Return of wired headphones is restoring friction to our convenience-addled lives | Hacker News Reader

Return of wired headphones is restoring friction to our convenience-addled lives

theguardian.com

22 pointswalterbell19 comments

I don't get the convenience argument for wireless earbuds. I am the only person in our family without wireless earbuds, so I see wireless buds users up close daily, and it's a pretty common occurrence that someone can't find their buds, or the case isn't charged, or something won't connect. Seeing all these alternative inconveniences to a thin wire doesn't convince me to go wireless at all.

> the case isn't charged, or something won't connect

I wish there were wired earbuds with ANC compared in quality to my AirPods Pro 2.

There it is.

I’ve used both wired and wireless headphones and earbuds for about the past ten years. I really enjoy many aspects of wireless earbuds, one of which principally is that I don’t need to carry a player on my person, and cords can easily get in the way of mundane tasks.

However, I will no longer invest in high-quality (and expensive) wireless headphones and earbuds, and have been investing more heavily in wired sets.

One of the key reasons is they many wireless products do not have easily replaceable batteries, let alone other spares, on what is ostensibly a consumable component. I had a pair of expensive Bowers and Wilkins wireless headphones where the battery had degraded to uselessness after five years, only to be advised they were irreparable. The cost of ownership equated to $200 a year, which is definitely in luxury territory.

Other reasons drive me back to wired headphones too. They are more readily interoperable. I can use them with musical instruments, computers, analogue stereo systems. I am not constrained to using them with the amplifier embedded with them. There is no latency, which is a huge problem with Bluetooth headphones for music. They don’t succumb to wireless interference. And I don’t need to navigate the minefield of codec compatibility (SBC/LC3/AptX/AptX HD/AAC/LDAC). I also don’t need to charge them constantly.

I appreciated the article’s author taking the time to document their observations of how wireless listening, and the convenience it supposedly brings, on changing the way we consume music - and other societal impacts - on top of the technical implications too.

I think this article misses the main reason the white wired Apple EarPods and their imitators are popular: they're great for phone calls. Wireless earbuds all have awful microphones, technical measures to mitigate this seem to be futile against the fact that they're sitting on the sides of your head while your mouth is on the front. Earpods make you sound good on calls while also being cheap and fashionable. That's the appeal for most people, I think, nothing to do with their suitability for music.

the nuisance of another charger, little fiddly bits that are easy to loose, discomfort for some and expense,can add up the stress to the fuck it level personaly I like a standard 1/8 jack, as it is backwards compatible with a huge amount of equipment I removed the infotainment system from my truck, and replaced it with a shelf in the dash that has a 1/8 going to a power amp with a "high z" input, hit play, bumpin tunes, everything is local

I saw some buds where the charging case had a microphone which is a clever solution i hope more brands adopt.

That's the nothing new ear 3 buds yes. Pretty cool feature though they're too expensive compared to my Xiaomis to upgrade for it.

...so I have to walk around holding the case to my face of I want to take a phone call?

I mean it's better than having wind and background noise because the mics are by your ears...

All these people will be complaining about hearing loss in twenty years time. I had to stop using ear buds because they were giving me an ear infection.

That's a completely unrelated issue to hearing loss.

And you don't need to get hearing loss. You can use a sensible volume. Which is easier to do with current noise cancelling buds because part of the reason for loud music was to drown out the noise.

A lot of these people will end up with hearing loss as previous generations have.

If you use any in ear devices you'll need to clean them thoroughly every time, otherwise there is a hygiene issue. They can cause infections and press ear wax further into the canal which is what will give you hearing problems for sure.

I've used in-ears since they came on the market what 30 years ago and I've never sterilised them :) I just rub the wax off. Also dropped them on the street and reinserted them many times.

I do have some hearing loss but it was from being a live audio technician for a while when I was young. These days I don't go partying without my loops (which are also in-ear but for protection)

And my ears are pretty clean of wax, I have one of those Chinese camera sticks so I can check them myself. Sometimes I scrape some wax out but it's usually not needed.

Anyway n=1 but not everyone is sensitive there.

Hydrogen peroxide?

A good steriliser for sure but I doubt most people will use it. I probably should have done.

Used in some ear drops, as it also breaks down ear wax.

So if you "share" a track by each person using one ear-thingie, does stereo separation mess it up ? How many audio players (HW or SW) have a "mono" button ?

Most songs don't have a lot of audio separation anyway. The stereo effect is subtle.

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