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Posted by billybuckwheat 3 days ago

Wired headphone sales are exploding(www.bbc.com)
410 points | 682 commentspage 8
Lio 18 hours ago|
I refurbished a pair of old Sennheiser HD-25s I’ve had since 1998ish recently.

They work just like new and there is something really satisfying about bringing old tech back to a useful life.

I’m using them for monitoring things that don’t have Bluetooth.

I still use AirPods day to day though because it’s so useful to always have something in your pocket that can block unpleasant noise. Bluetooth works fine for me.

antfarm 8 hours ago||
I love both my Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO and my Apple AirPods. They complement each other perfectly.
markus_zhang 18 hours ago||
Bluetooth headphone has one disadvantage —- if it “sleeps” then I have to put them back to the charger container to wake them up. I don’t need to charge it, just need to put it in and take them out. But this is a hassle as I need to bring the container around with me. Other than that, it’s better than wired headphones.
everdrive 11 hours ago||
Wireless headphones have always been stupid.

- Disposable

- Small-but-not-zero fire risk inside your backpack or your ear

- Pairing woes

- Expensive

- No user-replaceable batteries

Someone's going to come and say how much they like them, but you need to remember that "needing to deal with a cable sometimes" does not actually qualify as inconvenience. When the washing machine was invented, 10s of hours of labor were freed up from people so they could either get more work done or pursue leisure and enjoy life. What did wireless headphones do for people? Prevent them from needing to exercise the tiny amount of impulse control necessary to to run your cable?

ryeguy_24 19 hours ago||
I still use AirPods for listening but if I’m ever taking a call, I always use EarPods (USB-C). The microphone quality is multiple times better and that’s important to me. Especially for work. It only took me a few times to hear other people will AirPods to be tainted. It just seems unprofessional now because of how bad it sounds.
seydor 19 hours ago||
This one can easily be blamed on apple. I wonder how many awful design decisions we suffered because of their trendsetting
wehrend 18 hours ago||
A few years ago I was looking for my favorite Headphones for my synth (some AKG ones, I dont remember the concrete model name by heart) - prices went to the roof... I prefer Bluetooth for mobile applications, as my sockets respectively wire got defected after a few months...
tptacek 1 day ago||
I've never had a pair of headphones with a cable connection that survived more than 2 years. Can't say that about the Airpods Max.

Like, I have opinions about high-end headphones based on how easy the cords are to replace. That shouldn't be the case.

I was a discrete headphone amp guy, just to situate myself in this market. I didn't expect to get good wireless headphones and think "I'm never going back", but that's precisely what happened.

autoexec 1 day ago||
I'm sure that there can be situations where it's better to sacrifice sound quality and reliability for the convenience of wireless but I think the ability to replace cables is a huge advantage and not a pain point at all. The only problem I've ever had was with an old pair from Sony where by the time I needed a new cable they'd stopped selling a replacement cable but I knew I was rolling the dice when I got that pair because the cable wasn't standard.

Even in the extreme case where you're replacing them every other year you could buy a handful of spares right away so you have them on hand when you need them and your headphones will outlast the batteries in your airpods

bigstrat2003 1 day ago||
Wired headphones are also 1/10 of the price of airpods. So they still come out ahead on the cost of ownership front.
kasey_junk 16 hours ago||
What high quality wired headphones (that you’d drive with a dedicated amp and have a replaceable cable) cost $55?
tptacek 6 hours ago||
For context, I was generally using H6's, HD-280s, and HD-550s (when open-ear "ear-mounted speakers" are OK). The price point here is $100-$300. All of them have replaceable cables, but none of them are standard cables, so you have to stockpile extra cables for them.

The audio quality difference between that class of headphone and Airpods Max is within the threshold of "speaker cable differences". All 4 of them put you in territory where source quality and delivery is the primary issue.

mvrckhckr 20 hours ago||
My Bluetooth headphones are great and very rarely have any glitches. I use wired headphones only when listening to high-resolution lossless music (using the right hardware). I would guess the fact that some streaming platforms have these now is also a contributing factor to the rise in popularity of wired headphones.
camgunz 21 hours ago|
I've had a set of Etymotic SR4s for years, I just replace the cable every 1-2 years. I love them to death, they're extremely flat though, so they make a version with bumped bass if that's your thing.

If someone made a cable with a mic on it for them I'd probably buy 10--it's pretty annoying to switch to Apple earbuds for calls, but whatever.

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