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Wired headphone sales are exploding

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Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#681

Post by temp0826 »

avidiax wrote: post #610
temp0826 wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: noise canceling... recently got a pair of IEMs (Etymotic ER2XR) with good foam tips and their isolation blows away any ANC I've ever tried. The only thing is noise from touching the cable but that was solved with some ear hooks to put the cables behind my ears.

Yeah, Etymotic headphones were my go-to for probably a decade. Passive noise suppression was wonderful for public transport. The utility has dropped tremendously though, now that headphone jacks have disappeared. Would love to have a pair of "direct-USB-C" Etymotics.

Maybe a bit clunky but there exist some very good and tiny DACs/dongles now (and have seen a couple creative cases/riggings that present the jack in a good/manageable way)

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#682

Post by jinushaun »

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…

My second pair of AirPods is not even 2 years old yet and I don’t think it will last much longer. The first one died quickly too. My next headphones will be wired

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#683

Post by saltcured »

lb1lf wrote: post #648
saltcured wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Anecdotally, I don't think hi-fi's decline has to do with cost - at least not cost alone. You can still get a more than decent system which will fit most living rooms for quite reasonable money - I just had a look at prices at a national retailer's website here in Norway, and you can get a pair of decent bookshelf speakers and a stereo amp delivering 2x60W into 8 ohms, built-in streaming support and a HDMI input to e…

Yeah, I think there are lifestyle changes and it is a shift of priorities. There are many choices. As a kid, I never would have imagines how many people would carry around $1k phones in their pockets and how many of these would exist in a household.

But I also hear lots of people complain they don't have the living space to dedicate to a Hi-Fi nor the time to use it if they did. To me, that is a sort of erosion of quality of life compared to what the middle class used to be able to enjoy.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#684

Post by monkey26 »

LinXitoW wrote: post #404
macNchz wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s maybe close to a wash between non-replaceable batteries in wireless headphones dying and cords failing, in my experience at least. The ideal case IMO is over-ear headphones that have a replaceable cord—I have some 14 year old Bose QCs and some newer Beyerdynamics, both of which I’ve replaced the cord on.

Have batteries actually ever FAILED in wireless headphones? Sure, they degrade and charge becomes lower, but I've never had them outright fail. A headphone that lasts my 2-3 hours of commute/daily use is completely useable, even if it's original charge lasted 5 hours. Cables do fail though, completely. They become unusable. In my entire life time of using headphones/earbuds since school with the PSP, ALL wired option…

A couple months ago, the battery in my Sony wh1000xm3’s failed to hold any charge at all. Was an easy replacement tho and they’re as good as new.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#685

Post by NikolaNovak »

Gigachad wrote: post #668
NikolaNovak wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the op but for me - Different headphones for different purposes. For convenience and casual on the go listening, or to not annoy anybody, I'll use earbuds or light headphones. If I really want to enjoy music I'll take the big ol' cans (circimaural open-back), lie back, and enjoy the music fully. Etc. (And I'm extremely not an audiophile! But big roomy headphones are super comfy and sound super nice to me :). If I…

For calls, I use airpods but set the mic to my macbook which seems to have an exceptionally good mic as long as there isn't much background noise.

Background noise is the key part though - without a directional boom microphone, people rely on dsp/ai to deal with wind, dogs, kids, TV in other room, loud keyboards, rustling paper, etc, and it never works perfect / always has trade offs.

For people who join online meeting once in a blue moon, ehh, whatever. For people who are on online meetings hours a day, good headset with a boom mic seems like the price of entry - but I understand I'm in the minority on that one :-).

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#686

Post by wolvoleo »

eptcyka wrote: post #560
macNchz wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s maybe close to a wash between non-replaceable batteries in wireless headphones dying and cords failing, in my experience at least. The ideal case IMO is over-ear headphones that have a replaceable cord—I have some 14 year old Bose QCs and some newer Beyerdynamics, both of which I’ve replaced the cord on.

All my corded headphones lasted at most 2 years of mobile use. My QC35s are still going strong. Wired sucks for mobile use. And if the cord doesn’t go, the 3.5mm socket does. I replaced multiple sockets on my iPod and iPhone 3g. That replacement process sucks.

My corded QC25 is still as new. No battery to die (it's simply AAA), the cord and ear pads are replaceable.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#687

Post by hackshack »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #28
bpev wrote: post #10

Please let this mean that they'll start bringing back the headphone jacks to phones. usb-c is too unstable, and I prefer not having to deal with charging more devices and with pairing shenanigans when switching devices.

It'll never happen but I'd love to see a new analog audio connector designed with portable audio and extreme durability in mind make a debut. The old 1.44mm connector is nice for its ubiquitous nature, but its internal footprint is large and it's prone to contact issues over time (I'm sure most of us have had a device/headphone pair where the jack had to be rotated into a "sweet spot". I'm not well versed in the worl…

USB-C has a mode to run analog audio over its cable, called "Audio Adapter Accessory Mode." It uses the D+ and D- pins for Right and Left, and SBU1 and SBU2 for Mic and Ground.

Texas Instruments explains the scheme in a document, "tidub66.pdf."

I know USB-C connectors aren't quite what you had in mind, but they are smaller and more rugged than the 3.5mm connector (in my opinion).

Downside is it is not widely supported, but it is possible. The host device needs to support a way to detect the analog USB-C audio cable (recognized through four shorted pins) and then to split off the analog audio signals before they hit the internal USB transceiver chip.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#688

Post by saalweachter »

saltcured wrote: post #564
saalweachter wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

I mean, CDs replaced vinyl and cassettes for a lot of reasons, and the shuffle probably wasn't number one on anyone's list.

But still, I would be shocked if I listened to any CD straight through more than once, immediately after buying it. Once straight through to hear all the tracks, and then every time after that it'd be skipping around through my favorites or shuffling on repeat until I got tired of it and switched CDs.

And then once CD burners reached my price point, it was almost nothing but mix CDs, the original albums left on a rack in case I needed to re-rip them.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#689

Post by retrac »

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…

> I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.

They have. Apple has AirPlay and MFi which includes their own proprietary set of codecs and protocols for media streaming over a link similar to but not actually Bluetooth. Quite a few devices support it, such as my hearing aids.

Also, while the new Bluetooth LE Audio shares the Bluetooth name, it's a completely new protocol for most intents and purposes; for example audio can be streamed one-way without pairing first, and it's surprisingly low latency (20 ms or so).

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#690

Post by jrflowers »

nine_k wrote: post #542
ReptileMan wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a date the only acceptable bluetooth usage is for teledildonics.

That's when you especially badly don't want a sudden disconnect, or the battery dying.

Or pairing with the wrong person’s device.
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