Earbuds
Earbuds
We used to have earbuds that don't need to be charged because they had a headphone jack, didn't get lost so easily because they had a cord attached to a headphone jack, never lost the bluetooth connection because they had a headphone jack, and they cost less because they had a headphone jack. https://bsky.app/profile/daisyfm.bsky.social/post/3l3mfjc6sn62k
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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.
Bluetooth is lower fidelity, and I'd rather have tangled cables and ports than batteries that only last 5 years or less.
Don't know where you pulled the 5 year from. I've got mine for longer than that and I have no problems with the battery. Also, didn't notice the lower fidelity, but I mostly listen to podcasts so I not gonna dispute that claim. Why I bought the bluetooth earbuds was because no matter how much I paid for wired earbuds (up to 120€) none of them survived more than 2 years. Approx after a year one would stop working and some time later the other would die too. So yeah, if you enjoy the shitty ultra thin wires that's great, but in my experience even cheap bluetooth earbuds work minimum three times longer than wired ones.
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Bluetooth as an audio standard is factually lower fidelity
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The average expected life span of a Li ion battery is 5 years
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I don't know how you kill headphones so quickly, but you can 100% get quality wired earbuds for a third of the price of wireless earbuds with nice, thick, threaded cable. The YouTuber dankpods has a few videos about this with recs for cheap, good headphones.
Bluetooth as an audio standard is factually lower fidelity
Is this an analog vs digital thing? Bluetooth runs at a high enough bitrate that most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And especially compared to the quality of the cabled headphones that used to be common any Bluetooth earphone is better
Cabled headphones have gotten a lot better and cheaper, and no it's a compression thing, here's an article about it
https://www.soundguys.com/understanding-bluetooth-codecs-15352/
And as I said, they have bitrates high enough that most people won't notice a difference. Especially since the files/steaming they'll be listening to have lower bitrate than Bluetooth.
Regardless, what matters most is the earphone quality and while there might be better and cheaper options now, that's not the cheap bundled headphone people are nostalgic of when they post things like this.
Apple Earpods are very high quality actually, and are praised as a good cheap option by audiophiles
I carry my phone in my pocket so the wire that's close to the jack bends very frequently and gets damaged. I'm glad you were able to find good wired buds. I searched for years and wasn't as lucky as you. But since I switched to no-name bluetooth earbuds I've had no problems so I'm very happy.
Are you claiming that the battery stops working after 5 years? As far as I know the maximum battery charge gets lower with time but the device is still functional. It just lasts a bit less.
Yes the expected life span of a lithium ion battery is only 5 years, everything you get after that is just luck of the draw.
It's minimum 5 years if you charge them every day. I charge mine maybe once a week when I use them regularly. So claiming that all lithium ion bateries last 5 years is misleading. Most manufacturers claim you have minimum of 2000 charging cycles.
It is minimum of 5 years on AVERAGE for lithium batteries.
The way you charge does not change the average.
Yes it does because no manufacturer claims the lifespan in years, they say you get 2000 charging cycles. The 5 year number is derived from 2000 / 365 = 5.48 and that assumes you are charging them fully every day.
Look buddy, I'm not a battery expert and I can tell you aren't either. You can't get an easy number because the chemistry is complex and the way you use them changes things. When you do get a nice clean year number it depends on many things so making broad proclamations isn't very useful.
If you have earbuds with a case, you charge them every time you put them in the case, and to add insult to injury a majority of those batteries are not replaceable when they 100% could be. That's really my biggest gripe, they're made to be not only finite, but disposable. It's just such a waste.
Fair point. Sustainability really should be a priority. I don't always return them to the case because a don't use them for too long at a time. But even if I do, charging them for 10% isn't the same as charging them for 100%. (I'm just stating that because the "5 year battery life claim" is absurd).
If you're a heavy user wired ones will probably be better for you, but I reccoment trying out both. I was really against the bluetooth ones before I bought a pair and now I'm really happy with them. It all depends on your situation.
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It might be lower fidelity but it’s not like it’s bad. I got some AirPod Pros using my credit card points and they’re awesome, plus the active noise cancellation means that they have more space to work when they aren’t fighting the metro system or whatever else. I did have some $100 ones that were pretty mediocre so I totally get that bluetooth can be bad but so can most anything else.
People chasing that last 2% of sound quality…I’m not going to waste our time saying that it doesn’t make much of a difference but they need to understand that almost nobody gives a shit. The only people that need to care are doing it for their job and that’s an entirely different situation.
And none of that even gets on the fact that without a cable to manage I can deal with them much more comfortably on the metro, in a car, on a bicycle, while walking, etc. I don’t need to think about where my phone is and I can even share them far more easily and comfortably. The battery, for my use case, just goes and goes and I barely need to charge them. They do everything better except for sound and they already crossed the threshold for great sound quality ages ago so that one is irrelevant to 99% of users.
Right but you could better quality and the same quality of speakers for literally less than half the price, and they'll be more repairable because all you need to do to fix them is solder some wire. I also disagree that they do everything better but that's really subjective. I can see using wireless headphones at the gym and things, but wired headphones still very much have a place imo.
It isn’t just the gym. When was the last time you went outside?
(The last paragraph is a summary of sorts if you don’t want to deal my wall of examples)
I like being able to sit on the metro or bus and use my phone normally, and then when I go to leave I don’t need to reorganize the wire to get it in a more comfortable position for walking around. When I drive, since the microphone in my car isn’t very good, I don’t need to think about dealing with a cable and putting my phone somewhere it can be safely and securely within reach. Being able to understand that other people have different needs I know that there is such a thing as a woman and they, unfortunately, don’t always have pockets that make dealing with a wire super straightforward.
In the summer I don’t want to have a wire down my t-shirt. It’s uncomfortable and I definitely want the thing hanging around loose, either.
When I’m at home it’s nice to not have to deal with wired headphones, and when I use my laptop for calls and stuff it’s so much easier to be able to use wireless earbuds. I can get up quickly to close a door, turn off an oven, frickin’ whatever the hell I want. Most of the time I use my PC, regular speakers, and Yeti Nano so this isn’t an issue but understanding that other people have different needs I can see why someone without those things would need a better solution.
I live where I rent bikes to get around a lot. I rarely want music while I’m biking but I’ve needed directions sometimes and having my phone plugged in while pedalling, even if the wire was long enough, would be a great way to shorten the life of the connection at the phone. Being able to understand other people have different needs I also know that others use headphones much more often, especially when we have safer bike infrastracture.
For you:
Understanding that different people have different needs I totally get why someone might want wired headphones. A little better sound quality if you’re into that kinda thing is fine. The cost is certainly a component and I won’t tell anyone who can’t afford Airpods that they need to spend that kind of money on headphones. I didn’t even do that as mine only cost $70 after my points took care of the other $310(these are AirPod Pro 2s, I also know that regular airpods are far cheaper but still pricey).
I also use wired headphones on my PC because Windows is ass and the firmware on the airpods as well will sometimes not behave either. I only use them because one specific meeting program doesn’t have anything to clean up the echo from my speakers so I need to cut that sound out entirely. Regardless, I understand how valuable a simple wired connection is. Sometimes my keyboard doesn’t behave without being plugged in, and whenever shitty Windows crapped out on my work computer and the bluetooth connection died I had to plug in to deal with that. I only use wired mice but frankly I really should get a wireless one as well to have that flexibility, though the cheapo wired one ready to go in a box nearby is fine.
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I never said wired headphones don’t have a place but you’re not getting that other people have different priorities.
It’s like saying we should all own GMC Savanas for the extra space when it would be better for 99.9% of people to grab a Honda fit or just take public transit, and then use U-Haul, a carshare program, or just borrow a friend’s car when they need to haul something once a year.
Ultimately, people just want to listen to music at all and in a comfortable way. The disadvantages of a wire are not worth the marginal increase in sound quality when it comes to daily use.
It just seems like cables bother you more than me. But I also don't live in a city with a lot of walkability or good public transit. I would use wired headphones on my college campus, when I was done with them, I'd wrap them around my phone, unplug them and then slide the coiled wire loop off my phone and put them in my pocket. I also don't care if the wires are out while my phone is in my pocket and my headphones are in. I've never run the wires through my shirt.
I used to run in highschool, and I just got used to holding my phone while I ran with headphones in. Idk man, maybe I'm just old lol.
And they do, yea. I’m just saying that I won’t try to tell you what you find important or should care about and we should acknowledge that most people want wireless. There’s still a big market for wired headphones and there’s always value in that having that cheap spare pair or two even for people who prefer wireless.
Anyway I hope I didn’t come off as trying to shame you out of your preference. My only goal was to show the other side of the coin.
But your statement is now relying on skills and equipment that - sure, don’t have that high of a barrier to entry - aren’t within everyone’s skill level, or budget vs storage capacity.
For what it’s worth, I personally wouldn’t go back to wired headphones, but I also want a mic jack because I want to play music to non-Bluetooth stuff and cars I don’t own/don’t trust with my privacy.
On the other hand Bluetooth can crackle if the airwaves are too noisy, you have to spend more for the same audio quality (and it's still going to take a nosedive when calling someone because A2DP codecs like AAC or AptX aren't available in HSP mode), and the buds have limited batteries which makes them unreliable for long-term wear.
It's all about trade-offs and individual requirements. Of course these days you're pushed to get wireless ones because most phone manufacturers are too cheap to include a headphone jack.