5 ms·

I like my wired, ordinary earphones. They are low tech, cheap and reliable. When I pick them up from my pocket, I may have to spend a few moments to untangle th

by mongol 5y ago

I like my wired, ordinary earphones. They are low tech, cheap and reliable. When I pick them up from my pocket, I may have to spend a few moments to untangle then, but it is usually just a few seconds. After some months the wires start to go bad. Then I use a new pair. But such a pair costs very little. I don't know what I am missing, but I think I would be frustrated if expensive wireless earphones run out of battery when I need them, or lose their ability to hold charge, or I lose them. It is a worry I don't mind to live without. I am probably just a cheap grumpy old man....

Unklejoe 5y ago
I mainly just use them when I run on the treadmill. The wire gets a little annoying since I don't have a shirt on to tuck it into.
truffdog 5y ago
I managed to get a new phone with a headphone jack, but it's "wrong" somehow and the plugs just pop out.
Causality1 5y ago
Sony MDR-J10 earphones were the most comfortable listening experience ever created, and I regularly forgot I was even wearing them. Shame they're no longer being made and no TWS earbuds have tried to imitate their design.
enjoiful 5y ago
Honestly until you try wireless, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to not have a wire.
- xcambar 5y ago
  Honestly until you have to suffer battery problems, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to have a wire. ;)
  - etrautmann 5y ago
    I was on this boat too until the Airpods pro. I'm much happier without the wire in virtually all cases, despite occasional bluetooth hiccups
    - theshadowknows 5y ago
      The only thing that bothers me with my various Airs-pod is that they sometimes want to connect to other devices (or, more accurately, other devices want to connect to them)..for example I'll be on a call with my Airpods Max connected to my phone, and I'll lean a little too close to my desk and this little dialog pops up on my iPad wanting to connect to them...or I'll move my phone a little bit and a little dialog pops up asking if it should connect to my home pod...but it's a very minor annoyance that is almost comical now.
    - doublepg23 5y ago
      >Bluetooth hiccups. I have AirPods Pro and I’m impressed with how amazing they are (I have a pair of LCD-X, I’m particular about audio equipment). One funny side efffect of using 2.4GHz Bluetooth is when I use the old microwave at work it makes my connection choppy and unusable. Quite funny figuring that out until it occurred to me ;)
  - nzach 5y ago
    Having no battery on your headphone when you want to use it right now is extremely frustrating indeed. However headphones with 50+ hours of playing time actually exist nowadays. And this makes life so much easier. Besides that I bought one of those charging cables where the tip is detachable[0] and use that to charge my headphone. Even on linux things mostly works! Just remember to restart your machine after every system update and don't move your headset between devices. I only use linux so I don't know how true is that statement for other environments. If you really need to use the same headphone for multiple devices you should look for a wired solution. All in all I don't think wireless headphones have a worse user experience, it is just a tradeoff. And to be clear, both my headphones and my smartphone have a p2 jack. This is what I call having a cake and eating it too. [0] - https://www.amazon.com/Terasako-Magnetic-Charging-Cable-5-Pack/dp/B092QGDD6K https://www.amazon.com/Terasako-Magnetic-Charging-Cable-5-Pa...
- crossroadsguy 5y ago
  Been trying for years - both. Still do. Not on a single day I’ll pick a wireless (read it Bluetooth, because that’s it is) over wired. Sound is worse, reliability is worse, power consumption is worse (and phone’s becomes worse as well) - I know a certain kind of users/fans have ready answer for this “duh! use a pocket nuclear reactor”, cost is worse, repairability is worse, usually looks worse. There you go.
  - ricardobeat 5y ago
    AirPods use Apple’s proprietary W1/H1 chip for pairing, and it seems to make BT more reliable somehow. The impact of BT on the phone’s battery life is negligible. As for sound quality, the Pros or a Sony WF/MDR are quite good. If you’re noticing significant reduction in quality you’re either choosing low quality ones or something else in the audio chain is wrong. I actually prefer the Sony to any of my wired headphones (AT, Roland, Etymotic, Philips SHP) most of the time. The noise canceling and ability to turn my head / move about more than offset any loss in quality - which I’m unlikely to notice while working anyway.
xcambar 5y ago
Headphones are the use case I use the most to introduce people (usually younger people and students) to the benefits of low tech and overall to the benefits of less. I strongly agree with you. My headphones are 10€, last forever and I have 2 pairs in a drawer. I'm still 100€ below the cheapest airPods and no one ever complained. My phone is 5 years old, but since it does what I want: email, WhatsApp/Signal, Spotify, Podcast, Maps... I can stand having less shiny pictures of my kids. I don't care, I'm still having the moments, pics are just the reminder, and their sharpness is just secondary.
- WastingMyTime89 5y ago
  > My headphones are 10€, last forever and I have 2 pairs in a drawer. Amusingly and while I have never used airpod and generally get the gist of your idea, headphones are probably one of the product with the largest difference between entry level and mid-range in my experience . I can’t hear the difference between a 100$ and a 1000$ headphone but the 10$ one is easy to spot.
  - xcambar 5y ago
    Agreed. My line of thought is that I don't want to isolate from the outsides because I don't like it and it's dangerous. So cheap is enough outside. In more controlled environments (home, office), isolation is either a requirement (focus on meetings) or a pleasure (music) so I go for it and spend more on these areas.
oliv__ 5y ago
> I am probably just a cheap grumpy old man... That makes two of us then.
thehappypm 5y ago
I generally prefer wired, but there are some annoying pain points that wireless solves. Tangled cables! Working out is SO much better with AirPods, you don't even need to have your phone on your person at all.

by mongol 5y ago

Unklejoe 5y ago

I mainly just use them when I run on the treadmill. The wire gets a little annoying since I don't have a shirt on to tuck it into.

truffdog 5y ago

I managed to get a new phone with a headphone jack, but it's "wrong" somehow and the plugs just pop out.

Causality1 5y ago

Sony MDR-J10 earphones were the most comfortable listening experience ever created, and I regularly forgot I was even wearing them. Shame they're no longer being made and no TWS earbuds have tried to imitate their design.

enjoiful 5y ago

Honestly until you try wireless, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to not have a wire.

xcambar 5y ago
Honestly until you have to suffer battery problems, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to have a wire. ;)
- etrautmann 5y ago
  I was on this boat too until the Airpods pro. I'm much happier without the wire in virtually all cases, despite occasional bluetooth hiccups
  - theshadowknows 5y ago
    The only thing that bothers me with my various Airs-pod is that they sometimes want to connect to other devices (or, more accurately, other devices want to connect to them)..for example I'll be on a call with my Airpods Max connected to my phone, and I'll lean a little too close to my desk and this little dialog pops up on my iPad wanting to connect to them...or I'll move my phone a little bit and a little dialog pops up asking if it should connect to my home pod...but it's a very minor annoyance that is almost comical now.
  - doublepg23 5y ago
    >Bluetooth hiccups. I have AirPods Pro and I’m impressed with how amazing they are (I have a pair of LCD-X, I’m particular about audio equipment). One funny side efffect of using 2.4GHz Bluetooth is when I use the old microwave at work it makes my connection choppy and unusable. Quite funny figuring that out until it occurred to me ;)
- nzach 5y ago
  Having no battery on your headphone when you want to use it right now is extremely frustrating indeed. However headphones with 50+ hours of playing time actually exist nowadays. And this makes life so much easier. Besides that I bought one of those charging cables where the tip is detachable[0] and use that to charge my headphone. Even on linux things mostly works! Just remember to restart your machine after every system update and don't move your headset between devices. I only use linux so I don't know how true is that statement for other environments. If you really need to use the same headphone for multiple devices you should look for a wired solution. All in all I don't think wireless headphones have a worse user experience, it is just a tradeoff. And to be clear, both my headphones and my smartphone have a p2 jack. This is what I call having a cake and eating it too. [0] - https://www.amazon.com/Terasako-Magnetic-Charging-Cable-5-Pack/dp/B092QGDD6K https://www.amazon.com/Terasako-Magnetic-Charging-Cable-5-Pa...
crossroadsguy 5y ago
Been trying for years - both. Still do. Not on a single day I’ll pick a wireless (read it Bluetooth, because that’s it is) over wired. Sound is worse, reliability is worse, power consumption is worse (and phone’s becomes worse as well) - I know a certain kind of users/fans have ready answer for this “duh! use a pocket nuclear reactor”, cost is worse, repairability is worse, usually looks worse. There you go.
- ricardobeat 5y ago
  AirPods use Apple’s proprietary W1/H1 chip for pairing, and it seems to make BT more reliable somehow. The impact of BT on the phone’s battery life is negligible. As for sound quality, the Pros or a Sony WF/MDR are quite good. If you’re noticing significant reduction in quality you’re either choosing low quality ones or something else in the audio chain is wrong. I actually prefer the Sony to any of my wired headphones (AT, Roland, Etymotic, Philips SHP) most of the time. The noise canceling and ability to turn my head / move about more than offset any loss in quality - which I’m unlikely to notice while working anyway.

xcambar 5y ago

Headphones are the use case I use the most to introduce people (usually younger people and students) to the benefits of low tech and overall to the benefits of less. I strongly agree with you. My headphones are 10€, last forever and I have 2 pairs in a drawer. I'm still 100€ below the cheapest airPods and no one ever complained. My phone is 5 years old, but since it does what I want: email, WhatsApp/Signal, Spotify, Podcast, Maps... I can stand having less shiny pictures of my kids. I don't care, I'm still having the moments, pics are just the reminder, and their sharpness is just secondary.

WastingMyTime89 5y ago
> My headphones are 10€, last forever and I have 2 pairs in a drawer. Amusingly and while I have never used airpod and generally get the gist of your idea, headphones are probably one of the product with the largest difference between entry level and mid-range in my experience . I can’t hear the difference between a 100$ and a 1000$ headphone but the 10$ one is easy to spot.
- xcambar 5y ago
  Agreed. My line of thought is that I don't want to isolate from the outsides because I don't like it and it's dangerous. So cheap is enough outside. In more controlled environments (home, office), isolation is either a requirement (focus on meetings) or a pleasure (music) so I go for it and spend more on these areas.

oliv__ 5y ago

> I am probably just a cheap grumpy old man... That makes two of us then.

thehappypm 5y ago

I generally prefer wired, but there are some annoying pain points that wireless solves. Tangled cables! Working out is SO much better with AirPods, you don't even need to have your phone on your person at all.