7 ms·

Please can we get jacks back. The audio quality on these battery powered blue tooth headphones is fucking awful. IM not a purist by any stretch, but a decent p

Please can we get jacks back. The audio quality on these battery powered blue tooth headphones is fucking awful. IM not a purist by any stretch, but a decent pair of head phones is a whole other world of music vs anything AirPods like.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Mo3 3y ago
Hm. I have Sennheiser and Bose Bluetooth headphones and found AAC and AptX HD codecs on highest quality settings (on Android in dev tools) to be really good and almost indistinguishable from wired connections. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, but my hearing is pretty good and I'm sensitive to quality loss
- atoav 3y ago
  Not the parent, but wvwn if quality was decent. I have wired headphones. Good ones. And I just want to use them. Sure there are USB-C DACs you can add to your phone but meh.
  - hollandheese 3y ago
    Get a bluetooth DAC like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR series.
    - atoav 3y ago
      Get the idea, but I take my phone for sport runs multiple times a week, including in rainy weather. As of now I still have one with a headphone output. The idea of having to carry two devices and getting the worst of all worlds (more weigth, the unreliability of bluetooth combined with cables) doesn't really fill me with awe and wonder.
- zer00eyz 3y ago
  >> Bose Bluetooth headphones ... AAC Funny that you picked these, I have had 5 different people tell me to try them, and I own a pair. I have some pretty broad musical tastes. If I throw on some modern, electronic music, or anything pop, these do a pretty good job. The moment I dip into jazz, into anything where the range between the quiet parts and the loud parts (read pre 1990) is large they just dont perform any more. No amount of EQ is going to make up for that missing range. The best example of this that I can give is Caltrains A Love Supreme. On something good there is a looming undercurrent in the track, the humming is alive. The track is lifeless on every bluetooth headphone I have heard. Hell even my Sonos speakers in the kitchen do a better job.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - TaylorAlexander 3y ago
    I just had to double check but amazing autocorrect there. That would be Coltraine for anyone curious but I would love to hear a Caltrain version.
    - tkgally 3y ago
      Here you go: https://suno.com/song/2bd9142c-c41c-48fc-b28f-157239b50aee https://suno.com/song/2bd9142c-c41c-48fc-b28f-157239b50aee The prompt was “A jazz instrumental that combines the sensibility of ‘A Love Supreme’ with the feeling of the Caltrain transportation system.”
      - zer00eyz 3y ago
        LOL ... I cant believe I listened to all of that. Based on the output they need to train the model again, and remove all the mannheim steamroller.
- laserbeam 3y ago
  There’s a massive difference between bluetooth earbuds and $200-300 (ish) noise canceling Bose headphones. Yes, those are obviously going to sound good. I love mine. But you can’t really find a decent budget option on bluetooth. I hate mine and only use them for audiobooks. You could find reasonable budget wired earbuds even 15 years ago.
- carstenhag 3y ago
  As soon as you use it in 2-way-mode (Bluetooth mode where the microphone is being used) it sounds like a telephone call from 1970 or something.
wilg 3y ago
What do you mean “back”? You can buy a plethora of wired headphones.
- wisemang 3y ago
  Not much use of there isn’t a plethora of devices with jacks to plug them into (which is what GP asked for)
  - wilg 3y ago
    Every phone has a jack you can plug headphones into. Just sometimes it isn’t a 3.5mm headphone jack.
- LeonenTheDK 3y ago
  Back on phones.
- maven29 3y ago
  If only they weren't also so insistent on also obsoleting analog outputs and thus 75 years worth of headphones. Even worse, considering that they have to include DACs for speakers anyway, they still refuse to route analog audio out to the type-c connector - just to ensure that cheap passive adapters will not impede their shameless grift.
  - Kirby64 3y ago
    That "cheap passive adapter" has a ridiculous amount of complexity (both in the dongle, and in the chip you would have to connect it to to make it functional) that you're overlooking. You can't just 'route the DAC in the speaker to the Type-C connector'. That's not how these systems are built at all, and certainly not something that would be functional even if you could just route the speaker DAC to a 3.5mm connector or Type-C connector.
    - maven29 3y ago
      The USB standard has provision for analog output through the MUX, and all compliant MUX/controller chips will have implemented this. https://www.anandtech.com/show/10719/usbif-publishes-audio-over-usb-typec-specifications https://www.anandtech.com/show/10719/usbif-publishes-audio-o... If this is so non-trivial, Chinese OEMs like Huawei have in fact succeeded in analog output. This is despite the fact that their receptacles are on a 50mm long flex PCB, you don't need another 2 signal layers or an extra daughterboard. The laws of physics are the same everywhere across the world. Just because Apple is incompetent, it does not imply everyone else is.
conaclos 3y ago
Just use/buy an "old" phone with a jack? It is easy to find used phones (2021 or earlier) with headphone jacks. I have a 2017 phone and plan to upgrade to a 2020 phone.
- naikrovek 3y ago
  That makes a lot of sense until you realize those are no longer made and are not updated with security fixes, in many cases. It makes very little sense to buy a network-connected device which can’t be updated. And if you say “put Linux on it” it could be argued that you don’t know what tools like phones are for.
  - Pannoniae 3y ago
    well, what are they for? and why is saying "put linux on it" misdirected?
    - squarefoot 3y ago
      Running all sort of apps that wouldn't exist native on Linux (banking, whatsapp, ...) or whose equivalents although better and safer on Linux aren't compatible with what the mass uses. I finally settled with a phone (Nokia 8110 4G) that does just the phone, the hotspot and the occasional low quality photo, then a Thinkpad for serious stuff, and don't miss at all a smartphone. But I have no use for social media etc. most people mileage will vary. Actually I would be interested in Graphene OS, but it only supports devices that are either too old or too costly for a mere curiosity, therefore I will wait.
    - chainingsolid 3y ago
      As someone writing this on a pinephone the primary issue with the statement is the lack of context. You 'put linux on it' and get OSS, and control of your own device. But most of the time lose 90% access to the abilities of ios/android installs... I can sudo pacman -S dub & ldc2 + fav editor of the week. But had to spend hours getting an android emulator working to sign up to use the telegram install that came with most/all of the distros I've tried! TLDR: you get a pocket laptop instead of a phone, despite owning a "phone"
Fnoord 3y ago
You can get it back with a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter.
- kornhole 3y ago
  They only cost a couple bucks and can stay connected to headphones. One of mine has a microphone block that I generally keep plugged into my untrusted work laptop to ensure it isn't listening to me.
  - jraph 3y ago
    How does plugging something help with blocking a microphone? The laptop still has its internal one. One Linux you can still select the internal microphone even with something plugged in the jack port and the mic is still usable.
    - deaddodo 3y ago
      OP means that the third sleeve/fourth connection point on the jack (the one responsible for mic data) isn't passed through, ergo the only connection to the recipient device is the output. In other words, it limits a TRRS jack to a TRS one. Whatever OS you're using, you're not magically going to regain access to a physically disconnected signal.
      - kornhole 3y ago
        My laptop recognizes it as an actual microphone. Unless some software is able to change the microphone selection to the internal microphone, it will just be listening to silence.
        _carbyau_ 3y ago
        Not sure what you are using but on Windows I can set my "default" but each application can still individually select which input they want. IE an untrusted process running should be able to pick the inbuilt mic. Maybe linux has permissions around device inputs that can be used to stop this but if a person is worried their untrusted laptop might be listening to them then I suspect such a permission layer is already breached.
sudosysgen 3y ago
Good TWS headphones are better than the vast majority of wired headphones. For example, Sony's headphones have lossless Bluetooth, and so do Samsung's, and the quality of the headphones themselves is quite good, even by audiophile standards, for in-ears. You can also get bluetooth adapters for traditional IEMs, Fiio and KZ sell good ones. At the end of the day, there really is no technical reason why bluetooth headphones have to sound any worse than wired headphones.
- hollandheese 3y ago
  > Good TWS headphones are better than the vast majority of wired headphones. Maybe, but there are no high end TWS headphones. None of them stand up to even $200 wired IEMs. >You can also get bluetooth adapters for traditional IEMs, Fiio and KZ sell good ones. I wouldn't call any of the TWS adapters for IEMs good. I have the Fiio ones, they are a pain in the ass to use and connect. And everyone I've heard from says the KZ are worse than the Fiio ones, so I'm not going to try them. Get a Bluetooth DAC instead like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR series. > At the end of the day, there really is no technical reason why bluetooth headphones have to sound any worse than wired headphones. True, true. I just wish they'd make good bluetooth headphones. I'm sick and tired of dealing with adapters, even the bluetooth ones.
  - sudosysgen 3y ago
    > Maybe, but there are no high end TWS headphones. None of them stand up to even $200 wired IEMs. That's completely subjective - Crinacle for example is a popular reviewer and disagrees. By all objective measurements they stand up to many 200$ wired IEMs. > I wouldn't call any of the TWS adapters for IEMs good. I have the Fiio ones, they are a pain in the ass to use and connect. And everyone I've heard from says the KZ are worse than the Fiio ones, so I'm not going to try them. > Get a Bluetooth DAC instead like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR series. I've personally had no issues with use or connection with my KZ adapter - my girlfriend still uses it, and doesn't report any issues (beyond battery life, as it's been 4 years now). I imagine it might also depend on the phone. > True, true. I just wish they'd make good bluetooth headphones. I'm sick and tired of dealing with adapters, even the bluetooth ones. I guess it's up to subjectivity. I personally find my wf-1000xm4s and xm5s really quite good after AutoEQ. I'm not the only one either, plenty of reviewers find them, once EQ'd (which is super easy on Android), to be competent IEMs, even compared to other 200$+ wired IEMs. That's so long as you don't use an iPhone. If you do use an iPhone then yeah, you're screwed as you can't avoid audio compression and you're reliant on manufacturer EQ (though it's perfectly fine for Sony)
latentcall 3y ago
I have a decent hi-fi system in my home and listen to a lot of vinyl and tapes, and my pair of Technics EAH-AZ80's sound pretty damn good using music streamed from Roon ARC (FLAC, some 320 MP3's). I have heard a lot in the past few years of people praising cheap IEM's (I still don't get the difference between IEM's and a pair of wired headphones) and am curious to refresh my iPod Classic to use with some but I wouldn't know where to begin.
karaterobot 3y ago
I used to feel this way too. I don't care so much about sound quality, as I'm mostly listening to podcasts and audiobooks, but I didn't want to be reliant on teeny little batteries that have to be recharged every couple of hours. As it turns out, the unexpected benefit of not having wires is that the cord doesn't get caught on everything all the time, and that's good enough to overcome the poor battery life for me.
- brewtide 3y ago
  As someone who wears headphones basically all day at work (painter...) I 100% agree. It's a whole different experience, in a different dynamic. On a similar note, 80% of the time I'm wearing my Sony linkbuds -- the ones with the "they have a hole in them" passthrough, even though they have the shortest battery life of the multiple sets I own. Realistically, beyond the (not dismissing) "they are trash when the batteries die" aspect of things, taking your headphones out for 10-20 minutes every 4 ish hours... Is probably a good thing for our ears and minds alike.
  - woogley 3y ago
    I can't believe there's another linkbuds fan in the world. No other earbud feels so transparent and light to me. I actually bought a few pairs of these because I'm afraid they will discontinue them. Their newer model does not have the hole.
    - rtpg 3y ago
      that model feels safe, there are loads of SKUs of them so I think there's some success.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Do you really have to recharge every couple hours? I use AirPods and find that they last for several (3?) hours when the mic is being used simultaneous with the speaker (zoom/phone), but much longer (5?) when just being used for playback. For me, this is plenty — especially because I don't use both ears at once. There's always way more than enough time to charge one while using the other. What wireless 'buds have only 2 hours of battery life when for just playback?
atombender 3y ago
Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless are really, really good. A significant upgrade from AirPods. The first two generations were notorious for connectivity glitches, but the TW3s appear to have fixed everything by. Great ANC, battery life, ear fit. They even added multipoint through a free software update that came out about a year after launch.
causality0 3y ago
Not to mention the bluetooth lag makes playing games with wireless earbuds very sub-optimal.
- kaba0 3y ago
  I absolutely can’t imagine any mobile game where that latency would be significant in any shape or form. Also, is that latency significant in the first place? Don’t you base it on some bad hardware?
  - causality0 3y ago
    You don't find it jarring when sound effects don't sync up with what's supposed to cause them on screen? As an aside, mobile games aren't the only thing people play on their phones. I emulate every game console I ever owned on my phone as well as using it for a PC display over Sunshine.
Yodel0914 3y ago
EQ can make a huge difference, and these days autoeq.app and the open data behind it make getting good EQ settings incredibly easy. If you still like you want to use your wired headphones, something like the Fiio BTR5 is pretty excellent - you can use it either wired via USB-C for highest quality, or via bluetooth for convenience.
zeta0134 3y ago
I recently fell off of team 3.5mm-jack when I discovered USB-C headphones! These include their own DAC and that means they have the potential to be *much* less noisy than the usually cost-reduced DAC included in the handset. Plus this way I can splurge for one decent set of headphones and get the same mix on all my devices, which is good for composing. So, the 3.5mm jack can die. I'm now on team "dual USB ports" to solve the charging-while-listening issue. Let's go team!
- m463 3y ago
  I would love to see a variety of cables to support your vision. USB-C to 0.78mm 2-pin or USB-C to MMCX basically a DAC cable, not a huge fiio dac thing. There are very interesting in-ear earbuds, but the whole subculture only handles 3.5mm, relying on the phone audio section. EDIT: I like this list (just one guy): https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/ https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/ EDIT: I guess I should add his other list: https://crinacle.com/rankings/headphones/ https://crinacle.com/rankings/headphones/
- aqfamnzc 3y ago
  Any recs for a low-cost pair?
- piaste 3y ago
  > These include their own DAC Isn't that exactly why audiophiles - in the broadest sense, not just the golden cable types - stick with jack headphones? The DACs and amps built into headphones, or even earbuds, being very likely subpar compared to the one they can pick separately. Headphone DACs/amps have been a thing forever and they're typically the size of a pack of cigarettes. (Disclaimer: I made peace with BT since getting the Sony WH-1000XM4 earbuds, and later WH-1000HM4 headphones. I got them originally for the noise cancelling and LDAC support, but they're good enough that I don't hear a major difference with my friend's fancy Audio Technica)
  - happymellon 3y ago
    Are there not high quality usb c to headphone jacks, with good DACs? I've still got a phone with a headphone jack, clinging onto life so not something I've investigated. Surely that's going to be the direction for folks who want an analogue socket?
NoPicklez 3y ago
I moved away from a 3.5mm jack fanboy when I started using lightening/USB-C based connections for headphones/car stereo. It sounds so much better than using the 3.5mm jack given the use of the onboard DAC.
pcdoodle 3y ago
Headphone jack is a driver of innovation and early adoption as well. Look at mobile payments for instance, 1st available on 3.5mm. It's a good connector to have.
thefz 3y ago
Not a puristi as well, but once you switch back to good audio equipment, those little buds clearly lack sound pressure
hot_gril 3y ago
I don't even care about quality, but BT has too many random issues. When I had to replace my iPhone with a new one (with no jack), I basically stopped listening to music on the go.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Mo3 3y ago

Hm. I have Sennheiser and Bose Bluetooth headphones and found AAC and AptX HD codecs on highest quality settings (on Android in dev tools) to be really good and almost indistinguishable from wired connections. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, but my hearing is pretty good and I'm sensitive to quality loss

atoav 3y ago
Not the parent, but wvwn if quality was decent. I have wired headphones. Good ones. And I just want to use them. Sure there are USB-C DACs you can add to your phone but meh.
- hollandheese 3y ago
  Get a bluetooth DAC like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR series.
  - atoav 3y ago
    Get the idea, but I take my phone for sport runs multiple times a week, including in rainy weather. As of now I still have one with a headphone output. The idea of having to carry two devices and getting the worst of all worlds (more weigth, the unreliability of bluetooth combined with cables) doesn't really fill me with awe and wonder.
zer00eyz 3y ago
>> Bose Bluetooth headphones ... AAC Funny that you picked these, I have had 5 different people tell me to try them, and I own a pair. I have some pretty broad musical tastes. If I throw on some modern, electronic music, or anything pop, these do a pretty good job. The moment I dip into jazz, into anything where the range between the quiet parts and the loud parts (read pre 1990) is large they just dont perform any more. No amount of EQ is going to make up for that missing range. The best example of this that I can give is Caltrains A Love Supreme. On something good there is a looming undercurrent in the track, the humming is alive. The track is lifeless on every bluetooth headphone I have heard. Hell even my Sonos speakers in the kitchen do a better job.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  I just had to double check but amazing autocorrect there. That would be Coltraine for anyone curious but I would love to hear a Caltrain version.
  - tkgally 3y ago
    Here you go: https://suno.com/song/2bd9142c-c41c-48fc-b28f-157239b50aee https://suno.com/song/2bd9142c-c41c-48fc-b28f-157239b50aee The prompt was “A jazz instrumental that combines the sensibility of ‘A Love Supreme’ with the feeling of the Caltrain transportation system.”
    - zer00eyz 3y ago
      LOL ... I cant believe I listened to all of that. Based on the output they need to train the model again, and remove all the mannheim steamroller.
laserbeam 3y ago
There’s a massive difference between bluetooth earbuds and $200-300 (ish) noise canceling Bose headphones. Yes, those are obviously going to sound good. I love mine. But you can’t really find a decent budget option on bluetooth. I hate mine and only use them for audiobooks. You could find reasonable budget wired earbuds even 15 years ago.
carstenhag 3y ago
As soon as you use it in 2-way-mode (Bluetooth mode where the microphone is being used) it sounds like a telephone call from 1970 or something.

wilg 3y ago

What do you mean “back”? You can buy a plethora of wired headphones.

wisemang 3y ago
Not much use of there isn’t a plethora of devices with jacks to plug them into (which is what GP asked for)
- wilg 3y ago
  Every phone has a jack you can plug headphones into. Just sometimes it isn’t a 3.5mm headphone jack.
LeonenTheDK 3y ago
Back on phones.
maven29 3y ago
If only they weren't also so insistent on also obsoleting analog outputs and thus 75 years worth of headphones. Even worse, considering that they have to include DACs for speakers anyway, they still refuse to route analog audio out to the type-c connector - just to ensure that cheap passive adapters will not impede their shameless grift.
- Kirby64 3y ago
  That "cheap passive adapter" has a ridiculous amount of complexity (both in the dongle, and in the chip you would have to connect it to to make it functional) that you're overlooking. You can't just 'route the DAC in the speaker to the Type-C connector'. That's not how these systems are built at all, and certainly not something that would be functional even if you could just route the speaker DAC to a 3.5mm connector or Type-C connector.
  - maven29 3y ago
    The USB standard has provision for analog output through the MUX, and all compliant MUX/controller chips will have implemented this. https://www.anandtech.com/show/10719/usbif-publishes-audio-over-usb-typec-specifications https://www.anandtech.com/show/10719/usbif-publishes-audio-o... If this is so non-trivial, Chinese OEMs like Huawei have in fact succeeded in analog output. This is despite the fact that their receptacles are on a 50mm long flex PCB, you don't need another 2 signal layers or an extra daughterboard. The laws of physics are the same everywhere across the world. Just because Apple is incompetent, it does not imply everyone else is.

conaclos 3y ago

Just use/buy an "old" phone with a jack? It is easy to find used phones (2021 or earlier) with headphone jacks. I have a 2017 phone and plan to upgrade to a 2020 phone.

naikrovek 3y ago
That makes a lot of sense until you realize those are no longer made and are not updated with security fixes, in many cases. It makes very little sense to buy a network-connected device which can’t be updated. And if you say “put Linux on it” it could be argued that you don’t know what tools like phones are for.
- Pannoniae 3y ago
  well, what are they for? and why is saying "put linux on it" misdirected?
  - squarefoot 3y ago
    Running all sort of apps that wouldn't exist native on Linux (banking, whatsapp, ...) or whose equivalents although better and safer on Linux aren't compatible with what the mass uses. I finally settled with a phone (Nokia 8110 4G) that does just the phone, the hotspot and the occasional low quality photo, then a Thinkpad for serious stuff, and don't miss at all a smartphone. But I have no use for social media etc. most people mileage will vary. Actually I would be interested in Graphene OS, but it only supports devices that are either too old or too costly for a mere curiosity, therefore I will wait.
  - chainingsolid 3y ago
    As someone writing this on a pinephone the primary issue with the statement is the lack of context. You 'put linux on it' and get OSS, and control of your own device. But most of the time lose 90% access to the abilities of ios/android installs... I can sudo pacman -S dub & ldc2 + fav editor of the week. But had to spend hours getting an android emulator working to sign up to use the telegram install that came with most/all of the distros I've tried! TLDR: you get a pocket laptop instead of a phone, despite owning a "phone"

Fnoord 3y ago

You can get it back with a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter.

kornhole 3y ago
They only cost a couple bucks and can stay connected to headphones. One of mine has a microphone block that I generally keep plugged into my untrusted work laptop to ensure it isn't listening to me.
- jraph 3y ago
  How does plugging something help with blocking a microphone? The laptop still has its internal one. One Linux you can still select the internal microphone even with something plugged in the jack port and the mic is still usable.
  - deaddodo 3y ago
    OP means that the third sleeve/fourth connection point on the jack (the one responsible for mic data) isn't passed through, ergo the only connection to the recipient device is the output. In other words, it limits a TRRS jack to a TRS one. Whatever OS you're using, you're not magically going to regain access to a physically disconnected signal.
    - kornhole 3y ago
      My laptop recognizes it as an actual microphone. Unless some software is able to change the microphone selection to the internal microphone, it will just be listening to silence.
      - _carbyau_ 3y ago
        Not sure what you are using but on Windows I can set my "default" but each application can still individually select which input they want. IE an untrusted process running should be able to pick the inbuilt mic. Maybe linux has permissions around device inputs that can be used to stop this but if a person is worried their untrusted laptop might be listening to them then I suspect such a permission layer is already breached.

sudosysgen 3y ago

Good TWS headphones are better than the vast majority of wired headphones. For example, Sony's headphones have lossless Bluetooth, and so do Samsung's, and the quality of the headphones themselves is quite good, even by audiophile standards, for in-ears. You can also get bluetooth adapters for traditional IEMs, Fiio and KZ sell good ones. At the end of the day, there really is no technical reason why bluetooth headphones have to sound any worse than wired headphones.

hollandheese 3y ago
> Good TWS headphones are better than the vast majority of wired headphones. Maybe, but there are no high end TWS headphones. None of them stand up to even $200 wired IEMs. >You can also get bluetooth adapters for traditional IEMs, Fiio and KZ sell good ones. I wouldn't call any of the TWS adapters for IEMs good. I have the Fiio ones, they are a pain in the ass to use and connect. And everyone I've heard from says the KZ are worse than the Fiio ones, so I'm not going to try them. Get a Bluetooth DAC instead like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR series. > At the end of the day, there really is no technical reason why bluetooth headphones have to sound any worse than wired headphones. True, true. I just wish they'd make good bluetooth headphones. I'm sick and tired of dealing with adapters, even the bluetooth ones.
- sudosysgen 3y ago
  > Maybe, but there are no high end TWS headphones. None of them stand up to even $200 wired IEMs. That's completely subjective - Crinacle for example is a popular reviewer and disagrees. By all objective measurements they stand up to many 200$ wired IEMs. > I wouldn't call any of the TWS adapters for IEMs good. I have the Fiio ones, they are a pain in the ass to use and connect. And everyone I've heard from says the KZ are worse than the Fiio ones, so I'm not going to try them. > Get a Bluetooth DAC instead like the Qudelix 5k or Fiio BTR series. I've personally had no issues with use or connection with my KZ adapter - my girlfriend still uses it, and doesn't report any issues (beyond battery life, as it's been 4 years now). I imagine it might also depend on the phone. > True, true. I just wish they'd make good bluetooth headphones. I'm sick and tired of dealing with adapters, even the bluetooth ones. I guess it's up to subjectivity. I personally find my wf-1000xm4s and xm5s really quite good after AutoEQ. I'm not the only one either, plenty of reviewers find them, once EQ'd (which is super easy on Android), to be competent IEMs, even compared to other 200$+ wired IEMs. That's so long as you don't use an iPhone. If you do use an iPhone then yeah, you're screwed as you can't avoid audio compression and you're reliant on manufacturer EQ (though it's perfectly fine for Sony)

latentcall 3y ago

I have a decent hi-fi system in my home and listen to a lot of vinyl and tapes, and my pair of Technics EAH-AZ80's sound pretty damn good using music streamed from Roon ARC (FLAC, some 320 MP3's). I have heard a lot in the past few years of people praising cheap IEM's (I still don't get the difference between IEM's and a pair of wired headphones) and am curious to refresh my iPod Classic to use with some but I wouldn't know where to begin.

karaterobot 3y ago

I used to feel this way too. I don't care so much about sound quality, as I'm mostly listening to podcasts and audiobooks, but I didn't want to be reliant on teeny little batteries that have to be recharged every couple of hours. As it turns out, the unexpected benefit of not having wires is that the cord doesn't get caught on everything all the time, and that's good enough to overcome the poor battery life for me.

brewtide 3y ago
As someone who wears headphones basically all day at work (painter...) I 100% agree. It's a whole different experience, in a different dynamic. On a similar note, 80% of the time I'm wearing my Sony linkbuds -- the ones with the "they have a hole in them" passthrough, even though they have the shortest battery life of the multiple sets I own. Realistically, beyond the (not dismissing) "they are trash when the batteries die" aspect of things, taking your headphones out for 10-20 minutes every 4 ish hours... Is probably a good thing for our ears and minds alike.
- woogley 3y ago
  I can't believe there's another linkbuds fan in the world. No other earbud feels so transparent and light to me. I actually bought a few pairs of these because I'm afraid they will discontinue them. Their newer model does not have the hole.
  - rtpg 3y ago
    that model feels safe, there are loads of SKUs of them so I think there's some success.
gnicholas 3y ago
Do you really have to recharge every couple hours? I use AirPods and find that they last for several (3?) hours when the mic is being used simultaneous with the speaker (zoom/phone), but much longer (5?) when just being used for playback. For me, this is plenty — especially because I don't use both ears at once. There's always way more than enough time to charge one while using the other. What wireless 'buds have only 2 hours of battery life when for just playback?

atombender 3y ago

Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless are really, really good. A significant upgrade from AirPods. The first two generations were notorious for connectivity glitches, but the TW3s appear to have fixed everything by. Great ANC, battery life, ear fit. They even added multipoint through a free software update that came out about a year after launch.

causality0 3y ago

Not to mention the bluetooth lag makes playing games with wireless earbuds very sub-optimal.

kaba0 3y ago
I absolutely can’t imagine any mobile game where that latency would be significant in any shape or form. Also, is that latency significant in the first place? Don’t you base it on some bad hardware?
- causality0 3y ago
  You don't find it jarring when sound effects don't sync up with what's supposed to cause them on screen? As an aside, mobile games aren't the only thing people play on their phones. I emulate every game console I ever owned on my phone as well as using it for a PC display over Sunshine.

Yodel0914 3y ago

EQ can make a huge difference, and these days autoeq.app and the open data behind it make getting good EQ settings incredibly easy. If you still like you want to use your wired headphones, something like the Fiio BTR5 is pretty excellent - you can use it either wired via USB-C for highest quality, or via bluetooth for convenience.

zeta0134 3y ago

I recently fell off of team 3.5mm-jack when I discovered USB-C headphones! These include their own DAC and that means they have the potential to be *much* less noisy than the usually cost-reduced DAC included in the handset. Plus this way I can splurge for one decent set of headphones and get the same mix on all my devices, which is good for composing. So, the 3.5mm jack can die. I'm now on team "dual USB ports" to solve the charging-while-listening issue. Let's go team!

m463 3y ago
I would love to see a variety of cables to support your vision. USB-C to 0.78mm 2-pin or USB-C to MMCX basically a DAC cable, not a huge fiio dac thing. There are very interesting in-ear earbuds, but the whole subculture only handles 3.5mm, relying on the phone audio section. EDIT: I like this list (just one guy): https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/ https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/ EDIT: I guess I should add his other list: https://crinacle.com/rankings/headphones/ https://crinacle.com/rankings/headphones/
aqfamnzc 3y ago
Any recs for a low-cost pair?
piaste 3y ago
> These include their own DAC Isn't that exactly why audiophiles - in the broadest sense, not just the golden cable types - stick with jack headphones? The DACs and amps built into headphones, or even earbuds, being very likely subpar compared to the one they can pick separately. Headphone DACs/amps have been a thing forever and they're typically the size of a pack of cigarettes. (Disclaimer: I made peace with BT since getting the Sony WH-1000XM4 earbuds, and later WH-1000HM4 headphones. I got them originally for the noise cancelling and LDAC support, but they're good enough that I don't hear a major difference with my friend's fancy Audio Technica)
- happymellon 3y ago
  Are there not high quality usb c to headphone jacks, with good DACs? I've still got a phone with a headphone jack, clinging onto life so not something I've investigated. Surely that's going to be the direction for folks who want an analogue socket?

NoPicklez 3y ago

I moved away from a 3.5mm jack fanboy when I started using lightening/USB-C based connections for headphones/car stereo. It sounds so much better than using the 3.5mm jack given the use of the onboard DAC.

pcdoodle 3y ago

Headphone jack is a driver of innovation and early adoption as well. Look at mobile payments for instance, 1st available on 3.5mm. It's a good connector to have.

thefz 3y ago

Not a puristi as well, but once you switch back to good audio equipment, those little buds clearly lack sound pressure

hot_gril 3y ago

I don't even care about quality, but BT has too many random issues. When I had to replace my iPhone with a new one (with no jack), I basically stopped listening to music on the go.