We used to have earbuds that don't need to be charged because they had a headphone jack, didn't get lost so easily because they had a cord attached to a headphone jack, never lost the bluetooth connection because they had a headphone jack, and they cost less because they had a headphone jack. https://bsky.app/profile/daisyfm.bsky.social/post/3l3mfjc6sn62k
I didn't believe the hype about wireless headphones until I bought some with noise cancelling and all that for around $130.
Pros:
1 - You don't realize how "tethered" you feel on older headphones until you really try to use wireless headphones. There's a certain freedom you feel when you realize you can place your phone on a hotel table but lie down in bed.
2 - Noise cancelling and noise passthrough is a transformative experience when travelling or find yourself abroad. Airports are much easier to feel relaxed in when 80% of the noise or so can be filtered out as you wait for your flight to board. Additionally, the flight experience is less annoying (no engine drone gets through, even passengers can mostly be ignored) but you still have the option for pass through if someone absolutely needs to talk to you.
3 - Many of these headphones come with some kind of EQ feature, which can occasionally mean that you get speakers with more tunability and thus slightly better bang-for-buck that works globally across apps.
4 - Audio quality. Since these are expensive drivers, you're often going to get better sound quality than those cheap 30 dollar throw aways were ever going to give.
Cons:
1 - Latency. These things could never be used in professional audio situations other than listening to a pre-rendered song for quality judgements. I don't thing gaming would be nice with these either, even if I've tried (and failed) to play counter strike on these on occasion to keep noise levels down.
2 - Mic quality of the built in is lacking on my particular headphones (Sennheiser CX Plus). They're really only intended to capture the outdoor for noise cancellation IMO, not the greatest for calls or recordings. They're servicable, but it's the area I'd like the most upgrade (and it would probably improve noise cancellation features as well.)
3 - Environmental / Sustainability Concerns: Other than people just "losing" these devices with built in batteries that are bad for the environment being a problem in and of itself, there are other long-standing concerns I have about these devices. They often require proprietary non-open software to configure, meaning if the software gets delisted, you will no longer be able to configure them until someone comes up with some kind of alternative using reverse engineering (good luck). Batteries are likely to degrade over time, meaning you'll eventually end up with a worthless ear bud on the left or right and the only solution will be to throw them out. These things are often pretty bad scoring on repairability metrics, and I can't even blame the companies producing them here because they're so small.
4 - Despite passthrough being a feature, it's hard to convey to people that you can actually hear them through the device. There should be some kind of blinking light on the outside that indicates that passthrough is enabled or something.
So I actually do love these devices, but #3 of the cons is really the biggest real issue I have with them. If they're going to cost over 100 dollars, I would like to know that these things won't just become ewaste in the same way that cheap crappy wired headphones end up being as well (which sea life often chokes on or gets tangled up in.) If they costs a premium, I would really like to know that they aren't a figurative dead end when they eventually fail.
The only pro that you make here that has anything to do with wireless headphones is #1, being untethered.
Noice cancelling, an EQ, and audio quality have nothing to do with being wireless.
Regarding latency, wireless mice have less latency than wired mice so I’m sure it’s possible but not with Bluetooth as the tech currently stands. Mic quality and pass through again, aren’t wireless-exclusive features.
Audio quality is never going to be as good at the same price point because the wireless device has to budget for batteries, the wireless gubbins, aptx codex to license, and usually app development costs.
I have a dragonfly red so I can still use wired headphones with my phone, and its amp is far better than any modern smartphone, so it will drive some of the expensive that phones just cannot, like my Focal Clear OGs.
However I greatly prefer to use my Sony WF-1000XM4 for any public or mobile situation as they are the perfect form factor for that, and the sound quality is good enough that I am not going to tear my hair out listening to them for any length of time.
4 - Audio quality. Since these are expensive drivers, you’re often going to get better sound quality
Heheheheheheh
No.
Bluetooth bitrate is like 328kbps, which is absolute and total garbage mp3 quality. If you're on Bluetooth, you aren't even getting CD quality. We're going backwards so far.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. There are multiple codecs available (some with much higher bitrates), but even in AAC (which I assume you are referring to) there are different implementations. Also note that 328kbps is not “garbage mp3”, 128kbps CBR was the common (and shit) variant that you probably meant. But more modern codecs achieve much better fidelity at lower bitrates even.
328kbps in a lossy format is plenty. You might be one of those people who claim to hear the difference, but to date we are yet to see a double blind trial where a substantial percentage of individuals reliably could demonstrate such ability.
I'm confused how your pro #2 has to do with wireless headphones, as you could find much cheaper wired headphones with noise canceling even 20 years ago. I'm not sure about pass-through, but I imagine that's more of a feature now because of technology upgrades.
I even used those wired headphones while mowing the lawn with noise cancelling and could hear the music without having to crank the volume to max. I think there might have even been an EQ button with different settings pre-made (however weren't customizable to my knowledge). Not sure whether that's also just because of the technological process now or not.
I'd say battery life is another con for wireless headphones, both for the headphones themselves and the device being used. I have worked a job where we'd have some shifts as long as 10-12 hours and with wired headphones, I'd still have 20-30 percent of the phone battery left, even if I had been listening to YouTube videos with the brightness all the way down. However, with the wireless headphones either my headphones or my phone would die before the end of a long shift like that and I'd be stuck without my music for the last 2-3 hours, even just listening to music with no video.
I agree on the tethering aspect, but active noise cancelling is (in my opinion) worse than just having closed back headphones that just naturally don't let sound in. many android variants have built in eq support, and the apps that bluetooth headphones use don't work on desktop/laptop devices, making the features worse than useless.
The noise cancelling feature on every wireless headphones I've ever tried gives me the same inner ear/sinus feeling as being in a plane at altitude. I hate it....
My phone has no headphone socket, and I refuse to use one of those usb-c to 3.5mm adapters, might just be psychosomatic but I feel like the audio quality on those is also garbage.
Batteries are likely to degrade over time, meaning you’ll eventually end up with a worthless ear bud on the left or right and the only solution will be to throw them out. These things are often pretty bad scoring on repairability metrics, and I can’t even blame the companies producing them here because they’re so small.
I'm hoping these start getting recycled for their batteries, like the EU has plans to do.
Anyway, I feel full size wireless headphones are somewhat less problematic as they have bigger batteries, and you can always fall back to wired use (in most cases). But the proprietary app concerns are definitely valid.
On points of audio quality - wired $130 headphones will sound even better, due to cheaper technology allowing to place better components, not having to install local (probably crappy) DAC, and due to wireless audio being lossy, even with aptX.
I feel like you're forgetting the market segment of high-end wired headphones. Your point about wireless headphones sounding better confused me because of this.
I agree. I have a set of Bose with noise cancelling and are amazingly comfortable. I can only use them when I want to relax and actually listen to my music.
I've recently taken over an iPhone 5c that has become my dedicated music player and I use standard headphones when walking with the dog. no lag, no charging, no connection issues and can hear what is around me, like cars. the convenience of plugging in headphones and hitting play is nice.
for quality/relaxing, go with Bose, for ease/convenience, headphone jack.