I have never really gotten used to wireless buds, and still find myself reaching for wires half the time:
- Wireless buds don’t connect 100% reliably; sometimes I get one and not the other, or neither. Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use.
- Sometimes the sound glitches out randomly, which is so irritating that I don’t care how good the sound supposedly is the rest of the time.
- Gestures and voice are simply not as convenient as buttons on the wire. If I tap the thing in my ear, it tends to get shoved further into my ear and may still not register.
- They fall out of my ears, no matter how “snug” they seem. This makes me only want to use them in places where I won’t lose them, e.g. at home but not out for a walk.
Crucially, there isn’t a single problem above that occurs when using wires. The only inconvenience is that the default headphone wires are stupidly short (provided by a company that sells wireless buds, hmmm) but that is fixable.
I was a fan of the originals, but bought the Pros shortly after they came out. I'm on my second pair now - the first pair came down with the dreaded "crackling" and Apple replaced them.
I find that they stay in my ears well enough that I regularly use them when driving my Jeep without doors, even when I'm not listening to music. They provide some level of reduction of the wind noise that I'm certain has been damaging my hearing in my left ear in particular.
Absolutely not, unless you are going very slow (like bicycle speed). The wind noise even with a good helmet is deafening and well above OSHA limits for workplaces. I would never ride without earplugs if my trip was over 10 minutes or above 35 mph. I did it a few times when I first started and I would get off the bike after 30-45 minutes and It felt like I had been to a rock concert. With earplugs I can go as long as my back allows and I'm not fatigued afterward.
Just wanted to second this, if you ride a bike regularly, even a quiet one, wear hearing protection. After a year commuting on my 250 I looked outside and saw that it was raining - I hadn't even heard the rain begin. I started wearing earplugs every ride and my hearing's back to normal but it was a wakeup call. These days I don't ride as much but I'll wear ear plugs any time I'll be going over 60km/h.
My problem is I lose them. I bought the Bose QuietComforts earlier this year and have lost one or the other a couple of times already. Right now one is sitting in the console of my truck and i can’t find the other one. No clue where it could be and of course the batteries are dead.
It would be nice if they all had Tile or similar tech, but if their batteries go dead just sitting there (super annoying thing about the bose) then it’s useless too.
(FWIW also tried the Sony wf1000-xm4s and hated them.)
Every single phone on the face of the earth can be charged while being used, even if you're talking on the phone. Nobody is worried there, and the risk is much higher since batteries are bigger, charged faster, etc.
I've got the Bose SoundSports and love 'em. They have a wire connecting the two earbuds, which clips to your collar. So no worries about falling out or misplacing half the pair... And they charge really fast, as well.
The case is to help keep them together and keep them charged. Although the QC Earbuds case is giant so it's somewhat annoying to do that. But yeah get into the habit of putting them back in the case when done and they'll be charged and in same place.
I do 95% of the time for just that reason. I think some folks are just wired differently in this regard. My wife never lost anything, I lose stuff regularly.
Couple of things, both could potentially be remedied by aftermarket foam tips, I'm not sure.
- Maybe I have weird ears but the bulk of their weight is up high and kind of out from the body and there's no real support other than the tip wedged into your ear canal. If you run downstairs or jog or jump it tends to make an audible 'pop' or clacking sound as the weight sort of pries against your ear canal. If you look at the Bose they have a little rubber support that grabs your ear and supports the weight. The XM3s are more evenly distributed.
- The ANC has tons of audio artifacts. I did all of the Sony ear tuning stuff and couldn't get it to go away. Any time you bump them you'll get weird twirps and chirps, certain frequencies kind have this wooden resonance and every now and then it just went apeshit with weird howls and whistles. This could be due to poor fitting (again possibly i have weird ears) and could likely be fixed with software over time.
If you like the XM3's I'd say give them a try but just make sure you know the return policy.
That's really interesting. I use aftermarket foam on my XM3, they fit solid and I could exercise with them in and not have them fall out (I don't use them for exercise however).
The ANC is the really interesting part, it's practically flawless in the XM3 I've never heard any of the issues you describe; which worries me that the XM4 has an issue or two, hopefully software ones that can he remedied but it doesn't sound good.
The XM3 doesn't support any sort of ear tuning, the feature in the app only applies to specific audio sources, none of which I have access to, so I can't comment on that part.
I've heard good things about the little rubber wedge in the Bose, I'd like that feature, but honestly I don't have fit issues with mine so it's not a deal breaker.
You don't have to accept wires to not have buds. There are 4 options:
1. Wireless buds
2. Wireless non-buds (some sort of wrap-around design to keep
them on)
3. Wired buds
4. Wired non-buds
I go with (2) personally, but mainly because Apple stopped me using wires. My main problem with bluetooth is that the headphones aren't loud enough (yeah you have to watch the line between loud and damaging but headphones are my opportunity to play music loud). Recommendations for loud wireless headphones appreciated!
Whenever I've done it I've always gone with #2, wireless non buds. I've gotten multiple pairs. While they don't get lost, I have always ended up with two fundamental problems with them
#1 Bluebooth connectivity to computers. If I was just using my phone they were mostly fine, but at a computer it was a constant fight to get them to connect, to work with whatever app I'm using, and especially when I'm switching back and forth between using them for listening to music or using them to video conference. This might also be partly because Linux is my main driver, but having to switch back and forth between high quality audio output for music and two way cell phone quality audio sucks.
#2 Having owned multiple pairs over the years, none of them would connect over Bluetooth while charging. Let me make my wireless headphones temporarily wired.
At this point I use an over the ear headphone with a mic and a USB DAC. I specifically only get phones with a minijack so I could use them with that too.
Not everyone uses a Mac, and I expect that most people aren't going to change OSes (and app ecosystems) just to get wireless headphones to work well. Less disruptive to just use wires.
For #1 I would blame linux. It's bluetooth stack is... let's say less than stellar, expecially for headsets. I always have to fiddle to get my headset to work, while it works perfectly with any other OS I tried (MacOS, iOS, Android, Windows).
#2: True, but usually the battery of a pair of headphones last much longer than earbuds, in my case at least 4 days, so I just put them in charge at night
Now this is very likely not what you are really looking for, but the airpods pro in noise cancellation mode can allow you to play music at much higher aparent loudness thanks to the noise cancellation. You may want to try that out.
Is it really a volume issue or a) an equalization issue; b) a background noise issue; c) both?
Some BT buds will let you futz with an equalizer (jabra). It really influences the experience of what you’re listening to, for instance different genres of music and pure voice.
I've had really good experience with the SteelSeries Arctis 7. It uses some kind of low latency 2.4GHz protocol, but requires a USB transmitter dongle.
Apple’s BT has actually been pretty solid for me. My AirPods Pros work rally well with my iPhone, Macbook Pro and Windows laptop. I can switch easily and it already is connected to my last device when I put the AirPods in my ear.
Imagine my Sennheisers working perfectly well with my phone, laptop, computer and even the 20y old radio on my toilet. No connection issues at all, even on busy places.
Just plug the wire and enjoy the very best music quality.
It must be only me who doesn't care about a wire for all the added bonus like quality, stability and no battery.
Being a software developer, I keep seeing bluetooth audio as a Rube Goldberg machine. It's using a battery that you have to keep charged, a lot of software, multiple CPUs, lossy codecs, forward error correction, and an entire stack of mind-bogglingly complex protocols (that no one has ever implemented 100% correctly) that run over an inherently unreliable medium so what? So you don't have to untangle the wire? It never made sense to me. I've never really taken bluetooth seriously. To me, it's a tradeoff that I just don't see ever making. I don't trust software this much. I also prefer something that's easy to troubleshoot when things go wrong.
I know how Wi-Fi works, and how it sometimes doesn't, and this is why I'm using ethernet whenever possible. Cellular operates in a much more controlled environment with more stringent certification, it's much more reliable for me than anything 2.4 GHz, but it does still get frustrating at times. The lack of requirement of a low delay also helps both wifi and cellular I guess.
I have headphones with Bluetooth and a cable (Sony). I never use the Bluetooth. My use case is listening at work though. Bluetooth seemed to work ok when I tested it, but didn’t confer any significant advantage for me.
I was a white happy owner of the Nokia BH-503 on-ear BT headphones. Sadly they just recently broke, I had them for like 10 years and.
My point is, that they just didn't have any of the problems you mention above (with the exception of random sampling frequency changes that changed pitch minimally, but noticable).
Sound quality was ok, I think it was one of the first A2DP headsets. Ok, for what it was mind you, my good over-ears are definitely better.
> Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use.
FYI, that's interference. Wi-fi "randomly" disconnects for a few seconds due to interference just as often, but you don't notice, because 1. the OS hides short disconnects, and 2. most protocols you use are TCP-based, and so use retries. (If you were doing something involving UDP streaming, you'd notice.)
Bluetooth audio, on the other hand, is a realtime protocol, which just drops stale packets rather than trying to retransmit them. Drop enough packets in a row, and the carrier thinks the device has gone out of range and disconnects it (as the alternative would be boiling your battery by turning the antenna gain up to infinity, as sometimes happens when cellular baseband misbehaves while ranging.)
> Gestures and voice are simply not as convenient as buttons on the wire. If I tap the thing in my ear, it tends to get shoved further into my ear and may still not register
Have you tried the AirPods Pro where you squeeze the stems? They're essentially buttons.
> Crucially, there isn’t a single problem above that occurs when using wires.
Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
Or: try to change your shirt while keeping your headphones on + playing. (I know, unusual thing to do, but I've changed my shirt with wireless earbuds in without a thought.)
Or: get up and go to the bathroom, while continuing to listen to the livestream you're watching on the desktop PC sitting on your desk, without missing anything. (Provided I'm at home, I can usually get about 40 feet away from the Bluetooth source before my wireless headphones disconnect.)
i too, used to shun bluetooth headphones. But since i've started using it, i've come around - the interference drops and the battery, both aren't enough to overcome the increase in convenience and portability. It's really, really good to have that portability with headphones.
> Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
This used to bug me a lot but I've found an easy solution. Just route the wire under your t-shirt or shirt or jacket. When I'm not using my headphones, the headphones hang around my neck. If I feel like taking off my headphones and placing them on the table, it takes 5 extra seconds to pull the wires from under my shirt after disconnecting them from the phone.
Do you have a length of slack cable dangling out the bottom of your shirt, like a performer wearing a lavalier mic? If not, then how do retrieve your phone from your pocket in order to change what you're listening to (or just to read something), without the cable yanking your own shirt up?
1/8" cabling could be wound into your pocket, yes—especially the thin-cored crap that most earbuds are made of. But at that point, are you gaining anything in audio quality by using wired headphones over Bluetooth headphones?
When I picture "preferring wired headphones", I picture taking around my studio monitors with their 10ft 1/4" solid-copper-cored cabling. (I did used to do pretty much this, when I was a stupid teenager! But that was before Bluetooth was invented.) That kind of cabling doesn't have a minimum curve radius that would let it fit in most pockets, unless you're either wearing an overcoat, or you've got the middle of the cable cleanly wrapped and tied in a linear bundle [which would still protrude upward out of most pockets, like a very tall phone.]
There's also the as-yet-unmentioned inconvenience of such cables—that they tend to have 1/4" RCA jacks on the ends, making plugging them into your phone a worrying experience involving adapters and shear stress—but oddly enough, modern phones with their lack of headphone jacks are better for this, since the flexible DAC adapters that plug into their USB ports protect the phone itself from being damaged by the shear force of a rigid 1/4"-to-1/8" adapter.
Just like the other commenter has mentioned, keep the slack on your pocket. Works best if your pocket is either deep or comes with zippers to seal them. Alternately, just wrap your phone with slack cable and be mindful about this when taking out your phone.
I have those. What I need to do that requires pulling out my phone, is selecting what I'll listen to next.
When listening to music, I don't usually bother to "queue up" songs/entire albums in advance, or to make playlists, but rather I just have a library of individual tracks, and then, as I listen to a song, I'll have a whim for what song to listen to next. (I use music to inspire me while writing fiction, so a lot of this is about creating the right mental mood for a scene.)
If I'm not listening to music, I'm listening to podcasts, which are also often a "listen to one episode, then pull your phone back out to select the next one" sort of experience, as many of them like to do things like slip in repeats of old episodes, such that a linear listening order gives you things you wouldn't want.
I have a Marmot jacket (very lightweight, but essentially water- and wind-proof, so any insulating layer underneath will keep you warm while keeping the jacket itself lightweight enough to prevent overheating on warm-but-inclement days) that features a breast pocket that zips vertically and is large enough to hold my iPhone 13 Pro Max. It has a small hole on the inside surface of that pocket that allows you to route a wire inside the jacket and connect it to a device in the pocket. If you need to manipulate the sound device, unzip the pocket and pull it out, do what you need and put it back.
the shortcoming with that, at least in my experience is that you cannot just quickly pull out your phone and glance at something, unless you want to accidentally pull your headphones out of your ears when you raise the phone to your face and tug on the wire that's trapped under your shirt.
With this setup you have to be a bit mindful for sure but if your cable is long enough, pulling out phone and using it as you would normally is no issue. You also keep slack cable on your pocket as other commenter has mentioned.
I say "disconnect" but I don't mean that the 802.11 PHY driver of the computer or the base station notices that there's a disconnection. Just that there's a time-correlated burst of packet loss on some/all channels.
This might not ever happen to you if you live in a bunker, or on a farmstead at least 500 feet from any neighbours. (Though I wouldn't completely discount the possibility; there's always solar storms.)
But if you live in a city, and like to sit near large picture windows (where the light from the window cuts across the straight-line path between your wireless devices and their base station), then every once in a while you're going to get what's basically a mini-EMP blast blowing through your window glass, on one random unlicensed-spectrum-interfering frequency on another: every time someone in the building across from yours vacuums with a 1950s vacuum cleaner with an ungrounded plug, or uses their shitty $50 freestanding microwave with underspecced side shielding; or operates their unlicensed AliExpress garage-door opener, or... etc.
If we could hear 2.4/5GHz, every day in a city would sound like Diwali: sudden short explosions, from every direction, at any odd hour of the day.
Remember, "unlicensed" spectrum means the FCC isn't policing those bands like they do with licensed allocations; so all the 2.4/5GHz "polluters" — the device buyers, and the manufacturers — never get told to stop.
There are plenty of connection-oriented protocols other than TCP that do experience a disconnect during these packet-loss bursts. RTP, for example.
There's a reason IP softphones are always wired, rather than being wi-fi devices — speaking RTP, they can't tolerate the somewhat-normal condition of RF-interference-induced 802.11-PHY packet-loss bursts nearly as well as devices speaking TCP can. They end up dropping calls in about the same way that Bluetooth Audio drops pairing.
(This is also most of why 802.11e QoS Traffic Categories exist — RTP is essentially hard-realtime, so even temporarily queuing RTP packets due to competing high-throughput TCP flows, could be enough to "choke out" the RTP flow.)
No, it's an inherent problem whenever a packet-switched, multi-user, shared channel inherently built around queued transmission tries to emulate real-time protocols, the earliest of which is "a directly-connected wire."
This sort of substitution can work, but it requires very stable, low-noise links (that is, with little to no burst noise) and the cooperation of devices and network equipment.
...Okay, how would you suggest a better protocol avoid that problem? For voice/video calls, you need a fairly small buffer size so that latency isn’t distracting. But if you have a (say) 250ms buffer, and the wireless connection drops out for 500ms, then there’s no way to avoid losing some packets.
TCP’s reliability comes at the cost of increased, inconsistent, and unpredictable latency; which is fine for downloading a file, browsing the web, or streaming video with a 30-second buffer; but unacceptable for a real-time call.
i've destroyed so many wired headphones by forgetting i'm wearing them and trying to take off my bag and tearing them out of my ears forcefully. it got to the point where i ended up using wired headphones like a consumable. switching over to wireless has been bliss just for this simple reason.
my biggest gripe with wireless so far, and this might be specific to galaxy buds+ is that their batteries suck after a years use. otherwise, all the things you describe are why they're great.
A downside being that backpacks (outside of hiking context) are so visually associated with schoolchildren that wearing them as a professional is kind of impossible, image-wise. For someone fresh out of college maybe; for thirty+ it starts communicating a very juvenile appearance. The key with messenger and shoulder bag ergonomics is all in positioning (vertically and in orientation relative to body).
Or to give more than a second's through to someone wearing a backpack, beyond "oh hey they have a backpack".
For one, if you're carrying enough crap isn't a backpack more ergonomic (assuming you wear both straps and aren't one-strapping it like the cool guy you are)
Image is one of those laws of society that we all wish wasn't true, all believe shouldn't be true, but is intractable and almost certainly derived from evolutionary pressure.
"Vestis virum facit", or clothes make the man is extraordinarily powerful in business and social dealings. Clothes signal a lot of information quickly. So this isn't about you caring what other people think, it's about how what other people care about affect your options. I could prescribe a few experiments to witness the differences directly but I'll tell you from personal experience that the A-B differences are stark.
There was a time when I was younger that I raged against this rule, but it's a youthful variation of "old man yells at cloud". You can try and create a new reality in your head and believe it fervently, and cut your nose to spite your face, but image matters greatly to other people, at a deep level.
I once saw a person walk away from a mixing desk in a studio wearing headphones. He got janked back violently enough that he lost his balance and fell. Pretty good cable!
if it's safe enough to run power to a computer, it would easily be able to handle the electrical requirments for any other connector, right? you just need an adapter.
luckily, apple has you covered. you just need $19.99. /s
that would be a weird idea though. 1/4 TRS female -> magsafe-male magsafe-female -> 1/4 TRS male. i'm guessing it would look like a sort of inline coupler or similar in final design. essentially, it should be totally doable. i look forward to your pitch on Shark Tank, er, to YC, yeah, that's what I meant.
I recently bought a foundue set; the hotplate it comes with has a magsafe regular 110VAC wall cord (no DC adaptation) that's magsafe on the device end. I wondered why I had never seen one of these before. Then I realized that that flat device end is actually incredibly dangerous to the touch when plugged into the wall. It's just slightly less dangerous than potentially knocking over a pot of boiling cheese. For regular appliances that aren't going to give you third-degree burns, it'd probably be preferable to just let the device get yanked off the table, than to risk exposure to live current.
I wonder if, in the future, we could have household wall sockets and extension cords with "sense pins" ala USB PD; where the mains-voltage live "rail" isn't energized unless a device hops on the logic-level control rail and negotiates for it. Then we could truly live in a MagSafe-everything world. (Then again, to block that kind of current, they'd probably need to use relays and other non-solid-state parts, so they might not be the most durable things...)
This is how every single Apple charging cords with the green/amber light in them has behaved. There's a bit of communication between device and cable before juice flows.
Did the end of the cable not have recessed "pins" specifically to avoid accidental shorting? Seems like it would never be U/L certified without some safety.
> This is how every single Apple charging cords with the green/amber light in them has behaved. There's a bit of communication between device and cable before juice flows.
Yes and no. MagSafe is safe because of the sense current and the handshake; but it's able to do that because it's just not driving very much wattage through the cable; it's low enough that it can direct the power with a simple transistor.
To make mains-voltage AC cords do that, you need a lot more than a transistor. A 1500W current (from e.g. a microwave, or a kettle) can arc a gap much wider than most transistors are printed at. Which is why, in even the most modern smart-home remote light-switch doodads, mains-voltage gets toggled using relays, rather than anything solid-state.
It's lovely to say "just do what MagSafe does", but with electricity, "quantity has a quality all its own" — i.e. very different engineering challenges to overcome.
> Did the end of the cable not have recessed "pins" specifically to avoid accidental shorting?
It has recessed pins (pads, actually), but only barely (by about 5mm); basically to the point that a round metal table leg could make contact with the live pad within the recess.
And, as far as I can tell, there's no sense logic in the cable, either. No click of a relay coming from the cable when it gets connected; and no place for a transformer to live (not that it needs one—it's a hotplate, i.e. a big thick piece of iron you run mains-voltage AC current through.)
There is a relay inside the hotplate itself, which roughly acts as a thermostat (rather than a rheostat) to toggle the coil on and off to keep the cheese at temperature. You can hear it ticking on and off, and an indicator light goes on and off along with it.
But for that logic to work, the cable has to be drawing power to power it. So, AFIACT, the cable itself is always live.
Mixing desk outputs are typically either on the very front of the desk or at the back for a less ergonomically designed deck and at right angles to the plane of the deck for top mounted and sticking out the font for front mounted. So which ever you've got you'll never be doing a nice straight pull. Magsafe would be a nice solution to this (but back then nobody thought of this).
The mixing consoles I've used had the 1/4" coming vertically out of the top of the board. For other equipment, it might be coming out facing the user in a vertical rack piece of gear. Never have I seen it on the very front of the desk. that would be very prone to getting sheered off when a rolling chair slides across the front of the desk.
>Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
This is really easy with a backpack, I assume it's only a problem with a messenger bag (which is probably a bigger problem for one's back, unless the load is kept very light.)
> Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
1. Stopping the music because its disconnected is literally non functional, its cool you can change your shirt without having to take out your head phones for 5 seconds but I just want mine to work while im going for a walk.
2. I have big hands buttons on the ear pod just knock it out of my ear.
3. I can take my bag off my sholder without taking out my wired headphones.
When I try to take my shirt off with wireless headphones they just get knocked out of my ear and im on the locker room floor looking for them.
Bluetooth doesn't have the range to do this without dropping in and out, at least in my house.
The big takeaway is that even the best wireless headphones on the market are less reliable than the cheapest wired.
Sure, they already make those ("radio" headphones); they sell them in pairs with 900MHz transmitters, for — among other things — people who are hard-of-hearing to better hear their (old, non-Bluetooth-enabled) TVs.
Ever wondered what's in the rack on rear center stage of a concert? One of these, so the performers can all hear the mix over their own instrument/the crowd without tripping all over cables.
(More recently, they're two-way, meaning that the e.g. electric guitar you hear is passing through a chain of: headphone pre-amp, wireless transmitter, wireless receiver, mixing board, amp. Effects pedals? These days, they're wireless MIDI controllers that signal to a DAW plugged into the mixing board!)
> Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
Well what I used to do when I had wired headphones was run the headphone cable under the bag so to speak. As in put on my headphones and then put on my bag. You just need to make sure you have enough slack in the headphones above the bag strap, which... I dunno I never found difficult. I just habitually put on my bag second, or would place my ear buds in my shirt/cups around my neck at least before putting on the bag.
Don't get me wrong it's nice for that to not matter with wireless, it's just the way you've phrased this implies to me putting the headphones on first and bag on second so the bag strap sits on top of the headphone cable never occurred to you and honestly that is confusing me
As someone who worked as a freelance audio engineer I have certain pairs of (chorded) headphones that I just want to use to hear my mixes (or other music) on.
I know how they sound and what they do to sounds. Every in-ear solution I had in my ears up to now doesn't even get close in terms of "resolution" (this is not a technical term but it is true, that some monitoring solutions will let you hear more of the recording than others).
Additionally my on-the-road headphones (Sennheiser HD25) last for a decade now. If the cable ever should fail I can get a replacement. If the earpad is through I can get a replacement. The only problem recently is, that phone manufacturers decided they need to be stingy about adding a 3.5mm TRRS-jack.
I’ve got a 18 year old pair of HD25’s. They are indeed excellent. On their third cable and ear pads now. But quite frankly I don’t use them any more. Switched to AirPods (2nd gen). They are absolutely no good for pro audio due to the latency but general audio perspective they are perfect.
As replaceable batteries turned into science fiction audio jack is literally the last thing I look for on a mobile phone.
I got a poco because I won't replace my HD-25 II anytime soon.
Before that I even took a MP3 player with me most of the time. Fiio Xsomwthing. However it broke, and for some reason you don't find good MP3 players with actual buttons anymore either.
Can't get enough praise for HD25 as a heavy user. It's portable, modular structure, replacement part is dirt cheap, comfy as hell, sounds awesome, cable is your choice, isolation is top notch and even quite cheap for what it is. As a DJ, I've been abusing it for a decade and it's still going strong. For me it's a peak mass product.
I got two Sennheisers, HD 25 and one wireless one (PXC 550). I do use wireless ones more when I'm on the move, but when I'm home and want the reliable sound I'm used to, nothing beats HD 25s.
It's like the opposite of planned obsolescence. They first came out five years before I was born, and here I am using them in my late 20s. I have no doubt they'll outlive my PXC 550s, which after about three years of usage have a degraded battery and a slow charging speed (micro USB is inexcusable).
Yeah. I’ve been using my HD25s for almost 20 years at this point. I’m going to need to replace the drivers at some point but that’s fine, and they’ll probably do another 20 years.
Sony MDR7502. I swear by these like other commenters have been swearing by the HD25s. The packaging comes with a pamphlet with all of the pieces exploded and their replacement part numbers. The only time I've had to get new cans is when some unfortunate soul unable to afford their own pair took mine while I was packing up from a gig.
I "upgraded" mine with a fiio BTR5. Now I just wrap the cable around the BT receiver and put it in my shirt pocket. Wireless freedom with wired 'phones!
I can't recommend Sennheiser headphones enough. They are, by a wide margin, the most comfortable headphones I've been able to find; I can wear them for 5+ hours without any problem (whereas most headphones get uncomfortable within an hour, and earbuds just start out being uncomfortable for me).
Been using 2nd gen AirPods since they came out. Never had any connection reliability issues at all. They switch between my phone and iPad all the time as well. No glitches at all here other than one time I was walking past a large diesel generator. As for gestures, I don’t use them. I usually use Siri, my watch or phone as a control surface. As for snug that depends on the person at the end of the day. I don’t have problems with mine even doing a 5k run.
I’m not going back to having to untangle a pocket full of wires and car keys. Also I’m not having the cable tugging when I’m walking or running and having to shove the things back in every two minutes. This product was a life changer for me.
That an Apple product can work might technically be data, but it's generally assumed from it launching. It would just be noise if everyone chimed in here.
My phone can connect to the wifi in my house perfectly, but not at my parents house even tho its the same phone, same make of router and both where setup by me.
Wifi depends more on location than the hardware or how you are using it. The anecdote that it works for you is fair enough but pretty useless in this situation as its just a coincidence.
I can't speak for "hmrr" but I've used airpods everywhere: NYC subways, London underground, Bangkok's MRT, airports everywhere, and I never had an issue with them connecting. I was initially surprised when friends of mine gave me a similar claim because prior to them I had extremely bad experience with connecting or partial-connecting to devices, but they really do work that well. If yours don't, I'd expect a defect worth an exchange.
But I don't think it's just Apple's airpods either: Most of the newer bluetooth headphones work and connect almost instantly with my iPhone; I have some Bose QC35 that I can report the same speed of connection of the airpods -- maybe even a little faster. I suspect it's related to some extremely modern bluetooth version or feature-set that might be difficult to discern from the box, but I have not dug into it deeper.
This being said, my airpods sit on my desk next to my Jabra DECT headset: Bluetooth is only almost instant, but DECT is actually instant.
I first saw them visiting a cell centre (inside-sales team) team in Seattle, and so I asked about them and learned "we wear this thing making cold calls sometimes every few minutes, all day long, and it doesn't suck" and that pitch sold it for me. I wish it traveled better, because if anything rings (phone, skype, teams, zoom, slack), I pick up the headset and it answers on the computer at the same time, and I'd love (somehow) to have that experience when everything is packed in my rucksack.
Anecdotally, I have a pair of Sony WF1000-XM3, bought them at full retail for ~£280, at the time they launched, my daily commute in London was unbearable. The second I hit a slightly busy station concourse it was skip-central, or the right ear would disconnect for minutes on end.
Couple of years later, Sony has updated them half a dozen or so times, and I rarely ever get skips or jumps now. I have them always set to emphasise quality over connection, and they have worked perfect. You can buy them new on the likes of Amazon for ~£120 now, which is a bargain.
Sony just(?) released the XM4 which have a slightly better form factor and better codecs, so I'm considering them next.
The only issue I have is that sometimes either my AirPods pro or AirPods max will get confused and try to connect to the wrong device. But it’s not such a huge inconvenience that Id go back to wired.
AirPods auto-switching is absolutely awful. Try downloading IntervalTimer on your iPhone. Start a timer. Listen to music from your Mac. The Interval app on your phone will make beeps when intervals end; when that happens, your iPhone will pause your Mac's audio and switch to the iPhone. It's borderline unusable.
Do you only have 1 pocket? Could you really not use another pocket so your keys and headphones are not in the same pocket to avoid this situation? I'm unfamiliar with any designer that makes jeans/pants with only one pocket, but I'm no fashionista
so your dedicated headphones pocket has been reassigned to peanut butter & jelly sandwich holder, sniffles tissue holder, candy wrapper holder, neat rocks holder, and other daily fascinations holder. the contents of this magic pocket are never truly understood until after the washing.
I have a pair of really good wired Sennheisers. I never owned or used Bluetooth devices for more than giving it a try.
I may be audiophile. But when I put a music on I want to get fully absorbed and hear every little detail while I don't worry about battery life. Sounds weird I know
Theoretically I don't think there's a reason why it wouldn't be possible to make the sound produced in the audible range the same (preferrably roughly matching Harman target out of the box) for wired and wireless.
But yes, I'd never trade the slight inconvenience a cable is with the amount of inconveniences of wireless. Especially the battery: I grew up having to deal with battery life in portable players (cassette, minidics, you name it) and this finally got a lot better so I almost don't have to care anymore (talking actual music players, not smartphones), I'm really not going to go back to something inferior again.
It's fascinating how well this has been marketed though, but that's really almost all there is to it for me: just marketing, not a whole lot of actual value.
When you do try bluetooth again, try full cans from a good brand. No earbuds at all. Check which codecs the cans will use. Just cans vs earbuds makes a hug sound and comfort difference. Literally, you get larger drivers and a larger battery, so physics is already on your side vs earbuds.
I think the only wireless 'full cans' I've tried are beats which I don't like the sound profile of anyway. Also larger battery surely will decrease the comfort from its weight?
if you have more than one device you want to use your high quality headphones on it is a hassle because the headphones are always connecting to the wrong one.
That's exactly the problem I had. Eventually have to connect to one device only. And I just realized now I mainly use wired ones and sometimes even use the wireless ones wired...
I’ve been looking for a small, wired and preferably powered external speaker for travel to provide louder and better quality sound masking than the tiny speaker in the phone. There are a million little Bluetooth speakers out there but the random inverted hiccups (sudden silence then resume) wake me up every time. I’m sure it’s the Bluetooth because it doesn’t happen when I use the phone speaker.
I carry a 1st gen iPhone SE for wired audio, so I guess now it’s basically an iPod.
Edit: Well, looks like there’s some stuff on eBay I didn’t see in previous searches. Retro 2000s stuff. I can roll the dice for £5 plus shipping. Use case is still relevant.
I got used to the running stream sound, which seems to throw enough transients to mask voices, doors, etc. But I like the retro appeal of an old transistor radio. As a kid, I used to fall asleep listening to hockey games, which had a constant drone of speech almost like a slow-moving auctioneer, punctuated with a bunch of unfamiliar French surnames and the occasional “he scoooores!” If I half-tune it to something like that it could be just the thing.
I had all of these problems with several cheap models of bluetooth earbuds until I got some Sennheiser CX 150BTs a few years ago. They connect to both my computer and phone at the same time if they're both on, switch between the two automatically thereafter (whoever plays audio first gets exclusive use), sound decent, and get 8-10 hours on a charge.
Cons: mic volume is low, and when a device disconnects they will play disconnect sound until they reboot.
A number of these complaints seem like they are issues of implementation and not of wirelessness in and of itself.
I definitely found 3rd party Bluetooth headphones to be not worth the trouble early on, but since Apple introduced the AirPods I got tempted back to them. Either Bluetooth got a lot better or Apple's doing something clever (or both), because with the occasional "one pod didn't wake up; put it back in the case and take it out again" issue, they work perfectly for me.
I do still use corded headphones -- I'm an audio guy; I have a bunch -- but it's increasingly rare.
Audio dropping out because the wireless signal is not strong enough or interference is not something that can be fixed in implementation it is a fundamental limitation of the technology. When it happens it makes wireless headphones useless at their one function playing audio.
Yes, a persistent problem with said issue WOULD definitely be grounds for abandoning Bluetooth headphones.
However.
What I'm saying is that this is not a problem for me with the Apple headphones I use (Airpods Pro and Max), which is what I'm using for most of my listening (owing to convenience, I've almost completely stopped using wired headphones).
I do occasionally experience dropouts with the AfterShox I use for some outdoor exercise, and I did sometimes experience the issue with the Sennheisers I had before I got the Airpods Max, which leads me to believe that there ARE aspects of this problem that CAN be ameliorated with implementation, contrary to your assertion.
I mean, how else do we explain the fact that it's only been a problem for me when I use nonApple hardware?
If we took your worst performing wifi device to an empty field in the middle of no where it would work perfectly. In comparison to my office in the city with walls that are nearly three feet thick with no cavity made of stone and rubble, the building is nearly 200 years old there are electrical conduits to all the hallogen office lights and two electrical conduits circle the room, theres old telephone equipment, servers, networking, 4g repeaters, a nest wifi router and 10 iMacs. Look I dunno what exactly causes the wifi black hole that is my office but it should be pretty obvious that wifi in the space is a challenge.
Anyway air drop won't work, move a foot away from your imac and your ear pods will drop their connection. Wifi has way more to do with the space than it does the hardware, think about it the only way apple could improve their signal above the competition is just to boost the signal strength and they can't do that because its agains't government regulation.
If you bought three brands of lotto ticket each with the same payout spec but on paid out while the others did not would you think that the winning brand of lotto ticket had better odds? or would you think that you just got lucky that time?
>If you bought three brands of lotto ticket each with the same payout spec but on paid out while the others did not would you think that the winning brand of lotto ticket had better odds? or would you think that you just got lucky that time?
That's a poor comparison, because there's no difference between lotto tickets and there IS a demonstrable difference in Bluetooth implementations and hardware.
It does sound like you've created a high-interference environment, though.
I had a kid a few years ago when I switched. Wearing headphones and holding a child sucks because they will probably get pulled out of your ears. I always hated cords tangling in my pocket and I'd often have the wires snag on a doorknob or drawer when walking around--often breaking them. I also used a messenger bag.
Ear fit sucks, is it worse with cordless headphones? Ear fit always comes up with earbuds, wireless or wired. I've heard individuals say wireless is better for them because there's no wire tugging on their ear. I'm surprised to see a lot of people walking around with over-the-ear headphones (I tend to use them at home or on a plane).
FWIW, the standard Apple earbuds, both wired and regular AirPods, will not stay in my ears, but the silicon tipped Pros fit like a champ. I have the same experience with non-Apple earbuds as well. Something about the shape of my ears makes the silicon ends a necessity.
Aftershokz are really good (not buds). They never fall off, they work really well when exercising, kids don't yank them off, they have nice physical controls. I love mine.
That said, when I'm sitting at my desk to do work, I use wired headphones (and wired mouse and keyboard). When I'm really in the flow, the last thing I want is to be interrupted by a "low battery" prompt.
Without coming across too much as an ad placement, I have to say I have virtually none of these problems with my Jaybird X2 headphones, and I think its entirely a design thing.
My headphones are wired from one to the other. They're wireless to the music device, but wired to each other if that helps paint you a picture. Plus, they have these little rubber fins that help hold the headphones in your ears So for me: I can't lose one without the other, and them being tethered together makes it harder to lose them in general. The controls are on the wire, so none of that "pressing your head" issue you describe. The only time I seem to have issues is when I have my phone in my front pocket opposite to the bluetooth receiver... I think my body just blocks the signal too well. Otherwise I can be 30ft away and still get a strong bluetooth connection.
Enough of the ad talk (Please email me for my info Jaybirds so I can collect my shill cheque) I think its just a design issue. Everyone wants those tiny things that hide away in your ear, but I've always felt the inconvenience of having 2 easily misplaced little buds outweighs any design advantages they have. Its like the trend of making phones smaller and smaller, then suddenly bigger and bigger, but not addressing the convenience of having a smart phone. I don't need a massive screen, I need a stronger battery... so make it 3mm or 5mm thicker if that's what it takes to get 48hr life on a charge.
I had the Jaybird X2 headphones and they always fell out with the silicon tips and the foam tips made it so I couldn't hear anything in my vicinity and they still fell out (especially while running). Also they felt kind of bad in my ears.
I now have AirPod Pros and I have none of the above problems. I waited a long time before buying them and was really surprised how well they fit (because of my experience with normal iPhone headphones and the Jaybird headphones).
I guess experiences differ depending on your on your ears and it's probably best if you try them first if you can.
When they announced AirPods 3 I checked the apple website every day since the release.
But they are not sold in Taiwan yet. So I bit the bullet and got the pros about 5 days ago. I hate my wife’s Sony headphones cos they hurt my ears, and figured the pros would last until the non silicon tip comes came out. But now I love the pros.
Yeah, I can actually see that. It took me a little bit of trial and error to get mine set up the way I like them... I actually have different sized tips in the left & right ears. I guess that's just anatomy for ya.
And contrariwise, while for day-to-day wear I love my bluetooth over-ear headphones, my 'plane earphones' are wired Bose QC25s. Partly because in-ear provides superior noise canceling, partly because when I'm on that 5:30am flight I can lean my head against the side of the plane without upsetting my headphones, but mostly because if I drop my phone I can fish it back up with the headphone cable. :D
> They fall out of my ears, no matter how “snug” they seem. This makes me only want to use them in places where I won’t lose them, e.g. at home but not out for a walk.
In this case wired is just another mode of failure as they will get loose if the cable is tensioned. If you are afraid of losing them you can use one with a wire between the buds (non-TWS).
That’s not been my experience. In fact I can leave my phone inside and still get Bluetooth out close to the street.
I was originally very upset about Apple removing the headphone port, but after getting my first AirPods I basically stopped caring. They just worked so well, I never wanted wires again.
By the by, I had more headphones yanked out by door handles than I’ve had wireless buds fall out, but I’ll grant that the latter is strongly affected by individual ear geometry.
Honestly, I'd be surprised to find out that most people used wireless 100% of the time. I have a few good wired headphones that I didn't throw out just because I got myself BT earbuds. What do people use with their PCs?
Wired headphones never went away. Wireless earbuds were mostly airpods and clones, which were always a victory of style over practicality or rationality, yet another example of douches with too much money burning that money on inferior products to look fancy (see also: Apple's entire business model). At BEST, you end up paying a higher price for something with ALMOST the same audio quality, slightly less wire-related hassle, and new, much worse NON-wire related hassle, like dropping one somewhere you can never retrieve it from.
I used ear buds for the first time in years today (nothing special, soundcore) and they'd be decent if not every single step I take while walking got transferred into my ears. It's quite loud and distracts from the music. This alone makes me buy over ear headphones...
I've had all the glitches you described with at least three last wireless headphones I used before switching to airpods pro. I haven't had a single problem like this with them, which I've been using for 2 months now.
Yes, they aren't a novelty anymore, they don't screen from other people effectively, cheap clones are almost identical, too many people use them and the cool factor dropped, yadda yadda yadda.
...or maybe most users after some years realized the true costs of having non replaceable batteries.
Making them replaceable on the AirPods would be very easy; and a nice move that would also bring them some more customers including me, but apparently milking users to the last cent pays more.
I’ve resoldered the batteries on my generic wireless earbuds that were very much meant not to be serviceable. It really wouldn’t be hard to make them serviceable, even if they weren’t user replaceable. There’s one in each bud, and another in the case.
A battery only needs two electrical contacts on a component that is already self contained. Its a very simple device. The lithium ion ones in this size range are a few bucks each on the wholesale market. There are even standardized button cell sizes. It is very much a design choice.
The other side of it is that lithium ion battery tech is at the point where the battery lifespans is starting to exceed the device lifespan. Certainly true for the cheap side of the earbud market
The battery is contained in the stick coming down from the AirPod body. They could make them threaded with concentric tracks at the top making contact with springs, so the user could simply unscrew them and swap with fresh ones, so that the parts cost of replacing the battery would be the battery itself plus a piece of plastic, some wire and a small almost empty pcb, surely not the entire device.
I know I would fidget with mine and end up unscrewing them partially leading to erratic behavior and eventually completely leaving me without a power source.
> ...or maybe most users after some years realized the true costs of having non replaceable batteries
Nope. This is a minority preference that HN folks are obsessed about, but most people aren't. The wireless headphone market is huge and booming, and replaceable batteries went out around the same time they did in cell phones. Last pair I had with a replaceable battery were Bose QC15s, sold from 2009-2015. Airpods may have lost their novelty, but people are buying up loads of wireless/ANC headphones from Bose, Sony, Sennheiser, Beats, etc. None of the newest generations have easily replaceable batteries.
I don't think the intended customers care at all about replaceable batteries as an issue against purchase. And even as an expense it's insignificant anyway (given the lifetime until replacement)...
Personally I never had wired headphones last longer than a year before the cable gets damaged. For how much utility I get out of my AirPods, I think replacing them every 3 years is excellent value.
I have two pairs of Beyerdynamic studio headphones. The other pair is now 16 years old, still sound great and are in daily use. I've replaced the cable once, it was easy and cables are common to find.
> For disorganized types, corded headphones are easier to keep track of and needn’t be charged.
This is why I've never bought wireless headphones. You don't need to be disorganized to appreciate the convenience of not having to charge yet another device you want to use on the fly.
Why would I pay more for something that takes more mental bandwidth to use?
AirPods kinda solved this problem with the wireless charging case. I almost never use them long enough to drain the battery in the headphones before they get put back in the case. At night I put the case on my wireless charging thingy and I don't really ever "think" about charging my AirPods.
My wireless headphones I do occasionally have to think about charging, but they are USB-C and mostly I'm using them on my computer, so whenever they need charging I just unplug my USB-C computer, plug in my headphones for an hour, and then we're back. Not really an operation I think about much either. If I really want to I can then plug in the wired cable and still listen to them while they're charging, but usually I don't bother.
> At night I put the case on my wireless charging thingy and I don't really ever "think" about charging my AirPods.
You just did. Us absent-minded people are likely to forget even putting those things back into their case, forget the case at home or some other place (since we don't need it to listen), or forget to charge it. My stuff is likely to be in the last place I stopped using it. In this case that's hopefully my jacket, but it certainly won't be some charging station.
My wired earphones I can wear under my shirt with only a small chance of losing them. I still lose those occasionally, but mostly I break them every six months. A new pair is ten bucks, so whatever.
I already have trouble keeping my phone charged. I don't need more stuff with batteries. Especially not in something that's never supposed to be more than a few centimeters from the device it's receiving signals from anyways.
I'm incredibly absent-minded; I wake up in the morning, grab my iPhone and AirPods off my bedside table, and carry them around with me all day. Then, when I take off the clothes I've been wearing all day, I put them back on the charging stand. Rinse repeat. It's habit at this point, I haven't consciously had the thought "my AirPods are low on battery, I need to recharge them" in months.
> Especially not in something that's never supposed to be more than a few centimeters from the device it's receiving signals from anyways.
This sounds kinda like the opinion of someone who has never even tried wireless earphones. It is very nice being able to stand up from my desk / ride my motorbike / etc and keep listening to whatever I was listening to (or staying on the call I was on) without my phone being in reach.
I’ve just got a charging pad on my desk. In the morning I pop my watch and AirPods pro on it while I take a shower (have a HomePod mini in the bathroom so don’t need headphones) and by the time I’m done they’re charged up enough for the day. And I keep my AirPods max charged via cable in a drawer in my desk. Phone goes on the same charging pad as the watch and pro. So all in all it’s pretty easy keeping everything charged for me.
I put mine on a wireless charging pad when they are not in my pocket. It takes no extra mental bandwidth.
I have used wired headphones for years, and I prefer headphones to earbuds for both comfort and sound, but it just isn’t true that they are more convenient.
>You don't need to be disorganized to appreciate the convenience of not having to charge yet another device you want to use on the fly.
Most wireless _headphones_ that I've bought come with an audio cable just for this eventuality. (Versus earphones, like the Airpods that do not have this capability.)
1. Sennheiser earbuds that are on a Lightning adapter. I keep them in my desk at work, and use them for phone calls a few times a week.
2. Sony 1000MX or whatever they are called. Bluetooth, noise-cancelling, full size. The battery lasts like 20 hours so they go with me on the airplane and some car rides, but don't use them too much otherwise. They also can be used with a cord which is great when you need that.
3. Aukey Bluetooth earbuds, they are only $18 and "good enough", fit in my laptop sleeve. These get used the most out of any of them.
I used to feel that way, but then I've got a drawer full of old gear with replaceable batteries that I can't get the batteries for anymore. Would be much more useful if rechargeable lithium batteries were standardized. Also I probably wouldn't really want to use any of these devices even if I could get a battery for them as the technology has moved so much since I originally got them.
A lot of those batteries are probably easy enough to source the cells for. Usually just the adapter is what differs. Larger packs are usually discrete cells at that.
I have Bluetooth headphones (WH-1000XM4) that I use on a PC. They work great for music, but for video content the latency is very perceptual. It is sub-second, but you can tell actor's mouths aren't in sync.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of solutions on PC, since the platform has no control of browser based video playback and even if it did, finding the exact audio offset would be impractical.
VLC and other video players have options to tweak video/audio latency to get them to syncronize by delaying whatever's ahead by a fixed amount to more accurately match the other. There are even chrome extensions proporting to let you tweak such syncronization for youtube, although I haven't tested them. You don't need to find the exact audio offset either - just close enough that you can't tell anymore.
But this only helps with less interactive media. Adding even more latency to video games or MIDI keyboard synthesizers is counterproductive: sure, you could delay the rendering of a muzzle flash to match the playing of a gunshot, but that makes things feel even worse when you click! Maybe tolerable in a casual macro-focused RTS, but not so acceptable in a twitch shooter.
I have two pairs of airpods, one is practically dead and the other keeps falling out of my ear when I tilt my head. The only reason why I still use them is because I'd need to carry around 3 different wired pairs to connect to my MacBook, iPhone and iPad...
The 1/8th inch RCA stereo jack is the best interface ever created. The fact that it's essentially unchanged from when this 44 year old used it in middle school is pretty good proof.
I've never given polarization any thought and never had any problems, so I don't buy this being an actually a problem in practice.
> not earthed
NEMA-1 aren't earthed, but NEMA-1 sockets have been forbidden since the 60s, so that fails the "unchanged" part of coldtea's assertion. NEMA-1 plugs may still be used on Class II double insulated appliances, which is fine. And NEMA-5 does have a ground.
> not safe when partially inserted.
I've never worried about it, never been hurt by it, and never heard of anybody being hurt by it. This is a "problem" that I often hear described by Europeans online but it's totally alien to me. Please remember that we only put 120V through these things, which is substantially less nippy than 240V.
> I've never worried about it, never been hurt by it, and never heard of anybody being hurt by it.
Just as my anecdotal experience: I've shocked myself at least twice because my finger slipped over the contacts while I was trying to plug/unplug something in the dark. I have of course learned my lesson and am much more careful when plugging stuff in, but it's a relatively easy mistake to make if one is tired or not paying attention.
Yes, I got shocked because I was stupid and careless. But a connector that everybody uses every single day should be idiot-proof -- it should not be possible to kill myself because I plugged something in carelessly.
The US has the "excuse" of being the first domestic power distribution system -- other countries have better standards because they were able to learn from the design flaws in our plugs. And our split-phase 120V system is (as far as I know) a great idea that's way safer than direct 240V. But there really are a lot of things that the NEMA plugs leave to be desired. I second the recommendation by a sibling commenter to check out Technology Connection's videos on the subject -- I found them to be entertaining, nuanced, and highly informative.
> The US has the "excuse" of being the first domestic power distribution system -- other countries have better standards because they were able to learn from the design flaws in our plugs.
Are the US plugs actually original? The UK ones are on their third generation (originally various proprietary or light-socket-based things, then the three prong round ones found in very old buildings and specialised industrial applications, then the three prong rectangular ones from the 60s).
> And our split-phase 120V system is (as far as I know) a great idea that's way safer than direct 240V.
Eh. They are both safer or less safe in different ways. The US system requires about double the current for given power, so is less forgiving of marginal wiring.
Sometimes when it's dark and I don't know exactly where the socket is, I'll hold the plug by the prongs itself so I can feel both the prongs and the socket at the same time.
I've never given polarization any thought and never had any problems, so I don't buy this being an actually a problem in practice.
That's probably because a lot of equipment is double-insulated now so polarization doesn't matter, and manufacturers are better at getting the polarization right. It's usually when someone (incorrectly) replaces a cord themselves that you run into issues, which doesn't seem to happen much nowadays, the lamp with the bad cord goes in the trash. Though I've certainly run into home outlets that are wired backwards.
Probably the most likely place you'd run into problems with incorrect polarization is when changing a light bulb. If the polarization is wrong, the outer threaded part of the socket will be live, and you've got a good chance of contacting it while changing a light bulb. (which itself is becoming a rarely with long lasting LED bulbs, or LED lamps without changeable bulbs). Though this is probalby more the fault of the Edison lightbulb socket than of the polarized plug.
I recently found my 5 year old trying to insert scissors into the power outlet. Ours have som kind of poke protection (sweden. Not as good as the british outlet where a ground , proper or plastic, always has to be present) which he would have probably overcome given enough time.
I would be terrified of the american plug. I played with one when I was over last time and there was over 5mm of exposed live connectors. That's bonkers.
> I've never given polarization any thought and never had any problems, so I don't buy this being an actually a problem in practice.
In my experience polarization has only became relevant once: when mounting a dedicated socket for a gas furnace. For some reason these don't like the live and neutral being reversed and go into an error mode when that happens.
Other than that, most wall sockets in my house are dual, which means polarization in the top socket is reverse of that at the bottom and it has never caused any issues.
That link completely glosses over the fact that UK electrical networks are one big ring circuit instead of a radial circuit. This is because during WW2 they needed the metal savings, and this is also why every UK plug is fused and quite bulky.
IMO the EU way is the best. Radial circuit, fused in groups, and the plug is either the Schuko plug (very safe since the earth/ground is always engaged first) or Europlug (relatively safe because it is only allowed for low class power appliances). Both type of plugs can be angled, although it is quite rare for an Europlug to be.
Ignoring the circuit design and fuse location (which I agree with you on), the child proofing of British sockets is much better than Schuko sockets (CEE 7/3), as they require the ground pin to be engaged before protective cover of the live/neutral pins is opened - it's impossible to open just by pushing something in the live socket. How does this work with child proof Schuko sockets (I've never seen them)?
Also as someone who lived in both the UK and now a Schuko country, I do sometimes miss having a switch on the socket :-) We have a floor lamp without a switch, so we have to physically unplug it to turn it off.
AFAIK in childproof Schuko there is a lid covering the holes for neutral and phase and you have to press into both holes at once to open that lid up. The force to do so is also not insignificant.
If I had to overcome it on purpose with two knitting needles I would fail as a grown up man. With two screwdrivers I could do it.
> Also as someone who lived in both the UK and now a Schuko country, I do sometimes miss having a switch on the socket :-) We have a floor lamp without a switch, so we have to physically unplug it to turn it off.
I've actually heard Americans make fun of our (UK) switches on the outlets. Usually something to the effect of "need to make sure the electric doesn't escape, when things are unplugged, lol". It completely misses the point. The point of the switches is we have a way to isolate a device without unplugging it. Without the switch the only way to isolate the thing is pull the cord out of the wall like some kind of neanderthal.
Schuko plug (very safe since the earth/ground is always engaged first) or Europlug (relatively safe because it is only allowed for low class power appliances)
the problem is that they don't have contact covers.
What I like about the British plug is that its closed most of the time, and really really difficult to put stuff in the live/neutral. That has advantages for safety, but also cleanliness. It cuts down dust ingress.
They can have contact covers no problem, it's just not in the plug standard. Every couple with kids I know installed socket safety protectors[0] in their power outlets if they wheren't int there already. Some built in ones just require to push the plug in a bit harder, but for even better safety turning ones as in the amazon link are available.
Metal savings is why every plug is fused ? How does that even make sense when historically fuses were all metal construct instead of the modern ceramic whatnots.
And anyway, fused plugs were not a requirement until ... 1992: "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Plugs and Sockets Etc. (Safety) Regulations 1987 to require pre-wired plugs to be fitted to all domestic appliances by the manufacturer." (Citation: HC Deb, 29 January 1992, c955).
As far as I know, the war has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with fuses in plugs. It was just introduced as part of the modernisation of UK electricity rules.
If you look at historical houses, they still have/had central fuseboards with rewireable or cartridge fuses. See [1]
The fuses on UK Plugs are for overload protection. Simple.
See also this YouTube video for other reasons as to why UK plugs are the best[2].
Finally, if you have time on your hands, there is a 23 page treatise on the how's and why's of ring circuits. [3].
The plugs are part of the overall system they are in and are designed to that. If you have a ring circuit and 240volts like in the UK, then you had better have a plug that deals with common failure modes - switches on the sockets, fuses, ground as standard etc. If you have 120volts and a radial circuit then you can perhaps do without it.
The US plug does have advantages, like being smaller. UK plugs are really annoyingly large and weighty.
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying you don't like how big and bulky it is? It's worth noting what you've linked is more for industrial use. You might see something like that in a server rack for example, but Brits don't have them in their homes.
In British homes/offices you'll see something like this[0], this[1], or this[2].
This is fair. It's similarly long, but I would say not as bulky nor ugly (and aesthetics matters a bit, as these are often in homes), so I just wanted to clarify we don't have those metal things in British homes.
What do 6-outlet strips look like where you're from? I'd never considered British ones to be a problem because you throw them behind the setee or under a desk, and probably because it's all I've ever experienced. Also, in practice you usually only want smaller strips with 2-4 outlets, where the size matters even less.
For those who are into this kind of thing, here's a 25 minute mini-documentary of the US electrical system's history and problems. It's more focused on wiring, but has a lot to say on plugs: https://youtu.be/K_q-xnYRugQ
There is a more recent video from the same person (Technology Connections) that concentrates on plugs - specifically, why US plugs have holes in them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udNXMAflbU8
It has some very significant design flaws. The ground pin is connected last, and while a plug is being inserted or removed the connections get all jumbled up and even shorted together. This causes all sorts of hums, crackles, and pops while inserting or removing a plug, which may be only a minor annoyance for headphone users but can be extremely loud and/or damaging when using large amps & speakers. (It's also very easy to only insert a plug partially by mistake, which can take frustratingly long to troubleshoot.) They also typically carry unbalanced signals and are therefore susceptible to interference at high impedances and/or long distances.
Pro audio equipment usually prefers connectors such as XLR [0] (or even heavier-duty cables like Speakon [1] if you need to carry large amounts of power). They're a lot bulkier but immune to all these problems: the ground pin connects first, the connector physically latches into place, and they're typically used to carry a balanced signal over a twisted pair so they're mostly immune to interference. The only place you'll find a TS/TRS connector on a stage is on a "patch cable" for making short-distance connections, like from a guitar to an amp -- and you have to be very careful not to touch them unless the sound guy tells you it's OK, because those pops will be loud over a PA.
Newer (and more expensive) equipment is moving in the direction of avoiding analog altogether and transmitting audio over Ethernet using protocols like Dante [2].
I've got a guitar cable (1/4", but some basic design) that has some sort of trick setup in the plug where it shorts everything until the ground is firmly connected... no pops or crackles.
One weird use is that despite its flaws, the DIY ergonomic keyboard community has pretty much standardised on the four-pole 3.5mm variant for connecting split keyboards together. The wires carry DC power and serial!
It got chosen because it was compact, it can be repeatedly plugged and unplugged, sockets can be through-hole soldered, and double-ended cables are widely available.
There is no obvious alternative with those characteristics, and they outweigh the bad.
It's even been adopted as a MIDI jack in smaller devices like Korg Volcas. Only problem is, each manufacturer has chosen their own tip-ring-sleeve pinout...
never liked plugging things in my ears unless to wipe out loud noises. I often plug in earphones when mowing the lawn or vacuuming / woodworking. Otherwise I use "bone conducting" headphones to listen to podcasts and audiobooks.
I rarely listen to music this way, I only seem to like music that's played out loud.
Author's opinion is subjective and falls under selection bias.
There's a lot of famous people that don't use wired headphones
For the wireless argument, here is mine.
I use an airpods pro. I also have multiple high end headphones. I only apple os with wireless. If I was using linux, android, windows then I have to use my other headphones, since my bluetooth always have issues with wireless using other os.
The airpods pro is probbably my favourite headphones that I have. I use it 95% of the time
The only time I use wired headphones is if I need to use my amp when I really need/want to listen to the quality of something or if im using non apple os.
Wires are a pain in the a$% for me personally and ironically more fragile than my airpods pro. It's hard to move around with wires and they tangle a lot wether if im wearing them or not.
The airpods pro are small and you can have noice cancelling, transparency, and normal mode. The only downside is I have to charge them every 5~ hours.
They connect to my phone, and my 3 computers easily without unhooking the wires.
The only annoying thing about the airpods pro is that people don't know that i have something in my ear because my hair is long and I am listening to something. When they are trying to start a conversation I usually can't hear them.
The only time they fall out of my ears is if im cleaning the house cause im moving my head around too much. They don't even fall when I'm working out or running
People like what they like. Forcing it just does not go well, unless the reasons are really good.
I was, and am seriously put off by the omission of analog audio jacks. Most of the reasons given just do not resonate and sometimes it is stated or strongly implied I am somehow the problem.
Likewise. My son and I both ditched iPhones when Apple took away the headphone jack. How else are we supposed to use our phones to listen to music in our cars? (My car's bluetooth only works for phone functions, not music, and my son's doesn't even have that option).
I've connected a cheap (~15€) Bluetooth audio receiver to the Aux-In. No phone functionality, but I always ignore calls and texts while driving (and some of the time not driving) anyways
I did try that, but the quality was dreadful and it's just something else needing recharging/eating batteries.
The decision to drop a universally supported headphone jack really doesn't make any sense unless you are trying to force people to buy your expensive wireless ear-buds, (which I can't wear because they are uncomfortable and fall out of my ears within seconds).
When I rent newer cars, which I do frequently, I am amazed at the diversity of general conbobtwinkulating required to connect, looking hard at you Dodge, and quality, latency is never worth the hassle.
There is a BT cassette adapter, believe it or not. Tried it an old Audi we had that still had a deck in it. It worked but the charging cable couldn’t stay plugged in while cassette was loaded, and if you left it in car in cold temps of course battery would turn to rubbish pretty quickly. However, it’s awesome that this exist[s/ed]. I thought there must be a way for some bright engineer to get the thing to gen power from the rotation of the tape reels and just dump the need to charge as often or at all.
You're right in theory. In practice that either means a battery in the headphones and/or a new audio cable. I'm sure this has been tried before. It seems like something Sony would try--maybe Lighting headphones would count?
> Author's opinion is subjective and falls under selection bias. There's a lot of famous people that don't use wired headphones
That's pretty obvious. The article gave that for granted (actually, it even explicitly acknowledged it) and put the spot on famous or not so famous people going the other way round. They will be always be a minority and guided by fashion/aesthetics rather than comfort, but it was worth (or not) to point it out.
I might be in the minority here, but wired headphones have always been a disaster for me.
I only buy wireless ones now, even though they're fraught with their own issues. It seems like there's always a tradeoff to be made, specifically regarding quality.
My biggest complaint has been the damage that I've always seem to have done to the headphone jacks of devices that I use. I'm not harsh on my devices, but I do tend to put my phone in my pocket and walk around with headphones on. And if it's not the headphone jack that gets destroyed, it's the cable; I went through ~5 different cables/earbuds when I was using the Shure SE215s.
Bluetooth headphones aren't great either. I have not lost a pair of headphones in years, but I've gone no more than 12 months without purchasing a new pair. This gets expensive when I also want my headphones to have active noise cancelling and sound reasonably good (I don't care about audiophile cans, because I wear my headphones primarily when I'm active). And don't even get me started on a pair that has a good (not even great) mic... I'd love to be able to have a phone conversation when walking through midtown Manhattan.
Even if they're not cool anymore, I hope they keep making them. I don't even mind buying a new pair every few years if the batteries get too worn out. I use them when I work out, I use them for zoom meetings, and sometimes even to listen to music :). I charge the case once in a while, probably every couple weeks, aside from that I rarely run the airpods themselves out of battery -- takes a few long zoom calls to do it, and then I just alternate ears if I need to.
Corded headphones at my desk use to make me so angry. Always tangling. And with earbuds, cord noise. I don't miss corded headphones.
Sometimes I wonder what fantasy land HN readers come from. I was standing at a traffic light as I opened this thread and I looked around at the people near me, I saw several AirPods users and no other brands or wired users.
The AirPods alone bring in more profit than most major tech companies. Why in earth would they stop making them?
Wired in ear phones are a nightmare. If I use them every day I end up going through about 2 pairs a year. No I am not surgically precise with them, but at the same time I'm not a gorilla - nothing else in my life breaks this much.
True but they cost almost nothing. 5 bucks for a decent pair of Sonys. Though I have to say the Bluetooth ones are also really cheap now. I got a Xiaomi true wireless pair for 15 bucks and they work amazingly well.
This. I used to run daily with a pair of Sony corded earbuds that hooked over my ear. I think they cost me $10 and lasted about a decade before I finally bought a phone without a headphone jack.
They now live in my carry-on bag for use with the inflight entertainment systems.
It's a big one. The cables are cheap enough that you can buy a second one and keep it in your backpack for complete peace of mind. Other IEMs have cables that cost much more and you might not preemptively carry one.
I love my AirPods Pro because I can take them on a run with my Apple Watch and be able to listen to music + do guided runs without having to carry anything else. Glad I bought them just for that.
They suck otherwise. I have these wired earphones I bought 5 years ago for $99 that I use most of the rest of the time. They sound better, fit better, connect 100% reliably, and I don't have to worry about their batteries dying in the middle of something because they randomly decided not to charge last time I put them in the case.
I'd rather have no wires, but AirPods are a significant compromise to get rid of a wire...
I find it's rarely worth it. Only the one use case, actually. Same for the watch.
I'm an old man now so I can't speak for cool kids, but the sheer amount of old people who love and rock Apple gear would be more than enough to make them seem powerfully uncool to a teenage me.
Apples got a bad case of the Facebook mom's group, basically. (No offence to the mom groups, you've given me so much help over the years)
I use a little Bluetooth to 3.5mm adapter and clip it on to my wired headphones. This one is the fiio ubtr which is nice and tiny tho a little more battery life would be nice. I designed my headphones to be 3D printed on a resin 3D printer and I wired them with a short cable going to a male 3.5mm jack. I can plug them in to a Bluetooth adapter or just use 3.5mm male to female extension to use them as wired headphones. I love the flexibility. I have photos and source files on GitHub here:
There is a newer design in the linked OnShape document which is smaller and uses two 3mm titanium rods for a headband. They’re really nice and they’ve been my daily headphones for what feels like a year now. I love knowing that no matter what breaks on them they can be repaired forever.
One of the issues with wireless buds/headphones for me is the DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter).
The DAC is quite critical for final sound quality (responses to different frequencies, amount of noise...).
Most wireless use built-in DAC and provide no method for using an external/standalone one.
Another obvious issue would be the connection stability which is why I still use 3.5mm on my iPhone 6s (or previously iPhone 8 but requires an adapter).
>The DAC is quite critical for final sound quality (responses to different frequencies, amount of noise...).
This incorrect statement is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. A DAC on its own is useless for listening to sound, it always has to be accompanied by an amplifier stage. I honestly don't know why people have become focused on the part of a DAC+Amp circuit that rarely matters.
If a DAC makes any difference to the sound quality of the device, then it is a bad DAC. All a DAC should do is output the exact analog signal that was sampled in the digital file (provided it is below the Nyquist-Shannon frequency). Even dirt cheap commodity DAC chips do this well beyond what any human can hear.
If there is any fuckery with the sound, it is probably due to the implementation of the pre-amp or amplifier circuits in the device which have far more ability to introduce distortion or noise to the signal, or introduce a sound signature.
Oh hey, I just bought my first pair of corded earphones in basically forever. I don't know everyone else's reasons but here are mine:
1. So-called chi-fi (Chinese Hi Fi) has made huge strides and I was able to get a really great pair of IEMs from a company called TinHiFi for $70. Definitely the best sounding pair of in-ear headphone's I've ever had, and rival some wired regular headphones I've owned in the past as well.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 322 ms ] thread- Wireless buds don’t connect 100% reliably; sometimes I get one and not the other, or neither. Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use.
- Sometimes the sound glitches out randomly, which is so irritating that I don’t care how good the sound supposedly is the rest of the time.
- Gestures and voice are simply not as convenient as buttons on the wire. If I tap the thing in my ear, it tends to get shoved further into my ear and may still not register.
- They fall out of my ears, no matter how “snug” they seem. This makes me only want to use them in places where I won’t lose them, e.g. at home but not out for a walk.
Crucially, there isn’t a single problem above that occurs when using wires. The only inconvenience is that the default headphone wires are stupidly short (provided by a company that sells wireless buds, hmmm) but that is fixable.
I was a fan of the originals, but bought the Pros shortly after they came out. I'm on my second pair now - the first pair came down with the dreaded "crackling" and Apple replaced them.
I find that they stay in my ears well enough that I regularly use them when driving my Jeep without doors, even when I'm not listening to music. They provide some level of reduction of the wind noise that I'm certain has been damaging my hearing in my left ear in particular.
After solving for fall protection, hearing is the next thing on a motorcycle.
Every time I'm going "flat out" (not inner city) I wear ear plugs and seriously regret it if I forget them.
It would be nice if they all had Tile or similar tech, but if their batteries go dead just sitting there (super annoying thing about the bose) then it’s useless too.
(FWIW also tried the Sony wf1000-xm4s and hated them.)
Every single phone on the face of the earth can be charged while being used, even if you're talking on the phone. Nobody is worried there, and the risk is much higher since batteries are bigger, charged faster, etc.
I have a pair of XM3s and I love them (for what they are) but the form factor of the XM4 looks nicer so was considering an "upgrade".
- Maybe I have weird ears but the bulk of their weight is up high and kind of out from the body and there's no real support other than the tip wedged into your ear canal. If you run downstairs or jog or jump it tends to make an audible 'pop' or clacking sound as the weight sort of pries against your ear canal. If you look at the Bose they have a little rubber support that grabs your ear and supports the weight. The XM3s are more evenly distributed.
- The ANC has tons of audio artifacts. I did all of the Sony ear tuning stuff and couldn't get it to go away. Any time you bump them you'll get weird twirps and chirps, certain frequencies kind have this wooden resonance and every now and then it just went apeshit with weird howls and whistles. This could be due to poor fitting (again possibly i have weird ears) and could likely be fixed with software over time.
If you like the XM3's I'd say give them a try but just make sure you know the return policy.
The ANC is the really interesting part, it's practically flawless in the XM3 I've never heard any of the issues you describe; which worries me that the XM4 has an issue or two, hopefully software ones that can he remedied but it doesn't sound good.
The XM3 doesn't support any sort of ear tuning, the feature in the app only applies to specific audio sources, none of which I have access to, so I can't comment on that part.
I've heard good things about the little rubber wedge in the Bose, I'd like that feature, but honestly I don't have fit issues with mine so it's not a deal breaker.
1. Wireless buds
2. Wireless non-buds (some sort of wrap-around design to keep them on)
3. Wired buds
4. Wired non-buds
I go with (2) personally, but mainly because Apple stopped me using wires. My main problem with bluetooth is that the headphones aren't loud enough (yeah you have to watch the line between loud and damaging but headphones are my opportunity to play music loud). Recommendations for loud wireless headphones appreciated!
#1 Bluebooth connectivity to computers. If I was just using my phone they were mostly fine, but at a computer it was a constant fight to get them to connect, to work with whatever app I'm using, and especially when I'm switching back and forth between using them for listening to music or using them to video conference. This might also be partly because Linux is my main driver, but having to switch back and forth between high quality audio output for music and two way cell phone quality audio sucks.
#2 Having owned multiple pairs over the years, none of them would connect over Bluetooth while charging. Let me make my wireless headphones temporarily wired.
At this point I use an over the ear headphone with a mic and a USB DAC. I specifically only get phones with a minijack so I could use them with that too.
I actually don’t have connection issues on Windows either, but it does have the switching problem.
#2: True, but usually the battery of a pair of headphones last much longer than earbuds, in my case at least 4 days, so I just put them in charge at night
Audio matters to me. Can't own a device with no analog jack.
Some BT buds will let you futz with an equalizer (jabra). It really influences the experience of what you’re listening to, for instance different genres of music and pure voice.
I’m sorry to say it, but welcome to the future of wireless audio.
Seriously. More of us would jump on board if it were not Bluetooth.
Apple has done well, make no mistake. I applaud them for that.
But the fundemental issues remain, despite what appears to be a solid effort.
Just plug the wire and enjoy the very best music quality.
It must be only me who doesn't care about a wire for all the added bonus like quality, stability and no battery.
It's incredible how much better cellular works compared to other wireless "techno", but nothing replaces a cable.
My point is, that they just didn't have any of the problems you mention above (with the exception of random sampling frequency changes that changed pitch minimally, but noticable).
Sound quality was ok, I think it was one of the first A2DP headsets. Ok, for what it was mind you, my good over-ears are definitely better.
Is this some idiom I am not familiar with?
FYI, that's interference. Wi-fi "randomly" disconnects for a few seconds due to interference just as often, but you don't notice, because 1. the OS hides short disconnects, and 2. most protocols you use are TCP-based, and so use retries. (If you were doing something involving UDP streaming, you'd notice.)
Bluetooth audio, on the other hand, is a realtime protocol, which just drops stale packets rather than trying to retransmit them. Drop enough packets in a row, and the carrier thinks the device has gone out of range and disconnects it (as the alternative would be boiling your battery by turning the antenna gain up to infinity, as sometimes happens when cellular baseband misbehaves while ranging.)
> Gestures and voice are simply not as convenient as buttons on the wire. If I tap the thing in my ear, it tends to get shoved further into my ear and may still not register
Have you tried the AirPods Pro where you squeeze the stems? They're essentially buttons.
> Crucially, there isn’t a single problem above that occurs when using wires.
Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
Or: try to change your shirt while keeping your headphones on + playing. (I know, unusual thing to do, but I've changed my shirt with wireless earbuds in without a thought.)
Or: get up and go to the bathroom, while continuing to listen to the livestream you're watching on the desktop PC sitting on your desk, without missing anything. (Provided I'm at home, I can usually get about 40 feet away from the Bluetooth source before my wireless headphones disconnect.)
This used to bug me a lot but I've found an easy solution. Just route the wire under your t-shirt or shirt or jacket. When I'm not using my headphones, the headphones hang around my neck. If I feel like taking off my headphones and placing them on the table, it takes 5 extra seconds to pull the wires from under my shirt after disconnecting them from the phone.
When I picture "preferring wired headphones", I picture taking around my studio monitors with their 10ft 1/4" solid-copper-cored cabling. (I did used to do pretty much this, when I was a stupid teenager! But that was before Bluetooth was invented.) That kind of cabling doesn't have a minimum curve radius that would let it fit in most pockets, unless you're either wearing an overcoat, or you've got the middle of the cable cleanly wrapped and tied in a linear bundle [which would still protrude upward out of most pockets, like a very tall phone.]
There's also the as-yet-unmentioned inconvenience of such cables—that they tend to have 1/4" RCA jacks on the ends, making plugging them into your phone a worrying experience involving adapters and shear stress—but oddly enough, modern phones with their lack of headphone jacks are better for this, since the flexible DAC adapters that plug into their USB ports protect the phone itself from being damaged by the shear force of a rigid 1/4"-to-1/8" adapter.
What makes you think you’re gaining anything in audio quality by using 1/4” instead of 1/8” cable?
When listening to music, I don't usually bother to "queue up" songs/entire albums in advance, or to make playlists, but rather I just have a library of individual tracks, and then, as I listen to a song, I'll have a whim for what song to listen to next. (I use music to inspire me while writing fiction, so a lot of this is about creating the right mental mood for a scene.)
If I'm not listening to music, I'm listening to podcasts, which are also often a "listen to one episode, then pull your phone back out to select the next one" sort of experience, as many of them like to do things like slip in repeats of old episodes, such that a linear listening order gives you things you wouldn't want.
That’s false. If it happens to you, get better wireless equipment.
This might not ever happen to you if you live in a bunker, or on a farmstead at least 500 feet from any neighbours. (Though I wouldn't completely discount the possibility; there's always solar storms.)
But if you live in a city, and like to sit near large picture windows (where the light from the window cuts across the straight-line path between your wireless devices and their base station), then every once in a while you're going to get what's basically a mini-EMP blast blowing through your window glass, on one random unlicensed-spectrum-interfering frequency on another: every time someone in the building across from yours vacuums with a 1950s vacuum cleaner with an ungrounded plug, or uses their shitty $50 freestanding microwave with underspecced side shielding; or operates their unlicensed AliExpress garage-door opener, or... etc.
If we could hear 2.4/5GHz, every day in a city would sound like Diwali: sudden short explosions, from every direction, at any odd hour of the day.
Remember, "unlicensed" spectrum means the FCC isn't policing those bands like they do with licensed allocations; so all the 2.4/5GHz "polluters" — the device buyers, and the manufacturers — never get told to stop.
There's a reason IP softphones are always wired, rather than being wi-fi devices — speaking RTP, they can't tolerate the somewhat-normal condition of RF-interference-induced 802.11-PHY packet-loss bursts nearly as well as devices speaking TCP can. They end up dropping calls in about the same way that Bluetooth Audio drops pairing.
(This is also most of why 802.11e QoS Traffic Categories exist — RTP is essentially hard-realtime, so even temporarily queuing RTP packets due to competing high-throughput TCP flows, could be enough to "choke out" the RTP flow.)
This sort of substitution can work, but it requires very stable, low-noise links (that is, with little to no burst noise) and the cooperation of devices and network equipment.
TCP’s reliability comes at the cost of increased, inconsistent, and unpredictable latency; which is fine for downloading a file, browsing the web, or streaming video with a 30-second buffer; but unacceptable for a real-time call.
my biggest gripe with wireless so far, and this might be specific to galaxy buds+ is that their batteries suck after a years use. otherwise, all the things you describe are why they're great.
There's an auxiliary benefit as well in that a backpack seems to be way better for my back than a shoulder bag.
For one, if you're carrying enough crap isn't a backpack more ergonomic (assuming you wear both straps and aren't one-strapping it like the cool guy you are)
"Vestis virum facit", or clothes make the man is extraordinarily powerful in business and social dealings. Clothes signal a lot of information quickly. So this isn't about you caring what other people think, it's about how what other people care about affect your options. I could prescribe a few experiments to witness the differences directly but I'll tell you from personal experience that the A-B differences are stark.
There was a time when I was younger that I raged against this rule, but it's a youthful variation of "old man yells at cloud". You can try and create a new reality in your head and believe it fervently, and cut your nose to spite your face, but image matters greatly to other people, at a deep level.
If I need a job done, I couldn't care less if the person who is able to do it wears a backpack or not.
FWIW I think messenger bags are shitty design and think people who use them just don't know any better.
I can't count the number of times I have done this very thing.
luckily, apple has you covered. you just need $19.99. /s
that would be a weird idea though. 1/4 TRS female -> magsafe-male magsafe-female -> 1/4 TRS male. i'm guessing it would look like a sort of inline coupler or similar in final design. essentially, it should be totally doable. i look forward to your pitch on Shark Tank, er, to YC, yeah, that's what I meant.
I wonder if, in the future, we could have household wall sockets and extension cords with "sense pins" ala USB PD; where the mains-voltage live "rail" isn't energized unless a device hops on the logic-level control rail and negotiates for it. Then we could truly live in a MagSafe-everything world. (Then again, to block that kind of current, they'd probably need to use relays and other non-solid-state parts, so they might not be the most durable things...)
Did the end of the cable not have recessed "pins" specifically to avoid accidental shorting? Seems like it would never be U/L certified without some safety.
Yes and no. MagSafe is safe because of the sense current and the handshake; but it's able to do that because it's just not driving very much wattage through the cable; it's low enough that it can direct the power with a simple transistor.
To make mains-voltage AC cords do that, you need a lot more than a transistor. A 1500W current (from e.g. a microwave, or a kettle) can arc a gap much wider than most transistors are printed at. Which is why, in even the most modern smart-home remote light-switch doodads, mains-voltage gets toggled using relays, rather than anything solid-state.
It's lovely to say "just do what MagSafe does", but with electricity, "quantity has a quality all its own" — i.e. very different engineering challenges to overcome.
> Did the end of the cable not have recessed "pins" specifically to avoid accidental shorting?
It has recessed pins (pads, actually), but only barely (by about 5mm); basically to the point that a round metal table leg could make contact with the live pad within the recess.
And, as far as I can tell, there's no sense logic in the cable, either. No click of a relay coming from the cable when it gets connected; and no place for a transformer to live (not that it needs one—it's a hotplate, i.e. a big thick piece of iron you run mains-voltage AC current through.)
There is a relay inside the hotplate itself, which roughly acts as a thermostat (rather than a rheostat) to toggle the coil on and off to keep the cheese at temperature. You can hear it ticking on and off, and an indicator light goes on and off along with it.
But for that logic to work, the cable has to be drawing power to power it. So, AFIACT, the cable itself is always live.
This is really easy with a backpack, I assume it's only a problem with a messenger bag (which is probably a bigger problem for one's back, unless the load is kept very light.)
First world problem...
2. I have big hands buttons on the ear pod just knock it out of my ear.
3. I can take my bag off my sholder without taking out my wired headphones.
When I try to take my shirt off with wireless headphones they just get knocked out of my ear and im on the locker room floor looking for them.
Bluetooth doesn't have the range to do this without dropping in and out, at least in my house.
The big takeaway is that even the best wireless headphones on the market are less reliable than the cheapest wired.
Wireless headphones with a short wire hanging down to use as an antenna. Now send audio using 900MHz analog FM radio.
The signal quality can be made quite high by using enough power and/or bandwidth spreading.
Delay is near zero and it reconnects faster than you can blink at it.
But I'm pretty sure what you're really trying to mentally re-engineer here is one of these: https://en-ca.sennheiser.com/stage-monitoring-headphones-hea...
Ever wondered what's in the rack on rear center stage of a concert? One of these, so the performers can all hear the mix over their own instrument/the crowd without tripping all over cables.
(More recently, they're two-way, meaning that the e.g. electric guitar you hear is passing through a chain of: headphone pre-amp, wireless transmitter, wireless receiver, mixing board, amp. Effects pedals? These days, they're wireless MIDI controllers that signal to a DAW plugged into the mixing board!)
Well what I used to do when I had wired headphones was run the headphone cable under the bag so to speak. As in put on my headphones and then put on my bag. You just need to make sure you have enough slack in the headphones above the bag strap, which... I dunno I never found difficult. I just habitually put on my bag second, or would place my ear buds in my shirt/cups around my neck at least before putting on the bag.
Don't get me wrong it's nice for that to not matter with wireless, it's just the way you've phrased this implies to me putting the headphones on first and bag on second so the bag strap sits on top of the headphone cable never occurred to you and honestly that is confusing me
I know how they sound and what they do to sounds. Every in-ear solution I had in my ears up to now doesn't even get close in terms of "resolution" (this is not a technical term but it is true, that some monitoring solutions will let you hear more of the recording than others).
Additionally my on-the-road headphones (Sennheiser HD25) last for a decade now. If the cable ever should fail I can get a replacement. If the earpad is through I can get a replacement. The only problem recently is, that phone manufacturers decided they need to be stingy about adding a 3.5mm TRRS-jack.
I got a poco because I won't replace my HD-25 II anytime soon.
Before that I even took a MP3 player with me most of the time. Fiio Xsomwthing. However it broke, and for some reason you don't find good MP3 players with actual buttons anymore either.
It's like the opposite of planned obsolescence. They first came out five years before I was born, and here I am using them in my late 20s. I have no doubt they'll outlive my PXC 550s, which after about three years of usage have a degraded battery and a slow charging speed (micro USB is inexcusable).
I "upgraded" mine with a fiio BTR5. Now I just wrap the cable around the BT receiver and put it in my shirt pocket. Wireless freedom with wired 'phones!
I’m not going back to having to untangle a pocket full of wires and car keys. Also I’m not having the cable tugging when I’m walking or running and having to shove the things back in every two minutes. This product was a life changer for me.
Please understand that not everyone has the same experiences as you do.
I've never had a harddrive fail, but I still take backups and assume others saying they've had problems are telling the truth.
Wifi depends more on location than the hardware or how you are using it. The anecdote that it works for you is fair enough but pretty useless in this situation as its just a coincidence.
Anecdotes (note the emphasis on the “s”) are data. Just adding my piece.
I have more data. I have 4 people here with them with no problems and experience of other wireless headphones that have been a complete shit show.
But I don't think it's just Apple's airpods either: Most of the newer bluetooth headphones work and connect almost instantly with my iPhone; I have some Bose QC35 that I can report the same speed of connection of the airpods -- maybe even a little faster. I suspect it's related to some extremely modern bluetooth version or feature-set that might be difficult to discern from the box, but I have not dug into it deeper.
This being said, my airpods sit on my desk next to my Jabra DECT headset: Bluetooth is only almost instant, but DECT is actually instant. I first saw them visiting a cell centre (inside-sales team) team in Seattle, and so I asked about them and learned "we wear this thing making cold calls sometimes every few minutes, all day long, and it doesn't suck" and that pitch sold it for me. I wish it traveled better, because if anything rings (phone, skype, teams, zoom, slack), I pick up the headset and it answers on the computer at the same time, and I'd love (somehow) to have that experience when everything is packed in my rucksack.
As stated the only time I had a problem was standing next to an extremely large diesel backup generator which was probably RFI related.
Couple of years later, Sony has updated them half a dozen or so times, and I rarely ever get skips or jumps now. I have them always set to emphasise quality over connection, and they have worked perfect. You can buy them new on the likes of Amazon for ~£120 now, which is a bargain.
Sony just(?) released the XM4 which have a slightly better form factor and better codecs, so I'm considering them next.
Third-party over-ear headphones working on my Android phone, Windows gaming computer and work Linux machine is a whole other deal.
I may be audiophile. But when I put a music on I want to get fully absorbed and hear every little detail while I don't worry about battery life. Sounds weird I know
PX100s for when I am out of the house (but not when driving!) because they sound good but do not isolate me from my surroundings.
HD220s for radio and TV (on tablet or phone) late at night.
HD485s for paying attention to music.
Theoretically I don't think there's a reason why it wouldn't be possible to make the sound produced in the audible range the same (preferrably roughly matching Harman target out of the box) for wired and wireless.
But yes, I'd never trade the slight inconvenience a cable is with the amount of inconveniences of wireless. Especially the battery: I grew up having to deal with battery life in portable players (cassette, minidics, you name it) and this finally got a lot better so I almost don't have to care anymore (talking actual music players, not smartphones), I'm really not going to go back to something inferior again.
It's fascinating how well this has been marketed though, but that's really almost all there is to it for me: just marketing, not a whole lot of actual value.
However I keep my ears open :)
Wireless buds "solve" a non-issue while introducing real issues.
Edge case: white noise generator.
I’ve been looking for a small, wired and preferably powered external speaker for travel to provide louder and better quality sound masking than the tiny speaker in the phone. There are a million little Bluetooth speakers out there but the random inverted hiccups (sudden silence then resume) wake me up every time. I’m sure it’s the Bluetooth because it doesn’t happen when I use the phone speaker.
I carry a 1st gen iPhone SE for wired audio, so I guess now it’s basically an iPod.
Edit: Well, looks like there’s some stuff on eBay I didn’t see in previous searches. Retro 2000s stuff. I can roll the dice for £5 plus shipping. Use case is still relevant.
https://youtu.be/t1thDa4zeog
> They fall out of my ears
Sounds like you don't have a good fit. Sealed buds should not have much room to 'go deeper' when properly seated.
> there isn’t a single problem above that occurs when using wires
These last two have nothing to do with wires, just the fit for a particular model?
Cons: mic volume is low, and when a device disconnects they will play disconnect sound until they reboot.
I definitely found 3rd party Bluetooth headphones to be not worth the trouble early on, but since Apple introduced the AirPods I got tempted back to them. Either Bluetooth got a lot better or Apple's doing something clever (or both), because with the occasional "one pod didn't wake up; put it back in the case and take it out again" issue, they work perfectly for me.
I do still use corded headphones -- I'm an audio guy; I have a bunch -- but it's increasingly rare.
However.
What I'm saying is that this is not a problem for me with the Apple headphones I use (Airpods Pro and Max), which is what I'm using for most of my listening (owing to convenience, I've almost completely stopped using wired headphones).
I do occasionally experience dropouts with the AfterShox I use for some outdoor exercise, and I did sometimes experience the issue with the Sennheisers I had before I got the Airpods Max, which leads me to believe that there ARE aspects of this problem that CAN be ameliorated with implementation, contrary to your assertion.
I mean, how else do we explain the fact that it's only been a problem for me when I use nonApple hardware?
Anyway air drop won't work, move a foot away from your imac and your ear pods will drop their connection. Wifi has way more to do with the space than it does the hardware, think about it the only way apple could improve their signal above the competition is just to boost the signal strength and they can't do that because its agains't government regulation.
If you bought three brands of lotto ticket each with the same payout spec but on paid out while the others did not would you think that the winning brand of lotto ticket had better odds? or would you think that you just got lucky that time?
That's a poor comparison, because there's no difference between lotto tickets and there IS a demonstrable difference in Bluetooth implementations and hardware.
It does sound like you've created a high-interference environment, though.
Ear fit sucks, is it worse with cordless headphones? Ear fit always comes up with earbuds, wireless or wired. I've heard individuals say wireless is better for them because there's no wire tugging on their ear. I'm surprised to see a lot of people walking around with over-the-ear headphones (I tend to use them at home or on a plane).
That said, when I'm sitting at my desk to do work, I use wired headphones (and wired mouse and keyboard). When I'm really in the flow, the last thing I want is to be interrupted by a "low battery" prompt.
My headphones are wired from one to the other. They're wireless to the music device, but wired to each other if that helps paint you a picture. Plus, they have these little rubber fins that help hold the headphones in your ears So for me: I can't lose one without the other, and them being tethered together makes it harder to lose them in general. The controls are on the wire, so none of that "pressing your head" issue you describe. The only time I seem to have issues is when I have my phone in my front pocket opposite to the bluetooth receiver... I think my body just blocks the signal too well. Otherwise I can be 30ft away and still get a strong bluetooth connection.
Enough of the ad talk (Please email me for my info Jaybirds so I can collect my shill cheque) I think its just a design issue. Everyone wants those tiny things that hide away in your ear, but I've always felt the inconvenience of having 2 easily misplaced little buds outweighs any design advantages they have. Its like the trend of making phones smaller and smaller, then suddenly bigger and bigger, but not addressing the convenience of having a smart phone. I don't need a massive screen, I need a stronger battery... so make it 3mm or 5mm thicker if that's what it takes to get 48hr life on a charge.
But now i'm ranting.
I now have AirPod Pros and I have none of the above problems. I waited a long time before buying them and was really surprised how well they fit (because of my experience with normal iPhone headphones and the Jaybird headphones).
I guess experiences differ depending on your on your ears and it's probably best if you try them first if you can.
But they are not sold in Taiwan yet. So I bit the bullet and got the pros about 5 days ago. I hate my wife’s Sony headphones cos they hurt my ears, and figured the pros would last until the non silicon tip comes came out. But now I love the pros.
And contrariwise, while for day-to-day wear I love my bluetooth over-ear headphones, my 'plane earphones' are wired Bose QC25s. Partly because in-ear provides superior noise canceling, partly because when I'm on that 5:30am flight I can lean my head against the side of the plane without upsetting my headphones, but mostly because if I drop my phone I can fish it back up with the headphone cable. :D
In this case wired is just another mode of failure as they will get loose if the cable is tensioned. If you are afraid of losing them you can use one with a wire between the buds (non-TWS).
I was originally very upset about Apple removing the headphone port, but after getting my first AirPods I basically stopped caring. They just worked so well, I never wanted wires again.
By the by, I had more headphones yanked out by door handles than I’ve had wireless buds fall out, but I’ll grant that the latter is strongly affected by individual ear geometry.
Wired headphones never went away. Wireless earbuds were mostly airpods and clones, which were always a victory of style over practicality or rationality, yet another example of douches with too much money burning that money on inferior products to look fancy (see also: Apple's entire business model). At BEST, you end up paying a higher price for something with ALMOST the same audio quality, slightly less wire-related hassle, and new, much worse NON-wire related hassle, like dropping one somewhere you can never retrieve it from.
...or maybe most users after some years realized the true costs of having non replaceable batteries. Making them replaceable on the AirPods would be very easy; and a nice move that would also bring them some more customers including me, but apparently milking users to the last cent pays more.
A battery only needs two electrical contacts on a component that is already self contained. Its a very simple device. The lithium ion ones in this size range are a few bucks each on the wholesale market. There are even standardized button cell sizes. It is very much a design choice.
The other side of it is that lithium ion battery tech is at the point where the battery lifespans is starting to exceed the device lifespan. Certainly true for the cheap side of the earbud market
Nope. This is a minority preference that HN folks are obsessed about, but most people aren't. The wireless headphone market is huge and booming, and replaceable batteries went out around the same time they did in cell phones. Last pair I had with a replaceable battery were Bose QC15s, sold from 2009-2015. Airpods may have lost their novelty, but people are buying up loads of wireless/ANC headphones from Bose, Sony, Sennheiser, Beats, etc. None of the newest generations have easily replaceable batteries.
This is what I call value.
This is why I've never bought wireless headphones. You don't need to be disorganized to appreciate the convenience of not having to charge yet another device you want to use on the fly.
Why would I pay more for something that takes more mental bandwidth to use?
My wireless headphones I do occasionally have to think about charging, but they are USB-C and mostly I'm using them on my computer, so whenever they need charging I just unplug my USB-C computer, plug in my headphones for an hour, and then we're back. Not really an operation I think about much either. If I really want to I can then plug in the wired cable and still listen to them while they're charging, but usually I don't bother.
You just did. Us absent-minded people are likely to forget even putting those things back into their case, forget the case at home or some other place (since we don't need it to listen), or forget to charge it. My stuff is likely to be in the last place I stopped using it. In this case that's hopefully my jacket, but it certainly won't be some charging station.
My wired earphones I can wear under my shirt with only a small chance of losing them. I still lose those occasionally, but mostly I break them every six months. A new pair is ten bucks, so whatever.
I already have trouble keeping my phone charged. I don't need more stuff with batteries. Especially not in something that's never supposed to be more than a few centimeters from the device it's receiving signals from anyways.
> Especially not in something that's never supposed to be more than a few centimeters from the device it's receiving signals from anyways.
This sounds kinda like the opinion of someone who has never even tried wireless earphones. It is very nice being able to stand up from my desk / ride my motorbike / etc and keep listening to whatever I was listening to (or staying on the call I was on) without my phone being in reach.
I have used wired headphones for years, and I prefer headphones to earbuds for both comfort and sound, but it just isn’t true that they are more convenient.
Most wireless _headphones_ that I've bought come with an audio cable just for this eventuality. (Versus earphones, like the Airpods that do not have this capability.)
1. Sennheiser earbuds that are on a Lightning adapter. I keep them in my desk at work, and use them for phone calls a few times a week.
2. Sony 1000MX or whatever they are called. Bluetooth, noise-cancelling, full size. The battery lasts like 20 hours so they go with me on the airplane and some car rides, but don't use them too much otherwise. They also can be used with a cord which is great when you need that.
3. Aukey Bluetooth earbuds, they are only $18 and "good enough", fit in my laptop sleeve. These get used the most out of any of them.
I would avoid buying sketchy batteries.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of solutions on PC, since the platform has no control of browser based video playback and even if it did, finding the exact audio offset would be impractical.
And yet you can land an airplane without looking out the windows, by measuring timestamps between source and destination of a signal (GPS).
I'd argue not that impractical.
But this only helps with less interactive media. Adding even more latency to video games or MIDI keyboard synthesizers is counterproductive: sure, you could delay the rendering of a muzzle flash to match the playing of a gunshot, but that makes things feel even worse when you click! Maybe tolerable in a casual macro-focused RTS, but not so acceptable in a twitch shooter.
Something like the Soundblaster ZXR makes for exceptionally good headphone listening on the PC.
I have the XM3 and some wired-only Audio Technicas. I only use the XM3s wired on the PC, can't stand the lag however small myself.
I've never given polarization any thought and never had any problems, so I don't buy this being an actually a problem in practice.
> not earthed
NEMA-1 aren't earthed, but NEMA-1 sockets have been forbidden since the 60s, so that fails the "unchanged" part of coldtea's assertion. NEMA-1 plugs may still be used on Class II double insulated appliances, which is fine. And NEMA-5 does have a ground.
> not safe when partially inserted.
I've never worried about it, never been hurt by it, and never heard of anybody being hurt by it. This is a "problem" that I often hear described by Europeans online but it's totally alien to me. Please remember that we only put 120V through these things, which is substantially less nippy than 240V.
Just as my anecdotal experience: I've shocked myself at least twice because my finger slipped over the contacts while I was trying to plug/unplug something in the dark. I have of course learned my lesson and am much more careful when plugging stuff in, but it's a relatively easy mistake to make if one is tired or not paying attention.
Yes, I got shocked because I was stupid and careless. But a connector that everybody uses every single day should be idiot-proof -- it should not be possible to kill myself because I plugged something in carelessly.
The US has the "excuse" of being the first domestic power distribution system -- other countries have better standards because they were able to learn from the design flaws in our plugs. And our split-phase 120V system is (as far as I know) a great idea that's way safer than direct 240V. But there really are a lot of things that the NEMA plugs leave to be desired. I second the recommendation by a sibling commenter to check out Technology Connection's videos on the subject -- I found them to be entertaining, nuanced, and highly informative.
Wife has same and got a zap. I never have and my own fingers are a bit pudgy. This happening never even occurred to me.
Are the US plugs actually original? The UK ones are on their third generation (originally various proprietary or light-socket-based things, then the three prong round ones found in very old buildings and specialised industrial applications, then the three prong rectangular ones from the 60s).
> And our split-phase 120V system is (as far as I know) a great idea that's way safer than direct 240V.
Eh. They are both safer or less safe in different ways. The US system requires about double the current for given power, so is less forgiving of marginal wiring.
That's probably because a lot of equipment is double-insulated now so polarization doesn't matter, and manufacturers are better at getting the polarization right. It's usually when someone (incorrectly) replaces a cord themselves that you run into issues, which doesn't seem to happen much nowadays, the lamp with the bad cord goes in the trash. Though I've certainly run into home outlets that are wired backwards.
Probably the most likely place you'd run into problems with incorrect polarization is when changing a light bulb. If the polarization is wrong, the outer threaded part of the socket will be live, and you've got a good chance of contacting it while changing a light bulb. (which itself is becoming a rarely with long lasting LED bulbs, or LED lamps without changeable bulbs). Though this is probalby more the fault of the Edison lightbulb socket than of the polarized plug.
I would be terrified of the american plug. I played with one when I was over last time and there was over 5mm of exposed live connectors. That's bonkers.
In my experience polarization has only became relevant once: when mounting a dedicated socket for a gas furnace. For some reason these don't like the live and neutral being reversed and go into an error mode when that happens.
Other than that, most wall sockets in my house are dual, which means polarization in the top socket is reverse of that at the bottom and it has never caused any issues.
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-electrical-plugs-and-socke...
Photo of a type G plug (this is an adapter): https://www.rcjaz.ca/jazrider-type-british-3pin-electrical-a...
IMO the EU way is the best. Radial circuit, fused in groups, and the plug is either the Schuko plug (very safe since the earth/ground is always engaged first) or Europlug (relatively safe because it is only allowed for low class power appliances). Both type of plugs can be angled, although it is quite rare for an Europlug to be.
Also as someone who lived in both the UK and now a Schuko country, I do sometimes miss having a switch on the socket :-) We have a floor lamp without a switch, so we have to physically unplug it to turn it off.
If I had to overcome it on purpose with two knitting needles I would fail as a grown up man. With two screwdrivers I could do it.
I've actually heard Americans make fun of our (UK) switches on the outlets. Usually something to the effect of "need to make sure the electric doesn't escape, when things are unplugged, lol". It completely misses the point. The point of the switches is we have a way to isolate a device without unplugging it. Without the switch the only way to isolate the thing is pull the cord out of the wall like some kind of neanderthal.
the problem is that they don't have contact covers.
What I like about the British plug is that its closed most of the time, and really really difficult to put stuff in the live/neutral. That has advantages for safety, but also cleanliness. It cuts down dust ingress.
[0] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00CNRFU2Q
Metal savings is why every plug is fused ? How does that even make sense when historically fuses were all metal construct instead of the modern ceramic whatnots.
And anyway, fused plugs were not a requirement until ... 1992: "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Plugs and Sockets Etc. (Safety) Regulations 1987 to require pre-wired plugs to be fitted to all domestic appliances by the manufacturer." (Citation: HC Deb, 29 January 1992, c955).
As far as I know, the war has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with fuses in plugs. It was just introduced as part of the modernisation of UK electricity rules.
If you look at historical houses, they still have/had central fuseboards with rewireable or cartridge fuses. See [1]
The fuses on UK Plugs are for overload protection. Simple.
See also this YouTube video for other reasons as to why UK plugs are the best[2].
Finally, if you have time on your hands, there is a 23 page treatise on the how's and why's of ring circuits. [3].
The US plug does have advantages, like being smaller. UK plugs are really annoyingly large and weighty.
[1] http://www.internationalconfig.com/icc6.asp?item=60150
In British homes/offices you'll see something like this[0], this[1], or this[2].
[0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08R2ZMJNY
[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08R1Q6628
[2] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082KMY8S8
What do 6-outlet strips look like where you're from? I'd never considered British ones to be a problem because you throw them behind the setee or under a desk, and probably because it's all I've ever experienced. Also, in practice you usually only want smaller strips with 2-4 outlets, where the size matters even less.
At least they are compatible with Europlugs if you use a fork to open the ground flap.
Pro audio equipment usually prefers connectors such as XLR [0] (or even heavier-duty cables like Speakon [1] if you need to carry large amounts of power). They're a lot bulkier but immune to all these problems: the ground pin connects first, the connector physically latches into place, and they're typically used to carry a balanced signal over a twisted pair so they're mostly immune to interference. The only place you'll find a TS/TRS connector on a stage is on a "patch cable" for making short-distance connections, like from a guitar to an amp -- and you have to be very careful not to touch them unless the sound guy tells you it's OK, because those pops will be loud over a PA.
Newer (and more expensive) equipment is moving in the direction of avoiding analog altogether and transmitting audio over Ethernet using protocols like Dante [2].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR_connector
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakon_connector
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_(networking)
I've got a guitar cable (1/4", but some basic design) that has some sort of trick setup in the plug where it shorts everything until the ground is firmly connected... no pops or crackles.
Edit: This is the plug used.. https://www.amphenolaudio.com/products/14-2/t-series-switch-...
It got chosen because it was compact, it can be repeatedly plugged and unplugged, sockets can be through-hole soldered, and double-ended cables are widely available. There is no obvious alternative with those characteristics, and they outweigh the bad.
I rarely listen to music this way, I only seem to like music that's played out loud.
Second best and sometimes a tie is music reproduced on a good system, room filling.
That said, I do enjoy music playing down with good earbuds. Miss feeling the low end, but it can be nice.
For the wireless argument, here is mine.
I use an airpods pro. I also have multiple high end headphones. I only apple os with wireless. If I was using linux, android, windows then I have to use my other headphones, since my bluetooth always have issues with wireless using other os.
The airpods pro is probbably my favourite headphones that I have. I use it 95% of the time
The only time I use wired headphones is if I need to use my amp when I really need/want to listen to the quality of something or if im using non apple os.
Wires are a pain in the a$% for me personally and ironically more fragile than my airpods pro. It's hard to move around with wires and they tangle a lot wether if im wearing them or not.
The airpods pro are small and you can have noice cancelling, transparency, and normal mode. The only downside is I have to charge them every 5~ hours.
They connect to my phone, and my 3 computers easily without unhooking the wires.
The only annoying thing about the airpods pro is that people don't know that i have something in my ear because my hair is long and I am listening to something. When they are trying to start a conversation I usually can't hear them.
The only time they fall out of my ears is if im cleaning the house cause im moving my head around too much. They don't even fall when I'm working out or running
People like what they like. Forcing it just does not go well, unless the reasons are really good.
I was, and am seriously put off by the omission of analog audio jacks. Most of the reasons given just do not resonate and sometimes it is stated or strongly implied I am somehow the problem.
Our strong emphasis on individualism suggests more is in play. Deal with it, grow up, etc..
The decision to drop a universally supported headphone jack really doesn't make any sense unless you are trying to force people to buy your expensive wireless ear-buds, (which I can't wear because they are uncomfortable and fall out of my ears within seconds).
Even a cassette adapter beats BT.
When I rent newer cars, which I do frequently, I am amazed at the diversity of general conbobtwinkulating required to connect, looking hard at you Dodge, and quality, latency is never worth the hassle.
End up just using earbuds every time.
I really hate BT.
I guess Airpods Max would count?
I mean that sounds like a pretty major downside. Maybe when this becomes "I have to charge them every 5 weeks" they might be more appealing.
That's pretty obvious. The article gave that for granted (actually, it even explicitly acknowledged it) and put the spot on famous or not so famous people going the other way round. They will be always be a minority and guided by fashion/aesthetics rather than comfort, but it was worth (or not) to point it out.
I only buy wireless ones now, even though they're fraught with their own issues. It seems like there's always a tradeoff to be made, specifically regarding quality.
My biggest complaint has been the damage that I've always seem to have done to the headphone jacks of devices that I use. I'm not harsh on my devices, but I do tend to put my phone in my pocket and walk around with headphones on. And if it's not the headphone jack that gets destroyed, it's the cable; I went through ~5 different cables/earbuds when I was using the Shure SE215s.
Bluetooth headphones aren't great either. I have not lost a pair of headphones in years, but I've gone no more than 12 months without purchasing a new pair. This gets expensive when I also want my headphones to have active noise cancelling and sound reasonably good (I don't care about audiophile cans, because I wear my headphones primarily when I'm active). And don't even get me started on a pair that has a good (not even great) mic... I'd love to be able to have a phone conversation when walking through midtown Manhattan.
Corded headphones at my desk use to make me so angry. Always tangling. And with earbuds, cord noise. I don't miss corded headphones.
The AirPods alone bring in more profit than most major tech companies. Why in earth would they stop making them?
They now live in my carry-on bag for use with the inflight entertainment systems.
They suck otherwise. I have these wired earphones I bought 5 years ago for $99 that I use most of the rest of the time. They sound better, fit better, connect 100% reliably, and I don't have to worry about their batteries dying in the middle of something because they randomly decided not to charge last time I put them in the case.
I'd rather have no wires, but AirPods are a significant compromise to get rid of a wire...
I find it's rarely worth it. Only the one use case, actually. Same for the watch.
So I dug in, bought a backup phone with jack and am just camping on good gear to wait a while and see what comes.
Maybe I will put a set in my carry bag.
Apples got a bad case of the Facebook mom's group, basically. (No offence to the mom groups, you've given me so much help over the years)
https://github.com/tlalexander/reboot-headphones
There is a newer design in the linked OnShape document which is smaller and uses two 3mm titanium rods for a headband. They’re really nice and they’ve been my daily headphones for what feels like a year now. I love knowing that no matter what breaks on them they can be repaired forever.
The DAC is quite critical for final sound quality (responses to different frequencies, amount of noise...).
Most wireless use built-in DAC and provide no method for using an external/standalone one.
Another obvious issue would be the connection stability which is why I still use 3.5mm on my iPhone 6s (or previously iPhone 8 but requires an adapter).
This incorrect statement is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. A DAC on its own is useless for listening to sound, it always has to be accompanied by an amplifier stage. I honestly don't know why people have become focused on the part of a DAC+Amp circuit that rarely matters.
If a DAC makes any difference to the sound quality of the device, then it is a bad DAC. All a DAC should do is output the exact analog signal that was sampled in the digital file (provided it is below the Nyquist-Shannon frequency). Even dirt cheap commodity DAC chips do this well beyond what any human can hear.
If there is any fuckery with the sound, it is probably due to the implementation of the pre-amp or amplifier circuits in the device which have far more ability to introduce distortion or noise to the signal, or introduce a sound signature.
1. So-called chi-fi (Chinese Hi Fi) has made huge strides and I was able to get a really great pair of IEMs from a company called TinHiFi for $70. Definitely the best sounding pair of in-ear headphone's I've ever had, and rival some wired regular headphones I've owned in the past as well.
2. Bluetooth is worse than Hitler.