Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wired headphone sales are exploding

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 752 posts

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#71

Post by toast0 »

xnyan wrote: post #33
ethagnawl wrote: post #26

While using wired headphones, my spouse's car never steals my audio when it starts or pulls into the driveway. Also, I can join a meeting seconds before it starts without spending a few minutes scrambling to verify that my BT headset will allow me to hear/be heard.

A good bluetooth experience requires that both the headset and the audio source device implement bluetooth well, which is hard. That said, I have zero problems with my AirPods Pro pairing with my Mac or iPhone ever, it's pretty nice.

AirPods seem pretty nice; but if you use them primarily with Android and connect them to Find My, they will claim to be lost all the time. Seems like you have to choose between annoyance or not being able to find them if you drop them.

I personally prefer wired headphones... they're always charged and ready, even if I only use them with my phone once in a while.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#72

Post by tptacek »

I've never had a pair of headphones with a cable connection that survived more than 2 years. Can't say that about the Airpods Max.

Like, I have opinions about high-end headphones based on how easy the cords are to replace. That shouldn't be the case.

I was a discrete headphone amp guy, just to situate myself in this market. I didn't expect to get good wireless headphones and think "I'm never going back", but that's precisely what happened.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#73

Post by ActorNightly »

deckplecksetter wrote: post #15

For me, using Bluetooth headphones with my (Samsung) phone is smooth and trouble-free. The experience is miles better than wired headphones, and I would never go back. Meanwhile, connecting to my TV with Bluetooth is an exercise in pure frustration. So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it. And it's not just cheap devices. My TV is a fancy LG OLED. For the price I paid it…

>So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.

Yep, but this is a problem that is present everywhere. For example, electric cars are supposed to be simpler, because its one moving part. In reality, you get essentially vertical integration of all the components like battery management, motor controllers, infotainment, gauge cluster and the software that connects all of that, and when bugs are present you can't even get into your car.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#75

Post by prodigycorp »

Lots of good theories here, but none saying "TikTok", which I think is the answer.

TikTok is a big reason wired headphones are popular. AirPod microphone quality is spotty and improving the quality is non-deterministic. With wired earpods, people put the mic next to their mouth and get above-average audio quality.

Like the article says, wired headphones have also become a fashion statement akin to vinyl culture.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#76

Post by cmcaleer »

itisit wrote: post #13
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.

> usb-c is too unstable Would you share more? I've never had an issue with a USB-C cable. Helps to buy well constructed ones with legit specs.

I gave up on USBC headphones because if your port becomes full of lint (say by being in your pocket all day), it doesn’t take much to disturb a USBC connection and cause it to go through the whole handshake all over again for a few seconds.

Compared to 3.5mm where the frustrations I remember were usually limited to sometimes getting a bit of a crackle or one of the audio channels dropping out and worst case scenario you just unplugged it and put it back in and it usually worked. With USBC you have to wait to see.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#77

Post by cmcaleer »

stbtrax wrote: post #44
peacebeard wrote: post #29

I never got on board with wireless headphones. * Having to charge them is a PITA * Having to pair them is a PITA * Having more points of failure is a PITA * Paying more is a PITA On the other hand: * Wires are fine

yeah I don't have this issue with airpods pro. charge them maybe every other week and never had issues pairing. The case charge should last for ~30-40 hrs of listening. The auto switching between laptop and phone is pretty great too for taking calls or walking away and not having to fiddle around with repairing

Agree they’re great but it does fascinate me when there are weird edge cases that Apple mess up.

For example if I have my phone and laptop running, and I’m listening to something on my phone, I pause with my AirPods, and then I unpause with my AirPods, instead of what was playing on my phone resuming through my AirPods, a video that I’ll have forgotten about will instead play through my laptop speakers, and pressing pause on my AirPods will do nothing and I have to interrupt whatever I’m doing to pause on the laptop. Possible they’ve fixed this specific issue though since I’ve learned to not have anything that has media controls open on my laptop.

The cross platform control stuff is probably very hard and usually works though.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#78

Post by bigstrat2003 »

tptacek wrote: post #72

I've never had a pair of headphones with a cable connection that survived more than 2 years. Can't say that about the Airpods Max. Like, I have opinions about high-end headphones based on how easy the cords are to replace. That shouldn't be the case. I was a discrete headphone amp guy, just to situate myself in this market. I didn't expect to get good wireless headphones and think "I'm never going back", but that's p…

Wired headphones are also 1/10 of the price of airpods. So they still come out ahead on the cost of ownership front.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#79

Post by bigstrat2003 »

healsdata wrote: post #2

My wired headphones never run out of battery. They also don't drop the connection if my pocket is at the wrong angle from my ears.

All that and they cost a fraction of the price! Wireless headphones are a strictly inferior product to wired, and it astonishes me that Apple convinced anyone to buy them. They're a total rip off.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#80

Post by bigstrat2003 »

toast0 wrote: post #70
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.

You can get phones with headphone jacks still. You have to shop carefully, because it eliminates a lot of options. My current phone is a moto g stylus 5g 2023... to get a headphone jack, snapdragon cpu, and reasonable cost, I had to also accept a stylus that I only use to fidget. Probably need to start shopping again soon cause updates stop in June.

The moto g stylus 2025 is reasonable. It has some bloatware you have to go through and disable, and it is a bit bigger than I'd like. But it's about the best you can do in today's market.
Post reply on HN