11 ms·

Bluetooth is slow and unreliable unless you're using Airpods (due to the W1 chip), which I think is the more subtle move by Apple in this case. I was not a happ

Bluetooth is slow and unreliable unless you're using Airpods (due to the W1 chip), which I think is the more subtle move by Apple in this case. I was not a happy camper when I first read about Apple removing the headphone jack, but I won't lie, I'm an Airpod convert. They work flawlessly for me and I haven't traveled with or used normal headphones since I got them (other than a nicer pair of over-the-ears when I'm working on my desktop). I'm not saying this excuses the removal of the headphone jack, but from a business perspective it does add up.

dpkonofa 9y ago
I've said it multiple times now but I was exactly the same way. I was a little bit annoyed at the removal of the headphone jack but then ended up getting the iPhone 7 because I wanted the newer features. I didn't have wireless headphones, so I went all in and got the AirPods along with it and, holy hell, this is the closest that any technology has come to really feeling like magic to me. The pairing process was awesome, the range is great, the sound quality is great (after breaking them in hard for a week or two), and I literally forget that I'm wearing them sometimes to the point where it feels like the music is coming from inside my head. They're just so convenient and nice that I'm ok with doubting Apple initially but relieved that they proved me wrong. Forget the headphone jack. If this works the way these AirPods do going forward, I'm a convert.
- baby 9y ago
  > I literally forget that I'm wearing them sometimes to the point where it feels like the music is coming from inside my head. I see I'm not the only one :D I've also noticed other people and their wires hanging out more and more. I'm thinking wires are probably going to go out of fashion in the future and will look weird.
  - unlmtd1 9y ago
    Until energy prices go through the roof. Then wireless charging will give ppl that disgusted look of "What were those monsters thinking!?"
- hossbeast 9y ago
  This makes me jealous for an Android version. The Bragi Dash has been a huge letdown due to persistent connectivity issues.
  - codq 9y ago
    If it makes you feel better, AirPod users rarely talk about their bluetooth stuttering issues, but it does occur.
- dmode 9y ago
  How often do you have to charge airpods ?
  - techdragon 9y ago
    Mine last about 4 hours, and are up and running again for at about another 2 hours in as little as 15 minutes. Apple's quoted battery life and charging times seem accurate to me.
    - macintux 9y ago
      Amazing how factual statements in response to questions about same are getting downvoted. C'mon people.
  - onedognight 9y ago
    I never pay attention to the absolute time, but when they need a charge they make a sound to indicate it and then you can easily put one in the case/charger and then put it back in your ear when it’s charged and then charge the other one, all without pausing your call. This duty cycling means you are effectively limited by the case battery size not the bud battery size. I agree with the others upthread that I’m not going back to wires after getting my AirPods.
  - AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
    If you're on a call (and I do some marathon calls), I get a small ding in my ear and pop out one airpod, charge it, in 10-15m put it back in and charge the other one and with ~30m of completely uninterrupted conversation (swapping airpods does not cause drops) I'm good for another 2 hours. For music, I get ~4 hours easily.
- Bud 9y ago
  In addition to it being magical, it's really incredibly useful and handy for driving and for work. Great to be on a phone call in a crowded server room, without extra wires being in the way. Great for commuting. And super-extra-great at the gym.
  - codq 9y ago
    Even on the treadmill? Even going hard? I'm not trying to push buttons. I use Jaybird X3s and feel comfort from the corded nature of the headphones. Here on the streets of NYC, I see AirPods more as fashion statements over an actual audio solution. The instantaneous pairing sounds lovely, but I'm concerned most concerned with audio quality, bluetooth connection in a busy city, and general practical logistics both in and out of the gym.
    - Bud 9y ago
      Yes, even going hard. I can't dislodge AirPods even if I shake my head around as hard as I can and try to dislodge them. My wife is on the treadmill almost every day with hers, running fast; she has no issues with them falling out, either. I do get that the security of a cord is preferable for some, but I've had a really great user experience. I don't wear them because they are fashionable; I think they look rather dorky, to be honest. But I love how they work.
      - schuke 9y ago
        I guess physiological variations are inevitable but for me I have to be a newly showered Labrador to shake it off my head.
      - justinator 9y ago
        I fear anything involving putting on/taking off a helmet could dislodge these suckers. And any activity the helmet is used for: mountain biking/climbing/mountaineering, is not the right venue for them. Too bad, since the iPhone's water resistance would be a major upgrade over my current phone.
- freeflight 9y ago
  I don't see what AirPods do that any other, more affordable, Bluetooth headsets don't. I get the wireless appeal, I like using my cheap 20€ Bluetooth headphones with build in microphone/remote. I mostly got them for the remote, their 7 hour running time lasts me for like 3 days of commuting. But I also still carry around my wired UE triple.fi because I like having the option for going wired, better sound quality, less latency and especially less drain on my iPhone SE's battery due to disabled Bluetooth. Even when nothing is paired/active just having Bluetooth enabled seems to drain phones batteries so much faster.
  - jonknee 9y ago
    The thing AirPods do is work better than other, more affordable, Bluetooth headsets. There’s no lag, you painlessly pair once and can use on all your Apple devices, they’re so light you can easily forget they’re in your ears, etc etc. I have a Plus which has a much bigger battery, but I don’t notice any difference with Bluetooth on or off.
  - dpkonofa 9y ago
    There is no latency or battery drain with the AirPods. That's exactly why I can't compare them to any of the other Bluetooth headphones I've tried. They are significantly better.
- schuke 9y ago
  This is exactly what I feel: music coming from inside my head. The AirPod is a very under-hyped product. Its beauty is that you can wear it and completely forget about it and focus on whatever the hell you want to do. You actually feel that rare freedom. This freedom and focus it gives you is the most precious quality that 99.9% gadgets lack these days.
  - dpkonofa 9y ago
    Well said. They're the only reason that I actually think a wireless future is possible without a headphone jack.
- AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
  Apple has had a series of truly revolutionary products over the years. The complete list, as far as I'm concerned: Original Macintosh OSX/macOS iPod iPhone AirPods AirPods really are amazing, my singular complaint is that they're not waterproof.
  - dpkonofa 9y ago
    Waterproof AirPods would be the one thing I would pay stupid amounts of money for. My biggest complaint with the AirPods (and it's a really tiny one) is that they don't have a great seal. Waterproof AirPods would have to have a good seal to the ear.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  > the sound quality is great Really? I use AirPods when I'm out and about but when I'm at my desk I plug in a pair of $20 wired Sony earbuds that sound way better...
  - nilkn 9y ago
    Personally I really do find the sound quality to be quite good on the AirPods. When I'm at home I'm often using a much more expensive pair of open Beyerdynamic headphones so it's not like I haven't experienced high quality sound, though I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile.
  - threeseed 9y ago
    Buy some felt covers for the AirPods. The biggest problem with them is poor isolation.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - H1Supreme 9y ago
    This is another good point. Quality headphones are rarely bluetooth. I have a nice pair of Sennheisers. They do not come in bluetooth. And yes, I use them with my phone at work.
  - dpkonofa 9y ago
    I thought the AirPods sounded like ass when I first started using them but after 2 weeks of using them every day for hours on end, they've really broken in and they have great range and separation. They don't have a great seal but I don't consider that a negative for what I use them for.
- baxtr 9y ago
  And that’s exactly why Apple is so often so great at innovation: they make bold trade-off decisions on behalf of the users knowing the public will beat them initially, but that it’ll pay off in the long run - for everyone. Which other company does that?
ge96 9y ago
I noticed this thing with my old acer transformer 2-in-1 laptop if you enable bluetooth for audio streaming and have wifi running it slows to a crawl (watching youtube for example) actually won't buffer. I'm wondering if the bluetooth/wifi is on the same chip and can't run simultaneously.
- ori_b 9y ago
  > I'm wondering if the bluetooth/wifi is on the same chip and can't run simultaneously. Worse, they're close to the same frequency band, and can interfere with each other. Wifi channel 14 is 2.484 ghz. Bluetooth is 2.4835 ghz.
  - Dylan16807 9y ago
    Not just 'close to'. The wifi channels are very fat, and every channel extends .01GHz in either direction from its center. But more importantly bluetooth uses the exact same 2.40-2.48 range. It tries to minimize interference by frequency-hopping, but it's guaranteed to overlap 2.4GHz wifi.
  - ge96 9y ago
    So it's probably okay to use for a wireless mouse/keyboard but continuous sound output is a no go? Just seems like a bad design I mean the computer doesn't even have an ethernet port so to have wifi + bluetooth as a suggested combo/function and it doesn't work... haha
rorykoehler 9y ago
Bluetooth is lossy. Replacements must keep quality of predecessor as a minimum.
- ntsplnkv2 9y ago
  > Bluetooth is lossy. And 99% of people don't care.
  - codq 9y ago
    ...which is how you slowly erode standards for both twisted fun and massive profit. It's sad and pathetic watching this mission creep of audio degradation at the greed-fueled discretion of corporate profiteering.
    - selectodude 9y ago
      Phone DACs aren't very good. I use a very expensive DAC when I listen to music at home because I actually care. I also own a pair of AirPods because in a noisy city environment walking around it doesn't actually matter that I'm losing fidelity.
      - rorykoehler 9y ago
        As I commented elsewhere the problem with Bluetooth is fatigue related not listening pleasure related. Edit: As a side note the only positive I can see out of removing the headphone jack is the potential proliferation of quality DAC/preamp dongles. Still annoying though.
      - JohnBooty 9y ago
        Simply incorrect, at least on the Apple side of things. Android DACs and onboard amps are hit and miss. http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6s-plus-audio-quality.htm http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6s-plus-audio-qualit... He's done similar measurements on other Apple audio devices, including their $9 Lightning-to-headphone adapter and they all fare well.
- 9y ago
gigatexal 9y ago
AirPod concert here, too. I love them things.
- gigatexal 9y ago
  convert.
plainOldText 9y ago
Same here. I have a pair of AirPods and the whole setup is so much more elegant now. I really don't miss them wired headphones, or the headphone jack. Now, I just pull the AirPods case out of my pocket, pop up the lid, insert the headphones in my ears, and everything just works.
greggman 9y ago
my airpods are unreliable. I could not connect them to my MacBook Pro the other night. tried changing rooms thinking maybe there is interference. tried re-pairing from scratch. they'd pair but not connect. after 15 minutes of trying various things I switched to wired headphones. I haven't tried again since then. Had to re-pair them to get them to connect to my iPhone. this is the first time I haven't been able to get them to connect but I've had several times where they won't say connected for more than 30 seconds
- seer 9y ago
  As with troubleshooting most hardware issues - experiment, restart, reset. It can either be an issue with the driver in which case a simple restart (maybe a “hard” smc reset as well) fixes the problem, or a hardware problem with the bluetooth antenna which would require a swap of the chip itself, but is usually on the macbook/iphone side, not the airpods and would affect all of your bluetooth connectivity. I’ve had both types of issues and it sure sucks. Had to replace an antenna cable in an iphone 6 to be able to connect to my airpods again.
_joel 9y ago
Bluetooth was never designed for audio usage. Revisions over the years have shoehorned functionality into what is effectively an FTP protocol. There's also the compression and audio mangling that bluetooth does. You do not get this with a straight through audio cable (or some other wireless technologies that don't compress)
mtgx 9y ago
Which makes everyone else's decision to drop the audio jack that much more stupid. Virtually all other OEMs tend to do things so much more superficially than Apple. Like face authentication for instance. It's been and still is a joke for years in the Android world. Perhaps Apple's will be a joke, too, but at least it looks like they put a good amount of effort into making it secure even if they had to add some extra hardware components in there. Another reason why it's stupid for everyone else to follow Apple on this like sheep is because Apple also did it to sell their expensive Beats Bluetooth headphones. The other OEMs don't have a billion-dollar headphone division...
rhinoceraptor 9y ago
Moving the airpods between devices is still a huge pain. Even just switching from my iPhone to my iPad sometimes requires turning bluetooth off and on, and other superstitious pairing rituals. If I only use them with my phone (which I do almost all of the time), they will connect automatically quickly. But pairing between devices will probably always be more painful than a simple wire.
JohnTHaller 9y ago
How easy is it to move your Airpods from your phone to your tablet to your desktop to your non-Apple work PC? Don't get me wrong, I think Airpods are pretty amazing for what they are. But they're still hampered by what they are. For someone whose primary concern is "I hate wires" they're great. They sound 'pretty good for earbuds' as multiple friends, some of whom bought them, can attest. Personally, I can't stand the sound quality of earbuds. My closed-back Audio Technica over-ear headphones can be unplugged from one device and plugged into another in seconds (no pairing/unpairing, turning bluetooth on and off, etc) and are always 'charged'. Plus they sound lightyears better than any bluetooth anything.
superflyguy 9y ago
Don't Bluetooth devices start lossily compressing audio when either the sender or receiver can't keep up? I listen to flac files, so I'm not interested in that, no matter how much space you lose with a 3.5mm socket.

dpkonofa 9y ago

I've said it multiple times now but I was exactly the same way. I was a little bit annoyed at the removal of the headphone jack but then ended up getting the iPhone 7 because I wanted the newer features. I didn't have wireless headphones, so I went all in and got the AirPods along with it and, holy hell, this is the closest that any technology has come to really feeling like magic to me. The pairing process was awesome, the range is great, the sound quality is great (after breaking them in hard for a week or two), and I literally forget that I'm wearing them sometimes to the point where it feels like the music is coming from inside my head. They're just so convenient and nice that I'm ok with doubting Apple initially but relieved that they proved me wrong. Forget the headphone jack. If this works the way these AirPods do going forward, I'm a convert.

baby 9y ago
> I literally forget that I'm wearing them sometimes to the point where it feels like the music is coming from inside my head. I see I'm not the only one :D I've also noticed other people and their wires hanging out more and more. I'm thinking wires are probably going to go out of fashion in the future and will look weird.
- unlmtd1 9y ago
  Until energy prices go through the roof. Then wireless charging will give ppl that disgusted look of "What were those monsters thinking!?"
hossbeast 9y ago
This makes me jealous for an Android version. The Bragi Dash has been a huge letdown due to persistent connectivity issues.
- codq 9y ago
  If it makes you feel better, AirPod users rarely talk about their bluetooth stuttering issues, but it does occur.
dmode 9y ago
How often do you have to charge airpods ?
- techdragon 9y ago
  Mine last about 4 hours, and are up and running again for at about another 2 hours in as little as 15 minutes. Apple's quoted battery life and charging times seem accurate to me.
  - macintux 9y ago
    Amazing how factual statements in response to questions about same are getting downvoted. C'mon people.
- onedognight 9y ago
  I never pay attention to the absolute time, but when they need a charge they make a sound to indicate it and then you can easily put one in the case/charger and then put it back in your ear when it’s charged and then charge the other one, all without pausing your call. This duty cycling means you are effectively limited by the case battery size not the bud battery size. I agree with the others upthread that I’m not going back to wires after getting my AirPods.
- AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
  If you're on a call (and I do some marathon calls), I get a small ding in my ear and pop out one airpod, charge it, in 10-15m put it back in and charge the other one and with ~30m of completely uninterrupted conversation (swapping airpods does not cause drops) I'm good for another 2 hours. For music, I get ~4 hours easily.
Bud 9y ago
In addition to it being magical, it's really incredibly useful and handy for driving and for work. Great to be on a phone call in a crowded server room, without extra wires being in the way. Great for commuting. And super-extra-great at the gym.
- codq 9y ago
  Even on the treadmill? Even going hard? I'm not trying to push buttons. I use Jaybird X3s and feel comfort from the corded nature of the headphones. Here on the streets of NYC, I see AirPods more as fashion statements over an actual audio solution. The instantaneous pairing sounds lovely, but I'm concerned most concerned with audio quality, bluetooth connection in a busy city, and general practical logistics both in and out of the gym.
  - Bud 9y ago
    Yes, even going hard. I can't dislodge AirPods even if I shake my head around as hard as I can and try to dislodge them. My wife is on the treadmill almost every day with hers, running fast; she has no issues with them falling out, either. I do get that the security of a cord is preferable for some, but I've had a really great user experience. I don't wear them because they are fashionable; I think they look rather dorky, to be honest. But I love how they work.
    - schuke 9y ago
      I guess physiological variations are inevitable but for me I have to be a newly showered Labrador to shake it off my head.
    - justinator 9y ago
      I fear anything involving putting on/taking off a helmet could dislodge these suckers. And any activity the helmet is used for: mountain biking/climbing/mountaineering, is not the right venue for them. Too bad, since the iPhone's water resistance would be a major upgrade over my current phone.
freeflight 9y ago
I don't see what AirPods do that any other, more affordable, Bluetooth headsets don't. I get the wireless appeal, I like using my cheap 20€ Bluetooth headphones with build in microphone/remote. I mostly got them for the remote, their 7 hour running time lasts me for like 3 days of commuting. But I also still carry around my wired UE triple.fi because I like having the option for going wired, better sound quality, less latency and especially less drain on my iPhone SE's battery due to disabled Bluetooth. Even when nothing is paired/active just having Bluetooth enabled seems to drain phones batteries so much faster.
- jonknee 9y ago
  The thing AirPods do is work better than other, more affordable, Bluetooth headsets. There’s no lag, you painlessly pair once and can use on all your Apple devices, they’re so light you can easily forget they’re in your ears, etc etc. I have a Plus which has a much bigger battery, but I don’t notice any difference with Bluetooth on or off.
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  There is no latency or battery drain with the AirPods. That's exactly why I can't compare them to any of the other Bluetooth headphones I've tried. They are significantly better.
schuke 9y ago
This is exactly what I feel: music coming from inside my head. The AirPod is a very under-hyped product. Its beauty is that you can wear it and completely forget about it and focus on whatever the hell you want to do. You actually feel that rare freedom. This freedom and focus it gives you is the most precious quality that 99.9% gadgets lack these days.
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  Well said. They're the only reason that I actually think a wireless future is possible without a headphone jack.
AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
Apple has had a series of truly revolutionary products over the years. The complete list, as far as I'm concerned: Original Macintosh OSX/macOS iPod iPhone AirPods AirPods really are amazing, my singular complaint is that they're not waterproof.
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  Waterproof AirPods would be the one thing I would pay stupid amounts of money for. My biggest complaint with the AirPods (and it's a really tiny one) is that they don't have a great seal. Waterproof AirPods would have to have a good seal to the ear.
kalleboo 9y ago
> the sound quality is great Really? I use AirPods when I'm out and about but when I'm at my desk I plug in a pair of $20 wired Sony earbuds that sound way better...
- nilkn 9y ago
  Personally I really do find the sound quality to be quite good on the AirPods. When I'm at home I'm often using a much more expensive pair of open Beyerdynamic headphones so it's not like I haven't experienced high quality sound, though I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile.
- threeseed 9y ago
  Buy some felt covers for the AirPods. The biggest problem with them is poor isolation.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- H1Supreme 9y ago
  This is another good point. Quality headphones are rarely bluetooth. I have a nice pair of Sennheisers. They do not come in bluetooth. And yes, I use them with my phone at work.
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  I thought the AirPods sounded like ass when I first started using them but after 2 weeks of using them every day for hours on end, they've really broken in and they have great range and separation. They don't have a great seal but I don't consider that a negative for what I use them for.
baxtr 9y ago
And that’s exactly why Apple is so often so great at innovation: they make bold trade-off decisions on behalf of the users knowing the public will beat them initially, but that it’ll pay off in the long run - for everyone. Which other company does that?

ge96 9y ago

I noticed this thing with my old acer transformer 2-in-1 laptop if you enable bluetooth for audio streaming and have wifi running it slows to a crawl (watching youtube for example) actually won't buffer. I'm wondering if the bluetooth/wifi is on the same chip and can't run simultaneously.

ori_b 9y ago
> I'm wondering if the bluetooth/wifi is on the same chip and can't run simultaneously. Worse, they're close to the same frequency band, and can interfere with each other. Wifi channel 14 is 2.484 ghz. Bluetooth is 2.4835 ghz.
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  Not just 'close to'. The wifi channels are very fat, and every channel extends .01GHz in either direction from its center. But more importantly bluetooth uses the exact same 2.40-2.48 range. It tries to minimize interference by frequency-hopping, but it's guaranteed to overlap 2.4GHz wifi.
- ge96 9y ago
  So it's probably okay to use for a wireless mouse/keyboard but continuous sound output is a no go? Just seems like a bad design I mean the computer doesn't even have an ethernet port so to have wifi + bluetooth as a suggested combo/function and it doesn't work... haha

rorykoehler 9y ago

Bluetooth is lossy. Replacements must keep quality of predecessor as a minimum.

ntsplnkv2 9y ago
> Bluetooth is lossy. And 99% of people don't care.
- codq 9y ago
  ...which is how you slowly erode standards for both twisted fun and massive profit. It's sad and pathetic watching this mission creep of audio degradation at the greed-fueled discretion of corporate profiteering.
  - selectodude 9y ago
    Phone DACs aren't very good. I use a very expensive DAC when I listen to music at home because I actually care. I also own a pair of AirPods because in a noisy city environment walking around it doesn't actually matter that I'm losing fidelity.
    - rorykoehler 9y ago
      As I commented elsewhere the problem with Bluetooth is fatigue related not listening pleasure related. Edit: As a side note the only positive I can see out of removing the headphone jack is the potential proliferation of quality DAC/preamp dongles. Still annoying though.
    - JohnBooty 9y ago
      Simply incorrect, at least on the Apple side of things. Android DACs and onboard amps are hit and miss. http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6s-plus-audio-quality.htm http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6s-plus-audio-qualit... He's done similar measurements on other Apple audio devices, including their $9 Lightning-to-headphone adapter and they all fare well.
9y ago

gigatexal 9y ago

AirPod concert here, too. I love them things.

gigatexal 9y ago
convert.

plainOldText 9y ago

Same here. I have a pair of AirPods and the whole setup is so much more elegant now. I really don't miss them wired headphones, or the headphone jack. Now, I just pull the AirPods case out of my pocket, pop up the lid, insert the headphones in my ears, and everything just works.

greggman 9y ago

my airpods are unreliable. I could not connect them to my MacBook Pro the other night. tried changing rooms thinking maybe there is interference. tried re-pairing from scratch. they'd pair but not connect. after 15 minutes of trying various things I switched to wired headphones. I haven't tried again since then. Had to re-pair them to get them to connect to my iPhone. this is the first time I haven't been able to get them to connect but I've had several times where they won't say connected for more than 30 seconds

seer 9y ago
As with troubleshooting most hardware issues - experiment, restart, reset. It can either be an issue with the driver in which case a simple restart (maybe a “hard” smc reset as well) fixes the problem, or a hardware problem with the bluetooth antenna which would require a swap of the chip itself, but is usually on the macbook/iphone side, not the airpods and would affect all of your bluetooth connectivity. I’ve had both types of issues and it sure sucks. Had to replace an antenna cable in an iphone 6 to be able to connect to my airpods again.

_joel 9y ago

Bluetooth was never designed for audio usage. Revisions over the years have shoehorned functionality into what is effectively an FTP protocol. There's also the compression and audio mangling that bluetooth does. You do not get this with a straight through audio cable (or some other wireless technologies that don't compress)

mtgx 9y ago

Which makes everyone else's decision to drop the audio jack that much more stupid. Virtually all other OEMs tend to do things so much more superficially than Apple. Like face authentication for instance. It's been and still is a joke for years in the Android world. Perhaps Apple's will be a joke, too, but at least it looks like they put a good amount of effort into making it secure even if they had to add some extra hardware components in there. Another reason why it's stupid for everyone else to follow Apple on this like sheep is because Apple also did it to sell their expensive Beats Bluetooth headphones. The other OEMs don't have a billion-dollar headphone division...

rhinoceraptor 9y ago

Moving the airpods between devices is still a huge pain. Even just switching from my iPhone to my iPad sometimes requires turning bluetooth off and on, and other superstitious pairing rituals. If I only use them with my phone (which I do almost all of the time), they will connect automatically quickly. But pairing between devices will probably always be more painful than a simple wire.

JohnTHaller 9y ago

How easy is it to move your Airpods from your phone to your tablet to your desktop to your non-Apple work PC? Don't get me wrong, I think Airpods are pretty amazing for what they are. But they're still hampered by what they are. For someone whose primary concern is "I hate wires" they're great. They sound 'pretty good for earbuds' as multiple friends, some of whom bought them, can attest. Personally, I can't stand the sound quality of earbuds. My closed-back Audio Technica over-ear headphones can be unplugged from one device and plugged into another in seconds (no pairing/unpairing, turning bluetooth on and off, etc) and are always 'charged'. Plus they sound lightyears better than any bluetooth anything.

superflyguy 9y ago

Don't Bluetooth devices start lossily compressing audio when either the sender or receiver can't keep up? I listen to flac files, so I'm not interested in that, no matter how much space you lose with a 3.5mm socket.