4 ms·

Changing to a different wireless technology (or wired) would not magically make the audio quality of airpods not suck ass. This is absurd

netizen-936824 5y ago
Bitrate over Bluetooth is more than sufficient for high quality audio. You won't get good audio out of trash speakers though. Instead of downvoting, how about making an argument for why I'm incorrect
- eropple 5y ago
  AirPods sound fine. They're not my best headphones, but they sound fine. Audiophiling your way in, barreling in with quality takes like how they "suck ass"--gosh, why would I ever try to talk to you about this? The way you have written throughout this thread is pretty standard "combative audiophile jerk". If you want to be engaged with instead of blown off, perhaps act like you want to be engaged with. I can tell you that I've had conversations with people who sound like the way you're writing and they're never worth the stress or the electrons perturbed. It's almost 2022 and the world is ever more grim. If I'm going to engage with somebody who wants a fight, I prefer it to be about something that matters. Not one's estimation of "trash speakers". So I don't, I downvote, and I move on. I assume that's pretty normal.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    Airpod pros sound fine. The originals sound like a tin can Hearing even something like Bose is world's better, it seems to me like people who think original airpod audio is acceptable haven't listened to anything beyond the audio from the built in speakers on their TV Changing the Bluetooth standard would not improve the original airpods which is my entire point. Yes I sound combative, but only because this thread is comparing airpod audio against what? Nothing at all? The bar is apparently super low if someone thinks that original airpods are acceptable, it would make more sense to me to actually set the bar at a place with even decent reproduction across the frequency spectrum
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    I'm sorry, it's not a matter of "Audiophiling", the base-model Airpods are genuinely an unenjoyable listening experience relative to closed-tip, $20 Chinese earbuds. Their bass response is missing so badly that many songs just have their basslines cut completely off. The mids are scooped too for whatever reason, which makes your sound even tinnier and more fake. Maybe you like the convenience of wireless headphones (which I definitely sympathize with), but Airpods just don't sound good. Only the Airpods Pros have ever made me do a double-take, and only because they don't cut off any bass extension and sound, well, like regular earbuds. $250 for "actual earbuds" is a ripoff, period. Go on with your high-and-mighty "I've got better things to argue about" shtick, but don't say things and then just expect people to leave you alone because you don't happen to care about it. Some people want to get their money's worth out of a pair of headphones, and Airpods are just not it.
    - eropple 5y ago
      I understand the criticism of AirPods. The Pros sound quite a bit better, you are absolutely right about that. I have no particular appreciation for them. (Their microphones make my life difficult, for example.) But, and I mean this intensely, few technical topics are worth dealing with jerks on the internet, and any misapprehension on this is probably my fault--I feel like I nerd-sniped you by engaging with the claim in question when it Absolutely Does Not Matter. Forgive me if I misunderstand but it seems as though you're taking my post as some sort of appreciation for mediocre audio quality, and that isn't the point. It's not that there are "better" things to argue about--it's that there are less grinding people to discuss things with. It's not being "high and mighty" to not engage with people who are doing their best to make shitty the experience of engaging with them. The OP wanted to know why they were getting downvoted and the behavior, not the position, is the problem. I'm far from perfect and I can be exhausting to deal with at times; I recognize this and I try to lay off the throttle. But I feel like HN is the only place I hang out on the internet where I find people who unironically act this way and then complain that nobody wants to interact with them. I may be very fortunate in that regard.
      - smoldesu 5y ago
        > But AirPods still sound fine Is that not something to be angry about though? They're not $20 pack-in earbuds, they're $170 top-of-their-price-class accessories, they have every right to sound good or even great! Apple has billions of dollars in R&D, they deserve to figure out how to make their audio sound like a not-mess. Sony did it great, Bose does it well, even Jabra makes good-sounding earbuds at-or-below that price figure. So again, I stand by them sounding not good. > I feel like HN is the only place I hang out on the internet where I find people who unironically act this way and then complain that nobody wants to interact with them. Well, I'm certainly not mad if nobody is interacting with me :p Not sure where you're pulling that from, but I have yet to see it. Nitpicking, on the other hand, is what nerds do. It's just part of culture for people with a birds-eye view of a landscape to tell others when they're being taken for a ride; with Airpods, I think it's a little obvious that they're priced ridiculously for what they are. Next up I expect people to defend the surplus since they're a "fashion accessory" or the like...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dangus 5y ago
The commenters replying to you are arguing protocol versus sound quality, and like you said, the connection method isn’t relevant here. AirPods excel at a select few things. They sound passable enough for the general population, but they are a UX dream compared to what came before them. Their real killer feature to me is their microphone performance and overall convenience for making phone calls. They go from off to connected and ready in time to answer the phone, without fuss or button pressing. This, with its pocket sized packaging and generally decent enough music playback make it a good value proposition. For the Pro model, they also have the most natural transparency mode I’ve ever heard, and they switch back and forth between modes quickly, which again helps for phone calls. I think the idea that the AirPods audio quality “sucks” is an exaggeration. The intention was to have passable audio quality that the majority of people are fine with. It’s all the other stuff that makes the product a hit.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  > Sure, I wouldn’t recommend the non-Pro model to anyone in the present day That's the issue for a lot of people, myself included. At their price point, Airpods just don't compete with other earbuds in their price category. The "classic" Airpods line sounds pretty pitiful, and it's a little angering to listen to them and realize that this is the sound millions of other people are working with. Microphone performance in particular actually disappoints me; the wired Earpods had noticably better mic quality, and they only cost what, 20 bucks? Couple that with pretty uncharacteristically bad battery life, slippery cases and enclosure, not even an option for rubber ear tips... it's just a bit of a scam. Especially for $170. The Airpods Pros are a little more understandable, but they're not really remarkable headphones. At least not $250 remarkable, to my ear. Don't even get me started on how "remarkable" the Airpods Max would have to be to justify a $500 price tag to listen to lossy, laggy Bluetooth audio. > pure sound quality isn’t the main attraction About 20 years, Apple made the iPod so that people could take CD-quality music on the go without compromising on the amount of music you could take with you. There was a time when Apple made products that did care about the quality of sound, the overall experience, and the genuine fidelity of what you listened to. Why do they need to regress? Why can't they just deliver a good pair of wireless earbuds to the masses? They've got some of the largest acoustic engineering teams in the world, I really do expect better from them, even on their $170 "budget" earbuds; they're a luxury company, it's okay to hold them accountable for things like this. They have billions of dollars in unspent research dollars, may as well tell them to put it where it counts.

netizen-936824 5y ago

Bitrate over Bluetooth is more than sufficient for high quality audio. You won't get good audio out of trash speakers though. Instead of downvoting, how about making an argument for why I'm incorrect

eropple 5y ago
AirPods sound fine. They're not my best headphones, but they sound fine. Audiophiling your way in, barreling in with quality takes like how they "suck ass"--gosh, why would I ever try to talk to you about this? The way you have written throughout this thread is pretty standard "combative audiophile jerk". If you want to be engaged with instead of blown off, perhaps act like you want to be engaged with. I can tell you that I've had conversations with people who sound like the way you're writing and they're never worth the stress or the electrons perturbed. It's almost 2022 and the world is ever more grim. If I'm going to engage with somebody who wants a fight, I prefer it to be about something that matters. Not one's estimation of "trash speakers". So I don't, I downvote, and I move on. I assume that's pretty normal.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Airpod pros sound fine. The originals sound like a tin can Hearing even something like Bose is world's better, it seems to me like people who think original airpod audio is acceptable haven't listened to anything beyond the audio from the built in speakers on their TV Changing the Bluetooth standard would not improve the original airpods which is my entire point. Yes I sound combative, but only because this thread is comparing airpod audio against what? Nothing at all? The bar is apparently super low if someone thinks that original airpods are acceptable, it would make more sense to me to actually set the bar at a place with even decent reproduction across the frequency spectrum
- smoldesu 5y ago
  I'm sorry, it's not a matter of "Audiophiling", the base-model Airpods are genuinely an unenjoyable listening experience relative to closed-tip, $20 Chinese earbuds. Their bass response is missing so badly that many songs just have their basslines cut completely off. The mids are scooped too for whatever reason, which makes your sound even tinnier and more fake. Maybe you like the convenience of wireless headphones (which I definitely sympathize with), but Airpods just don't sound good. Only the Airpods Pros have ever made me do a double-take, and only because they don't cut off any bass extension and sound, well, like regular earbuds. $250 for "actual earbuds" is a ripoff, period. Go on with your high-and-mighty "I've got better things to argue about" shtick, but don't say things and then just expect people to leave you alone because you don't happen to care about it. Some people want to get their money's worth out of a pair of headphones, and Airpods are just not it.
  - eropple 5y ago
    I understand the criticism of AirPods. The Pros sound quite a bit better, you are absolutely right about that. I have no particular appreciation for them. (Their microphones make my life difficult, for example.) But, and I mean this intensely, few technical topics are worth dealing with jerks on the internet, and any misapprehension on this is probably my fault--I feel like I nerd-sniped you by engaging with the claim in question when it Absolutely Does Not Matter. Forgive me if I misunderstand but it seems as though you're taking my post as some sort of appreciation for mediocre audio quality, and that isn't the point. It's not that there are "better" things to argue about--it's that there are less grinding people to discuss things with. It's not being "high and mighty" to not engage with people who are doing their best to make shitty the experience of engaging with them. The OP wanted to know why they were getting downvoted and the behavior, not the position, is the problem. I'm far from perfect and I can be exhausting to deal with at times; I recognize this and I try to lay off the throttle. But I feel like HN is the only place I hang out on the internet where I find people who unironically act this way and then complain that nobody wants to interact with them. I may be very fortunate in that regard.
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      > But AirPods still sound fine Is that not something to be angry about though? They're not $20 pack-in earbuds, they're $170 top-of-their-price-class accessories, they have every right to sound good or even great! Apple has billions of dollars in R&D, they deserve to figure out how to make their audio sound like a not-mess. Sony did it great, Bose does it well, even Jabra makes good-sounding earbuds at-or-below that price figure. So again, I stand by them sounding not good. > I feel like HN is the only place I hang out on the internet where I find people who unironically act this way and then complain that nobody wants to interact with them. Well, I'm certainly not mad if nobody is interacting with me :p Not sure where you're pulling that from, but I have yet to see it. Nitpicking, on the other hand, is what nerds do. It's just part of culture for people with a birds-eye view of a landscape to tell others when they're being taken for a ride; with Airpods, I think it's a little obvious that they're priced ridiculously for what they are. Next up I expect people to defend the surplus since they're a "fashion accessory" or the like...

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

dangus 5y ago

The commenters replying to you are arguing protocol versus sound quality, and like you said, the connection method isn’t relevant here. AirPods excel at a select few things. They sound passable enough for the general population, but they are a UX dream compared to what came before them. Their real killer feature to me is their microphone performance and overall convenience for making phone calls. They go from off to connected and ready in time to answer the phone, without fuss or button pressing. This, with its pocket sized packaging and generally decent enough music playback make it a good value proposition. For the Pro model, they also have the most natural transparency mode I’ve ever heard, and they switch back and forth between modes quickly, which again helps for phone calls. I think the idea that the AirPods audio quality “sucks” is an exaggeration. The intention was to have passable audio quality that the majority of people are fine with. It’s all the other stuff that makes the product a hit.

smoldesu 5y ago
> Sure, I wouldn’t recommend the non-Pro model to anyone in the present day That's the issue for a lot of people, myself included. At their price point, Airpods just don't compete with other earbuds in their price category. The "classic" Airpods line sounds pretty pitiful, and it's a little angering to listen to them and realize that this is the sound millions of other people are working with. Microphone performance in particular actually disappoints me; the wired Earpods had noticably better mic quality, and they only cost what, 20 bucks? Couple that with pretty uncharacteristically bad battery life, slippery cases and enclosure, not even an option for rubber ear tips... it's just a bit of a scam. Especially for $170. The Airpods Pros are a little more understandable, but they're not really remarkable headphones. At least not $250 remarkable, to my ear. Don't even get me started on how "remarkable" the Airpods Max would have to be to justify a $500 price tag to listen to lossy, laggy Bluetooth audio. > pure sound quality isn’t the main attraction About 20 years, Apple made the iPod so that people could take CD-quality music on the go without compromising on the amount of music you could take with you. There was a time when Apple made products that did care about the quality of sound, the overall experience, and the genuine fidelity of what you listened to. Why do they need to regress? Why can't they just deliver a good pair of wireless earbuds to the masses? They've got some of the largest acoustic engineering teams in the world, I really do expect better from them, even on their $170 "budget" earbuds; they're a luxury company, it's okay to hold them accountable for things like this. They have billions of dollars in unspent research dollars, may as well tell them to put it where it counts.