Wired headphone sales are exploding • Hacker News Board

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#561

Post by GlacierFox » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #557

This hyperbole is not really necessary on hackernews. Apple alone makes 20 billion on a single product: airpods. This article notes 2025 saw a 3% increase of 15m. That means total sales are 0.5b, or 2.5% of Apple's airpods product. In other words: tiny market with a growth in line with inflation after years of decline? Let's call that 'exploding sales' and farm some clicks. Yes perhaps there is some newfound interest…

When I'm watching movies or playing games, I find the lag jarring so plug in my wired ones every time.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#562

Post by guelo » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #557

This hyperbole is not really necessary on hackernews. Apple alone makes 20 billion on a single product: airpods. This article notes 2025 saw a 3% increase of 15m. That means total sales are 0.5b, or 2.5% of Apple's airpods product. In other words: tiny market with a growth in line with inflation after years of decline? Let's call that 'exploding sales' and farm some clicks. Yes perhaps there is some newfound interest…

Wired were deliberately killed by Apple in order for them to make that $20 billion. We should not celebrate billionaires making the world worse so they can make more money.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#563

Post by ghusto » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #557

This hyperbole is not really necessary on hackernews. Apple alone makes 20 billion on a single product: airpods. This article notes 2025 saw a 3% increase of 15m. That means total sales are 0.5b, or 2.5% of Apple's airpods product. In other words: tiny market with a growth in line with inflation after years of decline? Let's call that 'exploding sales' and farm some clicks. Yes perhaps there is some newfound interest…

> It's on the way out, though it'll be a slow death

At the very most, it's on its way out in the same way normal computers are on their way out for non-IT professionals. There are situations where wired is a must, not a preference (studios being the most obvious).

Aside from that, wired offers the highest sound quality possible, plug-and-play, and all at a lower price. Wireless headphones don't appear to even be trying to catch up.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#564

Post by saltcured » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #449

throw0101c wrote: post #342

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 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.

As someone who grew up during the transition, the killer feature of the CD was amazing audio quality and the lack of degradation from every playback. The period where we started finding albums marked "DDD", for fully digital production, was also amazing.

It saddens me a little that, in spite of all the technology, actual Hi-Fi listening seems to have become less accessible or prevalent. I'm still not sure how much this is really for the commonly stated reason of convenience, and how much that is really cope and denial of a bigger socio-economic decline. I.e. it simply isn't as realistic for regular people to have a Hi-Fi listening space...

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#565

Post by ghusto » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:38 PM UTC

happyopossum wrote: post #383

Setting aside debates about which is “better”, this article appears to be based on crap. The link to the supporting analysis uses the words “through the roof”, but here’s what it says: “ wired headphones rebounded in 2025, growing 3% (about $15M).” So now a 3% growth in sales is “exploding” and “through the roof”? No, I don’t think so…

I wouldn't choose those words, but a 3% increase of something that's been steadily in decline is significant enough to warrant hyperbole of some kind.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#566

Post by wartywhoa23 » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

For me, wired multi-driver armature IEMs (in-ear monitors) are the best thing to happen in the audio field since the arrival of neodymium magnets.

For a fraction of price of professional monitor speakers, you get the closest thing to direct hardware-to-brain audio transmission. It's precise and fast transient-wise.

No reflections, no phase problems, nada. You can choose exactly the type of frequency response you need: flat, V-shaped, U-shaped, bassy, bright, whatever. There are even models with switchable curves.

No need to invest much more money than your speakers cost in your listening room, installing wool/foam pads/draping/soft furniture/bass traps/carpets etc to reduce the amount of reflections and bring frequency responce to anything resembling flat.

That said, there is a huge number of IEMs produced these days and they range from absolute trash to stellar. And to navigate this vast ocean, I find Crinnacle's resourses utterly useful:

https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/

https://list.hangout.audio/iem

(disclosure: I'm not affiliated in any way, I just adore this guy's dedication!)

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#567

Post by the_snooze » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

beloch wrote: 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…

The 3.5mm audio jack is pretty close to engineering perfection on the important dimensions: cheap, fast, and good.

Getting rid of it in favor of Bluetooth-only audio connectivity is creating a problem to sell you a (more expensive, less reliable, less time-tested) solution.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#568

Post by rock_artist » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

pimlottc wrote: post #485

rock_artist wrote: post #175

Audio engineer originally and a current audio software. In the pro audio, wireless was never a thing with an exception of live shows where you’d might want to be free on stage but avoid stage monitors. Notice that while Apple made everyone ditch the lovely 3.5”, on the MacBook Pros they’ve actually kept it and *improved* it. As this is HN, I’ll focus on technical aspects I didn’t notice in the article. - Active Noise…

What have Apple done to improve the audio jack on MacBook Pro

https://support.apple.com/en-us/108351

Not "audiophiles" standard though from a sound engineer pov, it is very decent (especially compared to my other laptops)

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#569

Post by phil21 » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

pimlottc wrote: post #341

stogot wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also been seeing many “protect your brain” shorts on youtube saying that athletes are switching to wired

I don’t get it, what’s safer about wired headphones?

It's a growing trend in the "alternative" health scene. I have a few friends who should absolutely know better do silly stuff like use wired headphones due to RF, and even as much as turning Wifi off at night for health reasons. Nevermind they just switch to 5G in bed on their phones.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#570

Post by dguest » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 5:44 PM UTC

glimshe wrote: post #84

I'm the trendsetter. I've never stopped using wired headphones and, after being made fun of for years despite much better audio quality, cost, simplicity and reliability, the rich finally decided to imitate me. Never let go of your convictions!

I've almost caved and bought bluetooth because most stores stopped stocking wired headphones above crap-grade. But maybe I can just wait this out, if wired really is making a comeback.