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I've made AirPods last longer than any other pair of earbuds I've ever had. It's the cord. For me, a max of six months of fiddling with the damn thing and it b

I've made AirPods last longer than any other pair of earbuds I've ever had. It's the cord. For me, a max of six months of fiddling with the damn thing and it breaks. I've had real headphones last quite a bit longer— but I buy the ones with replaceable cords. The pair I still have is on its fourth cord and second pair of muffs. I don't view it as any sort of economic, human, or environmental catastrophe, that they stop holding a charge after... how long again? I've had a pair of Pros since before the pandemic which seem to hold up fine. So I'm around what, twenty cents a day? It's a rare day I don't wear them for a solid hour. It undermines the argument to pick the easy, lazy, and really rather bad example that everyone else flocks to for some bizarre reason. It's genuinely hard to come up with a better product category for glued-in batteries than in-ear wireless headphones.

deleted 4y ago
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ramraj07 4y ago
Yeah I don’t get the environmental angle as well. It’s 10g, I’m sure there’s more lithium in a single AAA cell than 50 AirPods. Imagine how much more polluting a single dude in Texas rolling coal would do compared to everyone in Texas using AirPods.
- dylan604 4y ago
  Why the specific Texas dude? Like rednecks in other areas don't roll coal in their neck of the woods too?
gibolt 4y ago
I use similar measurements to value/compare purchases and their impact. - Value per use - Weight (analog for materials used) - Likely lifetime Bonus for wireless headphones specifically is you can buy replacement cases, or single buds if any go bad.
rowanG077 4y ago
That's a pretty funny statement considering detachable cords exist. A cord is basically some copper and plastic sheet. Easily recyclable.
- Mikealcl 4y ago
  And some of us repair them ourselves, but most vendors don’t offer detachable cables. Would be nice.
- samatman 4y ago
  Gosh if I'd have known such a thing I surely would have mentioned buying four of them in the original post. Thanks for the tip Rowan.
Tijdreiziger 4y ago
Are you comparing these against Apple’s wired earphones? Because Apple’s cords are almost hilariously bad, and perhaps the best example of a product that’s designed to fail. (In fairness, they’ve improved somewhat over the years, but the bar was on the floor.)
- userbinator 4y ago
  Apple’s cords are almost hilariously bad, and perhaps the best example of a product that’s designed to fail. Ironically, that could at least partially be attributed to their use of "environmentally friendly" plastic with little to no plasticisers.
andrekandre 4y ago
> I've made AirPods last longer than any other pair of earbuds I've ever had. same... now if only i could easily replace the batteries, it would be almost perfect (they just die on me mid-call sometimes)
- timbargo 4y ago
  There are services like this where you can exchange your Airpods for ones with replaced batteries! Note that I've never done it and can't vouch for the quality. I just read about it on HN once. https://www.theswapclub.com/collections/airpod-swaps https://www.theswapclub.com/collections/airpod-swaps
  - tpetry 4y ago
    I‘ve used a service like this to replace the battteries of my Airpods Gen 1. They are now again like the first day I had them.
- scarface74 4y ago
  And how much larger would they be?
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    That's an interesting question, and I'd like an honest answer to that. We've heard the same argument about phones, and my old Galaxy S5 with a user-replaceable battery was a whopping 0.5 mm thicker than an iPhone 13 mini. That's the width of a mechanical pencil lead. They're both water-resistant, too.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      .5 inches and heavier for AirPods would make a huge difference ergonomically.
      - vladvasiliu 4y ago
strogonoff 4y ago
Cable replaceability is why I love IEMs like Shure SE215. Earbuds hardly break, but the cable breaks eventually. Less waste, plus the ability to choose a different cable.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  > plus the ability to choose a different cable Yup. I have a pair of Shure earbuds bought in 2011. When the cable started acting out, I replaced it with a lightning cable, since I had just got an iPhone. When that one started acting out, I replaced it with a Shure BT cable. Now I get great sound from my crappy work laptop.

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ramraj07 4y ago

Yeah I don’t get the environmental angle as well. It’s 10g, I’m sure there’s more lithium in a single AAA cell than 50 AirPods. Imagine how much more polluting a single dude in Texas rolling coal would do compared to everyone in Texas using AirPods.

dylan604 4y ago
Why the specific Texas dude? Like rednecks in other areas don't roll coal in their neck of the woods too?

gibolt 4y ago

I use similar measurements to value/compare purchases and their impact. - Value per use - Weight (analog for materials used) - Likely lifetime Bonus for wireless headphones specifically is you can buy replacement cases, or single buds if any go bad.

rowanG077 4y ago

That's a pretty funny statement considering detachable cords exist. A cord is basically some copper and plastic sheet. Easily recyclable.

Mikealcl 4y ago
And some of us repair them ourselves, but most vendors don’t offer detachable cables. Would be nice.
samatman 4y ago
Gosh if I'd have known such a thing I surely would have mentioned buying four of them in the original post. Thanks for the tip Rowan.

Tijdreiziger 4y ago

Are you comparing these against Apple’s wired earphones? Because Apple’s cords are almost hilariously bad, and perhaps the best example of a product that’s designed to fail. (In fairness, they’ve improved somewhat over the years, but the bar was on the floor.)

userbinator 4y ago
Apple’s cords are almost hilariously bad, and perhaps the best example of a product that’s designed to fail. Ironically, that could at least partially be attributed to their use of "environmentally friendly" plastic with little to no plasticisers.

andrekandre 4y ago

> I've made AirPods last longer than any other pair of earbuds I've ever had. same... now if only i could easily replace the batteries, it would be almost perfect (they just die on me mid-call sometimes)

timbargo 4y ago
There are services like this where you can exchange your Airpods for ones with replaced batteries! Note that I've never done it and can't vouch for the quality. I just read about it on HN once. https://www.theswapclub.com/collections/airpod-swaps https://www.theswapclub.com/collections/airpod-swaps
- tpetry 4y ago
  I‘ve used a service like this to replace the battteries of my Airpods Gen 1. They are now again like the first day I had them.
scarface74 4y ago
And how much larger would they be?
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  That's an interesting question, and I'd like an honest answer to that. We've heard the same argument about phones, and my old Galaxy S5 with a user-replaceable battery was a whopping 0.5 mm thicker than an iPhone 13 mini. That's the width of a mechanical pencil lead. They're both water-resistant, too.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    .5 inches and heavier for AirPods would make a huge difference ergonomically.
    - vladvasiliu 4y ago

strogonoff 4y ago

Cable replaceability is why I love IEMs like Shure SE215. Earbuds hardly break, but the cable breaks eventually. Less waste, plus the ability to choose a different cable.

vladvasiliu 4y ago
> plus the ability to choose a different cable Yup. I have a pair of Shure earbuds bought in 2011. When the cable started acting out, I replaced it with a lightning cable, since I had just got an iPhone. When that one started acting out, I replaced it with a Shure BT cable. Now I get great sound from my crappy work laptop.