This article makes an elephant out of a fly. The explonation is much simpler...

The microphone and communication protocols on Bluetooth is shit. Everyone that talks alot on the phone knows that the microphone one a wired headset is sooo much better than Bluetooth, simple as that. You hear better and they hear you better. That is it

If they want to take them away, they'll have to rip my Sennheiser HD600 from my skull.

Legendary for their neutral, correct and pleasant sound, comfort, effectively forever durability, and being affordable to boot.

I can plug them to current or 40 year old hardware, and they do work. I use them with Topping DX3 Pro+[0] today.

It is no wonder they want us to instead adopt something active, crippled with bluetooth latency and dependent on lossy codecs, with a non-serviceable battery built-in.

0. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...

meh, same as "record sales are back" - it's missing a zero in scale and two zeroes in money.

for audiophile, wired is still king

Because it's a freaking pain to connect them, obviously! In my experience they work well enough once you have, but consider the experience of "plugging them into a different device".

Barely any devices support being paired with more than one central. So you have to tediously disconnect with the first device in some shitty menu (e.g. on Android the UI is not at all clear), then maybe put it into pairing mode (again usually though some terrible UI because manufacturers think pairing is a rare operation) and then finally pair it on the other device.

Absolutely ridiculous. Oh and what's the Bluetooth equivalent of a headphone splitter? Auracast? It's taken decades to get that and basically nothing supports it.

I do use Bluetooth things and I think the sound quality and reliability can be very good (if you're lucky), but the connection process is miles worse than plugging in a wire.

I mean yeah - generally wired devices are better in every way… except for the inconvenience of needing to be tethered to your device during use.

My default is always to buy wired devices, and only consider wireless in situations where the convenience specifically outweighs the downsides - wireless earbuds while exercising or working outside, or while traveling light to listen to a podcast or work at a cafe.

The rest of the time? Wired keyboard, wired mouse, wired headphones, wired controller, wire microphone, etc etc etc.

There's a much simpler explanation. I regularly see boomers with wireless "earpod" type earphones out and about. They're not cool any more.

Fashion is fickle and it's best to not pay any attention to it. Choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes wireless is better, like when running, sometimes wired is better, like doing serious listening in a quiet environment.

It's fashionable. Some famous people have been seen with visible wires, therefore everyone needs wires.

All these arguments here about technological superiority are quaint but miss the point. People in the wider world don't have the same concerns the people of HN have here, they're following icons.

As soon as they started talking about celebrities and it being a fashion statement they lost me on this being a real resurgence.

For about a month we had videos of people getting in fist fights over fucking Stanley tumblers of all things, those stupid Labubus popped off too, and God knows how many other things come and go in like a month. Unless theirs a sustained long term resurgence in the market, it's probably just another tiktok fad.

There are two tiers of bluetooth devices. There are the Apple and Samsung devices (and Bose and other high-end brands), which just work. Then there are the rest, which are terrible.