Y’know what headphones really did “just work” though? Wired headphones, circa 2017. Their battery life was infinite. You could “pair” them in seconds to any device with a headphone jack, aka any device, because we’re in 2017. Oh, and they were cheaper and better for the environment.
Courage, indeed.
And this is why I’m currently typing my comment on an iPhone 6S...
Honestly, the fact that I no longer snag my earphones on random protrusions, like doorknobs and bus ticket validating machines is a bliss. Cables inside at a desk: sure, why not. Cables outside: hard pass.
There are pros to wireless headphones and the right choice for many people, but the choice has been made for all people who do not experience that. I personally use Bose over ear heaphones that have an optional cable you can attach and connect and it has come up an incredible number of times. There is so much pain if you switch for more than two devices, forget to charge, at unsure something is paired, etc that all goes away with having a cable option for when it is more convenient.
Exactly. Removing the headphone jack is incredibly hostile to those of us who want to use wired headphones, and clearly motivated by the insane profits of wireless earbuds. And the worst part? It's working. Just look at the AirPods business and you'll see exactly why Apple does it.
For myself, I'm sticking with an older phone and IEMs with replaceable cables. Super happy with it because I'm OK with the tradeoff of dealing with the wire instead of dealing with batteries and replacements every 2-3 years. So sure, Apple has made some profit off of wireless buds. But they could make even more profit by adding a headphone jack and allowing folks who want wireless buds to use them. (no, dongles and lightning headphones do not solve this issue -- I want to be able to use the same connector for all my devices, and I want to be able to use it while charging) At least add it to the SE, for Pete's sake.
I wonder how many people have actually stopped buying iPhones due to the removal of the minijack. I bet it’s noise to Apple’s revenue. I also expect that they save more in the hardware simplification than they lose on sales.
I'm sure it's 100% worth it for them financially. Me not buying an iPhone because it doesn't have a headphone jack means nothing to them.
I think what will hurt them in the long run is their pattern of user-hostility will start to affect their image. For instance:
* Right to repair gaining steam (Apple now introducing some basic form of parts availability)
* Apple eroding their image as a Privacy company (Apple had to delay their "child safety" tools after public outcry)
* iMessage lock-in (Apple users "bullying" Android users due to Apple's hostile UI choices).
Those are just the recent examples that come to mind.
It'll all add up until Apple has a PR problem that actually does start affecting their bottom line, and then they'll have to make concessions that'll make people happy again.
Probably not a lot. But it's one of those "death by a thousand cuts" things I can't ignore in an iphone purchase. Between that and the fingerprint reader, I'm out. If they brought either back I could justify it.
I really do miss my headphone jack. Not being able to charge and listen to music at the same time is dumb as hell.
However, my 6 was proper dying, so once they bought out the SE or whatever with a sensible form factor and fingerprint scanner I was convinced it was better than trying to switch
You're not technically stopped, you just have to pay extra money to get an adapter, with the additional downside that you can no longer charge the phone while using those headphones.
For me, it's not the cost or the ability to charge my phone, but the fact that the adapter can get lost. I can't leave it plugged in because I use my headphones with non-iPhone devices too.
I perpetually loose my headphones anyway. If I had an adapter too, I'd find myself unable to listen to anything twice as often.
The old jack was also more solidly connected than the current inclement weather port (sorry, can't remember ifit's lightning, thunderbolt, or wizard strike).
> get an adapter, with the additional downside that you can no longer charge the phone while using those headphones.
Shouldn't such an adapter have a female USB-C connector and pass that through to the male one, with the headphone jack being branched off? Do those not exist, or are they prohibitively expensive? Did the Apple "dongle" mentioned in sibling comments do it that way? (Sure oughta, IMO.)
Then one would think someone else has exploited such an obvious(?) market opportunity. (BTW, I deliberately didn't write "with a T-branch for the audio jack" or similar, because the stem of the T should obviously be the male USB-C going up into the phone, so the audio and the incoming USB-C go out to the sides. Then you can still stand the phone upright on top of them.)
They've stopped including it, but they sell it for $9 with free shipping.
The next thing to go will be the physical SIM card tray - takes up a similar amount of space which is better utilized for battery capacity or other features, and also makes for easier waterproofing if removed.
I agree, but the awkward "omg an airpod fell off after bumping into something/someone" is also a real thing. They should have an optional cord between the pair.
This is exactly why I have the old-school style with a wire connecting them that sits on the back of your neck. I had my toddler rip an earbud out just once for me to realize that was a design feature I had to have. As an added bonus, I find they're way easier to throw on and off (just loop them around your neck and tuck them in your shirt) in between tasks.
and then put it directly into their mouth right (airpods are the perfect choking size)? Yeah, i can totally see the need to have them attached together in that situation. heh what is it about toddlers that makes them constantly try to kill themselves.
I had the opposite experience - I had the ones with a wire between them when my kid was a baby and had to stop using them as soon as he was able to grab things. That wire was so tantalizing and the buds got forcibly ripped out of my ears every time! I switched to some very cheap (and relatively large = easier to grab out of a small mouth if necessary) AirPod knockoffs and only put in the ear on the other shoulder from where I was holding the baby.
Now he's older and when he gets hold of them he tries to put them in his ear rather than his mouth. I've been cutting down on wearing them when I'm around him anyway, since he's copying everything now.
The problem with this design is that anything that rubs or bounces against the cable transmits sound into your ear (like a children's cup telephone). This makes them annoying to use while exercising. I find that the style connected by a solid hoop mostly avoids this.
Both of these "solutions" have the obnoxious problem of needing to be removed to charge the airpod. The Powerbeats Pro has built in hooks that are nice and sturdy, but the case is obnoxiously massive compared to the airpods case.
My problem is that I must have freakishly small ear canals, because neither of these earbuds actually fit into my ears - despite trying nearly every aftermarket replacement eartip.
The Shokz openrun pro doesn't need to go into my ear and kinda works, but the sound quality sucks for music and the head loop protrudes from the back of my head and isn't adjustable.
Over ear headphones don't work with hats or bike helmets, so those are only good sometimes.
I love my aeropex, but i’d be half inspired to write a similarly styled article about the annoying uniform beep notification UX- especially if you’ve paired with multiple devices and one is not quite in range.
That's exactly what I use. I have a set of airpod pros I use most of the time, but I can't stand having my ears sealed all day, and having waterproof ones I an wear in the shower is awesome.
My only gripe with them is that the quality is way lower than even fairly cheap normal ear buds, so I mostly use them for podcasts and books.
I've got these, bluetooth on them works great, and the bone conduction is really interesting. It's really nice being able to hear your surroundings while having some kind of audio playing. Or if you don't want the surrounding sound, they come ear plugs. Really comfortable to have on too, I barely even notice them (if at all) when I'm wearing them.
Should be mentioned though, for the price the music quality is worse than what you'd get with other devices. It reminds me of a higher quality phone speaker. Definitely not bad compared to some headphones I've used, but it's not amazing. Hasn't been an issue for me though, I happily use them when working. Voice audio sounds perfectly fine. IMO you get them for the other benefits, not because they're the best sounding thing on the market.
Agreed. They're great for walking around outside while on a phone call, listening to a podcast, or listening to music while exercising outdoors – not for "getting into the music". Airpods are better at doing both, based on what I've heard.
> Aftershokz Aeropex, silly name aside, is a decent product that gets you a Bluetooth device you can wear all day without losing
Make sure if you get bone induction headphones that you test them out in louder environments before running or getting them dirty. For me, I had to turn them up so high when outside with normal street noise that they gave me a pretty terrible headache.
>I had to turn them up so high when outside with normal street noise that they gave me a pretty terrible headache.
You have to be really careful doing that. It's very easy to screw up your ears with bone conduction headphones if you try to drown out background noise by increasing the volume.
I have a pair which have a cord between them and hooks over the outside of the ears, because regular headphones don't retain in my ears. I don't think I could last even a day with airpods without losing one of them.
I use the "PowerBeats Pro" for this. I don't know if they've been updated with some of the newer features, I bought mine a couple years back when they came out.
The current version of the Powerbeats Pro has separate buds for each ear, but I have the newest revision of the regular Powerbeats for this exact reason.
They even have the H1 chip and all of the quick pairing/built-in Apple magic that Airpods do.
Yes. Mobility is why I got the Air Pods Pro to begin with. I don't use them with my Air and I don't even want them to pair with my Air; wired ear buds are fine (and cheap!) for that. But they're great for walking and working out. The Air Pods Pro even stay in my ears while erging.
Still, the OP's complaints are valid. But when they work, which is most of the time, they're great. Surprisingly (but not insanely) great.
Back in the day I made good use of those oversized jacket pockets to pop my CD player in - then you just run the cable up under your shirt and you're good to go.
It's surprising how little of a hassle headphone cables can be - I understand that the market is going elsewhere but I've stuck with wired and couldn't be more content. This does have the side effect that I've been soft locked out of Apple phones though, so I switched over to Android devices.
I used to wear my wired earbuds like this at times. They would still snag (though less frequently). The cord has to exit my shirt to get into my pants pocket and that’s where they would snag. That plus snagging on jacket zippers at the neck.
Plus the annoying telephonics that the wires cause was enough for me to finally buy wireless earbuds. Yes, I can try to route the wire under my shirt. Yes, I can try to wrap the wires around my ears to cut down on the telephonics. But all that is more hassle than dealing with Bluetooth.
This works but then all my music has a muffled rubbing sound from the cable that reaches my ears while I walk around. This is what I used to do, but wireless is still better IMO for headphones on the go.
Admittedly that is an annoying problem, but it's quite simple to arrange the cable as it exits around your neck to stop it happening. I guess it's just a personal preference thing in the end of the day. I personally find wireless annoying on the go, I only use them at my shared office space because they have noise cancelling, so I can keep music at a sensible level and blot out all the background noise; with wired I need the volume at a frankly stupid level to keep me from hearing the office noise.
Wired earbuds are amazing with masks. If you put them on before you put on the mask, when you need to take one off to hear something, the mask straps hold it conveniently hanging near your ear. A fumbled airpod rolling across the floor is not an improvement.
Really? I always see them go flying when taking off a mask to eat or drink. The random protrusions to escape the faraday cage that is your head don't seem to interact well with elastic loops.
I used to run with AirPods multiple times a week, and used them while walking around and on public transit. I've done the same with AirPods pro borrowed from my S.O.
Did they ever fall out? Only a small portion of the time. Half the time I noticed it and caught them.
Was the idea of them falling out stressful? Hell yeah. Nothing like a $50+ bud to stress the hell out of you when you're trying to get a run in and it just will. not. sit. in. your. ear. correctly. Add sweat to the equation and things get messy quick. And the fact that in some places, like public transit, you have a good chance of losing the bud forever if it falls out.
I am much happier with the IEMs I've been using for a half a year or so now. They hook over my ears optionally, so they're never really in danger of falling out and I never have to mess with them. And they're wired to me anyway even if they do fall.
I have Pixel Buds and I haven't tried running with them yet (it's been cold since I got them for Christmas).
I used to run with Bluetooth over-ear headphones, which was great in winter, and, uh, less great in summer (the foam would get completely soaked and foul-smelling).
The ear supports on the Pixel Buds are pretty secure, though, I expect it to be OK, especially at my pace.
This is my approach. At my desk? Sure, wired is fine. Even have a full DAC/amp setup (JDS Labs Element II) that I plug my trusty old Sennheiser HD6XX’s into.
While I’m up and moving around, or relaxing on my bed watching something on my iPad with a cat that has an inclination to chew on cables? AirPods/Bluetooth.
For a while, most of the hoodies I bought for workouts actually had a cutout in the kangaroo pocket for routing headphones inside of them. The newer ones don't though, you'd have to cut it yourself.
I always feed the cable down the back of my neck and underneath my shirt or jumper. The bonus is that I can take them out of my ears and they'll dangle like a necklace, so I can tuck those under my shirt as well.
Haha yes. I remember rocking my HD580's with their awkward 12' cable plus an adaptor for the 1/4" plug outdoors. Kids these days have it a bit more easy.
I know this comes off as sounding like an old man, but you could also just walk around without your ears plugged up and pay attention to your surroundings.
My go to solution for such annoyances is to pass the cable through the inside of my shirt. Not the most elegant solution but saved me a lot oh headache :D
I get that no cables can be nice and convenient, but routing the wire through a shirt/jacket helps avoid getting caught
edit: lol, an instant downvote - didn't realize I was on Reddit. It was at best a suggestion for when you have to get by with cabled headphones. I'm not on some holy war.
Not to mention zero latency. Trying to have multiple people in a car play music/podcasts is a nightmare over bluetooth when you used to be able to just pass an aux cable around.
That just means your phone's or PC's DAC is crappy compared to the internal one, and any other headphones would sound just as bad.
I have an older pair of JBL E55, which are about 50% cheaper than yours, and on a modern phone they sound slightly better on wire than on wireless, presumably because their internal DAC is mediocre.
I have new MBP 14', and even external fiio E10k headphone amp. They work great with my Sennheisers HD 650, but suck with WH-1000mx3 compared to internal AMP.
I use my xm3 daily and don't notice a difference. I use both methods of connection because sometimes it's quicker to just plug in on some devices, and others it pairs right away. Love these headphones.
Those Sony headphones do processing to the signal regardless of whether you're using wireless or a 3.5mm. They can still make sound with no power but it feels more like a backup in case the battery is dead. It seems like a sensible design decision given that most users will want them turned on for noise canceling even if they're wired.
Sound quality via wired audio is also much better, unless your particular phone doesn't have decent DAC/analogue circuitry. I can't bring myself to listen to music on wireless. I don't even know that Apple takes advantage of their walled garden to do better than the usual Bluetooth protocols.
> One of the most notable comments in the interview came from Geaves when asked whether Bluetooth could be “holding back” the AirPods hardware and “stifling sound quality. In his response, Geaves danced around criticizing Bluetooth directly, but acknowledged that Apple would really like a wireless standard that allows for more bandwidth.
You know what just works? Natural sounds from your environment. No need for equipment, no wires to snag, no pairing or plugging, you could even do it in your sleep. Oh, and it is zero emissions.
Courage, indeed.
And this is why I am not even typing this. I’m just imagining things, because it’s free and good for the environment.
For out of the house, I would never go back to wired in-ears anymore. Untangling cables and the occasional yank out of your ear is not user friendly.
For outside, I actually find wireless headphones to sound better for three main reasons:
- Better fit. Proper fit is essential for good sound and I rarely get a good fit on wired in-ears due to the constant pull on the cord.
- Microphonics (cable rubbing noise). Microphonics is very obvious and annoying. It is far more obvious than for example the difference between AAC and lossless. Audiophile reviewers hardly ever evaluate microphonics, because they test under ideal conditions behind their desk. Cable noise is not considered part of the driver's sound signature, but in real life it has a huge impact of what comes in your ear.
- Noise cancelling. Music sounds better without bus engine sounds.
> Noise cancelling. Music sounds better without bus engine sounds.
That's nothing to do with wireless though?
I'm a bit of a convert to (Anker .. 'SoundCore P2' I think) wireless earphones (AirPod style, not sports-style-round-back-of-neck), but for ages I used noise cancelling wired earphones, with a little Bluetooth receiver when I wanted them wireless that I thought was the best of both worlds. I now think no wire at all is nicer though. (But probably not if I had to pay Apple prices! These Anker ones were £30.)
I used to be like you. Then i tried, for real, a pair of bluetooth headphones.
The disadvantages of the bluetooth is by far outweighed by the wireless advantage. The mobility, flexibility and convenience of no tangles and accidental wire pulling and causing phone to drop - all worth it.
And wireless UX is only going to get better. Wired is dead.
I will stick with wired headphones for the overwhelming majority of usecases. There are just not enough downsides to cables compared to never needing to switch audio devices in a conferencing app, awkwardly change OS settings before jumping on a call, or ever charging my headphones.
>The mobility, flexibility and convenience of no tangles and accidental wire pulling and causing phone to drop - all worth it.
You can thread the wired headphone/IEM cord under your shirt, or even over your ear and down your back [0] to prevent tangles and wire pulling that causes a phone to drop.
It's less convenient than wireless earphones, but it solves the problem, and comes with advantages (better noise isolation and sound quality with certain models, plus you don't need to worry about the batteries degrading and having to buy a new pair after possibly 2-3 years, so you save money). I'm considering switching back to wired after my current AirPods pair dies for these advantages.
>Wired is dead
Not at all. You can get high-quality, professional earphones (in-ear monitors or IEMs) that fit in a pouch in your pocket, which are great for people in loud environments (better than noise cancelling due to their noise isolation); who appreciate music (sound quality is noticeably better for any genre); or who do professional audio work.
Having cycled through WH1000XM3, XM4, AirPods Pro, I am back to my trusty Shure SE215 that I use wired.
— They never deafen me with connected/disconnected sounds (which can never be configured quiet enough) or music briefly playing at insane volume after switching or connecting.
— I know I get the source quality.
— I would never lose one randomly (always a chance with “true wireless” models).
— I don’t get weird phased low-frequency rumble from active noise compensation gone wonky.
— Most of all, their passive noise suppression with Shure’s black sleeves, depending on exact noise profile either beats or is on par with top-of-the-line active isolation (both according to rtings’ test benches and my subjective experience), and does not end when battery runs out inevitably at the most inconvenient time.
Addendum: 1) I connect them via a tiny Ikko Zerda DAC, which I started using way back when I still had a phone with a headphone jack (this is subjective, but with lossless sources I hear more detail—as in literally small instrument parts I didn’t hear before in complex arrangements—compared to built-in DAC). 2) I generally pass the wire under the top layer of clothing, and personally taking an earbud out and letting it dangle is about as difficult as switching on the transparent mode on AirPods (and without audio degradation inherent to such modes).
As far as their SE215 model goes, the sound, isolation, and ergonomics are great, but I've always had issues with the cable breaking at the ear curve next to the connection point to the earbuds.
Now that you say it, I’m not using the original cable, and I don’t recall what happened to it because it’s been so long ago (could’ve been a similar issue to the one you described).
I couldn’t find a Shure original cable to replace mine with right away, so I got a compatible one and been rolling with it ever since. It’s slightly thinner, more flexible and without the thicker malleable parts near earbud connections. I was cautious about those differences at first, but in the end grown to prefer it more than the original, these thin wires wrap around my ears just fine.
As a side note, one of the things I treasure about the design of these IEMs is the replaceability of the cable. The IEMs themselves can probably survive for ages, which gives a nice feeling among the increasingly disposable electronics—I just hope the model would still exist on the market when something eventually happens to my unit.
It's been awhile since I used Shure's in ear monitors, but they once sent me a kit with one of everything in that part of their product line. Nice stuff, and if you can tolerate in-ear stuff, incredible sound. But all the cables failed over time. Not heavily used either. They were great about sending replacements, but they were very aware of the reliability issues. And these were monitors that had MSRPs over $800.
Cables (as well as sleeves) are certainly the disposable part of IEMs like these. Earbuds themselves proved incredibly reliable to me (compared to AirPods Pro at least, which I had to exchange once and which still had problems after that).
Also, SE215 cost much, much less than US$800. More like $100.
Yeah, I have two pairs of SE215s for convenience. But, replacement OEM cables cost 20-30$, and maybe it's the geometry of my ears, but I've had to replace 3-4 cables by now, since the cables, OEM or not, kept failing at the same section, at that metal wire you bend over your ear.
I see. Well, YMMV but you could try a different type of cable. There are cables not using metal wires that you bend around the ears, but the same thin flexible cable throughout the entire length. I have not had problems with one in more than a couple of years of use.
Sure, you can work around the limitations of wired head phones. But at the end it's just not worth the trouble for many of us. I ditched my wired head phones years ago and haven't regretted it.
Or you can work around the limitations of wireless headphones. At the end of the day both choices have advantages and consumers can freely chose one or the other (or both for different situations!) just so long as no manufacturer is stupid enough to remove headphone jacks from their mobile music devices we'll all be good.
For as long as we both live, manufacturers will make wired headphones, and people will buy them. Latency and quality might not be important to the casual user, but for some wired headphones and speakers will be, and will always be, essential.
I've got some Sony bluetooth / noise cancelling headphones, I don't like the lag but that's only an issue for videos and it switches to low latency (low quality) for voice calls. But I really appreciate not managing a cable, it's always in the way, or touching my arm or something (some sensory things really annoy me while sitting at a computer). Plus, great battery life.
And it Just Works. Although my Mac has a tendency to switch back to my speakers (also bluetooth) after ~15 minutes without my input, that's really annoying. Might have to do with the speakers turning themselves off?
> And it Just Works. Although my Mac has a tendency to switch back to my speakers (also bluetooth) after ~15 minutes without my input, that's really annoying.
So, what you're saying is, it doesn't just work!
I promise I’m not trying to be sassy! This is exactly the type of issue I always run into with wireless audio, and basically never experience with wired headphones. I hate these types of little, persistent annoyances.
I don't like wires either, to be clear, but I think they're a small price to pay for their reliability.
I agree completely. Little gnomes never sneak up on me and switch the wire from one device to another, then demand I go through weird unplug/plug rituals involving four levels of deep-presses to get the thing connected back to the device I want, all while 20 people are waiting for me to start a presentation. The signal doesn't randomly drop out or connect to the car that just pulled in the driveway. The batteries don't go dead.
The point is predictability. Wires have it, bluetooth doesn't. Yes, they predictably snag on things sometimes. In my experience, this annoyance happens far less frequently than any of the many annoyances that bluetooth brings.
There's one major annoyance with Sony headphones and earbuds - no way to mute/unmute yourself - you must walk back to your laptop to do it. Why, oh why, Sony?
I have a wireless headset for my PC and it's hard to go back to wired. I have much nicer wired headphones, but I rarely switch to them. Being able to get up and walk around while not interrupting what I'm listening to is great (yes desktop speakers would let me do the same but they also let everyone hear what I'm hearing). Also with wired headphones I had a constant issue where no matter how I routed them, they would end up tangled in my chair. It was super easy to think they were resting safely on my desk, only to turn my chair and fling them to the floor.
This is true (iPhones, iPads, and plenty of Android phones these days), but can be mitigated by carrying a USB-C to 3.5 mm audio adapter in the pouch that contains the IEMs. I wish people didn't have to, but it's a straightforward solution that widely improves wired compatibility.
Adding a small adapter to where you carry your wired headphones fixes the problem of the current reality where many devices do not have audio jacks. My assertion is to provide a practical solution to the current state of affairs, instead of claiming that the present is better than the past state of affairs (where there were ubiquitous audio jacks) due to audio adapters.
Due to forces beyond the individual's control, it's highly unlikely that audio jacks will once more become ubiquitous, so the second-best outcome is for wired headphone users to start carrying an adapter.
I am still like OP. I have tried three pairs of airpods and currently use a Bose Bluetooth headphones with an optional attachable wire. Airpods are very painful for more than two devices, get lost, go through the wash, forget the charging cable, etc etc. The problem for me is that apple removed the headphone jack even as an option, and many other phone manufacturers copied that on all but their budget models.
It's possible it wasn't your intent but this reads as condescending to me. It implies a progression where people can become "ready" to use a more advanced product rather than the product not being a good fit for the person which I think is a good way to blind yourself to real product problems. Instead of just saying "people drop their phones, maybe they aren't ready for expensive things" you can realize the incredible market that phone cases represent. Or in this case, maybe there is a market for waterproof wireless earbuds that survive the wash, that counteracts the additional manufacturing cost (probably not, but maybe).
Obviously the airpods are great for a great number of people, and I bought them too. I think it's safe to say Apple made good tradeoffs for their business. I ended up switching back to heaphones with a wired option and then switching phones to get a headphone jack because the dongle annoyed me enough. I am very much in a minority - don't get me wrong, apple will not miss my business. But that they lost it should be a conscious decision as "this won't work for everyone, but it will work for most people really well by default" - not, "when people are ready for it they will see the light". The former forces you to acknowledge and quantify who it won't work for when finding product market fit, and the later assumes you don't need to do that.
I agree. I only got a pair of earbuds because they cam free with my phone but I was surprised by how lifechanging they were. Not in an important way, but in a low key and pervasive way.
There are two situations where earbuds are far more convenient:
Getting ready in the morning - I can put the earbuds in once I'm out of the shower and dried off and listen to a podcast. They don't get in the way of getting dressed, moving around etc.. This is just not workable with wired headphones and my partner has already started work so I can't use a speaker, and even if I could I'm moving between different rooms and floors of the house.
Driving - getting headphones out of your pocket, untangling them and putting them in is basically impossible to do (safely) while driving. But earbuds are never tangled I can just open the case and put them in all while my eyes never leave the road. Means I can make phonecalls or listen to stuff easily and safely. This is a particular case of them just being quicker and easier to put in than wired earbuds - no having to thread it down your jumper just because you want to watch a 5 minute YouTube video.
It's also pretty much confirmed at this point that the next pair of AirPods won't be using bluetooth - which they will get a lot of shit for but is probably necessary to address a lot of these issues.
That also further increases the interoperability problem though, if I can't use my headphones with non-Apple devices even after going through the pairing dance. (Unless Apple uses some other open protocol, which I doubt!)
Yes, AirPods are currently surprisingly easy to switch from an iPhone to a Windows laptop (click open the Bluetooth menu and connect to AirPods), which is quite similar to the behavior I use to switch between AirPods and a Mac (I rarely use the "Switch to AirPods" notification on Macs that pops up seemingly-inconsistently).
I understand it’d be an issue to many people, but I had Airpods for 5? years now and not even once paired them to anything other than an Apple device. I have non-apple BT speakers but don’t have any BT transmitting devices that aren’t Apple… my LG TV maybe (which I use with an Apple TV) but I assume pairing them would be a pain.
I hope it's an open protocol that operates on WiFi spectrum. Every implementation of Bluetooth is horrible, and you start to wonder if the Bluetooth spec itself is the issue..
If Apple does go proprietary you won't be any worse off, assuming they still support Bluetooth (and I'd be very surprised if they stopped supporting Bluetooth).
I don't think pushing users to Bluetooth is a ploy to get more users to use Bluetooth. Toggling Bluetooth off only means the user-land applications can't use Bluetooth, the system might still use it for location-based services, if those are enabled. The "Find My" network would probably do a similar thing of piggybacking on such a feature.
I agree, but I'm going to defend the wifi case a little. Ethernet doesn't work if you're using a laptop, because it defeats the purpose of having a portable computer in the first place. You either have to be able to work offline, or you have to stay next to an ethernet plug.
I said above that wired headphones have infinite battery life. I suppose I could say the same about a desktop computer versus a laptop, but I don't think that would be fair.
FWIW, the proliferation of video calls over my laptop has pushed me back to wired internet at my desk. Combined with wired headphones - I have so much less latency than any of my co-workers. It's nice to not have to play the "can you hear me" song and dance.
I did that until I updated the wifi in my house. There’s a combination wired/wireless wire plate under my desk, but I don’t bother wiring it into my work computer, because the wifi is faster than what the cheap USB C adapter can offer.
950 down, 50 up. Wifi will pull 450 easy, but my hub will only do 100, despite claims to the contrary.
450 is good enough for my use case, so it’s easier to just not worry about it and avoid running another wire up the sit stand desk. If I upgrade my hub to something that’ll pull the claimed 1G, I might change. Or maybe not. I dunno. Literally nothing I do on the internet can get close to saturating it.
Edit: wifi adds a mere 5ms of latency in my office. I consider this beneath my notice for basically everything but gaming. And even there it probably is meaningless given my relatively low skill level.
If your dock is only able to negotiate a 100Mbit connection despite theoretically being 1000Mbit, and you're experiencing dropped packets, it might not be your dock. That sounds like an issue with ethernet cabling. Bad cabling will usually result in ports not being able to negotiate their max potential throughput, and sometimes they'll negotiate higher than what they can realistically do.
5ms per round trip adds up, especially when you add in every other source of latency in your chain. I've also found that, thanks to general RF noise from everything being wireless these days, latency spikes occur much more often over wi-fi than wired.
YMMV, of course. Always worth measuring your own experience.
I went back to wireless specifically because I was noticing issues on that hub. I went to the trouble to setup control plane to disable wifi when Ethernet was plugged in, and zoom performance tanked. Going back to wifi solved it. I think that the adapter was dropping packets, but I never bothered to triage since wifi works great in this house.
It’s worth mentioning that my setup has very, very low latency. Lag between me and the speed test server in city is 5ms wired, 10ms wireless. My router is way overpowered for what I ask of it, so throughput and latency tends to be very good.
To be fair, my wifi setup is a bit … extra. I’m running 5 APs, two switches, a controller, and a dedicated router, with a dedicated AP for my office that’s a combo wired/wireless outlet. I’ve turned it down so that it’s basically only serving my office, and it has a dedicated cat6 backhaul to the network cabinet, no sharing airspace with other APs. If I hadn’t gone to all this trouble, I’d probably upgrade my hub and go wired.
I find wifi almost entirely dies around the time I get wonky latency... but having said that everyone's wifi situation is different depending on network, building / home structure and etc.
Not to mention how the wired apple earphones are way better in terms of audio quality during calls than airpods (own both, and airpod "pro" to boot). Heck, during most calls, my colleagues tell me that the sound is way better when I use my macbook air builtin microphone than when I use my airpods .. on zoom, ms teams, whatever. Not to mention how my airpods pro started discharging in a skewed manner - with one ear piece discharging faster than the other. None of these are problems with the wired earphones.
Wired headphones have an amazingly simple, reliable, and consistent pairing method with devices. Little kids and senior citizens can operate wired headphones with ease.
My wired headphones had a frustrating tendency to pair with unwanted devices like elbows, chairs, desks, and other protrusions. This tended to unpair them from either my device or my ears.
edit: Oh, and to themselves. Knotted up cords leading to wires failing caused more than one set of mine to only work in one ear.
I love wired headphones, but I have never had a pair whose cable didn't short out within a year; I got to the point where I'd buy replacement cables with the headphones. I've got B&O's, NAD's, and Sennheisers, both open and closed, and: I might as well keep them in a lighted display case, because I never use them anymore. Once Apple came out with the Max AirPods, I was done with wired headphones. I don't want to be! But they're too much better a product.
I think this is a fascinating aspect to the overall wired-vs-wireless debate. Some people simply have a problem with wires and some don't. I have three pairs of over-the-ear wired headphones that have been with me for 7, ~10, and >20 years, respectively, and none of them have ever had any cable damage. I've never ended up with flaky wiring on a cheap pair of apple earbuds, either. The very cheap earbuds that came with my HTC G-2 did end up with flaky cables but they're an aberration in my experience. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, I really don't have any grudge against wires, but I do loathe the fidgety connectivity of bluetooth.
Of course, I'm also baffled about how everyone I know and hear about seems to be unable to keep their macbook power cable from self-destructing, and I just keep accumulating them because they never die. My favorite one is still a MagSafe 1 from, I think, 2012.
[edit: in retrospect, perhaps the fact that I have a "favorite" power cable is some kind of red flag. Re-evaluating my life...]
Wired headphones took forever to put on though. You’d have to untangle them when taking them out your pocket. And when commuting I’d tuck the wire down my shirt so it didn’t flap everywhere and get caught on things, but that meant taking your phone out your pocket pulled on it.
I misplaced my AirPods for a bit a while ago and switched to wired headphones and couldn’t believe I had put up with it for years before I got AirPods.
I found I was just getting sick of the faff and bulk with my wired ATH-M50x + FiiO A3 amp. I have tried most of the big bluetooth buds (Airpods 3, Buds Pro, XM4, Audio Technicas), I absolutely hated them.
I've ended up using the FiiO UTWS5 (over ear bluetooth hooks that connect via standard IEM connectors) + Moondrop Katos, the setup is sublime. Fantastic sound quality, very reliable and great battery life with no faf and can fit it in my pocket.
If you still want wired, the Apple dongle actually has a DAC/amp that is regarded surprisingly highly in the audiophile headphone community. Just remember to charge your phone.
I think most of the mainstream options for wireless stuff will make hi-fi enjoyers miserable, you just have to look at something a bit more interesting.
The only disadvantage is you don't get so much of the supporting features. Ambient mode isn't great, there's no ANC (I don't really care about these things), and it doesn't have the fancy pair-switching integrated stuff, so wouldn't be great if you switch between laptop and phone.
But for audio, we've reached a point where it is absolutely excellent.
I own a pair of Airpods for work, and they're fine for a couple hours of Zoom calls every day. For non-work, I have a pair of headphones with a lightning input. It's still annoying, because I can't charge my phone or transfer data while listening to music, and I still disagree with Apple's courageous decision to remove the 3.5mm jack, but it's an okay solution.
They also snagged on everything, got tied up in knots in your pocket, the wires would give out all the time requiring you to buy new ones, were obnoxious to use when exercising, and limited the physical distance you could move from the device you were using to about 2 feet.
There are issues with wireless headphones, but they also solve a lot of genuine problems with wired ones.
Wired headphones also switch between devices almost instantaneously. Or at least, when you unplug from one device and plug into another, you're guaranteed to have it switched to the right device.
That being said, I use my Airpod Pros almost all the time, because I'm hooked on wireless and being able to stand up and walk around, etc.
I, too, have a 6S and my travel headphones are wired. Partly because they work with any device with a headphone jack, partly because of the battery life issue, but mostly because of my phone slips down the side of the aeroplane seat I can fish the bugger back up again with the headphone cord!
Don’t forget the super fun untangling puzzle that you get to solve before each use! Or the eardrum damaging fun of having the buds ripped out of your ears every time the cord catches on something. “Just works” indeed!
Yeah, I thought wireless headphones were a gimmick I didn't need, I didn't want to worry about having to charge headphones, etc.
I ended up with a pair and turns out wireless headphones were a giant QOL improvement. I can run around do chores while my computer/phone charges upstairs and listen to music at the same time. I'd never use earbuds though, I absolutely can't stand anything inside my ear canal.
I still want my phone/computer to have a headphone jack in it, and mine does.
I've broken at least three or four pairs of wired headphones in the gym/while working out getting them caught in something and then the cable being jerked and broken, not the mention the intense annoyance of the cable always ending up in a horrible knot in my pocket.
With my Airpods Pro, my original pair are working great, no breakages, amazing for working out with, no cable to get tangled. I love them.
I upgraded my 6s finally.. and the lack of headphone jack is frankly painful. I can’t just plug into my car, home office, and office headphones.. I lost the little dongle..
I think I’m going to buy 3 of those adapters and leave them where I use my headphones. What a waste.
Wireless changing helps the charge while listening though, so that’s a plus.
Some people hate to be physically tethered to their desk from their head. Maybe wireless headphones have to be paired and charged, but that beats standing up an pulling your laptop to the floor while your headphones are jerked off your head. And nothing is better than being able to pace around while on a call.
Agreed, but I wonder why all the complaints about wired headphones using a lightning\USBC 3.5 mm adapter. I don't find it obtrusive, and the iPhone (and many phones now) can be charged wirelessly when the adapter is in place.
A combination is the best, got some cheap noise cancelling JBL BT phones and if you plug a cable it'll always use that (they even work as dumb headphones when turned off), pull the cable and they'll happily go for BT.
You can do both tbh. Wireless headphones are great because if you charge them relatively frequently, they're a light, painless pack. I'm pretty into high fidelity audio, but I'm not going to be walking around w/ my DT 990 pros. But if I'm out running errands, being able to break out the AirPods is amazing.
And realistically, it's not that significant to just buy an adapter and keep it permanently affixed to your headphones. Will be better if/when apple fully moves off of lightning to usb-c but I have found that when I want a high fidelity experience w/ music I'm more likely to be sitting and plugged in anyways.
I wouldn't let the lack of a headphone jack deter you from upgrading a phone if you wanted. You can get one of those adapter things and just leave it attached to your headphones if you wanted. I know people think it's annoying that you even have to do this but it's an option. I bet you can get one for free from a friend even.
I do have a nostalgic feelings for the iPhone 4s and headphones. I wish there were products out there that excited me in the same way my first iPhone did.
> You can get one of those adapter things and just leave it attached to your headphones if you wanted.
The problem is that I’d have to unplug that adapter to use my headphones with a device other than my phone, including other Apple devices like my Macbook. I would subsequently loose the adapter, guaranteed.
If the world could agree to use USB-C for everything, that might work, but Apple—who started this mess—is a prime holdout there.
Yea I agree, just offering a solution. I am excited for Apple to switch to USB-C for the iPhone as well. It's quite irritating that it's not... one cable to rule them all! But then they went and added HDMI and SD back to the Mac, so now they have a better argument since they aren't actually doing the one-cable approach.
Well, you had to pay more for better headphones with better cables. But wireless headphones are expensive anyway. (And have non-replaceable batteries which will also permanently die after a couple years.)
The best cables still break when they're moving a lot. The important thing is for the headphones to have replaceable cables. But only the high-end headphones and earbuds have that feature.
I can only speak from my own experience, but I've been using the same set of wired KZ ZSN in-ear-monitors for the past few years. They're nothing ground-breaking, but they cost under $25.
The wires loop back behind my ears so they don't get pulled out easily, the wires have yet to short out, and they are replaceable in case I ever want or need to replace them. I almost always use them with my phone, so the USB-C-to-3.5mm dongle that came with my phone is typically attached to the end.
I don't mean to shill for this or any other brand in particular, but I'm pretty sure there are several affordable, decent quality earbuds/IEMs out there with replaceable cables.
Replaceable cables are a game changer in this space. The buds will last for years and years, and make up the bulk of the cost of a set. The cable could get ruined by one unlucky event... but if you have a couple of backup cables like me, it doesn't really matter. You can buy replacement cables off of Aliexpress for <$10.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I've never had a headphone cable fail. Including a cheap pair of airport earbuds that were used weekly for air travel (tightly wrapped, basically a worst case scenario for cable strain) for multiple years, and the detachable cable that sees daily use on my 598Cs.
And I can buy a lot of $17 wired earbuds for the price of one set of AirPods. At my rate of failure, literally a lifetime supply.
What were you doing with your headphone cables? I've been using the same one with my current pair since I bought them three years ago. Prior to switching to cans, I used the same set of cheap wired earbuds for five years - and they're still working
I've had cables go bad in multiple sets of headphones that I barely even used, let alone subjected to the expected rigors of travel or heavy use. As far as I can tell, a lot of cheap 3.5mm plugs have strain relief that's basically just ornamental, and even a modest amount of flexing or vibration will quickly break one of the wires.
Caveat: This reply got a longer than intended and broadens a bit, but please indulge me because I think you are also onto something I have been scratching my head about for decades now, amidst outrage for questioning tech dogma.
I agree with you to an overwhelming degree. I also had an iPhone 6S until about a year ago and I have to say the upgrade to the iNext Pro was pretty underwhelming in many, if not most ways when objectively evaluated.
I have also had AirPods for however long they have been out and even though I would agree with the rebuttal to your point that many other BT headphones are notably even more glitchy, I also paid about 5 times less for some of them that work almost just as well in most ways and aspects.
There seems to be an odd kind of self-delusion going on where somehow whatever is new, is assumed to not only also be better, but significantly better, when if one just takes a first principles approach to evaluating that proposition, at best you find marginal or incremental improvement of diminishing returns.
The 6S was released over 6 years ago, is it even doubly as good, let alone exponentially more capable? There is a huge hurdle in overcoming the reality that the answer is no.
There is all this lamenting about sustainability and environment this and climate change that, but for some reason, e.g., an old Apple device (picking on them because I believe they are the highest standard bar) cannot perform as well due to simple UI and UX changes?
There is seriously something wrong with the whole matrix and I have not been able to get any kind of satisfactory answer as to why, e.g., an old 1st (or 2nd) gen iPad Air all the sudden cannot perform †h same simple, core tasks it performed exceedingly well when it was new, that being loading safari and less than demanding website like HN.
What has changed in the 9 years since the 1st gen iPad Air came out that all the sudden browsing is now an extremely demanding task on the device? It seems like intentional and fraudulent designed obsolescence. Where are the environmentally concerned drawing attention to this like I am?
Just imagine if your car got updates every year, and then you find that 9 years later all the sudden the same engine has 100 less horsepower and can't get up a moderately sized hill anymore. That's not suspect to anyone else?
Again, I would love for someone to explain how I am wrong, that I cannot expect a product I buy to retain the same performance for the same actions/tasks when nothing else has changed. Does the CPU age and die off?
We should all be demanding that a device must retain its performance in all aspects of the original function. Everything else is fraud. Please for anyone compelled to, refrain from your "you don't know how it works" comments, that is not the case, nor helpful, and rather blind to reality.
I hope we never go back to those days. That constant struggle with the wires, having to take the phone with you, too short wire for desktop usage, the wire getting in the way when moving/jogging, etc...
I thought this was a pretty reasonable compromise, except that whenever I need mine I can't find it. Today, I know exactly where it is, but that's 15 miles away. The funny thing about this problem is that the experience only suffers on Apple devices when I can't find the dongle. I can use my nice fancy favorite headphones everywhere else with no problem. Apple is not about to convince me to toss my favorite headphones just because they are stubborn about headphone jacks; sorry.
Note that it also causes a problem that bugs me daily, which is that I can't use my headset when my power is low and I need to plug my phone in. They make those little "splitter" dongles that allegedly allow you to do both, but in my experience, they only work about 50% of the time, and while you're on your call, your phone secretly stops charging and goes dead, or sometimes the moment you plug it in, it puts up an alert that says "unsupported device" and neither the power nor the headset work at all. I've tried three or four different brands on three different iPhones and they're all so flaky I've stopped even trying. I wish Apple would just make one and stand behind the quality and make me pay $10 for it. I'd be grumpy about it, but at least it would work.
That's true, but only because they used your device's battery.
It takes more power for your phone to drive headphones than it does to transmit a bluetooth signal. This is not such a big issue any more since recent phones have crazy long battery life as do recent bluetooth headphones. In 2017 it was a bigger issue.
As someone who falls more in the "wired4life" category, the power draw of headphones has never been an issue, Even back in the naughts. That place of honor is reserved for websites, apps, and cell radios.
Ironically, with the loss of the 2.5mm jack power has a greater chance to be an issue, since your headphones and power have to occupy the same jack.
Courage, indeed.
And this is why I’m currently typing my comment on an iPhone 6S...