- have better sound quality
- have less latency
- are cheaper
- can't get lost as easily
- weight less
- don't need to be charged
Wireless earbuds:
- don't have cables that get tangled
- rarely explode inside your ear causing permanent hearing loss
I agree we should still have the option of either more easily but I’d still be picking the wireless ones to be honest.
We will never see eye to eye
Meanwhile in the 10 or so years before that I lost multiple pairs of wired headphones to flaky connections - the most common failure method being “have to wiggle it around to get sound through both ears and they intermittently fail if you move too much”
I kept a Pixel and an iPad Pro around for too long and their batteries ballooned. I wonder if that'll happen with the Galaxy Buds.
Maybe it is time to replace them.
Furthermore, battery anxiety. Wired Shure vs. wireless buds is a bit like a regular watch vs. Apple Watch—one is always there, whereas the other if you forget to charge it in 1–2 days is a brick on your wrist—except in case of the watch it is legitimately much, much more functional, whereas between wired IEMs and AirPods they do almost exactly the same thing.
What is this refering to? Why shouldn't I use wireless buds in bed?
The way the cable molds and wraps around your ears means they don’t get out easily if you accidentally pull it. The cable itself (the weakest link in any wired headphones) is replaceable, no special tools needed, with third-party options available.
One cable I used to have, and I think some units come with it by default as an option now, has a Bluetooth receiver-transmitter rather than the 3.5 jack. This avoids the need to draw the cable directly to your device and the risk of accidentally pulling on it. Resting the receiver on your clothing rather than skin of the back of your neck directly would drastically reduce the impact from any potential explosion, I imagine. Since the Bluetooth-enabled cable connects both in-ears, they never get lost like a pod would. Naturally, this version of the cable also has a mic (arguably better positioned relative to your mouth than one in a tiny bud, in terms of outgoing audio quality).
If you like noise isolation, their black EABKF sleeve passively isolate measurably (and in my personal experience) on par with active isolation from top-of-the-line Bluetooth buds and cans (you should make sure you clean and swap the sleeves regularly to avoid ear infection, but in-ear buds like AirPods Pro generally require the same).
(Connoisseurs will note that the thing to watch out for in case of cheaper IEMs is cable rattle. Rattle is a deal-breaker for me as I wear them outside. Shures don’t suffer from it, though it would be unfair to omit that compared to buds with active noise isolation there is indeed a floor of consistent background hum in the lows if you are moving around actively.)
Finally, they are capable of much higher quality audio (obviously) and cost less than $100. (If you pay the equivalent of AirPods Pro, you can get a version with two drivers in each, promising in theory even better sound, and a chunk of leftover change.)
I use the AirPods pretty much every day as my main device. The sound quality is poorer, but not enough to make a meaningful difference when I’m listening to music that was mixed for consumers, or podcasts recorded in a closet somewhere - which let’s face it, we mostly are.
Their saving grace is that ANC means they don’t irritate my ears after prolonged wearing as much as Shure’s sleeves do (passive isolation requires a stricter fit).
That's... weird. What are you doing to them? I've had my Shure wired IEMs for 8 years now and they're still fine.
Meanwhile I have a set of 2-year-old Sony wireless earbuds where the battery lasts about 20 minutes. Useless.
My hearing is already fucked from exposure to loud noises, so the sound quality difference doesn’t matter at all. The latency with AirPods is also rarely noticeable. And charging? Not a huge issue either tbh. I’ve to charge everything else…
I tried using a rythm composer app with the original Airpods a few years ago, and that was unusable, because the delay between tapping screen and hearing the instrument was too high. Not sure if it was just the app or if latency got better in the mean time.
We ve regressed so much since my old S10 (+jack +SpO2 +FM radio)
I remember using that feature to control the classroom beamer...
Instead of earbuds (which I dislike anyway) I’ve become a big fan of Bluetooth bone conduction headphones, which bypass the plugs, sound good enough, and can be found for $30 these days. They are reasonably unobtrusive even while wearing glasses. Dust goggles may or may not work, haven’t tried that yet.
The cheap ones also use USB C ports, instead of proprietary connectors like the $150 ones
It's time I tried them. I have yet to find an earbud that doesn't fall out of my ear with activity. Plus, working in industrial environments generally means I need to keep at least one ear open, anyway. There's a market someone can corner; a bone conducting mono headphone that can deal with a wee bit of machine oil on the users finders when they need to start/stop the audio.
Here’s the set of bone conduction headphones I got, it’s the hanging kind. The brand is “BAICLUD”, just your typical Chinese brand that may or may not disappear in a month: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3LT2Q28
They are supposedly waterproof, so they may or may not do well with oil. In my case, they clean off easy and don’t seem prone to collecting grime/dust. I’ve no idea if there is a barrier under the physical buttons.
So far working well, though one thing I’ve found is that if my phone is in my back pocket and I crouch down or bend over, my body seems to interfere with the Bluetooth signal, sometimes interrupting it. No idea how normal that is with Bluetooth.
The sound will be bit different than regular headphones, but for me it’s not an important difference. I basically listen to Doom and podcasts.
So far I’d be perfectly happy buying them again.
I think an advancement to this style of headphones would be some way to adjust the length and tension of the connection band.
If they are loud enough to fully enjoy, then it’s going to outcompete your environment. You’ll need to have them a bit quieter than you’d like to retain actual awareness.
Or just release those again, I'd rather live with the wires than all the other trade offs.
Speaking as somebody who always finds earbuds unreliably loose or uncomfortably tight, have your tried ones that individually hook over each ear?
While that description does include some over-ear designs [0] others are more like "sporty earbuds" [1].
For the lattee, I find I can usually let them hang freely and maybe turn up the volume a bit to compensate for not having a great seal.
[0] Example: Panasonic RP-HZ47
[1] Example: Panasonic RP-HS16K
- only explode outside your ear
- last at least 4x longer than "earbuds"
If sound quality matters, then cans are the only choice. It's reasonable to pay for high quality (wired) headphones. They will last many years if treated well. Paying high prices for "earbuds" is a waste.
Not much chop for music but really excellent for podcasts and audiobooks. With both the fact they dont isolate the environmental noise being a bonus and a subtractor.
Bonus meaning I can hear and react to the world around me when using them,
Subtractor being a noisey environment will drown out whatever I'm trying to lsten to.
I am one of those people that play both sides. I dabbled in the Chifi space and got myself some BLON iems which are fantastic value for money and sit in my bag and go everywhere I go. My over ear Beyerdynamics are now approaching 10 years old still going very strong and feel almost brand new after I swapped out the pads
These days atleast in india it's the most popular option out there as they are cheap and wireless.
It might explode but won't make you go dead though third degree burns to neck are possible but rare (as the power density is less)
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/sm3v4x/shure_se...
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/7b1j7z/shure_se...