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Wired headphone sales are exploding

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Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#721

Post by ramses0 »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #95
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 work with a lot of audio in a professional capacity. You're correct if you're saying that neither tech is universally "teh best". And you're correct that wired phones have a lot of advantages. Tack on that they don't have latency, though I've never really tried to track vocals on wireless cans. I have a pretty nice collection of what I consider to be quality mid-tier stuff for my studio (hd280, dt770, mdr7506, k240…

Tell me about the 3M ones? I've been considering the AM/BT with AA batteries but they seem sliightly derpy, and I've been happy with the SteelSeries Arctic Nova w/swappable batteries and 2.4ghz for my office work.

AA batteries b/c then it'll "last forever", 3M b/c it's basically passive noise cancellation, BlueTooth so it'll connect to phones (hopefully without that digital static that I'll hear with some BT devices). The AM/FM portion is an anti-feature, but mandatory to get access to AA power.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#722

Post by gzread »

mrob wrote: post #576
gzread wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think that, and indeed a computer can run any equations you want. However with analogue you're getting a bunch of interesting-sounding equations without having to think of them and write them down, and that's the "analogue sound." Analogue circuitry isn't a perfect math processor the way digital is, only an approximation, and the deviations from perfection are useful. Especially if you get into synths. A di…

I'm convinced that at least 90% of "analog sound" can be simulated by taking the ideal block diagram and replacing every link with a parametric EQ->waveshaper->parametric EQ chain. Configuring those added components correctly is left as an exercise for the reader. Jim Lill's video on guitar amp tone is an interesting demonstration. Hear how close he gets to the original with an even simpler combination of EQ and dist…

Probably. We can calculate or at least measure and reproduce the effect of every analogue component, and simulate exactly what the circuit does. But we don't do that.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#723

Post by rkagerer »

perilunar wrote: post #714
rkagerer wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any way to preserve those synthetic materials and gain a longer shelf life (eg. 15+ years)? Eg. Heat sealed foil bags with excess air removed, or even filled with nitrogen? The idea is to buy several spare consumables when you first purchase the equipment, and break them out at regular intervals. I have the same problem with vulcanized coatings that go sticky after several years (looking at you, 3D Connexion…

You can remove the sticky vulcanised coating by rubbing will isopropanol or acetone. It's a bit of work, but beats throwing a working device out.

Yeah but then you're left with a hard plastic surface. Have you ever successfully re-coated?

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#724

Post by saltcured »

saalweachter wrote: post #688
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…

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 switche…

I did record a lot of my vinyl and CDs to cassette tape for portable and car use. I remember many public transit rides with my walkman and a zipper case of 10 tapes or so. I made some mix tapes but mostly just ran albums straight through on 90 minute metal tapes, repeating or cutting a track as needed to fill the 45 minute side and make auto-reverse pleasant without any winding.

But, ignoring mix tapes, I didn't really get into track-level shuffling until the MP3 era where I could shuffle a much bigger pile of tracks. I do remember that a Sony 5-disc carousel could shuffle tracks reasonably quickly. But when I used players with a 6 or 10 disc cassette, track shuffle would mean spending a lot of time listening to servo motors and occasionally disturbing clunks that evoked visions of shattered or gouged discs.

I never had one of those massive jukebox style carousels that was sort of a hybrid of the two and could quickly switch among scores or hundreds of discs. By the time I saw those as affordable, they already seemed obsolete. Instead, I was ripping my CDs to MP3 (eventually repeated to FLAC), and had a USB to S/PDIF soundcard to send audio back to my A/V receiver over optical fiber.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#725

Post by lopespm »

One thing that always worried me about bluetooth headphones was their proximity with the brain, for prolonged periods of time. As such, for several years, I've already replaced my legacy Bose wired headphones 3 times, since I can only get them on eBay whenever the ones I own start failing for some reason. I am almost sure they are clones, but there is nothing that comes close to them on the market in terms of wired headphones with noise cancellation. I even wrote an article on this: https://lopespm.com/notes/2025/02/22/wireless-headphones.htm...

I've very thankful that we are coming back to wired headphones.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#726

Post by odo1242 »

amelius wrote: post #527
odo1242 wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All good wired headphones and earbuds (“IEMs”) have replaceable cables. And the ones that don’t are super cheap.

I once had a wire break in the cable that goes from the left can to the right can (not the external cable).

You can get that in wireless headphones too though? Most of those have a similarly shaped cable that goes across the headphones; there’s not a separate Bluetooth receiver on each side.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#727

Post by ajolly »

duskdozer wrote: post #710
userbinator wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try different tips --- IEMs are supposed to seal to your ears like earplugs.

I'll put it this way: I also often use earplugs that are rated about as high as they go, and it's still not enough. So adding ANC on top is also helpful for me

What's the best in-ear ANC you found? I usually stick with over the ear and bose still has the best that I've tried compared to Apple or Sony

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#728

Post by asdff »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #703
asdff wrote: post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh I'm not considering it a dealbreaker. Easy to splice and fix 3.5mm. Donors found at thrift stores or in your drawer (or remaining length of undamaged wire).

The issue is on the headset side. Some can be tedious to take apart and replace the cable.

Why take it apart? You can just cut it mid line and splice directly to that. Chances are the failure point isn't right on the last bit of the headset end of the cable length.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#729

Post by PlanksVariable »

y0eswddl wrote: post #694
PlanksVariable wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So who is the client? In all of the article’s photos of celebrities, they’re wearing Apple EarPods. Is Apple trying to convince people to buy their $19 EarPods instead of their $250 AirPods?

Actually, yeah. It's better than the customer spending that $20 elsewhere. And there's potential for upsell in-store and on the website. If people are defecting to wired from EarPods, it makes sense to try and position themselves in thought next to wired ones as will

“If people are defecting to wired from EarPods”

This assumes that people are switching from wireless to wired headphones organically, and the main assertion of the article (wired headphones are popular again) isn’t actually manufactured.

Although it’s possible Apple influenced the article, it makes no sense for them to push the “wired over wireless” narrative. AirPods are a $25B/year business with very high profit margins. EarPods are a tiny fraction of that, and it’s not worth manufacturing a narrative that undermines their successful AirPods business even for the chance of upselling.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#730

Post by iammattmurphy »

I use wireless headphones most of every day. I used to buy IEMs with detachable cables so I could replace them when they inevitably broke. I don’t feel I was being careless at all. I don’t break anything else in my life. But my cables broke every 6 months or so.

I absolutely don’t miss wired headphones. The idea that wireless headphones aren’t superior is insane to me. I think the one thing is battery degradation, but honestly, buying a new pair every 5 years is well worth the convenience of no cables in my mind. Especially headphones that switch well between devices are a big QoL upgrade.

I do wish all wireless headphones had a little jack for wired playback though, for one reason: instrument playback. Latency is absolutely unacceptable there; and it’s a shame I can’t plug my AirPods in. But I’m not surprised or angry at their omission; but on over-ear phones, it’s inexcusable.

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