Are Google one of the last holdouts ? I've been on cheap Android phones and just moved from Samsung to Motorola and both have headphones sockets.
No, the Pixel dropped the headphone jack ages ago. It's why I don't have a Pixel any more.
Wired headphone sales are exploding
81–90 of 752 posts
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#82My 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.
I bought two pairs of premium wireless headphones about 10 years ago. These failed gradually, I patched them up with tape and kept them going. One of them had the Bluetooth electronics fail but still works wired, the electronics are fine on the other one but physically it is a jumbled mess that I can't really tape together anymore but it kinda sits on my head. I went looking for the state of the art in headphones and…
I got myself a plastic welder - the thing that melts little pieces of metal to strengthen plastic joints - now I can keep old plastic things in shape almost indefinitely. Cost like 10 usd or so and has prolonged the life of all manner of things.
If you still want to make the old headphones work these welders are a godsend, and with some small amount of diy work of cleaning, sanding and buffing you can easily hide these welds.
I personally like to leave them though since they accent that something that was once broken is whole again, and that it has a long history!
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#83This 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 almost immediately started selling accessories to connect their airpods together (i.e. Cables), it was pretty obvious that going completely cordless was not entirely superior.
- For an equivalent price point, wired headphones produce higher quality audio, and the top-end is a lot deeper.
- Wired cans don't need to pair, don't glitch out, don't become laggy, pair with the wrong device, etc.. Bluetooth was never really meant for use as an audio connection, and it's never really become 100% foolproof. With Apple's proclivity for proprietary standards, I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.
Too many android phones copied Apple and ditched the venerable audio jack, but a few kept it, and I've always insisted on it when buying phones. It's old but far from obsolete.
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#84I'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!
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#85This 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…
Bluetooth also opens your devices up to spying/tracking/monitoring/hacking/fingerprinting.
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#86This 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…
FWIW, Bluetooth LE Audio [0] solves most of these problems in my experience. Battery life is way better, pairing is almost instant, you can connect to multiple devices simultaneously, the latency is almost imperceptible, etc. The sound quality is still worse than wired, but it's close enough that it doesn't bother me personally.
Very few headphones support BLE Audio, and you need to enable some experimental Bluez flags for it to work on Linux, but both of these should improve with time. But it makes such a huge difference that I'd argue that it's worth the effort, even right now.
[0]: https://www.bluetooth.com/learn-about-bluetooth/feature-enha...
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#87I got a pair of AirPods Pro, paid for by a past employer, and it's the only Apple product I like. I'd even give some of my own money to Apple if I had to buy another pair.
When I'm wearing wired earbuds, the feeling of getting the cord caught on something and having the earbuds violently yanked from my ears is one of the most annoying things, like a slap in the face.
Plus I like being able to put my phone wherever I want, when I'm listening to podcasts while doing yard work. The phone stays in the house, or on a patio table, not in my pocket where pruning shears or dirt will get to it.
There are various other situations where having wires going to my ears is annoying or impossible.
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#88It's fashionable. Some famous people have been seen with visible wires, therefore everyone needs wires.
All these arguments here about technological superiority are quaint but miss the point. People in the wider world don't have the same concerns the people of HN have here, they're following icons.
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#89I'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!
Yep, same boat. That's why I had kept my pixel 4a for years until is finally kicked the bucket 2 years ago.
Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding
#90This 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…
And latency!! Anything that needs to be real time is impossible without wired headphones. Even the lowest latency wireless is noticeable.