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Bluetooth headphones are great. You don't have to worry about the wire snagging on things and getting in the way. Wires have been progressively eliminated every

Bluetooth headphones are great. You don't have to worry about the wire snagging on things and getting in the way. Wires have been progressively eliminated everywhere else e.g. wireless networking, wireless mice, wireless keyboards, wireless phones...I'm not understanding why people are clinging to wireless headphones so hard. Your risk of losing your headphones is really that high?

Cd00d 10y ago
I like wireless headphones for the simple situation that I switch from podcasts on my phone to video on a kindle fire and back during my commute, and pairing with various devices from a variety of manufacturers seems like it would be very slow compared to popping the jack. Though, to be fair, I've never used wireless headphones (other than xbox), so don't know what the pairing process looks like. I just know that in the past cheap bluetooth speakers have been slow to match and sometimes forget that they're friends with my phone.
- andrewaylett 10y ago
  My headphones (Plantronics) will connect to two devices at the same time. The controls interact with whichever was playing more recently, and an existing stream takes priority over a new one. So I can quite happily stop my music from my phone and start up a call from my laptop, then switch back, without re-pairing at all. If I did need to re-pair, it's as simple as picking the phone from the phone or laptop's recently-used devices list. I usually only have to do that if the phone has decided it wants to keep talking to my headphones while I'm in the car. Pairing from scratch with the phone is as simple as holding the phone to one of the ear cups, but I've only had to do that once and I can't remember which one now.
  - ishields 10y ago
    It's less about the process of pairing being painful and more about the amount of time it takes to pair. I also use a plantronics headset sometimes and it usually takes somewhere from like 15-60 seconds to actually pair up and have audio coming through. Vs the 2 seconds it takes for me to plug in a wired pair
    - andrewaylett 10y ago
      The Backbeat Pros have a "nice" start-up chime. If you push the play button while it's playing that, it'll start playing music once the chime ends. Less effort and delay than untangling the cable and plugging it in (which is an option: I still keep the cable in my bag). I'm also enjoying auto-pause when I take the headphones off -- no more fiddling for the pause button when someone wants to talk to me.
ishields 10y ago
For me it comes down to a few things. Bluetooth has some major downsides: First, you now have to charge your headphones or you can't use them. This is a HUGE downside when coming from something that literally never needs to be charged, I mean considering nothing else, would you rather have something that needs to be charged daily or something that never needs to be charged? Second, transmitting audio over bluetooth requires digital compression, which affects sound quality. For some this might not matter, but when I listen to music on headphones I want the highest level of quality. This is probably less of an issue for anyone considering airpods, as apple's headphones, even the wired ones, have never been great. Now the classic response to these points is "But just charge them at night, I never have to worry about it!" or "I can't even tell the difference in quality!" and these things may be true, however for me, if I'm sacrificing sound quality (even if it's minimal) and sacrificing unlimited "battery life" (in quotes because there is no battery life for wired headphones but you get the point) I better be getting something well worth it in return. In this case, that something is what, not having to plug my headphones in? Not having a wire connecting me to wherever the sound is coming from that literally never gets in my way except MAYBE very occasionally when working out? I'm sorry but that is absolutely nowhere NEAR worth the tradeoffs. It's not that I'm against bluetooth headphones, it's that the benefits do not outweigh the costs. How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wires on your headphones? I know for me the answer is almost never (realistically only when working out, which is the only situation where I'd even consider wireless headphones)
- seanwilson 10y ago
  When you can get bluetooth headphones that last 40 hours I don't see battery life as an issue. Quality sounds fine to me as well. Are there any blind tests that show people can notice differences with Bluetooth? Even if the difference is slightly noticeable I doubt you would notice wearing headphones on the move, at the gym, in the office etc. > How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wires on your headphones? Multiple times a day. Any time you're doing anything active besides just walking (e.g. reaching for things, carrying something) or putting on a jacket the wire gets in the way. Getting them caught on a door handle and having in-ear headphones ripped out of your ears is really unpleasant.

Cd00d 10y ago

I like wireless headphones for the simple situation that I switch from podcasts on my phone to video on a kindle fire and back during my commute, and pairing with various devices from a variety of manufacturers seems like it would be very slow compared to popping the jack. Though, to be fair, I've never used wireless headphones (other than xbox), so don't know what the pairing process looks like. I just know that in the past cheap bluetooth speakers have been slow to match and sometimes forget that they're friends with my phone.

andrewaylett 10y ago
My headphones (Plantronics) will connect to two devices at the same time. The controls interact with whichever was playing more recently, and an existing stream takes priority over a new one. So I can quite happily stop my music from my phone and start up a call from my laptop, then switch back, without re-pairing at all. If I did need to re-pair, it's as simple as picking the phone from the phone or laptop's recently-used devices list. I usually only have to do that if the phone has decided it wants to keep talking to my headphones while I'm in the car. Pairing from scratch with the phone is as simple as holding the phone to one of the ear cups, but I've only had to do that once and I can't remember which one now.
- ishields 10y ago
  It's less about the process of pairing being painful and more about the amount of time it takes to pair. I also use a plantronics headset sometimes and it usually takes somewhere from like 15-60 seconds to actually pair up and have audio coming through. Vs the 2 seconds it takes for me to plug in a wired pair
  - andrewaylett 10y ago
    The Backbeat Pros have a "nice" start-up chime. If you push the play button while it's playing that, it'll start playing music once the chime ends. Less effort and delay than untangling the cable and plugging it in (which is an option: I still keep the cable in my bag). I'm also enjoying auto-pause when I take the headphones off -- no more fiddling for the pause button when someone wants to talk to me.

ishields 10y ago

For me it comes down to a few things. Bluetooth has some major downsides: First, you now have to charge your headphones or you can't use them. This is a HUGE downside when coming from something that literally never needs to be charged, I mean considering nothing else, would you rather have something that needs to be charged daily or something that never needs to be charged? Second, transmitting audio over bluetooth requires digital compression, which affects sound quality. For some this might not matter, but when I listen to music on headphones I want the highest level of quality. This is probably less of an issue for anyone considering airpods, as apple's headphones, even the wired ones, have never been great. Now the classic response to these points is "But just charge them at night, I never have to worry about it!" or "I can't even tell the difference in quality!" and these things may be true, however for me, if I'm sacrificing sound quality (even if it's minimal) and sacrificing unlimited "battery life" (in quotes because there is no battery life for wired headphones but you get the point) I better be getting something well worth it in return. In this case, that something is what, not having to plug my headphones in? Not having a wire connecting me to wherever the sound is coming from that literally never gets in my way except MAYBE very occasionally when working out? I'm sorry but that is absolutely nowhere NEAR worth the tradeoffs. It's not that I'm against bluetooth headphones, it's that the benefits do not outweigh the costs. How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wires on your headphones? I know for me the answer is almost never (realistically only when working out, which is the only situation where I'd even consider wireless headphones)

seanwilson 10y ago
When you can get bluetooth headphones that last 40 hours I don't see battery life as an issue. Quality sounds fine to me as well. Are there any blind tests that show people can notice differences with Bluetooth? Even if the difference is slightly noticeable I doubt you would notice wearing headphones on the move, at the gym, in the office etc. > How many times have you really found yourself genuinely bothered by wires on your headphones? Multiple times a day. Any time you're doing anything active besides just walking (e.g. reaching for things, carrying something) or putting on a jacket the wire gets in the way. Getting them caught on a door handle and having in-ear headphones ripped out of your ears is really unpleasant.