Honestly, the fact that I no longer snag my earphones on random protrusions, like doorknobs and bus ticket validating machines is a bliss. Cables inside at a desk: sure, why not. Cables outside: hard pass.

Not to mention zero latency. Trying to have multiple people in a car play music/podcasts is a nightmare over bluetooth when you used to be able to just pass an aux cable around.

Sound quality via wired audio is also much better, unless your particular phone doesn't have decent DAC/analogue circuitry. I can't bring myself to listen to music on wireless. I don't even know that Apple takes advantage of their walled garden to do better than the usual Bluetooth protocols.

> From https://9to5mac.com/2021/12/30/apple-airpods-bluetooth-limit...

> One of the most notable comments in the interview came from Geaves when asked whether Bluetooth could be “holding back” the AirPods hardware and “stifling sound quality. In his response, Geaves danced around criticizing Bluetooth directly, but acknowledged that Apple would really like a wireless standard that allows for more bandwidth.

You know what just works? Natural sounds from your environment. No need for equipment, no wires to snag, no pairing or plugging, you could even do it in your sleep. Oh, and it is zero emissions.

Courage, indeed.

And this is why I am not even typing this. I’m just imagining things, because it’s free and good for the environment.

For out of the house, I would never go back to wired in-ears anymore. Untangling cables and the occasional yank out of your ear is not user friendly.

For outside, I actually find wireless headphones to sound better for three main reasons:

- Better fit. Proper fit is essential for good sound and I rarely get a good fit on wired in-ears due to the constant pull on the cord.

- Microphonics (cable rubbing noise). Microphonics is very obvious and annoying. It is far more obvious than for example the difference between AAC and lossless. Audiophile reviewers hardly ever evaluate microphonics, because they test under ideal conditions behind their desk. Cable noise is not considered part of the driver's sound signature, but in real life it has a huge impact of what comes in your ear.

- Noise cancelling. Music sounds better without bus engine sounds.

I used to be like you. Then i tried, for real, a pair of bluetooth headphones.

The disadvantages of the bluetooth is by far outweighed by the wireless advantage. The mobility, flexibility and convenience of no tangles and accidental wire pulling and causing phone to drop - all worth it.

And wireless UX is only going to get better. Wired is dead.

I think it goes to show how much “just works enough “ consumers are happy to tolerate for wireless over other advantages of wired.

I remember early consumer wi- fi was just garbage compared to wired and… we still used it happily.

Granted sometimes we go back… my cars Bluetooth is so maddening I use a cable instead.

Not to mention how the wired apple earphones are way better in terms of audio quality during calls than airpods (own both, and airpod "pro" to boot). Heck, during most calls, my colleagues tell me that the sound is way better when I use my macbook air builtin microphone than when I use my airpods .. on zoom, ms teams, whatever. Not to mention how my airpods pro started discharging in a skewed manner - with one ear piece discharging faster than the other. None of these are problems with the wired earphones.

Wired headphones have an amazingly simple, reliable, and consistent pairing method with devices. Little kids and senior citizens can operate wired headphones with ease.

That's just not true. They never just worked for me at least.

- Cables would get cluttered in my clothes

- Cables would eventually all break at one point

- The cables were a mess in a any jacket / bag

- The microphone was making weird sounds when they hit my face and and people would complain

- etc.

I love wired headphones, but I have never had a pair whose cable didn't short out within a year; I got to the point where I'd buy replacement cables with the headphones. I've got B&O's, NAD's, and Sennheisers, both open and closed, and: I might as well keep them in a lighted display case, because I never use them anymore. Once Apple came out with the Max AirPods, I was done with wired headphones. I don't want to be! But they're too much better a product.

Wired headphones took forever to put on though. You’d have to untangle them when taking them out your pocket. And when commuting I’d tuck the wire down my shirt so it didn’t flap everywhere and get caught on things, but that meant taking your phone out your pocket pulled on it.

I misplaced my AirPods for a bit a while ago and switched to wired headphones and couldn’t believe I had put up with it for years before I got AirPods.

I found I was just getting sick of the faff and bulk with my wired ATH-M50x + FiiO A3 amp. I have tried most of the big bluetooth buds (Airpods 3, Buds Pro, XM4, Audio Technicas), I absolutely hated them.

I've ended up using the FiiO UTWS5 (over ear bluetooth hooks that connect via standard IEM connectors) + Moondrop Katos, the setup is sublime. Fantastic sound quality, very reliable and great battery life with no faf and can fit it in my pocket.

If you still want wired, the Apple dongle actually has a DAC/amp that is regarded surprisingly highly in the audiophile headphone community. Just remember to charge your phone.

I think most of the mainstream options for wireless stuff will make hi-fi enjoyers miserable, you just have to look at something a bit more interesting.

The only disadvantage is you don't get so much of the supporting features. Ambient mode isn't great, there's no ANC (I don't really care about these things), and it doesn't have the fancy pair-switching integrated stuff, so wouldn't be great if you switch between laptop and phone.

But for audio, we've reached a point where it is absolutely excellent.

I own a pair of Airpods for work, and they're fine for a couple hours of Zoom calls every day. For non-work, I have a pair of headphones with a lightning input. It's still annoying, because I can't charge my phone or transfer data while listening to music, and I still disagree with Apple's courageous decision to remove the 3.5mm jack, but it's an okay solution.

They also snagged on everything, got tied up in knots in your pocket, the wires would give out all the time requiring you to buy new ones, were obnoxious to use when exercising, and limited the physical distance you could move from the device you were using to about 2 feet.

There are issues with wireless headphones, but they also solve a lot of genuine problems with wired ones.

Wired headphones also switch between devices almost instantaneously. Or at least, when you unplug from one device and plug into another, you're guaranteed to have it switched to the right device.

That being said, I use my Airpod Pros almost all the time, because I'm hooked on wireless and being able to stand up and walk around, etc.

I, too, have a 6S and my travel headphones are wired. Partly because they work with any device with a headphone jack, partly because of the battery life issue, but mostly because of my phone slips down the side of the aeroplane seat I can fish the bugger back up again with the headphone cord!

Don’t forget the super fun untangling puzzle that you get to solve before each use! Or the eardrum damaging fun of having the buds ripped out of your ears every time the cord catches on something. “Just works” indeed!

Yeah, I thought wireless headphones were a gimmick I didn't need, I didn't want to worry about having to charge headphones, etc.

I ended up with a pair and turns out wireless headphones were a giant QOL improvement. I can run around do chores while my computer/phone charges upstairs and listen to music at the same time. I'd never use earbuds though, I absolutely can't stand anything inside my ear canal.

I still want my phone/computer to have a headphone jack in it, and mine does.

I've broken at least three or four pairs of wired headphones in the gym/while working out getting them caught in something and then the cable being jerked and broken, not the mention the intense annoyance of the cable always ending up in a horrible knot in my pocket.

With my Airpods Pro, my original pair are working great, no breakages, amazing for working out with, no cable to get tangled. I love them.

I upgraded my 6s finally.. and the lack of headphone jack is frankly painful. I can’t just plug into my car, home office, and office headphones.. I lost the little dongle..

I think I’m going to buy 3 of those adapters and leave them where I use my headphones. What a waste.

Wireless changing helps the charge while listening though, so that’s a plus.

Some people hate to be physically tethered to their desk from their head. Maybe wireless headphones have to be paired and charged, but that beats standing up an pulling your laptop to the floor while your headphones are jerked off your head. And nothing is better than being able to pace around while on a call.

Agreed, but I wonder why all the complaints about wired headphones using a lightning\USBC 3.5 mm adapter. I don't find it obtrusive, and the iPhone (and many phones now) can be charged wirelessly when the adapter is in place.

A combination is the best, got some cheap noise cancelling JBL BT phones and if you plug a cable it'll always use that (they even work as dumb headphones when turned off), pull the cable and they'll happily go for BT.

You can do both tbh. Wireless headphones are great because if you charge them relatively frequently, they're a light, painless pack. I'm pretty into high fidelity audio, but I'm not going to be walking around w/ my DT 990 pros. But if I'm out running errands, being able to break out the AirPods is amazing.

And realistically, it's not that significant to just buy an adapter and keep it permanently affixed to your headphones. Will be better if/when apple fully moves off of lightning to usb-c but I have found that when I want a high fidelity experience w/ music I'm more likely to be sitting and plugged in anyways.

I prefer not being at the end of a leash. To each, their own.

> Y’know what headphones really did “just work” though? Wired headphones, circa 2017.

And you know what's a major annoyance right? Untangling wired headphones.

I wouldn't let the lack of a headphone jack deter you from upgrading a phone if you wanted. You can get one of those adapter things and just leave it attached to your headphones if you wanted. I know people think it's annoying that you even have to do this but it's an option. I bet you can get one for free from a friend even.

I do have a nostalgic feelings for the iPhone 4s and headphones. I wish there were products out there that excited me in the same way my first iPhone did.

My laptop headphone jack is 1-2ft away from me during every video call and I still prefer AirPods (on Linux no less!)

You may be interested in the Senheisser Momentum 3’s which have excellent connectivity and a fallback audio cable.

Yea, but can you just get up and use the bathroom while still listening in a meeting with wired headphones?

I still just my ath M50xs for everything, its lovely, but its very annoying to use with my newer phone

>Their battery life was infinite.

However, the life of the cable was a few months at best in my experience.

Caveat: This reply got a longer than intended and broadens a bit, but please indulge me because I think you are also onto something I have been scratching my head about for decades now, amidst outrage for questioning tech dogma.

I agree with you to an overwhelming degree. I also had an iPhone 6S until about a year ago and I have to say the upgrade to the iNext Pro was pretty underwhelming in many, if not most ways when objectively evaluated.

I have also had AirPods for however long they have been out and even though I would agree with the rebuttal to your point that many other BT headphones are notably even more glitchy, I also paid about 5 times less for some of them that work almost just as well in most ways and aspects.

There seems to be an odd kind of self-delusion going on where somehow whatever is new, is assumed to not only also be better, but significantly better, when if one just takes a first principles approach to evaluating that proposition, at best you find marginal or incremental improvement of diminishing returns.

The 6S was released over 6 years ago, is it even doubly as good, let alone exponentially more capable? There is a huge hurdle in overcoming the reality that the answer is no.

There is all this lamenting about sustainability and environment this and climate change that, but for some reason, e.g., an old Apple device (picking on them because I believe they are the highest standard bar) cannot perform as well due to simple UI and UX changes?

There is seriously something wrong with the whole matrix and I have not been able to get any kind of satisfactory answer as to why, e.g., an old 1st (or 2nd) gen iPad Air all the sudden cannot perform †h same simple, core tasks it performed exceedingly well when it was new, that being loading safari and less than demanding website like HN.

What has changed in the 9 years since the 1st gen iPad Air came out that all the sudden browsing is now an extremely demanding task on the device? It seems like intentional and fraudulent designed obsolescence. Where are the environmentally concerned drawing attention to this like I am?

Just imagine if your car got updates every year, and then you find that 9 years later all the sudden the same engine has 100 less horsepower and can't get up a moderately sized hill anymore. That's not suspect to anyone else?

Again, I would love for someone to explain how I am wrong, that I cannot expect a product I buy to retain the same performance for the same actions/tasks when nothing else has changed. Does the CPU age and die off?

We should all be demanding that a device must retain its performance in all aspects of the original function. Everything else is fraud. Please for anyone compelled to, refrain from your "you don't know how it works" comments, that is not the case, nor helpful, and rather blind to reality.

And also, you could pair them with your handheld device in 1980.

> Wired headphones, circa 2017.

I hope we never go back to those days. That constant struggle with the wires, having to take the phone with you, too short wire for desktop usage, the wire getting in the way when moving/jogging, etc...

I’m surprised you are not using a typewriter.

> And this is why I’m currently typing my comment on an iPhone 6S...

You can get aux adapters for newer iphones for around $10 - great for when you can’t find your airpods

Cars these days are the same -- you know what didn't need fancy pants computer tools to diagnose? Horses. Let's bring back horses.

What's a headphone jack?

After using airpods I am never ever going back to wired headphones.

lol

> Their battery life was infinite.

That's true, but only because they used your device's battery.

It takes more power for your phone to drive headphones than it does to transmit a bluetooth signal. This is not such a big issue any more since recent phones have crazy long battery life as do recent bluetooth headphones. In 2017 it was a bigger issue.