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Wired headphone sales are exploding

bbc.com

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Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#651

Post by pavlus »

fao_ wrote: post #480
pavlus wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* They don't need charging, but you will hear static regularly when attaching/detaching/touching things. Also, they pick up RF interference (TBF, BT ones also drop packets in RF-noisy environments, but they seem to be more resistant to it) * They are harder to lose, but the ones with non-detachable cords need repairing the cord if it rips, which happens frequently. Never happened with BT headsets I own. * For BT head…

> (TBF, BT ones also drop packets in RF-noisy environments, but they seem to be more resistant to it) I've experienced the opposite. The microwave will knock out my bluetooth completely, but the wired headphones are solid but in a decade of using both wired and wireless headphones I've never heard anything weird or staticy through the wired ones. My wired headphones were the Shure SE215, and now after a decade of usi…

Your microwave is leaky, and/or not grounded, but since you don't experience static, I assume you have grounding at your house. Without grounding static and mains hum is quite noticeable. Try touching the body of your pc and listen how silence changes in wired headphones.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#652

Post by elxr »

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…

> This hyperbole is not really necessary on hackernews

I've noticed that hyperbole is increasingly getting frontpaged as of these past 6-10 months.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#653

Post by alpaca128 »

One thing I don't see mentioned about wired & wireless is volume limitations.

With wired headphones the number of steps in volume - or if there even are discrete steps - is only dictated by the device driving the headphones. With wireless I can usually only choose between "a little too quiet" and "a little too loud". To this day I am puzzled why devices are arbitrarily limited in that way.

Not to mention some wireless headphones are simply too quiet even on max volume and there is no way to change that. The manufacturer decided you can't have loud headphones and so they never will be, too bad.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#654

Post by prepend »

graypegg wrote: post #489
nvarsj wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly it's a paid for ad. But the trend is real, at least among Gen Z/Alphas. I recently modded an iPod Mini 2nd gen for my daughter and put Rockbox on it. The thing is amazing, and I am thinking about buying an iPod classic myself. The touch wheel interface is one of my favourite interfaces ever.

First off, you're a kickass parent, that's an awesome thing to do for your daughter. How easy is it to sync with music she wants to listen to? I haven't touched Rockbox in quite a while, but I imagine it's still expecting DRM-free audio files of some sort right? Other than bandcamp I can't think of any good source for finding some beyond ripping audio streams and organizing it yourself.

A lot of my drm-free mp3s come from friends. I probably have 2000+ cds that I’ve ripped, or downloads from buying vinyl. I’ll make a copy for friends to load onto devices and it’s the equivalent of loaning a disc to a friend.

I suppose there’s probably music torrent sites out there, but haven’t heard of anyone pirating music in many years as I’m too old now.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#655

Post by lexoj »

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…

They are much much lighter due to lack of batteries which makes them quite ergonomic.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#656

Post by t0mas88 »

nvarsj wrote: post #354
computator wrote: post #350

This trend story about wired headphones is possibly a "submarine" story as Paul Graham calls it[1], like a headline that "Suits make a corporate comeback": "The suit is back," it begins. Trend articles like this are almost always the work of PR firms. Once you know how to read them, it's straightforward to figure out who the client is. With trend stories, PR firms usually line up one or more "experts" to talk about t…

Possibly it's a paid for ad. But the trend is real, at least among Gen Z/Alphas. I recently modded an iPod Mini 2nd gen for my daughter and put Rockbox on it. The thing is amazing, and I am thinking about buying an iPod classic myself. The touch wheel interface is one of my favourite interfaces ever.

Cool! I wrote a significant part of the graphical UI for rockbox about 20 years ago. It was text based before that. Needed it for my back then very fancy harddisk based mp3 player.

The project was great to work with, Daniel Stenberg (also the curl maintainer) was really good at helping newcomers like me participate. That may be a big part of why the project is still around 20 years later.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#658

Post by chmod775 »

shiandow wrote: post #456
NikolaNovak wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- they last forever . I still have sennheiser hd380 pro cans from 25 years ago that sound great. - cannot overstate lack of lag and simplicity. You plug in and it works, perfectly, every time, forever. - easily switch devices. I use my headphone on my phone, tablet, laptop, Synthesizer, Groovebox etc without a blink. And my phone never stops playing music and connects to our car my wife just started the way bluetooth…

It is worth pointing out that not all parts age equally well. The cushions especially are not that durable and should be considered consumables. Sennheiser provides replacements should you need them. The effect they have on the sound is much bigger than you might think.

> The cushions especially are not that durable and should be considered consumables.

This is because they're mostly synthetic "leather", which doesn't last long. Everyone is probably familiar with how synthetic leather starts to flake off. Icky. If you get some pads made from real leather (usually lamb is the go-to choice) they'll last virtually forever. However since real leather is heaver and less porous, this changes the way they sound very noticably (makes them sound less open). If you use open/half-open headphones anyways, the difference won't be too extreme: just moves the sound closer to closed headphones. On closed headphones leather cups make it feel something is covering/plugging my ears. Uncomfortable. Would not recommend.

Worse than how quickly fabric and synthetic leather degrades is arguably that those cups can hardly be cleaned and even when not that old get icky quickly, with dirt stuck in fabric and fine cracks.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#660

Post by nephihaha »

mock-possum wrote: post #548

I mean yeah - generally wired devices are better in every way … except for the inconvenience of needing to be tethered to your device during use. My default is always to buy wired devices, and only consider wireless in situations where the convenience specifically outweighs the downsides - wireless earbuds while exercising or working outside, or while traveling light to listen to a podcast or work at a cafe. The rest…

The other inconvenience is tangled wires.
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