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Comment by encom | Hacker News Reader

You know it won't be. Wireless headphones are disposable.

My wired Sennheisers are 10 years old. I've replaced the foam pads on them, which are still available from 1st and 3rd parties. I know someone who just replaced the pads on her Sennheisers which are 25 years old now.

I was basically called a luddite here the other day, because I thought firmware updating headphones is madness, but I stand by what I said. Wireless headphones are a solution to a manufactured problem, because Apple started removing the headphone port, and everyone copied them, as they always do. Now everyone is selling their own crappy AirPods.

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> Wireless headphones are a solution to a manufactured problem,

You can think that, but getting rid of wires is an improvement over nearly any situation other than sitting at a desk. And even then, I still sometimes slide away from the desk and yank on the cord.

On the face of it, no wires seem like a good thing, but it brings with it a range of drawbacks.

Compatibility: Bluetooth isn't supported on all devices. And Bluetooth setup and pairing can still be a mess. Analog means round peg goes in round hole and it always works. Sound quality: Bluetooth, as far as I know, still doesn't transmit PCM, so audio is compressed, which may or may not be perceptible to you. Latency: Unavoidable, and may or may not be important to you. Longevity: Wireless means more complexity, and higher price and another battery I need to charge and that will only last N cycles before it dies. Stallman-ity: Wireless headphones run proprietry closed sourced code that you have no control over.

On the face of it, no wires seem like a good thing, but it brings with it a range of drawbacks.

Which does not make wireless headphones a "solution to a manufactured problem". You're fine with wires, fine, but others don't have the same use case you do. Your list of drawbacks? There's your "manufactured problems", none of those things matter to me when I'm out for a run.

I could argue for example that wires also bring a lot of problems. E.g. cables die, and the connectors tend to wear significantly depending with use.

I am yet to see a TRS 3.5'' connector last me more than a decade. This includes the headphones connectors on expensive TV, and believe me, it is about as annoying to replace a headphone connector on a ~2010 "superglue manufactured" TV as it is to replace a battery on a 2010 "superglue" headset.

Wireless does not have this problem, and batteries I can change (I only buy headsets with replaceable batteries, even when they cost triple or quadruple of "superglue" products).

That said, wired USB-C doesn't have the problem either, and it's also uncompressed PCM to boot.

Latency is such a killer for me. Admittedly android phones have bad audio latency anyway IIRC - because of this only iOS has decent music creation software available for it (I don't think my knowledge is out of date here?), so it's more a sin on iOS than Android to not have wired support built-in.

It also completely disregards the fact that wireless headphones were popular before the headphone jack was removed.

cheap bluetooth headphones were the best workplace quality-of-life improvements I have ever made. I don't have to deal with my headphone wire getting pulled out, cord routing, untangling cords, etc.

I'm currently saving up to buy some nice bluetooth headphones, probably either the Pixel Buds or Airpods. Absolutely 100% worth it over wired. A headphone jack wasn't even a consideration for me when I upgraded from my Pixel 1 to the Pixel 4, and I don't regret it.

I'm guessing you mean earbuds? Wireless or not, earbuds don't seem to last long for me. I've owned multiple Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic buds over the last years and not a single one lasted a year.

Bought a pair of "true" wireless ones this time around which seems a lot more durable, but time will tell.

I have a 5 year old pair of etymotics, and just recently replaced a pair of Shure IEMs due to a broken stem. I was able to buy the exact same model, and re-use my 3rd party cables and eartips.

I just tossed my Bose earbuds that I took to Afghanistan in 2011.

Sennheiser does make some nice home theatre (i.e. non-Bluetooth) wireless headphones that use replaceable and rechargeable AAA batteries.

There are wireless headphones with removable batteries that are most definitely not disposable.

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