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Wired headphone sales are exploding

bbc.com

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Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#91

Post by ActorNightly »

eddyg wrote: post #19
pathartl wrote: post #11

It's simple, I can buy some IEMs that sound better, cost less than a third of a barely-even-comparable wireless earbud, and roughly conforms to market standards so I can swap out the cable and tips. And I never have to charge them. I have a pair of Airpod Pros that I use solely for audiobooks and podcasts when I'm doing chores or shopping, but the audio quality is so garbage that's all they're really good for.

Airpods Pro audio quality "garbage"? That is beyond harsh, and a quick search will find countless reviews extolling their audio quality. e.g. https://www.soundguys.com/apple-airpods-pro-3-review-close-t...

The problem with earbuds is that to have good quality, you need to create a seal, like IEMs do. Most professionals who use IEMs have them custom molded to their ears.

If you are lucky and have a good ear shape, then airpods sound good. Still not as good as IEM because IEMs have more space for better drivers without needing a battery or bluetooth hardware.

But if you are a person like me who has very hard time with any earbud staying in, then its gonna sound like garbage because you are never going to get a perfect seal.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#92

Post by autoexec »

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…

I'm sure that there can be situations where it's better to sacrifice sound quality and reliability for the convenience of wireless but I think the ability to replace cables is a huge advantage and not a pain point at all. The only problem I've ever had was with an old pair from Sony where by the time I needed a new cable they'd stopped selling a replacement cable but I knew I was rolling the dice when I got that pair because the cable wasn't standard.

Even in the extreme case where you're replacing them every other year you could buy a handful of spares right away so you have them on hand when you need them and your headphones will outlast the batteries in your airpods

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#93

Post by kenhwang »

hedora wrote: post #67
LazyMans wrote: post #64

I do wonder if this is in part to Spotify educating people with their very much in your face notifications when you set your player to lossless quality mode. They inform you bluetooth won't pass the signal with enough fidelity and to go wired. I don't think many people thought their expensive Airpods/Bose/Sony were not capable of handling lossless and may feel left out or missing something.

Isn't aptx lossless an old and very standard thing? I haven't bought headphones in years, and my current set support it.

Old yes, but hardly standard.

For phones, I think it's just the Sony and Asus and Chinese brands that support it. Pixels and Samsungs generally don't since they use Tensor/Exynos instead of Qualcomm/Snapdragon SoCs, and definitely not Apple.

Story is even more bleak on the headphones side, Sony prefers their own LDAC codec so they support that instead of AptX Lossless, a pattern shared by many Asian headphones manufactuers. Many western brands only support up to AptX HD and AAC because Apple/Samsung devices have the majority marketshare. Qualcomm's own site only shows 12 headphones that support AptX Lossless.

Now my opinion is LDAC is close enough to lossless that it's probably good enough for Sony and most people (the 1411kbps for uncompressed 16/44.1 CD quality generally compresses to under 900kbps which is below the 990kbps max of LDAC). Bose does have a headphone that supports AptX Lossless. It's just the Airpods that are far behind the competition.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#94

Post by blululu »

gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #86
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…

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 fla…

Just to be clear the parent is still 100% correct that wired headphones: * Do not need charging * Are hard to lose. * Offer better audio * Never glitch out with pairing.

BLE Audio offers lower need for charging and better (but not equivalent) audio. So 2/4 are not as bad with BLE Audio (and arguably only 1 since you still need to charge). The other two 2/4 are related to the form factor. Wireless headphones have advantages but they are not the decisive winner.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#95

Post by scarecrowbob »

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), and I think they mostly sound better and I can use them longer than I can use the various wireless stuff I use.

And the "real" UHF wireless audio I use professionally (well, to collect rather than listen to audio) is very reliable and good sounding but also, like, $1000/ch once it's cased and cabled and properly accessorized.

However, for almost all of my day to day listening I use either airpods or a some bluetooth'd 3M ear muffs. I even went back to airpods after going through both wired and other wireless solutions.

I don't enjoy having my in-ears ripped out along with my pocket. And universally the cord ends and the physical connector on my phone are the weak spots that have had me replace stuff- I haven't bought a phone in the 5 years since I got one that could charge wirelessly and never has phones plugged into it, and I don't intend to get another one any time soon (knock on wood that my case keeps the screen from breaking and needing me to repair it).

I have a bluetooth receiver with an analog out that I keep in my workbox, which I used for program music at a show tonight. It's nice to start my truck and my podcast just starts playing, too, without having to get out my phone and plug it in.

You're right that wired stuff is better for some things. I still find wireless stuff to be superior in a lot of situations.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#96

Post by yallpendantools »

Actually, a week ahead of the BBC, my sister informed me wired headphones are making a comeback. With a smug grin I told her, "Comeback? It never left my side."

I've had to ally myself with a brand I've once sworn off just to get a flagship model Android with a headphone jack. Killing Reader is a greedy betrayal (they were pushing us onto Plus, the whole social web thing) but removing headphone jacks from Pixels is a cowardly betrayal! Eyeing you too there, Samsung. You and Google both have made it extremely difficult to maintain a modicum of principle in today's consumer landscape! You made me justify my purchase with a utilitarian "Better the jacked devil than the blue-toothed one".

(And before you ask, I only generally buy flagships because I upgrade my phone like, every five years, and in my experience flagships are just more bang for buck. YMMV tho.)

Anyway, honestly, wired is not perfect. Wired and wireless each have their inconveniences it's just that I'm more willing to put up with the inconveniences of wired. Wired connections have known failure modes, something which I really value in tech. I have a Sony WH-1000XM3 which can work both as wired and wireless and I love it for that.

Long live wired connections! Here's to a future with cheaper flagship models with a headphone jack!

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#97

Post by recursivecaveat »

The drivers or whatever can influence the wireless experience a lot. Apple has the best bluetooth reliability of any manufacturer I've experienced. I can be out in a field next to my house and somehow the half-asleep laptop finds my headphones instantly unless I remember to switch its bluetooth off. On my windows machine sometimes, for seemingly no reason, you will be left standing around waiting and waiting for it to find the device right next to it.

The convenience of being able to get up and walk around the house, or got out with the phone without wires getting caught makes it worthwhile though. On the other hand for stationary peripherals like mice I would never go wireless. I hate that feeling of complete helplessness to the pairing/connection lottery and the time waste of it.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#99

Post by yallpendantools »

blululu wrote: post #94
gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fla…

Just to be clear the parent is still 100% correct that wired headphones: * Do not need charging * Are hard to lose. * Offer better audio * Never glitch out with pairing. BLE Audio offers lower need for charging and better (but not equivalent) audio. So 2/4 are not as bad with BLE Audio (and arguably only 1 since you still need to charge). The other two 2/4 are related to the form factor. Wireless headphones have adva…

Is BLE the only way for Bluetooth to have multiple connections? I'm no audiophile but in my experience, the audio quality noticeably drops when multiple devices are connected (I've only ever had at most two at a time). I reasoned out that the bits were being divided so `quality /= 2` as well. I've only ever done this accidentally so I can't be certain the connection was really over BLE.

Granted, I've only ever done multiple connections on Linux so maybe it's a Linux problem.

Re: Wired headphone sales are exploding

#100

Post by Suppafly »

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.

Wired headphones are the top reason I've bought Moto phones the last two times.
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