Earbuds

But they did tangle all the time. That was annoying.

All these people saying they like wireless earphones are completely missing the point. Devices with headphones jacks can do both. Taking away the headphone jack means you have to rely on wireless earphones, which have all the issues the post describes.

It also destroyed the "pass the aux cord" when driving with friends.

"Hey, I want to show you a song. Pass the aux cord."

Plugs

Plays

Now:

"Hey, I want to show you a song. Let me connect to your car's Bluetooth."

"Oh, I can't while the car is driving. Can you pull over for a minute?"

"Which submenu was is it in? Bluetooth or Settings?"

"Do you mind if I remove one of the devices already connected?"

"Oh, it just auto-connected to your phone instead."

"Here, I'll just send you a link."

"Your phone locked. Can you enter your password again?"

"Oh, you don't have [streaming service] premium? We'll have to sit through an ad first."

What do you mean used to? I still do. IEMs with replaceable cables are nigh on indestructible.

I've thrown away so many headphones because the cable frayed though. There's always some downsides.

I didn't believe the hype about wireless headphones until I bought some with noise cancelling and all that for around $130.

Pros:

1 - You don't realize how "tethered" you feel on older headphones until you really try to use wireless headphones. There's a certain freedom you feel when you realize you can place your phone on a hotel table but lie down in bed.

2 - Noise cancelling and noise passthrough is a transformative experience when travelling or find yourself abroad. Airports are much easier to feel relaxed in when 80% of the noise or so can be filtered out as you wait for your flight to board. Additionally, the flight experience is less annoying (no engine drone gets through, even passengers can mostly be ignored) but you still have the option for pass through if someone absolutely needs to talk to you.

3 - Many of these headphones come with some kind of EQ feature, which can occasionally mean that you get speakers with more tunability and thus slightly better bang-for-buck that works globally across apps.

4 - Audio quality. Since these are expensive drivers, you're often going to get better sound quality than those cheap 30 dollar throw aways were ever going to give.

Cons:

1 - Latency. These things could never be used in professional audio situations other than listening to a pre-rendered song for quality judgements. I don't thing gaming would be nice with these either, even if I've tried (and failed) to play counter strike on these on occasion to keep noise levels down.

2 - Mic quality of the built in is lacking on my particular headphones (Sennheiser CX Plus). They're really only intended to capture the outdoor for noise cancellation IMO, not the greatest for calls or recordings. They're servicable, but it's the area I'd like the most upgrade (and it would probably improve noise cancellation features as well.)

3 - Environmental / Sustainability Concerns: Other than people just "losing" these devices with built in batteries that are bad for the environment being a problem in and of itself, there are other long-standing concerns I have about these devices. They often require proprietary non-open software to configure, meaning if the software gets delisted, you will no longer be able to configure them until someone comes up with some kind of alternative using reverse engineering (good luck). Batteries are likely to degrade over time, meaning you'll eventually end up with a worthless ear bud on the left or right and the only solution will be to throw them out. These things are often pretty bad scoring on repairability metrics, and I can't even blame the companies producing them here because they're so small.

4 - Despite passthrough being a feature, it's hard to convey to people that you can actually hear them through the device. There should be some kind of blinking light on the outside that indicates that passthrough is enabled or something.

So I actually do love these devices, but #3 of the cons is really the biggest real issue I have with them. If they're going to cost over 100 dollars, I would like to know that these things won't just become ewaste in the same way that cheap crappy wired headphones end up being as well (which sea life often chokes on or gets tangled up in.) If they costs a premium, I would really like to know that they aren't a figurative dead end when they eventually fail.

Meh. I don't miss getting the cord caught on door handles and having the earbuds violently yanked from my ears!

On the other hand, bluetooth headphones never catch on a doorknob and yank out of your ears

They also didn't add an extra layer of compression between the player and your ears - because they had a fucking headphone jack and wires that could transmit audio data without compression.

Tbh I like the convenience of not being physically attached to my phone when listening to music. That said, the removal of headphone jacks from phones is a disgrace.

And they used to get tangled on everything all the time, got caught on things all the time, frayed and wore out all the time, had janky connectors that had to be jiggled to sit in just the right position to get stereo sound, and got tied in knots when you put them away not matter how carefully you wound them.

There’s a reason everyone is using Bluetooth now, gramps.

A friend was complaining that he was always losing his air pods. I told him about my awesome idea to sell a little cord that would connect them so they were easier to keep track of.

He was like, 'Dude! That's a great idea... You've got to start selling those before someone beats you to it-'

Then it dawned on him and he called me an asshat.

Last time I used wired headphones on my old phone, I was riding a bike. One of the buds slipped out of my ear and got caught in the front wheel, dragging my phone out of my pocket and smashing the screen. 10/10

These jacks are still in every other audio device. They were removed from phones to force BT usage, which Google needs for their profiling telemetry network and Apple for their Find my Device thing. God forbid someone turns BT off or even decides they would prefer a phone without BT entirely. There is no other reason and how people prefer to listen to music has nothing to do with the subject.

I got some wireless headphones and now I keep leaving my phone behind.

Because I hear music, I assume my phone is in my pocket and sometimes it isn’t.

This issue is solely the fault of capitalism. By removing choice you are forced to by a more premium product, but you're advertised it by all the supposed benefits: one less external opening on the phone, no more tangled headphones, no more dealing with headphones that only work when the cord is plugged in just right, no more chance of your headphone port going bad.

They skip over the fact that most of these issues are directly problematic because of cost cutting and designed obsolescence (aka engineered lifetimes). The opening is one thing, but headphones tangle in pockets easily because they use such thin flimsy cords. Same thing goes for cords breaking in the lining and only working at certain angles: a more robust cord would be less prone to issues.

On top of this, the entire designs of phones not having repairability in mind is the only reason that a headphone port breaking is a big deal. If they were designed to be disassembled with replacement parts being readily available, it wouldn't be an issue. They could even make the ports more robust to decrease failure rate.

What do you mean used to?

That's still what I use. I have seen people using the wireless ones though, they seem quite popular at the moment.

I'm just not sold on the idea of earphones that have planned obsolescence built in, and require Bluetooth.

My current earphones are fab, I've been using them for 10 years now, and they plug in to everything and work with everything.

Why downgrade to something that'll have a ruined battery after 2 years, doesn't work with most stuff, and let's also not forget sometimes doesn't work at all because the battery might need charging.

My wired earphones have not once refused to work for any reason, period.

We used to have transportation that didn't need gas because horse, and didn't need expensive roads because horse, and never needed an oil change becuase horse, and they cost less because horse.

The ease of pairing Bluetooth headphones lately is pretty nice as well as not having to run a wire up my shirt to avoid snagging.

I do look back kind of fondly on physically plugging in my headphones and just having it work.

I really can't stand people that make this argument, I felt the same way at first, but then I actually started using Bluetooth headphones and they are frankly just better, in almost every way.

And if you really want wired headphones still, you can just buy an inline adapter for like £2.

I was so pissed when Apple took the 3.5mm jack because I knew the rest would follow, and they did.

OTOH, now that I've gone to the dark side, I listen to music more often and enjoy it more thoroughly because I'm not dealing with tangled cables or having them accidentally yanked out of my ears, and therefore I'm more likely to have my earbuds with me. (they are now always in a pocket in my backpack) I can even fairly comfortably go to sleep with them on, which I do often.

I understand the audiophile arguments, and I'm sure that even with Buds2 Pro, SSC, and some fairly painstaking attention to EQ/DSP settings I'm leaving something on the table. I don't care about whatever that something is. I haven't enjoyed music this much and this often since I was prepubescent.

I have nothing bad to say about anyone else's choices, but the rush to shit on bluetooth earbuds gets a little "I don't even own a TV" sometimes. (for folks old enough to remember that kinda snobby trope around Y2K or so)

There are USB-C headphones.

All the stories of people complaining about wire troubles as apologists for cell phone manufacturers read like scenes from an infomercial.

I'd gladly take a phone without a camera before I took one without a headphone jack.

bought a wireless headset

just keep it wired to my computer anyways because i never have to care about charging it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In the before times, in the long long ago.

I still only buy phones with a 3.5mm socket.

I'm only willing to buy a phone that has the jack, it reduces the selection, but I'm not willing to compromise on that. And someone gifted me some airpods recently (pro 2). Tried them out and they were ok I guess, but they also had too many downsides, so they sit on a shelf now. It's not a good enough alternative for me.

Had horrible audio quality both inherently and due to the constant cable dangling noise, didn't stay in the ear due to the cables' weight pulling them down, didn't last long due to the cables getting tangled while carrying, you couldn't wear in bed or during sports or with large coats due to the cables, you couldn't move away from your phone due to the cable length or if you forgot they yanked your phone off the table..

While the major issue with wireless earbuds is that they could easily be lost, I'd prefer that over the old wired earphones which gets tangled up or yanked accidentally. If you also buy good quality wireless earphones, you would never lose sound on either left or right earpiece, unlike with the wired ones which often happens no matter the quality. But I still keep my wired earphones as a backups in case I lose my more precious wireless earphones or breaks.

Oh my god how I hated those headphones with cable. I destroyed at least 3 phones because of them. I would have them in and walk and would want to do something on the phone and suddenly I'd get caught on the cable while moving and the cable would jerk the phone out of my hand and it would land on the asphalt and the screen would break. And fixing the screen is so expensive, it's better to buy a new phone, or just live with a broken screen where you cut your fingers on.

Since I switched to Bluetooth headphones this literary never happened again. And every single one of the problems described here has a fairly good solution, at least with the Samsung ones I have:

• I need to charge them perhaps once every two weeks, so I really don't remember when they would have been without charge at a inconvenient time.

• I can find them by several means:

  • They're connected to the find my device samsung network, so even if they are not close they will be picked up by other Samsung devices. I forgot them at a hotel 500km away, searched for them and found them
  • I can play a sound
  • The Bluetooth can show me to which direction to go and how far away they are

• They never lost Bluetooth connection, I can even connect them to two devices at the same time

The only point would be the cost, they do cost a lot more. But compared to buying a new phone constantly because the cable hangs somewhere and jerks the phone out of your hand, even this is undeniably cheaper.

Yeah but have you ever gotten the cord caught on something and had the earbuds ripped from your ears? Instant rage.

Planned obsolescence at play here 😢 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

The luxuries that come from anything with a battery are great, but everything running a lithium-ion battery has its days numbered, and that's really unfortunate for the consumer and absolutely stellar for the business.

wired usb-c headphones have all of these features today

It amazes me how salty people are about this. I switched over to Bluetooth headphones. Battery life is amazing. No issues syncing. Quality is great. No 3rd party app needed. It's a nothing-burger.

Imagine something as stupid as this living rent free in someone's brain

Can't beat an infinite battery that doesn't need the resources, production, and disposal of batteries.

Any wireless connection that is less than a meter and connects 2 or more objects that are already physically attached otherwise, is a useless wireless connection.

Convenience. No more rubbing noise from a cable. No more struggle with cable at desk.
My buds last for a few hours on one charge. I have two pairs.

I don’t lose my headphones, and they don’t lose connection. Maybe OP shouldn’t use $5 earbuds from aliexpress. As for charging, what’s the problem? It’s not like you have to ride a bicycle to generate electricity, all you have to do is put them in a box.

Wired headphones were a pain in the ass to wear with anything other than a t-shirt, and the wires always got tangled by invisible gnomes in your pocket.

I use wireless headphones even though my phone has the jack connector.

Things that are cheap arent as financially successful as things that are not, even if the more expressive product offers a worse experience.

It's super undemocratic when megacorps or politicians can completely ignore & overrule more than 3/4 of the population & force them/us into something for the financial good of the few.

Eg like railroads, even fairly big corporations would/did prefer railroads directly to their factories, not to mention people traveling by train.
It was good but too cheap on every step.
And with minimal running costs compared to alternatives, so extra too cheap.

No car roads ever need to be more than one lane, for everything else (all the current extra lanes) there should be rail tracks giving the people freedom to not-drive at all, or the freedom to drive the last bit & otherwise park the car on a train cart.
...
And giving us and nature more space back, not having huge, wide scars all over the surface decimating, separating, and profoundly changing what's left of the ecosystems. And just not having too look and hear all the traffic & trucks is also nice, or being surrounded by huge paved-over surfaces.

And also, my peeps, fight the system with usb dacamps usb --> 3.5mm and/or 4.4mm (they start at ultra-cheap and even those are usually as good as most phones used to have):

Wired headphones are great, and my mouse has a cable too. I might be a dinosaur.

Just don't use Apple shit

Lovin’ the lack of cord so much I didn’t even realize it had ruined lives…

Wow. Is this what the miserable void of personalities are circlejerking over now?

These worked better than any noise-canceling wireless earbuds I have tried:

They were much cheaper too.

And they were always tangled, and they got yanked out of your ears, and they were never in your pocket.

I get the charging part, but... You can buy cords for your buds if that's what you like. You can still buy just regular headphones, even if you don't have the jack you can get a USB adaptor. And, yes, they had no Bluetooth, but eventually they'd get to that point where you had to hold it just right for both ears to play. My last ear buds were from AliExpress, they were both less than $5 and have been going strong for almost a year. If I did that back in the day it would be like listening to music in the other room. You needed at least $10-$15 to get usable headphone.

Headphones aren't ruined because I have the choice to not have them yanked from my ears by every door handle.

I don't use wired headphones anymore, but I keep the 3,5 mm jack in my phones as long as possible. I do this, among other reasons, because of backwards compatibility, freedom of choice, second use usability of device, reliability when needed.

Yes, but they would break because the cable frayed, and you would randomly get yanked when they got caught in something. Also, they were hellish to detangle.

We used to share our tunes with a simple Y-cable.

Anyone have a tip for me on how to connect two Bluetooth headphones to one device? I've tried on Android (Samsung) and an iPad with no luck... I'm back to the good old Y-cable I've used since the Walkman days.

Since I don't listen to music and thus sound quality is not important to me, I prefer wireless buds while working and at gym, but while at home on my computer I use wired over-ear headphones.

Nevertheless I refuse to buy a device without a headphone jack out of principle. If everyone who complained about Apple removing it would've stuck to their guns and refused to buy such device, there's a chance they, or atleast the competition would've decided to not follow along. Instead, consumers just went along with it showing the manufacturers that it's okay to charge more money for less features, and here we are. Not me though. My next phone will have a headphone jack as well.

I still use wired headphones and earbuds. On the phone it's got a USBC connector, so I had to find a compact adapter. Fortunately USBC is a tough connector so they're holding up well enough.

The earbuds themselves are very cheap. They normally only last a few years (3-5 or so). I snagged a couple little zip up pods that hold earbuds from a job fair years ago. As long as I do a quick coil up, it's easy enough to pack them away and get them out without tangling. They also don't get hurt living in my satchel.

I've considered moving to something wireless, but I have enough battery driven devices to babysit already.

How are you supposed to plug into the fake cassette tape that somehow tricks the car to play your phone (or discman) through the tape player?

Although now it's hard to find a car with a CD player ffs.

I do still like my Bluetooth earbuds, I can instantly connect them to my TV and not disturb anyone else at 3am

And the cords break every 3 days and eventually the port gets fucked.

Having said that - I LOVE having a headphone jack.

I still have a newish mid range phone with it, it runs most newer games, Zenless Zone Zero is the only that doesn't work, you just have to get comfortable with not owning Apple or Samsung.

It is not some big conspiracy.

Wired headphones have many pros, but also many cons. Wireless headphones have many pros, but also many cons. You can still buy wired headphones for modern phones using USB-C.

The vast majority of people literally don’t care or prefer having wireless air buds. The people who don’t, still can have wired ones.

The major distinction is that the headphone jack is large and not easily waterproofed. The trade off of having a sealed water tight phone at the cost of losing the headphone jack is worth it for the vast majority of people. It is worth it to me.

If you don’t like it, go buy a Zune.

They can’t take away my iPod and its headphone jack.

I use both wired and Bluetooth. I have a wired type-c for music and Bluetooth for all other stuff. But IMHO Bluetooth is more convenient than wired. Cae produce better sound.

For all the shit Bluetooth audio and devices get it for fucking sure was better than the past with how they're less likely to break, how they're more convenient, and how modern batteries allow them to work for over a day without charging

Last I saw a worthy earbuds with cables was with a luxury brand that allowed you to disconnect from cables, and have braided cables so that it wouldn't rip, with a comfortable design that prevented tangling, with the cost of it being heavy.

It costed three times more than the next Bluetooth device with no comprehensive improvement to audio quality.

All you need is a usb-c to 3.5mm adapter, folks.

Apple sells one for just $9 that has a top notch DAC, in case that's a selling point for you audiophiles.

All right I'll say it as much as I hate how expensive they are and their problems with batteries the convenience of not having to deal with a cord wins out for me. Also since these products are so expensive I generally required the quality of them to be much higher in a way I'm buying earbuds more like I would buy a pair of shoes where I wanted to last for quite a while since I used it everyday.

Whereas before I would just lose a pair of those earbuds and say f*** it they s*** anyway and pick up another one for like $3

Should people have the option still? Yes absolutely I don't think that the Jack should go anywhere it's honestly a very useful port for data input and output aside from just earbuds.

You can get a USB-C to Aux adapter for your phone. It's my way of still doing this.

I find neckbands to be a perfect compromise.

I got an older android and never stopped getting headphones, it just makes more sense to me. I mean I'd love to have a better camera but if that means getting a phone without the jack then I'm not buying it.

fucking wireless headphones, they are a menace to society and if not to society, to my life

I rarely use earbuds but when I do, I always use wired ones. That's why when I am buying a new phone, first priority is head phone jack. My current earbuds are some 20€ Sony ones and they do the job when I have to listen something in public.

Only someone who never lived with corded headphones would claim they are superior.

As someone who loves and needs wired headphones but loves the convenience of BT - The solution is a Bluetooth dongle.

• Plug your amazing headphones into the dongle
• Keep the dongle in your pocket
• Cable won't get caught as much
• Cable won't suffer as much wear
• Phone is much easier to handle
• If the headphone jack gets glitchy and bad it's cheaper to replace a dongle than a phone

Downside: Many (most?) BT dongles have shitty audio quality so you need to find a good one.

Honestly the best would be "behind the head" earphones. No tangle. And then add like a few extra grams to include a portable music player and a small battery. Plus usb-c to transfer and recharge. Or plus bluetooth. Best of all worlds.

But what I really want are big noise protection / noise cancelling headphones with an integrated mp3 + opus player plus bluetooth.

as companies make acting polite a cost i have, by not changing, become more rude

It's a lot to lose over the mere fact that the headphone jack cable got stuck on door handles and got ripped out of the ears. But I'll concede to that list of issues. I'm sick of several decades of spontaneous and violent loss of audio.

I would suggest looking at some IEMs if you want to stick with a wire. For phones that don't have a headphone jack, a USB C to TRS jack (tip ring sleeve / headphone jack) will suffice.

Personally I prefer a good quality BT/USB Dac amp to drive my IEMs as the quality is far superior to any phone headphone jack that isn't a LG V20 thru V60, or the Moondrop MIAD01 DAC phone. Few manufacturers provide good onboard sound. BT buds improve upon this a lot, but a real dac amp and set of IEMs or cans will show you so, so much more.

My phone is IP68 probably because it has no headphone jack.

Sounded much better too