is cost. Two years of using AirPods means you pay about $0,25 a day of use.

Most users use them every day and are very happy with them. I think it is pretty reasonable to pay that kind of money for being happy.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#472

Post by ubermonkey »

dangerface wrote: post #469
ubermonkey wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a persistent problem with said issue WOULD definitely be grounds for abandoning Bluetooth headphones. However. What I'm saying is that this is not a problem for me with the Apple headphones I use (Airpods Pro and Max), which is what I'm using for most of my listening (owing to convenience, I've almost completely stopped using wired headphones). I do occasionally experience dropouts with the AfterShox I use for s…

If we took your worst performing wifi device to an empty field in the middle of no where it would work perfectly. In comparison to my office in the city with walls that are nearly three feet thick with no cavity made of stone and rubble, the building is nearly 200 years old there are electrical conduits to all the hallogen office lights and two electrical conduits circle the room, theres old telephone equipment, serv…

>If you bought three brands of lotto ticket each with the same payout spec but on paid out while the others did not would you think that the winning brand of lotto ticket had better odds? or would you think that you just got lucky that time?

That's a poor comparison, because there's no difference between lotto tickets and there IS a demonstrable difference in Bluetooth implementations and hardware.

It does sound like you've created a high-interference environment, though.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#473

Post by Vrondi »

derefr wrote: post #181
nayaketo wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones. This used to bug me a lot but I've found an easy solution. Just route the wire under your t-shirt or shirt or jacket. When I'm not using my headphones, the headphones hang around my neck. If I feel like taking off my headphones and placing them on…

Do you have a length of slack cable dangling out the bottom of your shirt, like a performer wearing a lavalier mic? If not, then how do retrieve your phone from your pocket in order to change what you're listening to (or just to read something), without the cable yanking your own shirt up?

Get some decent headphones with in line controls on the cord or earcups, then you will not need to take the phone out of your pocket as often.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#474

Post by Vrondi »

aksss wrote: post #396
eertami wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you exclusively use a messenger bag/shoulder bag? I've never had a problem with a backpack and wired headphones. There's an auxiliary benefit as well in that a backpack seems to be way better for my back than a shoulder bag.

A downside being that backpacks (outside of hiking context) are so visually associated with schoolchildren that wearing them as a professional is kind of impossible, image-wise. For someone fresh out of college maybe; for thirty+ it starts communicating a very juvenile appearance. The key with messenger and shoulder bag ergonomics is all in positioning (vertically and in orientation relative to body).

No, silly. You just get a nicer backpack that is made of leather or something instead of nylon.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#475

Post by Vrondi »

herbst wrote: post #230
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…

I have a pair of really good wired Sennheisers. I never owned or used Bluetooth devices for more than giving it a try. I may be audiophile. But when I put a music on I want to get fully absorbed and hear every little detail while I don't worry about battery life. Sounds weird I know

When you do try bluetooth again, try full cans from a good brand. No earbuds at all. Check which codecs the cans will use. Just cans vs earbuds makes a hug sound and comfort difference. Literally, you get larger drivers and a larger battery, so physics is already on your side vs earbuds.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#476

Post by devilbunny »

derefr wrote: post #181
nayaketo wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones. This used to bug me a lot but I've found an easy solution. Just route the wire under your t-shirt or shirt or jacket. When I'm not using my headphones, the headphones hang around my neck. If I feel like taking off my headphones and placing them on…

Do you have a length of slack cable dangling out the bottom of your shirt, like a performer wearing a lavalier mic? If not, then how do retrieve your phone from your pocket in order to change what you're listening to (or just to read something), without the cable yanking your own shirt up?

I have a Marmot jacket (very lightweight, but essentially water- and wind-proof, so any insulating layer underneath will keep you warm while keeping the jacket itself lightweight enough to prevent overheating on warm-but-inclement days) that features a breast pocket that zips vertically and is large enough to hold my iPhone 13 Pro Max. It has a small hole on the inside surface of that pocket that allows you to route a wire inside the jacket and connect it to a device in the pocket. If you need to manipulate the sound device, unzip the pocket and pull it out, do what you need and put it back.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#477

Post by derefr »

Vrondi wrote: post #473
derefr wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a length of slack cable dangling out the bottom of your shirt, like a performer wearing a lavalier mic? If not, then how do retrieve your phone from your pocket in order to change what you're listening to (or just to read something), without the cable yanking your own shirt up?

Get some decent headphones with in line controls on the cord or earcups, then you will not need to take the phone out of your pocket as often.

I have those. What I need to do that requires pulling out my phone, is selecting what I'll listen to next.

When listening to music, I don't usually bother to "queue up" songs/entire albums in advance, or to make playlists, but rather I just have a library of individual tracks, and then, as I listen to a song, I'll have a whim for what song to listen to next. (I use music to inspire me while writing fiction, so a lot of this is about creating the right mental mood for a scene.)

If I'm not listening to music, I'm listening to podcasts, which are also often a "listen to one episode, then pull your phone back out to select the next one" sort of experience, as many of them like to do things like slip in repeats of old episodes, such that a linear listening order gives you things you wouldn't want.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#478

Post by derefr »

mkl wrote: post #220
derefr wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a length of slack cable dangling out the bottom of your shirt, like a performer wearing a lavalier mic? If not, then how do retrieve your phone from your pocket in order to change what you're listening to (or just to read something), without the cable yanking your own shirt up?

You put the slack in your pocket.

1/8" cabling could be wound into your pocket, yes—especially the thin-cored crap that most earbuds are made of. But at that point, are you gaining anything in audio quality by using wired headphones over Bluetooth headphones?

When I picture "preferring wired headphones", I picture taking around my studio monitors with their 10ft 1/4" solid-copper-cored cabling. (I did used to do pretty much this, when I was a stupid teenager! But that was before Bluetooth was invented.) That kind of cabling doesn't have a minimum curve radius that would let it fit in most pockets, unless you're either wearing an overcoat, or you've got the middle of the cable cleanly wrapped and tied in a linear bundle [which would still protrude upward out of most pockets, like a very tall phone.]

There's also the as-yet-unmentioned inconvenience of such cables—that they tend to have 1/4" RCA jacks on the ends, making plugging them into your phone a worrying experience involving adapters and shear stress—but oddly enough, modern phones with their lack of headphone jacks are better for this, since the flexible DAC adapters that plug into their USB ports protect the phone itself from being damaged by the shear force of a rigid 1/4"-to-1/8" adapter.

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#479

Post by derefr »

dylan604 wrote: post #446
Arrath wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would kill for mag-safe everything jacks.

if it's safe enough to run power to a computer, it would easily be able to handle the electrical requirments for any other connector, right? you just need an adapter. luckily, apple has you covered. you just need $19.99. /s that would be a weird idea though. 1/4 TRS female -> magsafe-male magsafe-female -> 1/4 TRS male. i'm guessing it would look like a sort of inline coupler or similar in final design. essentially,…

I recently bought a foundue set; the hotplate it comes with has a magsafe regular 110VAC wall cord (no DC adaptation) that's magsafe on the device end. I wondered why I had never seen one of these before. Then I realized that that flat device end is actually incredibly dangerous to the touch when plugged into the wall. It's just slightly less dangerous than potentially knocking over a pot of boiling cheese. For regular appliances that aren't going to give you third-degree burns, it'd probably be preferable to just let the device get yanked off the table, than to risk exposure to live current.

I wonder if, in the future, we could have household wall sockets and extension cords with "sense pins" ala USB PD; where the mains-voltage live "rail" isn't energized unless a device hops on the logic-level control rail and negotiates for it. Then we could truly live in a MagSafe-everything world. (Then again, to block that kind of current, they'd probably need to use relays and other non-solid-state parts, so they might not be the most durable things...)

Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return

#480

Post by ddingus »

scns wrote: post #144
ddingus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, I always liked that line. People like what they like. Forcing it just does not go well, unless the reasons are really good. I was, and am seriously put off by the omission of analog audio jacks. Most of the reasons given just do not resonate and sometimes it is stated or strongly implied I am somehow the problem.

I'd guess it is tribalism at work. Different opinion -> Not my tribe.

That seems part of it for sure. Orthodoxy is mixed in there for sure as an underline on tribalism.

Our strong emphasis on individualism suggests more is in play. Deal with it, grow up, etc..

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