Like most tech, I don't think the thing to think about is the lifetime of the device. Really nice headphones that are "vintage"(?) exist, as evidenced by the co

Like most tech, I don't think the thing to think about is the lifetime of the device. Really nice headphones that are "vintage"(?) exist, as evidenced by the comments here. Leaving aside the fact that HN is notorious for having a strong segment of nearly any *-phile group... The question is rarely the lifetime of the device. It's usually the lifetime of the interface. Or in this case, a headphone jack. 1/8", 1/4", etc... This is what normally gets obsoleted rather than the device itself. For headphones, the big switch is from wired to wireless. And I think that's where you'll see the shift. Yes, you can get a bluetooth adapter for traditional headphones, but they aren't great, and if you have audiophile wired headphones, you won't be happy with the sound. And so, the device won't be obsoleted because they fail, but rather the preferred interface changes to something that's incompatible. Maybe audio was lucky that there were adapters available for the first shift from 1/4" to 1/8"... In this regard, I think the audio world is just catching up to their other brethren in the tech world.