8 ms·
$160 for the AirPods? My goodness those are expensive.
by artmageddon 10y ago
$160 for the AirPods? My goodness those are expensive.
- riotdash 10y agoToo early to say that. Depends solely on the sound quality.
- duiker101 10y agoI disagree because to the layman that can easily listen to anything on a 25$ pair of earphones that's a lot. And here we are talking about at least 80% of the population.
- Yhippa 10y agoI had no idea they were that expensive. Regular old Bluetooth looks like a bargain now.
- BurningFrog 10y agoThey seem incredibly easy to lose.
- adamnemecek 10y agoYou are supposed to use it with the case. Still easy to lose but slightly harder.
- azeirah 10y agoI listen to music most while on the bike, even in-ear earbuds just randomly fall out of my ears very often. I can't imagine finding one of these if they were to fall out of my ear during fall.
- davidhperry 10y agoI've been using these for the past year while riding and they've worked well for me: https://www.amazon.com/SBW-Bluetooth-Sweatproof-Wireless-Microphone/dp/B00OVX7M3U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473275652&sr=8-1&keywords=sbw+headphones%22%3Ethese%3C/a%3E https://www.amazon.com/SBW-Bluetooth-Sweatproof-Wireless-Mic...
- Vin0 10y agoRiding a bicycle with ear buds is really dangerous to yourself and others (Lack of awareness). It's illegal in a lot of places too. Get one of these instead: https://www.amazon.com/Aftershokz-Wireless-Stereo-Headphones-AS500/dp/B00JO9Y176 https://www.amazon.com/Aftershokz-Wireless-Stereo-Headphones...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- elif 10y agoPlenty of places have adequate bicycle infrastructure.
- Vin0 10y agoMy town is very bike friendly, and my 4 mile commute to work is 90% dedicated bike roads, but I still wouldn't bike without the ability to adequately hear things around me. Every once in awhile I come upon a cyclist with headphones or ear buds, riding in the center of the lane, and when they fail to hear my call to them that I'm on their left, I pass them in the available space and they almost always end up getting spooked. Same thing with runners and headphones.
- lucb1e 10y agoLack of awareness? How about having a radio in the car or, worse, (hands free) calling? Or even having excited conversations with three others in the car, that surely gets your attentiveness down way more than music on a bike.
- mulmen 10y agoAll the more reason a bike rider should be aware of their surroundings. Someone else being inattentive doesn't dismiss you from your responsibility.
- mthoms 10y agoIt's not about attentiveness. Car radios, speakerphones and conversations don't block out ambient noise the way ear buds tend to do. I mean, it's great for sound quality but downright dangerous when paying attention to your environment is critical.
- ihuman 10y agoEspecially if it falls out of your ear. I've always had trouble getting the EarPods to stay in my ear while running. I had to loop the wire above and around my ear; I can't do that with the AirPods.
- mulletbum 10y agoThey are not for running. That was addressed as Beats plans to have the fitness models.
- kelseydh 10y agoI can see this getting very annoying regardless, though I trust Apple has thought this through.
- r0m4n0 10y agoI have the same problem and use the loop method as well. I have tried quite a few headsets and like them the best though. I think the real reason why they fall out is the weight of the wire lightly tugging the bottom of the ear bud. I'm hoping the lack of wires will solve that issue...
- alinspired 10y agohere comes "find my airpods" app :)
- dajohnson89 10y ago(In-store purchases) :-)
- twblalock 10y agoI'm sure some accessory makers will start selling lanyards and whatnot that can be attached to the earphones so they are harder to lose.
- usaphp 10y agoI recently paid $350+ for Bose wireless noise cancelling headphones, the problem with over the ear headphones is that I can't wear them for a long time while I work for example, my head become hot and I want to hear what is around. I like the weight of the regular iphone headphones, I can wear them indefinitely, I am pretty sure case will be the same with AirPods, so I think the price is justified.
- exhilaration 10y agoI got the in-ear Bose noise earphones for that reason -- I didn't think I could wear headphones all day without my ears and head getting hot. The earphones are great, really makes it possible to work at home with toddlers screaming downstairs.
- throwanem 10y agoIf you want a really comfortable set of headphones (not earbuds) that sound good and don't block your hearing, consider the Sennheiser HD 558. They're circumaural, so they sit comfortably on the sides of your head rather than mashing your pinnae flat, and their velour pads are nicely breathable; they also mass only a quarter kilogram (260g), and they're an open-back design so that ambient noise is merely reduced rather than totally occluded. (Also, unlike closed-back and especially noise-canceling headphones, they do not produce a constant pressure on your eardrums, which has been suggested to cause hearing loss and certainly plays a role in listening fatigue.) Their reproduction is quite good as well, with a surprisingly flat frequency response for the price range; if that suits you, you're good to go, and if you prefer otherwise, they won't interfere with you EQing your music to your heart's content. Depending on where you find them, they run anywhere from $100 (Amazon Prime) to $180 (MSRP), so they're considerably less expensive than your QC15s, too. I really can't recommend them favorably enough.
- softawre 10y agoI have the HD 598s and I can wear them all day.
- 10y ago
- tajen 10y agoAs a side note, they're noise-canceling and also work as a (non-bluetooth) headset. I was expecting them to find a solution when you lose them, which is the first gripe people will have with them. Even if it's something along the lines of "come to the store, you'll get new ones for free, but we'll deactivate the old ones".
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- AceJohnny2 10y agoThe Airpods aren't actually noise cancelling. A pity, I was watching out for that. The noise-cancelling they do is for the microphones, which is what you expect for any headset device. I currently have a pair of Bose QC20 (their in-ear noise-cancelling earbuds). I'm pretty happy with them, but they were really expensive at $250. If Apple's were noise-cancelling and able to compete with Bose's tech (they're rated the best [1]), they'd be a deal. But as it is, they're not. Maybe a firmware update, maybe they're negotiating tech/patents with Bose, maybe the next iteration... [1] http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-in-ear-headphones/ http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-in-ea...
- lh7777 10y agoI'd personally settle for an in-ear[1] version of AirPods. I'm not sold on noise cancelling, but I do need something to keep the music in and background noise out, and rubber-tipped in-ears do that quite well. Honestly, I'm confused as to why Apple makes earbuds without rubber tips at all, let alone at a $160 price point. I've tried using EarPods on a plane before (where my ancient Sennheiser earbuds get 95% of their use) and I couldn't find a comfortable volume setting -- loud enough to hear clearly over the engines is painful (and probably just audible to the person sitting next to me). The AirPods sound like a great idea on paper -- very small size, charging case, potentially less flakey than a typical Bluetooth device -- but since they're nothing more than wireless EarPods, I can't think of a use for them myself. [1] http://www.apple.com/shop/product/ME186LL/A http://www.apple.com/shop/product/ME186LL/A
- 10y ago
- zyxley 10y agoThe only other company putting up a serious effort in the same niche is aiming at $150 (and releasing a month later than the AirPods) [1], so there's probably some lower bound here set by the complications of the hardware/R&D to seamlessly connect two separate earbuds through your head and to the phone. [1]: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/5/12798640/bragi-wireless-headphones-earbuds-price-release-date http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/5/12798640/bragi-wireless-hea...
- prawn 10y agoThere's also these for around $200 from Samsung, though supposedly battery life is poor. http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/ http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/
- tetraodonpuffer 10y agodid not see any mention of if they will have lossless audio or not (important if Apple really wants to have their technology replace wired for also higher end headphones) Also no mention of standby time that I could hear, only 5 hours listening, but no idea if just having them on (in case of infrequent phone calls) would use up the battery as fast or not
- glhaynes 10y agoTheir product page mentions "high-quality AAC audio", so I'm assuming all audio output is converted (if necessary) to AAC. http://www.apple.com/airpods/ http://www.apple.com/airpods/
- kayoone 10y agoAny good pair of wireless earbuds is around that price point.
- PacketPaul 10y agoYea but can you really put a price on courage.
- deanstag 10y agoBurn!!
- theshrike79 10y agoIt's in the exact same price range as comparable wireless earbuds, like the Jaybird X2 You're just comparing them to shitty wired $5 chinese earbuds from Amazon in your head. $160 isn't even expensive for earbuds in general, more like lower mid-range.
- Snowdax 10y agoI don't want a Jaybird so that's not a winning argument for why I would want these. I'm comparing them to my $90 noise cancelling over ear headphones that, while yes no exactly top tier, don't require their own charging infrastructure and have much better audio quality than stock apple. I may as well have an entirely separate MP3 player that costs me a good bit less than $160 than deal with this BS.
- Cookingboy 10y agoJust because you personally don't like wireless headphone doesn't mean Apple's overpricing theirs. Most pure wireless headphones cost more than $150. Are you the target audience? Probably not, but for people who are looking for that type of solution Apple's pricing is very reasonable.
- abvdasker 10y agoMaybe he's suggesting that headphones are headphones and $150 is too much for what is probably a pretty mediocre pair in terms of audio quality and ease of use.
- sschueller 10y agoBut the Jaybird are attached to each other so you don't loose them that easily and they work on any phone. Do the Apple wireless AirPods work on any phone? or only devices that pay the W1 licensing fee?
- theshrike79 10y agoNo one knows yet. I'm guessing they're using standard bluetooth if paired with something standard, but use something Apple-proprietary when pairing and listening when possible. (NFC-like operation and their own audio codecs on top of bluetooth)
- baddox 10y agoFunny enough, I thought the exact opposite. I predicted they would be $200 at the absolute minimum.
- askafriend 10y agoIt's a very reasonable price point and completely in line with the competition like Jaybird, Beats or similar. I was in the market for good wireless earbud-style headphones recently to use in the gym and all of the decent options were between $120 and $200. I ended up going for the Jaybird X2 which is about $150.
- shwash 10y agothose went on sale recently and are in the $80 range now. I picked them up, they're great.
- justinph 10y agoI'm really curious about these. I wear hearing aids and these things seem damn close in a lot of respects, except about $5000 cheaper. The hearing aid industry has seen a lot of pressure from consumer electronics (which is great) and I hope this only increases that pressure. I could totally envision v2 of these having better battery life and being able to "enhance" hearing the same way a hearing aid does. Also, more people using these will hopefully reduce the stigma some see with wearing hearing aids.